"Baby wants to come home"

I got a phone call last Wednesday from the auto body shop from Tina saying "Baby is ready to come home". So I made arrangements to have someone drive me out there to pick it up.

Here's baby, good as new! Not only did they wash it, but they vacuumed the carpets and cleaned the dash. It also looks like they blacked the tires. Don't they look like new? I'm so glad to have my car back because I was driving the Miata which doesn't have air conditioning. Its too hot to drive without it!

Spaghetti by Vicky

On Friday night in Cambria, Vicky promised to make her Chicken Spaghetti. So I was helping her by dicing the onions and sauteing them with the minced garlic. When she opened the can of pineapple, I thought she was going a bit too far. I told her I didn't like cooked pineapple (I don't care for Hawaiian pizza) and Colleen said something about not liking chunky tomatoes. Vicky said she could blend some of the sauce in the blender. So I tried to tell her that it was alright, I would try it the way she made it, she kept insisting that she didn't mind, that she always pureed some for her son Matt. So I tried the pureed sauce and it was good but then I had to try the regular sauce. Its really good! It was even good left over. I'm going to get the recipe from Vicky and post it here for your enjoyment. Try it, you'll like it!

Visitors

We all noticed this door very high up the wall above the hall closet across the entrance from the front door. They said I should check it out but I'm too short so Blake opened it and we all looked inside. It was just extra space that they closed off, not big enough for a room. Its above the master bath and closet.

Roger and Paula drove up from Thousand Oaks with Blake and Lauren. We enjoyed dinner and talk. I took some home movies into the master bedroom where there was a VCR and watched film of our reunion from 1986 and then more from 1988. It was fun to see all the "cousins" when they were little kids.

Blake and Lauren--Lauren is Paula's daughter

The newlyweds. When ten o'clock rolled around they had to leave to drive home. You can see Vicky in the right corner. She's sitting at the table stringing beads.

33 years!

Monday was our 33rd wedding anniversary. I was scheduled to work till 9:30 that night so I called Kevin at his work and arranged for dinner together during my lunch break. I ordered take-out from Cool Hand Luke's and we took it over to the City park. We found a nice table in the shade and I started doling out the food and found there weren't any utensils or napkins! I forgot to ask the guy at the reservation desk for anything and he forgot to ask me if we needed any! Urrrrrrggggghhhh! I ran to my car and fished a spork and a spoon out of the glove box! Kevin had his handyman tool on his belt. Thank heaven for Kevin! So we shared the knife on the tool to cut our rib-eye steaks and used the spoon for eating the Baja chicken enchilada soup (this is a yummy soup and you should try it if you get the chance). The spork was practically useless but somehow we muddled through. Sorry I didn't get any pictures. I was so frustrated with Wally at Cool Hand Luke's. The food was really, really good. Oh well, what memories we will have....

daily walk

Here we are on a bench by the cliff. We tried to get Colleen to keep backing up but she was smarter than that. Just a joke! Ed and John standing behind me and Steve. Steve said that I should stand behind the guys sitting down so then we would be even. He's so funny!

I thought John was going to go all the way down the cliff to the rocks and I kept yelling at him not to go down there. He was just picking up a bottle.

Here we are in another shot--can you pick out the differences?

Here are the four comedians in front of our rental--Colleen, Steve, John and Ed

As we were walking, I would see a house I really liked or the landscaping really spoke to me so I took a picture. Isn't the landscaping here lovely? Colleen commented on the individuality of each home. It definitely isn't a housing development!

I really like this garden!

This one is so pretty I took two pictures.

The three windows above the garage are stained glass. What a grea idea!

landscaping needs doing. I'd like to see what they do with it.

The End!

Cambria!

Colleen and John. For those of you who don't know, John is my "baby brother". They came to California from Virginia for a high school and family reunion. Atascadero Class of '69 had their 40-year reunion and invited the classes of '65-'75 to join in. So when Steve and Vicky and John and Colleen arrived, we drove down to the beach while Vicky laid down for a bit (Steve didn't want to leave Vicky to do all the preparation for dinner), to soak in the coolness that is Moonstone Beach.

Steve is 2 years older than me and here he is, posing with Colleen and John "A rose between two thorns"

The waves were rolling in and I walked down to the edge to see if I could get my toes wet. Well, the wave rolled back out and when the next one came in, it still didn't get my toes. A few waves later, after I walked closer, a big wave splashed in and I was wet above my knees! By the way, the water is cold! It felt very refreshing after driving over from 95 degree Paso Robles.

Steve saw this log and said "hey, I'll get on this log and you can take a picture of a bum on a log" so I did!

This is me after I got soaked. Do you like my baby footprints, Vicky?

The waves splashing up on the rocks

Colleen sitting next to John and Steve--we're enjoying each other!

Later we all went for another walk to see the sunset. In case you can't tell, the sun is setting here.

Kevin took the camera and took this shot of our best sides. Haha

Kevin and I walked straight down to the ocean where we found this sight.

Here's another view of it

The last of the sunset

We tried to do the self portrait, but we need more practice. As you can tell, the wind was blowing pretty hard. It was also cold!

Kevin got on his motorcycle to head back to Paso.

Have you see my beach ball?

To preface this presentation, let me just say that Steve did this spoof once for me in the house where we were staying in Cambria so when we started out on our walk on Saturday morning, I had him perform it again so I could film him. And now, presenting for you viewing pleasure, Steve and Ed Goodwin ( two of my brothers. for those of you who don't know, I have 5!) as "Hans and Franz" a skit from the early days of SNL.

New Generator

One day after we filed our taxes, Kevin said "I know what I want to buy with our refund." Of course, I'm thinking "cruise" and he says "A new generator--a big one that will fuel the whole house". As you can see it came in a big box.
One day when I came home from work, Kevin was digging a trench in the back of the house. I asked him what it was for and he told me it was for the propane pipeline. "How did you think it was going to be fueled?" Ohhhh.

Look! I'm using a shovel! I told Kevin he had to take a picture of me actually using the shovel. Otherwise, no one would believe that I really did help fill in the trenches.

All the hard work is done, now.

Sweet Peas

This has been a very strange year, weather-wise. In April we had some 100 degree days but since then we've been enjoying very mild weather. I really like it because as you can see from the picture, my sweet peas are still blooming! Usually, by this time of the year they are all done. I love sweet peas!

Last Blog

Ha, scared ya, didn't I? No really, this is the last blog about my vacation to Utah last month. I knew you would all be interested in this little bit of trivia---I traveled a total of 2266.3 miles!

garden!!!

It was Memorial Day and Kevin and I both had the day off. We looked for the hoe and couldn't find it, so Kevin sent me to the store to buy one. When I got back he said he practically had to kneel to use it. He should've known better than to send a short person to buy a hoe. Haha. As you can see, he's making rows.

I'm watering after planting the corn. The rows are so long that I only planted about 2 rows before I ran out of seed.
These are my tomato plants. Yummy! I can't wait. I love vine-ripened tomatoes.
Here's the drip section of the garden where I planted cantalope--the whole package!
Kevin is putting in another emitter
Now I know you wondering why I took a picture of dirt, but if you look real close you can see the sprout of corn--only five days after planting!
That's when I planted this whole packet of watermelon seeds
This is the drip section of the garden-to the south of the corn section.