Week 29

Hello again!  I'm back to catch up and will be sharing pictures from our trip last week in this post. It was great to be able to travel and see family in another state.  I was pleasantly surprised how green Texas is thanks to above average rainfall.  I wish California could have some of that. Our green season this year was super short and now we are as dry as can be with tons of fuel for fires. I very much enjoyed seeing green again although the humidity in Texas added to their heat was a bit much to handle especially for my hair--what a hot mess.  LOL!

Take a look at how it all went down:

Day 200- Monday 7/19/21

Today after work John made us a nice BBQ meal wearing an apron Tyler gave him for Father's Day.  The rest of us were  finishing the packing for our trip.  Flight leaves at 6am tomorrow.

Day 201- Tuesday, 7/20/21

We started our travel day with a California sunrise at take off, changed planes in Phoenix, arrived in San Antonio by lunch time, picked up a rental car and drove to my parent's place in Kerrville where we were able to catch a Texas sunset.

Day 202- Wednesday, 7/21/21

Today was a busy but fun day. We enjoyed a great family breakfast at Camp Verde which is a cool and historic place. Then we checked out Stone Hinge II nearby (in Texas, who knew?) along with some local places that my parents used to work and live before buying their house.  In the afternoon Tyler, John, and I headed to Fredericksburg for some wine tasting while the younger boys spent time with my parents baking cookies.  Back in Calif., Bella is being pampered by our neighbor Jen and has made herself quite at home in Jen's house.  It's nice to see she looks happy while we are away.

Day 203- Thursday, 7/22/21

My parents have a great view from their back porch and Justin really enjoyed spending his mornings  looking for deer and other wildlife out on the deck.  The hummingbirds really like that feeder and are fun to watch as well.  My sister and 2 of her 3 boys that live just outside of San Antonio came to visit us today.  The cousins have not seen each other in 10 years so it was great to have them together again.  After a nice dinner on the river we enjoyed making s'mores for dessert back at the house.  Tomorrow we say goodbye to my parents and head to San Antonio for some more fun before flying out on Saturday.  Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful hospitality and for finding us great places to enjoy good meals with you.

Day 204- Friday, 7/23/21

On our way to San Antonio we stopped off at Natural Bridge Caverns which was a neat way to stay cool on this hot day.  Then we headed to the River Walk in downtown San Antonio where we grabbed lunch and took a boat tour to learn more about the city center.  Just after that we checked into our rental home for the night, ate some great Texas BBQ, and then met up with an online friend of mine for drinks.  We belong to a mother's group for '98 babies born in Sept/Oct and have known each other for years so it was wonderful and fun to finally meet in person.  Thank you Trisha for making the time to see us on such short notice.

Day 205- Saturday, 7/24/21

We're heading back to California today but our flight isn't until 7pm so we visited the Alamo to kill some time and then walked around the River Walk some more finding an ice-cream place we just had to try.  During this trip we were able to hit up 3 different Triple D places: Smoke Shack, Magnolia Pancake House, and for dinner tonight Dough Pizzeria Napoletana.  The late flights were kind of brutal especially with the time change but we made it without incident.

Day 206- Sunday, 7/25/21

Awww--home sweet home!  We didn't get home until after midnight but it's Sunday so it will be a slow day readjusting and preparing to head back to work tomorrow.  All good things must come to an end.

Wait!  One more:

July's Family Photo

Taken while melting in the hot humidity at the Alamo on our last day in Texas.

Ok!  I'm all caught up so now back to reality.

Week 28

Hello and welcome back! It's late July already which means only a few weeks left before school starts back so we were on vacation last week trying to squeeze it in, and as a result I'm late posting for the previous week.  I'll post twice this week.  Today is for week 28 and Thursday I'll get to the post that should be for today.  Our vacation was great but left me with a lot of catching up to do.

At any rate, here are the pictures from 2 weeks ago:

Day 193- Monday, 7/12/21

It's been too hot even at night for Bella to sleep outside where she normally sleeps so the boys have been taking turns sleeping inside with her.  This morning when I came downstairs this is what I saw--a boy and his dog still fast a sleep and not budging while I headed out to work.

Day 194- Tuesday, 7/13/21

Today we had spaghetti for dinner and I noticed the cat hadn't surfaced for his dinner.  I found him in his sleeping tent trying to beat the heat and not wanting to move much even for food.  I get that--sometimes it's just to hot to want to eat.

Day 195- Wednesday, 7/14/21

My move from the Vet Med Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology Department to the Vet Med One Health Institute became official this week.  I not only have a new lab space to work in but also for the first time ever my own desk space outside the lab which so nice.  It's way easier to be more productive when needing to do computer work in a much quieter space, and I can also drink water or have a quick bite to eat here which is not possible when only working in the lab--game changer!  I took my first meeting (an all-staff institute meeting) from my new cubical today.  Moving from a department to an institute has been an adjustment as well.  Things are organized and done a bit differently between the two, but so far I feel more included as part of the whole here instead of just having a voice in the lab.  I'm even now on a strategic planning committee and happy to help represent the research and testing services side of the institute.  I'll miss my retired boss but am looking forward to a future with me new boss, research team, and institute.

Day 196- Thursday, 7/15/21

Ugh!  New unfamiliar spaces mean this klutzy girl bangs herself up. I hit a sharp corner in that new cubical of mine and my leg suffered for it.  Later, after nursing another injury for a couple months in my shoulder, I was finally was able to make it back to the mat.  Hopefully it will remain strong enough for me to continue on a regular basis.

Day 197- Friday, 7/16/21

TGIF!  Most of my backyard is dying right now in the heat with no water, but I was able to spot these new baby lilies.  The purple pop of color in a dead yard to so refreshing and nice to see.  Hopefully soon we'll get the rest of the yard back on track.  It's so sad.  Maybe a nice refreshing drink to kick off the weekend will help.  Bring on the lemon drop and cheers to the weekend!

Day 198- Saturday, 7/17/21

We've just noticed in the past couple weeks that Bella's eyebrows have now gone white and one more than the other.  That one on the right is out of control.  LOL!  Poor aging girl.  At least she's still cute and as sweet as can be.

Day 199- Sunday, 7/18/21

It's time to pull out the bags and start packing for our vacation.  How exciting!  We leave very, very early Tuesday morning but need to start packing now since many of us are still working tomorrow and won't have as much time.  Later, for Sunday dinner, John made one of Justin's favorites--chicken tenders.  Of course they are also a huge hit with the rest of us and a great note to end the week on.

That's it!  Look for another post later this week about our trip to Texas last week.

Week 27

Welcome back and happy Tuesday!  I hope everyone is staying cool.  We're shaking and baking here in California with earthquakes and extreme heat. It's hard to get motivated to do anything when it's so hot out, but of course it was a full week so we did what we had to do.  At least there was some fun thrown in there and a pool to retreat to.

This is how the week went for us:

Day 186- Monday, 7/5/21

We were all off for the 4th of July work holiday so today was about family time and good food.  It's rare we get a big breakfast together so we started the day with pancakes, sausage, and bacon.  There were blueberry, chocolate chip, and plain pancakes for all. Then later we enjoyed a nice summer BBQ dinner with tri-tip, corn on the cob, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon and biscuits or baguette slices--all so good and even better shared with family.

Day 187- Tuesday, 7/6/21

Today on our walk we spotted many yellow butterflies in the park and also pretty yellow weed flowers in the dying grass.  LOL!  At least the weeds are pretty and thriving in the heat even if the grass is not.  It kills me to have long pants on, but I have to wear them for work and hate having to change after so there it is.  Thankfully it's easy to swap out the shoes for something cooler.

Day 188- Wednesday, 7/7/21

It's his turn to walk Bella, and see that look.  It's a running joke between us.  We give each other the same look all the time when I'm reminding him to do things he knows he should be doing.  At least it keeps the mood light and fun because we always smile after.  Meanwhile, out back, I noticed how the evening sun was shining through the sprinkler water in a cool and refreshing way.  Say good-bye to the old fence in the background because tomorrow it will be replaced.  At least it lasted 20+ years.

 

Day 189- Thursday, 7/8/21

John sent me the first picture in the morning while I was at work when multiple crews showed up with the new wood to replace the fence. I took the second picture in the afternoon when the old wood was loaded up to be hauled out just as I got home from work.  It's all pretty much done except for a small section needing a gate.  They worked fast for such a big job.  Having multiple crews for the many sections was key.  Then not long after they left a big earthquake hit and we for sure felt it here.  Luckily there was very little damage because of where the epicenter was with this one and it's many aftershocks.  We live just north of Stockton on that map so directly west of the epicenter.  On the USGS image the one marked in red is the quake and all those above except the one at the top from Chile are after shocks.  What a day!

Day 190- Friday, 7/9/21

The fence was officially completed today. Unfortunately, they also accidently cut a sprinkler line but quickly fixed it before leaving.  It looks great but now the rest of my yard must recover as it took a beating.  We had to trim all the vegetation way back for them and then even still a lot got trampled in the process plus got less water in the extreme heat so we have some replanting to do once it cools for the season.  Our pool also needs a good cleaning before we can enjoy it, but that was all expected.  We're just happy to finally have the fence done and TGIF!  Next house project will be new exterior paint. The blazing sun really does a lot of damage to our paint here.  It's always something!

Day 191- Saturday, 7/10/21

Yesterday Brandon wrapped up his summer architecture class, and they had a showcase at the end for parents that I was able to catch but didn't get any pictures until today.  The cool part was how they used pictures of the different models the kids created to pull together an entire city at the end.  The kids were divided in different studio groups for the class and each group was in charge of designing and planning a different section of the city.  It's hard to see in the screen shot because the images are so small, but it's really cool to see on the computer when you can zoom into different areas and see all the different views. I had much more time today to play around with exploring that and all the galleries of the work done.  Not sure if this motivated him to choose this career path or not.  He's still pretty undecided, but I'm glad he tried it out and had this experience.  In other news, this afternoon made for a super busy day.  I visited and dropped off a gift for a friend recovering from a really bad bike accident on my way to attending a baby shower for my new boss.  At the end of that shower I gifted my newly retired boss with a memory book that I pulled together with contributions from all her current and past grad students and colleagues for a small in-person retirement celebration.  Thankfully it was all good fun being able to visit and celebrate with people in person regardless of the extreme triple digit temps.

Day 192- Sunday, 7/11/21

Best places to beat the heat--movie theater and the pool.  John and I went to our first actual movie in a theater today in over 18 months!  So crazy it's been that long, and we didn't even need masks.  Great flick too--suspenseful for sure.  It was so cool in the theater that I need a sweater which was immediately pulled off as soon as we stepped foot back outside. Later, after Sunday dinner, thankfully a nice cool breeze picked up so I could enjoy sitting outside watching my 3 boys play together in the pool while the sun was setting--perfect summer evening right there.

That's it!  See you next week although I might be a bit late since we're traveling to visit may parents in Texas on Tuesday.  It's almost time for our summer vacation.