New Do

I have not posted a pic of a new hairdo in a long time. This is my latest cut. I have my hair long right now and really don't think I look good with long hair but I am going to keep it this way for the summer and then get something short and sassy!

Plus - I don't post the pics because I am always alarmed at the old lady in the pic!

"Lettuce" entertain you...

I am working from home today and just went to get a tea bag out of the pantry. Right next to my tea was a ziploc baggie filled with red leaf lettuce that has been there since Thursday! I remember Drew using it to make a sandwich on Thursday and in his morning stupor, he put it in the pantry instead of the fridge!

Luckily it was washed and dried so it was not all stinky and deteriorating in the pantry all weekend.

We really need to slow down our lives a little!

A Scooby Do mystery

Yesterday while at the cabin, Daisy Mae lost her collar!

I have never had a dog lose a collar before - especially an older dog who was exhausted from the weekend of hiking, swimming and camping! It is not like she was out fighting with wild cats and had it ripped off. We searched all over and could not find it anywhere!

I wonder if we will ever find it.

Francis

After the unfortunate accident involving Daisy Mae's paw, I piled dirt up around Francis and hoped for the best! Things seem to be ok -- she grew this weekend while we were gone! Not sure she will grow the worlds biggest pumpkin because her main stalk is split in two, but we will continue to suppport her and see what happens.

Memorial Day Camping

Last week it was camping with a zillion ticks. This week it was camping in a rain, hail, snow storm! We have bad camping luck this year.

Francis - Update

I have been carefully caring for Francis, my giant pumpkin plant. I was worried about her last week after she was planted in the ground as she looked a little limp. But over the week, she has started to thrive and grow.

Until....my dog with giant feet stepped right on her! Split her in two!

Damn! Now what????

Black Diamond Mines

Went backpacking this weekend locally. It was a place in Antioch called Black Diamond Mines. The hike in was easy - about 3.5 miles but we did it in the mid-day sun and the dogs were hot! We had plenty of water and took a lot of breaks. Poor little Ahi really feels it with her black hair and small body surface! I dumped water on her to keep her cool.

We had two issues with the trip:

1. There were 5 zillion ticks. That is only an estimate....there could have been more!

2. Murray decided he was a cold blooded killer....there was a horrific incident with a squirrel!

Kyle was a good friend and after hiking in, ran back to the car and biked in a 12-pack of beer! Then he had to ride back out with his backpack and his beer back. What a machine!

Nighttime brought high winds, howling coyotes and two bone tired dogs sleeping with me (one on my legs and one in my sleeping bag)!

The morning brought total beauty and peace....the best time to be outdoors.

We hiked out while collecting lady bugs for my rose bushes.

All in all, a fun weekend!

You will not believe this story....

This morning I took Gracie to her ed therapy appt and we have a routine for these appts: I walk the dogs and then go get Grace a bagel at the local bagel shop.

I tie up the dogs outside and they wait for me. Well, the line at the bagel shop was longer than normal and Ahi started getting nervous about the wait and got off her leash. Thankfully a lady came running in and told me that my dog was loose. I ran out and her teenage sons where there trying to keep Ahi close. I called Ahi to me and thanked them profusely for their help!

I was bending down, talking to Ahi and putting her harness on. And I had told Daisy Mae to sit and stay. They had both been tied to a chair and had moved the chair in the commotion. As I am working on securing Ahi (the 11 pound dog), a man comes out of the bagel shop and scream at me, "if you scratch that car, you will be sorry". His tone and demeanor were totally hostile.

My response, "excuse me?"
Him: "that's my car and if you scratch it, you will be sorry and have to pay for it". (I look up and there is a new car parked about 2 feet behind me).
Me: "Sir, you could say that in a much nicer way to me."
Him: "We you don't seem to be very concerned about your dogs scratching my car.
Me: "I don't know what you want but I ran out her right away when I saw there was a problem and they are not close to your car."
Him: "Well that's my car."
Me: "Ok, whatever."

I disengaged and continued hooking up Ahi and brought both dogs two blocks back to my car.

Then I went back to the bagel shop to find him sitting at a table with his friend. The man was about 67 years old and he and his friend were retired IBM workers. I knew this because I had been in line behind them and had been listening to their conversation. And I had thought, how nice that these retired friends were getting together for a bagel....me...always looking at the positive things in life!

So, I walk up to the man and in a very calm, very firm, very in control voice say:

"You know, you have no idea what is happening in peoples lives when you speak to them that way and you should by much kinder to your neighbors."

Him, very meekly: "ok."

Me: "You should never speak to another human being like that over a car, a car that had not even been touched."

Him, again very meekly: "ok."

Me: "You need to think about what people might be experiencing in their lives that you don't know about and speak with kindness."

Him, again, head down and clearly the look of embarrassment: "ok."

Me: "I hope you have a good day."

Then I went and bought my bagel and people in the bagel shop smiled at me, said good morning and were clearly amused that I had called him on it!

What an ass!

Giant Pumpkin?

This plant is a direct descendant of a pumpkin that competed in the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival! I know it doesn't look like it in this pic but I have high hopes for him/her.

Stay tuned....

Run Girls Run

Grace and some buddies did a 5k on Saturday morning. They wore their soccer jerseys so that they could "pre-sweat" in them before their soccer game later that day. I love the gal on the far left who ran in her jammies!

Corn Dip

3 11oz cans Mexican corn, drained (you will find with the regular canned corn) I mix up the mexican corn with regular corn.

10 oz fine shredded cheddar cheese

6 green onions, fine chopped

2 4oz small cans green chiles drained (mild)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayonaise

1 teaspoon garlic salt

3-4 jalapenos, roasted, chopped with seeds (you can also use the can diced jalapenos)

(you can make it spicer by adding more jalapenos or using hot diced chilies)

Fold all ingredients together. This dip really needs to sit overnight.

Serve with chips.

(Credit to Heather for this YUMMY recipe!)

Bees!

Yesterday afternoon I looked out the front window and was shocked to see a swarm of bees in the front yard! Our neighbor across the street had bees in his fireplace a few weeks ago and had a bee box installed on the top of the fireplace in an effort to get them to go into it instead.

I figured this was a swarm that was heading for his fireplace!

After about 45 minutes, the swarm settled down and we went out to take a look. The bees had decided to make a home in our tree! They had no plans of going across the street.

So our neighbor called his "Bee Man" for us and he came out right away. He took the bees and put them into a box. All the bees that did not make it in the box were being called in by the other bees buzzing. He is leaving the box there for about 6 days to see if more swarms of bees show up.

Never a dull moment!

Self Image

I am having a serious self image issue. I am around Jim, Drew and Grace all the time. I spend a good amount of time looking at them. I have come to think that being tall, skinny and having long legs is how everyone in my family looks.

Then....I got the pictures from our trip to England and I was shocked to see that I am NOT tall, skinny and have long legs!!! What the heck!?!? How can that be????

DAMN...that short squaty Russian peasant body!

Flat Stanley

My nephew, Jackson, has a school project that he needed help with....

He sent us "Flat Stanley" and asked that we take him on travels with us and document his adventures. That is just the kind of project that is up our alley.

Gracie decorated him in ranger type clothes and we took him to gather wood with us!

We took pics and then we put them into a book for Jackson and sent the book to his school. I tried to make it a little educational (how to look for and find firewood and cut it down safely) and silly (Daisy digging for gophers right where Stanley was stadning and sending him flying several feet)!

I hope he likes it.

Snake!

When we were hunting down firewood this weekend, we found a 3 1/2 foot snake crossing the dirt road. Of course....you can guess what we did...

Jim stopped the truck, got out and found a stick to poke it with. Gracie and I hung out the window and watched. Marty sat in the backseat, uninterested at first.

At first, it would not move. Then it slithered away....right under my truck. Jim bent down to see where it was going, just in time to see it slither INTO my wheel!

That is when Marty got interested!

He and Jim looked all over trying to find where the snake went but could not locate it. We even opened the hood to see if he crawled up into the engine compartment!

No luck!

So....we just kept going.

I figure there are three posiibilites:

1. He got out when we were not looking
2. He is seriously dead from our trip home
3. He is going to crawl into my truck while driving down the road

Option 1 is the only one that makes me happy!

Firewood

We went out in the forest this morning and spent a few hours cutting down firewood. We can pay $25 for a permit and gather 2.5 cords of wood. We gathered about a third of a cord....see the pic of it all stacked. Gathering wood is good clean fun. We love hunting around for it, cutting it and stacking it. The dogs LOVE to hang around with us when we are out there.


I love the pic of Jim with the fire extinguisher and bottle of water in the front seat with him. In the box in the middle is the first aid kit! And you can see just a small part of Ahi's stuff doggy! It's the perfect pic that shows "how we roll"!

In this house....

Check out the cool wall hanging I had made:

Tory and Taz

Sad news....

Daisy Mae's mom, Tory, was recently put to sleep - at the age of 13 - because of liver disease. But, her Dad, Taz, is still alive at 15! It is nice to see that she has longevity in her genes.

The Barn

These are some pics from the barn in Hereford. It was the coolest place to stay. I loved getting up in the morning, making a cup of tea and sitting in the sun room looking for bunnies in the yard.

Porridge

Here is a pic of an English bull dog we met in Bath England. His name was Porridge. And you could hear him coming before you saw him because of his snorting!