Besties

   And to top off the six-hour diving extravaganza, Britten and Rich stopped by the shop with lunch from Haus for me, and to drop off my race packet for the Groundhog Run tomorrow morning. After all those hours in the pool with only my breakfast of coffee and oatmeal to hold me, you have no idea how good homemade bratwurst with sauerkraut and sautéed onions on a pretzel bun & hand cut french fries taste. Yum! I'm so lucky to have such thoughtful friends. THANKS GUYS!!!!

   And this is my dinner experiment for the week: BBQ chicken sandwiches with fresh mozzarella, Oklahoma Joe's sauce, and either avocado, or pineapple, or both! My twist on the pickles are miso-sesame-cucumbers, and jalapeño-lime salsa (Kristin's recipe). Success!

Nephews

Looks like Kristin is enjoying messing with my nephew Sean on her way through LA...

She said, "don't ask him to smile while he's eating." LOL

Lil Aaron (getting some help from a feeding tube) somehow manages to get even cuter by the day. As their proud auntie, I may be slightly biased, but they are the two most beautiful boys in the whole world! Jealous that Kristin is there now & I'm not! :)

Officially Ready for Thanksgiving!

Black Cat

   Shot a photo of a hastily-thrown-together fireworks stand the other day, and just realized that Kristin's kitty, Pearl, must have been the model:

Houseful of Cats

   Did I mention that I have SEVEN animals in my house right now?! Kristin & Jeff apparently think that one cannot procure kittens in Portland, so they wisely adopted two young kittens shortly before embarking on a 2,639-mile cross-country journey with their current kitty, Mr. Mittendorf. Here's their trajectory:

   I must admit, Kismet and Pearl are irresistible. And at least in Kristin & Jeff's case, their pets do not outnumber them 4:1. (Hanging head in shame.)

Mittendorf doing his best sphinx impression

Kismet is part cat, part monkey

Pearl is an Atom lookalike!

   We thought it would be cute for easygoing Taylor to meet the kittens. The kittens could not agree less. They were probably glad to be leaving for Utah this morning!

Save me, Chococat!!!

Tiny yet terrifying!

Kristin & Jeff Are in Da House!

   Doctors Kristin and Jeff just arrived in KC, doing the long drive from Pittsburgh, PA all the way out to Portland, OR for the next stage of their careers. They've been in the car for about 12 hours today, and we were all starving and made two giant homemade pizzas and then devoured them both. (The sundried tomatoes were the best part.)

   Kristin recently won this awesome award (and clock) and I wanted to do something to celebrate her great achievement...

So then, a little equation...

THIS:

 PLUS THIS:

 PLUS THIS:

EQUALS THIS:

 WHICH CAN ONLY LEAD TO THIS:

(For full effect, listen to this while viewing photo)

Random Hallmark Moments: I knew our staff was foxy

    Cindy emailed this photo to me this morning to show me that there is a family of red foxes living just outside the windows in our Keepsakes department. Six babies have been spotted. Can you imagine how crazy everyone over there is going, considering this is Hallmark and we looooove cute lil' fuzzy animals? Can't get much cuter than a baby fox!

   Unless, of course, you're talking about Kristin's new kitten, Kismet. She sent these photos from her phone as she & Jeff were driving him home from Petsmart yesterday. Don't you just want to snuggle him?
   I should also point out that Kristin has always been allergic to cats, and Kismet is her second, in addition to 1 year old Mr. Mittendorf. And in a few short weeks, she and Jeff are moving from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Portland, Oregon. She wasn't sure how she was going to drive cross country with ONE cat. I think she might be crazy. And also, adopted.

Sister Story

Once there were three sisters, Jen, Kelley and Kristin:

And apparently one of the sisters was
much, much wiser than the other two:

And that sister also has a guesthouse
and a pool behind her real house:

 And she probably should put some fresh sheets on the bed
and lay out some clean towels. Just sayin'.

Mr. Mitts

Kristin just created a Mii for her cat. Awesome.

Wonder if he does Wii Fit Yoga too?

Kitty antics

   Love this photo of Kristin's kitty being a remote hog... Probably because it looks so familiar!

   And this cracks me up... she said, "Guess who has strategically hidden tampons all over my apt? I just found one in my slipper. He knocked over the box 3 days ago."

    It's comforting to know that my pets aren't the only bad ones. And Mr. Mittendorf is cute enough to be a little bad. Kristin says he's a dead ringer for Falcor the luck dragon. I think the kitty is much cuter.

    In other funny pet news, check out this awesome photo of Ginny's horses, Bud & Whisper, in their brand-new barn. She swears Bud isn't a bad boy anymore. We'll see about that!

To the Aquarium!

   Kelley had the brilliant idea for Mom, Kristin, herself and I to head down to Long Beach on my Birthday Eve to see the Aquarium of the Pacific. And it was quite a treat, with a wide variety of animals and top-notch exhibits. I'll do my best to share what we saw, but it turns out it's difficult to shoot fast-moving fish through glass in low light. (Note to self: get better at that!)

   My whole life I've been fascinated by animals. And with my inability to swim, I wasn't sure I'd ever get the chance to explore the creatures that live in the depths of the ocean. But now that I've overcome my fear and gotten a taste of what's out there, I can't get enough. The aquarium was a great chance to be guaranteed to see an incredible variety of fish, and only made me more ready for my next adventure.

Life-size whale in the lobby:

Kelley gets a great shot of a sea lion:

Kristin likes it already!

The variety of fish was incredible, from the subtly-colored specimen:

To the brightly-color Copperband butterflyfish:

Yellow puffer fish:

Brilliantly-colored anemone:

Yellow tang:

And blue tang, with Percula clownfish and Ocellaris clownfish:

Pennant butterflyfish:

Clown triggerfish:

This was one of the most colorful shows in the whole place:

Incredible anemone:

   Some of the setups were dark and dramatic. These fish were bigger than me!

A hawkfish and his friend...

A tiny garden eel. Saw these on my dive in Maui down at 70'!

There were several different kinds of rays:

They had a great range of jellies, too:

And a variety of sea horses, including the leafy sea dragon:

One tank contained an incredible variety of live coral:

Colorful anemone:

A sneaky scorpionfish:

A showy lionfish:

From the small shrimp...

   To the giant spider crab. I first saw these at the Osaka aquarium. They're really enormous and slow moving, and they look like they're from another planet. (Delicious, though, I bet!)

A cow-nosed ray:

Can't wait to get in there and dive!!!