Make new friends, but keep the old....

Greg and I added to our household this weekend. Really, we just added to one of the fish tanks. We finally bought some fish for the saltwater tank in our kitchen that has housed only live rock, live plants and a whole bunch of hermit crabs for the past year. We needed some fish. On that note, I'd like to introduce to you:
Gumbo, a yellow-tailed damsel.
Boy George, a bi colored dotty back.
Olive, a pink spotted watchman goby.

As we were driving home, we started reminiscing about all of the fish and fish-like creatures that have passed through Greg's tanks over the years. Naming the fish has always been so much fun for us. Let's recount some of our friends: Prickly Pete, Gilbert, Buzz, Guermo, Felix, Moltar & Margarita (a hermit crab couple), Tex, Lemont, Glida and Nugget just to name a few.

Destination-California Wine Country

The plans are coming together for a long weekend in Northern California with some of my lady friends. It will be a bachelorette weekend of sorts with a dash of birthday spice. And I'm just a little bit excited. To say the least.

Cheers.

Season's Greetings

I hope the holiday season has treated you kindly.
I spent mine back home resting and relaxing with the family. Neil came down for Christmas Day to join us for our annual Christmas brunch. Santa delivered lots of gifts this year....Mom got a new big screen TV and Dad -finally- got a digital camera. I've pictured the Christmas ornament Greg and I picked up in Cabo after we got engaged.
On Wednesday, Greg, Mom and I headed up to the mountains to look at the wedding spot I've picked out. It's a farm outside of Asheville that holds events for up to 400 people. I finally found a spot that felt right. I just needed to convince Greg of the same thing. It had snowed a little the night before we drove up there. Needless to say, it was quite the experience watching the snow melt away off of the tin roof of the barn. The cattle surrounding the farm were confused by our arrival and kept mooing at us in hopes of getting fed. I don't think Greg or my mom were that impressed at first. It really is just an old barn surrounded by an open field and of course, the mountains. We sat in rockers as we awaited our event manager to get there. She brought books filled with pictures of previous weddings and I think that helped Greg shape an idea of what to expect for our wedding.
We went to lunch at a cute vegetarian restaurant in Asheville and Greg noted on how quaint of a town Asheville is...another good sign. Over lunch, we discussed all of the other weddings we all had been to over the years. We were reminded that the ones that stuck out in our memories were because the couple had chosen an amazing location for either their ceremony, reception or both.
In summary, things are looking good for the farm wedding I hope to have this coming fall. I'll keep you posted!