I'm sure there was something happening today...

An army of tiny skeletons has taken over.


There are ghosts hanging from the ceiling (and a giant spider in the chandelier).


Yet more ghosts and skeletons in the window.


It must be Halloween. Steve and I intend to sit around eating the excess candy I picked up (just in case of trick-or-treaters) while watching Halloween-themed comedies on our DVR. Sounds perfect to me.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Last week, Steve and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We were fortunate to have gone when we did, since they released their great white shark back into the wild this week (presumably to give him a chance to introduce himself to the local surfing population).

There are all kinds of things I could say about this outing, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. The aquarium is an amazing place. If you have even an ounce of childlike wonder (even if it's buried pretty deep), this place will bring it out. It's just... wow.

Me, with Jellies:

Me, with giant fish tank:

Me, with my new friend the sea star:

Me, trying to hug a tuna:

Cool art project of ocean plants cut out of plastic bottles (with our reflections):

Mesmerizing jellyfish:

Cuttlefish:

And debuting today on the blog, video! Please excuse my clumsy zooming... I'll get better with practice.

Mola mola (also known as a sunfish) with a little great white shark in the mix:


Seahorses on the move:

Welcome Home

I got back Sunday afternoon from a lovely three-day weekend in Southern California. I found these on the table waiting for me:


Steve stopped at the UCSC farm stand at the base of campus and picked them up for me. I think they are a fun, unusual mix and I really like them.

Without a car for the weekend, Steve was limited to projects close to home. Like ripping apart the back lawn.

He's in the process of roto-tilling and re-seeding. More on that project to come, as it's back to work on it this weekend.

Lighting Upgrade

I can't really explain why I like black lampshades. They somewhat defeat the purpose of having a lamp. Perhaps that's why I like them... I do seem to be a fan of dim lighting... anyway...

Home Depot has the best lighting clearance prices I've ever seen. I don't know if there's any pattern to when the sales occur, but stumbling upon them is always exciting (which has a decent chance of happening, since Steve and I spend so much time at Home Depot). We recently stumbled upon just such a sale and found this:

I thought it was a really cool chandelier, and was actually in our budget, so we brought it home. Steve spliced in a toggle switch and attached a plug. We hooked it all up, turned it on and... nothing.

I was confident in Steve's electrical skills, but we examined the connections he made anyway, and they looked fine. Through testing various wires, we found that the problem originated in the fixture itself. Luckily, it came apart fairly easily.



Steve found the problem (the bundle of "hot" wires from each branch of the chandelier were not connected cleanly to the wire that ran up and out of the fixture) and repaired it.



I absolutely love it. We moved Steve's beloved indoor porch light to another corner of the room, allowing us to get rid of an ugly floor lamp he had brought home from work. One more ugly free floor lamp to get rid of... hopefully we'll stumble on another lighting sale soon.