Wedding Photos

We went for a little drive so we could attend the wedding of Cora's cousin, Laura.  She and her (now) husband, Terry, are a wonderful couple, despite Terry's apparent poor vision (now I know you are reading this, so I'll have to be careful about complementing you Laura!).  

Below is a picture of Cora and I as we skimmed low over I-90 heading west. 

As we crested the summit I decided we needed a picture of the "fog/clouds" we were flying through.  Cora disagreed, but she didn't get to the camera first.  She was not happy that I was taking pictures while I was driving.

Nor was she particularly pleased that I wanted to take her portrait.  SEE?

I think she is very attractive, you?  She wasn't REALLY mad, though.

This is how she looked when we got to the hotel...isn't she cute?

We checked in and then went to meet with the rest of the family for lunch!  Yes, that handsome guy in the John Deere hoody and that lovely lady in the purple blouse and the cute little kid are not, technically, related, but I think they may as well be family, since I have become quite fond of them!

We returned to the hotel and readied ourselves for the coming wedding!  I think Cora looks beautiful!

I was there, too...

And, I gotta say, I looked pretty damned good!

And, I decided to grace the Grandmothers of the bride and groom with my presence in a photo, too!

Well, the ceremony would be here, but we were asked to put our cameras away.  A shame, too, since I could have graced SOOO  many more people with my image.  Oh, well.

They had a beautiful cake...fresh flowers!

Oh, and the bride.  Oh, I was going to try to not say anything nice about her...but...I can't.  She was beautiful, too!

Oh, and that guy behind me isn't a bouncer, though, I always thought he'd be a good bouncer, no, that's my brother-in-law!  Ryan.  He really is fond of me.  It's not obvious, but he loves me!

I loved the fact that it was in a museum, but, maybe, the best thing was the men's room.  I know what you're thinking.  "Men's room?  What could possibly be in a men's room that you would enjoy SO much?"  Well, here.  Look at the view!  As you finish peeing you turn around and- WHOA!  There's Tacoma!  Gosh, I feel a little OUT there!  Still, aside from the various families driving by ogling me, it was a beautiful view!

Oh, and then there was the bride and groom.  Almost forgot about them with the bathroom view!

but, the best part (Sorry, Laura) was the B-17 engine!!!!

The museum was beautiful from the exterior, too!

Of course, maybe the most beautiful thing, that is, the most touching thing was the Son-In-Law/Father-In-Law dance.  Not ALL weddings have this dance, so I think it was quite special that this one did.

So, it was fun at the wedding, plus, Cora and I got to see Rita, Bob, Wayne, and Goldie!  They were the life of our table!  Here we see Rita talking with her hands!  

It was a great evening!  Cora and I went back to the hotel room and relaxed.  This morning we got up and had breakfast with her parents.  Then we all packed up and went our respective ways.  Cora and I headed for Seattle.  Looking for our beloved fish stores.

We found the fish stores!  Oh, here are a few pictures of the corals that were on sale.  Oh, and those prices are in dollars.  DOLLARS!!  That green coral on the right IS $275!!!

Doesn't it make you want to have your own REEF TANK?

Yes, that one on the far left says $450!!!!!  YOWSA!!!

You will all be happy to know we did not buy these!  I spent some money my sister, brother-in-law and my wonderful niece and nephews gave Cora and me!We bought what they call frags.  Short for fragments.  These are pieces of viable corals that WILL grow.  You just have to have patience.  On the bright side, they are CHEAP!  We got some awesome little frags.  We got some Zoanthids (these are little polyps) and a couple mushrooms.  AND we got three fish.  They are just damsels, but they are very pretty!  I think, with a little work, we will have a beautiful tank.  Thank you Sis for the push!

It was a long day, but we made it home!  here we are on the trip back.  Please compare with the picture above...I think we look tired, don't you?

 But, it was a good two days!  You know why?  Because I always go places with this wonderful woman.  We share so many interests and so many memories...well, it is hard to imagine a time without her.  Laura and Terry, I hope you are as lucky as I am.  Congratulations!

Moving Forward

Our fish tanks make me happy.  There are times when other aspects of life keep me from caring for our tanks the way I should.  I am notorious for not doing water changes, something that probably contributed to our latest tragedy.  Still, a 50% water change and continued care is showing progress.  Of course, we now have a red slime problem...oh, well, I am looking at it as a challenge.

Cora and I have had these tanks for quite awhile.  We began the 30 gallon tank in 2006.  Shortly after we started a ten gallon reef tank...unfortunately, the reef tank drained of its water in 2008.  Two years before this latest debacle.  I had salt water tanks in Ellensburg...back in 1995-98.  We moved back to Yakima and shortly after that, we gave up on the tanks as too much work.

At least, I always have Cora.  I love this picture of her.  She looks good when she is out in the wild.

We have been together for a while now.  When we got married we went to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon.  On the way back we stopped in Salt Lake City.  I bought a touristy cactus "egg" which had seeds.  I planted them and woo hoo, in two weeks I had a ton of little cacti.  I had a decent amount of die-off in the next six months.  I gave some away and kept a few.  Today I have seven or eight left over.  One is about 8 inches tall.  I think it's a saguaro.  Below is a pair of the hold overs.  

No wonder the South Western states protect cacti so fervently.  It takes A LONG TIME for them to grow to a decent size.  These two below are ten years old and are only a couple inches tall!

In 2008 I bought more Cactus seeds when we visited Arizona.  I planted some of them and they have not grown very much at all.  None are more than a half inch.  I suspect, if I ever have a kid with a green thumb, I will give my cacti away.  Hopefully they will bring someone happiness for a long time after I am gone.  

Forecast: Crappy

I was pretty pleased with myself yesterday.  I had managed to return our filter arrangement to working order for the fish tank.  (I broke the filter on Monday)

This morning, right before we left for work, we discovered all three of our fish in the reef tank were dead.  I am not sure what I did that killed them.  It may have been the dissolved oxygen content became too low, or maybe I had accidentally introduced a chemical to the tank, or maybe I overdosed it with something else.  It remains unclear.  The corals are still alive, as are the crabs and snails, so I don't really have much of a clue why just the fish died.  Still, it left me with a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach, all day.  I don't know why losing a few fish ruins my day so horribly, but I was in kind of a funk all day.

Cora's was similarly a crap-fest.  I think hers may have been worse than mine.  Mine wasn't bad, I just was not flying with both wings in the wind.

I'm still drawing, though not everything comes out as a good color sheet.

I don't know what this means for our fish tank days.  Continue?  End?  Another chapter?  I don't know.  Seems if it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all, gloom, despair, and agony on me.  Yeah, i suppose i'm feeling sorry for myself.

On the bright side, I did have some pretty cute, and pretty awesome kids today.  They are enough to be happy about at times.

Springing Forth!

This morning began with rain.  Then it turned to sleet.  Then it began to snow.  Finally, and this is the period of time I managed to get to the camera...it came out with blue skies and sunshine!  Despite the snow, Spring is happening!

I got away with a half-day today!  Just about everyone went home early, and I wasn't spared.  I didn't complain too badly, though.  I ran into town and got a few necessities, then came home.

I am really hoping to clean out our tanks this weekend.  Nevertheless, here is a picture of our highly successful eight dollar mushroom that we have had for a very long time!  She (he/it) has had several babies!  At least three, perhaps more.

Cora is home and the weekend promises to be good!

GOT IT!!

YAYYYY!!!!!!!! The fish (Fish, Corals, Cora, and I) will be happy! The ballast for the light in our fish tank came last night! I will install it later today and the corals in our tank will no longer be light starved.

Since the light went out I have been using a hokey little contraption to light the tank. I have been using two florescent reading lamps and our tall lamp. It has worked ok, but the whole thing is ugly.

We got two extra fish, and a third that died upon entry. These were from a good friend whom I work with during the summer. He was taking down a tank and these fish needed a home. The one that died was a lawnmower blenny...for some weird reason, our tanks seem set on NOT housing this fish species. The other two are Ocellaris clown fish, who seem to have moved in and forced my beautiful Maroon Clown into hiding...We are probably going to have to do some fish juggling to make this work. Still, the two new clowns seem to have made the move nicely.

I have been cleaning house when I get home at night. I have shampooed most of the carpet and have a few final touches to make. Now we need to finalize the menu and assign dishes and then we'll be ready for a fun Thanksgiving! I can't wait!

Tanks For The Request!!

I got a comment this morning requesting requesting some photos of our tanks. Never one to shirk my duty, I stepped up to the task and took a few pictures. Here they are! Above is a female Maroon Clown, whose name is Marvin, that is in my 30 gallon tank.

This is a Zooanthid polyp. they seem happy in Cora's tank.

This is an overall photo of Cora's 16 gallon tank.

Here is one with the skunk clown in it.

and this little guy is Cora's Cardinal fish...she is photo-shy.

Today was a fun day. I played Peter and the Wolf for the music class I subbed for. It was not bad. I did fight the nods for about a half hour during the one o'clock hour. It was quite a struggle to keep my eyes open. I was watching Peter and the Wolf for the umpteenth time, I was comfortable and it was dark. Other than that, it was a great day.

After I got off work I came home and miled my painting...somewhere in Florida. I am more than ready for the weekend, though!

Muscle Relaxin'

So, I took a pain killer last night and went to bed, but it was not a restful sleep. Every time I turned, I awoke because that damned sore muscle in my back twinged so as to take my breath away. Finally, this morning, at Cora's insistance, I took a muscle relaxant I found in the very depths of the medicine cabinet. It didn't appear to work and I was just as sore and stiff as before...but a couple hours later, I turned in a way that should have hurt...but...it didn't. And, you know what? It hasn't hurt since!!!!

So, feeling a bit energized, I went to town with Cora. We got some groceries. When, we came home I got the ambition to do a water change in the fish tanks! I have been meaning to do that for a few weeks now. So, I made up the salt water and cleaned out the tanks a bit. I took te old water out and added the new water. The fish and other inhabitants seem to be happy.

Cora has been working on another dress. It's gonna be a cute one. You should go to her site and take a peek.

Now, we're sitting down to watch the Golden Compass. Our stupid DVD player only plays it once in awhile...it's like I have to surprise the DVD player...usually, it just doesn't play it. Weird how electronics actually seem to develop a personality. Like my stupid computer doesn't like to type "A's," and, lately, it seems to have taken a dislike to facebook. At least the DVD is playing now. Ahh, nothing like relaxin'!

Air Fore One Joins Sunday One!

So, it was a wonderful lazy day! A nice lazy Sunday! Fit for a king! I love those. Cora worked on her sewing and I changed the water in the fish tanks. The inhabitants of both tanks seem much relieved to be swimming in clear water! I was pleased to be able to confirm that some inhabitants remained.

Cora left for awhile to help her mother with some computer issues. While she was gone I watched some TV and cleaned up a bit. When she returned we watched a few of MY shows! We saw a National Geographic show about a Giant Crystal Cave in Mexico and a show about Air Force One. Both very good, and if Cora was faking interest, she did it very well.

I also rented StepBrothers...

Now, if you don't mind some rough language, and I can handle it, THAT is a fantastically FUNNY movie! I heartily recommend it so long as your ears are not too sensitive!

Now we are watching a special on Marine One. I won't mention the one nod to Cora's viewing preferences...the Duggar...gag...Wedding. That was...interesting. I think I will stick to my airplane shows.

Tomorrow I am back to the second graders I had the other day. Should be good!

Another Week

Why is it the weekend passes so quickly? On the other hand, as I grow older, the weeks pass quickly, too! I m not so sure that is good thing. I remember a time when summer seemed to take forever...then again, I was ten and spent the majority of my summer hunting birds with my BB gun.

I am going to be at TH Elementary today, teaching in the resource room...I think I know what that is...maybe. Good thing I don't mind being in situations that others might find uncomfortable. I guess I just have a higher threshold for humiliation.

Yesterday, we did indeed help my mother-in-law find some new inhabitants for her tank. She got a lawnmower blenny, which should be popular with the day care kids, since he is likely to carry things around in his mouth. We also managed to find a few new inhabitants for our tank. We got what is called Sea Mat, or polyp coral, and a couple more emerald crabs(not to be confused with emerald nuts), and a couple snails.

Overall, we had a great weekend, despite its being painfully short!

Strong-Armed Into A New Fish

So, my parents said they might come visit today. Last night I took off to lay a set of geocaches for them. A Geocache, for us, is a set of clues to a set of coordinates which we find with our GPS. The last one had a book that my dad would like to read. The first one had a noise maker/booby trap. On one of his previous geocaches for us, he left a railroad spike as a marker and also a noise maker. The noise maker was one of those dollar store items that attaches to a window and when pulled from its magnet makes a horrendous noise/squeal. I used a thin piece of green florist wire to attach the two(when you pull it away from its base it squeals!!!!!!!!). I hid the noise maker part (which had the next clue attached) and left the spike in plain sight. The instructions for the cache said grab the spike. He did. Apparently, it was a good thing that both had used the bathroom before leaving on their drive.

It was a journey with eight legs. One used a laser level to determine the next set of coordinates. My Dad or Mom messed up the coordinates up by one digit. They were completely stumped when the coordinates said he should wade into the river...they called after 20 minutes. I gave Mom the right coordinates and they were on their way again.

One clue was hidden in a gourd. Yes, a gourd. It was a dry one from about three years ago...I poked a tiny hole in it and put the clue in it. I then hung it in a crabapple tree...They had to break it open to get it. I guess they had ALOT of fun doing it.


After they visited we went to town for some groceries. Then we stopped at the pet store. We got the six-line wrasse. Cora's idea...totally. I told her we shouldn't...but she twisted my arm and I had to agree. They are really cool.

Stupid Fish

I have a clown fish. His name is Marvin. Cora had a clown fish. His name was Bruce. He died. Mine is still alive. Turns out clown fish are fairly territorial. When I would put my had in Bruce's tank to clean it or rearrange rocks or feed coral, Bruce would make high speed runs on my hand. It did not hurt, but often it came a inopportune times. Usually just as I was considering that bristle worms are supposed to sting. Or simply, I did not expect it and I would jump in a way that was incompensate with the "bite" I had received from Bruce. There was often a spout of cursing shortly after I had bumped the light and then had to make a heroic attempt to save it from falling in the tank...all thanks to a little fish with a big attitude.

Well, Marvin is a Maroon clown. He is supposed to grow up bigger than what Bruce could. Bruce was a Percula Clown. He was only supposed to make 3 inches at best. Marvin is supposed to hit 5 inches or so. I was moving my hand around in his tank last night. I was removing some excess algae and just rearranging some of the rocks. (I was also looking for my stupid urchin) All of a sudden I felt a most insidious thing. Marvin had made a high speed run at my hand and had atempted to take a part of me with him, he doesn't even have teeth, as such. Now, mind you the size comparison between us is...well, he is maybe an ounce, I am 170 pounds. I jumped like a little girl. Stupid fish.

This is not Marvin, but this IS a Maroon clown.

Wasted Weekend Days

Given my ambition, I need a weekend with about five days in it for me to get around to doing what I would like to. I think a part of it is the fact that I like surfing the web. Another part is Cora's fault. Over the past year, Cora has been blogging and has gotten to know alot of people on line. I have followed some myself. Then Cora conspired to make me get my own blog. Well, I blame her and Kim for addicting me to blogger. Because of them, I have lost all ambition and will probably waste away in my chair one of these days with the laptop on my lap.


I am not saying I did absolutely nothing. Cora and I went to her Mom's and helped them put up their new fish tank. It is a nano cube. 24 gallons, cube in shape. We got them (and us) some more live rock and it looks like she will have a nice setup. Then we came home and I added some to ours. Pudge jr. appears to approve of the new rock work. It is stacked higher than we have ever had before...it also spotlights the polyps we have had for two years. (they were on some liverock) there are four of them. They are brown (Please keep in mind these are polyps for an aquarium) and unremarkable, but they are ours! The finger coral appears to like its new spot, too.


Cora worked on a dress. It is a very cute dress. I totally think you should go to Cora's site and see...I don't have the picures on my comp. yet. I do have pictures of her while her stuff was still out in the dining room. Toby likes to be in the middle of things helping. He hinders more than anything. See?



Halloween is soon...well, when you get to this age, time seems to fly. I hve been wanting to make a borg costume...That is, I have been thinking about it in a vague sense over the past decade (want to hear my Kennedy impersonation? Try this: duh-KADE. Pretty good, huh?) and now seems a good time to mention it. Two years ago, I wore my helicopter helmet to school. I drove all the way to Ellensburg wearing it. Several cars pulled up next to me and pulled away laughing...I hope that doesn't mean they think I was crazy. Anyway, I enjoyed making use of my ebay helmet. Last year I wore my officer's hat (you know, flat on top)...the kids seemed to enjoy that at least one of their teachers could let his hair down on Halloween. Hmmm, what shall I do this year?


This is me and my headlight...cool, huh?

The firing center (Training Center) seems to be doing some sort of night training. We can hear (and feel) the low rumble of their artillery pieces doing their thing. Probably training up a new batch of men to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Poor bastards. Still, they have big toys. I tried to convince Cora we should tke the truck up on the hill with the video camera to see if we could tape their firing positions...she gave me a look that indicated she thought I might have lost some marbles.

Here is a sunset from late July taken from the truck as I was driving home.





Here is a picture of the overpasses north of Phoenix...I have been meaning to post this for months, but forgot till tonight. Cool, huh?

Knight Rider

Knight Rider! I love a fast car...


Is it wrong that, after more than 20 years, I have a manic thrill coursing through me as I am watching the first episode of Kinght Rider. Yes, complete with David Hasselhoff. I remember this from when it first came on. I was in second or third grade. It has REALLY beena long time since I watched Knight Rider. My best friend was a fanatic. He wanted, more than anything else, to get the light in the grill that went back and forth on KITT. He wanted to install one on his 1976 Pacer. He thought that would be the most awesome thing ever. I always thought he was a little bit off.

Watching this show brings alot of memories of him and my early childhood flooding back. I am also aware that I have had a glass or two of wine. Still, memories are sometimes difficult to control. As some of you know, my dearest friend Jim passed 11 years ago. So, while this is recorded in a post that will sound somewhat dumb later, I now raise my glass to the memory of my best friend. James Damon Coder! May we all have a smart car someday! Here's to you Jim! I miss you.

Today, I made a few false attempts at painting new decorations for our walls. What do you think? Cora thinks the long one is a Tim Burtonesque tribute to the remnants of a forest fire.

I don't think she likes it very much. The other two suffer from trees that have the wrong hue of green...well, I will give them another shot in the morning.

Here is what they used to look like:

We also looked at fish today, but the one we wanted looked sick. Well, I will give the paintings another shot in the morning.

I picked up a book from my youth the other night. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have a leather bound edition. I began reading where I had left the ribbon. It described flight.

The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say on the subject of flying:

"There is an art...or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss..." This is good stuff, you might want to write it down. "Pick a nice day...and try it." All right, I am a big fan of Douglas Adams. "The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt. that is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground." Sounds easy enough. "Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard." Douglas Adams was a genius of the written word. I am truly jealous.

Another Day, Another Frustration

So, I know I don't write alot about the adoption. But this is really beginning to annoy. Our adoption agency sometimes seems to be feeding us bull. Direct answers are often avoided. They just don't seem to want to say, "We have nothing for you." I don't want a specific date in which we will get our dossier, but some vague notion to expect it would be nice. They told us, verbally, that we should see dossiers inside a month...that was July. I have been calling them three and four times a week. Maybe they will get the picture? Nah, I didn't think so. I won't go into the guts of the matter, but I just need to express my frustration. Cora and I both are feeling it this weekend. In a word, "Annoyed."

Today, I think we are going to work on house work. Originally we had intended to help Grandma obtain her laptop, but she said lst night that she thought she would just wait for it. Maybe I can convince Cora to visit the pet store...usully when we visit, I can convince her to buy something...it isn't hard. AND it was her idea to get the 16 gallon bowfront.

Yesterday, I had feared our little clown goby (think "little, yellow, different) had died, but about 830pm he flitted out into the middle of the tank from some crevasse. As of now, I hve no idea where he is...the first clown goby we had (Yes, little, yellow, different) was a bit gregarious. He was owner of his domain, even though he was about an inch long. Maybe we an get a cleaner shrimp? Or a six-liine wrasse. What do you think Cora?

Also yesterday, I subbed at the HS. I subbed Biology. Easy. They were taking a test. My eighth graders are now ninth graders and seem to enjoy seeing me in the hall. They call out to me. Seems I have followed last year's 10th graders, too.

Hmmm, looking for the house cleaning faeries...or maybe they are gnomes...still have not located them. I've heard kids can do chores...hmmm...