Week 37

Hello and welcome back! How is it the middle of the month already?  We started last week still very hot but ended and are continuing into this week with some nice cool temps.  Highs are mostly in the low 80s and it has been a treat.  It's so cute to see the pets gets all frisky and run around like crazy in the cooler weather. The constant high heat was taking a toll on all of us.  I doubt it will remain pleasant for the rest of the month but we'll take what we can get.   

Here are last week's pictures: 

 Day 253- Monday, 9/9/24

As the sun rises on a new week the temps start to rise as well.  Today and tomorrow are expected to be hot but there is relief coming soon.  Over the weekend we started watching this new Netflix limited series that is a murder mystery with a great cast and so far so good.  We should be able to finish it within a couple days to find out who done it.

Day 254- Tuesday, 9/10/24

Bailey enjoys Justin being home.  He's her go to afternoon playmate and the alternate evening walker.  She's also quite fond of rawhide bones which is great because they keep her from chewing on other things like furniture.  We give her a new one on Fridays and it takes her just about a week to finish so that works perfectly.  In addition they help keep her teeth clean by removing tarter as she chews so it's win-win!

Day 255- Wednesday, 9/11/24

Wednesday at work I spent most of my day in the dark on this fluorescent scope reading the last of the slides needed to wrap up the data for our current grant.  Feels good to finally be done with that part.  Look how cute my scope is all lit up like a little robot.  Back at home, as the sun sets, a gentle delta breeze kicks in.  This is the start of our cool down and it's wonderful to be able to open the windows and enjoy that amazing fresh air blowing through the house.

Day 256- Thursday, 9/12/24

Now that it is cooler Rusty has been running around like crazy racing up and down these stairs and also playing tackle with his fish.  I caught him in a moment of rest looking very sphinx like.  Cooler weather also perfect for warm comfort food so I made a tortellini dish  for dinner tonight .

Day 257- Friday, 9/13/24

It was a peaceful start to my work day.  With fewer light hours in our days nearing fall I'm usually leaving the house for work right at dawn when all is still quiet in the neighborhood. Later back at home when the sun was setting it lit up the nose and paw art Bailey has crafted on our sliding glass door.  I forgot how this can be a constant thing and almost pointless trying to keeping the slider clean.  She looks so proud of her masterpiece and that tongue cracks me up.🐾😄

Day 258- Saturday, 9/14/24

Last night we streamed this newly released bike movie and it inspired John to work on his bike today.  It's still his goal to be able to ride it before the new year and he was trying to make some pedal adjustments that might help.  Justin and I spent a good part of the day looking at used cars.  Time to get that boy his own ride.

Day 259- Sunday, 9/15/24

Bailey is in an "auto sit" waiting for me to say "OK" before she can go through the door threshold which is something we've been working on at home as instructed to do in puppy class.  She's pretty much got it down but does have to be reminded from time to time.  This is first thing in the morning and she's wanting to go out and eat her breakfast.  Food driven dogs are the easiest to train.  Later I worked on wrapping presents for an upcoming birthday and Justin shared some of the pictures he took this week with me so I'm sharing them here.

That's all for this week and hope to see you back in the next one.

Week 36

Happy Tuesday and welcome back!  It was nice last week to have a short work week by starting off with a holiday.  There are only a couple more weeks until the official start of fall but of course it won't really feel like it for us until almost Halloween.  I do hope we at least ditch the temps over 100 as soon as possible.  Everyone around here has had enough.

At any rate, here are last week's pictures: 

 Day 246- Monday, 9/2/24

It's nice to have a slow and quiet Monday start on this Labor Day.  We pretty much did our celebrating yesterday so today was just a relaxing chill day with very little work to do.  I've also recently rediscovered my under cabinet lights in the kitchen.  The batteries were dead for so long that I just forgot about them.  Justin recently replaced the batteries and yay!  The soft lights are so handy to use for early mornings and late nights.  It's the simple things people.  Later we had a fun and different puppy class meeting on campus for a quick training session and then a group walk.  Tomorrow is predicted to be over 100 and today was much cooler which is why we had this fun change up today instead of normal class tomorrow. Bailey was big fan and did way better walking in a group than I expected.

Day 247- Tuesday, 9/3/24

Will you play with me while he naps?  I think she wore him out.  LOL!  And look how he sleeps--this is why his nickname is pretzel.  Bailey and I decided to leave him to his nap and go on a walk around the neighborhood instead.  Thankfully she is patient and stays still while I take pictures when I see images I want to capture.  There are more and more of these dandelions popping up around here and I know it won't be long before they disappear as the seasons change.  I also happened to catch a bug photo-bombing my picture--you see it?

Day 248- Wednesday, 9/4/24

As we approach fall all the stores now have the fall goodies to eat and the new fall clothes on display.  These fall donuts are really good especially first thing in the morning.  Outside I'm expecting to see some color soon on these really green tree leaves as they start to turn and having new pops of color around here will be a nice change before all the leaves drop.

Day 249- Thursday, 9/5/24

It's been too hot to play fetch in the backyard but thankfully we have enough room to play inside so that is exactly what we did this afternoon.  Watch out when she comes full force speeding back in her retrieval though--she does not know her own strength just yet.

Day 250- Friday, 9/6/24

TGIF!  Pizza for dinner so we can have leftovers to help us get through the weekend.  We also watched this newly streaming movie and it was actually better than I expected.

 

Day 251- Saturday, 9/7/24

Here at the park we can see many dropped leaves but I think most of those are because of heat stress and not season change.  Otherwise it's still looking pretty green out there.  Back inside Justin has been wanting to make Cannoli all summer but was intimidated by the shells until he discovered our local store carries pre-made shells.  As soon as he found those he bought a pack and went to work making some pretty yummy Cannolis.  We all enjoyed them for dessert after dinner tonight. 

Day 252- Sunday, 9/8/24

Not much going on today aside from laundry and getting ready for the next work week.  I did finally run my car through the car wash and I found Bailey size upgrade for her favorite chew stick.  She has pretty much destroyed the smaller one she's had since we first brought her home s a tinny pup and I was happy to discover that same stick come in a larger big dog size.  She's grown up so fast!

That wraps up another full week.  Thanks for stopping by.

Week 35

Hello and welcome back as we start a new month!  We're hoping September brings an early fall feel.  The days are already a lot shorter in terms of sunlight and the mornings are starting to have that crisp cool vibe.  This past week was a mix of really hot days and then some nice cool days and we're expected to have a similar week ahead.  School is starting back up for most.  Brandon is in his 3rd year at CSU Fullerton and Justin continues to look for a career job while earning money at the rec center and volunteering at wildlife rehab centers until then.  We're also hoping to find him a car in this new month. 

Until then here are last week's pictures:

  

Day 239- Monday, 8/26/24

This afternoon Bailey fell asleep with her bone in her mouth.  LOL!  She likes to lay by this chair because the ceiling fan blows down  right on her from there and it's hot out.  Later while outside these spider webs on those dragonflies caught my eye as the sun lit them up and I'm happy to still have a few plants that can bloom flowers in this crazy heat that don't fry on the spot.  You can see the brown ones mixed in though because the blooms still can't last long without burning. 

Day 240- Tuesday, 8/27/24

Fresh cool fruit is my go to snack in the summer heat.  Look at the dark pretty color inside those Pulots--so intense.  Later I took Justin to his annual eye appointment where he reluctantly picked out some new frames.  He's not a big fan of change so the ones he picked will be very similar to his current ones.  He did at least agree that having a second pair on hand is a good idea just in case something happens to his current ones.

Day 241- Wednesday, 8/28/24

Wednesday at work I've been on a microscope or at the bench most of the day.  Thankfully I got most of my computer work done yesterday while working remote. Those remote days really help because on site it's too hard to break away from the in-lab stuff and get anything else done.  Back at home, since it was a cooler day, I took Bailey on a long walk and we also worked on desensitizing her to traffic as it passes by.  Puppy training class yesterday was canceled because of excessive heat so at least we got some training in on our own.

Day 242- Thursday, 8/29/24

This year in particular I'm really gratefully for all the trees in our neighborhood park and yard that provide shade which really help with the summer heat.  When we moved here almost 20 years ago all the trees were just babies so it has taken quite awhile for us to get to the point where we have decent shade.  I'm also grateful for all the drought and heat resistant flowering plants that can thrive, still bloom and look pretty in these extreme conditions.  We'll have to replace the dying weaker ones in our yard with more of these for the coming years.

Day 243- Friday, 8/30/24

TGIF!  Our mix master is shaking us up some cool and refreshing lemon drop drinks to help us kick off the long holiday weekend.  After dinner we watched this movie that just started streaming and it was intense but also a bit strange as to be expected from M. Night Shyamalan.

Day 244- Saturday, 8/31/24

Today we had another wine tasting day with friends for lunch.  This time in Plymouth which is north east of Sacramento.  They have a good bunch of wineries around there and it was a great day to be out that was not too hot (photos from website).  Back at home we tried another eerie movie that just dropped on Netflix.  This one was a lot better and based on actual events.  Glen Close is also in it which was a nice surprise since we haven't seen her in anything for a good while.

Day 245- Sunday, 9/1/24

Happy September!  It's Labor Day weekend and we did our Labor Day BBQ today since we'll have puppy class Monday evening to avoid the excessive heat Tuesday.  John made us some delicious baby-back ribs paired with a refreshing summer spritz drink and Justin helped me make a Reese's peanut butter cup pie for us to enjoy.  For tonight's movie we decided a comedy was in order and the listing for this movie said this was a comedy but it was not funny at all and probably the most confusing movie I've seen ever.  It also went on for almost 3 hrs.  It's by the same guy that did the movie Poor Things which also was out there but this was way worse. "Absurdist anthology film" is probably the best description I've seen for it.   It's actually a series of 3 short stories so if you choose to watch it and like the first one then great but if not bail because they only get worse.

All done!  Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and hope to see you back next week.