Pre- Christmas dive

Yeaaaaaaaaa! Finally made it in the water! I wish I would have took some pictures of us suiting up in all the snow... But I forgot , so heres one Jens mom took of us - Thanks Pixie!!!

It was pretty cold , but I wore my new fleece I made.. It was really warm , but my feet were cold before I even hit the water ..maybe Ill make socks next !

So Tons of little octos & stubby squid........

Almost settled down on this Longnose skate...

LOVE this guy!!!

Havent looked this guy up yet - I think it may be a baby Plainfin Midshipman..

Below is a new worm I spotted . It is called a Fragile Ruffled Scaleworm. It crawls about on teh undersurface among the tubefeet of starfish , scavenging its leftovers..

I have yet to get a really good picture of these nudis , but Im gonna keep at it ....

Hope you all have a great Christmas & new year..

Today was the most beautiful day- snow on the ground , blue in the sky!! Me & the poochies had a wonderful morining playing in the snow. I loved the snow sitting on the hummingbird feeder so I had to take a picture. All the dogs LOVE the snow & keep wanting to go outside & play in it. So we did play & here are some cute pictures of my boy...

"I said PLAY WITH ME!!!!"

KC taking a break..

Make sure to turn down the sound unless you wanna hear me sounding like an idiot talking to the dog.. but at about 1:18 He is really cute!!

So I finished the day making a jacket for Stinky. Carol helped me make a pattern last night & I used some pink polar fleece to make it tonight. I think it turned out pretty good..She seems to like it although she didnt much wanna have her picture taken..

Redondo again 12-8-08

I spent all day trying to get ready for Dad & Carol to show up tomorrow - I never get everything I need to get done done....


I didnt get many good pictures tonight. I was not very together in the water & was cold then too buoyant, mask constantly seeping up my nose- yada yada-

My finger is a good depth gauge for sure- 47 feet it starts to pulsate pretty good..

So there wasnt any big critters tonight. All little stuff..

So we were on our way out to the dome & was almost there when I tried taking a pic of a stubby squid.. This sculpin was pulling a Tazmanian devil act , burying herself down then spinning around & landing right under my head. Just when the camera would get a good focus - she spun it all up again , finally I gave up & took her picture...She WAS quite pink & pretty ... Usually that type is more brown ..

Thought this stubby would make a good subject... Then I noticed it wasy burying its self down in the sand! I have never seen this before!

the pictures below show it doing its hippo impression.....

Marty found this pretty cool Octo on the way up....

On the way back in I had to swim through the HUGEST school of tubesnouts!! It was GINORMOUS!!!! I could feel them banging into my legs every so often ! It was crazy! And even though they are impossible to get a decent picture of - Im posting one anyway...

Also I wanted to put a picture of the tree up- but again , it isnt photographing well . The ornaments dont show up - all you see is the lights... none the less-

Redondo 12/7/2008

I had an exciting Sunday yesterday- I got to dive with my

most special dive buddy - MARTY!!! Its been over a month & a half since he has got to dive - so it was pretty cool.... It was Marty, our friends Chris Stacy ( formerly known as " Crabby Chris" but now just "Boy Chris" ) , Jared & I all hitting the water at Redondo. Marty got us off to a good start by being a courteous dive buddy and excusing himself when he bumped into a huge log running across thewater in the entry point. It was fun because he had already put on his fins , so he got to do a backroll entry to get ovet the log :)

We decided to go out deep then do a little exploring in the barrens to see what is cropping up. I seemed to be the only one finding Octos though. The boys all were ahead of me so when I went to show them they were checking there own stuff out :( I ASSUME that if they saw something super cool they would show it to me though... This was one of the little Red Octos >

I was excited to see this brittle star thinking that is was a new species to me - however , after consulting my boook, I believe it is only a different coloration than the usual gray version.. Pretty though..

We worked our way shallower up to the observation tube when I mistakenly thought MArty & Chris wanted to go in because of the direction they were going... I told them I was gonna go with Jared & they could head in .... SORRY GUYS!!! Jared & I headed north to Iraq - I mean a sandstorm... not much to see other than some cool decorator crabs. After taking this ones picture I proceeded to find bigger and more , but hey - how many pictures did I need to take of crabs???

Ok, so this one was taken a few weeks ago , but I really thought he was cute & wanted to do something with his picture... He was so bright and didnt move :)

A fun Saturday night with the Bernards

Went to Redondo last night instead of Titlow after Chris' car wouldnt start.. It was Chris , Jared & I - Marty was Beach boy AGAIN.. He enjoyed our dive time by having a drink at Saltys and taking KC for a walk on the boardwalk.. here are some things I saw:

Im not sure if this is a Opalescent Nudibranch or a Red Flabellina it looks like a Red , but has the head strip, so Im not sure

If you look hard - there are some skeleton shrimp on the eelgrass.

I was excited to find this Multicolored Dendronotid ! This was the second one I have seen at Redondo in a year.. However I find it quite challenging to get a good picture of them.. but this is what I got.

Heres the eggs I found - and the daddy who was guarding them . I was sure glad he was not quite protective as the Ling cod I ran into last spring!

There seems to be an explosion of gunnels at Redondo.. I remember the first time I saw one - I was SO excited! I remember when I first got my camera, Marty pointed out every gunnel he saw on a dive at Titlow! Now I see them pretty much every dive...

After this easygoing dive, we headed home & I took a bath & put on my jammies.. I was thinking Stuart was out in the living room with Marty , the gate in the hall was closed- so I quitely let KC into the dogs room to put him in his crqate & feed him. After flipping on the light , I saw it too late - STUART was in there on a bed!

He looked for one second before pouncing on KC & tearing into his back !! I did the best I could to get him off KC while screaming for Marty to come & help . I panicked & tried to pry Stuarts jaws off KC.. here is the damage...

Almost a month later..

Its been a busy month... Marty's finger is coming along nicely.. This was actually taken a few days ago so it looks even better now. he manages to do most everything , but cant make a fist ..{poor baby =) }

After 2 weeks out of the water, I managed to get a few dives in this month.. Mostly Redondo & Three Tree North. Too many things to do - and I do feel a bit guilty that my dear hubby cant go too..Found a good sized snail-fish that got snuggly with me at Three tree

.. How flippin cute is that!! I think that was the highlight of the last 2 weeks in diving...

ALSO We got our new carpet in the living room .. After NO carpet for 2 years in the living room-just the sub floor... yuuuummm! We deserved the best & it is SOOOOO cushy! Here it is

.. Here is Stuart test driving it for us

The big spaz!! He also had to have a tooth removed recently.. It was broken in 3 places & smelled like POOP!! He was so happy to get it removed. We kinda wonder how long it was broken for & if that was making him snippy and that's what contributed to the big fight.. Regardless here is a snapshot of his new dental work. I wanted him to get a gold tooth like a gangsta , but Marty wouldnt go for it...

Ouch

Friday night started off great with 2 great dives at Redondo , one with our friend Chris Eddy. Personally , I think the only reason she decided to show up was that I made a thermos of Peppermint Patty's!! None the less, we saw some great stuff, several small octos ,one medium small one , hooded nudibranchs, some Bay pipe fish and of course my favorite ... the Ratfish!! I love them , but it is always a little disconcerting when the get too close to your face!! here are a couple pics from the dive.. THEN we went home..... I had just drawn a bath when a fight broke out.. Tequila stole Stuarts bone so he thought he would try to kill her for it.. I had to hold Pooka off so she wouldn't jump in on it too! Finally after separating them all I had Stuart subdued - then Pooka attacked Tequila for no reason other than she was already all

f*#%ed up !!! I must have relaxed my grip on Stuart , 'cause he grabbed my wrist & chomped down on it so hard I saw birdies circling!! Once we finally got everyone seperated I took a look at Martys finger... It was BARELY attatched!! Stuart had bit the tip of his finger off!!! Marty is the toughest SOB I think I've ever met cause he very calmly drove us to the ER... Where we waited for 5 hours before they took us back. I think what sped up the line was when I told the nurse in charge that we had left a bloody dog at home and I was starting to freak out a little & should I drive home to get some Xanax?? I noticed it was only about 5 minutes after that that we were called back...

Dog bites are especially scary because dogs have a cootie in there mouth that REALLY likes to get infected-hence the reason I have 6 puncture wounds that got scrubbed out but not stitched up... They only gave me 1 vicodin - dumbasses! However Martys wound was bad . The dog actually cracked the bone- so bacteria got all the way down to the bone. here is a picture of after the nurse cleaned it up , but before the Doctor pulled the fingernail off & stitched it up..

neat , huh? SOOOOO, we are at home laying low, eating pills , trying to heal as quickly as possible so we can get back in the water.

As if it wasnt bad enough that Pooka has always hated Baby, and now that Stuart has sent K.C. to the vet three times in the last three months , NOW they both attacked Ticky.... Now Baby , Ticky & K.C. hang out in our bedroom where they are safe.. The other two Marty is alternating hanging out with .. This is my life...