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Another Awesome December holiday meeting in the bag! Last year we had our gathering further north into Portland where as this year we took it down to the city of Salem. At Wallery's Pizzeria to be exact. We have held a few meets at this venue in the past so it was familiar surroundings to me. The establishment lets us have the whole back room that has 4 large seating tables and a couple smaller tables for us to do the white elephant gift exchange and to get our raffle on. We certainly needed the extra table room as we had developed a large pool of prizes. You can also see that underneath we have already started a line of coolers, boxes, and styrofoams to accommodate the corals for the frag swap. PNWMAS making themselves right at home, despite the automotive decor and draft beer signs the club went straight into reef mode and our salt water conversations permeated the establishment. At the end of this festive table we have Markvo sitting next to Reefrun and her son. At the head of the table is Jim and Roy and sitting to their right is R-3 Ryan...Included in this pictures FAR left in the stylish Christmas sweater is Youcallmenny. R-3 and Gumby taking advantage of the meet and greet and having a nice reef discussion. I am always happy to see some of the Washington guys come down south. And Jim, if you still need any coral frags for the Boys and Girls club aquarium hit me up with an address and I will see if I can ship you out a little package. Jim was a major player in having their club host the Annual Frag Festival this year and last, so they have my continued support. Left here is Kathleen, middle is Garret of The Premium Aquarium, and right we have Lexinverts. All very nice people here, Lexinverts is our Vendors Relations officer here for our club and Garret has been a supporting sponsor for a number of years making contributions when he can. Thanks Guys! Left in this pic is BicycleBill, middle we have Taylorhardy, and on the right it's optimusprime. Bill, if any frag you get from me doesn't work out for some reason just let me know and I will get another one lined up for you. The cyphastrea I brought was very fresh cut and a little rough,. If you give it a dark spot and not too much flow it will come to and encrust, then color up a lovely bright golden red. Taylor, I hope your new tanks equipment acquisition goes smoothly, and once you have more room keep me in mind and I will cut you a piece of something. Very generous of you to hand out all those Acropora frags to people you have never met, in time the generosity will come back to you for sure. Dodge, you and I should meet up outside a meet sometime and shoot the pooo, I can bring a frag or two and maybe do a trade, or just let me check out the system. I been meaning to make a reefer run up north sometime in the not too distant future. Garret saying hello to one of the newest coral kids on the block, Dominic and Reefermadness's newborn son. He is SO Tiny!!! Gonna take a while to grow that one out, but so far he is looking like a healthy start. Gumby sitting down not knowing that FlashyFins is right behind him with a nice pair of rabbit ears. Merry Christmas!!! Cherany is another one of our awesome PNWMAS members who spends a number of unpaid hours working behind the scenes for our club. Thank You Cherany. Stylaster sharing some of his coral wisdom with Ryan. Roy has been a generous contributing PNWMAS member for years and years and has served as club president on multiple terms. If you ever get a chance to strike up a salt water conversation with him, you should, he is a seasoned salty dog with a wealth of knowledge. And yet another outstanding member of our club, Albertareef on the right has been a valuable asset to our PNWMAS office and Board Of Directors for a while now, always pitching in on keeping things straight and proper, good man.Here you can see that Flashyfins and Shaun make a stand up team and just knock out the tasks at hand like real pros, they ran the raffle like the veterans they are. And speaking of raffles.... DSBlack gets to add quite a bit more flow to his tank at home with his new Hydor circulation pump. It's always nice to have more flow or a back up pump that's for sure. Lexinverts took away the AquaMedic Doser pump, I love the brand but have not tried a doser, once you get a chance to put it to the test maybe let us know what you think about it. Talk about excited here! Youcallmenny gets a winning number pulled and hits it big! The Gyre pump should make some "waves" for you man. Put that thing to good use yeah. Whats cool here is that from what I understand Brian and Grace here needed an RODI unit. Nice Score man! Taylor got a brand new Vectra DC pump that will put his big boy tank build on the right track. Check that one off the list right!? The room had less than desirable lighting so many of my pictures were sub par. I did manage to get a couple that came out of the White Elephant but not many unfortunately. Next time I need to bring a flash, usually the ambient lighting at our events is from high lit reef tanks or outside so these incandescent bulbs really made it difficult on my camera. White elephant gift exchange?... Or Pink elephants gift exchange? Sorry Dodge, you won't be holding onto that Malibu for long, there are a lot of thirsty folks in the room and you got your number drawn so early. By the way, love the VW shirt, represent. Badxgillen AKA Bert unwrapped a whole box of fine hazzlenut chocolates...And when I say unwrapped, I mean I unwrapped them then and there. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth. I do like to share though so no one missed out on these treats. BicycleBill unbagging a load of fishy ocean treats, looks like it could b e movie night soon Bill. FlashyFins got some porcelain ocean life decor to spruce up her bathroom a little. After we wrapped up the gift exchange we proceeded to just socialize and eat pizza. I acquired a few new coral frags and met a couple new faces that are on the forum. Combine that with getting to see my old friends and you have a winning combination. Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was time to leave. After the meeting many of us went home as the weather left much to be desired, but several of us that don't get to Salem very often made a short trip over to The Premium Aquarium. As usual the store did not disappoint and was full of aquatic treasure. Did I mention I like candy?... There even just so happened to be a buy 3 get one free deal so you know I had to get myself 4 nice corals before I hit the road. Tanks looked really good guys, keep up the good work yeah. Anyhow, as I mentioned above, the annual holiday meeting did not disappoint, a room full of cool people, good food, killer prizes, and non stop reef talk made for a very fast and full 2 hours. Just like Christmas day, you take all the time to make sure it is a success, but then it is over before you know it.Well, regardless, I had a Blast folks! Thank you all who were able to attend and a BIG thank you to all who helped make it possible, our fine group of officers and BOD. Badxgillen, FlashyFin, Jeremevans, Lexinverts, Albertareef, Lewisfisherman, Youcallmenny, Paratore, Chief, TheClark, and All of our sponsors and All of our members... You All ROCK, Reef ON!!!

We bring you another public PNWMAS announcement, the Annual summer MHSC visit is almost upon us and the day is set for this informative upcoming meeting. Last year the weather was wonderful making the trip to the Newport Coast fabulous for before and after visits up and down our west coast! Sid is doing his best to make sure we have access to their personal break area which includes an indoor and outdoor alcove with benches, picnic area, and a grill spot sporting a Weber BBQ. I recommend a potluck style event were you can bring a dish and sample others so bring something healthy, or bring something sweet, just bring something good to eat. You all will want to save the date on the calendar for this one. June 30th 12:00 at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. 2030 SE Marine Science Dr, Newport, OR 97365 And for those of you who don't know the facility has had a recent overhaul a couple months back improving just about everything there is, so it should have plenty new to see even for those of us who have attended the previous years. And if all this wasn't enough reason to come out, the director Sid is going to take us to a different wing of the marine center and give us a personal hands on fish health workshop demonstration! Here are a few pics from last years killer presentation. Last year this was an amazing experience in which we learned a number of protocols implemented in a facility like the HMSC including skin scrapes, gill samples, microscope identifications, and health assessment. I mean who wouldn't want to get the knowledge and experience of this kind of nitty gritty tooth and claw kind of stuff!. There is much to see and learn here. Say AAAHHHH Mr. Wolf Eel, its time for your check up. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Holy Smokes! you all feel the same way about that last gathering as I do? That meeting was Amazing! It was probably the biggest and bestest shindig I have ever seen at Jeff's shop, wall to wall people, Boomin music, great corals, and really good food. Jeff and the PNWMAS Club really came through for this one folks. I am glad I did not miss out on this. Before even entering the building there were two tables of various side dishes and condiments provided along with a number of dishes brought by some of the members attending. There were also plenty of "Refreshments" on hand...I swear I saw a keg around there somewhere, but no jello shots like the party bus. We were all fortunate to have Chef Scott as our on hand grill man, working not one but two at a time! Thank you so much for coming in and manning those grills, you did it like a champ, and great food as always. Spectra is a man of many talents, so lets give him a mental applause for a moment. And as usual the store was looking good...And Packed. Packed with customers AND Corals! This was no joke! Whatever you needed they about had it, Acroporas CHECK, Zoanthids CHECK, Bomb Mushrooms CHECK! I think this gentleman and I had the same feeling, this is so feaking cool I have no idea where to begin. A cooler in hand is a good place to start though, I like that kind of thinking. As many of you know there were a few group buys for this meeting in particular and I think it all worked out rather well. Here we have PDXmonkey on the left scoping out a nice anemone to take home, which was hard because they were all very nice. Gill&Fin top middle was doing the wet work of getting those anemones bagged and handed out. And far right is Emerald being of assist in getting things in order, there were ALOT of participants on this one. Gumby on the left going in for a frag of that delicious looking CNC Acropora that is going up on another Grow Out contest.I believe that contest is being put together by the man to the right of Jim, ReefNJunkie. Eye on the prize, bragging rights and a very nice Acro. And then there was the happy recipients of the CNC Acans and the Zoanthid Grow Out contest frags. Fishoutofwater Let the games begin!!! So Many people and so little time, at every tank in the store was a friendly conversation going on about the salt water hobby. Optimus Prime, left, looking into what Stylaster, Right, is pointing at. A killer Acro no doubt, he has an eye for that reef candy and there is plenty of that here at CNC. The owner of Cuttlfish and Corals sees to it that there is no shortage of ocean goodness in stock, and speak of the devil. Here he is, the man himself. Thank You Jeff, for opening your store to us, helping out on the raffles, and for just being an all round cool guy. You and your crew did a bang up job, it was great and everything went like clock work, tell your staff that we appreciate them as well. Jorge right here working non stop while the meeting was rockin, he didn't skip a beat. Jack was also being put to the test with all the foot traffic in the shop but he was bagging livestock like it weren't no thing. At some points it was pretty intense but he kept his cool...Even when the sumps kept running low from all the bags of water taken out of it. Just watching him made me want to grab some coral of my own to take back home. Anyone need a frag!? Why yes Miles, Yes I do. MilesMiles here leading the way to a nice looking batch. Hope the move went alright my man, feel free to hit me up when things settle down and you are wanting a couple frags again. Paratore here, getting a complete photo bomb by Lewisfisherman. A couple of real Zoa nuts, I need to swing by both your places at some point to check out the systems and get a trade on. Kai here plotting the next course of action. Don't worry buddy, the crowds are thick but there tanks are full, plenty for all. One of my main homies from the West Side! HigherThinking came over and brought me a beautiful favia, just because he is a nice guy. I will return the favor Andrew, you can bet on that my friend. I usually see David on the other side of the table, with me buying coral frags, nice seeing you able to enjoy yourself man. ZoroReef, sounds like your new system is coming along just fine, and it sounds like you are being very selective on what is going in to the new tank. Just the most exquisite pieces yeah, the man knows what he wants. Trailerman getting his raffle on, he always seems to have a smile on his face, raffle or not, winning or not. And yet Another Sasquatch sighting, no doubt the party at Jeff's brought him out of hiding once again. And why are you not in the Zoa grow out!? Kasah Left, and Walt right, didn't get to chat with these gentlemen this time around but I do believe I will be competing in the Zoa GO against Kassah. Watch out man, these polyps are just getting ready to slip the jab. Rudy also came by and said whats up, The Golden Basket hanging in Cuttlefish and Corals, very cool. Rudy is opening up his place next month for the May meeting so be on the look out for more details on that. Danlu on the right having a good conversation with Gumby to the left. Looking forward to seeing some of the new advancements being made on the lighting frontier, keep us posted would you Daniel. And Jim, once I get my act together I will get you another little package going on of frags. Sharklover just chillin, once again we didn't get to talk much, but be sure there will be a next time. Lexinverts and Jeff having another in depth conversation. That Redsea reboot should be about past all its cycling stages and what not, I can get that slimer back to you when your ready. Well Jim here has been all over the place hasn't he? To the far left is KKnight our TFT coordinator. In the background you can kind of see R-3 and Paratore having a good old time...And obviously the man on the far right holding the fish food is Gumby. Look here, as cool as a cucumber it is our very own Albertareef! Always wiling to lend a helping hand, a stand up guy, and now I believe he is about to get those raffles going on. Willapa taking away the Molokos Certificate, get that panini while you snag a frag man. A win win in Portland. Exodus got the Avast certificate he wanted, although I am not too sure you really need anything else for your system. It is pretty solid right now as is. Kingifhser got hooked up with the Coral magazine subsciption, YES! SRRoberts on the left in disbelief of Spectra, middle left, winning double time on the CNC gift certificates. Yeah Buddy! SAY WHAT!!! Paratore in for the Win! Radion in the Bag! Congratulations man, it is a sweet prize for sure, put it to good use yeah. Another thing that was cool was there was a number of families that attended, it is always nice to see a reefer educating his children in the hobby and the club interactions we partake in. Keeping a reef together takes alot of knowledge so get em started early. Here are some nice looking families in the hobby. Ron coming in and just dominating the rock flower anemone buy...The little tyke just couldn't take it anymore and went down for a nap. But I bet once those anemones are all opened up in the same spot they just POP and this kid will dig the in tank fireworks. Here Jeremyevens was equipped with the front baby harness, so this kid could get the best view of the frag tanks. Very clever. DJ came over from West Linn, always nice chatting with you man, and good to see the fam. We all got to see Robyna and BlackIce with their new baby. Just look at this kid. And isn't this shirt just too much? Love It!!! Grow that one out for sure. There were plenty of familiar and unfamiliar faces at the meeting and I love that, just the right mix were people all feel welcome and just start opening up to one another. Here, Corals make everyone happy, its like a reefer ice breaker, just look at the smiles here...Genuine good times. And yet another cheerful hobbyist, Tesch with the contagious grin, the vibe in this room is so amazing. All the folks here are on the same wave length. Kevin just happy to be here it seems, and who wouldn't be in this kind of reefer party. It was about as good as anyone could hope for really. I have some more pictures that I can post up but I would also like to see some of the other pictures different people got of that day, you can only have so many vantage point by yourself yeah. I want to say a BIG Thank You to all those involved, you know who you are Holy, Albertareeff, FlahyFins,...Especially Emerald for getting this all together and to Jeff for puling a lot of strings for us. The club appreciates it. I had a great time and from what I can tell so dd everyone else, this was a Grand event. Love you all, Reef On my PNWMAS People! Be seeing you on the forum yeah....And at our next meet. Whoop Whoop!!!

January - The winner is: Bubbles