Highs and Lows

Crabbing locally is no different than "Deadliest Catch"  - there is tons of drama.  These are pics of the haul from the first day - which was great!

And below is the pic from the middle of the nite after the first day.  They are being towed in due to a broken drive shaft caused by rope getting wrapped around the prop.

They are currently at the dock waiting to see if a local guy can fix it. If not, they will need to drive it to San Jose to get repaired.  Every minute at the dock equals crab not being caught and money not being made.

Crab Season 2016

After many months delay due to demoic acid poisoning, the crab season finally A GO!  They settled on a price of  $2.90 a pound early yesterday and were on the water around noon.  They worked til 1 am setting pots, got 4 hours of sleep and then went out to set the last 25 early this morning.  Then they headed back to pull up the soaked pots.

Fingers crossed for a good season and a SAFE season!

Drone Drama

Had a bit number of Easter crash and burns with the drone.  Jim was just flying it around the cabin - 1st crash was ramming it into a tree.  2nd crash was crashing it on the roof and then having it fall off!

Easter 2016

Easter this year was weird because both our kids were gone.  Drew was at school where he and Amanda got dressed up and had an Easter dinner of trip tip, chicken, burgers, mac n cheese, etc. on the roof of their apartment building.  And Grace was celebrating in Rustenburg, South Africa with a bunch of classmates.

Maybe next year we will all be together!

Mile Mile & A Half

Drew turned us onto a great documentary about the John Muir trail, called Mile Mile & A Half.  It is about a group of friends who take 25 days to complete the 200 mile John Muir trail, which runs from Yosemite to Mt Whitney and document their journey with video, audio and photographs.  We watched it up at the cabin with my folks, and even my mom, who has no interest in hiking thought it was great!

Definition -   Mile Mile & A Half:
1.  What a hiker says when someone asks "how much farther?"
2.  It is never just a mile, mile & a half

Easter 2016

We had a great Easter with the my bro and family and both our folks at the cabin.  Beautiful weather and yummy food!

On the way to the lake

Deviled chick eggs!

Pre-brunch run in the forest.

Pre-brunch swim at the lake

Easter Crafts

Mimi made this centerpiece for Easter!

The wildflowers were from the two hikes we took this morning!

Buck's Meadow

Jim and I went for a hike to see where the boys planted trees a few weeks back.  It was about 4 miles and Hops and Ahi joined us.

We had a picnic at the top!

Sapling

 

Arrived!

The team has arrived in South Africa!  This is a picture of the place where they stayed the first nite, which is a really nice resort near Johannesburg.  Today they are heading out to the Christian Conference Center near Rustenburg where they will stay the rest of the week.

Crab Season 2016

The boat is loaded....the season is opening tomorrow....but there is drama.  Stay tuned!

On the way...

Weighing her bag on the "meat hook"

And off she goes!  Jim dropped her off at SFO at the crack of early.  They made it thru security in time to line up for boarding but with not enough time for any breakfast.  They made it to Atlanta and she was able to get some Panda Express before boarding the plane for South Africa.  They were stuck on the runway in Atlanta for about 2 hours due to high winds.  She reported having two infants and toddler sitting right behind her....should be a long trip!

Arriving at SFO

Checking in

The whole crew in Atlanta

My Pack

Sisters that hang out in the window together!

Flowers

I received these flowers today as a "Thank You" for speaking at the Intel Ethics Summit!  They bring in 100 of their ethics folks from around the world for a 2 day meeting and they invite someone from the outside to "inspire" them....and this year, that was me!  I told them that I didn't think I was qualified to "inspire" but that I could certainly leave them with little nuggets of information and a few laughs!

Pi Day 2016

We have a bunch of bakers in our Department at work.  So we have made Pi Day an official holiday and all the bakers bring in a pie of their choice to share.  We had:  banana cream, lemon meringue, chocolate cream, "pi"-ne apple upside down cake, whoopie pies, Chinese custard pies, blueberry/ banana/cream cheese, reeses peanut butter cheesecake,  Guinness chocolate and caramel, key lime and apple cranberry (mine)!

banana cream

Reeses cheesecake

Guinness

South Africa Donations

These are all the goodies collected and donated for G to bring to South Africa.  50 pounds of stuff for the needy.  Thanks to all who donated!

Morrocan Food

Marion, our financial advisor, had a client appreciation nite at a local Moroccan restaurant.   My folks were there too because they also use her.  It was so fun and the food was delicious!  OH!  And there was a belly dancer for entertainment.  It would be a super fun place to go as a group.

This is how the bread was served.

Vegetarian - potatoes and cheese in a pesto type sauce

Chicken

In Labrador News....

This is Hops' nephew!  Two of her sisters had puppies in the last few weeks.   Hops is up next - we are just waiting for her to go into heat.

Waiting to see the vet

Hops has been super sick with a tummy bug.  It started on Tuesday nite and by Saturday morning she still had the runs.  So we took her to the vet for a shot to settle her GI track and some meds to take for a few days.  The shot was like a miracle!  A day later she seems to be much better.

  

This was two days into her illness

Unfortunately, I had to stay home from work with her on St Patty's day so I didn't get to wear my super cool St Patty's day shirt to work!

This is how much we fed her at one time because her belly was so unsettled.  She got about 7 meals a day like this.   But it still caused intestinal distress.  Poor baby!

On the back of my recliner!

It is funny that when Hops was sick, the other two knew that the energy level in the house was decreased and they turned extra lazy!  They didn't even bug me to go for walks!

Sweet Daisy Mae