Shawn's sister, Kim, works at a pet store. One of their female rats gave birth to ten rats before passing away. No one in the store knew what to do--let alone tell the difference between males and females.

Two of them were male, while eight were female. Kim's decided to keep the two males. One of them, black and white, was far too baby-skittery to take any good photo's of. But, he was very sweet and loved to snuggle into the crook of your neck.

They're no bigger than the length of your middle finger, give or take and without the tail. The second one, a cream colored rat with dumbo ears seemed content to settle himself in the corner with his yogurt treat. I was able to get a few good shots.















After I took a few of them, I managed to get two good shots of one of the three Huskies Kim owns, this is Nalie.







I originally took 143 pictures. Out of them, only these were clear AND okay.

So in case you missed it, Shawn for this Christmas past purchased a lightbox for me to practice and have fun with my macro photos. Or at least, have a little studio for taking pictures of leeeetle things.

Apparently a not-so-leeetle thing, called a Flora, also enjoys this purchase. Enough so to waltz right in, settle down and have a nap in it. I foresee some difficulties in trying to take cat-free pictures in the future.

















These are unedited for levels, colors, etcetc. I think one or two are really good, so I might edit them in lightbox further.

Now that the Holiday's are over I feel like life is returning quickly to it's norm. I've been loathe to sign onto AOL to have that change. :p

Snippets of our past Holiday include Grandma telling both my mother-in-law and my self on Christmas Eve that neither of us know anything because we tried to tell her how to work the microwave. The display is messed up and because of that, I guess she thinks it'll explode. So she keeps it unplugged until she needs it, then plugs it in, clears it, and hits "beverage." The display then says 4.0, which is the power setting. She seems to think it's 40 seconds. I tried pointing out the period between the 4 and 0. Mother-in-law tried to tell her that--I got my hands slapped and Shawn's mother got yelled at. :D I love Grandma.

Raven went in a little more than a week before Christmas to have calcifications burned from her. There were a lot, and she still has a few growing but most of the larger one's were gone. It was really odd--they looked like little wart-brains that eventually turned pussey because she'd pick at them. We also had a biopsy done on a large lump above her butt. The vet hasn't called us to tell us bad news still, so I guess she's okay.

Without further ado, here are some Raven pictures I took yesterday:

So Christmas plans include going over to Grandma's house on the eve. I'll be taking my camera and the tripod just so I can get some great shots of Grandma's tree--Grandma's tree is always a work of art since I think she spends days working on it. Speaking of pictures, I've peppered this post with a few shots of our own Christmas tree and ornaments. Y'know. Mood setting.




Even after all this time, it's almost a little odd for me to be opening gifts on Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember, our family always waited until Christmas day.




Shawn says that it really didn't start to happen until the children grew up.




That does leave me all Christmas day to sleep in after my evening spent with a bottle of Godiva White Chocolate liqueur Shawn bought me. :D




New Years Eve is going to be fucking delicious too, I've got some Bailey's Irish Cream.




It's not splendid. The night's not going to be filled with fire, eggnog and song--but its people and those people are family. I am grateful for it.




What are you guys doing for Christmas Eve/Christmas/New Years?

Anyone just not feeling it this year and skipping? And if so, mind sharing why?

So we ate at Fujiyama and it was all showtastic. We confused our waiter by being the only people at the table not ordering the shrimp, chicken, or beef--we got a sushi boat.

So much for the boobs distracting, eating the entire boat with Shawn probably ruined it but I don't care because it was fucking delicious.

While waiting I took lots of pictures because I'm like that. And I even took pictures of people I did not know. Come along and lookit mah sushi pictures! Verra traditional Chrissymas, no?

Before the lions descended upon the Savannah's, there was the Savannah:





We also gave the cat some cat nip before hand to amuse ourselves while we waited for dinner:





And still no dinner so I took another picture of our cat, Flora.





Still no dinner. Lions are restless. Could this be a tasty treat? No! This. Is. GRANDMAAAAAAA!





BEHOLD! The food is ready.







And after we killed a pie in memory of other pies. This is a Razzleberry pie. If you don't know what Razzleberry pie is, and you love berries and pie--you are missing a giant gaping piece in your soul.





The Pence pack is satiated once more until NEXT TIME.

Well, now that I am not overheated and now that Screamer's been buried in her family plot with her three other brothers and sisters--my pictures of the Melbourne Zoo. Let me show you them.






( And because I have about fifteen thumbnails of images, the rest are super ninja stealthy behind this cut. )

And those are pretty much the better of the 260 with a shot of the entrance thrown in for shits and giggles. Shawn made angry sounds when I told him I didn't like many of them so I do this to appease The Fat Man, and to show off our mad l33t Zoo.