Tick Tack Toe anyone?

There was a very busy sky this morning!

Oops, I forgot yesterday! This is the front yard of a house I visited at work. I thought it was really neat that they had the wagon there. They also own a large parcel with a huge horse barn and horses. Nice!

This is a wall in the downtown "artsy" district of Las Vegas. There are lots of artsy things there; they are really trying to fix up the downtown area.

Arizona has saguaro cactus; Nevada only has them where people plant them in their yards. I love these cacti!

We stopped in Prescott Arizona at a place where there were huge rocks. It had been a park at one time but they are squeezing houses in amongst the rocks. They are nice, but I think I would have preferred the park. The flowering cactus growing from a crevice in these rocks caught my eye. It made me wonder how plants can grow from rocks in such precarious places. It showed me that we need to be firmly grounded, grow strong and bloom beautifully where ever we may be in whatever situation we might face. If these plants can do it, we should be able to also.

Today Dave and I drove to Phoenix. On the way we had to pass over the Hoover Dam. This is a bridge by-pass they are building just south of the dam. It's been fascinating to watch the slow progress on building it and exciting to see how close they are to connecting the Arizona and Nevada portions!

Posing like a modern art sculpture in the midst of the city's empty lots, plastic bags and other debris lodge in gnarly plants on empty lots. We have such winds here in the Spring that this is one of the results. Plastic bags from stores seem to float out of garbage cans and get stuck in the plants on empty lots. A great reason to take your own bags to the store and not use the store's bags!

Happy Earth Day!! I was so excited today! I was completing a Waste Management Audit on an auto body and paint facility in a very old part of town when I noticed all these wooded structures in a side room. Asking about them I found out they were bee hives. The man was telling me all about the hives and I mentioned that I had found some bees in a sofa (March 5th) and low and behold it was he who had gone out and taken them! What a small world even in Las Vegas. He told me all about how he got them into his hive, that he had to kill the queen bee present as she was Africanized and replaced her with a "freindly" queen bee. And they have the only "Italian" bees in Nevada and how all the bee equipment works. Did you know that all the chemicals used on crops are causing the decline of bees? It was wonderful! What a glorious day. I sure do love my job! (First photo, the box has slats hanging in it that the bees use as a foundation for their eggs and honey collects on them. Second photo, a box with a screen and drawer, the bees pass through the screens which scrape off the pollon from their bodies which collects in the drawers. Then they can use the pollen to hand-pollenate flowers.)

These are cacti running along a wall in a home that I had to go to due to a sewage overflow in the back yard. There are lots of plants, all different colors of "leaves" and flowers. There were only about three flowers open, but many, many getting ready to open. I closed the case but I'm going back to the yard to get a photo of all those flowers blooming at the same time! Note the purple cactus plant here.

A picture I got from Erik. This is him in Corinth, Greece. He's sailing to Bulgaria now but will be flying home for a month, arriving here on May 28th. Can't wait to see him again.

Paradise Road and Riviera Boulevard looking north at condos. There are so many condos going in downtown, I don't know who can live there! Kelsey and I went to Fashion Show Mall this afternoon and walked around.

This is our aloe vera plant that is blooming.

This evening we went out to Lake Meade, to a cove via a dirt road through sand traps and rock piles. We stopped at Capriotti's and took a couple of Cole Turkey subs and a vegetarian cheese steak sub, some watermelon and cokes and had ourselves a little picnic. The water level is so far down; you can see on the island, called Black Island, the white base, that is how far the lake is down. Where we are standing should be under water. It was a nice evening just to get out of town and into the country a bit. This is Kelsey and Dave.

This is Main Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. These tents are not tourists camping out. Well, they could be, but they are part of our homeless population. All along this part of Main Street the homeless live, walk about, relieve themselves, exist. A few years ago there were no tents, just tarps attached to the fencing. I was shocked to see so many nice tents! The second photo missed all the tents going down the side street. It is really amazing to see!

Today I had a case in the northeast quadrant of town, very close to Nellis Air Force Base. (I was filling in for someone else, I'm usually in the northwest quadrant) As I was investigating jets kept flying overhead, taking off from Nellis. There must have been at least ten jets. It is so awesome to watch them! I call it protection.

This is the neatest photo - it almost looks like a painting. Erik is on the Greek island of Limnos and did a "walkabout" and took a bunch of wonderful photos. I just love this one. I was in a Hazwoper class today and did not get my own photo, so Erik just uploaded these on his Facebook today. The second one is of the boat's anchor. Again, such great photography.

This land may look ugly, but the dry crust on the desert floor is actually a good thing. The crust makes it so that when the wind blows (and we DO get wind!) the dirt doesn't blow away. It's when people walk on, drive on, dig in, and otherwise disturb the desert floor that we get lots of dust. This was taken at the same property where the bees were a month back; I was checking to see if the property owners cleaned up all the bunches of junk there. Nope - it's all still there, minus the bees which are at a bee keepers' home now. So, now the property owners will be taken to a Hearing Board (kind of like a court) and be fined. And this is how I get paid!

Happy Easter, everyone! We had some friends over to our house for dinner; here are the appetizers. The "egg" is a curried chicken spread - yummy! Then we had ham, scalloped potatoes, a Greek Green Bean Salad and "The Best Carrot Cake". It was, too. The best part of the day, though, was our service at Canyon Ridge Christian Church. It was a dynamic service and ended with a video called "That's My King, Do You Know Him?" Wow, so moving.

Yep, longhorns in Las Vegas!

Gambling General Store! Only in Vegas, I suppose. I was downtown with my partner in work helping each other with some complaints in sketchy neighborhoods and came across these two gaming supply stores. She has been in this one and said there is everything for individuals and/or small businesses here in the way of gaming/gambling supplies. So, want to start your own game room? Here you go!

As investigators in the Environmental Health field, more precisely solid waste affairs, we are trained to be super aware of our surrounds, constantly knowing what is going on around us, perceptive, astute at all times. My friend and co-worker, Diane, was scanning her surroundings when she noticed this cloud formation today at work. The first picture is the one she took. Then, when I got home, I observed the clouds in the second picture. Layers of clouds, strange. We don't get many days with clouds in Las Vegas, but when we do they are fascinating to watch. Thank you, Diane!

I came home for lunch today and noticed the cactus' second flower is blooming. Then, even better, I noticed a bee having a great old time in the flower's pollen. You can see, it was rolling around and around just getting all that pollen stuck on him so he can transfer it to the next flower. It was so much fun watching him! Hmmm... birds yesterday, bees today.

Today I was continuing my investigation of illegal dumping from yesterday, only about a mile north. This was BLM land and it had loads of stuff dumped there, stupid people! First, I was looking over the property and saw a few quail. Then, as I walked around aware of snakes and bees, I saw a little striped gopher or something, and a pretty flowering plant. A bird caught my eye on a tree; almost a pretty as those I saw in Indiana. Then another bird flew onto a palm plant. I was having so much fun out there! Did I ever say how much I love my job?

Ok, I know you're wondering "What is this?" Well, the photo isn't all that great but the experience was fantastic! I was investigating illegal dumping on about 7 acres, walking around about 3 of the acres, taking photos and GPS coordinates of all kinds of junk; all the while being wary of snakes (it is Spring) and bee hives and any other evil that lurkes within trash. When I got back to my truck I caught something out of my left eye - it looked like a dog, no, the legs were way to long, and oh, it ran quickly, leaping like a deer. The two birds attacked it but it still ran. I followed it in the truck through the desert lots and under power lines but I lost it. I believe it was a coyote. How cool, coyotes right in the midst of houses. It was beautiful to watch! It's is in this photo on the tar road between the two red signs. See it?

Today Dave and I went for a walk at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The day was a bit chilly but crawling down into some of the canyons out of the breeze it was warm. There were hundreds of rock climbers scaling the cliff sides. What a beautiful day to start his Spring Break. You can see more photos of today on my Facebook Photo Album.

The results of Lesson 1 of Digital Scrapbooking using Photoshop! So much fun. The cutie is Seina, a friend's daughter. I had today off and spend most of it on the computer with this project and looking for a flight home for Erik from Bulgaria. That is no easy task and very expensive.

I missed the flower in bloom! But there is another one coming, I'll try to be more diligent about getting a photo of that one in bloom. This whole plant is only about 6 inches high; it's in our front yard.

This is a dog park. I had a complaint of excessive dog poop there. It's a county park but the county doesn't pick up the poop; there are signs there that say dog owners are responsible for their dog's poop. So, if you have a dog and take it to a dog park, please pick up your dog's poop. Thank you! (Oh, by the way, there was no poop when I went to investigate, just another wonderful Las Vegas outdoors day!)