One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of joining our friends Josh and Kim and their little Reese on a trip to the Newport Aquarium. It was a pretty great aquarium, and highlights included shiny fish, glow-in-the-dark fish, and a shark-ray mix named Sweet Pea. Lowlights included the family who named their children after disney characters (i.e., Ariel, Belle) and ran around the aquarium yelling things like, “If you don’t behave, I’m going to tie you up” (I’m assuming they meant with one of those kid leashes) and, “I’m going to take you out to the car and spank you”. Now, I’m completely aware that kids don’t always listen… but I can’t imagine that yelling idle threats in the middle of an aquarium really solves the problem. The kids, who looked to be between 2 and 4, were just really excited, running from one exhibit to the other. And while they may have run up in front of other people watching the fish, I think the parents running around screaming were much more disruptive.

Anyways, back to the fishes. Here’s some photos.

Jason points out a shark.

The shark is bigger than me!

Jason petting a baby sting ray.

J is a great aquarium accomplice because he worked at an aquarium in college. He’s a pretty good tour guide and knows a lot of random fish facts (or, he makes them up and we just haven’t caught on yet!). And, the aquarium had tons of fish, a bunch of snakes and frogs, alligators, penguins, and birds. The birds were housed in a huge room that you had to walk through, and it was seriously stinky. Those sorts of arrangements always make me a little nervous, since I’m completely convinced I’m going to end up with bird poo on my head.

After the aquarium, we had lunch at an asian fusion restaurant near the aquarium and then hit the Gap Clearance Center and DQ. It was a great day, and fun to get out of town for a bit. I’m sure we’ll be back.

Snow!

Look what I woke up to this morning:

Yes! Snow!

This is enough snow to close Lexington area schools and churches for the day.

Unfortunately, it was almost completely melted by the time I got home from work…

Lettuce Wins!

An update on the garden situation:

The lettuce officially was the first to sprout, followed by the dahlia and one little onion sprout. This proves 2 things:
1. we aren’t completely inept at planting seeds.
2. the basement isn’t too cold for gardening (we were a little worried that that might be the case, especially since temps have dipped to a cool 30 degrees recently).

Excellent.

An additional garden note: the mole is still at large. Apparently, the poison was a no-go, so now we’re going to try a trap. The only thing is… we can’t tell if it’s a live trap or not. The trap box suggests that we can remove the trap after catching the mole, but we don’t quite know what to expect. Are we going to have to figure out what to do with a live mole once we catch it? Or are we going to pull the trap out of the ground to find the thing smooshed in it? Ahh, the mystery and excitement of it all.

Another Important Lesson

Earlier we learned to say no to drugs in the hillarious spider video.

Another important lesson (to be learned on YouTube.com, of course) is gun safety. Here, a DEA officer teaches us more about guns. Note that he is, “the only one in the room professional enough to know how to carry” the gun. Excellent.

Just for fun, here are some pics of our living room/dining room.

Living and Dining Room

A Step in the Right Direction

It snowed* here today! Yes!

The back stairs – slippery when icy.

One of the bushes we planted last fall – safe and sound in a burlap sack.

*and by “snow”, I mean, a miniscule amount of frozen rain fell from the sky. Not such a fun walk to work.

Looks like we may get more later this week:

Few Snow Showers
High
41°F
Overnight Low
34°F
Precip
30%

If anyone understands how the above temperatures + precipitation = snow showers, please let me know. I am baffled.