It's...

Bubbling Bath Day

Mix 1 part any type of shampoo (use a "tear free" baby shampoo for kids) to 2 parts plain water. Shake well. The bubbles will settle into a nice bubble bath solution. Pour a little under running water as you fill the tub, and.... voile'! Your own bubbling bath!

Relax and enjoy.

A nice hot bubble bath looks good at the moment. It has just started to snow here, and it is soooo cold. It was -3 last night, and they reccon it will be -2 tonight. I think I shall stay in the warm today and watch the cams. Annie B.

'Morning, Annie B!

A hot bubble bath sounds so good right now! I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but am here at work trying to make it look good.

Weather here in Indiana USA is supposed to be WARM! About 55 F, 12 C...until the bottom drops out on Friday...28 F or -2 C...What a temperature change! That's probably why I feel so rotten.

Have a good day!
Sally

Good Morning Sally & Annie B.

Started out cold here today. 23 degrees should get up to the 60's. Thursday's high s/b 70's. That's the kinda weather we have to put up with.

I wonder where Rusty is? She usaully tells us where she's going....Wonder if her internet is down.

Bye.

Sorry to hear you are sick Margarite....Hope you feel better today.... That sick stuff has hit both in our house but all on the mend now...

The sun is out but not too warm....But the sun seems to help anyway...

Uncle Bob

Thanks Uncle Bob. Feeling a bit better today. I'll work part of the day and then take it easy. Nice and sunny here in Mckinney. About 40 degrees. I may take a nice hot bath to clear my head. margarite

Morning Chatters today in 1935: Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

jail house rock jail.mid (27 k)

Hi buddies!

Brr - Rusty is still in hibernation mode but I missed you all and wanted to say Happy Hump Day. Today is Lunch with Dad Day so I gotta bundle up in a couple minutes and head out the door.

Some more cool things happening on this date:

TODAY'S TRIVIA:

1806 - Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105 foot blue whale in Oregon
1968 - Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
1974 - Loch Ness Monster photographed

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

1911 - Butterfly McQueen, actress (Gone With the Wind)
1926 - Soupy Sales, comedian (Soupy Sales Show)
1928 - Sander Vanocur, news anchor (NBC Weekend News)
1942 - Stephen Hawking, physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes)
1947 - David Bowie, singer/actor (Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust)

Vewy stwange:

Sally, Sorry you're feeling under the weather today. Hope you feel better soon.

Margarite, Glad to see you are feeling better now.

Ida, At the moment 60's and 70's sound good to me.

Uncle Bob. I think the sunshine makes everyone feel good. Send some our way please.

Rusty, Have a good day with Dadz. Don't forget to put your "jumper" on.

Hiya Freddie, you boppin' away to Elvis I see.

woops I forgot the pic. LOL

Rusty,
You are getting some really good shots of that rope today. I had my dive knife with me a month ago. I could have trimmed that up a little. But then, what we have to look at today?

Hey there Dr. D how are you? Woody has been here on several occassions in the past couple of days and he didn't really have anything to say about your recent trips.. Is there indeed a trip report coming?? Woody was just interested in watching your videos!!

Well what could this be then.

UH! OH!

Those extra terrestial creatures are back again!

UH! OH!

Those extra terrestrial creatures are back again!

Freddie,

Trip report is coming (for Bonaire trip). I promise. Travel schedule should slow down some. All this business and dive travel has really got me behind. I need to catch up a little.

Cozumel dives were great. The highlight came half way through the safety stop of last dive. A HUGE spotted eagle ray (8 foot wing span) glided in and stopped on the floor 20 feet below me. I had just turned off my video. I franticly turned it back on. The 7 seconds it takes to warm up seemed like an eternity. He stayed on the bottom just below me as if he were waiting for me to get ready. I swam down slowly and he took off slowly cruising along the bottom grabbing an few bites and then swam slowly off into the blue. He was swimming so slowly that I could keep up. As I looked through the viewfinder, I couldn't tell if I was swimming with or against the current. I was afraid that I would turn around the boat and other divers would be out of sight so I stopped taping after 45 seconds, but I got the best video I have been able to get of an eagle ray. What a way to end a great week of dives.

---

Quote:

Travel schedule should slow down some. All this business and dive travel has really got me behind. I need to catch up a little.

---

Welcome back Rusty! I have been waiting to ask you to recommend a good place to get GIF's...Do you have yours on CD? You seem to have the largest archive....Thanks

Uncle Bob

Uncle Bob, I guess Rusty is still out with her Dadz, here are some of the links we all started out with. Good luck

JO'S WORLD
Leo's Palace
Animation Library

you can also nab them right here. just right click and then save to a special folder in your computer..

mornin' gang...

welcome back rusty we mithed you tewwibly!!!

margarite, feel better soon...

annie b...too cold for me!

howdy to everyone else...

rupunzel...let your hair down (stole that from bob neer)

LOL Blue.

Yes, Freddie. The eagle rays are beautiful creatures. I have never been close to one when I had my video with me. I usually have to point out the ray on the screen on most of my videos because they are so far away. I have lots of close up video of Southern Stingrays and Yellow Rays.
I have never seen one that large. The only thing I have seen bigger than that were two bull rays on the Yongala wreck at night in the Coral Sea. They were 10 and 12 feet across and I swam 3 feet over them as they surfed the current flowing over the wreck.

dr. doo...i am jealous...i have only seen them while parasailing in cabo...sigh...someday...

Mike , I saw an Eagle Ray while snorkling off the beach at the Allegro Resort in Cozumel. It was as big as a full size blanket and so majestic! The feeling I felt must be akin to the feeling one would exprience if one were to spot an angel on earth...breathtaking and frightening and aweinspiring and exillarating , all at once. It is such a previledge to see a creature like that !margarite

Can you post the video,Mike?

The rope will be fixed in the next few days, once my flu symptoms are gone for real... I have a new float to put on the rope and will probably be doing some judicious cropping too.

Jake

jake, hope you feel better! are you going to have to replace the entire line? maybe you should post the "best way to get a float on the mooring block" question again! I still remember that discusssion from a while back

Margarite,

I still haven't gotten my video editing software to work on my computer. I may have a new Del by the end of the month. Hopefully it is a problem with my old computer and not with my own skills. If I am able to get the video in an avi format, I will post it on my web site and let you know on these boards. Don't look for it too soon. I still have to get my trip report from Thanksgiving done first.

Yikes! I haven't done mine yet either. I did see your Donkey Diver sticker in the Locker area of Capt. Don's when we went to dive there. I'm sure you left a sticker for me to find in Cozumel. Where'd ya stay, who'd ya dive with?

Margarite,
We stayed at Plaza Las Glorias and dove with Cozumel Sport. It is a small operation run by Eduardo. His main dive boat was being repaired so he leased a couple of fishing boats for us to dive off of. I didn't think the fishermen would like those stickers on their boats so I gave one to Eduardo to put on his boat when it was back in the water.

Eagle rays are great, I followed a wave of four 4 4-8'eagles off Deadmans Reef on Grand Bahama last April. They are So graceful! Between the Rays and several HUGE barracuda several of the persons that I was with, VERY MUCH wanted out of the water. The greatest ray I have ever seen was between El Rabalsito and Tenacatica MX. I had been checking this sandy valley between two reef formations. I had swam the area several times taking pictures of the coral walls, when the whole floor of the valley started moving. I didn't know sting rays could get that big! I'm 6'5" and the stinger was longer than I am. It had to be 10-12' wing tip to wing tip! It took my breath away, and what was worse He stirred up so much sediment that I couldn't get a good picture(it was to big to frame anyway). Later I did find a picture of what I had thought was of a rock on the bottom that ended up being it's eye and gill. The next day I did get some pictures of smaller 4-6' rays but never saw the big guy again!

We saw a bunch of eagle rays at Eagle Ray Pass on the north wall in Grand Cayman in early December. One of them was swimming right at us, and we were so excited -- here was our chance to get the Ultimate Eagle Ray Picture! Unfortunately, just as it was getting within range, one of the other couples off the boat spooked it, and it swam up the wrong side of the reef that was right there -- we had to swim our brains out to get to where we could see it again, and the picture I got was barely recognizable as an eagle ray. Ah well, maybe someday!

But they are the most amazingly beautiful creatures to watch, regardless of getting pictures of them...

Faith

Faith,

That has usually been my experience with eagle rays. They seem to change course just before they get into camera range. You suck down 700 pounds of air trying to catch up to get a good picture and all you get a spot that you can point to and say, "That is an eagle ray. Trust me."

I found this picture of a sting ray, close to the size of the one I saw, but I would have jumped with this one too! http://www.alltheweb.com/search?q=sting+ray+fish&c=img&cs=utf-8&o=0&b=1

not sure i can follow the link...you are not talking about this pic i assume...

well let's try this http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/corps/images/corp1759.jpg

Eagle Rays are beautiful from a distance, but up close they appear to be in need of plastic surgery and an orthodontist. I took this photo at Eagle Ray Roundup, Bloody Bay Wall, Little Cayman, back in 1994.



Jake

Looks kinda like my grandma without her dentures

Great picture, Jake. I have never seen a close up of one from below. I guess people usually like to see the patterns on their back. The big one last week was the first time I have ever been close to one and I stayed above and behind him to get video of him swimming. I think their heads look nice from the top (they seem ot have a more distinct head than most other rays), but that is a different look from the bottom.

Just a note on the large stingray I posted. It was cought off the Carolinas. It was hoisted aboard to remove the hooks. A picture taken and it was then released alive.