Rock Climbing - Joshua Tree National Park

Last weekend John took me to Joshua Tree to go rock climbing.

Here I am practicing on a boulder. "Warming up".

Gearing up for the big rocks.

Ready to go.



Here I am belaying someone on the rocks.

This is not a picture of me, but a shot of someone else at the same spot I was on the highest part of my climb. John's hands were full of the ropes supporting me to get photos of this climb. It's about 80 feet high. I climbed three different rocks that day, four if you count the boulder.

Cool huh?

Happy Birthday Heather

Heather turned 20 years old today. Instead of cake I made Mom's chocolate mousse recipe from years ago. Everyone loved it. Thanks Mom! For dinner I also served another one of Mom's old stand bys; chicken enchiladas. Thanks again Mom. Love you.

Happy Birthday Heather. Love you.

OOOs and XXXs

I Found the Gun

The last couple of times John and I have been out in the desert hiking or what not shooting his gun seemed like a fun thing to do the only trouble was John could not find his gun. I've never been shooting with John, I've never even seen his gun, but I knew he had a gun because he's taken Kevin out shooting before and I've seen the gun case with the gun in it just not the gun itself. Even though it was misplaced I knew it was safe because John keeps it locked while in storage and he knew where the key was just not the gun. I got another itch to go shooting this weekend and the weather is perfect right now so I looked for the gun yesterday and what do you know? I found it! I also found Robin's old turn table that Mom has been storing for her and a wine rack which is something I've been wanting lately. John drove Kevin and me to a nearby, well known shooting area which I knew existed but had never been. I was surprised by the great number of shot gun shells littering the ground. What a weird sight; all the different colors and sizes. We set up some targets (we came equipped with empty soda cans) loaded a couple of clips with little 22s and fired away.

Here is Kevin having a turn.



Here I am having a turn with the gun.

Sort of fun; not as fun as I thought it was going to be; not a disappointment; don't need to do that again any time soon.

Cat Tree

I've been wanting a cat tree to put in front of the front window in the living room for our cats for some time now (they like to lay around on the couch in the sun in the mornings and sleep and I don't really want them on the couch cause they leave dirt and hair all over), but every time I shop for them I am discouraged by the price. Tall two tiered cat trees are around $100 which I don't want to spend on that so, I decided to make one yesterday. With my determination and imagination and help from John we were able to build a decent cat tree with materials we already had in our garage. I measured with a tape measure, penciled lines with a square, cut lumber with a circular saw, drilled holes with a cordless drill and set screws with a power drill as did John (we took turns; it was a true team effort).

Here is John in the garage with on of the drills we used.

Here is the finished product. The original plan was to cover it with carpet (we also have spare that in our garage), but we haven't gotten around to doing it yet. The cats seem to like it.

Ta-da!

December 8 and 9, 2007

If you hadn't figured already John and I like to travel around on the weekends. We were running out of new places to visit that are close enough to get to on the weekend when some friends said we should visit Solvang; so, we did. We drove over on a Saturday, stayed two nights and drove back on Monday.

Once we were in town and shopping (cause that's what you do in Solvang) everyone was talking about the Nativity Pageant being presented at the local amphitheater that night; so, we went. There were live donkeys and goats and really really pretty music. Glad we did that. If you ever get a chance to be there for that be sure to bring a blanket; it was very cold.

The church we found to go to on Sunday was in Los Olivos; that's how we found Los Olivos Cafe where I had the best salad I've ever had in a restaurant (see above). It's a roasted butternut squash salad with dried cranberries and goat cheese with a balsamic vinaigrette. The only thing it's missing is purple pansies. Super delicious.

After lunch we walked through town and passed a park where there was this turkey. I don't remember exactly what it was doing there. It's the first one I've really seen up close and also the wild turkeys I have seen are not this breed. I thought it was kinda cool being so big and beautiful and everything and just hanging out at the park.

What you expect to see in Solvang; windmills.

The Hitching Post was visited for a light dinner.

Someone at one of the shops talked about the roasted artichoke they serve and how good it is; so, I got it. It was delicious. It's roasted over an indoor open flame barbecue and served with roasted tomato mayonnaise or something like that. I had a glass of their red "it goes good with food" wine to go with. Funny. Good.

December 13, 2007

Thursday night party favor preparation.

Here Natalie and I are diligently making favors for the upcoming party celebrating her thirteenth year.

Sampling the candies to assure their freshness.

Ta - da! Gummi Pops.

December 15, 2007

Natalie turns thirteen. A tropical party.

To start, John served the girls fruity drinks complete with paper umbrellas and pineapple.

Kiss kiss sweet daughter.

Baskin Robbins white cake and French vanilla ice cream stuffed with Gummi Bears.
"This is the best cake I've ever had!" - Chara

Johnette and Natalie taking pictures of the birthday cake with their phones.

The girls after their scavenger hunt in the park.

December 22, 2007

The Saturday before Christmas John and I drove to San Clemente to visit Dad, Carol, Robin, Britt, Beau and Casey. We spent the afternoon visiting and eating cheese, crackers, pan forte and wine. After the snack we walked down to the beach before the sun set. Here I am posing with John and Britt wanting to be in th picture too. Hi Britt!

Here we are at the beach. We did take pictures of the rest of the family, but they didn't turn out that well so I won't be posting them here.

December 24 and 25, 2007

John and me on Christmas morning. We spent the holiday in Fremont with David, Michelle and Nathan.


"It's Christmas Eve and even the dishwasher is ready for Christmas."

Merry Christmas!

January 1, 2008

We started off the year with a trip to Pasadena for the whatever number Annual Tournament of Roses Parade. We left the house around 4am arrived in Pasadena with just enough time to park the car and find a decent spot of sidewalk to stand and watch the parade.

John served hot chocolate to keep us warm.

Emeril Lagasse was the grand marshall! That definitely was a surprise (we did not read ahead) and is a highlight of the year so far. If you open up the picture to full frame and look very closely you can see the back of his head.

Afterward we went ice skating in Santa Monica. Every year they set up a temporary outdoor rink. I think the temperature that day was about 65 degrees.

Natalie and I sat out while John skated with Kevin and Heather.
Happy New Year!

Kiss kiss