It's 12 of 12 day photo project. Every month, on the 12th day of the month, take photos and post 12 that express what your day was like.
So a friend of mine posted this on facebook today and I had to play. So here goes!
#1 Our day started off with a good breakfast. Coffee and Cereal. Kev opted for the Cinnamon Toast crunch.
#2 John getting ready for work. You know that is a LONG commute down the driveway. ;)
#3 Pulling the work stuff together for the Business trip to Chicago. I leave tomorrow
#4 Reviewing Business Card design that Toby put together for me. Lovin' it!
#5 Dude aka Deet Da dee hangs out on the Futon behind me while I work. Doesn't he look like a baby seal?
#6 Roxy hangs out right around the corner on the stairs sunning herself.
#7 Kevin hasn't been home 10 minutes from school and he's already texting someone.
#8 While the rest of the country is under snow, it was an abolutely stunning day in San Diego/Escondido today. Took the dogs outside so they could relieve themselves.
#9 Dang Dishes...they always have to be done.
#10 It's Friday afternoon and Kev is in the Game room doin' his thing.
#11 Packed and ready to go to Chicago tomorrow.
#12 Roxy hanging out next to me on the couch watching Friday night television.
I found an online Dog year Conversion Calculator.......EVERYTHING is online..I love it. So I inputed Roxy's age in Human years - 7 and the Calculator told me that she is 41 dog years old. The website suggests that 1 human year is equal to 7 dog years. That is not very accurate, since dogs reach adulthood within the first couple of years. Their formula is: 10.5 dog years per human year for the first 2 years, then 4 dog years per human year for each year after.
We bought Roxy from California Pets at the North County Fair Mall on April 7th, 2003. I remember looking for a birthday present for my neice and John and Kevin had split off from me, since they were not interested in looking at clothing for little girls. I met up with them in Sears and John mentioned that there was some Jack Russell Puppies in the window of the pet store. I told them I was happy to look, but we were not getting a puppy. There were 4 Jack Russell puppies in the window and they wanted to check one of the puppies out. I told the clerk to get us a puppy with a brown mask of fur of the top of its head....but John and Kevin said no, they wanted to see the puppy with the Brown eye patch. So, if you are familiar with California pets, they bring the puppy back to a little area where you can play with the puppy and get to know it. Instantly, John and Kevin fell in love with her. I liked her too, but I had my doubts, would they help take care of her? Pay attention to her? They both promised and we came home with another family member that night.
It took us a couple of days to come up with a name for the puppy. We had taken over to our friends, the Hurkman's house to introduce her and Melissa suggested either Star or Roxy. Roxy stuck.
Roxy has brought so much happiness to our family. She is a constant source of entertainment and don't ever say the world "Ball" in front of her. We usually end up spelling it around her. Oh, and "cat" or "kitty" is another trigger word. She does a few tricks. A couple of years ago she won a Doggy Talent contest for an Event that the Escondido Humane Society put on. She plays dead really well. She's been on TV a couple of times and just attacks the Harley Davidson Motorcycle in the garage everytime it is turned on.
Here is our Goofy dog climbing a pyramid we found on a hike:
For her birthday, I will go out and get her a hamburger plain from McDonalds. Her new little brother, Dude aka Deet da dee will get the same.
Here is a picture of Roxy and Dude aka Deet da dee. They were in my Jeep during a geocaching event and tired out from a full day out in the desert. I peeked in on them and had to take a photo. When I had first peeked at them, they were both curled up and sleeping, but the minute the flash went off they both looked up. They were SO ready to go back to the house and go to bed.
Then there is Maddy. I call her Maddy Moo and she belongs to our friend Greg who is one of our neighbors out on the Riviera aka the Salton Sea. Maddy visits us at our house often. Today, while Greg was outside helping my husband clean the toys, Maddy decided that she wanted to be like my little dogs and jumped up on the couch and curled up and I swear she was the happiest dog ever. Check her out. Life just doesn't get much better then this!
Actually most weekends aren't bad. And I have to admit, any weekends that involve the "Riviera" are REALLY good weekends. But this weekend for staying home in Escondido was a keeper.
It started off with my husband and I having movie night here at our house to ourselves. Kevin had the MORP dance at school. uh....not sure what MORP is and not sure if I want to go through the effort to ask him. Luck is with us. Kevin just graced me with his presence! MORP is PROM backwards. What will they think of next? John and I watched "All about Steve". Sandra Bullock is in the movie and she's a crack up. Cute movie..kinda stupid,but then I'm not the world's foremost movie critic.
Saturday morning was spent doing laundry, picking up around the house,vacuuming, getting Kevin to take stuff to Amvets for me. At noon, John, Kevin and I stopped at McDonald's and had the Big Mac Wrap (not bad) and headed south to Melissa Cheer Competition. Melissa, Jim and Julie have been our best friends for years. Melissa has been SO involved with Cheer and we never have seen her perform.
Melissa is in the middle
Holy cow....she's doing great! She cheered with two different teams.
The Donnellons and the Hurkmans
John left from Cheer with Jim to head north to Anaheim for Supercross and Kevin and I headed back north to Escondido. We had mom/son bonding time at Applebees for dinner, we actually talked. ;) Afterwards we headed back home and I made Red Velvet Cupcakes and read. Kevin watched some weird movie that only kids his age would like. (it was really weird. Called "the gamer")
Sunday, John took off early in the morning to head to the Riviera. He had a board meeting for Friends of Ocotillo Wells. He took the cupcakes with him to share, much to Kevin's dismay. About 2 hours after John left...."Mom, where are all the cupcakes?" He did have a couple, so he's good. Teenager cannot live on Cupcakes alone.
My girlfriend Julie and I had lunch at "On the border" And then afterwards, geocaching at Lake Hodges.
The Trail
Me and my "babies"
We had to work that lunch off and then of course x'ed is all out by going to Soup Plantation that night with our Riviera girls Deb and Paige. All in all it was a fantastic weekend!
So it's the middle of the work day and I've been going non-stop since about 6 this morning. I actually got out of my pajamas before noon, which is a major accomplishment on home office days! So about 20 minutes ago, my brain was fried up like eggs and I decided the brain need a segway into something else for a few minutes before subjecting it to the "work" stuff. So....I grabbed my camera.
LOVE my camera. My husband got me the Nikon D90 last March and I've been loving it ever since. I actually got a gift certificate from him for Christmas so that I can go get another flash and a lens. I recently also purchased the book, "Nikon D90 for dummies." Let's just say I made the purchase, I've flipped through a couple of pages, but I really need to learn some of the other fun things that this camera has to offer me.
So getting back to the first paragraph....."I grabbed my camera." Of course I have 2 of the cutest most adorable dogs in the world. I have a few friends that own dogs that come in a close 2nd, but I gotta tell you, mine are the cutest. So I decided to take a couple of shots of Roxy and Dude aka deet da dee. Uploaded the pics, the cropped and played around with the picture itself. For me, this is good times. And I love to share them too. Especially since they are super cute pictures of my two adorable dogs.
Here are the two pictures before the crop and manipulation of the picture.
Roxy -
and Dude aka Deet da dee -
So this time, I opted to do them in Black and White.
Here is Roxy. It's kinda like BIG head, little bodyish.......both of these dogs crack me up on how I was able to capture them looking at me "sideways"
And here is Dude aka Deet da dee. I love Dude's eyes, you just wonder what the heck is he thinking? Most likely "Am I going to get food for this?"
We just got back home from the Riviera, our family home escape out in the Anza Borrego Desert next to the Salton Sea, "The Riviera". What a great week that we had out there. I am attaching some pictures with stories to share the highlights of the week with you.
This first picture is from our 1st FULL day out there. This is my son Kevin headed up to the Phone booth. Someone planted an actual phone booth on top of one of the highest ridges in the Truckhaven area and this is a favorite off-roader spot to visit. Not just for the phone booth, but for the views as well! This is the first time Kevin "drove" up to the phone booth. It's a sketchy climb as there is a shear drop off if you do not make the right turn towards the top.
This is the view from the backside of Phonebooth hill.
Day 2, One of Kevin's football coaches and his kids came out to visit us. We did a group ride to Gas Domes, Shell Reef and the "pumpkin Patch". Below is a picture at Gas Domes. They're essentially really stinky mud puddles. (sulphur smell, which smell like rotten eggs) We're not sure how deep they go Folks have stuck their legs down them and still haven't felt the bottom.
This is a view from the Gas Domes. Looking towards the Salton Sea. I love this picture for the colors. I took other view pictures as well, which look just as good. It was a tough choice picking my favorite to post here.
This is Shell Reef. Named for the millions of fossilized shells that are in the area. This desert used to be under water several thousand years ago. Shell Reef is a popular hang out to watch the better riders climb this and do jumps.
One of the riders jumping at Shell Reef.
The "pumpkin patch". These large boulders started off as a small shell, or pebble and rolled around the desert for hundredes of years in the sand and became what they are today. It is truly amazing to see this site. There are several other areas where there are smaller "pumpkins" This area provides the biggest. Sadly over the years people have stolen the pumpkins and the population has dwindled. The park service has fenced off the area in an effort to protect these big guys.
Another view of these "great pumpkins"
Day 3 took us around the ENTIRE Salton Sea. Starting off at Salvation Mountain, then off to Bombay Beach and back around to "the Riviera." This first picture is of Salvation Mountain, built by Leonard Knight. Here is the link to the offical site for Salvation Moutain if you want to learn more.
http://www.salvationmountain.us/
Here is a picture of Leonard Knight in front of his mountain. Leonard is a sweet old man that is very compassionate about his mountain and the message of God. He was gracious enough to give us a tour. He gets so excited everytime a group of cars pull up in order to provide a tour. At the end of the tour he gives his guests a "picture puzzle", postcards and a DVD about the Moutain.
Next stop is Bombay Beach. Bombay Beach is a small community on the East side of the Salton Sea. Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations of the Travel Channel visited Bombay beach. Here is the episode in which he visits Bombay Beach. To watch the following video, press the pause button on my pink playlist to the right of this blog.
We did visit the Ski Inn as mentioned in the video above to purchase some "fish assholes". "Fish Assholes" are cans of spaghetti-O's re-labeled as Fish Assholes. They are sold as a fund raiser for the Bombay Beach Fire Department. We only know they are spaghetti-o's cuz we opened up a can when we got back to the house.
A few years ago, Bombay Beach was flooded. Since the flood a Dike was built to protect the community. Unfortunately the flood had some casualties. This decayed trailer is one of the most photographed casualties of the area.
A view from the "beach". The Pelicans are BIG here.
December 30th is Paiges Birthday. The last 3 years in a row we have celebrated Paiges Birthday in the Desert. 1st year was on our property off of split mountain road in our motorhome. Last year was on "the Riviera". Last year was a year to remember as Paige celebrated a milestone birthday. We will never forget that year. The festivities were topped off with a refreshing dip in the Salton sea a little before midnight. Some lamebrained idea of one of our other friends. Even though it was lamebrained, we'll talk about it for years to come. This year was not as spectacular, however, memorable for Paige I am sure. We did a Taco night, then Wii Kareoke. Fun times! Happy Birthday Paige!
We spent New Years Eve at Mobiland in Ocotillo Wells at our friends place, playing bunko with up to 40 other folks. Good times. To Celebrate the New Year, they had purchased a couple of cases of silly string. This has become a tradition, and what a good time it was!
We went on a New Years Day ride. Unfortunately, so did everybody else. The desert was packed full of Off Roaders. We cut our ride a bit short as it was SO dusty and hard to see and just plain dangerous. The picture below show our two toys in the foreground and Debbies cute pink Razor in the back.
They say all good things must come to an end, but this is different. This is the start of a really GREAT new year and it started off with a really good time in the desert with some FANTASTIC friends. The picture below is of the sunset on New Years Day. Definately a sign of good things to come in 2010. Happy New Year!!!
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