Life in Pictures
Life has been busy lately in the rather random sense. I've taken lots of pictures over the last week, during our various excursions, and finally have the chance to upload and post them.
Last Saturday, Bobby and I went to the Capitals Game, and it was a special tribute for Alex Ovechkin (my favorite pro player) winning the Calder Trophy last season as the best rookie of the year. For attending the game, we got commemorative coins.
Of course, being an Ovie fangurl, I had to take the camera and take teeny-tiny pictures from way up in our nosebleed seats. We were literally next-to-last row. The award was given across the rink from us. Nonetheless, given all of this, the pictures turned out fairly well.
Bobby took these of the Verizon Center and the Caps warming up before the game started, while the lights were still up.
They were playing the Atlanta Thrashers. Caps are in black; Thrashers are in white.
In the picture below, Donald Brashear is the far left. Alex is in the #8 jersey above him. No idea who the other two are.
The ceremony began, and Ovie was given his trophy. His parents and brothers were there too. (Awww.) The tall guy in the center (in the hockey outfit) is Alex. His family is to the left. Various NHL goons to the right.
Alex holding the trophy and posing with some NHL goon.
Alex posing with NHL goons.
Coincidentally, while taking my tiny blurry pictures from high up in the dark, another flash went off right as mine did, and it was enough to add a good deal of light to the picture.
Sadly, this is ten minutes before the game starts, Ovechkin is the team's star and most beloved player, and yes, attendance really is that bad. What I wouldn't have done (aside from paying astronomically) to have one of those front seats!
They had some nice messages for him on the Jumbotrons.
It was a good game, but the Caps lost in overtime to the Thrashers, 3-2. And there was this annoying woman seated directly in front of us who--for some odd reason--hated Olie the Goalie. Whenever Olie would let up a goal, she'd start shouting about how he sucked and someone else should be in the goal and blah blah blah. Yeah, He's a freakin' Olympian. WTF. We are doomed, I think, to sit near annoying people at Caps games.
But between periods at the Verizon Center, they have entertainment called Mites on Ice where little hockey players come out and play against each other. It is riveting and fascinating! I love Mites on Ice! It takes the little guys five minutes to skate the length of the ice, but hey, it's high-quality entertainment!
Incidentally, we were resigned not to go to the Caps game this weekend. Then Bobby found out that it was Federal Employees Night, and we could get very good seats for $25.
Yeah. So guess who's going to the Caps game this Saturday?
Yesterday, Bobby and I decided to take a walk before it got dark, so we went to Patapsco Valley and tried out a short little trail called the Peaceful Pond trail. The leaves are really starting to change around here, and the reflections on the water were beautiful.
Then, last night, I finally realized how to use my digital camera to photograph my fish. rhapsody11 requested a good picture of Celegorm, our bala shark, and I was finally successful! I also snapped Mack the Knife.
A while back, Bobby and I decided that we needed to move Mack to a community tank since he was being bullied in the cichlid tank. Of course, we didn't have a community tank, so we bought one just for him...and he adjusted in the meanwhile to the cichlid tank.
However, after a few more days, he was hiding again in the cichlid tank, so we did move him, and he is successfully adjusted to the community tank. There, he rules the roost...or small ornamental castle?
A few days after that, we had an odd drop in pH in the cichlid tank, and half of the cichlids died before we could move them to the community tank while fighting the pH back to manageable levels. So we're left with Finwe, Amrod, and Amras. Maedhros, Maglor, and Celegorm--being non-cichlids--didn't even have to be moved and are fine.
Funnily, Mack didn't mind the cichlids one bit when they were in his tank.
The cichlids are back in their tanks now, and everyone is healthy and fine. Meanwhile, Maedhros the Catfish is huge. When we got him, he was about an inch-and-a-half long. Now he's close to four. He comes out of his cave, and it's like the monster surfacing from the deep. All of the other fish scatter. I was feeding them the other day, and Maedhros devoured ten cichlid pellets in one swallow. I tried to take a picture of him, but he's shy and darted back into his cave whenever he saw the camera.
The other day, Bobby and I were watching a movie, and when we turned off the TV, Maglor the Plecostomus was attached to our moving diver, riding the lid to the chest up and down. Crazy fish.
Rhapsody, these two are for you. They are Celegorm our bala shark, who is appropriately active and hasty (though apt to be chased about by Finwe, Amrod, and Amras). Maglor is still shy, but I'll get the little bugger one of these days.
These are the infamous Mack the Knife, who is elusive and hard to photograph. Bobby picked him out, and at first, I thought he was the ugliest fish I'd ever seen. He is a black ghost knife. Now, I think he is probably the most adorable. Certainly the most interesting, seeing as he regularly swims upside-down and backwards (or both at once!) and he also has the cutest white blaze on his face....
Anyway, this is what I could get of him in pictures.
I should point out that the skinny end with the white stripes is his tail. He's an odd-looking fish.
These are pictures of the sharks and gouramis (with some little guys around too) in the community tank.
Finally, over the past few days, I have been working on carving the first pumpkin of the Halloween season. This year, I managed to get my grubby paws on a book of challenging carving designs, so I tried what I thought to be the easiest of the designs to get warmed up. It took two days of work, totally close to four hours, but those who know me know that I love to lose myself in tedious, meticulous work. It's very relaxing to the mind, like meditation only with tiny saws. *sigh*
Of course, in the Annals of Dawn's Stupid Injuries, I can't work with sharp and pointy things for any length of time without doing some terribly stupid injury to myself. True to form, I accidentally cut the nose off of my carving and had to pin it back in place with a toothpick. Naturally, I stabbed myself under the fingernail with the toothpick not once, not twice, but three times before realizing that it would not be pushed in with my fingernail and deciding to hammer it with the saw handle instead.
Other than that, no injuries to report, and the carving turned out lovely!
I haven't forgotten my memes either for atanwende and sirielle. I just have to face the idea of unearthing my models from my closet...and my shoes too! I hope to post them sometimes next week.
Also, I owe about a dozen people comments. I haven't forgotten them either; there just aren't enough hours in the day (and too many of those hours I have restricted Internet access. Bleh.)
Last Saturday, Bobby and I went to the Capitals Game, and it was a special tribute for Alex Ovechkin (my favorite pro player) winning the Calder Trophy last season as the best rookie of the year. For attending the game, we got commemorative coins.
Of course, being an Ovie fangurl, I had to take the camera and take teeny-tiny pictures from way up in our nosebleed seats. We were literally next-to-last row. The award was given across the rink from us. Nonetheless, given all of this, the pictures turned out fairly well.
Bobby took these of the Verizon Center and the Caps warming up before the game started, while the lights were still up.
They were playing the Atlanta Thrashers. Caps are in black; Thrashers are in white.
In the picture below, Donald Brashear is the far left. Alex is in the #8 jersey above him. No idea who the other two are.
The ceremony began, and Ovie was given his trophy. His parents and brothers were there too. (Awww.) The tall guy in the center (in the hockey outfit) is Alex. His family is to the left. Various NHL goons to the right.
Alex holding the trophy and posing with some NHL goon.
Alex posing with NHL goons.
Coincidentally, while taking my tiny blurry pictures from high up in the dark, another flash went off right as mine did, and it was enough to add a good deal of light to the picture.
Sadly, this is ten minutes before the game starts, Ovechkin is the team's star and most beloved player, and yes, attendance really is that bad. What I wouldn't have done (aside from paying astronomically) to have one of those front seats!
They had some nice messages for him on the Jumbotrons.
It was a good game, but the Caps lost in overtime to the Thrashers, 3-2. And there was this annoying woman seated directly in front of us who--for some odd reason--hated Olie the Goalie. Whenever Olie would let up a goal, she'd start shouting about how he sucked and someone else should be in the goal and blah blah blah. Yeah, He's a freakin' Olympian. WTF. We are doomed, I think, to sit near annoying people at Caps games.
But between periods at the Verizon Center, they have entertainment called Mites on Ice where little hockey players come out and play against each other. It is riveting and fascinating! I love Mites on Ice! It takes the little guys five minutes to skate the length of the ice, but hey, it's high-quality entertainment!
Incidentally, we were resigned not to go to the Caps game this weekend. Then Bobby found out that it was Federal Employees Night, and we could get very good seats for $25.
Yeah. So guess who's going to the Caps game this Saturday?
Yesterday, Bobby and I decided to take a walk before it got dark, so we went to Patapsco Valley and tried out a short little trail called the Peaceful Pond trail. The leaves are really starting to change around here, and the reflections on the water were beautiful.
Then, last night, I finally realized how to use my digital camera to photograph my fish. rhapsody11 requested a good picture of Celegorm, our bala shark, and I was finally successful! I also snapped Mack the Knife.
A while back, Bobby and I decided that we needed to move Mack to a community tank since he was being bullied in the cichlid tank. Of course, we didn't have a community tank, so we bought one just for him...and he adjusted in the meanwhile to the cichlid tank.
However, after a few more days, he was hiding again in the cichlid tank, so we did move him, and he is successfully adjusted to the community tank. There, he rules the roost...or small ornamental castle?
A few days after that, we had an odd drop in pH in the cichlid tank, and half of the cichlids died before we could move them to the community tank while fighting the pH back to manageable levels. So we're left with Finwe, Amrod, and Amras. Maedhros, Maglor, and Celegorm--being non-cichlids--didn't even have to be moved and are fine.
Funnily, Mack didn't mind the cichlids one bit when they were in his tank.
The cichlids are back in their tanks now, and everyone is healthy and fine. Meanwhile, Maedhros the Catfish is huge. When we got him, he was about an inch-and-a-half long. Now he's close to four. He comes out of his cave, and it's like the monster surfacing from the deep. All of the other fish scatter. I was feeding them the other day, and Maedhros devoured ten cichlid pellets in one swallow. I tried to take a picture of him, but he's shy and darted back into his cave whenever he saw the camera.
The other day, Bobby and I were watching a movie, and when we turned off the TV, Maglor the Plecostomus was attached to our moving diver, riding the lid to the chest up and down. Crazy fish.
Rhapsody, these two are for you. They are Celegorm our bala shark, who is appropriately active and hasty (though apt to be chased about by Finwe, Amrod, and Amras). Maglor is still shy, but I'll get the little bugger one of these days.
These are the infamous Mack the Knife, who is elusive and hard to photograph. Bobby picked him out, and at first, I thought he was the ugliest fish I'd ever seen. He is a black ghost knife. Now, I think he is probably the most adorable. Certainly the most interesting, seeing as he regularly swims upside-down and backwards (or both at once!) and he also has the cutest white blaze on his face....
Anyway, this is what I could get of him in pictures.
I should point out that the skinny end with the white stripes is his tail. He's an odd-looking fish.
These are pictures of the sharks and gouramis (with some little guys around too) in the community tank.
Finally, over the past few days, I have been working on carving the first pumpkin of the Halloween season. This year, I managed to get my grubby paws on a book of challenging carving designs, so I tried what I thought to be the easiest of the designs to get warmed up. It took two days of work, totally close to four hours, but those who know me know that I love to lose myself in tedious, meticulous work. It's very relaxing to the mind, like meditation only with tiny saws. *sigh*
Of course, in the Annals of Dawn's Stupid Injuries, I can't work with sharp and pointy things for any length of time without doing some terribly stupid injury to myself. True to form, I accidentally cut the nose off of my carving and had to pin it back in place with a toothpick. Naturally, I stabbed myself under the fingernail with the toothpick not once, not twice, but three times before realizing that it would not be pushed in with my fingernail and deciding to hammer it with the saw handle instead.
Other than that, no injuries to report, and the carving turned out lovely!
I haven't forgotten my memes either for atanwende and sirielle. I just have to face the idea of unearthing my models from my closet...and my shoes too! I hope to post them sometimes next week.
Also, I owe about a dozen people comments. I haven't forgotten them either; there just aren't enough hours in the day (and too many of those hours I have restricted Internet access. Bleh.)