Fun Run

So my buddy Sean had the idea to hike Cowels Mountain one day to watch the sunrise. Cowles is the highest peak in San Diego County at a little over 1500 feet and I had never hiked it so I was stoked to give it a try in the dark!

We got the trail head around 5am, strapped on our headlamps and headed up.

This is the view of the valley from the top of Cowels:

There is a trail that links Cowels peak to another peak named Piles. I had heard that very few people ever made the extra hike over to Piles so I was all for it. Sean was content to relax and watch the sunrise from Cowels so I struck out on my own to see if I could make it before the sun came up.

There is something exhilarating about running an unfamiliar trail in the dark all by your self and I loved it.

Just before sunrise at Piles Peak:

Looking back at Cowels from Piles peak (Cowels peak is just behind the radio towers):

Clouds blanketing the valley below:

Moon above the valley:

Almost!:

WHAMO!:

It was a blast and I definitely plan on doing it again!

Great idea Sean! Thanks!



http://youtu.be/wHs_XvtulzA

Drinkin' Wiiiiine in the Alley . . . .

I have done some wine tasting in Napa more than once. I love the fancy-schmancy of the locations so long as it is paired with down-to-earth sommaliers.

I have also been wine tasting in the Temecula Valley more than once - fancy-schmancy is not usually on the menu but I love it all the same because you get the sense that these are hard-working middle-class folks.

And then there is wine tasting in Julian. Strictly mom and pop. Heck, you are happy if they have their pants ON let alone "schmancy". We are talking boot-leg wineries here . . . This is a photo of the outside of one of the tasting rooms in Julian (one of the nicer ones) and I love it.

More Palomar Mtn. Goodness

Weekends, Sleeping In

by Marjorie Saiser

No jump-starting the day,
no bare feet slapping the floor
to bath and breakfast.

Dozing instead
in the nest
like, I suppose,
a pair of gophers

underground
in fuzz and wood shavings.
One jostles the other
in closed-eye luxury.

We are at last
perhaps
what we are:
uncombed,
unclothed,
mortal.

Pulse
and breath
and dream.

Winesh Country

The Temecula Valley is our local "Wine Country". It's not as well-known as Napa of course, it's not as nice as Paseo Robles and the wine isn't as good as Santa Barbara, but it is a two hour drive from home - which makes it the best Wine Country around!

Friends of ours are members of a Temecula Winery wine club and they drive out every few months or so to pick up their latest shipment. We tagged along a few weeks back and had a great time.

We stopped in at 3-4 wineries but the highlight of the day for me was lunch! When I think of an ideal afternoon, not much beats a picnic lunch with sandwiches, good friends and a bottle or two of the grape.

We also found a couple of workable spots for a round of Bocce ball so we will have to bring the Bocce set along next time!

Picnic tables in the middle of the vines:

Freshly crushed grapes!:

This winery cleverly wrote all sorts of little wine factoids on their barrels in chalk:

We claimed the table in the lower left for our grand picnic!

If you are interested in checking out our winesh country, go to http://www.temeculawines.org/

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Wife: You are going to eat chili for lunch and then get on the plan tonight? Great. I will be looking forward to sitting next to you on the flight.

Me: We aren't cartoons! Just because I have chili for lunch does not mean there will automatically be a problem!

Wife: (walking away muttering) Why don't you pack yourself a brand muffin and some prune juice to go with that chili of yours . . . .

So we are packing up for a long-overdue weekend in Sacramento with a family of friends. After spending so much time with her "brothers" at the TKA, it is going to be interesting to see how Annabelle reacts to her "sisters" Kathryn and Lauren.

Posting will be light if not non-existent this weekend.

ATTENTION BURGLARS: If you are planning to burgle us this weekend, there is a horrid green steamer trunk in the guest room that the wife and I have been arguing over for years. Feel free to take it.

As a good will gesture, you are welcome to take anything that will fit in the trunk. I suggest you start with the pile of clothes that are heaped in the bassinet as I am pretty sure those are going to Goodwill anyway. You should also give some consideration to the worn-out crappy PC in the family room but leave the external drive as that has all our photos and important documents in it.

Just don't wake up the dawg.

If you do wake up the dawg, you are going to have to use your own cell phone to dial 911 as the home phone still hasn't been hooked back up yet (that is assuming you can get your hand out of his mouth long enough to dial).

If worse comes to worse, our neighbor is retired and he most likely will come barging over when he hears your screaming. On the upside, Buckley really likes him and will probably "leave it" if our neighbor asks him to. On the downside, he is a gun-owner so, you know, he will probably insist that you to hang around until he can get you the proper medical and law-enforcement help that you need.

Happy burgling!

And happy Labor Day weekend!

Weekend Adventures - 5/2-5/4

I know, I know - the weekend was THREE WHOLE DAYS AGO. An eternity in the digital world.
I just had to share a little bit about our adventures last weekend.

Friends of ours never intended to home school their three boys but through a series of events, that is where they are right now. They have named their home school the "Kessler Academy" aka "Team Kess" or TKA for short.

Well Friday evening, the TKA put on their first theatrical production:


We all met at the TKA for dinner after work on Friday. After dinner, we were all invited to hang out in the back yard while the stage was set. When it was time to begin, the house lights flickered on and off and we were escorted around the side of the house and were greeted by Jordan at the front door handing out the play bills.

The stage was the living room and Dining room with the hallway on the right and the kitchen on the left serving as backstage.

It was FANTASTIC! Corey wrote and directed the play and Jordan designed the sets. The boys memorized their lines and each scene had its own set design. Riley played the part of Pharoh dressed in a robe and a Darth Vader helmet (his part basically consisted of running through the middle of scenes yelling "I'M PHAROH! AARRRGGGH!) There was even special effects when it came to the parting of the Red Sea!

We all had a blast and afterwards we had Hot Fudge Sundays to celebrate. So much fun.

I spent Saturday morning doing the heavy-lifting-type yard work (ladders and hedge trimmers and barrels full of yard trimmings). I rewarded myself by taking the dawg to dawg beach in the afternoon.

Sunday morning was my birthday.

So many of our friends have made themselves totally available to us through this challenging time and so we have felt that it is very important that we make ourselves available to them as well. This has translated into quite a few nights out/in eating with friends etc. It has all been wonderful but we were due for some "down time".

When the wife asked what I wanted to do for my birthday my immediate reaction was "Skip it". And that's largely what we did.

Here is what my version of what skipping a birthday looks like:

Wake up - Read my book on the back deck - One of my favorite breakfasts: Orange Rolls and Bacon - Watched CBS Sunday Morning - Read my book on the back deck - Light gardening - Read my book on the back deck - Left-over burritos for lunch - Read my book on the back deck - Light gardening - Watched a movie - Read my book on the back deck - Grilled some steaks -Watched a movie - Chocolate cake that my wife baked that afternoon - No phones - No e-mails - No computers

It was wonderful - just what I needed - one of the best birthdays ever.

Weekend Adventures - Part 2

After a great Sunday morning in church, the wife and I headed home and had a lunch of reheated Spaghetti that the neighbors had brought over the night before. We sat out at the picnic table in the back yard and enjoyed the fruits of our yard-work labor from Saturday.

After that, we headed to the mall so that the wife could spend the gift certificate to Old Navy she got for her birthday on maternity clothes. The dawg and I waited outside the store and read a magazine.

I can't tell you what a joy it is to have a big, handsome, well-behaved dawg. Whenever we are in public, child after child will come up and pet him, pull his ears and wrap their arms around him. He is going to make a great dawg for Annie.

Our trip to the mall complete, we stopped by Petsmart for sundry items and then met up with a friend for an evening at the beach in honor of the wife's birthday.

San Diego has a big recreational bay called Mission Bay. In it, there is a finger of land called Fiesta Island which is sort of an anything goes section of the bay - you can drive your car on the beach - ride your horse on the beach - dawgs can run off leash etc. Our friend brought her dawg and the two dawgs ran up and down the beach - now swimming - now running - now wrestling.

Even though it was a little cooler this weekend, it was absolutely beautiful (the campfire didn't hurt in that regard).

As we sat around the fire and watched the sunset we marveled that we didn't do this more often. It is practically free - just dump what is in your fridge into a cooler, pick up some firewood and in 20 minutes you are there.

We all made a pact to be better about enjoying things like that this summer.

It felt good to decompress a little.

Making Yourself Available

My job requires my to be on the phone most of the day. When I am not on the phone, I am returning the approximately 100 work e-mails I get each day. When I am not doing either of those things, I am conferring with my assistant who I share an office with. I am SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE.

My commute is only 10 minutes and the evenings are spent with the wife. I am rarely ever alone.

As hard as it is, getting up at 4am everyday seems to help. I sit in the quiet and read or write, pay bills etc.

The wife is currently in Manhattan for five days at a work convention and I have the weekend to myself.

Although the house is a filthy wreck, I decided to give myself a mini vacation. Thursday night I ordered a pizza and watched back episodes of Lost.

Friday morning I got up and did nothing but drink coffee and watch the news before work.

Last night I came home and cooked one the frozen meals that a friend had delivered and watched movies.

Today is road trip day. The dawg and I are going to take a two-hour drive to Idyllwild - a little mountain town Northeast of San Diego.

The wife wants to go on a "babymoon" before Bella arrives and I thought this might be a good (read: inexpensive) option - but I need to check it out first. And I need to get out of town and clear my head.

My plan was to spend the weekend in quiet and easy isolation. All social invitations were to summarily rejected.

And then a friend called.

We are blessed with so many caring friends and Annie's situation is breaking more hearts than just the wife's and mine. It occurred to me as I was on the phone that as much as I want some alone time this weekend, I might actually need some social time as well.

Not only that, but some of our friends need to talk about this for their own healing. They need us to be available to them as much as we need them to be available to us.

So a buddy of mine is going to join the dawg and I on the road trip today.

Tomorrow, I am meeting up with friends at a dawg beach to cook weeners and watch the Sea World Fireworks.

I feel like these trying times in life cause us to build walls around ourselves for protection the question is, are you going to be the only person inside your protective ramparts?

If ramparts need to be built, so be it - but I want my friends on the inside (plus they can pull their weight and help with the building).

Weekend Adventures 3/8/8

Cat to the vet? Check.
Flea medicine on the cat and dawg? check. check.
Blogging? check.
Clean the catbox(s)? check. check. check.
Clean the cat feeding area? check.
Laundry? check.
Print out next week's calender of social engagements? check.
Trim the yard? Check.
Fill the bird feeders? check.
Brush the dawg? check.
Fill the tiki torches? check.
Mow the lawn? Check.
Spray the weeds? Check.
Water the lawn? Check.
Do the Dishes? Check.
Oil the bathroom door? Check.
Store the cat carrier? Check.
Air out the house? Check.
Finish the crown molding on the mantel? NOT CHECKED.

Why? Because crown moulding was developed in the R&D lab of He**. I CAN'T FIGURE OUT THE ANGLES! And no, btw, it is not 45 / 45. It appears to be 45 / 22.5 one way and something else the other.

If that sounds like gibberish, welcome to my Saturday.

My neighbor (head of the maintenance department for the local school district) came over and after hacking what was left of my molding into pieces shrugged and said, "When you figure it out on the Internet, let me know".

I appreciate his efforts - I know I could not have done any better on my own.

So that's it for today. The forces of home-improvement darkness have descended upon me and I know when to say "when".

Friday

Sweet, Sweet Friday.

Casual Day.

If you work in a place where . . .

Wait a second, that's how we started last Friday and look where it led . . .

Nevertheless, it is Friday. And I am hopeful for the weekend.

I finished the main part of the mantel last weekend so this weekend it is all about the crown molding. I have no idea how to do crown molding. From what I gather, you have to cut it a 45 degree angel at a 45 degree angle (that's not a typo) - up-side-down. Then you use the pneumatic nail gun to attach it. I don't have a pneumatic nail gun.

Oh well - we will give it the ol' college try.

Also on tap for the weekend? Yard work (which I enjoy). We also plan on going to church.

In Seattle, we had a church that we loved which has made it all the more difficult to find a church that is a good fit here in San Diego. For the past 5 years our church attendance has been sporadic at best and now the pressure is on to find a "church home". Why all the pressure? The BABY, of course!

We want our child to grow up with a strong spiritual foundation and church is just the thing. I don't believe that this is something that the wife and I can fully impart to our child on our own. Sure, we can teach our child to be a socially acceptable "good person", we can pray with our child and model Christian adulthood, but that's just the thing . . .

I don't want to be "the" spiritual model for my child - because I am basically a rotter and I want something more for my child. I want Christ to be the model. Sure, I can model what it is like to imperfectly pursue Christ-like-ness - but I want my child to be in touch with the source.

I am sure that we will have family devotions and run through the Bible stories and all. But it is different when your child gets spiritual direction not only from the home but from adults whom they spend time with outside the home.

I also want my child to develop friendships with peers in a setting centered around God and love and over-all betterment. I want my child to dress up once a week - memorize bible verses in exchange for cheap little goodies that double as choking hazards - sing in the children's choir - Go to church camps.

So, church it is.

We probably don't really need to settle on a church until the critter is 1 or 2 for the critter's sake but I would like to be established and at home in a church by the time the child is able to look around start making judgements.

So there it is. Weekend, come and get it!

Weekend Adventures - 2/23/08-2/24/08

There is something about working on a Saturday that seems to just suck the life right out of me.

I got home around 11am on Saturday, putzed around for an hour and then took the dawg to dawg beach. We came home and I put in Guns, Germs and Steel. It's a National Geographic series that seeks to explain why some cultures have become so powerful while others have not.

I fell asleep.

But not because of the movie - I am just whipped from the long week at work.

Fortunately, I woke up in time to meet up with friends at The Linkery for dinner.

Sunday morning was spent watching CBS. They had a story about Chuck Feeney - a billionaire who took 5 million of his money to live on and GAVE AWAY THE OTHER 8 BILLION to people in need.

"Feeney, concluded Dwyer, was what Donald Trump would be if he lived his entire
existence backward. "

After that I put the finishing coat on the new mantel for the fireplace, we ran some errands, picked up the house and had a couple of buddies over who helped me pick up the book shelf we bought last weekend at an antiques store for the nursery.

The wife stayed up last night digging out some of our children's books and some heirlooms from both our childhoods (click on photo for close up).

The brown walls will eventually be painted - as well as the book shelf. I imagine that any heirlooms we don't want destroyed will eventually have to be put out of reach. But still . . .

The two little dolls on the right-hand side are Holly and Heather Hobby Dolls that my wife and her sister used to play with. Next to those is a drawing in a black frame done by my wife's grandfather who passed away. The bear in the green jumper below was made for my wife by her grandmother who is turning 90 this year. On top of the book shelf (out of the photo) is one of my favorite pot-bellied bears from childhood - you get the picture. It gives me a little bit of a wispy feeling to see it all.

And now we have a place to put all the crap that we are beginning to accumulate . . .

Not bad for $50.

Friday

Sweet, Sweet Friday.

Casual Day.

If you work in a place where "casual day" is something to look forward to . . . well, I feel your pain.

3 weeks ago all H.E. double hockey-sticks broke loose with the new job, new pregancy and what-not. I have pretty much been red-lining it ever since.

Yesterday, the new job brought in someone to help me out. She is just "temporary" but it is someone I have worked with before and have faith in so I plan on rolling into the office today at the late hour of 7:30am or so (as opposed to 3:45am).

And it's casual day - did I mention casual day?

On the baby-front (and believe me, I have just about maxed myself out on the baby front - "booo baby") there is little-to-nothing more I can do. I have read what needs to be read, signed up for a couple of e-mail newsletters and enlisted the help and advice of friends with children (sounds like a 12-step support group "Hi, my name is Joe, and I have been a father for 2 1/2 years now . . . ." . . . (group) "Hi, Joe.")

At this point it is take it day-by-day, weed through all the advice and roll with it.

So the job is settling down, the prego-panic is at an ebb - now on to the house.

It's raining. It won't stop raining. IT WON'T FRIGGIN' STOP RAINING! The good thing about the rain is all those outside weekend chores get wiped right off the list.

I plan on picking up the book shelves we purchased last week (If I can find a pick-up or trailer).

I plan on finishing the mantel piece (not including the crown molding).

I plan on getting through some paperwork, voice mail, e-mail and snail mail.

I plan on picking up the house.

Maybe a little reading time by the fire . . . smoking pipe in hand.

NO! YOU CAN'T SMOKE IN THE HOUSE! YOU WILL KILL YOUR UNBORN BABY!

Fine. Maybe a little reading time on the back deck. In the rain. Bundled up from the cold. Smoking pipe in hand . . .

These kids I tell you, they change your life . . .

There you have it. I am coasting into this weekend on nothin' but fumes. But sometimes it feels good to coast . . .

And tomorrow night we are going back to The Linkery with friends! Cask-conditioned Victory-at-Sea, here I come! (Picture a beer made from chocolate cake, Starbucks and Guinness !) Woo Hoo!

Breathe In Breathe Out

We did indeed go "antiquing" today and we did indeed purchase two bookshelves which we will pick up next week for various reasons.

There is actually a section in the instruction manuel entitled: "Anxiety Over the Baby's Health: I am so afraid that something will be wrong with the baby, I can't even sleep at night."

Not me, no siree, I am the picture of cool-calm and collected.

It's on page 438 of the Third Edition, by the way and it helped me greatly.

For all the rules, lists and excel spreadsheets, it seems to me that so long as your are a relatively normal and healthy person, there is little else to be done to ensure the health of your unborn child.

You're not an alcoholic, you aren't a drug addict, you don't smoke a pack of cigs a day, you are not a linewoman for a professional football team, you basically do your best to eat and live healthy (and now that you know you are pregnant - even more so), What more are you going to do?

It's in God's hands. SO YOU PRAY. YOU PRAY LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER PRAYED BEFORE.

Actually even that isn't true. You know God loves you, you know that he wants the best for you, you know that it is not his desire that your child be stricken with some never-before-seen-disease.

There is little else to be done. Eat right - take it easy. Lay off the sauce and the smokes. Don't play professional football . . .

Provided all the above is true, those who have beautiful, healthy babies probably deserve no more credit for that fact than those same healthy lifestyle people who miscarry at 8 1/2 months (and we know some of those people). It's one of those things we strive to convince ourselves that we have more control over than we really do.

It's life (literally and figuratively) only so much of it is in your control - do your best - hope for the best - pray daily - allow yourself to love that which cannot be seen . . .

Buy bookshelves at antique stores if you can't afford new stuff - put the poisenous cleaning supplies out of reach . . .

You are parents now for pete's sake.

Weekend Adventures 2/16-2/18

WHOA!

Aaaaand we're back. Blogging in real time folks!

The cold has run it's course and all that is left is a few last vestiges of crud here and there.

The wife is back to working Saturdays so I had the house to myself. I did some general straightening, opened two weeks worth of mail, paid the bills, did the laundry and did some work on the new mantel I am making for the fireplace.

On Sunday we steeled ourselves and made the dreaded but inevitable trip to BABIES R US. It actually wasn't all that bad.

At this point, we aren't going to these stores in search of answers - we are going in search of questions. Since we don't even know what questions we should be asking, we wander up and down the aisles and every now and then stop and say, "Do we need that? I had no idea we would need that."

I have now read through the entire instruction manuel and my Excel spreadsheet is pretty much complete with all the major items - so far as I can tell.

We are beginning to formulate opinons about things - we like this, we don't like that, let's try and limit these . . .etc.

We are also coming to the realization that WE CAN'T AFFORD ALL THIS CRAP! Well, it's important for children to learn how to deal with dissapointment . . . Lesson #1.

Having realized that we can't afford all new furniture, today we are off to antique stores in search of old busted stuff coated with lead paint for the baby's nursery . . .

The wife got me to go into one antique store yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised to learn how inexpensive used book shelves can be.

So its off to Old People's Row today. Hopefully we will be back in time to do some yard work and make some more progress on the mantel.

BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING A NEWBORN APPRECIATES MORE THAN A SHINY NEW MANTEL OVER THE FIREPLACE.

Wekend Adventures - 2/4/8

=Post posted=

No, we were not "trying". And by "trying" I mean we were not scheduling romantic evenings by the changing of the tides, the position of the stars or any other "cycles". We did not have special pillows.

After about 12 years of marriage, the wife and I came to the conclusion that, "Yes, we want children - someday". Which was quite a step for us.

After about 15 years of marriage, the wife and I came to the conclusion that the window of opportunity was narrowing but that we were not "ready yet".

So we agreed that we would not "try" to get pregnant but that we would stop "preventing".

Apparantly, this is what not preventing gets you - who knew?

So how do I feel about the pregnancy? Tired. Just tired.

It's obviously diffrent for a man than a woman. For the woman, she begins to feel funny. She feels tired all the time. She feels sort of queasy in the middle. The body starts to get sore in places as it changes. When a woman discovers she is pregant, all the peices start fitting into place. It all begins to make sense.

The man on the other hand, already has all his peices in place (so to speak). Life already makes sense. He isn't feeling any of the changes that the woman feels. And then WHAMO! The wife says she is pregant. This explains nothing for the man. All the pieces of his puzzle are rearranging. Life no longer makes sense.

You find yourself sitting on your couch with your wife who is simultaneously relieved and apprehensive - watching your every movement, your every expression, for some clue as to how you truly feel about this life-altering miracle and all you can think is "not possible - not possible - I wonder what's for dinner - not possible - she's watching me - LOOK HAPPY - not possible . . . "

There is no proof.

You can't see it, hear it, touch it. You just have the word of your wife and a plastic stick with heirogryphics on it that supposedly spell out "Your life has changed forever".

So how do I feel? Tired. And we have a full day ahead. Friends of ours have come down from Seattle to run the Surf City Marathon with friends of ours from Oceanside.

The wife has agreed to drive up to Orange County to babysit and cheer on the runners.

I am headed into the office for my last day.

I kissed my illegedly pregant wife and we parted ways.

The Seattlite's marathon experience is here while the Oceansider's experience is here.

I packed up my office as planned, e-mailed in my resignation, and carted the boxes to the new office. That's when it hit me. As of Monday morning, we will be without health insurance.

When we decided "not to prevent", I maxed out our insurance plans. I maxed out the Life insurance the Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance (lovely name) the Long Term Disability insurance, the Health insurance - I even got insurance for my insurance through that company with the quacking goose.

As I understand it, if we ever go to the hospital and have to pay a dime out of our pockets, one phone call and the Goose pulls up in an armored car outside the hospital with lights flashing, rushes in with bags of cash and apologizes 1000 times for any inconveninece we have suffered while bowing and scraping as they back out of the hospital room.

At least that's the way the salesperson made it sound . . .

Now it was all for naught. My gold-plated insurance with the old company would expire upon my resignation and the insurance with the new company would not start for another three months at which point the pregancy would be deemed a pre-existing conditon and not be covered.

We. Are. Screwed. (In every sense of the word).

But there's no time to dwell, I need to rush to the store to buy the pregnancy instructions.




After that I headed to Oceanside to meet up with the Marathoners for dinner and our big announcement.

There was hugs and kisses all round and everyone was joyous.

I still don't feel it. I'm so tired . . . .

Weekend Adventures - 2/2/8

=Post-Posted=

I got up early Saturday morning to head into work. I have been working 13-hour days for the past week and I plan on working all weekend.

Since I am "post-posting" this, I can tell you that the reason for all these extra long hours is that I have been preparing to quit my job.

That's right. Without going into all the details, I am disgruntled and a company that I used to work for has made me an offer that will somewhat "ungruntle" me.

I plan on working all day Saturday and packing up my office on Sunday. The last thing I am going to do on Sunday is walk down the empty and darkened hall, drop my keys on the boss' desk, return to my computer and e-mail in my resignation. My first day at the new place is on Monday.

Again, without going into all the details, my job is not one where people give "notice". Were I to go into the boss and give him two-weeks, he would just tell me to pack my things immediately.

At least this way, I can leave under my own timing.

So there I was, working on my last Saturday with the Co.

Around 7pm, the wife called and asked me to, "Just come home". She was right, enough was enough.

I shut things down and was homeward bound.

When I got home, it was immediately obvious that the wife had not ticked off many of the chores she had set out for herself to do today and it made me wonder what had transpired and derailed her plans.

"Sit down", she said to me.

Okaay - it sounds like she has spent the day on the phone with a friend or family member in crises and I was about to get the "411".

I sat in my usual chair near the fireplace.

"No, sit next to me" she said, patting the couch.

"Ok", and I moved.

"We are going to have a baby", said the wife.

"Who's going to have a baby?", I replied.

"We are"

Things were not computing. We are very close to many of our friends and have even been designated godparents for some of their children. It would not be out of-the-question for one of our friends to be having a baby and the wife would refer to it as "We are having a baby".

"One of our friends is having a baby?", I ventured.

"No. We. You and me. Are having a baby."

Okay, now the wife was talking nonsense. In the movies, people have "relations" (I think is the appropriate term) and the female bolts out of bed in the morning and pukes in the toilet. Since my 13-hour a -day-seven-days-a-week schedule has cut into our "quality time" lately, there was no way we could be pregnant.

"But that's impossible!" I said.

"December 3rd", she replied.

"December 3rd?"

"December 3rd was when it happened"

According to my wife, we are having a baby.

Weekend Adventures - 1/13/8

I awoke early Saturday full of "vim and vigor". I had an impossibly long list of things to do this weekend and was intent on doing my best to see it all through.

Fortunately, most of the work was yard work and I can do that sort of thing from dawn to dusk without getting bored or tired.

I pruned the Angel Trumpet tree, the Nectarine tree, the Pine tree, the Grape vine, the Roses, the Wisteria, and the tangle of vines, shrubs and trees that make up the back fence line.

I filled the bird feeders, checked to make sure the tiki torches were full, crawled under the house to make sure the plumbing wasn't leaking, replaced a light bulb or two on the front porch, mowed the lawn, swept up the debris front and back from last week's storm, fertalized the lawn, hosed down the deck, watered the lawn and potted plants, moved the xmas decor to the shed, realized the shed was "all-wrong", hauled everything out and put it back in, which led to the realization that the stuff we are storing in the half-remodeled family room is "all wrong" so I rearranged all that, picked up this and that around the house, cleaned out the BBQ, planted three bowls of snap-dragons, filled in the holes the dawg dug the week before and sprayed all the weeds.

As the sun started to fade Sunday evening, I realized I had still not fixed the shower. Fortunately, I had picked up the new diverter spout when we were running a few errands - so I grabbed some tools and climbed in. I bought the wrong spout, of course.

Loaded up the dawg and headed back to Home Depot because, let's face it, what would a trip to Home Depot be without another trip to Home Depot? Instead of greeters like Wal-Mart, they ought to have someone at the exit with a big smile saying, "See you real soon! We close at 8pm today."

Suffice it to say, if you are walking into a Home Depot at 5pm on a Sunday evening, something has definitely gone wrong.

To quote Donald Rumsfeld, "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Things we don't know we don't know. Those are the killers. Very rarely do I make a wrong purchase at Home Depot. My troubles stem from not asking the right questions back at the house. I know I need a faucet for the tub, I head to HD to discover that there is more than one kind of connector. This, I had not thought of. I make the correct purchase based on what I know only to get home and find that I didn't. Know that is.

Anyway, I always take the dawg to HD - people are just as surprised to see him there as they are to see him at the mall, but there are far fewer disapproving looks at HD. I found the right spout, picked up some grass seed and other items, checked out (again), and headed for home.

Amount of time that replacing the shower spout should have taken had I read the directions correctly and not jammed the plastic widget in backwards? 15 min.

Actual time spent replacing the shower spout? 30 min.

Such is life. All in all, a good weekend. The house feels like it is on the "improving" side of the ledger instead of the "deteriorating" side. And that's always good.

Used to be that when I was a child I dreaded Saturdays because all we ever did was chores. Now I dread Mondays and can't wait to get back to the real work the coming weekend.

Funny how things change.

Hash

I don't often go for the sweet breakfasts. I much prefer salty meat and eggs. One of my favorite breakfasts is corned beef hash. Or, at least it would be if I could find some decent hash.

Most places you go serve up some sort of pureed corned beef pate sort of thing that makes you wonder if it came in powdered form. "Just add water!"

The best hash I have ever had was at the Scarlett Tree in Greenlake. They take the previous night's prime rib and dice it up for a hash that will make you weep.

This past Sunday, the wife and I took the dawg for a walk and then thought we would treat ourselves to breakfast out. The wife said we could go anywhere I wanted so I headed downtown to an Irish Pub (naturally) that has a big sign outside announcing b-fast at 7am everyday.

The only trouble was, I could not find any parking. We meandered through downtown and parked a few blocks away. In between the car and the pub, we stumbled upon Cafe 222 which boasts the "Best Breakfast" in San Diego 4-years running.

The wife had heard they were famous for their pumpkin waffles (a favorite of hers) and they had dawg-friendly seating so we decided to stay.

I ordered the hash. Glorious, wonderful, delightful hash! It was no Scarlett Tree, but it is easily the best hash I have had in southern cal. And they had pictures of the Pike Place Market in the bathroom and they brought water and a milk bone for the dawg.

So the next time you are in SD looking for really good pumpkin waffles or wonderful hash or a dawg-friendly breakfast place or pictures of Seattle in the bathroom, Cafe 222 is the place!

Weekend Adventures 12/08/07 - Part 1

Dawg, Kat, wife and I all slept in until 8:45 this monring. Man, did we need it! All night long as I would wake and turn and slumber, I heard the rain.

By the time we got up this morning, the rain had stopped and the Dawg and I walked the backyard looking for things dawgs leave behind. Everything is dripping and soggy and muddy.

Which made it especially nice to check in with the Daily Coyote this morning.

And no, it is not 100+ degrees in Wyoming right now. I will leave it to you to figure that one out.

Kind of helps to make today's Quote of the Day a reality.