HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Fire from the Tower

Here are some pictures of one of the fires that happened out here about 2 weeks ago. Tucker happened to have the camers with him so he was able to take a few photos. The area that is burning is Chino Hills State Park we have gone hiking in the park a couple of times before, however I don't think we will be going anytime soon. This was part of the freeway complex fire as it was called out here it stretched across two or three freeways. The fire broke out Saturday morning and these were taken Saturday night. Driving home from work I could see a lot of smoke coming from the fires.

An Afternoon at the ER

I got home from church around 2:30 this afternoon expecting a normal quite evening while Tucker was at work. I turned on the computer and started making a snack forgetting it was fast Sunday when Tucker called asking if I got his message. No, why there has been an accident and I need you to look up an emergency room I will be home in about 15mins. My first thought was how hurt are you but than realizing if he was driving home first it shouldn't be too serious. He got home and I saw the blood pooling under his fingernail. So I drove him to the nearest ER and expected a nice long wait. He was able to see the doctor within an hour and after his X-rays the doctor came back not sure if he had broken his finger but he had split the nail bed and that was causing all of the blood. She had to remove his fingernail and stitch up the nail bed, the bleeding still would stop so tthey applied some special dressing to help with the clotting. After the finger was dressed the radiologist confirmed he had indeed broken his finger. The poor guy he was just trying to keep the door from slamming behind him instead he got his finger flattened, and he has me to chauffer him around for the next couple of days because he can't drive with the pain medicine the prescribed.

Pumpkin Carving

Tucker and I had a blast carving our pumpkin this year. I was hoping to get lots of trick-or-treaters this year since we had none last year. You selected our specimen from Wal-Mart since there aren't really any pumpkin patches out here. We decided to go with a hand drawn faces instead of the pattern variety. I got to draw the face which reminded me of growing up. On the chosen pumpkin carving day I remember coming home from school and eagerly awaiting dad's arrival to past the time I would draw out the face I wanted. Even after dad got home we had to wait first cleaning out the guts and than waiting for my turn to have dad draw on the face and watch as I made the big easy cuts and then I got to watch as he finished and than we had to sort out the seeds so he could roast them. I loved the waking up to the smell of the freshly roasted pumpkin seeds. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays probably because of all the "free" candy. I was also happy that the number of trick-or-treaters tripled this year I got a total of 3.

Vacation

Tucker and I and his parents went on vacation two weeks ago. We had a blast, Brent and Marge flew in from Sacramento and we headed to San Diego. The weather was perfect so at first we just drove along the coast.

For our first full day we went to Sea World. Where we feed the sea lions it was fun watching them beg but you had to be quick or the seagulls would swoop in and steal the anchovy from your hand. Since we had so much fun feeding the sea lions we went and fed the rays I want to say they are bat rays but I can't remember. To be honest I was so scared of feeding them I dropped the fish when one came up to close to my hand. Tucker and his father had a much better time feeding them.

After spending the day at Sea World we decided to see all of San Diego so we rented a Go Car. It drives like a motorcycle but is a mostly enclosed 3 wheel car, ok instead of doors it had a side roll bar and no roof with a top speed of 35mph. The car was equipped with a GPS navigation system that told you about the area and the landmarks as you passed by.

Tucker did the driving I figured after the tandem bike mishap I shouldn't take the wheel besides I had enough trouble trying to navigate, when we got off course. While driving these cars we stopped and toured the USS Midway, and Point Loma. I learned all about trying to land on the deck and it doesn't sound like much fun.

After the tour of the Midway we cruised around town some more before going out to Point Loma and looking at the lighthouse.

For our next adventure we went to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. It was so cool not only did we walk around the park and see the gorillas and the meerkats, but we also took a photo safari around the African Plains where we got to see the Northern White Rhinoceros, there are only 7 of these animals left in the world and we got to see 2 of them. We also got to see and feed the giraffes which was a lot of fun. They have very long black tongues coated with thick spit that stinks.

We finally headed home on Sunday but not before seeing Imperial Beach and Coronado Island. After spending several minutes watching the surfers I am curious as to why so many people seem to enjoy it. You just sit on your board hoping for a decent wave to come along only to ride it for a few seconds. Maybe I should take a lesson or two so I can see what all the fuss is about.

By the end of the trip I think I was more tried and wiped out than my in-laws in fact I felt like I could use another vacation. I was also sun-burnt even though I applied plenty of sunscreen, I think it just attracts the sun.

Driving

So I have noticed a few people have mentioned bad drivers in their blogs lately. So I think I will do the same. While I consider myself to be a decent driver I have notice that out here in California I might be above average except when it comes to parking. I turn into the correct lane when turning and than proceed into the correct lane, however the norm seems to be, turn into whatever lane you need to be in even if you cross four lanes to get there. I am also grateful that it does not rain out here because if it drizzles sorry if water appears on your windshield you must immediately step on your brakes and drive no faster than 40mph for the rest of the drive. Now that I have complained about everyone else and their bad driving habits I can revisit my parking comment.

I think I must be missing the parking gene the time I had trouble on my driving test was trying to parallel park, to this day I will park a block or two away and walk if that means I can just pull into a space. I also have the hardest time trying to park my car in the garage, I have scraped my front fender trying to pull in, I broke my mirror backing out and I have even backed in someone in a parking lot or they backed into me since I was further out of the space than she was. Here are some lovely pictures of the scrape on my car and the space I have to park my car in. Also please notice the wonderful shelf Tucker built to provide a little more space because... yes it is small. I have always heard that parking is the easiest part of driving I however think it is the hardest part so either I am missing that gene or I need a bigger garage, because I can't get a smaller car. Oh and the lady that backed into me she didn't cause any damage, thankfully she was also driving a small car.

There's always next year right?

After a wonderful season of Cubs baseball they lost in the first round play-offs to the ...dodgers. I am just glad that I had the opportunity to watch as many games as possible. I am thinking about heading to Arizona during spring training and maybe watch a few games. That way I will know some of the up coming players for the team come March. Hopefully we will be able to see a few more regular season games next year.