Nomnivores

We did some camping this last weekend. I didn't get many pictures, which sort of bums me out. I don't know what to tamp into the Excuse Cannon® (patent pending), but it will probably be something along the lines of "why bother, my kid hates pictures and won't sit still." Yes. That sounds right. This picture came out a bit blurry, but I love what is captured here. The big one and the little one sharing a laugh about something. Ira was cracking me up all weekend. I love having a funny kid. His non-sequiturs and out-of-nowhere anecdotes are the best. My favorite of the weekend had to be his completely off-topic story about the dangers of lunch meat.


Ira: "One time at school, I slipped on a piece of salami and I thought it was so funny!" [Reenacts salami slipping] I admit that the humor in this largely was that it was told so out of context.


But it's true. Lunch meat can be very slippery. He also told me that he tried pig at snack yesterday. Pig? Yeah, I know. It's a fancy preschool with a lot of foodie parents and I wouldn't be surprised if someone had brought an entire leg of home-cured Iberico ham. Turns out it was just regular lunch meat-style ham. The kids are learning about dinosaurs and the difference between carnivores, omnivores and herbivores, and were offered corresponding snacks at circle time. What macho little man wouldn't want to have what a T-rex would have? Anyway, he tried it and he liked it. He also told me he taught the class about nomnivores, which only eat noms. We might buy some lunch meats. Do any of you know the best place to find some top quality stuff?


Back to camping. We went here:

This is Goose Lake and it's somewhere, way up highway 49. There were tons of alpine lakes in this region and the scenery was stunning. Our site was right next to this lake and we felt like we were camping in one of those motivational posters, except with way more mosquitoes. Actually, I'm being dramatic. The mosquitoes were not really that bad after heavy application of repellant. And they really only came out for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. The fire and clothing kept them mostly at bay. If I had brought appropriate clothing, I might not have mentioned the mosquitoes at all. All in all, I would go back. It really was that beautiful.

Sitting in

In the band I'm in, if someone or multiple someones can't make it to practice, the rest of us gather and play anyway. It's fun and always interesting how the songs feel when one or more of the instruments are missing. Our rhythm section was missing last Friday, but I just have to have a beat, so I took it upon myself to make a little double trouble. I sat behind the drums and kicked my way through the songs. I also have some picture of me somewhere playing bass and guitar.

Oh, here it is:

It's been suggested I should take myself on the road as Sacramento's only all-female one man band. Multi-tasking has always been a strength of mine. Musical proficiency however...not so much.

Photogenic status: Not photogenic. I am just dead in the water when it comes to this stuff.

Weekend Shastafarians

We went up to Mt. Shasta for a quick weekend. It's always relaxing and beautiful and all that. A weekend is just about all you need. Any longer than that and you'll go batty because they are missing crucial services. Get this: there is no ice cream shop there. Not a one. I can't even live in a place like that.

Sadly, I forgot my real camera. So I had to snap a bunch of pictures with my phone. Ira still refuses to be still for photographs, so there are serveral flesh-colored blurs that are kind of shaped like my child, but you can't see the face, so I can't really be sure who it is. At any rate, there are just a couple of him from the weekend. And now you know why.




There were lots of animals where we were staying. One morning, I woke up to my ultimate dream come true. You think I'm exaggerating, but if you knew how much time I have spent Googling "pygmy goats," "baby goats," "goats playing," you would know how elated I was to find that two young goats had broken into the yard to feast on a breakfast of wild sweet pea flowers. My heart spontaneously melted. I wanted to cry. I think I ovulated. I fed those goats sweat peas and I'm sure I'll never participate in anything more precious.

Goats getting ready to dive off the dirt mound:


Having a spot of sweet pea:



Nose first in noms:


Heylove wants me to have a goat and all of the other things my heart desires. She's so sweet that way. But you know what? This poor dog! She is a hearty city beast, but country living got the best of her on this trip. She faced hungry farm dogs, annoyed horses 20 times her size and walked long gritty granite paths with tender paws. Poor thing was pretty nervous most of the time (those horses and farm dogs), but I think she was happier for having come along. She's relieved to be home and is almost back to normal.


Big horse face. This horse is some kind of fancy one, but I forgot what kind. His name is Jellybean, which tells me that he was probably surrendered by a horse girl (you know the kind) who found her horse-owning whim fading with age. Kind of depressing, or not?


Here he is again. He was actually totally dusty and when I pet him, my hand stirred up a horrifying two pounds of dust from his coat as fine as what you'd empty out of a vacuum cleaner. My hand was a terrible mess. I only did it once.



On our way out of town we took a short break in Dunsmuir and hiked down to Hedge Creek Falls. Although I was anxious to get home, the view of the falls were so worth it and I'm glad we took the detour.


It's hard to tell, but the cave under the falls was tall enough for an adult to walk in. The whole thing looked positively Tolkienian.


So glad to be home.

Loud

My mother-in-law must think I deserve punishment. Proof: she bought Ira a vuvuzela. To be reasonable, she probably doesn't hold anything at all against me. I think she just saw it and thought that Ira would love it. Guess what? She was right.


We spent a recent Saturday afternoon in Davis. It was pleasant. We rode our bikes around a bit and walked a little bit more. Ira had fun running all around the Arboretum. Here he is above with some gingko leaves. Ira dropped them one by one in the water and we watched the leaf-boats float away. We kept seeing these earthworm stickers/tags/folk art everywhere. I tried to convince Ira that they were warning signs for a giant earthworm on the loose. He didn't fall for it. That kid's too smart!


Mood board practice continues...

So I learned how to make a slightly more advanced mood board using that fancy design software. I know, big news. It's been fun trying to refresh my creative/technical skills and learning that I haven't totally lost it yet. Also, I have some bright pants in fun colors and I was brainstorming some outfit ideas.



But, wait! That's not all. I also learned how to do this to pictures. I'll try it out next time I post a recipe, which I haven't done in about a million months. A million! I also haven't done any Alhambra Boulevard news in a while. A lot is going on around our little triangle: a new Korean taco shop, frozen yogurt rumors and a lover's quarrel! More soon.