Alligator Races

These are the new toys for the lake this summer!  We plan to have alligator races while people on the shore shoot balls at the racers!

Yikes! Lunch?

Grace was helping Grandma Anna and Grandpa Roy at their house this week.  Imagine her horror when she saw Grandpa Roy eating this:

Cereal (rice chex) in warm milk, topped with raisins and whipped cream!

He is known for his strange meals but this one was a doozy!

Photo bomb!

Check out the bombers at the back of this cute pic!  Creepers - Mikey and Tina!

Washington

There are never any pics of me on the blog because I am always the photographer.  So when my friend Susan sent me this from my trip to Washington, I decided I would add it to blog so when my grandchildren read the printed versions, they will have a picture of me!  This was a pic from our running visit to the locks --- and I am not exaggerating - we literally ran it!

Fire starter field test

 My crazy coworker, Allison, pictured here, was fired up (pun intended) about the firestarters that Jim was making and even suggested process improvement of putting a wick in it.  And she had a ball of wicks to donate. 

So last nite Jim made another batch - with the wicks - and I brought two to work today for Allison.

She promptly went home and did a field test (in her back yard)!

She said they worked great!

Weekend with Grandpa

A few weeks ago, Drew took Grandpa Roy up to his cabin so that Drew could help him with weed removal for fire abatement.  They spent two days there and it was quite an experience for Drew:

Some things that Drew learned:

1.  Grandpa Roy thinks there is a brake on the passenger side of the truck because he pushes on it all the time.
2.  Grandpa Roy likes to take lots of breaks and Drew likes to motor thru and get the work done.
3.  Grandpa Roy swears like a sailor!  Including using one particular word that Drew had never even heard before!
4.  Grandpa Roy makes an incredibly gross sandwich of ham, ketchup, spicy mustard, tomatoes and butter pickles.

Penny Board

Grace bought herself this skateboard - its called a penny board.  She designed it, they made it to her specs and shipped it to us.

There was a little drama because the tracking site said it had been delivered to the house but we did not receive it.  Minutes after I fired off an email to the company, a neighbor came by and brought it to us ....it had been delivered to her house in error!

Wheew!

Cabin Clean Up

We have to complete our fire abatement at the cabin by July 1.  That means clearing all downed or dead branches, removing all pine needles and weed whacking the grass/weeds.  We have been working on it for the last month and just finished it today.  We took two truckloads of yard debris (mostly pine needles) to the compost center.  It was awesome to have an extra set of hands - Kody was with us.

It feels good to have it done!

New Dishwasher

The day started with no dishwasher and ended with a NEW dishwasher.  A few weeks ago when Jim was at the cabin with all Drew's friends, he came home from fishing and there were suds all over the kitchen floor!  We were quite thankful that the dishwasher had died because it was SOOOOO noisy!  Even frequent guests to the cabin let out a "hurray" when they heard of its demise!

We had purchased this new one in SJ and brought it up last nite.  Jim spent about 30 minutes hooking it up and it was good to go!  And you can actually have a conversation when it is running.  Hurray!

New Home for Pool Table

Loading it up at the cabin

We have been looking to get rid of our pool table at the cabin for awhile because we want to build an extra bedroom in our basement to give us more sleeping spots.  We have tried selling it and giving it away and nothing ever worked....until we came up with the idea to give it to a local camp for disabled kids and adults. 

I contacted them a few weeks ago and after much back and forth, they agreed to take it.  That meant we had to take it apart, transport it and put it back together.  It is a heavy duty antique pool table that weighs about 500 lbs.  The top of it is 3 three quarter inch slate panels.

Jim and Kody spent about 2 hours dismantling it this morning and then we loaded up and took it out to Tuolomne Trails. 

Drove down to the basement at the cabin to load it up

We spent 3 hours putting it back together at Tuolomne Trails.  We bought new felt and new pockets for it and it turned out beautiful.  A new group of campers are coming in tomorrow and we hope they enjoy it.

The camp itself was awesome.  It has a pond, swimming pool, basketball, volley ball, archery and a huge lodge.  It has 8 cabins that house 14 campers each.

Slate top

Felting

Done!

The view was amazing!

This guy lived there and I wanted to trade the pool table for him!

The lodge building in the background

Campers Cabin

Hotel for Dogs

Tina's Hotel for Dogs is now open!  From left to right:  Stella, Murray and Spunky!

Bad Wig

I am pretty sure that this is what Ahi would like like if she were wearing a bad toupee.

Footsies

I have been struggling with sore feet for over a year and a half.  I have been to a podiatrist, used meds and cut back my activity level.....and FINALLY my feet don't hurt!  Woot!  So I am not trying to slowly ramp back up to get myself into better shape.  I have starting doing a little running.  And this morning, I ran to the local school and then did sprints.  I love to do sprints with the dogs....Daisy stays right on my heels....Ahi goes about half way and gets distracted - stops - and waits for me to come back.  I hope to be able to ease back into it so as to not cause my feet to flair back up and be able to do some backpacking this summer.

Dog?

My boss is getting a lot of grief from his family because they want a new dog (their dog was Chad, the beagle I used to take care of).  So I have made it my personal mission to add to that grief by giving him pics of dogs I tell him he NEEDS!  This is the latest one!  Makes me laugh out loud!

Painted Dog

And my family gives me grief for painting Daisy's toenails....

Irritable?

These things annoyed me today:

1.  People at work who complain about the free food (i.e. they have to walk to a different building to get the Mexican option).
2.  The shuttle bus had a gross chemical smell this morning.

Really they were not too bad because I am happy about my free food and also happy about my free shuttle bus....even if it is stinky and made me barfy!

Father's Day 2013

This is a father's day gift to Jim, from Drew's girlfriend, Amanda!  I don't think you can probably see the sign on the top but it reads - "Happy Father's Day Chach!"  She calls him "Papa Chach", a term of endearment.  We discussed it last nite and are thinking we should trade kids - Amanda can come and live with us and Drew can go live with her mother.  Who doesn't love a crafty girl!

Fire starters

Melting the wax

Pre-dipped

Today Jim made fire starters out of dryer lint, toilet paper tubes and parafin wax.  You stuff the lint in the tubes and then dip in the wax and then you have a free fire starters!

Happy B-day

Happy birthday to me from Mari and Kyle!  I love it!

Hiking boots?

I am home sick so I sent Grace and Jim out to look for hiking boots for Grace....this is the pic I get from them!  These shoes make Grace as tall as Jim!

I hope they are comfy when she is carrying 25 pounds on her back.

Junior Year Soccer

Just found this video from this last soccer year.  This was on Bay Area Sports, a local tv show.  It is sort of silly because we taped it while watching it on our tv.  But its worth a quick view.

Shuttle Bus

Just doing a little posting while on the shuttle bus to work!  I am so excited!  I have been trying to get some shuttles or vanpools from my neighborhood and FINALLY they have one.

So I left the house at 7:45 am (about 2 hours later than normal), arrived at the park and ride at 8 and then jumped on the giant purple bus at 8:08!  And here I sit in a big comfy seat, with wireless, drinking my tea.  I almost wish it took longer to get to work because I could get a lot done sitting here.

Tonite, I do the reverse starting at 5:30 pm.

I am sure this will get old but right now --- its super fun!

Tim McGraw

Drew attended his first concert last nite - Tim McGraw at Shoreline.  Lucky for him, he was in the individual seat section instead of on the grass.  He did report seeing 1 fight a, few barfers and a lot of drunks!  He loved the show but did not like the hour and a half it took him to get out of the parking lot after the show.

Susan's Mom's Quiche

When in Seattle, I used Susan's mom's quiche recipe and made quiche for all of us while Susan took the boys to Game Stop.  It was DELISH!

Parmesan Pie Crust

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

4 tablespoon butter

4 to 5 tablespoons of cold water

Quiche

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

Salt

Pepper

2 cups cheese

2 tablespoons flour

Veggies and/or meat

Prepared pie shell  or Parmesan pie crust above.

 

Bake 350 for 40-45 mins

Seattle

When in Seattle I stayed at Susan's house.  This is her fat cat, Clara. 

When Susan picked me up at the airport on Friday afternoon, she said that she had just found out that we needed to attend a dance that evening!  I was quite concerned because I did not bring any fancy clothes AND Susan doesn't like that kind of thing so it seemed so out of character.

Then she broke the rest of the news.....the dance was at her sons elementary school and included dinner of cheese pizza!

We tore it up dancing to YMCA and the Harlem Shuffle!

Rattlesnake Ridge

I went to Seattle this weekend to visit two girlfriends - Angie and Susan.  I worked with Angie for 10 years before she was laid off last year.  I went to graduate school and worked with Susan back in the 90's.

Angie is leaving Seattle and moving to Boston this week so I wanted to get up and visit with her before she moved to the other side of the country.

Angie, Susan and Angie's former neighbor and friend, Tami,and I went for a hike on Saturday morning to Rattlesnake Ridge:

Hiking Time to Rattlesnake Ridge: 1 hour
Miles: 4 Round trip
Elevation gain: 1,175 feet
High Point:
Rattlesnake Lake and the Rattlesnake Ridge trailhead is located just southeast of North Bend and about forty-five minutes to an hour east of downtown Seattle.
This is a fairly moderate hike with just a few switchbacks and some beautiful viewpoints along the way. The distance is two miles each way with an elevation gain of 1,175 feet. It takes about two hours to complete. This is a "Hikers Only "trail, so you'll need to leave your bicycles and horses at home.
For a short jaunt just outside of Seattle, this hike offers some amazing views. A word of caution: there are extremely steep cliffs at the top.

We had a delightful time chatting while hiking and had lunch at a little diner after the hike.

Tami and Angie

Me and Angie

Pax - our hiking buddy (a Norwich Terrier)

Me and Susan

The Gang

The whole goofy gang - the last nite at the cabin.  Notice the matching camo hats.  They stopped at Bass Pro Shops and the way up and got one for everyone.

Today was stream fishing, dirt bike riding....and apparently, acting like goofballs!

Lucky kids!

Buddies

How cute are these two friends?  Ahi fits right under Daisy and Daisy doesn't even care!  They were begging for treats.

Day 2 of Summer Trip

Day 2 of the summer cabin trip was a trip to Don Pedro, followed by spaghetti dinner and then fishing and swimming at the marina!  Jim is starting to sound warn out!

Ready, set...

Jump!

Drew and Amanda

Big Rich