Vacation Week and Doggy Bath

Keith is on vacation this week, the way they do it with the railroad is that they have to sign up at the end of the year for the next year's vacation spots. He used to take vacations in the summer but I convinced him to do it this year in the spring and fall so that the weather is nice and it's not too hot to go anywhere. Not that we've been anywhere yet.

So far, we went to see American Sniper one afternoon, which was very good except for the fake baby scenes. We've been out to eat a couple of times since I don't cook on vacation if I don't have to. Keith has had a few naps, nothing unusual about that, and I got him to mow the yard and spread some dandelion killer stuff in the grass. We went for a drive, thinking we would take the dog to this lake that is outside of town in the dry dirt area near the oilfields, a lake that we have never been to, not being much in the way of lake people with no fishing poles or boats. Well, that didn't go so well and we never did make it to the lake.

We drove some of the roads outside of town, driving through the metropolis of Tupman which I think is near Taft, a tiny town of a few hundred people living in what passes for houses in that kind of town. Think shacks. I had Millie on my lap on a pillow and as we are driving along outside of that town, my lap started to feel very warm and I realized that Millie couldn't hold it any longer and had peed right through the pillow onto my lap. We stopped by the side of the road where Keith took her for a little walk while I unsuccessfully tried to dry things off with paper towels. We got back in the car, Millie sitting on my now wet lap and instead of going to the lake headed for home since my pants were all wet with doggy pee. Lovely.

As we were almost home, she started throwing up, fortunately just foamy bile, but a lot of it, all over the side of the car door and on the floor and yes, on my pants.

I don't think that dog likes riding in the car all that much, the last time she went very far she threw up, so I should have known better. They do make doggy motion sickness meds, so before we take another car ride we will stock up on those.

Tomorrow we are going to take a drive into the desert, Keith says the wildflowers are blooming like crazy right now so I'd like to see that before they all die. We won't be taking the dog with us. We did figure out that we can leave her at home with the back door open enough for her to get in and out of and that seems to work okay for now. We just lock the side gate and if anyone is bold enough to try and climb over the fence to get into our house, have at it! Keith is over at Home Depot looking for a doggy door thing that they make for sliding glass doors so that we won't have to leave the door open in the future. It's going to be fly season here real soon and we really don't want the house to fill up with flies.

Keith gave Millie a bath yesterday morning, she hadn't had one since the flea bath we gave her when we first brought her home. She wasn't too thrilled about it but her fur looks a lot fluffier and cleaner and she sure smells better!

Nothing Much

So, I made that corn soup and it was okay, nothing special though. It didn't really need the bacon on top and the texture was odd since the outer skins of the corn kernels stay kind of together after you blend the soup. Keith did not like it at all.

I also made some enchiladas that were not good, I baked them a bit too long. sigh...

I'm just not that good in the kitchen, I think mostly because I just do not like to cook. I have been cooking dog food though and I guess it tastes good to the dog because she laps it right up! I use either chopped up chicken or ground beef or turkey and brown it with some shredded carrot and then add some cooked rice after everything is done. I tried some chopped up broccoli (gag) and she seemed to like that and the last batch I made had shredded carrot and zucchini in it. She doesn't like the canned dog food much and doesn't seem to like dry food all that much either, except for the cat dry food which she shouldn't eat because there is too much protein in it for a dog. I don't mind cooking her dog food because I can do a batch big enough for a couple of days instead of having to cook 2 or 3 times a day like you do when feeding humans.

We did go out to eat last night, over to the Roadhouse Grill which used to be one of our most favorite places to go. They have wonderful hot rolls they give you with honey butter and their baked sweet potatoes are delicious but the rest if the food started kind of lacking in quality so we stopped going as often. Keith had a craving for it last night, though, so over we went where we had to wait a while for a table and then sit next to a table covered in dirty dishes which sat there and sat there and sat there until finally I asked the guy that was coming to wipe off other tables to seat people if they couldn't clean it up. They were apparently quite short staffed or just didn't care. The one waitress serving our area was gone most of the time, no coming around to check on drinks or how things are. Keith's pork chop dinner was good but my salad wasn't, I could have just bought a bag of salad at the grocery store and put a few pieces of grilled chicken on it myself. If we ever go there again (doubtful) I won't be getting a salad.

Other than last night he hasn't been home much this week, only getting the minimum time off between trips in and out, but next week he will be on vacation. I have gently (well maybe not so gently) suggested that he try not to spend his vacation in front of the TV and he says he has things he wants to get done, so we will see how it goes. I'm sure I will be very ready to have him go back to work by the time the week is over with. He bought a bunch of flowers to finish off the front flower bed and a bunch of other yard stuff that hasn't been touched yet so hopefully he will do some of that along with the shed and garage clean out that he wants to get done. I don't think we are actually going to go anywhere other than getting our taxes done, but maybe one afternoon we will take a drive or something. We can't just pick up and take off for an entire day anymore, that little dog really can't be left alone that long. Kind of like a small child. By the looks of the toys in the living room you would think we had a small child living here.

Our Little Vacation

Keith ended up being off for an entire week, going back to work yesterday afternoon. He had only signed up for 4 days but the way the board worked he had to lay off the day before his vacation or he would have been sent on the road, and then he switched the first day of vacation to the end and it all worked out to where he had an extra couple of days off.

Not that he got all that much done, the first couple of days were spent doing pretty much nothing, but he did get my laundry closet doors painted and ready to hang. They are currently leaning against my living room cupboard/bookshelf thing, where hopefully they will not stay for weeks and weeks and weeks. Or years and years and years as sometimes happens when it comes to Keith and projects.

Anyway, we took off Friday morning to drive up to the Fresno zoo, stopped in Tulare for breakfast at Apple Annie's, a little local coffee shop restaurant that has okay food, nothing really amazingly special, but we do like to support local businesses. I think we have stopped there each time we've been up that way.

We got to the zoo at about 12:30 and were told that the zoo was closing at 2 to set up for a special event, Boo at the Zoo or something like that. If we had known that, we would have left the house earlier and maybe not stopped for breakfast, but since we were going to spend the night in Clovis we figured we could just come back to the zoo in the morning if we didn't get to see everything. It's only $7.00 to get in, way less than the cost of a movie, so paying for 2 days was just not that big of a deal. Support your local zoo and all.

We really enjoy this zoo every time we go there, it's small enough to where you aren't exhausted walking around, but big enough to where you really could spend all day there. They have a new Sea Lion Cove exhibit that is just amazing, it's made to look like part of the rocky California coast, a cove complete with mussels and starfish growing on the rocks with what appeared to be a tidal flow system since you could see a water line on the rocks. There are 2 sea lions and 3 seals in the exhibit, and an underwater viewing window where you can watch the sea lions and seals swim past. Quite mesmerizing.

When the zoo closed we found our way to Clovis, a suburb of Fresno with an 'Old Town' area that I've heard is really nice. We don't have GPS or any other fancy navigating stuff on our car, we were using an old fashioned paper map, but we did finally find Clovis and checked into our motel, then went to Old Town to wander about.

Old Town Clovis is well worth a visit, just a couple of streets and a few blocks, but lots of antique stores, very clean streets, lots of benches to sit on, and the most amazing thing was PUBLIC RESTROOMS! Wow!

Why do public restrooms impress me so much? Because in towns like Ventura that have a big homeless population, you just don't see a sign for public restrooms and the stores there certainly won't let you use their restrooms. There have been many times that I was in downtown Ventura and had to walk all the way to the public park where the restrooms are always nasty and smell very strongly of urine and you certainly don't want to step in any of the puddles of what you hope is water on the floor.

I did use the Old Town Clovis public restroom and it was clean and again, WOW!, a public restroom!

We didn't get any pictures of Clovis, too busy shopping in the antique stores before they closed at 5, but here are some taken off the internet.

The rest of Clovis is just like any other suburb of a big city, but we really enjoyed Old Town and would definitely come back again.

We went and had some dinner and then back to the motel, where there was really nothing to do, the TV had HBO but there was nothing on to watch. Keith had drunk a few beers with dinner and laid down on the bed and proceeded to start snoring, so I read the book that I had brought along. I guess I'm really not much of a traveler, I was kind of wishing we were at home with all the comforts, I don't sleep all that well on strange beds.

In the morning we went and got breakfast and then drove back by Old Town, where we had seen a used bookstore, a bookstore that was actually already open, so we spent a few dollars in there, but I'm so used to my cheap bookstore where everything is less than $1.50 that it was kind of hard to spend $4.50 on a paperback in this store. But, the selection was huge and they had a lot of antique out of print type books if you are into that kind of thing.

Then, back to the zoo to see the animals that we missed on Friday. There were paper chains in a lot of the exhibits, don't really get what that was all about, apparently Halloween decorations, and a lot of the animals had their Halloween pumpkins.

Like the orangutans and gibbons. We spent quite a while at their enclosure, there are 2 adults, I'm assuming mom and dad since one of them has a lot more hair than the other, and 2 kids, who were quite amusing to watch, playing with the paper chains and tumbling about while their mother sat nearby under a sheet. Daddy found a pumpkin on the ground and made his way up to a tree stump right by where we were standing and proceeded to chomp the top of his pumpkin off and leisurely eat the seeds and pulp. The 2 gibbons were up further in the tree and as soon as daddy orangutan had his fill and left his pumpkin on the stump, they scrambled down for the leftovers.

Christmas Shopping

Ugh.

We went to the mall after Keith got home from work yesterday afternoon. He wanted to look for a pocket knife or swiss army knife or something for James' boyfriend Robbie for Christmas. I thought it was a nice gesture for Keith to want to include something for Robbie in their soon to be mailed Christmas package, so okay, let's go get him a pocket knife. Where to get one? For some reason Keith thought that Spencer's Gifts carries pocket knives. No, they don't, as we found out after walking walking walking all the way down one side of the mall. The mall here in town just seems to go on forever but there really aren't very many stores that I would even go into which is why we haven't been to the mall in 3 or 4 years. The mall is right off the freeway, where we almost got into two wrecks because everyone was driving crazy and deciding to switch lanes but not noticing THAT WE WERE ALREADY THERE! So, after the white knuckling freeway ride, you go down a busy busy street to get into the mall parking lot which is full of more crazy drivers and find a parking space way off at the edge of the parking lot because everything else is full. Then you walk walk walk down one side of the mall to find whatever store it is you are going to and then of course the other store you want to go to is at the complete opposite end of the mall. Which seems to be about a mile long and has these angles to it where you think you are at the end but no, there's more down here.

Anyway, we went to the John T's store too and of course they are all sold out of pocket knives and swiss army knives and I didn't realize that the knife Keith had in mind was like $40.00 and I'm sorry, but that is too  much money to spend on someone that you are not really related to, so no you can't buy him a fancy swiss army knife after all. We will look for a much cheaper knife somewhere else.

The only thing we did buy at the mall was some lotion and shower gel from the Bath and Body store because they suck you in with all the wonderful smells and the promise that if you buy 2 you get 1 free but even better buy 3 and get 2 free! Which I did and now have some awesome smelling shower gel and some lotion which Pepper will now want to lick off of me. She loves lotion and soap smells and will smell me coming after a shower or after putting lotion on and want to sniff and lick. Yeah, it is kind of creepy.

We also stopped for dinner at Red Robin and after eating we looked at the menu thing that lists all the calories and carbs in what you just ate and we shouldn't have eaten any of it. It's kind of scary reading that thing and finding out that the what you thought was a halfway healthy salad has like 1200 calories in it. Keith had the fish and chips which has like 12000 calories in it.

So, after going to the mall we still didn't get any Christmas shopping done but did manage to spend too much money.

Keith is postponing his week off from this coming week to the week after, just managing to squeeze it in before he loses the vacation time on the 17th. The big boss was telling him that he could take next week off but they are having some training and safety meetings and he could just come in for those on two separate days and he'll get paid for the time, but Keith is like SCREW THAT! I am not coming near this place on my vacation so I'll just plan it for a week when there are no meetings scheduled.

This morning he said he is planning on finally building the computer desk for the workroom, the wood for which has been sitting in the workroom for 2 or 3 years. I think it would be a whole lot easier to just go buy a desk, but...

I won't be holding my breath waiting for the computer desk.

Vacation Day Three- Big Big Trees

On to Sequoia National Park!

We spent the night in a nice little Days Inn on Motel Street in Merced (at least I think it was Merced) and yes, it really was called Motel Street because, well, that's the street that all the little motels were on. We had our choice of like six different motels all lined up in a row. The Day's Inn was nice with clean rooms and a filled pool and even an exercise room which we didn't use of course. Even free continental breakfast in the morning! Free is good.

So, we got started after eating our continental breakfast and headed on down the road to the park.

We had to stop at the cutest fruit stand ever where we got some nectarines and peaches.


This was in the little town of Centerville, appropriately named because it's in the center of California- get it?
They had a really nice little bathroom, too, always a big plus for my weak always needing to find a bathroom bladder!

Then, up through rolling hills and more rolling hills and windy roads and on into the park.

We stopped at the visitor center and decided to have lunch at the restaurant which I don't recommend, not the best lunch I've ever eaten.

Then on to the first of the big trees, the General Grant tree. Or was it the General Sherman tree? I can't remember which is which and I already threw away the map so I can't look it up, but back when the first explorers explored the big trees they named them for Generals and States and whatnot, but stopped doing that when they ran out of names I guess. Anyway the Grant tree (or whatever it's called) is just off a parking lot with some lovely trails that wind around the area. Once you get onto the trails you feel like you are far from civilization what with the wind sighing through the trees and the birds singing and just a general quietness and peacefulness. That is until somebody's car alarm goes off.


We even got to see some wildlife coming out of the parking lot.


This deer was so busy eating in this little meadow that it paid absolutely no attention to us and showed no fear at all. I'm sure he is used to traffic and cars and weird creatures getting out of the cars to take its picture that he just doesn't care anymore.


Then, more driving through the park, narrow mountain roads and forest all around us. We were amazed to see patches of snow still on the ground the higher up we got.

Some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.


Then on to the Sherman tree, or Grant or whichever one it was. You go off the main road and wind up to a big parking lot and then there are signs warning you that the trail is steep and there are numerous benches for you to stop and 'catch your breath' on the way back up. We started down the trail which is paved and has steps and were starting to wonder if we really wanted to see this tree after passing all the people huffing and puffing and looking totally miserable on their way back up. But, we persevered and went down far enough to see the tree but not quite all the way down. Out of shape much? Yes, we are, and the hike back up was not so fun and we did indeed use the benches to catch our breaths.


The pictures really don't do it justice, but you can sort of tell the size of the tree by the fence surrounding it.

I think there were more foreign tourists at the park that Americans, we heard lots of different languages. My favorite foreigner was the rather portly man who had his cowboy hat on that said Los Angeles on it and suspenders with American flags all over them. I think he was enjoying his trip to the States! We also kept running into a little shuttle bus full of French people at every stop.

On the way out of the park the road splits and goes right through the middle of these four trees- that was fun and I kind of wanted to turn around and go back through again.


There were some signs on the way out that warned of road work ahead and delays of up to one hour, but we didn't really believe it until we came to a stopped car and a worker holding up a stop sign. We had just missed the window out and were the second car stopped and the woman with the stop sign explained to us that the wait would indeed be one hour. Argghh.

Then up behind us comes the shuttle bus of French tourists. They certainly knew how to take advantage of a traffic delay and all hopped out of the bus and broke open some bottles of wine. They had come prepared with plastic cups and had a little party there.

After the hour of sitting there, but what better place to have to wait than in a beautiful forest even though I had to go to the bathroom REALLY BAD by then, the 'follow me' truck came up the road with a line of cars behind it, turned around, and we all followed him down. At a pace of about 5 mph. Down a very windy, very narrow road that was one lane where the workers were shoring up the sides of the road. Mind you, we are driving down the sides of very steep, very tall mountains on a very narrow, very windy road. We finally came to the end of the construction zone, the guide truck pulls over to let us on by, and what do we see on the side of the mountain about 5 feet from the road but a BEAR! Casually looking for something to eat.

All over the park there are signs warning of very active bears and warning to never leave food in your car because these bears are smart and know that cars and tourists=food and will rip right into your car in search of good things to eat. You are told to put all your food into metal lockboxes that are conveniently located at each trail point and picnic spot so that the bears won't smell it in your car.

We stopped at the first restroom we saw because I REALLY REALLY had to go by then, and again, behind us came the French wine drinkers, because after all that wine they had to go REALLY bad, too.

We had lost our park entrance fee receipt somewhere along the way and almost had to pay to get back out but they believed us that we had paid after showing them the map that we were given on our way in. I really didn't want to have to pay another $20.00 just to get back out of the park.

Then, on down the road heading home, past a beautiful river and huge lake and down into rolling hills again. We were going to go through Visalia and get back on the 99 to get home, but after looking at the map realized that the 65 that goes through Porterville would actually be a little shorter, so on we went.

Keith calls the Sierra side of the central valley the 'wet' side, because the other side is all desert and rather bleak. I had never been down the wet side and it was really pretty and reminded me of the Santa Paula valley, with orange groves and mountain views. We passed through the little town of Exeter, which reminded me even more of Santa Paula, and we are going to go back and visit Exeter sometime in the future, it looked like a really nice little place.

More orange groves and pasture land and rolling hills and then all of a sudden you are back in the oilfields outside of Bakersfield, which certainly aren't as pretty as orange groves, and back home.

It was a good trip and has satisfied my wanderlust for a while. I'm still kind of tired.

Vacation Day Two- Sacramento

On day two of our little road trip we left Placerville after breakfast at the Waffle Shop and headed out the 49 to the town of Coloma where gold was discovered way back when. The town is a state park with a little museum and the old buildings still there. We went through the museum and drove through town and then on to Sacramento. After much consulting of maps and trying to find the right freeways to take we finally made our way into downtown and Old Town, got off the freeway and got totally confused what with all the one way streets, but finally found the way into the huge parking structure and into Old Town. Which was a little disappointing. The old buildings and wood sidewalks are cool, but so many shops just couldn't make a go of it so there were lots of empty buildings, some restaurants with very pricey menus in the windows, four (yes four!) candy shops, a couple of ice cream shops, the usual shops with California t-shirts in the windows, and lots of homeless people. One guy was asking everyone who walked by for a nickle. I guess he figured that everyone could part with a nickle and if he asked enough people by the end of the day he might have a dollar or two. We didn't give him a nickle, we're mean like that.

Looking for a place to eat lunch, we found a pizza restaurant that promised a lunch buffet with salad bar, so we paid our $5.99 each plus drinks and went over to the saddest lunch buffet I' ve ever seen (note to self, LOOK at the lunch buffet before PAYING for it in the future!) and had the worst, the absolute WORST pizza I've ever eaten. There was also some soggy ziti that was totally inedible and some mac and cheese that I'm sure came right out of the Kraft box. It was not a good lunch and we should have just gone to Subway.

Then on to the train museum where we got in free because we pay $35.00 a year to belong to the train museum, so that part was cool to just walk on in like VIP's. The museum is really nice with lots of big trains inside and a sleeper car that moves just like you are riding in it when you walk through which made me feel a little woozy. Keith had to read everything and look at absolutely every part of every train and I got a little bored so spent a lot of time sitting on a bench watching a group of Young Explorers that were visiting the museum. They were all about 10 and dressed in red t-shirts and seemed to be having a great time.


Keith took lots of pictures but I won't bore you with more than one train picture.

There is also a diner car that you can go through, seeing the kitchen where I can't imagine fancy meals being cooked on a moving train, and the tables all set up with all of the different china patterns and menus from all the different trains. The choices for your dinner on the trains back in the days of rail travel were quite gourmet.

If you are into trains, the museum is well worth the trip.

After spending what seemed like hours and hours in the museum, we walked around the rest of Old Town. There is a river boat hotel docked on the river where the valet parking is like $20.00, so I can just imagine how much the rooms are, but if you're rich that would be a fun place to stay. They have a restaurant on the boat with pork chops for like $27.00, obviously we didn't eat there.

We did buy some salt water taffy from one of the candy shops, something about vacation and hundreds of flavors of salt water taffy is irresistible and you just have to come home with a pricey bag of salt water taffy, don't you? We did.

Then, back on the freeway heading south. We were debating on if we wanted to go on home or spend another night on the road and decided to go down to Merced and find a motel, then go through Sequoia the next day. So that's what we did. Sequoia tomorrow.

We're Back!

Or, as our cats would say, 'oh, were you gone?'

First off, the kittens in the back yard seem to be gone, I'm assuming mama cat took them to somebody else's yard after we found her hiding place.

And, yes, we were gone for 3 days on a little vacation, the first vacation we've had in a long long time, and we are totally exhausted. I don't think I'd make much of a world traveler, I really like the comforts of home, and 3 days in the car was definitely long enough.

The cats seemed a little confused to see us, kind of blink blink who are you, and the three litter boxes were TOTALLY OVERFLOWING AND THE HOUSE STUNK! Really. Stunk.

We had left them with three of the self feeder things where you load them up with food and it continually falls down into the bowl, so they got plenty of food, and one of those water dish things that continually fills itself back up again, so they had water even if it wasn't freshly poured like they're used to. So, other than the cat box thing they hardly even noticed that the humans were missing.

Anyway, here's what we did on our little trip on day one. The original plan was to go up the 99 to Sacramento and the train museum. It took us 30 minutes just to get on the 99 because we had to stop at walmart to get another bra for me because I thought I had enough clean ones but of course I didn't, so walmart first, then the back way to the freeway which we thought would be faster than going all the way down Rosedale Hwy. But, Keith hadn't gone the back way to the 99 before and got confused because the roads here are really confusing anyway and the signs aren't very clear and we ended up on the wrong side of the freeway so we had to turn around at the next exit and get back on the right side of the freeway so we'd be heading towards Sacramento and not Los Angeles. So, we finally get on the freeway going in the right direction a full 30 minutes after leaving the house.

After driving for a while we thought why not reverse our plans and go up the 49 through the gold country that day and go to Sacramento the next day? So, that's what we did, crossing over to the Sierra side of the valley at Merced, going through all the rolling hills to Mariposa (the gateway to Yosemite), stopping for lunch there, and then up through all the little gold towns to Placerville.

Where we stayed here:


I had done a little googling for motels and picked this one based on the sign alone (and the fact that the rooms were only $50.00). Old but clean although very hard pillows and mattresses. And the pool was closed for renovation. But it was quiet and surrounded by trees.


It was like 7 by the time we got to the motel, so we checked in and then went into town to find a place for dinner and when we saw this sign we knew where we were going to eat.


For those of you old enough to have seen the movie American Graffiti, this is the real deal, the Mel's diner from the movie, albeit not THE Mel's, that one is in San Francisco.

Anyway, good diner food and we got dessert, too!

After dinner we took a little walk around the old downtown, the buildings all have that Old West feel to them, like this one.


We really liked the way the side of this building looked.



The next morning we met up with Meghan and Ryan, who drove down from South Lake Tahoe and had breakfast at the Waffle House. Sorry, no picture, but we picked that restaurant because how could you NOT eat breakfast at a Waffle House anyway?

Tomorrow, day two.

Vacation!

Keith is taking a few days off next week, his birthday is on the 16th and he vowed a few years ago to never ever work on his birthday again. Hence the days off. Last year for his birthday vacation he got a colonoscopy. Earlier this spring he took a few days off and got two crowns done at the dentist. Fun, fun, vacations, those!

So, this year I told him to never ever schedule doctors or dentists or whatever on his vacation days again. Ever. Leave work early, take an unpaid day off, but never again have colonoscopies or crowns on your birthday vacation. Unless it's a birthday crown complete with noisemakers.

And what are we doing on his vacation next week since he's not getting a (fun) colonoscopy or crown? Well, even though we can't afford it, we are going on a little road trip!

We were thinking of taking the train up to Sacramento and going to the railroad museum there, then coming back that night on the train. No spending $200.00 on a hotel room that way, the train is only 86.00 for two round trip tickets, and we get in free at the museum since we have a membership. A membership that we've never used since we've never been able to afford to get up there to Sacramento.

Well, the only direct train to Sacramento leaves at 7:15 in the morning, doesn't get to Sacramento until 12:30 pm, and then the direct train home leaves at like 6 pm and doesn't get home until late late late. So, we'd be on a train for about 10 hours total and only have a few hours in Old Sacramento. You can take a little later train in the morning but you have to get off in Stockton and take a Trailways bus into Sacramento. Um, no thanks.

Keith wanted to take the train 'because it's fun!', but I think I'd rather drive up there and not be on a schedule where if you don't get back to the train station on time, you're stuck and will still have to spend that $200.00 for a hotel room. Seriously, all the hotels near Old Sacramento are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE! So, I convinced him that we should just drive, spend the night outside of Sacramento where the motels and hotels might be a little cheaper, and then the next day we could drive back along route 49 through all the gold rush towns, also making a stop in Jamestown where they have another railroad museum.

I took son Joe on a trip when he was 9 (20 years ago, eek!) and we drove up 395 through Carson City, down past Lake Tahoe and down through gold rush country, then through Yosemite and Kings Canyon. I still have fond memories of that trip, especially the part where we saw the bear while driving out of one of the parks (just a baby bear, but a bear!), and the peaceful drive through the rolling hills of the Sierras, stopping at all the quaint little towns, and panning for gold at Sutter's Mill.

So, road trip it is, we'll leave Monday and either come back Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how long it takes us to drive down 49 what with all the great places to stop and beautiful scenery to see. Our credit card will be hurting after we get home, but we are really tired of never being able to go anywhere or do anything, so we'll just put the hotel rooms on the card and do the old buy now pay later thing.

I'm looking forward to it, especially after this weekend when Keith spent two days messing with the living room ceiling fan trying to put in a new switch so that it would work right, and not being able to get the right switch and getting totally frustrated and wasting two days fooling with it and vowing to never ever buy crappy cheap fans from walmart again!

June 1

June first already? What the heck? How can we possibly be half way through the year already? How come I haven't accomplished a single thing yet this year?

I hate summer here in Bakersfield. It's hot and it will be hot for the next three months and it never ever rains here. Our electric bill will soon be in the triple digits because it's HOT here! I delay using the air conditioner each day until I absolutely have to, I open up the windows and back door each day to let the 'cool' breezes flow through the house. The cool breezes and the sounds of birds and what's that noise? Oh , yes, the daily leaf blowers and lawn mowers, what a pleasant sound.
In another month or so, I won't even be able to open the windows in the morning because it will already be about 90 outside. Yuck. I don't do well in the heat. I get even lazier than usual when it's hot.

What are we doing this summer besides sitting in the air conditioned house? Not much, that's for sure.

Keith is taking a vacation this year, something he hasn't done in quite a while, what with job changes and surgeries and such. His last vacation was spent recuperating from knee surgery, and the one before that was spent recuperating from cancer surgery. What fun!

So, what will we do while he is on vacation besides get on each other's nerves because we'll be stuck in the air conditioned house because we can't afford to actually go anywhere? I'm talking not even go to the early show at the movies can't afford to go anywhere. We'd like to take the train up to Sacramento and go to Old Town for the day, but may not be able to spend the money, what with the electric bill being triple digits and all, but we'll see. It would be nice to do something fun.

I am hoping that he will get some of the still, yes still, unfinished house done while he is off work for a week, but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath. Don't get me wrong, he does a lot around here, but he's been fixated on the back yard (which still isn't done and it's getting too hot to work out there) but he is a perfectionist and it takes him a long long long time to finish a project, if ever. I am getting really really tired of not having a kitchen floor. Really tired.

And, in other important thoughts that go through my head on a random basis, how do I know it my laundry load is small, medium, or super? Do you just gently drop the laundry in the washer and kind of guess by how far it fills it up? Or do you stuff that laundry down in there and put it on the super setting, and just wing it from there? They're telling me to only wash full loads, but I need some clean underwear and that goes in the white load, and there's not that much else in the whites since it's summer and I'm not wearing socks every day to keep my feet warm, so basically it's just my underwear, so am I safe in assuming it's a small load and I'll put it on the small setting to save water? I can't afford to go buy more underwear, so I have to wash the stuff, and I can't wait until I have a full load since I'm out of underwear! Oh, the quandaries we face every day!

More Random Stuff

I was reading theblackapple.etsy.com's blog the other day and I just don't know how this girl does it. Her shop is probably the most successful shop on etsy, with over 12000 items sold. Yes, 12000! And she keeps up with her blog and is always busy with new things for her shop. Maybe because she is only 24 and still has lots of energy.
I sometimes feel overwhelmed with just my 2 little shops what with trying to keep up with shipping and finding time to create, photograph, and list new things. But, it sure beats the heck out of going to a 'real' job each day.

So, I saw Merle Haggard on the news last night for the dedication of his newly named street. The ceremonies were held at the new Harley Davidson bike shop. He looks like he's been rode hard and put away wet all his life, that's for sure. Apparently he is a native son of Oildale. Oildale is our 'wrong side of the tracks' part of town.

Why can't Keith put a new trash bag in the trash can after he takes the trash out? They are kept only about 12" away from the trash can. And why can't he put the food back where it belongs after he makes a snack? I guess it's that old 'just don't see the milk sitting there on the counter' thing.

And why can't I get my ass in gear and clean the bathroom? I am so tempted to hire someone to come in once a week and clean this house for me.

Our kittens seem to have finally grown out of the sucking on each others bellies thing. They would root around in each others bellies and suck up a flap of belly skin and just suck away. Kind of like a kitty version of a pacifier, I guess. You'd pick up one of the girls and her belly would be all wet and sticky. And every time I pick up Buddy I'm just amazed at how big and solid that kitten has gotten. When we first rescued him his whole body was about the size that his head is now!

We are actually taking a very short vacation this weekend. Sister Heather and her husband Jim are moving to La Paz-I think that's the right place, anyway. They live on a boat and are sailing away to Mexico here in a few weeks and are having an open boat/dock party this weekend. We are staying at a nice hotel Saturday night and visiting with Keith's kids the next morning before heading back home. Our last trip to Ventura was when we stayed at the horrible motel 6 and then had our car break down on the way home so we're hoping we have better luck this time.

I'm still re-working my shop, trying to take new pictures and re-list everything so the shop looks fresher. So, back to work!