mistressofmuses | Entries tagged with doing things

On Monday we went on a hike to Red Rocks! It is a park, but because it's also a concert venue, they often close around early afternoon. We'd wanted to maybe go on a hike there a couple weeks ago, but were sunk by the early close. Monday was also an early close, but because we were up so early for my doctor's appointment, we still had plenty of time, haha.

This time we went on one of the easier trails, since our usual favorite has a few pretty steep and exhausting parts. This one was much nicer in terms of less elevation change, but it was pretty warm with nearly zero available shade, so we did end up turning around before too long. We don't want to overdo it for Bella.

A view of the amphitheater from the trail.

Some nice flowers!

Six more pictures, all plants:

Extra prickly prickly pear.

A little barrel cactus!

Some more nice flowers, and little fern fronds.

Yet different white wildflowers!

Some little blue flowers under the yucca.

Sir not appearing in the above picture: a snake! When I leaned down to look at the blue flowers, I discovered there was a snake curled around the base of the yucca under all the leaves and grass! From the bits of the tail and coil that I briefly glimpsed, I think it was a yellow bellied racer. The color was a very smooth grey-green with no visible pattern. I've seen them before, but not terribly often! It looked like it was probably a fairly respectable size, though it was hard to tell exactly how long.

A nice paintbrush!

And finally, this magpie! It landed on the fence in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave. I set a dog treat down on the fence, which it was perfectly happy to grab before flying away.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

I would like you to know that Bella is a cool dog with cool stuff to do.

Three more Bella pictures:

Truly the fashiona-bull. (Ignore my arms reflected in the lenses as I tried to get the picture, ha.)

Bella would like to remind everyone that she's very tiny and small and a perfectly reasonable lapdog size.

Hiiiiiiiiiii~

Large bumblebee!

Five more pictures of bugs from my walks:

Big fuzzy caterpillar, booking it across the sidewalk.

Kind of a size comparison with my hand.

Little orange butterfly!

Big stinkbug.

Moth on some little aster flowers. :)

I didn't get a picture, but today I saw a large snake! Probably a bull snake. I heard it underneath the dry leaves and grass under one of the bushes along my walk. I watched for a little while, and saw the very tip of a nose and flickering tongue, and then watching more saw one coil in between some of the leaves. Looked about an inch in diameter, and the tongue was pretty big too, so nice sized! Happy to glimpse it, even if I wish I'd been able to get a better look.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

I did get to see my mom for a bit yesterday. I had to work, but she and Taylor went on what sounds like a great hike to Castlewood Canyon. (There are tiger salamanders in the visitor center! I'm so jealous; the visitor center is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we've never gotten to go in! Salamanders and their .____. faces are the best.)

After work I went over to hang out and chat for a while. I got her copies of Through Gates of Garnet and Gold (this year's Wayward Children novella) and Platform Decay (the new Murderbot book.)

It was nice to hang out for a little while! She showed me pictures from the hike yesterday, and of some of the other birds she's seen and such recently. They had a pretty heavy branch come down on the roof during the snow, but luckily it doesn't seem to have damaged anything. Her eye surgery was super easy and minor, and it basically just looks (and feels) slightly irritated, but is barely even noticeable.

I bought my mom a copy of Platform Decay, which just came out. I had preordered it for myself back in March using a birthday gift card to Barnes & Noble.

I do not yet have a copy of Platform Decay.
My copy has been stuck in UPS hell for the last week. It had an "estimated delivery" of May 7th, but has had no new scans since it departed a warehouse in Missouri on the 7th. They just kept shifting the estimation up day by day, despite having no new scans.

Finally at 11pm last night it got an arrival scan at a USPS facility, though UPS wouldn't say where. (Though it got two additional arrival scans today, per UPS.)

Checking USPS instead, it tells me that the arrival last night was the most recent scan (and there weren't additional scans today), and also that that was at their regional hub in Reno, Nevada.

Why. Why did my book go from Missouri to Nevada? I'm in between those!

I want to buy books from sources other than Amazon. I use Amazon for a fair number of things, but I do try to use alternatives when I can. But man, it feels like every time I try to, I end up punished by not getting the item until a week+ after I was supposed to. I get that free two-day shipping has spoiled me and created an unrealistic expectation in general, but even accounting for that! Every time something gets misrouted, or apparently sits in a warehouse for days before being picked up, or the delivery person decides fuck it at the end of their shift and marks it undeliverable for some nonsense reason ("driveway was blocked?" well, there isn't one of those, so, I guess?)

It's not too painful for this book at the moment, because I haven't even started the Murderbot reread yet, because I haven't gotten there on the TBR yet, so it doesn't matter, beyond just the annoyance of the thing not showing up when it's supposed to. Assuming it does eventually arrive, it's fine. But I pre-ordered a few other books that I might be more eager to read immediately, and I will resent having to wait a week or two after release date to even get to start them, when I know I could have paid less money to a less moral company and gotten my much closer to instant gratification. >:/

But also, I am glad that it's coming by USPS instead of UPS, theoretically. USPS at least doesn't leave stuff in the lobby of the apartments to get immediately stolen.

Our katydid eggs from last year seem to be no-gos. :( It seems likely that they didn't get quite enough humidity where they were at in my mom's garage. Alas. We'll keep an eye on them for a little bit longer, but at this point it's probably unlikely.

Today I did go do my re-do blood work. (I think earlier I'd said this week was my dermatology appointment and the blood draw was next week, but I'd gotten them mixed up.) They only had to stab me once this time, which is nice! And this time I did know about it in advance, so I did do my fasting. We'll see if it still pings me for high cholesterol and triglycerides. I'm sort of anticipating that it will... but I'm trying! I'm trying to get the stupid exercise and eat a little better and get more fiber and not go to the corner store for snacks when I'm at work and hydrate more and I'm, ugh, taking ~vitamins~ and shit.

After they stole my blood, we did go on a short hike, though we turned around before too long because it was sunny with no shade and we didn't want to overdo it for Bella. (I felt fine, so maybe my endurance is improving!) Eventually I'll get pictures posted, lol.

Even though I'd felt fine on the hike, we were all apparently pretty wiped out? Maybe just because we got up so early for my appointment, but Alex, Bella, and I all fell asleep for several hours once we got home, haha. I was especially surprised that Bella cuddled up between us for a long nap, ha. Usually she gets up to do her own thing if we fall asleep.

Not feeling terribly motivated to do much of anything, ha. I have posts and comments here to catch up on, I have my reading page in my tracker to work on, I have cleaning projects at home to do... But I don't wanna. Perhaps I will rally and get something done, or perhaps I will lie to myself about feeling much more inclined to do more tomorrow, ha. I do have a headache that I can't quite shake, so maybe tonight is not the night for Being Productive.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

The inaugural Ritual Noize Fest!

I took last weekend off to go to Ritual Noize Fest! I've been excited for it since it was announced last fall. There was a bit of a lineup change, as I'd said before, which was a shame for multiple reasons, but the excitement remained!

It was an excellent time!

The venue is "ReelWorks" which is a large venue attached to Tracks, a fairly well-known gay club. We used to be down there fairly often, back when Tracks had a regular goth night. (It was also baby's first club when I went out to celebrate my 21st birthday!)

...yikes has the whole area changed. We'd noted that the most recent time we went there for a concert, which was a couple years ago. That was the first time we'd been down post-Covid, so it was kind of a big shock to see a bunch of pricey condos had replaced the old warehouses.

At that point a couple years ago it felt like it had maybe become maximum bougie, but it has gotten so much bougier. There are basically no warehouses left at all, and all the weird little art studios and makerspaces and mostly-illegal housing collectives are long gone. Patagonia and Arcteryx have competing storefronts across the street from each other now. There's a bank. Everything has a fucking QR code. There are $750k condos. We parked in the bougiest parking garage I have ever seen in my life. (The whole thing locks down completely, you have to scan your ticket QR code to get back in (god help you if you don't have it), there's a lounge area?? though it was closed for the weekend. Like... I AM glad to not have my car broken into or the catalytic converter stolen, but...)

BUT. We did make it down there, and did quite a bit of pre-gaming in the car before heading in, anticipating fuck-off expensive well drinks.

It turned out that well drinks were not nearly as expensive as anticipated, which was dangerous. I had... more to drink than I've had in the last five years, pretty sure. Delightfully, I was able to stay pleasantly drunk for much of the show, but never got to the point of feeling sick or like I was missing what was going on.

I swore that I would just... magically remember the setlists. I did not remember the setlists. I was quite drunk.

We arrived partway through Hex Cassette's set (two pictures):

Hard to tell when he's on the floor, but he is very tall. I hadn't ever seen him, though I know I've seen him listed as an opener before! Wasn't my favorite sound, but he was good. It was still clearly early, and not much of a crowd had shown up, but he did start the slowest mosh circle possible, which was entertaining.

I could not find his setlist posted online.

A net full of blow-up dolls lurks ominously above the pit.

Then it was Whorticulture's turn, which was probably who I was second-most-excited to see!

Two more pics of Whorticulture, plus Plack Blague:

During "Faust."

It's standard that at some point he will end up stripping down to the crop-top, which he will generally acknowledge. So we did get "YES, THE CROP TOP COMES OUT NOW!" shouted before they started playing "Crucify."

As our local openers, they only got to play four songs (;_;) which I DO actually remember:
- Within/Without
- Faust
- Crucify
- Make Me Dead (live debut of their new song, just released a couple days before!)

"Within/Without" is an older one, and I was glad that they played it! One of my favorites, and I think it got the slot that "Benefits of Torture" would usually get, but I like it a little better. "Faust" is new-ish, and quite possibly my favorite of all their songs, so I was very glad it got played. "Crucify" is a cover of the Tori Amos song, but I think one of their most popular (and always comes with the crop top, so.) "Make Me Dead" is brand new, and I forgot to go listen to it in advance, so it was my first time hearing it!

I'm not unbiased, because they are a local group that I really like, but I think Whorticulture deserved higher billing. They're damn good. (Not that any of the other groups AREN'T good, or didn't deserve their spot on the bill. I just think Whorticulture deserves more, haha.)

Then we went over to Whorticulture's merch table, where I was delighted to discover that they did a new run of their "Goth as Fuck" shirts. (It's a play on the "Queer as Folk" logo, and I love it.) They sold out of those long ago, so I was glad for another chance to get one.)

Our time hanging out by the merch and then heading to get drinks meant we missed most of Plack Blague's set. I'm not familiar with him, but what I heard was good! Gay leather industrial-style, ha.

I didn't find his setlist online either, though as we were heading past the floor to get another drink, he did announce something to the effect of "You know what turns me on? MAN! ON! MAN!" so I do know that was one of his songs that got played!

Refortified with drinks, we managed to get back up toward the front-ish for Julien K. They were great! Ended up being one of my favorite sets from the night.

Three more pictures:

His goggles were so bright. Blindingly!

I am frustrated that I wasn't able to find their setlist either!

They did close out with Blue Monday, which surprised me, since I just sort of assumed they wouldn't want to hearken back to Orgy, but I was certainly not disappointed!

Their much better picture, ha.

Then, Aesthetic Perfection! (The other group I was most excited to see.)

Three more pictures:

I DO have a setlist for them!
- Gods & Gold
- S E X
- Rhythm + Control
- Antibody (call me a basic bitch, but this is one of my favorites and I basically knock myself over jumping to it every time.)
- Sorrow (huge tonal shift from Antibody, but also a fave)
- Summer Goth (Alex hates this song, lol. I find it terribly relatable.)
- Self Inflicted
- Into the Void
- We Bring the Beat
- Never Enough (another fave)
- Schadenfreude
- The Great Depression (I still think this was a perfect opening song, per the previous show I saw them at. Starting off with "HEY YOU MOTHERFUCKING SON OF A BITCH" is just so good. It's fine as a later song, too.)
- Love Like Lies (This one we got to pick between two choices. I was rooting for Spit It Out instead, but ah well.)

Lords of Acid!

Five more pictures:

Okay, maybe this is an unpopular opinion... but I think Lords of Acid is better in recordings than live. Their live shows are fun, and energetic, and they do a lot of stuff, but the showmanship is more of a draw than the music when they're live. The sound seemed muddled (which I don't think was a sound issue with the venue; none of the other acts were hard to hear), so other than a few words, it was hard to really hear them, even though it was all very loud. Alex saw them a few years ago, and he had the same impression that time. But! It was definitely fun!

Alex did turn to me and ask "So... do they just replace the frontwoman every couple years?" as this is a different singer than the last time they came through.
I told him "Yeah, they need a New Designated Hottie!"

(That is me being a little dismissive. It's not untrue, but all the Designated Hotties are also very talented!)

Current Hottie Carla Harvey can headbang like a motherfucking champ.

(Thank you, nameless support roadie.)
(The net of blowup dolls lurks ominously.)

Inviting women up on stage for "Pussy," of course.

And then it was time for "Rubber Doll," so...

THE BLOWUP DOLLS RELEASED!

Except this one. :'( The saddest story: For retrieval: Blowup doll, never fallen.

The Lords of Acid setlist:
- Scrood Bi U
- Do What You Wanna Do
- Lover
- Drink My Honey
- Mister Machoman
- The Most Wonderful Girl
- Pussy
- The Crablouse
- Rough Sex
- Rubber Doll
- Encore: I Sit on Acid

And finally, She Wants Revenge.

(Still wish it had been VNV, even though that would have been even more dramatic whiplash after Lords of Acid, lmao. Glad we did have another headliner willing and able to step in! First chance I've had to see She Wants Revenge, so that's cool, too.)

Two more pictures:

I was suddenly struck with "Wait, shit. How many She Wants Revenge songs do I even know??" Turns out, a lot more than I thought, ha.

I've never been super into them beyond what got played at the club, though I was happy for them when they had a sudden surge of popularity after American Horror Story: Hotel.

Very red.

She Wants Revenge setlist:
- Black Liner Run
- Sister
- Written in Blood
- These Things
- Sarah Says
- Someone Must Get Hurt
- A Little Bit Harder Now
- Your Love
- Rachel
- These Things Happen in Threes
- Red Flags and Long Nights
- Do No Harm
- Black Wax, Our Love
- Gossip & Drugs
- Out of Control
- Tear You Apart

The most difficult part of leaving was the damn parking garage, lol. Several people were struggling to get their QR things to scan, or having a hard time paying, and it held up the whole line quite a lot, lol.

The show was very fun, but man was I tired. We headed home, tossed a frozen pizza into the oven, and devoured the whole thing. Drank some water, took some preemptive ibuprofen, and went to bed, lol.

Also extremely glad that I had taken Sunday off as well, because other than going to Bella's FastCAT, I pretty much wanted to spend Sunday asleep too, haha. (Though considering how much we drank vs. how little we typically do, neither of us was at all hungover, which was a pleasant surprise.)

This did really make me miss going out clubbing, which is usually my feeling after going to concerts of this genre. Alex... not so much. He said he had fun this time, aided by the alcohol, but his anxiety has gotten worse to a point that he dreads trying to go out. That's a shame, because I'd love to go out at least once a month or so, but I don't want to coordinate going solo, and I don't want to drag him out to be miserable. Alas!

I really do hope that Ritual Noize Fest continues beyond just this first year, and if so, I really look forward to future lineups!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

This Saturday is Ritual Noize Fest, a first-time local goth/industrial music festival that I am very excited for!

I'm especially excited for Whorticulture, a local band that I do really like, and Aesthetic Perfection.

I really wish that the lineup still looked like it originally did:

Sadly, VNV Nation had to cancel due to Ronan's ongoing health issues. (Apparently he's doing much better, but traveling overseas ~~to an uncivilized country~~ is a risk that he and his doctor agree he shouldn't take, just in case.)

This was supposed to be the first real Voicecoil show of the year, and we were all looking forward to it. It's still really heartbreaking that there won't ever be another Voicecoil show. I miss you, Mark.

As excited as I am for the festival, it's definitely also feeling really bittersweet, because it should have been a chance to hang out with my friend, celebrating him getting to be part of a really cool lineup. The lineup remains cool... but I'm not hanging out with my friend, and I really wish I was. </3 Still, it should be a good time, and I am looking forward to it!

Last Tuesday, we also went on a hike!

It was a pretty warm day, but a nice one for a walk. Alex wanted to go to Red Rocks, but there was a show that night, so the park was closed early. Instead we went to Matthews/Winters, which is a county park that borders Red Rocks. We've been there several times before. It's a bittersweet place for me, because we went there with Cy a lot, and it's the first hike we went on after he passed away.

The landscape.

It's Bella!

Twelve more pictures:

The water was definitely very low in the creek, but it was flowing.

Bella laying on the bridge over the creek.

There's a short little path that follows the creek upstream, so we went up that way first.

Looking back downstream.

There's a little "fort" of sorts set up, so of course had Bella sit in it.

We joke it's not a hike if there's not a picture of Bella sticking her tongue out.

A dandelion.

Chokecherries.

Back over the bridge and up the main path, the start is an uphill section... that basically always kicks my ass. It's not that steep, but man, I feel like I'm dying by the time I get to the top.

The short walk I'm trying to do a couple times a day at work does have an uphill section, which I certainly still feel when I do it, but I'm hoping that's going to help my ability to handle even relatively gentle inclines. (I can walk basically forever on a flat or downhill path, but the instant I'm moving uphill? I'm dying.)

I think it was a little easier for me to do this time? I was still struggling a little, but not quite as badly as I remember? So maybe the walks are helping my endurance, haha.

Tiny ant on an aster.

Up at the top of the loop is the Mount Vernon cemetery. I of course take pictures of it every time we go, even though I have pictures from every other time we've been.

The two stones are the only marked burials, though there are supposedly others in the cemetery. The cemetery is the only thing left of the town of Mount Vernon.

A cactus with a hole through it!

Then poor Bella had a no good very bad day. She drank water a little too fast, and immediately threw up. She was doing okay after that, until we got about 2/3 of the way through the loop. Then she stepped on a red ant, which bit her. She spent the whole rest of the walk kicking and biting at her foot, because I know it had to still be stinging. Ant bites suck! When we got back to the start she stood in the cold water of the creek, and that seemed to help soothe it.

A late blooming apple tree.

(I was busy trying to take a picture of the flowers, and missed getting to see a tiny snake that Alex spotted. Happy for first snake of the year, bummed I didn't see it!)

Then back at the car, Alex noticed I had a hitchhiker!

The tiniest inchworm! I let her go back in the grass.

After that, we went to get ice cream, as a local ice cream parlor was doing a fundraiser for my old high school. I got a "kid's" size of vanilla ice cream for Bella... They packed so much in there, lol. So suddenly it was back to being the best day ever, and the ant bite seemed entirely forgotten.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Monday was a lovely day, and we wanted to take advantage of it. We decided to go to Harriman Lake, one of the local parks. We were surprised that the water level wasn't as low as we expected it to be.

A woodpecker apartment complex. So many holes!

Chokecherry flowers.

Seven more pictures from the walk:

Have a set of too-distant birds, haha:

A flicker! (On the branch toward the center.)

A meadowlark! (So bright yellow!)

Ducks!

Taylor and I agree that this looks like a Myst puzzle.

Dead tree, and you can see some nest material up at the top.

I like that this tree has fallen over, but is still growing. The little branch like a mini tree in the middle I like especially.

A small, late-blooming tree.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Whoops, took over a week to get to posting these, haha.

Last 'weekend' we did go on a lovely walk around Pelican Pond. The water level was a bit distressingly low, but there were pelicans! It was also perfect timing for all the blooming trees. We also saw an eagle again, though it was too high up to get a picture of.

The lake through the flowers.

There are apple trees all around the pond. They're lovely and they smell amazing.

Nine more pictures:

Kind of a pleasantly soft look against the sky.

Ladybug!

Some quite vibrant flowers from the far side of the pond.

Distant on the island, over on the left you can see the pelicans. Also plenty of other water birds.

This little falcon had a lot to say! I'm guessing it's a prairie falcon, since it's not too likely for us to have a peregrine, and it's too large to be a kestrel... but definitely more falcon- than hawk-shaped.

Bella stops to smell the flowers.

Vinca along the path.

Plus two additional pictures not from the same location:

Lovely pink flowers!

And from later in the week, on one of my workday walks. Lilacs!

It was an absolutely beautiful day to go for a walk, and I'm especially glad we got to enjoy the trees while blooming, since those are already winding down.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

The final post about our trip to the zoo!

Once again, most of these pictures are from inside the Tropical Discovery building, which is always my favorite, ha.

Eyelash viper, indeed showing off some lovely lashes.

Eight pictures below the cut:

This monitor was climbing up the tree right as we arrived.

Cobra!

They seem like they're just hanging out.

This guy looks like a little dragon!

Last time someone said the alligator snapping turtle looked like it was just an ordinary-sized turtle, so this time I attempted to get an object for scale. Unfortunately a large crowd of people were coming up, so I didn't get to position my for-scale water bottle the best. The bottle is closer than the turtle, so he's really still even bigger than he looks!

Just a wonderfully polite looking komodo dragon. Would never bite you and leave you to die of sepsis.

Chameleons are so cool. I love their mitten hands.

This guy came right up to stare back, haha.

I love the salt and pepper rattlesnake. :)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Part two of the trip to the zoo!

Frogs and fish. :)

(As always, we spent the bulk of our time in Tropical Discovery, which is where most of the reptiles/amphibians/fish are. I know I've shared pictures of many of these same critters before. I don't care, because I love them.)

What mossy frog? I see no mossy frog. Just some moss! (I do like the little water droplets on the moss.)

Six more frogs:

The most -_- face in existence.

Panamanian golden frog. Sadly probably extinct in the wild.

This is doing zero justice to HOW SMALL this frog is.

Fat and happy.

Dart frogs!

Lake titicaca frogs remain my beloved weirdoes.

As at the aquarium, I do really love lionfish.

Seven more fish:

Cooperatively posing fish. :)

Epaulette shark snuggling up with an eel. And a fancy fish!

These epaulette sharks were very sociable.

This guy looks like one of those little ice cream sundaes. The kind with a cup of vanilla ice cream and chocolate 'stripes'?

This kind.

So dramatic!

One last zoo post to come, featuring some reptiles!

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

(It's not just the "Denver Zoo" anymore, ha.)

The Monday before my birthday, Alex and I went to the zoo. :)

It was a really pleasantly warm day, so it was great for walking around!

Less great for walking around was how much pain Alex was in. He was unfortunately hurting pretty badly, but we made it through most of the zoo, and did stay until closing! Just sucky that it did make parts of the day a bit less enjoyable for him.

One thing we hadn't done before was ride the train, ha. It's a mini railroad that takes you on about a five-minute loop around a bit of the zoo. It was just a few dollars to ride, so we decided to do it, haha. It was fun!

As always, took too many pictures, so I'll split it into three posts. This one for the birds and mammals, and probably one for fish and frogs, and one for the reptiles.

Both tigers were out. This is the bigger, male tiger. He was enjoying his pool!

Eleven more:

Flamingos! They're fun to watch. The one running through the water was chasing others around for a bit.

The tiger was rubbing his face on the edge of the pool and looked just like a housecat. But big.

Lookit the kitty!

We wandered by at the right time for one of the elephant demonstrations.

Will lay down for some veggies.

While the event hadn't officially opened yet, they had set up most of the lanterns for their "Glowing Wild" event. There were several really neat displays! This was clearly one of the most dramatic.

(The lanterns are clearly by the same company that did the ones we saw at the lantern festival at Four Mile park last year. Very cool! I bet they're really neat after dark.)

Lemur! :D

Closeup lemur! :D Mmm, broccoli.

Fancy crane in the aviary.

This little duck apparently wanted to come fight lots of peoples' legs. Including mine.

Sleepy flying foxes!

We did hang out all the way until closing time (4:00, which felt very early, especially post-time-change.) We did skip a few areas, or kind of had to breeze through them, but we saw most of what we hoped to.

As we were heading toward the exit, we both got free pretzels, since they'd be thrown out at the end of the day. Score!

As we left the elephant passage area, Alex remarked that he wanted to see an elephant actually use the bridge. You always walk under it, but we haven't ever seen any of the elephants using it.

And immediately...

Alex summoned him!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to the Aquarium a couple weeks ago. :)

I do love a dramatic lionfish.

18 more pictures below the cut:

Piranha!

Adorable tiny frogs!

Forbidden toaster strudel filling.

So blue!

Snake-necked turtles are so funny looking.

Clownfish, very at home.

Extra love the black clownfish.

Though of course, any tank with a clownfish has to also have a blue tang.

This crab was extremely active, haha.

Fancy triggerfish.

Shark!

Sea turtles, my beloved.

I love these guys and their extremely dramatic faces.

Nicely posed shark.

It's not a great picture, I do just love their faces.

So colorful!

Jellies!

Moon jellies!

These were always one of my grandmother's favorites, when she volunteered at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

The tiniest little baby moon jelly.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

For Alex's birthday, we went to the aquarium! It had been a few years since we went, so it was exciting to get to go back, as always.

Splitting the pictures into two posts, so there aren't too too many in one post. No theme to which pictures are in which post, just a chronological trip through the aquarium.

I love these guys. You walk underneath them and look up at them schooling.

Fourteen more pictures below the cut:

This face made me laugh.

Very atypically-colored trout! It seemed to love showing off, coming right up to the glass, ha.

Posing so perfectly!

Across from the sturgeons (big), there's a reconstruction of a mosasaur (Very Big.)

Little shark and rays!

Smiling ravioli photobomb!

Multi-colored seahorses! I love them.

Seahorse!

The sea is full of bizarre creatures. (YOU CAN SEE THROUGH ITS FACE.)

A little flight of rays.

These guys were cool.

Sharks and flounder!

Little urchin and fashionable shell hat!

Impressive orange lipstick.

Such a lovely tank! So many sea stars.

(And now I am starting to really feel that "spring forward" thing, so I'm going to take a nap, haha.)

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

The reason that Alex and I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens was to see one of their temporary exhibits, which was their orchid showcase. Luckily we managed to make it on the final day!

Not a lot of commentary for me, mostly just pictures, ha. So many orchids! Lots of the "usual" ones that are the most commercially available, but a lot of less-common colors and kinds as well. I love them all!

A wall of different kinds!

The star shape of this kind is one of my favorites, and I do love the colors.

17 more orchid pictures:

Speckles.

I like the darker color of these.

Very large!

These are such a cool shape!

I like the contrast between the flowers on the left and the more "slipper" shaped one on the right.

The little ones are neat. Little sprays of stars.

The pale yellow is such a smooth color.

Jailed for crimes.

Spectacular in a group.

Nice color and shape.

A classic fave.

Another nice, soft color. They look a bit like lilies.

I love the star shapes.

Really cool vibrant veining.

Really like how different they are from each other!

Nice pattern.

I love these colors.

I'm very glad we were able to go before the exhibit closed! It was a perfect day to go.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

With everything that's been going on this year so far, we haven't had many chances to get out and do much.

One of the things that we'd wanted to do was visit one of the temporary exhibits at the Denver Botanic Gardens: their orchid showcase. Then my appendix tried to kill me, and we both pretty much entirely forgot about it. At some point in the second week of February Alex remembered and suggested we try to go sometime, so I looked it up to check how long the exhibit was running... to discover it was only going through Monday the 16th. That narrowed down our options a bit, but luckily we were both feeling well enough to go, and the decidedly un-winter-like weather continued to cooperate with us.

And it was lovely! The orchids were mostly in the "orangery," a stretch of semi-indoor/semi-open space that looks in on the greenhouses and has some citrus trees and such year-round. We spent most of our time there and in the big conservatory, though we did take a walk around the rest of the gardens as well.

The pictures in this post are primarily not of the orchids, and the orchids will get their own post.

We did get to see the koi, which are always a favorite!

The view when you walk in to the main building.

Here you obviously can see a lot of orchids on display around the water feature. (I'm fond of the ones in the tentacle-y hanging pots.)

Nineteen more pictures from the gardens:

There was also some decoration for Lunar New Year.

We went into the conservatory, which I always love walking around. Give me all the indoor rainforest.

So many pods on the cocoa tree!

A cute hidden spray of flowers.

I am very charmed by these leaves that all but vacuum seal themselves to the tree they're growing on. They look like little scales.

Dart frog!

These little flowers were pretty and cute, and on closer inspection, each little flower had a teeny tiny ant on it! The image does not really convey how TINY these little ants were. Smaller than typical little black sugar ants. TINY. Getting little nectar drinks.

I think insects are cute, so this ant taking a step from one flower to another was extremely adorable, imo.

An interesting flower.

After this, it was down to the orangery.

The Denver Botanic Gardens has a very extensive bonsai collection, which is very cool. Most of them are off-display for the season (and will be outside for the summer.)

This one is on display inside, so it can be seen blooming. A bougainvillea! (Been in training as a bonsai for over 25 years, now!)

Carnivorous plant terrariums, my beloved. A Venus flytrap.

A random non-orchid. Look at this furry cactus flower!

The main feature of the orangery was the orchids, so most of those will be in the next post. After this, we headed outside to do a quick wander around the rest of the gardens.

It felt a little too soon for the hyacinths to be pushing their way up. Usually we don't see those until March...

The fish weren't too sad about the warm weather!

One of my favorite koi in the pond: this white-gold one with the extra fancy fins.

The fancy yellow-gold one is Alex's favorite. But so many cool and pretty koi!

This one makes me laugh. The yellow one was so excited at the potential for food that it lifted that little orange one out of the water on its head entirely!

They're so pretty.

I really like the extra-fancy finned fish, though there are fairly few of them in the pond. It's often just been the silvery white one and the bright yellow one. This year, we were excited to see a few younger ones with the same extra-long fins:

This one is very cute already, and will be lovely when it grows up more.

Snowdrops!

Too early for peonies to be trying to get in on anything!

It was a really beautiful day to be out! I'm glad we had the chance to go before the exhibit shut down. The orchids themselves were gorgeous, and pics of them will be in a different post!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

I've been trying to take my medically prescribed walks. We've been luckily aided by our weather, which has been so bizarrely warm this season. (It's low-key terrifying, how little snow we've had.)

I didn't end up doing anything this most recent "weekend," as Alex was super sick and didn't want to go anywhere, but on the last bit of time before I returned to work we did at least a few good walks.

Bella got to meet a horse!

Bella loves horses. I tease her that she's a weird horse girl. (I was a weird horse girl.) But she's very enthusiastic every time we drive past horses. She's gotten to see them on trails before, and is always very excited. (I loved one day on a trail where we pulled her to the side to let some horses pass, where we were talking to Bella saying "Oh, do you see the horses?" and as the riders passed, one of them was saying "Oh, do you see the puppy?" Lol.) But while Cy got to be around horses pretty often, back when Alex was riding, Bella hasn't ever gotten to directly meet one.

Until now!

We saw this horse coming up the trail, and then horse and rider went through the Starbucks drive through, haha. Then they came back around and passed us on the trail. The rider said hi to us and to Bella, and Alex said hi and that Bella loves horses. The rider pulled his horse back around and asked if she wanted to say hi.

Bella was utterly starstruck, haha.

And a pair of bald eagles!

We first spotted one out on the ice of the pond, then heard a huge murder of crows throwing an absolute fit over in the trees at the far side. As we continued around, we realized there was a second eagle already in the trees over where the crows were upset.

Eventually the one on the ice flew back up to join the one in the tree, though then made another trip out onto the ice.

By the time we got back around to the tree they'd been in, that one came back, and they both sat there for quite a while! It was very cool.

I am still delighted every time we see an eagle, and especially to see two! But it also makes me happy that it no longer feels like a "once in a lifetime" sighting. While I don't think I'll ever be blase about seeing them (I mean, I get excited every time I see a chickadee, so) but I am glad that it's something that happens multiple times a year, now.

Nine more pictures:

Friday, January 30, a quick walk in a city park:

There were SO MANY geese on the pond, ha. But I liked the ones toward the front there, who were nibbling at the sort of soft, delicate ice at the edge of the pond. It was a very funny noise to hear them nibbling at it. Bella was very interested.

Sunday, February 01, a longer walk at Belmar Lake:

A pair of mallards waddling across the ice. I love the male's bright green head, but am also always amused by their bright orange feet.

This little bird's nest was very cute.

Also a big fallen wasp nest.

Excuse me! What do you think you're doing?? It is February 1st, it is too early for you, little green leaf!

More ducks! Some mallards in front on shore, and northern shovelers in the water.

Thursday, February 05, at Pelican Pond:

The two above-cut pictures are from this day as well, but a few more.

Denver in the distance, but also a sort of fun phenomenon: the angle of the sun meant that the contrail over on the right actually cast a shadow across the sky, which is pretty cool looking.

Eagle! :D

Again with the greenery! It's too soon!

It's harder to take my walks while working, but I've tried to take at least two quick walks each day. It does seem to have helped the bloating a bit. Still not all the way there, but it's improved!

In less good news, I do seem to be getting sick, probably with what Alex has. Terrible! He's been so sick for days! But I had a very slight sore throat this morning, and then around lunch time it started ramping up. Runny nose, lots of that lovely post-nasal drip that is making my throat want to die.
If it follows the same trajectory as Alex's, then I can look forward to hideously awful coughing, moderate fever, and sinus and chest congestion in my near future. (And because I had originally requested this weekend off, but my time off request was denied, I absolutely can't call out; there's no one to cover, and calling out on the same day as a denied leave request is an automatic HR write-up.) Hopefully I end up with a milder version!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

For the last couple years, I've shared my favorite pictures taken for the year. Here are my top fifteen for 2025!

As usual, it's pretty clear what my favorite subject matter is, haha.

January 07, at home:

Cy and Bella cuddling.

It was a little rare for them to cuddle together for long, and getting a picture of them doing so seemed to be even harder. I miss him so much, still.

Thirteen more pictures, chronological through the year:

June 03, at the Denver Botanic Gardens:

Rainwater in the center of a poppy.

We'd set up a plan to go to the Botanic Gardens for my mom's birthday, and when the day came, it was chilly and rained. Initially we were a bit disappointed, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect. The clouds made for perfect photo lighting, and it had been such a soft rain, the raindrops clinging to everything were beautiful. (There were a couple pictures of roses covered in beads of rain that I almost picked instead, but I just really liked this one.)

July 06, at Roxborough State Park:

A bumblebee on a bee balm flower.

These bumblebees were ENORMOUS.

July 08, at Hudson Gardens:

A bullfrog.

This bullfrog was huge and so very chill about us taking his picture.

July 14, at Lair o' the Bear Open Space Park:

It's Bella!

This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken of Bella. She just has such soft eyes, ha.

A pygmy nuthatch.

From that same hike, a surprisingly cooperative little bird!

July 21, at Castlewood Canyon State Park:

A hummingbird nest.

I was so beyond charmed to see this tiny nest! The lichens and seed fluff and spiderwebs making up the construction is just so perfect.

July 29, at Centennial Cone Open Space Park:

A view from pretty way up.

This park is pretty way up in the mountains. We hadn't been before (and of course ended up going on the day that the *one* tiny thunderstorm that spawned over the mountains picked this exact spot, haha.)

A lizard!

I loved this guy's very vibrant markings! On a sunnier day, I'm sure they actually help him blend in extremely well with darker plant shadows.

August 26, Greenbelt:

Bumblebee!

Much, much smaller than the giant bumblebee from before. I do love their little orange belt.

September 02, Castlewood Canyon State Park:

A fawn!

I was delighted that this fawn still had some spots!

September 08, Alexx & Michael's Pond:

Pelicans!

Alex and I went up to this random neighborhood park to catch sight of an avian oddity: a wood stork! (Perfectly common in some places, but not in Colorado!) We did spot the stork, which was very cool, but the pelicans were also stars of the day, haha. There were SO MANY!

October 14, Greenbelt:

Fall colors.

We were graced with an extremely beautiful fall, and the colors were gorgeous! The gold against the intensely blue sky was especially striking.

November 04, Red Rocks:

It's Bella!

Bella loves rock climbing, and I was very pleased with this picture of her so dramatically backlit!

November 11, the north plains:

The Northern Lights!

We had another chance to go see auroras this year (having seen them for the first time last year.) They were spectacular! It was amazing to see them, and while they were not as intense to the naked eye as it was on camera, the color was visible. It was so, so cool to get to go up and see them, and I'm so glad we did.

-

Obviously I take a lot of pictures of flowers and bees and birds and my dog, haha.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

I hope that everyone who celebrates has had (and is still having) a merry Christmas! (And if you don't celebrate... I hope it was a great Thursday!)

Maybe it's our record-breaking heat (71° today!), but it really hasn't felt terribly Christmas-y. Last year I got hit with the Christmas spirit atypically hard, but not so much this year. Not feeling un-Christmas-y or anything, just... not feeling a ton of hype.

Even so, I had a lovely day. I never sleep well the night before Christmas (or the night before any big event, like vacation, or a big show we're going to, etc.), even though I'm well beyond the "kid at Christmas" excitement phase, haha. I especially can't say I sleep well on my mom's tiny loveseat, though Jaspurr was a pleasant sleeping buddy, and even let us sleep in until there was light in the sky!

Mom and Taylor and I exchanged gifts: I mostly got books, haha. (I also mostly gave books.)

Alex came and joined us a few hours later, and we all hung out for a while. He made some delicious chocolate crinkle cookies and a pan of gingerbread blondies, which are SO GOOD.

Alex and I then came home and exchanged our gifts. Then I fairly quickly fell asleep. Just as I was waking up from my nap, Alex fell asleep, haha.

Highlights of my received gifts. <3

I got lots of books from my mom and Taylor! All are books I'm very excited to read. What Moves the Dead (which I did have an ebook of, but wanted a physical copy), What Feasts at Night and What Stalks the Deep. The Scholomance trilogy. Hell Bent. The Strange Bird. The Ballad of Black Tom.
From Alex, I got Sinners and Late Night With the Devil, which were two of my favorite horror movies from the last couple years, and that I wanted copies of. He also got me a couple nice blank notebooks. (I'll have to psych myself up to use the nicer of the two, haha.) He also got me some candy, the cute spider plush keychain, and the fluffy blanket that everything is sitting on.
Not pictured: A shirt, some hot chocolate, and some bubble bath stuff from Alex. My mom bought us a seat cover for the truck.
And of course, Bella got a million treats, haha.

Our remaining plans for the evening are eating a frozen pizza (er... we will bake it first), since we're both very tired of making food, and then maybe some sort of holiday movie. We meant to try and watch a few before today, but never got around to it. My vote is for The Muppet Christmas Carol, but Christams Twister (sic) is truly our longest movie tradition, and he's more likely to vote for A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life. So we'll see which one we land on!

ETA:

Christams Twister is the winner again! A misspelled title card is truly the best indicator of quality that I can imagine.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: my apartment

Continuing to take advantage of our unseasonably warm weather, we wanted to find somewhere to go on a hike or walk that wouldn't involve heading up into the mountains (where it was likely to be less warm.)

We settled on Bear Creek Lake Park. (It's a nice spot, though it's been many years since I've gone there. We always get a state park pass, so usually stick to those or to the free county parks. Bear Creek Lake is not a state or county park, and has a separate entry fee.)

We're most of the way past our fall colors, though there were still a few areas with gold leaves. We'll have to go back next year, to visit when it's nice and green. It was a very warm day for approaching mid-November, and I was very glad we went out.

We ended up walking two different trails, on the south end of the park, and one more toward the north end near the entrance.

Some very dramatic clouds!

Little helicopter seeds.

Two more from the first trail:

A creek!

Different dramatic clouds.

Then we headed up to another trail closer to the entrance of the park, which follows the creek.

The creek!

More creek! A little bit of fall color still hanging on.

Three more from the second trail:

Kind of a little spillover. Looks like this might have been a spot there used to be a bridge.

Nice wasp nest up in the tree.

And is it a hike if there isn't at least one weird bug?

Glad we were lucky enough to have another week where we could go out and do things!

I think the nice long fall is pretty much over now, but I'm glad we were able to enjoy it while it lasted.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

While our weather is (maybe, probably) about to take a turn, we have been granted one of the longest, warmest falls I have ever experienced! (Last week we reached our record for latest snowfall in Denver, and we're still waiting...) I'm certainly not complaining (yes, yes, I know that we need the snow to fend off the fires and all, but were there no consequences I would be happy to literally never see snow again.)

The day got a little late on us, but once we finally got it together, we wanted to go do something to take advantage of the nice weather. We decided on Red Rocks. It's most famous as an enormous outdoor amphitheater used for concerts and such, but does have some hiking trails. Indeed, the several times we hoped to go there earlier this year, there were concerts planned, which limits the hours that you can be in the park for anything else. But that day, finally!

We headed up to a trail we remembered doing before, but not for a few years.

Oof. I remembered the trail, but not how uphill it was. I got wimpy near the end of it and had to stop for a few, which felt really silly when it was less than five minutes from the end. I can go pretty infinitely on flat ground or downhill, but man, the instant there's an incline, I want to die. Still, I recovered, and it's worth the hike.

The red rocks! A nice stretch of the hogback.

Bella got to climb some rocks!

Ten more pictures:

There's a little path to an overlook before the trail itself.

Bella was quite happy that there was this little "raised sidewalk" built specifically for her. (And there's the amphitheater in the background.)

You can see pretty far. Not gonna lie, kinda miss when all those houses weren't there, though.

On the actual trail, a nicely dramatic striped rock.

A deer!

Bella was excited to see the deer.

The deer was not terribly impressed, lol.

I like how stark the aspens are against the rocks. :)

Sometime after this was when I had to sit down for a bit, though after slamming some liquids and catching my breath I was all right.

Up toward the top of the trail is a big, flat stretch of rock which made a good spot for a slightly longer break. It also provides a great spot for Bella to do her favorite thing: rock climbing.

Bella really does seem to love getting to climb. She's excited to roam around the instant she has a chance to.

I really liked this picture of Bella, because the sun made it look like *she* was glowing. Unfortunately, my camera also picked up weird blur on her legs, which make them look super weird, ha.