RIP Starbuck

We lost Starbuck yesterday. It was a very sad day in our house. He was 13 1/2. Here he is doing his favorite thing, sunbathing.
He had been with us since he was 6 weeks old. We will miss him very much and it will take some getting used to not having him around.

My First Great Nephew

Congratulations Devan!

You look amazing considering you had a baby 3 hours before I took this picture. How precious is this? That's 6 lb. 2 oz. of pure sweetness right there.

Sylvester's New Digs

Hi Honey,

We moved Sylvester from inside the house to the pond. I think he is digging his new digs. What do you think? He's on top of the rock working on his tan right now.

Remember that seahorse tank I got on Sunday? I found the tiniest, baby, blue starfish in it today. I had to really zoom in and he is still difficult to see. He is right in the middle of the picture. He is only about the size of the top of an ink pen. We would have thought he was just part of the coral if he hadn't moved.

The male (or so we are calling him) kept getting stuck to the intake and he was getting distressed, so I put a big, ugly plastic plant in front of it. Then I put a piece of pantyhose over the output side to reduce the current that was beating him up. I think everyone is a lot happier now. Even the coral.

Seahorses for My Birthday!!

Years ago, we had a couple of saltwater fish tanks and really liked them, but they were a lot of work. My favorite critters in the tank were by far the seahorses and I have been saying for a long time that I would like to get another tank and put only seahorses in it.

I found a place in Dayton that sold saltwater fish and, since Emily and I had been wanting to go to Friendly's for awhile, we decided to go to Dayton and check it out. To make a long story short, we ended up with a 6 gallon saltwater table top aquarium with 2 seahorses, 3 snails, and a couple of pieces of beautiful coral.

If you watch the video, you will see that the one we are calling the "boy" seahorse is quite entertaining and you will know why we think he is a boy.

Senior Pictures

Hi Honey,

We got Emily's proofs today. These three poses are the ones we chose to have in the package.

I bet you can tell which one is her favorite...and why.

Congratulations, Devan

I am happy to report that my only niece is having a baby this summer. The funnest part of having a baby is the baby shower. Right, Devan?

There is nothing cuter than a round, pregnant belly. Can you tell it's a boy?

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The best part about having a dog is the emergency clean up when you drop your plate of food. Right, Emily?

Lulu in the Pool

We found something he will eat

Hi Honey. We found something Sylvester will eat...yay!

We were getting pretty worried about him since we bought him 4 days earlier and couldn't get him to eat anything. He certainly didn't like the floating pellets they told us to feed him. I also tried a bit of canned dog food, but he wouldn't eat that either.

So Em offered him a tiny bit of boiled chicken and he loved it. By the time, I remembered to grab the camera and get some video for you, he was getting pretty full. So in the video, he's slowing down, but he's still really cute how he eats.

We took him outside for a bit of sunshine and he loved it. He climbed up on his rock and stretched out all his little limbs like he was sunbathing. He will be alot happier when he gets big enough to go into the pond.

Enjoy the video!

Leslie's First Fight

Leslie had her first fight on Saturday. Shake hands and play nice, girls.

Or NOT!

The little thing was a bit more wirey than Lester expected.

She dominated the entire round, though.

Not bad for your very first fight...EVER! You go girl!!

Big John's New Grill

Big John is having a BIG birthday in about two weeks. I tried to surprise him with a new grill a few years back, but someone inadvertantly gave away the surprise. I won't mention any names, but you know who you are, Kristen.

So this year, he is in for a big surprise. Here is a picture of his new grill. I hope he doesn't want to cook a huge slab of ribs.