Every couple of months we have the joy of cleaning out our turtle tanks. I say “tanks,” because they started biting each other a few years ago so I had to separate them. Now I have two of everything, so it’s double the work to clean the tanks. What a fun way to spend Friday night, right? P.S. If you’ve never seen my turtles before, check out the April 2010 archive.

Photo 1: I begin by scraping the algae off the basking ledges.
Photo 2: Next I get to clean out their water filters.
Photo 3: Last night we had a little accident. We had the water heaters laying on the floor with the power strip off, but someone (ahem, a turtle or cat) walked over the switch and turned it on. A few minutes later I smelled something burning and ran into the room to find the carpet burned all the way to the mat. Anyone know how to repair this? If not…there goes our deposit.
Photo 4: About 2 hours later, we finally finish filling the tanks. (And of course we have to thoroughly clean the bathroom.)

It’s funny the things you start noticing when you carry your camera everywhere. I’ve walked past this Vespa near work every day for months, yet I never really thought twice about it. But now that I think about it, wouldn’t it be fun to have one to buzz around town?

I subscribe to a photography blog that has weekly photography “assignments.” I’ve never done them before, but I may start now that I’m taking photos every day. This week’s assignment is holiday food. So here is our holiday food – a fridge full of leftovers!

Many of my coworkers took a couple of weeks of vacation around the holidays, so I was excited to see some smiling faces when I got to work this morning. At 7:30 a.m., this is what I found instead. (Fortunately they did show up; my day just starts a little earlier than theirs.)