Gram's Birthday Bash!

This past Saturday night we celebrated my Gram's 80th birthday.  It was a little early (her birthday is August 13th) but it worked well because all of our side of the family and almost all of her side of the family were able to make it.  She was really excited to have everybody together.  First, we ate dinner at Beni's.  Here are some photos while at the restaurant. The lighting in some of them aren't the best, the sun was shining right in the windows.

Aunt Dawn and I 

Nae and Tom

Aunt Dawn

Paul and Trish

 Here's Gramp and Gram!

Then it was off to Uncle Doug and Aunt Jane's for cake and ice cream!

Andy, Nae, Tom

 Gram's cake, I had to take the picture at an angle because the light shining on it highlighted the wrinkles of the picture and made it hard to see.

 Gram with her cake

Hi Heidi! (she's always trying to be prominent in the pictures ;)):

Sam!

It was a lot of fun, and nice to visit with some of the family from Gram's side who I rarely see.

Op Sail

This past Friday night to Sunday morning my time was spent aboard a sailboat.  The weather was almost perfect except a slight drizzle at one point.  While sailing, we watched the Op Sail parade, in which numerous tall sail boats and some military boats paraded from Niantic Bay to New London.  Before the parade we checked out the boats when they were still anchored in Niantic Bay and then followed them to the Thames River which led them to New London.  It was pretty neat and I took a lot of pictures.  Here's some of them.

First, here are some of the pictures taken while the ships were still in Niantic Bay.

The first boat pictured is a sail boat from Brazil.  It was probably the nicest one there. 

 The Coast Guard sailboat was also very impressive.  Even more impressive was the man who climbed all the way up to the top of the middle mast to place a flag up there.  You can just barely see him in this picture.  He is the little ant-like figure up at the top of the middle mast.

 The crew of the boat had to climb the masts (vertical posts) to reach the sails and let them down.  Here you can view the guys at work.  They are standing on a rope that is running horizontal just below the bar where the sails are attached.

 Here the sails are just beginning to drop (notice the flag at the top of the middle mast):

Two of the smaller ships sailing around waiting for the parade to start.

When the parade started, the Coast Guard ship led the way:

One of the military ships:

 

One of the ships was a rather large navy ship.  Notice the crew members lined up in their spiffy white uniforms:

A couple of the smaller boats sailing in the parade:

Eric snapping photos:

 Luke and Andy checking out the parade:

The big sailboat from Brazil was one of the last boats in the parade:

Overall, it was really neat seeing all these ships up close.  There were a ton of boats out watching which can be seen throughout my photos so that was kind of neat, being in the middle of so many boats.  Now, after Cape Cod and sailing, it is back to work.  We have been very busy in necropsy, yesterday we had four chickens, a cat, two dogs and two horses. Today was also busy and tomorrow is shaping up to be busy as well.

Cape Cod

My family and I just got home yesterday from Cape Cod.  We had a really good time and the weather was almost perfect!  We did a good bit of kayaking, bike-riding, frisbee throwing, and relaxing.  Dad, Heidi, Carla and I went on a whale-watch which was pretty neat too.  We also visited the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory, went to the beach, went for a nice bike ride, walked around downtown Falmouth, and watched the Falmouth fireworks on July 4th. I only have a few pictures, if you want a more extensive view of our trip click HERE.  Warning: my sister is a little backed up on posts so she won't have her Cape Cod pictures up for a little bit yet.

We rented a 3-bedroom house in Falmouth.  It was perfect for what we needed.

 As you can tell, Evan and Carla were really into all the outdoor activities that we did!

 We went for a bike-ride on Monday and saw some different birds.  I am not totally sure what kind of birds these are but I thought they were kind of neat (no, my camera is not one of those fancy shmancy ones so no my pictures are not of perfect quality!)

 Heidi's not the only one taking pictures here!

 A couple of swans that we saw on our bike ride.  There was a baby one but I didn't get a good shot of it.

 

Baby Goats

Last night my brother and I went to see some baby goats that were born last week.  They belong to a former coworker of mine and her husband and the mother of the baby goats actually came from our house.  They were ridiculously cute, so small and running and bucking around.  Here's a few photos from when I was there, I didn't get a lot of photos but at least this gives a brief glimpse at them.  The first photo is just the mother and the rest have the babies in them.

This Thursday my family is heading to Cape Cod for a week.  I am looking forward to going and just hanging out without studying or working.  It should be nice and relaxing!

Sick Goat (now Dead Goat)

This past Friday, I was awaken by my brother who wanted me to go out and check on his goat which had fallen over and wouldn't get up. When I went out, she was laying down and her head and neck were twisted to her left side.  To make a long story short, she went to the vet who thought she had polio (long name: polioencephalomalacia) so we started treating her for it however, Friday night about 1045pm, she died as I was giving her water.  She went out to UCONN and had a necropsy done today.  There was nothing outstanding on the gross necropsy, also known as cutting her open and examining all her internal organs.  It will be a little bit before we get the final necropsy report.  It's kind of neat because I got to be in on her necropsy and help out with it.  I have here a couple photos of the goat before she died.  The first one is her just laying down, not feeling right at all.  She wouldn't get up.  The second one is her right eye which was normal at the time.  The last photo is of her left eye which appeared ulcerate and then clouded over.  It will be very interesting, for me anyways, to see what the final diagnosis from the necropsy is!

  

Summer Update

Just a quick update on what's been going on for me so far this summer.  I have been enjoying my time spent working in micro and necropsy at UCONN.  It has been going real well and I get along well with the undergrads I work with which is great.  I have more car problems, which is pretty much the story of my life so no surprise there.  I am leaking transmission fluid and even though I had my axle seal replaced (no, I have no idea what that is) it was still leaking so now they have to remove the transmission to get at the real problem). This means major cha-ching if you get my drift!  I had a real nice weekend this past weekend as my uncle and another person were put in as ministers in our church.  Other than that, I've just been relaxing and enjoying time spent with family and friends.