Steve and Marina

Sunday, February 15, 2009

I got bangs!

I gave myself a haircut and got bangs!

I was going for Kate Hudson in "Bride Wars"

The last time I had bangs was High School, so it's been an adventure!

Steve and I share many things in common. Not the least of these is the same birthday. This often causes confusion. We often get “You don't really have the same birthday, do you???" Indeed, we do. Steve is only 3 hours older than me, which makes celebrating our birthday quite an event.

This year we chose to go to The Melting Pot. It was AMAZING!!!! If you ever have a really special occasion, go there! It is well worth it although a bit pricey.

You start with a cheese fondue. The cheeses are all high quality, but do be adventurous-- you can eat cheddar anytime! To dip, you get apples, chunks of bread, and raw vegetables.

Next, (not pictured) is the salad. This was probably one of the best salads I have ever eaten. Unfortunately, you have to pace yourself!

Then came the main course. Delectable is all I can say. We had lamb, steak, chicken, pot stickers, and shrimp. It also comes with vegetables to cook.

Finally, dessert. They really save the best for last! Ours was flambéed right in front of us!

Words cannot describe!!!

Sorry this is a little belated! If you were wondering… our birthday is January 22nd. :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Snow Days!

I have to admit-- when I heard Monday that Greenville was expecting 3-6 inches of snow, I was skeptical. Let's just say, watching the news was even more amusing.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly suprised when I awoke Tuesday morning to this:

Apparently, both of the snow plows in Greenville were working overtime, so they closed school both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Which gave Fletcher a chance to show off his Christmas sweater.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Serpentine Adventure

This weekend we went on a whim to Wilmington, NC. Despite the GPS giving us super long directions, we had a great time. The highlight of the trip for me was definitely the Cape Fear Serpentarium. This place rocks. I'm going to post some pictures, but suffice it to say that even if you fear or dislike snakes, its terribly captivating. Some might find it a bit macabre because of the nature of the exotic snakes (and their venom!), but its truly awesome.

Unfortunately a lot of the pictures we took didn't quite come out due to the glass and dark lighting in the serpentarium. I've posted some of my favorite pictures that DID come out.

This one is huge! A giant anaconda that had to be at least 20+ feet in length. This picture really doesn't show scale well, but his midsection was larger than the thigh of most full grown men.

I can't remember the species of the above snake, but I believe it is a Diamondback rattler of some kind. Western, perhaps. Emily, help me out on this one?

Probably one of my favorite displays they had. They had 3 Gaboon Viper's in this display, although you can only see two in this photo. They're beautiful, but I would never want to get in a fray with one. It was especially interesting how thick around the middle they are for their length. Oh, and their 'horns' are really menacing.

This is a Western Green Mamba. The owner of the serpentarium was in West Africa somewhere, and he saw this specimen and thought at first it was just some harmless grass snake; as he went to pick it up with his bare hands, one of assistants yelled out "Look at his head, its shaped like a coffin!"...Had the director picked him up, he could've had his own coffin waiting - this is one of the deadliest snakes alive.

This one is also quite deadly - it is one of several species of Asiatic Spitting Cobras. Their venom can be projected quite a distance and prove deadly very quickly for most.

Arguably the deadliest snake in the world, the Taipan. Consider that it has enough venom to kill 100 adult humans, and that it is extremely aggressive. This little guy was hiding, but I don't mind too much.

That's one crazy looking snake! Ok, ok. Its a "Man-eating Crocodile". I'm not making that up, either. You can zoom in on this picture and see how close proximity they let you get - its pretty wild how icky his teeth look too.

Ok, I'm pretty bummed that my bushmaster pics didn't turn out too well. Just read this - click on it for a big version. Its crazy. That's all I can say.

I believe this is Green Tree Boa...but I'm not 100% sure. It might be an Emerald Tree Python. Again, Emily, feel free to correct me :). This guy was GORGEOUS.

Here's a veritable bevy of Eyelash Viper's. I believe there are 4-5 of them. The color is even more striking in person. They're pretty small compared to the other snakes they had, however.

Ok, those are the pictures for now. Snakes that we saw that aren't pictured are the likes of a 20 foot Retic. Python, several Blackheaded Busmasters, a Puff Adder, quite a few local rattlesnake types, a Siamese Cobra, Giant Lanceviper, Jumping Cobra, etc. It was amazing, and I really recommend it as a fun activity!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Yes Man!

Recently, we went to see the movie "Yes Man." While some parts were unnessesarily crude, overall, I actually enjoyed it. I appreciated what I saw as the "take home message"-- Live your life being open to new opportunities and adventures, while also knowing when it would be adventageous to say "No". It inspired me to write a list of things I want to learn/do. Here is a selection from my list: