Week 13: Good morning!

So much for staying caught up! Ah well. Here ya go.  Photos from the end of March/beginning of April.

Day 85: You know the theme is morning when...

...when you totally forget the theme is "morning" until the afternoon, and then you say screw it and don't take a photo at all. Oops!

Day 86: Old Lady

My geriatric spider.

The most boring pet I've ever had. Seriously.

The Old Lady is an 18 or 19 year old Chilean rose tarantula.  A friend of mine from high school got her in college, after she was passed to her from a friend of a friend of a friend of a...well, you get the idea.  Anyway, my friend's mom would not let her keep the tarantula over summer break, so she was going to let the spider out in the woods.  Now, the Jersey Shore in August may kinda sorta resemble sub-tropical rainforest, if you use your imagination.  Once that first frost came, however, there's no way the spider would have made it.  So my dad suggested we adopt her. And that was that.

When I adopted her, I had no idea that these things lived so damn long.  Most small pets I know have short life spans.  In hindsight, perhaps I should have done some research prior to adopting her, but live and learn.  Chilean rose tarantulas live anywhere between 20-40 years, depending on what reference you're looking at.

The Old Lady is boring.  Most of the time, she is sitting under her driftwood log.  In this photo, she came out for some water, so I managed to get a somewhat decent photo of her, for once.  The only time she really moves is if she's cleaning her house, or if she's hunting.  From what I've read, still spiders are happy spiders.  So I'm guessing that she's pretty happy.

She's also helped me determine that most of my co-workers are arachnophobic..

Day 87: Silly Geese

This next photo is an excellent example of what my child looks like in the morning. Courtesy of Action Snap on my Droid.

Running laps to Team Umi Zoomi at 8 AM.

After I dropped the boy off at school, I returned to the gym after a month-long hiatus! Hooray! In the grass next to the marking lot, I saw a momma goose, presumably sitting on her nest.  She was none too pleased with the paparazzi, but she didn't move. 

No photos, ple-, damnit! Boo! Hiss!

Day 88: Spring in the morning

I heart spring.  The fresh, green leaves on the trees, the flowers, my perennials returning after their long winter's nap.  Bonus for being able to go outside without freezing my buns off or burning to a crisp!

Hastas

Forsythias

Day 89: Gym time

As much as I dislike getting up early, sometimes it's nice to get my workout over with before my day even really starts.  I like watching the sun come up, too, although you can't exactly see it in this photo.

Even the sun hits the snooze alarm when it's this early.

Day 90: Good morning, cat!

Sometimes I'm convinced that my cats run on solar power.  They work hard to find the sunbeams in the house, and then they follow them around.  Maybe the green in their eyes is actually chlorophyll?  Either way, the lighting works out nice for me.

The White Beast

Day 91: First group karate lesson

The Small Human had his first official karate lesson!  I felt bad for the instructor.  Trying to get a group of 4-6 year-olds to sit still must have been like trying to herd cats, but a bit more challenging and slightly more frustrating.  My boy had a serious case of ants in his pants,too.

The main lesson of the day? How to sit still.

Since this photo was taken, the Small Human has gotten better at sitting still.  I haven't had to hang my head in shame yet.   In other classes, they divide the little kids up from the bigger ones, and the older (middle to high school) black belt students work one-on-one with the little kids.

Bonus round: Atlantic City Beer Fest!

Saturday night, Hubby and I headed to Atlantic City.  The last time I was at the convention center, it was for a continuing education conference.  This was pretty much the opposite. At ACVC, I left smarter than when I went in.  At Beer Fest? Well, you try sampling 40 different brews and see how smart you are when it's all done.

The crowd was very, very large.

Being short, I couldn't see a damn thing until the crowd thinned a little.

Hubby and I made sure we ate prior to the event, because, honestly, the Small Human probably has a bigger alcohol tolerance than either one of us. (And no, we've never put that to the test. The child does not get booze.  Settle down, DYFS.) Even with a pre-game of food in our bodies, it didn't take very long for us to feel the effects.  A lot of the craft beers we tried had alcohol levels of 10%.  We noticed pretty quickly.

The last time Hubby was drunk was over 5 years ago.  I admit to having a bit more practice.

Most of the beers were Belgian-style or IPA's. Several pilsners where thrown in there, too, but they weren't my favorite.  Two places were giving out samples of mead, too.  My favorite brew of the night was made by Epic.  It was a hickory smoked brew, but unfortunately I don't remember its name.  Sam Adams had a bacon beer, too. Cinder-bock, I think.  I really, really wanted to like it. It wasn't my favorite.  I also wish I could remember the name of the first place we sampled mead, because it was really good. 


Hubby's little brother had volunteered the day before, so he spent the entire weekend pickled visiting the festival.  It took us over 2 hours to find him, but we finally did!

Brothers!

In addition to a shit ton of really good beer, there was a giant sand castle...

Despite the ropes to keep drunk people away, I'm still shocked this lasted through the whole festival.

...music...

...strange people...

Crappy photo taken by a drunk blogger. Sorry.

...important warnings about beer...

"Warning: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers are really dying for you to call them @4AM."

..and a silent disco!

A good time was had by most. Right after this pic was taken, someone passed out, cracked his skull on the concrete, and was hauled away on a stretcher.

Being the lame old people that we are, Hubby and I didn't quite make the entire 4 hours of drinking. And we ended up going to bed early.  At least we didn't have hangovers the next morning!

Next week's theme: Good afternoon! Otherwise known as Getting Ready for Passover.