Other Stuff and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Paul—he’s 27 today! Since January, I haven’t been very good about updating this blog because life has just gotten too busy.

• We’ve been trying to plan our wedding—much thanks to our moms who have been taking care of most of the details—which is now only a month and a half away (exciting!).
• I did an art show in February that went very well and have been trying to build my inventory back up.
• I made a bunch of beaded flowers for our friends wedding (pitcher plants and trilliums were requested).
• I have been writing a grant (with Drs. MSP and MSW) to get funding for a new fish related project and trying to get together data for a presentation (with Drs. MSP and WTS) at the ASIH meeting in July.
• Paul has been trying to finish up his thesis work in preparation for a new job starting in August.
• Paul went on a week long research cruise to collect larval amberjack at the beginning of June
• AND we bought a fixer-upper boat that takes up any spare time we have left.

*** I've also started another site that is only for my beadwork called "Silver Perch Designs".***

Other interesting photos:

Huge Elephant Ears in our yard.

Kayaking on Blackcreek, MS

A Gulf Softshell Turtle found while kayaking with my toes for a size reference

Fish

I’ve finally found a moment to add some photos! I think I may have to rename this blog “Paul’s Fishing Blog” since that’s all I’ve been posting. So here are some of his latest catches and one of mine, too! Paul caught the dophinfish and cobia in his spare time on a research cruise that went out to collect larval amberjack. The cobia was wonderful and we’ve been eating mainly fish for the past couple of weeks.

I caught the spotted seatrout when I went fishing with Paul in our kayaks on a small reef out from our house last weekend. We also caught a bunch of little blacktip sharks that were kind of tricky to get off of the line without getting bitten or having them falling in to the kayak with us. This photo was taken just before it ended up in the pan for our dinner. I've also included a very small tarpon that Paul cast netted last fall that I've been meaning to post. This fish used to be more common in Mississippi waters but at present is fairly rare.