As I mentioned earlier, I was in Oklahoma City last weekend doing some construction for my Mom.
My close friend Dean was foolish enough to volunteer to come and help me, and I'm glad he did. (Well, okay, that's a bit of an understatement. Replace "glad" with "Freaking Ecstatic.") It was great to spend some time with a friend I rarely see - even if I did work him like an indentured servant.
We put in a reasonable 8 hours on Friday, mainly tearing down the old wall, drawing up a design, and getting materials before putting in twenty-some hours over the next two days hustling to get almost finished.
I put together an action-packed photo gallery of my trip and the project. Take a look if you're interested:
Katy is away this weekend, off with her college roommates for some well-deserved pampering. So far we are doing great here at home - with one exception.
I cannot fix Claire's hair to save my life. I must admit, this is a wrinkle I hadn't anticipated when it comes to having a daughter.
She had dance class this morning, and I know she is supposed to have her hair back so it isn't in her face the whole time. Claire and I decided to go with a ponytail in the back and barrettes on the sides. This is where the easy part ended.
How the heck does my wife get the ponytail holder snug without pulling Claire's hair out? And how do you figure out where to put those stupid clip barrettes? Good grief, to look at the poor girl you'd think I had hooves instead fingers.
I was in Oklahoma City over the weekend, helping my mom rebuild a portion of her patio wall. It ended up being quite the construction project.
I have many photos to sift through and format. They should be ready later this week.
It is pretty fashionable in the world of baseball to Hate The New York Yankees. Let me say that I do not Hate The New York Yankees. Instead, I offer them my begrudging respect - hell, they win an awful lot of ballgames. Who wouldn't enjoy rooting for that kind of juggernaut?
That said, the Yankees are pissing off baseball purists these days. No, I'm not talking about (a) picking up the league's most expensive player or (b) starting their second-best shortstop and moving their best shortstop to third base. This is much bigger. They no longer sell the venerable baseball snack Cracker Jack at Yankee Stadium, having replaced it with upstart Crunch 'n Munch.
Do you think they'll be singing "Buy me some peanuts and Crunch 'n Munch" during the seventh inning stretch? The horror...
Katy is substitute teaching today at the kids' preschool.
As she was getting ready this morning I serenaded her with a bit of the chorus from Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher."
And what do I get for this thoughtful expression of my feelings? An big eye roll.
I was going to type up a long trip report but I decided that the pictures tell the story much better than I could. So here you go:
For those of you into desert animals and plants, I put together a second page:
Flora, Fauna, and Fooling Around With The Camera
I hope you enjoy them.
Some of you may know of my ongoing battle with our neighbor's cat. It has been filling my back flower beds with poop for six months or so. I don't much like cats in the first place, so you can imagine how I feel about this.
That said, I can't bring myself to do anything directly harmful to the beast - coughgopher poisoncough cough. But if something should happen to it, well, let's just say I wouldn't lose much sleep.
One of my neighbors saw a coyote chasing said cat down the street early this morning. Sadly, the cat got away.
What ever happened to the frickin' circle of life?
Here's a quick story for you while I work on the Joshua Tree pictures.
Setting: My sister-in-law's house
The players: My niece, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law
N: Grandmommy, look at my new treasure!
MIL: Boy, that sure is sparkly. It looks real...
N: I found it.
MIL: I think that might be your mother's diamond!
SIL: [GASP!]
Yes, my sister-in-law's diamond fell out of her engagement ring. Yes, my niece discovered it and was keeping it in a plastic egg.
Get those settings checked annually, folks!
Last weekend my friend Doug and I made a pilgrimage of sorts. We went camping in Joshua Tree.
Back in the day, we spent quite a bit of time out there, hiking and scrambling over boulders and riding bikes and drinking beers and telling lies, half-truths, and the occasional deep, dark secret - the kind that would never be spoke aloud were it not protected by the starlit darkness of a desert evening. In short, it was a special place for both of us and for our friendship.
A couple months ago Doug called me and implored me to set aside a weekend to go out, and by scheduling two months in advance we were able to get time on both our calendars. Friday morning we were rolling by about 10 AM, on our way to Joshua Tree National Park via Palmdale, Hesperia, and Yucca Valley.
After some dirt road navigation (tip: a road shown as a heavy red line in the Delorme Atlas is not necessarily paved) we managed to get to Joshua Tree, somewhat ahead of the weekend hordes. We pulled in to Ryan Campground around 2:30 and were set up to camp by 3:00.
We decided we didn't really have time for a full-blown hike, so we checked out some ruins in the area and did a little light rock scrambling before Happy Hour.
Here is a panoramic photo from the trip - the view from the ruins of Ryan Ranch, taken during Friday afternoon's light hike. This house was occupied by the Ryan family in the late 1800s and early 1900s, while they raised cattle on the valley floor. The original construction is hand-made adobe brick, but you can see where later occupants added poured concrete slabs.
As an aside, let me say that Photoshop is an amazing program. I know I'm a little late to the party on this but I was amazed at how easily it stitched together that panorama from the component photos. Amazed I say!
This is but the first in a large pile of pictures from the weekend. More details of the trip and photos to come soon.
I am a bit behind in my entries.
A couple weekends ago I ran my first 5k - the L.A. stop of Nike's Run Hit Wonder. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
I learned many things that day. Foremost among them was that my treadmill has been lying to me. You see, I cannot keep up with the treadmill at 6 miles per hour - 5.5 mph is about where I cap out. Armed with this information, I was expecting a time somewhere around 35 minutes.
Imagine my surprise when I finished in 28:15. Turns out I'm not the world's slowest man.
Which leads me to my next point. The best part of the whole business (Devo concert aside) was passing people. Since I normally run by myself, I have no idea whether I'm "fast" or "slow" - I always assumed I was "slow." [Insert joke here] I was going by people the whole race, and it was great I tell you. Great!
Now that I've given you that little insight into my personality I will share some pictures from the event:
Enjoy!
