Before going out to the bar and hanging with an old friend, I took a trip over to Robinettes, which is a local cider mill + winery. It wasn't bad, although this early in the year means they're pretty much dead. I don't think I saw more than one other customer....


Sunday was a pretty cold day. It felt like there was no heat but the thermostat kept reading 70. Obviously it was just me. Then Monday came and it felt even colder. I looked at the thermostat and it read 69. Ok.... Then I looked at another thermometer I had and it read 65. Obviously there was a problem.

I tried to get the heat to turn on - no luck. Then I went out to the maintenance closet to see if there was something weird (not like I would know how to fix anything) and there was. The water heater, which is a few feet from the furnace, was spewing out water and had leaked all over the floor.

Eventually about 50% of the furnace had to be replaced, including the thermostat inside, and the entire water heater had to be replaced. So the only image I thought to take really was the new water heater in the bed of the maintenance guys truck.

Yay for this being an apartment instead of a house!


So now that its several days into the spring season, the Grand Rapids area has been blessed with intermittent snow flurries....

The weather makes for a lazy day....



Hidden beneath crocheted blankets we find a native meow meow, using the classic "if I cant see them, they cant see me" defense mechanism.

He just better hope the ferret cant smell him.


While transferring files to this external HDD for my cousin, the drive suddenly stopped working. After trying to no avail on multiple pc's and USB ports, I tore the thing open and plugged it directly into the motherboard and now it works.


A typical scene where the cat gazes longingly at the bird from below...

The next step is usually to shove a paw between the bars and desperately attempt to snag the parakeet while listening to me scream.

I spent the day with Nate in Lansing. We ate at random places and watched the movie Watchmen. The day was followed up with the completion of my top secret dvd project.


So while hanging with Kati and Morgan today I discovered what would have been the BEST store EVER if I were 10. Its called "I Want Candy." And what you see is just that - candy. Barrels and barrels of it (note I'm missing the right wall in this picture).

So when I heard my cousin was getting married I offered to take some pictures for them. I'm no great photographer so I've needed to use photoshop to touch up some images.

I thought it would be fun to mess around with this particular image. Its no biggie and pretty simple to do.


So I bought some oranges the other day and decided to mix them in with some foam oranges I picked up at an expo I went to once. You should be able to pick out the fakes pretty easily.

Dayzee is visiting for a few days. Although her relationship with the cat is strained, she's enduring. Here she is trying not to make eye contact with the cat...

Thanks to Kati telling me I can backdate stuff, this now has the appropriate date associated with it.

This picture was taken in the butterfly exhibit at Frederick Meijer Gardens. Its larger then the one at the Detroit Zoo, but its seasonal only and has no snazzy hummingbirds.

You can see Amanda's hands in the pic as well. :)


One of the benefits of being laid off means you have time for various projects - including Warcraft. Questing around in Borean Tundra (sp?).


Visited the East Paris Nature Park today and enjoyed decent weather with my camera and Dayzee. There aren't a whole lot of green things up this early in the year, but I did find some interesting things like left over bird nests! Dayzee was not impressed.