Backpacking - Kibbie Lake

We went backpacking this weekend to Kibbie Lake which is in Yosemite. It was me, Jim, Gracie and Marty. It was about a 5 mile hike in. Elevation gain was about 1000 feet and we started at about 6000 feet. The problem was that the elevation gain was all in the first 1 and 1/3 miles so it was a bit brutal. We thought Gracie was going to give up after a quarter of a mile. But we had a stern talk about it being her decision to go with us and she sucked it up! Unfortunately the scale to weigh the packs was not on the trail head like it has been before so we could not weigh our packs....all I can say is mine was darn heavy!

The pics here show the view of the lake, Jim and Gracie sitting on a rock island, our buffet and Gracie and Marty at the trail head. Note that right next to Gracie's right shoulder (in the buffet pic) is a bear cannister. That is how you have to store your food. Everything needs to be put into it and then it needs to be stored away from your campsite. Lucky for us Marty spilled is dinner (tuna and bluberry jam - not together) all over himself, so we figured the bear would eat him first! And after eating Marty, we figured the bear would be too full to bother us! Luckily....we never even saw any signs of bears.

Next time we need to bring less food - we had way to much - and more furniture - Marty kept complaining that he had no where to sit!

On the way home we turned a corner to find a bunch of motorcycles scattered in the road. A guy had just crashed and gone over his handle bars. We were still way out in the woods so we stopped and helped out. He was pretty scuffed up and had a headache but he was walking around. We gave him some water and advil....even though he asked for a Bud! Seriously!!! He really needed to see a doc and get checked out but he was an old guy from the mountains and was NOT going to a doctor!

We got back to the cabin and got a full debrief on Tina and Drew's trip to Yosemite (they chose to do that instead of the backpacking trip). They took their bikes and rode all around the valley, had pizza and swam in the Merced River! Then they came back to the cabin and went to the Iron Door Saloon for a big fat juicy burger! Pretty much a perfect Drew and Tina day!

Tattoo musing

My friends know by now that I am fascinated by the tattoo movement in the US. My interest has peaked with my new job in a younger, hipper, tattoo ridden environment. I strive to understand what motivates people to get tattoos and specifically what motivates them to choose the tattoo they choose.

In talking with my dear, younger friend Jenn (she is in the tattoo age bracket), we try to make sense of the craze.

We were discussing one of my recent tattoo sightings: I saw a girl with a tattoo of a bunny in a wagon being pulled by a bike. It was on her ankle! What does that mean???? On her other ankle was a skull!

Then she shares that her husband (a guy in her same tattoo age bracket - but obviously not as level headed) has a "warrior" tattoo. Her husband is from Guam, so I ask the logical question: "Is he some kind of Guamanian Warrior and is this a tribute to his culture?"

HA! At this point she busts a gut laughing and explains "He's no Guamanian Warrior, he got the tattoo when he was 18 and he thought it looked cool.....I just think it looks like the female reproductive system"!

That's when I busted a gut laughing!

Cheechoo Train....

Yesterday Jim met Jonathan Cheechoo, my favorite Sharks hockey player! He was having pizza with a friend of Cheechoo's and Cheechoo ran into the pizza place to drop off a fishing pole. So it was not a long meeting, just a shake hands type of thing. But that was enough time for our whole family to be fired up... I wanted to know if Jim invited him for dinner or told him I was going to name my french bulldog Cheechoo! Drew wanted to know if Cheechoo was going to go fishing with him and Jim! Gracie wanted to know if Jim told him she has a stuffed chicken named Cheechoo!

Jim could have met the President, a movie star or a rock star and we would not have been as impressed!

Play date

Daisy Mae had a play date tonite with Jeeter. His mom and dad are gone and he has been getting into trouble (eating stuffed animals) - so we decided he needed to get out and use up some energy. We are not telling Toby, her boyfriend, about the date!

Where are those kids?

Last weekend I was with my nephews (almost 5 and 7). We were looking at Sam's yearbook and both Gracie and I noticed that there was a boy wearing a camouflage shirt. Both of us made comments about camouflage is not allowed at our school. And Jack (almost 5), says "why, because the teachers won't be able to see the kids???"!

We all cracked up!

1st Day of School 2007

Here are pics of the first day of school. Drew is starting 6th grade and Gracie is starting 2nd grade.
The word on Gracie’s teacher is “it will feel like the train is going off the track at first, but by the end of school you will realize it did not go off the track!” Not a warm and fuzzy feeling! But I have to wait for data before making a stink about it! I was really hoping I wouldn’t need to do a lot of oversight of her learning this year.

Don’t know much about Drew’s teacher. I didn’t even get a peek at her because I was with Gracie.

we might as well live in the wilderness...

Last nite I had a BAD case of insomnia and I was up at 11:45 looking out the front window. Imagine my surprise when 2 raccoons walk from the side of the house out to the middle of our yard! Then they wander across the street and walk down the sidewalk like they are going for a nightly stroll!

Then this morning, Betty starts making weird noise in the back yard and Jim goes out to see that a hawk is stalking her! She was hiding under a hedge so she was ok - but it was totally going to try to get her!

Tuna Trip

Drew went tuna fishing for the first time this weekend. This is the haul. They went 55 miles offshore - they left the harbor at 3:30 am and got home at 4:30 pm. Drew had taken sea sickness medication so he felt pretty good all day. Besides catching the fish, the highlights of the day were when a shark at half a fish that was on their line and when there were 300 to 500 dolphins swimming around them. All in all a dream day for an 11 year old boy....and his Dad!

PS that is the hoochee that they use to attract the fish!

Mimi the crazy hat girl

My niece Amelia certainly has a zest for life! This is her a couple weeks ago at our house. She is wearing one of Gracie's old hats. She kept asking for someone to help her put it on.

Good Morning!

What a way to wake up.....

This morning at about 6 am, I was taking the dog our for a run. You know....same old routine. I am in the garage getting her collar and she starts hunting around like she smells a critter. She runs all around the garage sniffing and heads out the the side of the house. I am watching her and thinking that there must have been a cat in the garage and she smells it.

I am standing on the step going into the house and am still half asleep.....when all of a sudden, she uses her big lab nose to move a plastic bin that is located just outside of the garage. Out from behind the bin comes a HUGE rat....running straight towards me!!!!!!!! It literally jumps up on the step I am standing on and runs behind me and then jumps off the step! I screamed like I have never screamed before and went running inside and up the stairs. Jim came running like something terrible had happened to me or the dog. He said he had never heard a sceam like that and was not sure it was me or the dog!

The dog was right behind me and stood next to me on the stairs and wondering why we were not going on a run..... I was sweating, had tears in my eyes and was generally out of control! Not a good way to start the day. I have to admit, I have an un-natural fear of rats!

So when I finally calm down, I head out with the dog. While out, we go by an accident where a 16 year old girl failed to negotiate a turn and ended up crashing into someones side yard - taking out the fence, trees and bushes.

The scary thing is that where she crashed is where we run every morning.....so the moral to this story is.... that rat save my life! If I had not been delayed by the rat, it is likely that Daisy and I would have been right at the crash spot when the girl lost control! I always try to look at the positive of everything!

Now for the rest of the story... Jim and Drew went to check out the accident and got the skinny from a friend of ours. The driver was a 16 year old girl and was in her robe with negligee underneath! She said she was going to pick up a friend who was at a party (on Weds morning at 6 am!?!?!). Cops did a bunch of DUI tests and took her away.

Way too much drama for me....and all before 7 am!

Betty needs a new home

Now that Betty is an only chicken, she really needs a new home. Chickens like to be with other chickens and I have terrible guilt that she is lonely. I think I can find her a new home pretty easily - that is not the problem. The problem is with my husband and children who don't think she needs a new home because they can't stand to give her up. Everytime I bring it up they start protesting. They have every excuse in the book:

* She is not lonely, she has us and Daisy Mae
* She can't possible live with 20 other chickens, she won't get enough attention
* Nobody will take such good care of her

She has up to 7 or 8 more years left in her life span.....this may be a long discussion.

pot in the burbs....

So there I am on Saturday morning watering my flowers in my front yard in the suburbs! As I am watering, I get this whiff of marijuna smoke! I am sure that it must be some local brush fire and look around for smoke....but I don't see anything. This happens again and again. I finally put down my hose and look down the street to see two 40 something year old guys sitting on the curb on the side of our house smoking pot and drinking something out of a brown paper bag. WHAT THE?!?!?! This is Saturday morning at 11 am. People are pushing babies in strollers, kids are riding bikes, people are washing cars....and these two morons are smoking pot!

I call the police - non emergency number - and they send someone out. But, of course, the police do not get there before the moron's get up and walk away. But as they walked away they put on smocks. The type of smocks people wear when they are walking door to door to drop of advertising.

The guys later walked down our street and left an advertisement for a local real estate agent....who I promptly called and told about the pot smoking and drinking. And then asked that she send someone out to clean up the trash they left on the side of our house!

Total strange experience!

Hillbillies have quite a sense of humor!

This morning I was emailing back and forth with my handsome, charming, smart and hilarious hillbilly cousin Matt. I was playing the role of OLDER and WISER cousin and giving him career advice. I made the mistake of calling myself "OLDER and WISER". Here was his response:

"However don't ever put "older" in caps like that again. I don't care how many years old you are, old people do not: hike miles in mountains, take hillbillys on the best camping trips ever, rescue hillbillys from class 46 rapids and drive the most bad ass SUV on the market. You can call yourself old when you have to ask Jim to grab the walker out of the truck before a 12 mile hike."

This made me crack up and really put things into perspective.....

Thanks Mattt....now who is wiser?!?!

Yum - new discovery of an old stand by

I love grapenuts in my yogurt. It makes for a great breakfast. The crunchy of the grapenuts goes great with the sweet of yogurt - and it is a low calories, high fiber, healthy breakfast. I have been eating this mixture for years.

Today I did not have any yogurt (I am at work). But I did have grapenuts and a banana. So I got a cup of milk from the coffee bar downstairs and made a bowl of grapenuts with sliced bananas - YUM! The only problem is a 1/2 cup of grapenuts is 200 calories and I easily could scarf down 2 cups of grapenuts! But I used restraint and kept it at about 3/4 cups! I thought that was acceptable after doing 6 miles this morning!

So try it! And don't think I am some kind of health nut because I would still give my left arm for a bowl of Lucky Charms!

Movies

We saw a couple good movies this weekend.

The first one was "Breach" and was about the FBI agent Robert Hannsen who sold secrets to the Russians for 22 years. It was really good. Really engaging.

The other was "My Super Ex Girlfriend". It was goofy but entertaining. Worth a rental!

Betty - The Lone Ranger

Poor Betty is lonely without all her chicken friends. And lonely in the chicken world means a little neurotic! She spends most of her time hanging out at the back door waiting for someone to open it so she can make a mad dash inside. And when she is not at the back door she is waiting for someone to open the gate or the garage door so she can make a mad dash out front.

On Saturday at about 7 am, I was upstairs in my room and heard clucking in the front yard. I ran downstairs to find Betty strutting around the front yard. Someone had left the gate open and she wandered out.

She spent a good part of the weekend in the front yard hanging out with us. I was weeding and she would run over and inspect the weed I pulled out. Kids in the neighborhood would come by and pet her. She watched the dogs play and ended up in the middle of them a couple times and had to run so she was not smushed under a pile of labradors!

Last nite she was going crazy pecking the back door when it was just getting dark - she was telling us that her coop was closed up and she could not get in!

Tattoo watch

So I have shared with you that this new place of employment I have been hanging around is ripe with tattoos! I am committed to sharing with you the lunacy of tattoos in the workplace and will share all the odd places that I see tattoos!

This morning at the gym, which is a key place to view tattoos - due to the lack of clothing, I saw an abundance of tattoos. The most notable today was a woman who had a tattoo of a flower on her big toe! That must have hurt! I can buy into the whole meaningful aspect of a tattoo - ie a tribute to a lost family member, a memory of a hard time in your life and how you succeeded, etc. BUT - what could a flower on your toe mean? A memory of tip toeing thru the tulips?

Betty update

Just an update on Betty, my remaining chicken. I talked to the folks at the feed and supply store last nite and they agree that whatever killed Maverick and Rowdy could have been one of any billions of things! And what killed each of them could have been different things. They also agreed that I should treat Betty with antibiotics just in case. So this morning, I started her on a 7 day course of chicken antibiotics! I am watching her closely and don't see any signs of illness so far.

As for Betty, she seems lonely - she keeps breaking into the house when she gets a chance and if the big garage door is open, she makes a mad dash into the front yard. Yesterday she was in the front yard in the middle and Daisy Mae and Toby (2 BIG labs) playing. Pretty soon she is going to think she is a dog.

How I knew I made the right job decision...

I knew I came to the right company when I overheard this in the lobby of the building I work in....

"alright, everyone gather around the cow!"

I laughed out loud because where else would that happen? In our lobby there is a giant purple bull that has a computer built into the side of it and folks take their pictures with it all the time.

Bad Office Mojo

Next time you see me be sure to ask me about the bad office mojo my new office has.....it is a long story and too high visibility to post about but it is a great story I can share if we are not in a public place. It involves me doing a bad mojo/karma cleansing of my office....

Maverick's Demise

I am very sad to report that Maverick went to the great chicken coop in the sky. No doubt she is there bossing someone around and chasing Marty's Dad across his garden!

So far Betty looks fine but I am going to treat her with antibiotics just to be careful. I feel so bad for her that she is alone. I have looked at the humane society and some chicken websites to see if anyone is looking to get rid of an adult hen but have not found one yet.

Eraser Love....

This is what happens with 2 young, attractive erasers meet at the office.

Maverick

Just a quick note to ask for a little prayer for a sick chicken --- Maverick is really sick!

New Job

I started my new job this past monday and it has been a wild ride! I would describe it as drinking from a fire hose. Lots of info coming at me from all different sources. I am trying to understand the business, the culture and the politics as fast as I can so that I can do my job as efficienctly as possible. So far so good, although this company is a lot "younger" than other companies where I have worked. I am a bit alarmed to tell you I have seen more tatoos and thong underwear hanging out the top of pants than I see at the mall! I kid you not! So when I get a tatoo, don't be surprised!

Cherry

Here are pics of us stopping at Cherry after our backpacking trip.Never too tired for fishing, swimming and a picnic!

We saw a bear!

Last Wednesday we went to Yosemite with Jim's family who were visiting from teh east coast. It was his Uncle Richard's 60th birthday so we celebrated with a lunch at the Awahnee, a hike to Vernal and Bridalveil Falls and got to see a bear in a meadow on the way home! In all our travels in the Sierra's we have never seen a bear in or near Yosemite. The bear was eating the greens. Big thrill!

More backpacking pics

Gracie looking in a burned out tree and wildflowers.

More backpacking pics

A view of Cherry Canyon, Gracie coming thru a meadow and Drew's feet after hiking 12 miles!

Backpacking Pics

The lake behind the pic of the kids, me and the dog is Cherry Lake. The pic of all 5 of us is int he parkinglot berfore starting. That is why we are still smiling!

Yep - we are crazy!

Our friends often call us crazy for the things we do and the predicaments we get ourselves into. I never really thought that was true....until yesterday. Now I am sure that our family, collectively, has a screw loose!

Yesterday we set out for our first backpacking trip. We had new gear and it was a spur of the moment trip, but those who know us know that we always do careful planning - especially if we are going to be out in the outback.

So we pack up five back packs with enough gear for an overnite trip into the Emmigrant Wilderness, just outside of Yosemite. It was a hot day we had packed what we thought was enough water and food to get us in 5 miles and back out the next morning. Food is the tough part because the kids eat a lot just sitting around the house - when they are excercising, it is crazy!

So off we go.... Daisy Mae was wearing her own pack filled with her food and 4 bottles of water for herself. In the first 2 miles, she drank two bottles and we had at least 8 more miles to go! That should have been our first clue that water would be an issue. But not to worry, we had water purification tablets and were heading towards a lake.

We walk about 6 miles in and still have not reached a water source and we had 4 bottles of water left! We had drank about 12 bottles already! So we stop and send Jim without a pack up the trail about 15 minutes to see if he can find the lake. The kids and I kick back and rest. Jim comes back about 30 minutes later and reports that the lake is a 15 minute hike away straight uphill and that it is stagnant. Ick!

So we all stop and rest and have a bite to eat: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, tuna, trail mix.... And we develop a plan. With only 4 bottles of water left and no water source on the trail, we need to head back down toward the trail head. Keep in mind we just hiked 6 miles uphill from 6000 to 7000 feet with between 8 (Grace) and 35 (Jim) pound packs on our backs. Mine was 25 pounds and Drew's was 20 pounds. We decide the best plan was to hike back out the same day when the weather cooled so as not to get to hot and thirsty. So we rest up until 5:30pm and then start the trek back down. It took us about 2 hours to hike the 6 miles back out -- We used up the last bottle of water with 1.3 miles more to go! It took us 4 hours to hike in because that direction was all uphill.

We managed to get back to the truck with very tired legs and pretty darn thirsty! But it is nice to know that we can back pack 12 miles in one day with a 1000 foot elevation starting at 6000 foot elevation.

It was a great test run and we have a list for other gear we want/need. And we realize the dog drinks A LOT of water.

If it is not crazy enough that we did a two day trip in one day, we ended the day with a stop to swim and fish at Cherry Lake. We did not leave the lake until after dark and made it back to the cabin by 10:30pm.

It was a long and crazy day - but nice to know we can push ourselves and are all in pretty good shape.

FBI Beagle

This is what the world would look like if beagles had bazooka spud guns! Note the ear all hung up in his shades! I, for one, would NOT feel safe.

A little breakfast

Most of us have fried eggs for breakfast. Chad has fried "duck and spud"! He eats duck and potato food because of his allergies. And he doesn't really eat it fried but it made for a great pic!

Sonny and Cher Return

Chad went home on Monday. But before he went, we did a Chad photo shoot. He is such a good sport!

Tea Time

We all went for tea today for a delayed mother's day celebration. That is my sister in law, mother and mother in law with us. The food and tea was delicious! And it was fun to spend a little time doing girly things. But to make sure the day was not too girly, Gracie and I stopped on the way there and bought new running shoes, power bait and salmon eggs (for fish bait)!

Register to Be an Organ Donor

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/about/donateLife/donateLife.htm

Ro and Jim

My Aunt and Uncle visited this week from Chicago. She is my mom's sister. They had a ball with the kids. This is a pic from an amusement park that they all went to. The highlight of their trip was when they took all the kids to Toys R Us to pick out their own new toy! Lucky kids!

Poor baby

I just found this pic of when Daisy was a pup (4 months old) and broke her leg. She was hit by a little girl on a sled.

Super Hero strikes again

While at Cherry - there were tons of water sankes. One was particulary big and we were worried it might be a rattle snake - so Jim saved the day by cutting off its head with a paddle. Turns out it was not a rattle snake and it also turns out dead snakes freak me out even more than alive snakes! Its head was moving all around and opening and closing its mouth when it was no longer attached to its body. ICK! YEP - I screamed like girl....

Me and my girls

This is a pic of Daisy, Grace and me on the back of the pontoon boat leaving Cherry Lake - my favorite place in the world. This was after three days in the outback in 95 degree weather. Daisy Mae is so tired she can barely keep her eyes open! I love my girlies and I love my pontoon boat! And I LOVE Cherry Lake!

xmas in July

On the 4th of July, we were in the boat parade at the cabin. The theme was patriotic or any American holiday. We chose xmas - complete with Santa (played by Gary).

Horse Camp

Last week Gracie went to horse camp up at the cabin. She had a great time learning about horses and going for rides.

Chad

This is Chad getting ready for a swim race. He is resting up for the big sprint!

Marty

This is Marty.....he says everyone "takes him for granite".

Honestly -- this is where Marty left his hat and sunglasses each nite while we were at Cherry.

Some pics

Last week while at the cabin, we spent a lot of time on the boat, on the lake or just hanging out in the sun. Here are a couple of cute pics and more will be posted when I have time. One day we rented a seadoo which was the greatest thing that has EVER happended to Drew! He loved it and is thinking up ways in which he can save enough money to buy his own. That is Mari on the ski between Drew and Jim. Drew kept trying to throw Mari off.

Cherry Trip

We just got back from a couple days at Cherry Lake. The location, was, as usual, beautiful! But this time, it was hotter than hell! In the closest local town it was 108! So we figure it was at least mid-90's at the lake. We spent most of the time in and out of the water and fishing. It was too hot to do any hiking.

We did have a very strange experience.....one morning we were across the lake jumping off of cliffs into the lake and a group of guys come up in a few boats looking for a camping spot. They chose a spot right close to where we were jumping and start unloading. We watched in disbelief as they unload a CAT from the boat! Turns out that one of the guys always brings his cat with him camping! The cat hunts for lizards all day. It was really weird to look across the lake and see a cat wandering around. Every so often Chad, the beagle, would spot the cat and start howling!

We also saw a record amount of snakes on this trip. They were all in the lake - ick! At one point we thought one big one might be a rattler so Jim cut its head off with a paddle! It was horrifying!!! I will have pics to post next week - stay tuned!

On the way home, our kayak blew out of the pontoon boat on the road! Our friends Tina, Marty and Mari were in a car behind us and saw the whole thing happen. We are so lucky that no one was hurt!

Food Chain, Baby

We are up at the cabin this week. I am working during the day but fishing in the evening. Last nite I had Drew and one of his buddies with me at the lake and we were fishing for blue gill. I hooked a huge blue gill (HUGE for a blue gill is about 4 inches!). While it is was on the hook and still in the water a huge bass (HUGE for a bass is about 20 inches long) started eyeing it. Drew was freaking out telling me to pull the blue gill out of the water but I just thought the bass was going to harass the blue gill a little. I was WRONG! The bass opened his huge
mouth and chomped down on my blue gill! I screamed like a girl and Drew grabbed my pole and took charge of the situation. I use the words "taking charge" loosely because he was pretty much screaming like a girl too! Him and his buddy Jared fought the bass and shrieked until the bass finally let go of the blue gill! Then they released the blue gill, who was miracously still alive!

We have been talking about the experience ever since! And like Jim says...."that's the food chain, baby...."

Animal Rescue 911

So we start this morning with a frantic telephone call at 5:55am from my girlfriend Heather, who is the mom of Brittany Spaniel, Lucy (see pic of Lusy with a donut further down in my blog). Lucy was in a real pickle and they needed some assistance. She was in her crate, where she sleeps and somehow had gotten a bungee cord hook that was stuck thru the crate stuck in her mouth and she was hooked and almost hanging like a fish! And she was way in the back of the crate. They had tried to pull it out of her mouth and she bit them.

So Jim and I speed over there after grabbing a couple tools, not knowing what to expect. We can hear her crying when we walk up to the door. We rush in, assess the situation and Jim has her out of the crate and unhooked in about 10 seconds! He cut the metal crate which allowed the bungee hook to release from the crate and she RAN out. Heather grabbed her and the hook fell out of her mouth! There was a bit of blood and three very hysterical kids - but all in all a great rescue!

Lucy seemed no worse for the wear - she was running around licking everyone!

Schools out for summer

The kids are finally out of school. Their last day was last Weds. And so far they have squeezed more into the four days than most kids do all summer. They have been to two water parks, an amusement park, fishing, camping and Gracie has been to the cabin with me! And with all that came a couple big melt downs. We really need to pace ourselves!

Rest in Peace Sweet Rowdy

I am very sorry to report that Rowdy the chicken has passed on to chicken heaven this morning. Jim found her dead in her coop. She was on borrowed time since last summer when she almost died. So, I feel good that we had a year longer with her that we really should have.

I believe that she is in heaven with Marty's Dad and they are hanging around a farm watching the crops grow. Rowdy's job is to eat all the bugs. Tom's job is to make sure Rowdy doesn't eat all the plants!

Running after 40

Although I have told Jim I was only committed to running until I was 40 and 40 was last week......I am still running! But it appears that after 40 you have more bad running days interspersed with good running days. I ran on Tuesday and thought 2 miles would kill me. I ran 3 miles today and felt like I had 4 more good miles left in me! No complaints though....at least I am still out there.

And until further notice, I am committed to running until I am 41!

Danger Girl

Here is my niece on her first birthday! She is a a little daredevil!

Happy Birthday to me and Amelia!

My 40th birthday was last friday and I had an OUSTANDING birthday weekend. To begin the weekend we had dinner out with 8 friends and then went to the Keith Urban concert! Jim and I were on the floor close to the stage and at one point Keith was singing about 20 feet from me! He is HOT! And an amazing artist!

On Sunday we did a family celebration to celebrate mine and Amelia's birthdays (Amelia is one!), fathers day, my Dad's 10 year heart transplant anniversary and my parents 43 wedding anniversary..... The pics here are from that celebration!

A message from my mom

"Tom just completed his 10 year post transplant evaluation. All is well, his heart biopsy shows no evidence of rejection, and his labs are close to perfect. As we have thought many times over the past 10 years, it is nothing short of a miracle. Thanks for all of your support and caring."

Field Trip

Here are pics from Drew's filed trip last week to an indoor climbing wall. If you think he looks gigantic, you are right! Those are loooong legs! And biiiig feet!

Pretend

If you can not live in the country, the next best option is to pretend that you do....that is why I have chickens! That is Betty in the pic (and Rowdy's feet).

Here is my latest animal....a cow. So, there are laws against having real cows in the "burbs", so I had to get a picture instead of the real thing! I thought it might make the chickens think they were in a barnyard so I put it on the inside of their coop. Think of it as their own chicken artwork.

Culinary Treat

Meatloaf is a very rare occurrence in our house because it requires someone touching meat to make it. And that "someone" who makes dinner at our house who would need to touch the meat is ME! And those who know me know I DO NOT touch meat - especially nasty ground meat.

But Drew and Jim LOVE meatloaf!

So every once in a while if the timing is right and Jim is home I throw all the ingredients in a bowl and he mixes it and puts it in the oven and then monitors it to see when it is done.

Last nite was one of those nites. But this time, I made a vegetarian meatloaf too! I used fake meat and all the other meatloaf ingredients and it turned out great! Weird but yummy!

Garden

Here is my latest garden.....it is tomatoes! This is called an aero garden and is automated so it gets the right amount of light, water and nutrients. My last crop was herbs and they grew like crazy. I don't have any tomatoes yet but the flowers are starting.

Friendship, Fatherhood and Love in a Family

I have been wanting to write something profound since I got a call from our best friend Marty yesterday morning telling us that he had just found out that his Dad had died unexpectedly. But it is hard to write profoundly. Sometimes it does not come until the heart warms up a little after such a shock. I have been thinking about this for the last 24 hours and comtemplating on friendship, fatherhood and love in a family.

Death of course if part of life. Although death is always sad, it seems to me that there are degrees of sadness that you can feel with death. The death of a young child seems devastating to all. The death of an old man is sad but somewhat more pallatible. The death of a young mom who leaves children behind in heart wrenching.

So when I think of Tom's death, I am sad...sad for his family that he leaves behind, sad for his friends who will miss him and sad for the people who never got a chance to know a man who was so kind.

I also have a sense of happiness and gratitude.
* Happy that this was a man that any family could be proud to call Dad
* Appreciative that this man raised such wonderful children and that his success in his raising his family has touched my family making it richer and better.
* Happy to have seen unconditional love that has carried Tom and Phyllis thru so many years of marriage
* Appreciative that his being on this earth made it a better place for all that who knew him

Tom was a kind, gentle man that I wished I knew better. But thru his legacy, he leaves me his greatest accomplishment --- the love and committement of a great friend, a kind and gentle man in his own right, who no doubt learned it from his father --- his son and my friend, Marty - a living testament to the great father he had.

Our love is with Marty, Tina and their family.

Cherry Cobbler

The other nite, we picked a bunch of cherries off of our cherry tree in the backyard and make homemade cherry cobbler! This is Drew pitting the cherries....there were some quality control issues as I had 5 pits in my cobbler. Gracie is making the batter. We all stayed up late waiting for it to come out of the oven. Yum!

Close-up

Look at that sweet lab face! Gracie took this pic.