Another happy ending....

Aslan's mama came to get him.

He had been at a back up doggie day care and got out from under the fence.

The doggie daycare lady was sick all day about losing him and I felt bad there was no way I could have alerted her.

Another happy ending!

Moving right in

It did not take long for Aslan to move in. It has been 4 hours and he is sleeping in all the dogs spots and barking with them at the mailman and other dogs walking by!

He is a good little dog and these pics don't do him justice, he is super cute.

And I discovered that Aslan is the name of lion character in the Chronicles of Narnia. His coloring is just like a lion.

Rescue....again

Grace and I were walking her to school this morning when we came upon a little lost doggie. I held onto our dogs while Grace went over to check him out. He literally JUMPED into her arms! He is a little cockapoo type dog and weighs about 8 pounds. His name is Aslan.

Grace was going to be late for school, so luckily a friend came a long and drove her the rest of the way to school, while I walked my two dogs home on their leashes and carried this little guy.

Luckily, he has tags and I have a call into his family. He is about 3 miles from home!

I put a blanket on the window seat and he is laying up there with Daisy Mae, watching the world go by! He is nervous but settled down enough to lay there.

He is a lucky little guy to have met up with us!

Bling for the mini

We are looking for a new licesence plate frame for the mini. Right now it has one from the NY car dealership it came from. So last nite I was looking on line and reading them out to Drew because Drew and I have to agree since we share the car.

Here is how it went:

Me: "Peace, love and dogs"
Drew: "No"

Me: "Crazy dog lady"
Drew: "No"

Me: "Peace, love, elephants"
Drew: ".....No"

Me: "I have no life...my kids play sports"
Drew: "That one would be ok"

I guess we will keep looking.

Pedicure

We did our toes last nite! Yep....Daisy Mae's toe nails are painted pink!

Snake!

This is a rattle snake that was caught at Lake Don Pedro, a lake that we frequent! It was 8 feet long and had 22 rattles!

Frightening!

Remember?

Remember my giant pumpkin? I might really have one this time!!! I have one that is the size of a tennis ball!

My family keeps telling me to pull the plant out but I think this might be the one. Of course, it won't be ready for harvest until December! But that is ok! We will cover it for xmas.

Before they were Fusion

This is a pic of Grace and her current soccer coach, Coach Cindy, when they were both about 6 years younger!

Love that they even loved each other back then!

Magic Cup

2nd weekend in a row of soccer tournaments for Grace and her team.

2nd weekend in a row of 2nd place after total nail biters of championship games!

Last week they lost in an overtime shoot out. This week they lost in double overtime!

Truly, I can not handle another weekend of this. Thank goodness we have a break this weekend.

Gross!

My mom recently cleaned out her attic and found this "apple doll" that I made in about the 5th grade. The face is literally a dried apple (which is now about 35 years old!). She wanted to know if I wanted it. Ah......NO! It freaks me out. It was creepy 35 years ago and now it is just plain frightening!

So we agreed we would take a picture of it and then toss it.

She is a good mom for having saved it!

1st Day of School - 2011

First day of 6th grade
and first day of 1oth grade.

Small World

One of Drew's football coaches happens to be an older gentleman who was coached by Jim's grandpa in the 1950's. On Friday Jim went up to the school to introduce himself. Here is how it went down:

Jim walks into the office and the guy, Coach Hitch, is all gruff and working with the kids.

Jim looks at his desk and sees a picture of him with a winning football team from 1953. Coach Hitch sees Jim looking and says to him, "what can I help you with?"

Jim says: "Do you remember who your coach was in that picture?"

Coach Hitch says: "I sure do."

Jim says: "That was my grandfather."

Coach Hitch says: "I saw that name on the football team roster and I thought about it but then thought, no way, it couldn't be! Ninety percent of how I coach, I learned from your Grandpa."

Jim says: "Yea, I watched you coaching last week and could tell that!"

Coach Hitch was super excited to meet Jim and wanted to talk with him but it was too chaotic in the locker room. Jim said that he would come back.

What a small world and what a wonderful link to the past. Jim loved his Grandpa so much and to have someone his Grandpa coached now be in Drew's life is remarkable and truly a blessing.

Football Practice

Drew is still rehabbing his achilles so he is not practicing with the team. Because he is missing some important training, Jim had him bring some gear home and they practiced together in the backyard. It's really a good idea because with Jim's experience and the one on one guidance, he probably will learn much faster.

Can't wait for the first game!

Soccer tourney.

Gracie's soccer team played in a tournament this weekend and came in 2nd place - even though they should have won because Grace scored right at the end of the game but the ref said it was off sides but it wasn't. Darn that call.

Didn't matter anyway because they are first place to us - they played a hell of a game and outplayed the other team which was a level above them.

These are an awesome bunch of girls and they play a mean game of soccer. And then come right off the field and start acting like a bunch of goof balls!

Pumpkin update....

This giant pumpkin growing is for the birds! The two little pumpkins I had are dead! Everyone else's are the size of a small planet. Even a house in the neighborhood that has nothing but grass is growing big pumpkins! I give up....

Woman and Marty in Repose

This is the reason we have to take camping vacations in the outback where no one can see us.....

A few weeks ago when we took all the girls to the cabin for Gracie's birthday, the adults took advantage of the situation and went to the wine country.

They showed up at a "shishi" winery without a reservation and were not allowed in. Instead, they walked around and posed with the statues!

Mokelumne River

Went camping this weekend and had a fabulous time! We camped along the North Fork of the Mokelumne River. Did some fishing at Highland Lakes and the river. Jim caught some brook trout.

We did a day hike to Upper and Lower Kinney Lakes and tried some fishing but didn't catch anything. But we did determine it would be a great place to backpack.

Some of the group hiked up Hiram Peak which is a knife like mountain and they went to the top. I stayed back with the dogs because it was shale trail (ouchee on the paws) and because I don't like walking on knife like peaks!

Pumpkin update

My friend who gave me the giant pumpkin seed also gave seeds to other friends. Today he sent this letter to all of us (I am "the C family"....and I am a big loser of a pumpkin grower):

Growers-

Here is the low-down from California.

Two "S Family" pumpkin photos are attached. We have two vines growing and two fruits; however, the vines are battling powdery mildew, so the potentail fruit growth over the next two months is less than hopeful. Our photos have the basketball in them for scale. We have one decent-sized fruit that polinated itself very early while we were on vacation in early July; the second fruit is struggling and we do not have much hope for it over the rest of the season. (Our best fruit is on our no. 2 vine, based on its sun/shade growing placement.) It might be 30 to 40 pounds at this point.

The Zimmerman Family pumpkin is smaller than ours as of 8/13, but it actually has made up all kinds of weight/ground (compared to ours) over the past several days. The vine is very healthy and this fruit, has a a lot of potential. Zimmerman's photo has the tennis ball in it for scale and is a half a week to a week older than our photo. I viewed this pumpkin last night, and if I were betting, I would put money on their (white) pumpkin again to carry the show at the weigh-off.

The C Family's pumpkin is still a very small ovum with much potential. They had to go with a second-effort germination vine after "her dog stomped on the first plant." The C Family's pumpkin is on its way, and growing prominently in their front yard.

Hopefully we'll all see each other in Half Moon Bay in early October.

The report I had from Josey in the Czech Republic was that none of his seeds germinated, even in spite of some heroic efforts from his dad. It was probably just a bit too cold for both in-ground germination and in-paper napkin germination. However, they have a green house now and maybe next year will be their year to get going strong.

The Cham Family have two vines growing. One vine is in a decent location and the other one is trailing along in a secondary location. We do not have photos yet of this progress. We all here (in the bay area) suffer from a lack of free sunny space and ideal locations in our backyards. When I viewed these vines a week or so ago, the plants were doing OK, but there really was not much yet coming on with respect to fruit. Hopefully the fruit kick in soon and we will see them at a weigh-off.

That is all for now.

Master Pumpkin Man

SF Giants Game

Went to the game last nite and had great seats. We were right on the edge where we could see the water. Saw the kayakers, boaters and paddle boarder who watch the game from McCovey Cove. That is the coolest ballpark.

It was Grateful Dead nite at the park so there were lots of "on fringe pot smokers" that were hanging around! That added to the fun!

What a view

This is the view looking out the front window of my super cool mini. I am loving driving it.....as are Jim and Drew!

What the heck????

I was so proud that I finally grew a little pumpkin on my giant pumpkin plant that I sent a picture to the folks who gave me the seedling. They came back with a picture of THEIR pumpkin! OMG! I got robbed! They obviously gave me the seedling for the little pumpkin plant NOT the giant one!

Yippppeeee!

I have a pumpkin!

Rig and Mini

My two rides side by side. It's funny that the angle this pic is taken doesn't make the difference between the two look so great. But - it is!

Stachegirls

What's a TNDC without some good "stache" jokes or props!?!? These are stick on staches....and there is now one on my work laptop!

ohhhmmmm

I hate it when "ooohhhhhmmmmm" in yoga class is interrupted by "bbbbbriiiiinnnnnggg"! Some idiot had their cell phone in yoga today. Really? Where did they come from? Under a rock?

Happy 12th Birthday - a little early

Jim and I took Gracie and 3 of her best friends to the cabin this weekend to celebrate her 12th birthday (which isn't until Sept but soccer season will be in full swing then). We spent one whole day out on the lake squeezing in every water sport we could: skiing, tubing and knee boarding. And...just plain ole' swimming!

Normally Grace and I go away for her birthday but because we just went to London, we decided to do something lower cost this year. A trip to the cabin with her friends was the decision.

Snooze

This was all 4 girls sound asleep after a day on the lake.

Naughty dog

We are at the cabin with 3 of Gracie's friends to celebrate her bday - which is not until Sept, but that will be soccer season. So yesterday morning I made cupcakes and left them on the counter to cool while we went to the lake all day. We left Daisy Mae at home because she is such a pain in the butt on the boat.

Well....she told us how she felt about that....she ate 8 of the cupcakes!

Baaaaddddd dog!

Mini Coop

Check out mine and Drew's new ride!

New do

Jim had to get a new hair do also! He and Drew go to get their haircut together.
Now they both have "high and tight" hair! Hopefully it will be a longer time frame between cuts as they both have to go see Kim to get their hair done and it costs much more than a barber. BUT the cuts are much better too! And who doesn't love Kim and would pay extra to go see her smiling face!

Yum - Summer

I LOVE summer tomatoes! A fresh salad with tomatoes (4 different kinds), cucumber, basil and homemade Italian dressing!

Put it together with fresh green beans and quesadilla casserole and you have one yummy dinner!

"Crack" Toffee

So named, because it is addictive, like crack.

Saltine crackers

2 sticks butter

1 cup brown sugar

6 to 7 Hershey bars or chocolate chips

Preheat over to 375

Line a layer of saltine crackers on a cookie sheet

Boil butter and brown sugar, stirring for 4 to 6 minutes (it will thicken)

Gently pour mixture over crackers and bake for about 6 minutes (careful not to burn)

Remove from oven and sprinkle Hershey bars (broken up) or chocolate chips on top

Put back in oven for 1 to 2 minutes just until chocolate melts

Remove from oven and spread chocolate around

Let cool and then put in fridge for 4 hours or over nite.

Break into bite size pieces (like peanut brittle).

Enjoy!

BUZZ

BEFORE
















DURING
















AFTER

Achilles Update

Drew went to a physical therapist last week and got some really good news. She thinks he will be ready for football by Aug 12! She gave him some stretching and strengthening exercises and he seems to be recovering very quickly.

Fingers crossed that he will be ready for football and stays healthy!

A priceless memory

Grandma Anna is over waiting to take Drew to an appointment. And while they are waiting, they are watching "The Price is Right"! They are totally cracking me up talking about the grand prize/showcase and how someone guessed way too low of an amount! They are laughing and chatting!

How lucky we are that our Grandparents are so close!?!?!

Gardening Update

Check out my tomatoes and my giant pumpkin! I would say.....I have a green thumb!