Giant Dawg Says Whaaaaa? - 5/52

This is his "Is it time for dinner yet? Is it? Is it?" face. 

Alien Encounter - 4/52

A close up of a conch snail's googley eyes.  :)



And some more tank inhabitants, just for fun.

Hermit Crab:



Peppermint Shrimp:



Sally Lightfoot Crab:

Escargot Anyone? - 3/52

The underside of a snail in our reef tank.  Kinda weird, eh?

And while I had the macro extension tubes out, I also got a closeup of the Hammer Coral.

Hammer Coral - 2/52

About a month ago Jason set up a 75 gallon reef tank after taking about a 6 year hiatus from saltwater.  It's pretty bare right now with first getting it set up, but will be beautiful in about 6 months or so.  For now I've gotten some close-up shots of some of the corals and fish currently in the tank.

The Hammer Coral is the photo I used for my Project 52 for this week. You can probably expect to see quite a few reef photos during this project as the tank grows!

Torch Coral:

Plate Coral:

Fairy Wrasse:

Sapphire Damsel:

First Snow Dusting - 1/52

First dusting of snow of 2012!

I'm biting the bullet again and starting 2012 off with another photo project.  This one is Project 52 again (one photo a week for one year), which I got half way through last year with an animals and nature theme.  This year I'm not sticking to any one theme as I think that helps me complete the project a little easier.  I'm also allowing phone photos in this project since I have a half way decent camera on my phone now, particularly for outdoor photos.

I'm ready for this year. I've been waiting for this year just to put 2011 behind me.  And now it's here.  I'm ready!

New Floors!

One thing I really missed about our old house was the laminate wood floors we installed. Once we moved into the new house in July of 2010 we were back to carpet again. I despise carpet.  I even more despise carpet with all the dogs running in and out with muddy feet, coffee trails from the kitchen to the office and just regular nasty floors over a short time.  Plus these carpets were a light gray, the kitchen and landings were white linoleum, also not good for messy people and pets!

So, the last two weeks have been dedicated to replacing ALL of the floors on the main floor of the house (aside from the bathroom - it was the only decent floor in the whole house).  We put down laminate wood again in the main rooms and got lucky in finding a great match to the knotty pine wood walls.  For the three outer door landings and the kitchen we chose a beige marbled ceramic tile.  And I'm in love!

Here are some before and after photos - click for larger view.

Loft View

Living Room 

Front of Living Room After:

Kitchen After

Bedroom After

Red River Gorge & Natural Bridge

Last weekend we joined C. and C. for a weekend get away to celebrate Mr. C's birthday.  We rented a small, cozy cabin in the Red River Gorge area called the Star Gap.

We relaxed and played cards on Friday and then on Saturday we decided to hike up to Natural Bridge.  What a hike!  We took the "easy" trail and after getting up it we all decided we'd hate to see what the other trails were like.  It was a difficult climb at times, but it was overall fantastic.  The view from on top of Natural Bridge was gorgeous, and a bit scary at the same time with the wind gusts up that high.  We stayed at the top for half an hour or so and then made the hike back down, which went much faster.

Once back at the cabin we took a much needed soak in the hot tub, had another fantastic dinner and vegged for the evening.  It was a great trip and a much needed get away.

All Trip Photos

Our fabulous chefs of the weekend:

Trail to Natural Bridge:

Standing on top of Natural Bridge

The view from Natural Bridge.  We walked over to that cliff as well.

A view down from the cliff. We could see the car from here!