No Catching up Allowed

Well, for all you cynics out there who thought I just quit blogging....I didn't. I guess you could say I just took a bit of a leave of absence, and I will be honest with you, it may happen again. Since this is the first post, in who knows HOW many months, I really can't try and catch up on everything. So I will try and go in reverse order from what has happened most recently, to what happened months ago. Kathryn and Tommy were able to go up to Lake Tahoe with the Lowe's for a while for their annual family vacation. Unfortunately, I had to work. My family went and had a great time in Huntington Beach, while my wife and child went to Tahoe. Either way you look at it, EVERYONE had more fun than me that week. It was just me and the dog, and the cats, and the plants, etc. Tommy had a blast and was telling me for days how he loved the Tahoe house. He played tennis, swam in the pool AND the lake, went on a paddle board, and was even towed behind a powerboat on a tube with his Mom. Exciting times! Every time I spoke with Kathryn she would tell me how much fun they were having, and Tommy would be talking as fast as he could to try and tell me everything that he was doing. Everything is the same at work, I will be changing my schedule in about another month or so, but work is...work. We had the opportunity to see the Hall's when they came down for the week of Memorial Day. We went to the beach, and did a bunch of family stuff. I know that Tommy had fun meeting/seeing his cousins. He has had the chance to see David & Griselda's clan fairly often, but he hasn't seen the Hall's too much. I spoke at the Golden Gate Cemetery in San Bruno (off of Hwy 280 on the way to San Francisco) for Memorial day at the request of the VFW. It was a good turn out. I think 700+ people showed up for it. Some of the other participants had a different perspective than me, but I felt grateful that I could say a few words that may give some people something to think about. Tommy held up a little flag and raced around, maybe not the most respectful, but a lot of people took photos of him being cute. Tommy had his two-year birthday party, which was a blast. But, he was having so much fun that he didn't really eat his birthday cake. But BOY! did he eat up some ice cream. I wish that I could say that I remember everything that has happened in the last several months that you may find interesting, but nothing is coming to mind right now. (Although that could be from the post-Sunday dinner food stupor I am in). So here are some photos. Enjoy!

Man, photos take FOREVER to upload.

10 Years

Kathryn and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary this weekend. Wow! Time has flown. To celebrate Kathryn and I went up to Ft. Bragg, CA, which is just north of Mendocino (about 4-hours North of where we live). We had a great time. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast that was actually the oldest house in Ft. Bragg and only 3 blocks to the beach.

The house was an old Victorian house, and while the hostess wasn't the best, we had a great time. (It was even a little funny because at night I am pretty sure I heard a mouse scampering in a wall.) The house also had a "water tower" that was actually a tower that had a total of 4 rooms in it. It had an exterior staircase to access the rooms, and the roof, where you could watch whales from. Or, you could just enjoy the AMAZING sunset over the ocean that is RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!

And of course we went to the beach.

For those of you who don't know, Ft. Bragg has the highest concentration of "Sea Glass" in the world. So, of course Ft. Bragg was at the top of the list of places that she wanted to go. And as long as I get a comfy bed and good food, I am happy just about anywhere.

Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures, and none of the camera-shy Kathryn.

We stuffed ourselves on crab cakes, crab sandwiches, crab on our green salad, and of course I squeezed a steak in there somewhere.

Tommy spent a day and a half with the grandparents and didn't even notice that we were gone until after his nap on day 2. He did great. If I knew he was going to do so well with the first time being left behind, I would have booked 2 nights instead of one.


And you know you are in the sticks when you see signs posted like this downtown:



If you can't read it, it says "don't ride bicycles, skateboards, or horses on the sidewalks."

Hilarious!

Ft. Bragg used to be a huge lumber community, and of course to brag about their town, there is a monument of the biggest tree that was chopped down. It was in 1943, and here is a photo of it's cross-section:



The photo doesn't do it justice. It was HUGE!!!

Here is a panoramic video from the top of the water tower. Ignore the old railyard area.



On Saturday when we started making our way back south, we stopped for lunch at the Bay View Cafe in Mendocino. It is across the street from the water, and really allows you a wonderful view. The whole time I was there I was wondering why we left the camera in the car. (But of course because I am lazy, it stayed in the car.) The view was breath-taking.

For both days the skies were clear and the weather was warm(ish), somewhere in the 60's.

I can't say enough about how much fun we had. If anyone is thinking of trying to get away, I highly recommend the area.

And that about wraps our weekend up. Here is a picture of our pathetic dog. His surgery is scheduled for this week. He is too lazy to play ball anymore, and has lost tons of his muscle with the past 2.5 months of no exercise, now he just lays about, and uses balls for pillows.



And that's all folks.

November, December, Etc.

Yes, I freely admit it, I am too lazy to post to the blog as often as I should. Between working hours when I should be sleeping, and sleeping the hours when I should be working my schedule is a little weird.

There are a lot more photos of Tommy, but the camera hasn't been downloaded, and again...that lazy factor I spoke of.

Work is going well. The hours take some getting used to, but I get to wake Tommy up in the morning and I help put him to bed each night, and that's nice.

On to all the news to try and catch everyone up. We have year-long passes to Happy Hollow (the local petty zoo/park) and Tommy gets to go usually a couple of times a month or more. So, of course I had to put some pictures of that in the blog.

Christmas was fun, as always. We got too many gifts, and are really lucky to live so close family.

We had a bit of a problem with our Christmas tree this year. Every year we go up to Skyline and chop a tree down and bring it home. This year Tommy was running out of patience with us, or he could have just been cold, but long story short, I chopped down a tree that Kathryn dubbed the "devil's tree." It was soooo spiny that I couldn't even handle it with leather gloves on. Once we brought it home, Kathryn thought she would be able to tame it, and decorate it.

Nope.

We ended up having to sneak over to a tree lot and get a replacement.

How embarrassing.

The bad news of our new year is that Porkchop tore his ACL. (Yes, pigs...I mean dogs, have them too.) This means a very costly, unexpected surgery. If he was anyone else's dog, I would say just let him be, or take him to the back 40...and...you know...

But, it's Porkchop and we love him, and he wouldn't be the same if he couldn't play ball for the rest of his 8-10 years of life. So, we have to suck it up and find the cash for it.

Enough depressing stuff though... here are a bunch of pictures. Enjoy!