Me - under-the-sea....

Not really UNDER the sea. We'll kinda. It's a tunnel at the Monterey Aquarium that the waves (real or a wave machine?) swoosh over you. Phillip took this pic of me.

We spent the last couple of days in Monterey. We've been wanting to visit for years. The last time we were there was during our pre-kid years - over 20 years ago AND boy-howdy has the place changed!!!

It's very "commercial" now. I guess everything changes over time. We went to the aquarium and saw this strange fish. Looks like the back-half of his body has gone missing.



I saw this little guy too!



He was trying so hard to catch some winks, but kept getting bothered by click-happy humans like me! I guess I'd have this look of annoyance too!



After the aquarium, I needed to buy a light jacket, so we journeyed through the stores. The prices for souveniers (sp?) were very reasonable, I thought. However, when we got thirsty and wanted some WATER! things got a little out of hand. $2.99 EACH for those little bottles. $2.99! I had a hot chocolate at Ghiradelli's instead. Even they didn't serve water - only those little bottles. So, after walking the streets a while, we left and stopped by Trader Joes. There, I bought a 6-pack of water for $1.50. That's more like it. I bought 2.

Then we went down the coast towards Big Sur. The coastline is beautiful, but I personally think our Oregon coastline rivals it.



I love to travel, but I really appreciate home.

We didn't make it to Big Sur. The CA fires are everywhere and the signs said the road was closed at 30 miles. We drove 26 and started seeing the fire camps of firefighters, so we decided to stay out of their way and head back north to Monterey. Along the way, we stopped and I took some shots of someones house entryway/fence. (If this is your place, I love it!!!)



The courtyard entry. Gorgeous!

And then there's their driveway gate.



Nice, but I have to say, my driveway at home is a challenge for visibility and safety, but this driveway is on the main highway, and, well, let's just say, I found myself crossing my fingers that we didn't get T-boned pulling out onto the highway!

On to So. Cal. We are here for business meetings with the Mouse. We don't have plans to visit his park this trip. Plus, there's too much smoke in the state this trip. The skies are gross. Smog. Smoke. Even No. Cal wasn't pleasant. Oh well.
Hopefully, the air at home is nice.....

The Secret's In The Sauce

Go ahead. Check it out!

Kamakazi Potato 2008

I remember when I was little, my mom told me to ALWAYS poke holes in the potatoes before baking. So, I've ALWAYS poked holes in the potatoes before baking. That is EXCEPT this one time!

So ladies, HERE is a PRIME example of WHY you should ALWAYS listen to your MOTHER!!!

I decided a long time ago, not to wrap my baked taters in foil. For one, I like my taters to have a crispy skin and foil always seems to somehow steam them and make the skin soggy. Secondly, I, like most people have silver fillings in my dear old teeth and every time we order a restaurant baker, they are served in that darned foil with fork holes poked through it. GEEZ WHEEZ! It never fails that no matter how hard I try, I always seem to miss at least one teensy wheensy speck of foil and as soon as it hits one of my fillings, it sends sparks through my whole body!!! OUCH!

If I wanted to feel "energized" I would just as soon stick my tongue onto the end of a 9-volt battery! It's the same dang sensation. NO thank you.

So anyways, back to Tater Explosion 2008. I scrubbed the taters. I put them on the oven rack and went about my other tasks. Later, when I went to get them out, this is what greeted me. Thankfully, only one tater decided to teach me a lesson.

Lesson learned....

ps. Just like when I was a little girl, I was at the park with my mom and I got very upset because the geese were "laughing" at me (you know the sound geese make?) - if you look closely at the potato and use a bit of your imagination, it looks as if the darn thing is smiling. Trust me, it wasn't smiling! It was LAUGHING at me!!!

Class of 2008...at last!

So, graduation 2008 has come and gone. Our middle son is officially through with high school. Summer for him has begun and he's already antsy and bored. Seems that the last week of school was the worst. He had only one class final last Friday and then had to wait until Tuesday for graduation. Ansty doesn't even begin to describe his frame-of-mind. He was going here, there, everywhere AND making plan after plan to drive, fly, ride a mule to California to visit his friend, Randy for a month or so. It was all we could do to try to persuade not to buy an airline ticket just yet OR not to dump money into the 1984 Datsun to make it road ready. We even told a few white lies to cover up the surprise we had stashed at our friends house for the last two weeks.

Boy was he ever surprised! A little blue Nissan Sentra - his favorite color! 23,000 miles and with all the accessories I wish our first, second, third, etc... cars had -tinted windows, cruise, air, 6 CD changer (well, actually CD's weren't yet invented way back in the 80's, but...)

After dinner, but before the graduation ceremony, Phillip told him we got him a "little" something. Not much, as money is kind of tight right now. Phillip was able to find an ORIGINAL electronic key fob for his 1984 DATSUN! (those didn't exist then either - plus, the Datsun has manual locks!)

Clearly, Kyle was a bit confused! Maybe skeptical is a better way to describe his thoughts on the subject.



Kyle pressed the button and as soon as the lights on the car flashed, his little bro, A.J. started to laugh. Kyle still didn't get it. Then almost immediately he looked to his right across the parking lot and saw his car!




Once the reality sank in, Kyle got emotional and in his humble way, began to try to convince us that he didn't deserve this!!! That was worth more than the price of ANY car!!! Kyle, we're proud of you and wish you all the best in your post high school goals and adventures.

We love you bunches.