Happy Holiday!

Greetings--we hope everyone's Holiday season has been off to an enjoyable start and is currently at an enjoyable cruise control speed.  We had a very, very wonderful and enjoyable trip back to NE Ohio for Turkey Day.  We loved seeing and catching up with (some of) our family and friends, and we can't wait to get back again. And while it was great, it of course can never last long enough, but it does at least remind us of how lucky we've been in the family/friends category...

So, to the fun.  We spent Thanksgiving Eve with Bethany, who was kind enough to pick us up at the airport with a Surprise Guest, her mom. Since the cross country flight wasn't enough fun, we later decided to make a quick Tgiving Eve run to Walmart for a few items--always an adventure!

Then we went to the Klein gathering where great food was shared and enjoyed, especially this tasty (Birthday) apple crisp, photographed here with its baker, Grandma Klein:

A happy birthday for me...

Then we headed for G-ville, where we enjoyed more food and where I cleaned up the bird after dinner. That was a first, and not that fun of a first... However, it did lead to this fun. The wishbone. I told Cara we should pose like the guys from the Beat It video. She thought we should smile.

 

She also thought she should get her wish, too:

 

There she is with the winnings.

We also decided to give our Christmas gifts early, rather than have them "wait until Christmas" (quotes to denote the fact that very few presents would make it that long, as admitted by most of the recipients...)

It was fun, as shown here by Vincent, who was so thrilled about his CARS hat, he tried to put it on upsidedown and folded shut!

He was also excited to help his dad help his sister open her San Diego Zoo T-shirt:

(That guy doesn't just LOOK like his uncle Dan!)

We also had two more party people, Madi and Tori. Here's Madi hanging out with the Martineau tagteam (as Vincent gives his sis a tiss on da head):

We spent the next day recovering from the turkey by sitting around the Vincent household, ocassionally getting in a good Rockin' session on Beatles Rock Band.  Vincent probably has the most fun out of anybody--even more than Dad, who REALLY likes to rock, duuuuuude...

On Sunday, we spent the evening at the Kleins for the Annual Cheesybread and Potato Soup meal/Cookie decorating.  It was lots of fun, as seen in the pictures below.


Vincent wasn't the only person who had fun opening presents:

 

Our sister/sister-in-law modeling their presents:

And Drew, modeling his:

And all of us, modeling... or something? (If you look close, some of those gifts are from the San Diego Zoo--Elephant pooh items! A Christmas ornament, notepad, and picture frame--obvious products to create with processed Elephant droppings! Drew's face is about right...)

That one was partly inspired by this one, taken Christmases '07:

Good times.

And we'll finish up with just a few other pictures.

Hope everyone enjoys their Holiday Season, and remembers the reason, and I also hope to keep up one of my resolutions: to be a better, more reliable blogger!

Zeke, waiting for crumbs/icing to fall, and probably for everyone to leave:

It's been TOO long...

Greetings from partly sunny, cooling California.  The Weather report tells us it's 47 F here at about 9 PM, and believe it or not we had the (little) heater on during the past few nights.  We're obviously still managing to persevere but we'll probably have to bring back some Ohio clothing...when we VISIT OHIO NEXT WWWWEEEEEEEEEK!!!

We're excited.

And one of the pleasant surprises about the cooler weather (which I enjoy, by the way--maybe because Ohio has given me a taste for "variation" in weather...) is that a surprising number of the trees here have turned bright colors.  I guess that might not be a big surprise to some, but we were happy to be reminded of home. I tried to take a picture with my phone on my walk home today, but it was acting up and I didn't want to stop...

Walking home? you say? Didn't want to stop? Yes, indeed, I was walking home. And the beginning of my journey has a great deal to do with this entries title: It's been TOO long...

This picture should explain it:

 

That's a blurry me, smiling because I'd just found out I would be employed. Thumbs up! It's a nice place to work and I've enjoyed the perks (hrnn hrnn). When I get back home, friends and family might too if the stars are aligned in their favor.

So, sadly I can't spend my evenings, afternoons, AND/or mornings surfing the net for deals on electronics and news about whatever it is I'm looking up news about... nor can I write these POLISHED (time-consuming) entries!

But, instead of weeping, let's move along on the fun!

I think now that we've gotten totally behind, we'll change things up. Let's treat this blog sort of like we're telling you about some of our recent news over dinner or something, or what the heck, over holiday treats and COFFEE!

In other words, like with that sort of conversation, we might remember to tell you everything we've done, if time permits, and we will most certainly not follow chronological order. Just like a real conversation, right? And however you want to imagine the setting and grub is fine.

So, speaking of work, Cara's is going well. She's getting along with coworkers and we actually had dinner the other night with a big group in a nice town south of us called Carlsbad. We've also gone to San Diego a few times, with friends and by ourselves.

Speaking of San Diego... our biggest news concerning that city is probably that we are now Members of the Zoological Society of San Diego--WITH certified cards that have a nice Panda portrait... Here's what we look like as Members:

That's us with our new friend, who is the oldest male from the looks of it. Taking a load off...
It was fun to watch him stand up and to watch his friends chew/grind their leafy stuff.

Here we are the first time we went, smiling about having a koala right behind us:

And smiling here on the double decker Zoo Tour bus, partly because of the kettle corn!

On our second trip, we were quite suprised to find a peacock-like bird just standing there on the deck/sidewalk! Lovely colors:

Cara was really impressed and wanted to see how close she could get and continued to follow it:

If the bird was ever as happy to see us as we were it, it wasn't anymore:

We also had to get a picture of the long necky, sticking out of a long necky...

 

And of course a picture with the elaphant! Look out Cara! There's an elephant RIGHT BEH...

Finally, here I am with what looks like a mullet. Not so. Just ILLUSIONS.

After our first visit, we checked out Balboa Park, which the Zoo is part of. It's one of the best places we've ever been--just a beautiful place for people to gather or just hang out. The museums are there, lovely architecture, and big trees! See Cara?

It was around Halloween so someone had decorated the statue of the woman who preserved Balboa Park. Glad she wasn't a witch in real life. Sorry it's sideways..

The view walking toward the museum area, and behind this is a longer promenade that ends with a fountain. Great stuff. (Batt. died before we made it to the fountain.)

So, that's been a lot of fun. Having the membership is great because we can just go for an hour or two even and enjoy ourselves, and maybe do something afterward.

So, lessee, I have no conversation segue to this next topic other than that I found the pictures in iPhoto close to the Zoo

That's a map, but not the zoo. That rugged terrain is Camp Pendleton, the Marine base just north of us. Cara and I ran the Hard Corp Series' Buffalo Alley 5k and 10k. I wisely didn't imagine how bad it could be in the weeks beforehand (I mean, come on, how bad could a Hard Corp Marine Corp race really be??   very bad actaully...  : (    ) But, my not imagining allowed me to run probably the worst course of my life. Neat!

(By the way, the bottom jaggedy blue graph in that picture is the elevation change for the course. As I said, jaggedy.  Neat!)

The good new was that my age group had an off day, so I got second in it, and the REALLY Good news is that Cara was the BLUE RIBBON WINNER! First in hers!

Here she is, with medal, in front of the hill we ran up during the first mile only, yikes:

There were indeed lovely views, which did help, sorta...

We recovered quickly, though, and couldn't pass up climbing the rope. Neat!

Cara tried, too...

 

Overall, as I said, Neat!

 

Us: "Well, (shuffle something on the table and sit up straight to hint that this visit is coming to a close) shall we hit the road __(term of endearment addressed to significant other, such as sweet-y pie)___? "

Sweet-y pie: "Yeah, we will let you folks get some rest. I know it's been a LONG week!" (or in this case, a long entry, after a long break...)

You: (something to quicken the closing of this weird moment/unfunny ending to this blog entry)

Take care!

P.S.
We had lots of fun while Uncle Jimmy visited, especially going to Downtown, Old Town, and meeting cousin Stephan at Farmers Market, Hollywood:

That's a shot taken with another excellent tripod from Uncle: the Gorilla Wrap-Around-Anything Tripod! Thanks!

P.P.S.

I hope we get to tell you, next time, about:

Pete Yorn, and our Less Sunny, Little Miss Sunshine Car Horn Experience.

Getting on TV and Winning a BRAND-NEWW-CAHHRR!?

It was my birthday! I was going to DISNEYLANNND!

The Grandest of Canyons and other indescribable stuff...

After the ice cream and battery charging, we headed toward 17 mile...

Monterey, CA

Hello. I know it's been a while, but in this episode:

How Hotwire.com nearly turned us into the stranded travelers looking for a room at the inn late at night!

The Monterey charity volunteer/conman/"street performer"

17 Mile Drive

Dead cameras leading to a feeling of loathing at Lover's Point

And "I wonder where we can find WIFI and electrical outlets"

Let's see, so we're basically to our last day of adventures pre-Oceanside.

The evening we arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, we just wandered around enjoying the view for a bit, then we decided to check out the neat little downtown area and eat dinner. It's a very nice little town full of art galleries at every other door, restaurants, B&Bs, and even nice little gift shops.  It was especially nice because even the gift shops took care to keep things nice--they even decorated the newspaper boxes (those big obnoxious, brightly-colored things on street corners) to fit in the decor by looking like wooden crates. Cool stuff... not to mention all the artwork to see...

We decided on some Thai, where Cara posed with the menu in the low lighting next to a nice wooden gal:

We had a nice meal and tried to work our magic with hotels.com/hotwire. We were in luck and stayed at a local hotel of which I haven't much recollection--so little that I had to quit writing this blog the other day until Cara refreshed my memory.

Part of the reason I'd forgotten was probably because of the next day's activities. We got up, had a quick breakfast before the hotel worker cleaned it up (the only part I remember), and we headed to Monterey.

I dropped Cara off at the Aquarium area and looked for a parking spot, which brought a first/surprise.  I saw a decent sized grocery store, so I thought I'd buy something small and park for the hour or two we'd be there. To my surprise, there was a guy standing and the corner of the store, and as I was refilling my jug of water, I thought "Nehhhh, he can't really be scoping out the parking lot..." Welp, he was. So as I walked out of the parking lot toward the aquarium, he kindly asked me to move my car.  That was a first, but at least he didn't just call the towing company.

We didn't go in the aquarium, which was a bit pricey, but we enjoyed the view of the water and wildlife behind it (look for the little, glossy heads breaking the water's surface):

Then we saw that they had a free trolley to the harbor, so we waited for that and in the mean time, wandered around the shops. That's when we were--stopped--by a regular looking guy with an unusual spiel:

(Turns around abruptly and puts his hand, palm forward, at eye level) "Stop... we have a report of a beautiful smile on your face (looking at Cara) about 10 feet back... and this is a Beautiful Smile-Free Zone (handing her a bumper sticker that says so...)" We giggle, wondering what in the world's going on. "I'm just kidding of course, and my names... and I'm from... (had some interesting, but probably bogus, press-pass type credentials hanging from his neck) and we're collecting money this holiday weekend for veterens, veterens' families, and... (it seems like he mentioned all the possibilities including homeless, 9/11 victimes, etc but I can't really remember. It's a kind of a blur.) And, sir, it looks like we might have some incriminating evidence against you... do you recall this? (hands me a Farfrompuking bumper sticker)" We giggle awkwardly again, still in a bit of a blur. "So just wondering if you can contribute..."

At this point, I know I only have a five and a twenty in my pocket. So, I look at Cara, saying "Uhm, not sure if I have anything," hoping she has say, a dollar or maybe a few nickles.  Sadly, she doesn't take the bait, and I panic and cough up five bucks for 2 lousy bumper stickers--but FOR A GOOD CAUSE, of course.

And there you have it, the The Monterey charity volunteer/conman/"street performer".

We say "street performer" because that was the best way I could think of to make myself feel better after handing over the fiver.  I told Cara, well, he really did have a nice act, so if he were, say, covered in silver paint and acting like a statue, we would have given him a few bucks and gotten no stickers, so...

Whatever, at least he had an impressive act, if not a legitimate, charitable foundation.

Then, we took the trolley to the harbor where we went on a nice walk and took a few pics.

We explored first, and discovered this first--Cara's clearly a natural:

(The posting she's pointing toward is a Earthquake Warning about the building being unstable!)

Then we went to the Wharf:

And we had some very good Clam Chowder to-go from Crabby Jim's--a nice little restaurant on the Wharf with a fun name:

Then we decided to walk back to our car, parked near the aquarium, on the a nice waterline path (where we wished we could jog everyday). Here's one of the views:

A beautiful view, and a delicious lunch.

Another view, this is the end of the Wharf:

And then some of the little guys and gals that call it home, even though they're a bit hard to see:

 

We really enjoyed the walk, but were happy to get back to our car and see other areas.  You might notice those are smaller pictures and I'm not sure but I think that's because our camera began to die so those are phone pictures...

That influenced our next stop: Lover's point, a scenic, coastal park with steps down to the beach and a some beautiful rocks (I took a few pics, some more useless than others):

 

 

One lovely one of the Point...

And after setting up the tripod, the only one together before the battery died:

Which naturally led to this, caught with my camera phone:

Ta Da! 

Dead cameras leading to a feeling of loathing at Lover's Point!

Next: "I wonder where we can find WIFI and electrical outlets"

Our answer, after driving into town:

This was an interesting ice cream shop, with walls plastered with 60's and 70's memorabilia, mostly of the Beatles. Most important, after the tasty ice cream, were the outlets and wifi for researching the 17 mile drive.

Batteries reccharged, we made two more stops, one of the first lighthouses on the west coast and the butterfly sanctuary, free of any butterflies...

It was kind of funny because it was this spot that's famous for butterflies stopping there on the flight south, but when you get there it's a totally empty, small park-like area with two trails about 100 yards in length.

The fun part was that we were walking back wondering "is that it?" when we saw a little fawn, right on the path! No wings on it but that was a sight! Unfortunately, we don't seem to have pics for you and I'm not sure how to get video to work--all the documentation we have of the lil' thing...

But, I guess that makes for a good cliff hanger for next episode--as you you probably grumbled a few mintues ago, this one's gotten too long!

So, next time, the stranded travelers and 17 mile drive...