Cheetahs!

Remember how in my last post I said I loved cheetahs?  Well if you love cheetahs you have to watch this video!  Sorry I can't embed the video, but here is the link:  http://io9.com/coincidentally-i-was-thinking-just-yesterday-in-a-momen-267537811.  So awesome!

Zoo Pictures

I never got around to posting these pictures I took during a trip to the zoo months ago.  These are some of my favorites.  There were a lot of photos that didn't turn out because of fences in the way. Oh well.  Let me know what you think of them!  Oh and you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.  :)

 Pretty lioness relaxing on a log. 

 The male taking a nap on a rock.

 Lions are champions at being lazy lol.

 Isn't she gorgeous!!  I love big cats!

 Pretty Serval... this one didn't turn out well because I took it through a chain link fence.

 The tigers were relaxing too hehe.

 So gorgeous!  Tigers were my favorite big cat when I was a kid. 

 Adorable red panda stuffing his face...

 Doesn't he look so happy!!  So cute!

 This was the only capybara I saw.  He was chilling out in the shade.

 Gorgeous male Cheetah!!!  These are my favorite big cats.  The ultimate athletes! 

 Mariana fruit dove.  I had no idea what this was lol.

 Violaceous Euphonia.  This one either!  Never even heard of it.

 

 I love hornbills!  Did you know these are the birds Zazu from The Lion King was modeled after?

 Laughing Kookaburra!  One of my favorite shots from the day!

Burrowing owl.

 I completely forgot to even look at what kind of penguin this was... it was fairly small.  Anyone know what kind he is?  I'm not very good at identifying the different types of penguins lol.  The king penguin and the emperor penguin are about the only ones I recognize immediately.

I don't know what these are.  I'm not as good at identifying birds as other animals.

 

 Gaboon Viper.  Never heard of this one before, but he's so cool!

 Komodo dragon.  I always liked these guys!

 Adorable otter!!!  I LOVE otters!  They are one of my absolute favorite animals and I would so love to have one as a pet even though I know that's not a good idea (not to mention illegal).  My husband had to drag me away from the otters.  I took a ton of video of them playing.  :D

 My elephant pictures didn't turn out very well because it was midday and the sun was too intense.  This one is pretty good though so I posted it.

 Another one of my favorite animals!  A wolf!!  Doesn't he look so relaxed?  We got to stand mere feet from him.  :D

As I'm sure you could guess Zebras are another favorite.  :D  It turned out a bit blurry....

This is an edited one...  does it look better or is it too sharp?

So what do you think?  I had soooo much fun taking them.  I love having the opportunity to take pictures of such amazing animals.  :)

I almost forgot this picture of an adorable meerkat.  These guys are tough to photograph!

Random Pictures

Stormy Feeling Her Oats

Lately it's been really hot so Storm hasn't felt like playing outside much.  She goes outside to pee and then immediately goes back to the door and asks to be let in.  However a few days ago... or maybe it was last week... I don't even remember, it was a bit cooler and she was feeling sparky.  She was instigating play with Jackal and it was soooo cute!  The pictures aren't very good because I had it in auto and they were moving around a lot.  Check them out!

 

 

 Jackal looks like he's surrendering lol.  She kept rolling him on the ground.  Poor guy.

See she rolled him here....

.... and here lol!!

Trying to look all innocent and failing miserably LOL!  She had just rolled him before this shot.

 They look pleased with themselves.  

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  I sure enjoyed watching them play.  :)

Our house has a floor! Yay!

 Yay!  We got the floor put into our house!  It took us two days working almost twelve hours both days.  I was soooooo bruised and sore from sitting on the concrete floor (I can't work on my knees even with knee pads so I did it sitting Indian style until my ankles hurt too bad then just curled my legs up beside me).  At the end of both days I would crawl into bed and just cry until the pain subsided (I'm a serious wimp), but it was sooooo worth it!  The floor is gorgeous!

As you can see each shot of the living room and kitchen that the walls looks different colors depending on the light!  It looks so peach in the above picture, but it's not lol.  It's actually tan.  Still, you get the idea hehe.  We're looking at the floor anyway.

Standing in front of the French doors looking into the kitchen.  As you can see in the above picture we installed the air conditioner too, so we didn't have to lay tile in 100F degree temps!  Thank goodness!  I don't think I could have done it if I'd been hot, sweaty AND in pain lol.

Looking into the kitchen at the back door.  My husband propped up that board so he could sweep and I forgot to put it back on the floor.  That will be the color of my baseboards.  I can't wait to get them in!  The house will look basically finished with baseboards in.  :D

At this point I turned on the force flash on my camera because it was too dark without the lights hooked up and those lights turned the pictures weird colors anyway.  This is closer to the actual color, but it is a little washed out from the flash.  This is looking into the hallway.

Some shots of the bedroom.  Isn't the floor so pretty??  It's actually 12 inch vinyl tiles, but it looks like one solid floor from a distance because there is no fake grout line like a lot of tiles so you can barely see the lines.

 I can't wait to sand and stain my wood beam in the ceiling.  :)

Looking at my bedroom door and computer nook.

 The flash washed out my green walls, but that's okay.

The bathroom pictures turned out horrible.  This was the best I could do.  This is looking at the walls where our sinks and counter will be.  We might, maybe, possibly be picking up bathroom cabinets this weekend.  Fingers crossed!

Here are some close ups of the floor.  It's a mixture of brown, tan, gray and white.  Very pretty.  It goes really well with the wall colors I chose.  :D

Below is a shot without flash.  It shows the light and shadows through the French doors.  I like how it turned out.

Anyway as you can tell I'm excited!  Next step is interior doors and shower installation, so we can then stain and put in baseboards and window/door casings.  We're going to try to completely finish the bedroom, bathroom and living room sometimes in the next few weeks so we can hopefully move in.  The kitchen might take some time depending on how the money works out.  Luckily the only appliances we needs are a stove/oven combo that we have to have and a dishwasher which isn't top priority.  We already have a refrigerator, deep freezer, washer and dryer.  We still have to get a hot water heater too.  Oh and we still have to get the electrical pole up which involves cutting down some trees.... it might be another month, but I really, really hope it's no longer than that!  Fingers crossed!  I'm so impatient to move in.