For those about to Rock!.......We salute youuuuuuu!

Oh Yeah! On my way to work the other morning, I heard an ACDC song on the radio that I did not recall hearing before. After the song ended, I heard the annoucement I had been waiting to hear for nearly a decade - ACDC is going on a world tour after their new album is released in October! I literally gasped out loud. From the confines of his car seat in the back of the car I hear Big D say, "Mommy, you OK?....What's wrong?"
I know I am pretty much out of the loop as far as the current music scene goes but I thought I would never get the opportunity to see ACDC, one of my favorite bands of all time play live. Last Sunday, Jason scored our tickets for the now sold out show and we will be seeing them in Oakland come December 2nd. I just wish Big D was old enough to join us, I could make him wear a little school boy uniform just like Angus. The closest D has come to a good show is when we saw Green Day in SF when I was about 9 mos. preggers. I am sure some of that experience must have passed through to him via placenta somehow.

On to another topic:






The lady in pink you see here is Sharon, our purchasing agent here at work. The feathered friends surrounding her are the many ducks and geese that used to show up several times a day, starting very early in the morning for food. I say used to because the guy that runs the RV park next door has complained about the mess they make in the park and on the boat ramp. The Big Boss here at work put an immediate stop order on the feeding. Sharon was the person most affected by this. You see, Sharon arrives at work at 7:30 AM (Even though she does not have to) and she makes the coffee for everyone (Even though she does not drink coffee) AND, she made a point of buying $60.00 worth of poultry feed every couple of weeks......even though no one else chips in) You can see the pattern here....... she is never shy about letting us know all that she does for the greater cause.

Anyway, Sharon was miffed about the stop order and she turned her hurt feelings into feelings of anger directed at our feathered friends. For several days following the ban on their food, the ducks and geese would stare at us through the glass door of the office, some even brave enough to come right to the door and knock with their bills as if to say, "Hey, can't you see we are starving out here?! You have fed us for three years straight and watched us as we paraded our newly hatched offspring and now this?!"
Sharon would run out the door, arms waving franticly, shooing them all off until they stopped coming around.

Be free my friends, there is a reason Fish and Game prohibit the feeding of wild fowl. Please don't hate us..You can see the RV park in the background. These big girls probably left a nice big mess for the campers. Our friends have moved on and Sharon no longer has to run out and shoo them off then sit at her desk and ruminate about the injustice of it all.

Ok, last but not least, here are some pictures from a while back. Actually, most of the pictures I put in my blog are from "A while back" as I still don't have the hang of dumping new pictures off my camera and I usually wait until there are a lot on there before burning them to a disc and on the little stick thing. I will get there eventually, bare with me.

These pictures are from a few months ago when we took Big D bowling. D had caught about 15 minutes of professional bowling on TV one day and was so excited he would not stop talking about it. We decided to take him to Lakeside lanes and give him a taste of the real thing.

Here we are putting on his cool rental shoes:

Here are dad's cool shoes :

He was fascinated with the automatic ball return thinggy and would race back after each toss to see it come back.

Getting ready for me toss.

That is one happy boy.

Pirates, chili, slip 'n slides, and a dead horse

Wow, what a weekend indeed! The sad thing is I did not take any pictures whatsoever so I will have to scrounge some images up to add some pizazz.
Friday night, there was a chili cookoff benefit for the boys and girls club of Ukiah. Friedman's had a booth there, so of course I had to go support the cause. J. had been assigned the duty of cooking up the ground beef- 30 pounds to be exact. He had been at the cookout for several hours before I arrived in Ukiah and had been indulging in some brewski's compliments of the Rotary club. As I drove down State St. looking for a place to park. J. calls and tells me he will wait for me on the side of the road. I drive a few more blocks and I see him standing there waving, wearing a velvet pirate hat, gold hoop earings, a patch, and a shredded Friedman's shirt. Damn, why did I leave my camera at home?!



The festivities went well but Friedman's did not win any awards. As I am drove my drunk pirate home, I hear over and over how dissapointed he is, how hard he had worked, how he will go bigger and better next year blah, blah blah. I really had no idea he was so passionate about these things.

On Sunday, Big D. and I headed to Highland springs for a BBQ with my sister's softball team. My good friend Heather and her husband are the assistant caretakers so I gave her a call to tell her we are headed out her way. This is when I hear some disturbing news: someone's horse had collapsed and dropped dead right there in the park near the swim beach and the whole scene is pretty much unfolding as we spoke. The swim area adjoins the big grassy picnic area and as you can imagine, it was pretty difficult trying to shield the public from the whole situation.
Big D. was pumped up about going to the park so I did not have the heart to turn around and go home.So, I take my time driving out there, hoping the scene will be secure by the time we get there. When we arrive, there are tons of riders and horses, families everywhere. Off in the distance I see a tractor loading this poor horse into the bed of a pickup. Of course, the word was out and kids can be heard yelling, "I want to see the dead horse!" Of course, Danny is quick to pick up on all of this and he begins to ask me where the dead horse is. Luckily, he never saw the carnage as we were able to divert his attention by going and visiting some of the LIVE horses nearby. It was a very sad scene though:



Ok, I told you I didn't have a camera- even if I did do you think I would be there snapping pictures? By the way, I really do not recommend doing a google image search of "dead horse" ........This pic is actually kinda funny- isn't this the scene from Office Space when they were out there smashing the computer to pieces?! Love that movie!

Back to my story. Yes, it was actually very sad. Fortunately, the owner of the horse had been driven home so she did not have to witness the loading of the carcass or the callous heckling of small children. I talked with one of the riders who said the horse was a bit older and underweight. He had just been purchased by this gal recently and there was word that some other horses from the previous owner had recently been euthanized also- not a good scene.

On a lighter note, someone had set up a giant slip 'n slide (the cool homemade variety) on the lawn and entertained Big D. for quite a long time. Here is a pic from earlier this summer:



Well, that was ny weekend, anyway. Really getting the hang of this blog thing and have to say I love it. My next step will be customizing it = stay tuned!

Ahh, the fall lineup

Yes, it's that time of year again- the time when all of my favorite shows return for the new season. In the days before Teevo, we used to race home to either catch the shows live or scrambled to make sure the VCR would record the chosen show of the evening. There were days when unforseen events would sabotage these efforts and we would miss a show, causing much distress as you can imagine- and these were the days before Big D. We thank the powers that be that made Teevo possible. It really has been a blessing.
I honestly could care less about catching most shows, but there is one show in particulat that I am anticipating - The Office. Hands down the best show I have seen in years. I know there are many people that prefer the british version but this show is so freakin funny. I absolutely love each and every character and the show would not be complete without each and every one of them. The writers are geniouses.

I would not be able to choose my favorite character from this show, they are all so awesome and each one adds so much to the show. However, Dwight Shrute has a special place in my heart. Everyone knows a Dwight and may even be a Dwight on one level or another. As for why he stands out so much for me - he could be the clone for a certain higher up at a certain county agency I used to work at. I will not mention any names here but if you you this guy you would agree.

So, we went fishing on the dock the other day with the neighbor boys. The blue gill are biting like crazy and are easy catches for the kids so that makes it a lot of fun. Big D caught a good sized trout with the help of his dad. Normally, we would toss it back but this one swallowed the bait too far -"gutted it" as J woul say, so we ended up having to take it home and threw it on the grill. At least J. ate it. Sometimes he just brings the "gutted" ones home, throws 'em in the freezer and tries to ignore the fact that they are in there. Each time I would open the freezer door, I would see this big fish eye staring at me. Fortunately, my good friend H took this last fish off my hands. See, she feeds her dog a raw diet. Why, she will even take poor dead chickens freshly killed by her in-laws dogs. She's cool like that.

Fair time is fun time

Yes, labor day means one thing: Fair time at the L.C.!

I freakin' live for the fair. As a 4-H and FFA member in my youth, I began showing animals since the age of nine. in my world, the County fair marked the end of summer as well as the grand finale for all of my hard work.

Yes, indeed I put on my show whites, zipped up my blue and gold corduroy jacket and strutted my stuff.

These days, since I have unfortunately aged out of 4-H and FFA, I felt that I needed to nurture these feelings of fair involvement and once again feel the thrill of competition- I decided to enter some baked goods.

Here, you can see my little helper as he assists me with the mixing process. He and his dad were in charge of quality control.

So, we go to the fair on saturday, headed straight to Lewis Hall to see how we did, and look what we found:

Whoo Hoo! a first place for my chocolate crinkle cookies and a second for my recipe in a jar (Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies) Yeehaawww! That adds up to $8.00 in prize money plus bragging rights! Sweet!

On to the rest of the fair:

We had a grand old time. My sister, her hubby, and their daughter made the two hour trek and met us at the fairgrounds. The two cousins are only four months apart in age and it is really cute to see them together, walking around like a couple.

Here is Big D on the swings. It is weird seeing him ride all the rides on his own. He is a pretty brave little guy and loved giving high fives and shaking his fists in victory each time he passed by.

I made sure I took in the fair's culinary delights. During the two days I attended the fair, I made sure I did my share of sampling- Indian taco, corn dog, cinnamon roll, and that meat on a stick thing. Ahhhh, diet started this week!

Crazy Bit@h

Yes, that's my Katie girl. Partially to blame are the cruel people who mistreated her as a pup and also the fact that she is a border Collie. However, after nine years, you would think the girl would get a grip. She has been living here in a stable (well, most of the time) home environment. Even before her big brother, Rip, passed on to the spirit world Katie suffered from extreme separation anxiety that can not be eased despite seeking out professional trainers, gimmicks, medication, Pheremone diffusers and even a spiritual counseling / mediation appointment. This is what our 30 pound little girl is capable of doing when left alone:

This is our bathroom floor. We had to put her in there for one day as she had chewed through all of the rest of her housing and we did not have a safe place to keep her while we were at work.

So, what would any good mother do in this situation?????

Oh yea, you bring out the big guns. this baby cost a pretty penny but will at least contain her and save my marriage! This, my friends is the top of the line crate when your furry friend goes above and beyond the destruction of any sane beast. katie was able to escape other enclosures including but not limitted to chewing and bending chain link fencing and chewing her way through a vari-kennel from the inside out; squeezing through the side windows, which is a tremendous feat in itself.

No, her mental health needs are not being met here, but at least she can be housed safely while we are away. This way, she will be safe and sound for the weekends when we go do this: