Bako Life

Snowy cabin trip...more later

2011-01-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

First ski day of the season!!!

2010-12-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

So the coolest thing about this trip was everything except gas was FREE...oh, and I'm kinda gonna get paid for it!

I've been doing some travel pieces freelance for our magazine. So places I was gonna go anyway, just snap a few picks get a little more info and bing bang boom, payday!

I had a free ticket to China Peak (yes, it's no longer Sierra Summit, the long national nightmare is over!) and then mom gave me a voucher for a free night at Best Western in Fresno. Sooooo cool!

I went last Thursday, Dec. 16 and was going to ski Dec. 17 as well since I had another free ticket, but it was too stormy and I am too wimpy so I visited w/dad and others and headed home Friday.

So here was my wonderful wonderful ski day! The snow was excellent as was the weather.

This is from the top of the mountain, Chinese Peak, looking back at the valley. Yuck, I drove up through that and was so glad to see blue skies and sun!

Beautiful Huntington Lake from the top of Chair 1. I'd love to own a cabin someday on this lake. Gotta keep playing that lotto I guess!

The top of Chair 1. It was just so glorious!
The chair to the summit wasn't open, but that's OK, I can't ski that thick stuff anyway.
Boarder, shreddin' the gnar, dude...

The lodge.
Inside of the east lodge, called Mainstream, which has lots of improvements for families this year.

This is Tim Cohee, the new owner. He and some buddies who are silent partners bought China Peak last year from Snow Summit. He worked for Snow Summit back in the 80s and was one of the principle people behind the name change from China Peak to Sierra Summit.

As he told me, China Peak was a dump back then, pretty run down and they wanted a new name to disassociate any bad vibes people might have for it (there was a big legal bruhaha back then as well over the attorney in charge of the estate of the original owner, but that's another story). AND he said, they thought they could lure SoCal skiers who knew Snow Summit up by calling it Sierra Summit.

Didn't work. So 27 years later, he bought the place and changed the name back. Nice guy, took a lot of time out of his day to show me around.
End of the day. And lemme tell ya, the temperature dropped FAST.

Whoops just found more Rock to Pier photos from July

2010-11-29T18:11:00.001-08:00

Cleaning out files at work

2010-11-29T17:55:00.000-08:00

And came across these photos.

This is me doing a story on an elderly woman (holding the ladder for me) whose house was burned up by PG&E and then they refused to help her file a claim for more than 7 months, effectively making her homeless when the fire was THEIR FAULT!

Anyhoo, after my first story. PG&E settled, for a pittance, mostly because the woman, Barbara Ray, was so ungreedy she only asked for replacement value of whatever was absolutely unusable, even keeping her old fridge that had been scorched on the outside because, "Well, it still runs good."

So, she found a contractor, Jimmy Miller (standing next to her on the ground) who basically did everything for cost and got all his subs to lower their prices too.

I went out to do a folo story and when I wanted to interview Jimmy who was on the roof, he wouldn't come down, so I went up. Then, as you see in the photo, I had to scramble back down in my high heels and skirt. What I go through for a story! I tell you!

This next one was a story on wind energy. So we went out to find the wind, and we did!
This was from the summer, I think. Wilkie, in the plaid shirt, is famous for flipping off any camera that may be pointed in his direction. So me and Robin (the finger to the left) got the drop on him!
And this is a very sad photo taken in March 2009 when we had massive layoffs....after the layoffs that Christmas. Many of the people in this photo were no longer here after this day. Including the goof who's photoshopped in because he couldn't be bothered to make the photo shoot that day!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

We stayed at Asilomar on the Monterey penninsula again this year. It's gorgeous there and we had great weather. I never took a shot of the actual buildings, I got this off their site...very historic and cool...but the rooms are...um hisstoric, you know...

The family that texts together...

Ahhhh! the COMMON ROOM! This was a constant fight because other families were always trying to take it over. Course we won!

Ali showing off her fab new bracelet.

Its ahrd to see but this is Jake surfing.

Our hike from Asilomar to Monterey.

Goober dude taking photos of his "hot" ride...lame!

Wilkie! That guy gets around!!!

Bearutiful asilomar sunset!

Robert played piano in the social hall and this was the only shot I got of the whole family.

Then a nice lady came and played a great duet with Robert.

Well, then sometimes we didn't win the battle of the common room and ended up in Dave and Melanie's room.

Funny rock!

What a crazy summer

2010-11-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

I was just going through all the pictures I recently posted and it's so not the whole story.

The photos make it look like I had a great carefree few months.

Ha! Appearances certainly are deceiving.

As many of you know, I got divorced just recently and even though Larry and I are still friendly, it was unbelievably stressful and strange and sad.

And part of all that was having to change my finances, reduce costs and increase revenue.

I decided to get a roommate (or 2 as it turned out). We have interns every summer and I thought it would be a good idea to bring in one of the interns to try out this roommate thing.

I used to be the intern coordinator at the paper for many years and 99 percent of them are great kids, hard workers who are from other states so they spend every free moment traveling around California. Perfect! I thought...

I got not only the opposite of that, but the intern who moved in here was just horrible in so many ways. He was a complete homebody, never leaving even on his DAYS OFF! He would only go in when his shift began and would leave the second it was over.

He was a total poindexter geek, which wasn't that big a deal. Except that he was unbelievably arrogant as well and a weird know it all of crap no one cares about. And soooo socially maladapted you couldn't have a conversation with him, he just didn't know how.

So many stories about his nutty annoyingness. But a couple faves:

I called him "Danger" because when I was still trying to get to know him I asked about his time in the Navy and he said in retrospect he wished he'd joined the Army or Marines. Wow, I said, you definitely would have been sent to Iraq.

"Well," he said with his weird nasally voice, "Danger is my middle name."

I thought he was kidding and started to laugh. No, he was serious.

And then there was the time he was cooking dinner, in MY KITCHEN and had the absolute gall to tell me he didn't like it when other people were in the kitche at the same time as him becuase they get in his way. Yeah, Danger, I said, me too. ONLY IT"S MY KITCHEN!

Oh and he disliked the way I recycled and tried to get the other roommate to mutiny against me saying he felt like less of a "man" by allowing himself to be subjigated to my authority. HUH? Just asked him to put the plastic bottle in recycle, not garbage! Sheesh.

Man, so many many things...but the end was really bad.

On election night, at 4:30 a.m., he claimed he heard a "knocking" noise and got up to investigate. He looked out the double doors in the kitchen toward the backdoor to my bedroom and said saw a man in a gooded sweatshirt at my door.

Instead of turning on the light switch, right by his hand, or yelling or anything. He scampered into the other roommate's room (the other roommate is a good guy, very normal) and insisted the other roommate call 911.

A Sheriff's deputy showed up at my house and as he was searching, the other roommate noticed my back door was open. I sleep w/it open so the dogs can get in and out. They hadn't stirred a smidge, by the way, even with the Unabomber apparently at my door!

Anyway, the good roommate was appalled that Danger hadn't checked on me, thinking if there WAS an intruder, he could be in my room at that moment slicing and dicing me. So he came in and asked if I was allright. Sure, great, except WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!

The next day, I asked Danger, WHAT THE HELL WENT ON and he blamed me! Saying he was likely hyper reactive to whatever it was he thought he saw because I am overly concerned for my own personal safety. Yeah, like sleeping with my door open!

That was it, thank god he was gone by the end of the week.

Other than that, still trying to figure out my life. Trying to slow down and think is hard though...

Getting ready for Christmas!!!!

2010-11-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

I've been off all week (it's still just Monday but feels like a long time anyway!) and decided I should do my Christmas lights now rather than the weekend after Thanksgiving since I'll be out of town.

Robin luckily came over and helped so YAY we got it all done.

And commenced to beading, of course!

Then Kimmy K came over with wonderful wine. What a great Monday!

October trip to the cabin

2010-11-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

I went to the cabin in October for the final dinner at Kennedy Meadows before it closed. Love that time of year up there!

The first picture is of a werid rock Raymond found at new Clavy. Very very weird. We can't figure it out. Maybe it's dinosaur poop?

Look at that sky. Ijust love this time of year! The meadow with the last little shack.

The beautiful river.
Frosty morning.

Dodge wasn't looking like it was near opening...sigh...

The gorgeous high sierra!

Me at Leavitt Lake...with my coors light..

The doggies at the river by the cabin.

I tried to get them all lined up and cute..this is how far I got.

Big ass cabin being built by the river...it's HUGE.

I just loved this woman's hair. How long do you think it takes her to do?

One of my favorite running trails, an old rail line, was totally screwed up by slash left from major logging this summer.

And the last Kennedy's supper...here we are!

August cabin trip

2010-11-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

West Fire

2010-11-21T22:57:00.000-08:00

My pal Heidi (dpty chief heidi!) came by one day and took me up to the West fire. We had 2 major fires this summer, the West near Tehachapi and the Bull near Kernville.

The West was far worse, destroying 30 homes. The Bull burned about 5 or 6 homes, though, so it was no picnic.

We went up to watch the helicopters and I got my friend, Alex the photo editor, up in one. He got some great shots.

The Gov came by this day to declare Kern a disaster area. Why we need the gov to tell us that, I don't know...ha, funny, get it?

Very nice.

Ever been to a media frenzy? It's fun. And this was pretty tame actually.

There he is...the big man! Um....in a manner of speaking

Arnie and Heidi...

This is Swenson. He's been with us for a thousand years and is set to retire in January, which will be bad for us but good for him!

Another beach trip, Aug I think?

2010-11-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

Jack Jack is the coolest cat around!

It was cold and windy, but we were at the beach, dammit! (Dillon Beach near Cotati to be precise)

Chico Pete style surfing.

Beauty

Then Andrea and I decided to take all the dogs, mine, hers and the ones she was boarding to a trip to the beautiful Russian River. Poor dogs!

They enjoyed the river tho!

Hmmm...July...

2010-11-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

What to say about July? Hmmm. I think this group of road signs sums it up. Oh well....

I did do something fun that was also kind of awful. I ran the Rock to Pier 10k in Morro Bay again this year, which I love.

And I got the whole fam, plus my pal Olivia and her fam to come. That was the super fun part

It's a very popular race.

Here's Karen and Gita. They look like they're having a GREAT time!

Here Olivia and I are near the end. I didn't tell anyone at the time, but I knew I'd screwed up my left calf bad! It was my own fault for trying to show off and run back and forth between Olivia and Karen/Gita. I ran too fast on the beach and it just shreded my calf. It didn't rupture until a few days later when I was teaching my water aerobics class and doing plyometrics in the shallow end. After that, it was several weeks on crutches, and two months of therapy and I'm only no doing 4 and 5 miles, BARELY. So this was a super fun day, but ended up costing me dearly.

I always like to walk back from Cayucus and the familycame with me even though there was much whining toward the end. Gita has always loved to pick up squishy sea creatures ever since she was little. No idea what this thing is she's holding. And no, it's not a rock, it was a squishy sea thing.

My dogs came too, but my photos of them are at work.

And this was July 4. I was in Cotati again with Andrea. Trinity is showing her independent spirit here!

Dipsea, Stinson Beach and tons more

2010-11-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

So what if I almost died during the half marathon. That's no reaons not to get dressed up and go party w/my old friend Andrea at the cooooolest little hidden bar beneath the Golden Gate!

Then the next day, June 14, was the Dipsea race, which is the race I really wanted to do but it's super hard to get into, even tho it's just a local 7 mile deal. It's really rugged, basically going from Mill Valley up over Mt. Tam to Stinson Beach. I've hiked it but never have gotten into the run.

This year my brother in law, peter got in, so we went to cheer him on.

Here are the kidlets, Gita and Jake, waiting for dad.

And here he comes! WOOO HOOO!

It was such incredible weather, we went to Stinson to have a beach day, along with pretty much ALL of San Francisco.

Mom and her granddog, Nellie.

Then I went up to Andrea's ranch in Cotati for bbq. We decided it was a hat kinda night.

Trin and Chey, dueling

After that, I crused over to Sacramento to stay w/ my friend Mareva and interview Sen. Roy Ashburn about his secret gay life. Which has nothing to do with these flamingos. This was some school charity thing, like tping only less messy.

Park bench outside the capitol building.

And after that, Andrea and fam met me at the cabin for the weekend. Here's Chey in a pose that is eerily like the painting I made for Andrea when she was pregnant with Trinity.

The girls in their new Pinecrest t-shirts!

Photos from the Marin half in June

2010-11-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Marin half started at beautiful Muir beach. Karen and Nelly came to see me off. Don't tell my doggies!

It was unbelievably gorgeous that day. But HOTTTTT!!! I was surprised how few people did this half. The other two I'd done earlier in Catalina and Santa Cruz were crazy packed. The weather at those other two was wild as well, but the cold, wet, rainy kind of wild, which is actually easier to run in as it turns out.

This is looking back at the start/finish area. So right away we were headed uphill.

See? I'm not lying, it was HILLY. Worse than Catalina, steeper and more hills if that can be believed.

This is Michael. Thank GOD for him. He stopped when I was collapsed at mile 9 and insisted I eat his Goo and gave me all his water and Gatorade and stayed with me until I could walk. He got me over that one hideous hill and walked me down to mile 10. Great, great human being!

Video from the Marin 1/2 on Jun 14 where I colllapsed!

2010-11-21T20:57:00.000-08:00

The end shows Mile 9, which was halfway up this short but really steep hill. I couldn't make it. I almost passed out. It was such a weird deal. First, I was supposed to be off that Friday to drive up and stay w/my sister. But ended up working until almost 7 p.m. so I didn't get up to Karen's until close to midnight and only had a couple handfuls of peanuts and about a gallon of diet pepsi on the drive up.

THEN it was freakishly hot on the Marin headlands that day, like 90 degrees.

So I almost passed out and had to quit the race at mile 10. I did make it over this little hump and then it was a mile down to the next aid station. Then another 2 miles uphill and a mile down to the finish. I thought about trying it after I rested up and got a couple gallons of Gatorade in me...but nahhh...didn't want to have some firefighter have to hike up and haul me off!

Crazy race! But GORGEOUS!

More random shots from Indian Creek

2010-11-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

When you're out in the middle of nowhere, why WOULDN'T you stop and shoot guns???

Mike and Deb

Actual petroglyphs...so cool.

Here's a video of the east Kern ranch trip.

2010-11-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

Story on wind

2010-11-21T20:06:00.000-08:00

In June, I got out of the office for a few mintues to do a story on a couple ranchers fighting Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power trying to scoop up Kern County land for wind.

After we traveled around the desert for a few hours we ended up drinking beers on the porch of the Jawbone Canyon.

Look at how big this turbine is! that dot walking up the driveway is Tim!!

Getting ready for the roomie

2010-11-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

I needed to get a roommate this summer, so I painted the back rooms. I think this was in June.

Really bums me out that the roommate turned out to be soooo heinous...of well at least the rooms are painted.

Such a bad poster

2010-11-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

I don't know...just got busy, crazy, sad, better, sad again....lots going on. Big changes in my life that took all my attention.

But itdoesn't mean I wasn't doing STUFF!

Like doing a couple gang ride alongs in May, when it was FREEZING and no gang bangers were out. Just me and a bunch of cops till 3 am.

I liked this reminder above the back door of the cop station about the levels of awareness one should keep depending on the alert color of the day.

Personally, I like "unaware." Cause, bumping into walls is totally OK with me.

River romp with the doggies this Sunday 7/11/10

2010-07-12T13:34:00.001-07:00

The river is FULL and really gorgeous.

It was hella hot Saturday (106) and Sunday (100 something) so instead of running, the doggies and I went to Stockdale bridge and hiked upriver to Calloway and then came back exploring all the islands and channels.

Most of the dogs loved it. But little Chico Pete hates water and if it's more than ankle deep he has to swim, which he's not real good at. So I had to carry him across the deeper parts.

I didn't get a photo of the incredible birds I saw. They were big like hawks but they weren't hawks and I found some hip deep channels that reminded me of "River Monsters" kind of water, all murky and fast moving.

Love the river!

Here's Chico getting a ride across the "deep" part of the river. Oh, and I bought a nano ipod from Olivia's niece for cheap! But Olivia has to load it for me and tell me how to work it because I am gadget deficient.

I have so much to post, I am lazy!

2010-07-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some random shots from a trip to the cabin, can't remember which trip!

The remaining shed in the meadow (the other one collapsed several winters ago). This is from my cell phone, really good quality for my phone.
The river was running really high and they were saying run off hadn't hit its peak yet.

Here I am on the back deck of the Donkey in my big floppy sun hat that everyone made fun of. That's fine, when their noses are all fried off from skin cancer I'll still have mine, so there!

At Bills after work on Saturday

2010-06-07T10:13:00.001-07:00

I worked on Saturday. It was a day long ridealong in a jeep in the back country above Caliente (hence the hat). Then enjoyed a refreshing mai tai with the boys later.

The things you see on the bike path

2010-06-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

I rode my bike to work Tuesday, June 1 and saw this hanging from some powerlines over the bike path.

Lagging on my posting

2010-06-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

Some running photos.
This weekend (June 5/6) I completely slacked off. Last weekend, though, I did get some good distance AND hills in.

It's already getting too hot to sleep in and still run without dying of heat stroke, so if I don't get my butt out on the trail by 6:30 a.m. I don't want to go at all.

Here's the view from the top of Hang glider hill, last Sunday, I believe so, May 30.And this was weird. At the top of Hang Glider are these mounds of disturbed earth. Why would someone go up there and dump dirt? Or are these perhaps burial mounds????? Again, why would someone bury something way up there? It's a mystery!
This monument has been at the top of Hang Glider for years. It's in memory of Dave Freed, whoever he was. Someone drew a heart on one side of it and, ahem, another organ on the other side of it!
This is Boxcar in the river after our run on Monday, May 31, I think.

Spring bouquet

2010-05-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

These flowers came my way and they're beautiful!

Heard this on NPR the other night

2010-05-26T10:50:00.001-07:00

It's incredible. I have to get this CD!

River run

2010-05-26T10:41:00.001-07:00

I didn't run Sunday or Monday (LAZEEEE!), so I brought my clothes Tuesday and headed from the office out to the river. I did 7 miles, nice and easy. It was GREAT!

This is looking east from the 99 over pass. It was overcast and breezy, perfect for running and the river made it feel even cooler. Smelled good too. Seriously.

This is heading back east just past the train trestle. It was spectacular! A two-fer, water in the river AND you could see the mountains! Would ANYONE think this is the middle of Bakersfield?!? Wouldn't it be great to have this all the time?!?
A storm was kind of coming in though, so the mountains were obscured by the time I made it about another mile east. That's the 24th Street Bridge in the photo.

A hill run two weekends ago

2010-05-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

I know it looks dry and hot, but it wasn't bad. I think this was last Saturday or Sunday, May 22 or 23. The shots look nice and crisp on my phone, but emailing them takes out a lot of color.

Anyway, this is a back canyon I like to run through because it's all deep sand so it's hard. This used to be the Kern River bed, by the way. Which is why it's extra super stupid for developers to want to cut and grade these hills for housing. It's very unstable.

It was very clear that day.

And still some wildflowers around!

Fun picture Olivia found

2010-05-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing this is about 6 or 7 years old, back when I still had long hair and smoked the occasional cigar. And look at Livvy's BLONDE hair!!!

I was on TV...kinda

2010-05-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

Click here for the clip, or cut and paste this URL:

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/investigations/94007384.html?tab=video

The sound is kind of annoying, it skips. And I'm on at nearly the end of the piece.

Run today (Saturday) technical difficulties

2010-05-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

I did 7 miles by the river
I think the deets were like 1:something hours
10:02 average and 6:53 best pace.

I fell right at the start, Boxcar tripped me! So I have a giant bruise on my left hip and my knee is all scrapped and banged up.

The worst part though, was I had my phone in my hand when I went down. It's all scraped up too and I thought it might not work. So this first photo is really me just checking the camera.

It worked!

On the river....

2010-05-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Kayaking the Kern River

2010-05-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

I was invited by complete strangers to come float down the Kern River with them, so of course, I did!

Winston, his girlfriend Catherine and several of their friends all gathered at Winstons, grabbed boats and hauled them down to the water on Friday as the sun was setting. I'm so glad I went along, it was GREAT. Just not a view of Bakersfield anyone ever gets. I was privileged to have the opportunity.

Here we are putting in, next to a little park near Westchester.

Excitement ensued!

Then the floating began.

Heading under the bridge at 24th street, I think.

Coming up on the train trestle next to a little oilfield.

The Mohawk bridge construction.

Our take out, at the water tower park on Truxtun Extension next to Truxtun lakes.

Jack Jack had to go to the vet this week!

2010-05-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

I love all my dogs, but Jack Jack is just the cutest ever. He has such a funny face with his cute little underbite.
And he has personality to spare!
Thursday morning I noticed his dew claw was bent back and looked like it was ripped out. Even barely touching it evoked YARK YARK YARK from him. Poor baby.

So off the the vet we went, which he HATES. The decided they were just going to have to yank it out and they did without a peep from him, my brave boy. Then they wrapped it in tape and he acted like it was broken, wouldn't put any weight on it at all.

Drama dog!

Here he is at the vet all done.

He likes to ride shotgun with me.

Later that day he was so pooped he didn't care that the cat shared his cushy.

Here he is limping around like his leg is broken. Total drama dog!
Look at that FACE!!!

Catalina Zip pics

2010-05-15T17:37:00.001-07:00

The zip in the photo below was fun because you got to go through trees.

The photo below was between the first and 2nd zips. If you can see the cable on the right, that's the one we just came down, then the cable on the left is the one we're about to go on. It was fun zipping down this canyon.

Zip away!!!

2010-05-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting surprise

2010-05-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

I show up for work today (late, I'm lame) and what is sitting on my desk but this lovely blue box with white ribbon.

I'm pretty sure most women could tell you that this isn't just any old BLUE. This is TIFFANY BLUE!!!

Yes, the famed jewelry company. Granted, I knew right away the box was too big to be a necklace, bracelet or earrings (boo). But anything from Tiffany has to be pretty nifty.

Seriously, I'm just excited with the box, which I shall never part with, EVER! And the ribbon, I'm keeping the ribbon too!
In case you thought I was funning, LOOK, right there, Tiffany & Co. Tres chic, non?
A crystal (I'm assuming) vase. Very pretty. But who's it from? There was no info on the UPS box it came in. Ahhh...but there was a card!
I know, it's blurry, here's what it says:

"Lois: Let it not be said that you never were thanked.
Thank you for your work. Please enjoy the enclosed pencil holder.
Regards,
Karl"

Wow, that's cool. Way cool! Who the HELL IS KARL? Karl Marx? Karl Rove?

OK, Karl, whoever and wherever you are...thank you very much. But I will use the vase for something prettier than pencils!

Running stuff, this is out of order

2010-05-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Before the Catalina trip I took a couple good runs along the river so I had to snap photos of the doggies in the water, boring, I know, sorry.

I keep taking photos from this one little bridge because it's interesting how the water fills and then recedes this little off shoot. A week ago it was full here. Back down again.

Turns out Boxcar loves to swim. He's a quirky dog. When you take in strays, you learn about them over time. I guess it's the same with grown people, ha!

Santa Catalina

2010-05-12T16:38:00.001-07:00

I have lots more photos and video of my trip from a few days ago (ziplining!), but I'm posting these two for now.

When I went to Catalina in February for the half marathon I saw that they were building a zip line. I saw in the LA Times that it was open in April so I went down last weekend and did the zip line. It was scary at first, but then it was kind of ho hum by the end. What's wrong with me that I only like things when I think I might actually die?

I stayed at the same little hotel I stayed at in February, the cheapest room I could get. They had a water leak in my room, though so I got upgraded to a suite with a balcony!

Hash housers

2010-05-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

The Hash House Harriers had a Cinco de Mayo day run, Chico Pete and I attended. It was fun, but kind of weird.

Sunday run in the hills

2010-05-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

After the 9.5 miles along the river Saturday, I decided I needed some hill work since the Marin half is ALL HILLS.

So we did about 5 in the hills, GPS batteries died at around 4.5 miles so no deets.

I did the towerline road and it is an ass kicker! I know it doesn't look like much in this photo, but it is up, up and more up.

Just a couple weeks ago this was all green and lush.
It was nice and clear though, and a little breeze so I wasn't totally dying.

Chico Pete had had enough by the time we got home, he was up for nothing more than napping.

It's Saturday, long run and back at work!

2010-05-01T16:01:00.001-07:00

We did 9.5 miles this morning
It took us a little over an hour but I don't remember the exact time.
Average pace was around 9 and best was 6 something.

Lots of ag districts and the city put water in the river bed right now as run off is getting started.

It's intermittent, a little here and a little there, but it's really flowing well down by the coyote run where the dogs and I go. Makes it so much nicer for the dogs, who love to wallow around in the water and mud!

Lots of these little yellow snap dragons around.

This is about 3.5 miles west of Stockdale bridge. This isn't the river channel, it's a ponding basin for Rosedale Rio-Bravo distirct, I believe. Box car had fun swimming up and down in it.
The ponding basin looking west.

This is from last week. I normally drop into the river channel here and do a mile back east to Allen Road. Dry last week....
Not so dry today!
This is the turn out into the river channel from the Cross Valley Canal where there's almost always a tiny trickle where I can let the dogs get a drink. It was FULL today!
This little guy was under the bridge at Allen Road. I stopped to let the dogs in the water on our way back and stretch a little and I heard a cheep! cheep! and looked up and there he was. He was very tame and didn't fly away when I walked up to him, not even when the dogs were sniffing him.

But he was so scared when I tried to catch him that he was burrowing into the rocks. So I left him there. He must be someone's pet and took himself out for a little flying time and couldn't find his way back! I hope he'll be OK. But really, if I'd caught him, what the hell would I do with him? I don't know nuthin bout no birds and the cats would make a quick snack of him.

Simpson sky

2010-04-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

The sky today was beautiful. Kind of like the sky at the beginning of the cartoon "The Simpsons" with its puffy white clouds floating on a backdrop of brilliant blue.

This is from the balcony in my office looking east toward the mountains.

Catching up

2010-04-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to post these Sunday (April 24) but I emailed them to myself and then our work email crashed for most of the week!

These are from my April 24 run along the river west of town.

I did a 5 mile on Saturday and a 7 mile, but the deets are long since lost.

The cool thing on both days, was, of course, the river. Even a foot of water across the channel is great. Now that more run off is coming, water users are putting more water into the river and it's just such a relief to see. You don't even notice how awful and raw the channel looks, you get so used to it. Then when there's water it's like a salve on a burn.It was dry where I usually pop into the riverbed and run down the channel. But I knew there was water upstream a ways, so I used it as an excuse not to work too hard.
Water that trickles out of the Cross Valley Canal was being pushed back by water coming down the river.

Pretty!

Ditch day!

2010-04-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Nancy and I finally made it up to our friend Edith's place in Hart Flat. What took us so long!?
It was gorgeous! The weather, Edith's place, just couldn't have been more perfect.

Here's Edith saddling Cooper, my horse.

Here's the view from her front room. Just STUNNING!

And her back deck!
This is on her property heading down the hill. (Edith is ridding Bubba, one of her two mules. Bunny had to stay home, which she didn't like)
Go Nancy! (She's riding Silky, a Tennessee walker who was the sweetest he could be)

Edith found this Native American grinding hole last fall with the pestle still in it.

Another rock nearby also had grinding holes. It's a nice flat area next to a creek. We loved it, so why wouldn't Native Americans?

A resting spot.

Hi ho Silver, er Cooper!

We came onto a road and a little house next to it and I said I loved the house and the location. Turns out the road was the old highway to Mojave and this "house" was once a roadside bar. So of COURSE I loved it!

The views were incredible at every turn.

Oh just another night at Bills

2010-04-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well it wasn't just ANOTHER night at Bill's. For one, we hadn't been there in force in four weeks and we really owed Darrin a visit. Oh, and my wonderful friends wanted to celebrate my award from CNPA. Kimmy K even brought a GREAT bottle of champagne!

And she found a bunch of Pop Rocks and candy cigarettes, so we were like a bunch of 12 year olds with that stuff.

Wilkie, the bad ass.

The gals with their smokes...well, without any actual smoke...

Wow, Wiz actually smiled for once

We are tough customers, I'm tellin' ya!

Awwww! Scott and Theresa are just tooooo cute!

And here we all are...the crew, the group, the "element," and the usual suspects!

3 original "barbrahols"

2010-04-24T16:13:00.001-07:00

Barbara has some new toys on her computer and was making Warhols the other day.

Here's me in "green"
Don in teal in "through the looking glass"

And me in teal...kinda fun!

Hey, I won something!

2010-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

I got notice yesterday that I won first place for columns in the California Newspaper Publisher's Association contest. It's for our circulation level, not ALL papers, but still, it's nicer to win something than get a poke in the eye with a sharp stick...or even a dull one.

I set up my office in a spare room which had a weird shelf above the window. I didn't know what to put up there so I stuck all my awards from when I was a reporter long ago (before I did my 10 years hard time in management).

I can add this award to the shelf and start over!

And if you're totally bored and have nothing at all remotely interesting to do, you can read the columns I won for by clicking on the links below:

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/blog/noholdsbarred/50112

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/blog/noholdsbarred/49283

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/blog/noholdsbarred/49046

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/blog/noholdsbarred/50478

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/blog/noholdsbarred/52122

There were others, but you get the drift...

Back to the grind

2010-04-24T12:49:00.001-07:00

Did 5 miles this morning along the river.
49 minutes
SLOOOOOOWWW
9:49 average and 6:58 best pace.
522 calories burned.

I have about 6 weeks to kick it up and get ready for the Marin half...which is scaring me everytime I look at that elevation chart!

Pretty sky the other day after the storm

2010-04-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

Birthday biker babes

2010-04-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

My birthday is April 13 an Olivia's is the 14th. So we try and do stuff together.

This year, we were talking w/Alex (the photo editor who we lunch with once a week to swap gossip) about how he never drives us to lunch because he often brings a motorcycle. So he said maybe in the future he'd get a side car and Olivia and I could ride in that.

So we demanded Red Barron goggles and biker t-shirts and since it was our birthday, he GOT THEM FOR US!!!

Here we are with our tough biker snarls...sort of...

LOTS more photos of the wine party courtesy of Barbara!

2010-04-22T16:49:00.001-07:00

My next 1/2 marathon

2010-04-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

I'm signed up to do the Xterra Marin Headlands Half Marathon on June 12.

It should be beautiful, but it looks HARD!

I've slacked off running for the last two weeks. But I gotta get after it now if I'm going to have any kind of decent time on this half.

The website even says the race starts at 8 a.m. and you MUST finish by 11:30 or the course will be closed and you'll be a no show. So it's hills AND you gotta push. Yay!

Here's the topo map:

And here's the elevation chart. YIKES!

We tasted the hell out of that wine

2010-04-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

The flowers I bought myself didn't exactly turn out the way I'd imagined...hmmm

2010-04-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

Loving Wilkie's shirt

2010-04-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

And the guy behind Wilkie loved the shirt too...since he was wearing the same one!

The next night on the porch at Robin's, beer, pizza and chips...ahhh

2010-04-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Someone had their 46th birthday this week, but I'm not saying who

2010-04-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

And then Robin brought out the BEST CAKE EVER!!!! And you can see there were lots of candles given the smoke!

And the cake pan was endless fun!

I Love my friends!

I love my friends!

So, shots were a really GOOD idea? Alls well that ends well...well....

Random SC shots

2010-04-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

I got to Santa Cruz Saturday afternoon and thought I could pick up my race packet. No luck.

But I rambled around and saw the "sights" anyway.

Hey, look, it's a lovely day and no hurricane force winds, why not have the race today???

The beach of "NO"

Spider man playing guitar on the wharf...of course...where else would spider man play for change?

A tattoo parlor with strict rules seems somehow wrong to me...

Santa Cruz half marathon

2010-04-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

My official time:
2:01.23
Overall place:
753 out of 2,200
Place among women runners:
309 of 1,385

Here's the veiw from my hotel window of everyone milling around before the start.

I stayed at the Coastview Inn, which was the cheapest, closest hotel I could find. It wasn't fancy, but it was clean, secure and RIGHT THERE.

This is at about mile 5, in Wilder Ranch, I think. Kind of a cool place.

Then we wound around on the headlands, which was gorgeous. Except the wind really started to pick up. I'd thought we'd had a bit of a head wind starting out. Boy was I wrong!

This is about mile 10 and from here on out the cross wind was so fierce it was actually blowing my feet over as I ran. I slowed way down here, which was a bummer because I had been making fairly decent time for having gone out drinking Friday AND Saturday nights before the race!
Here's the finish. Just for fun, they make you do the last 50 yards in the deep soft sand.

And right as I crossed the finish line the rain started. Not sprinkles...big fat hard rain!

This was the line for food. I thought about waiting but the rain was too much. So I didn't get any of the giant delicious looking strawberries they were giving out. Sad. But I got my shirt!

It rained and blew like crazy for a few hours then it broke for a little while so I went out and looked for treasures in the sand. Mostly just found shells pummeled to bits!

Pretty.

The catigator stalking the counter

2010-04-12T16:59:00.001-07:00

Chico scare

2010-04-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

I was running with him last week and Smokey accidentaly stepped on him.

He YIKED real loud but did the run just fine.

That night I got home and Chico wasn't feeling well at all. He was all hunched up and wouldn't eat and was shaking and whining.

I freaked out and took him to emergency vet care and they said he had a hurt back but nothing life threatening. Why's it always cost $100 for them to tell you these things?

So he went to the regular vet the next day for x-rays and meds.

He had to stay in the pantry for a few days, out of general population. And he couldn't go running. He wasn't happy.

But he's all better now!

Another Easter pic

2010-04-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

We moved into the bar area and it was too bright for our delicate eyes...

Easter Brunch at the Padre

2010-04-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend running

2010-04-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

I did my last two "big" runs before the Santa Cruz half marathon on the 11th.

Saturday, I went into the hills and did 9 miles. I think it was a total time of 1:45, which seems slow, but I devised a route that took me up all the evil hills: Pistol, Bastard, Hanglider, Slingshot, one I'm calling Back Canyon, and Mesa Loop, without the extra mileage on the prairie.

Here's Smokey and the dogs on the shortcut canyon. We're in deep sand because this used to be the river bottom!

It was HARD. This is the backside of Mesa Loop, about a mile from the final downhill. Looks easy if you haven't just done a crap load of hills already.Then Sunday I did 7 miles along the river, which was fun at first because it was flat and easy.

Then I decided to challenge myself with a mile and a half in the river bottom. GAWD! why do I hate myself so?

There was a bit of water in the river up by Stockdale Bridge. But it didn't make it even to Allen Road. And It wasn't in the river at Coffee either. So just a smidge of a river for the picnickers at River Walk park. Cause you can't call it "river walk" if there's no RIVER, right?

Even a smidge is beautiful though.

Wow, it's been a while since I posted

2010-04-05T17:51:00.000-07:00

OK what's been happening?

I had to run up to Fresno last Monday to look up a court case. It's a water thing. Ergo, it's fascinating to me and everyone else on the planet will enjoy the nap they can take while "reading" my story, if I ever get it done!

Anyhoo, I stayed with my friend Mark, whose a great writer and a big help on some of my stories. He lives next to Bullard High School in a nice neighborhood that reminds me so much of my old hood in Fresno. I would move back there in a second if all the pieces fit together. Even the smell of that neighborhood makes me happy. (No jokes! Really, it smells good in that part of town!)

I went for a run Tuesday morning, 4 miles 37 minutes, but don't remember all the other deets.

There were some gorgeous flowering trees that I snapped along the way. I don't know the names of any of them, but if I ever figure it out, I'm buying some. If they grow in Fresno, they'd survive Bako, right?

Finally had to get a new toaster

2010-03-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Old and new toasters side by side. I bought that old toaster when I first moved out, I think I was 17! I would have kept it, but some screws fell out and I couldn't find them, so it was really falling apart.

My new toaster reminds me of an Airstream trailer. Can I toast and travel at the same time?

OK, so while I was in target getting the toaster, I figured I'd get a coffee maker too. I don't drink coffee, but perhaps I might have guests some day who DO drink coffee and I can say, Oh, would you like some coffee?

Some people call my office messy...what?

2010-03-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

Bills Saturday night

2010-03-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Mai tais for everyone!

Sunday run

2010-03-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Up to this hills this time.
The GPS conked out at 4 miles. But it's a run I've done lots of times so I know it was 6.5 and we did it in about an hour and 15 minutes. Lots of stops for photos and such.

Plus there were lots of mountain bikers prowling around so I kept having to stop and put Boxcar on the leash as he thinks they are fun to chase.

Beautiful day out there. I went at 8 a.m. which I won't be able to do in a couple of months, way too hot that late. But it was fun to sleep in and still have a run that wasn't broiling hot.

Clear clear clear today, gorgeous! You could see every ripple and fold in those foothills.

The sheep were on the plain again and the sheep dogs came to let us know they were on guard. Boxcar made friends with them.

Bear Mountain in the background with a mountain biker going along the ridge.

Wish I had my other camera for these!

Me and Boxcar headed up Pistol!

Saturday March 27 run

2010-03-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

Still thinking of doing that half marathon in Santa Cruz next month, April 11, a couple days before my 46th birthday.
So I'm still in semi training mode. Though I haven't been cross training like I should w/weights, spin and swimming.
Today's run:
10 miles...(what was I thinking!?)
1:40 hours
9:37 average
7:01 best
1,157 calories burned.

I felt good out and back. Then cleaned the house and came to work and now I'm fading...FAST!

I ran west of Stockdale Bridge out into the Kern Fan area. Not sure who's property I was trespassing on at this point, the city's (which I would argue means I'm not trespassing at all since that's owned by the PUBLIC) Kern Count Water Agency (ibid!) or Kern Water Bank (kind of ibid there too!)

This was our turn around point. Good thing I have a GPS otherwise I'd be out to Elk HIlls before I realized I'd gone too far. Ha, yeah, right.
See, This is me running. I've been accused of only taking pictures of dogs and scenery becuase i'm not REALLY out there running. Oh yeah? Well how'd my shadow get there without me then??? Oh, and though it looks like I'm wearing a long skirt, I was not. Just for the record.

Swallows return to Bako

2010-03-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Capistrano isn't the only place swallows return to!

They also like to build mud nests under the Stockdale bridge in Bakersfield!

I took these last weekend at the end of my run but forgot to post. Last saturday I think I did 7.5 with one mile in the river bed. Then had to work. Sunday I did maybe 5 miles (too many mai tais at Bills after work Saturday!)

Summer color

2010-03-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

I think this will be my color for summer...the polish....not the rug.

Running, running running

2010-03-20T16:46:00.001-07:00

I did a couple shorties during the week, just 3 miles here and there, nothing big.

I apparently went out and had way too much fun on St. Paddy's day and it threw the rest of my week into a loop because I'm TOO DAMN OLD to be doing stuff like that!

Anyway, I had the Saturday cops shift but got in a 7.5 miler along the river today that felt pretty good.

I'm thinking of doing a half maraton in Santa Cruz April 11, couple days before turning the big 46 (50 is right around the corner, YIKES!)

And I really want to do the Dipsea run June 13, which is up in Marin and I've hiked it but it's a brutal run I've always wanted to try. So gotta get back into the running grind!

The dogs at least got a drink out of the trickle being let into the river bed from the Cross Valley Canal. GRRR!

I did a mile in the river bottom, deep sand. It was so hard! And I took these last 2 photos to show how CLEAR it was today, but my phone camera doesn't do it justice. You could see Breckenridge, Bear, all the way to Elk Hills and the Temblors beyond that. It was really gorgeous today.

Joe and Mimi's super fun wine party

2010-03-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Joe and Mimi had a wine tasting party Saturday and it was great. The concept was very simple, good friends, good food, good wine and a little mystery.

Joe had four blind reds and four blind whites and all you had to do was guess the varietal and then rank them according to your tastes.

Simple right? Who can't tell a zin from a pinot? As it turns out ME, and lots of the rest of us winos! It was a hoot and I promised to do one next month. I only hope I can put one together that's half as good as this one was!

Joe, the man of the hour with the game about to begin!
Mimi and the Don. I loved all the rich colors in Joe and Mimi's house!
I never would have come up with that blue/yellow pattern, or had the guts to pull it off. But it looks so good!

Wiz had, yes, beer, at the wine tasting. Say what you will about the Wiz, he knows what he likes.

Kimmy and her pal Marsha. They were great.

Hey, who invited this lush!?

All the cool kids were there.

Even Gary was having fun.

I think Kimmy was trying to sneak a peak. At the wine, I mean.

Very serious consideration ensued.

Debates got heated...

And then we gathered for the moment of truth...

It was a stunner! But I can't remember which one this was. The barbera probably which NO ONE guesed. Well, practice practice practice

The duke

2010-03-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

River run and another in the hills

2010-03-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

We did about 6.5 along the river on Saturday. Very slow owing to the drinkies the night before.

Chico made a friend! Don't worry, it's dead! Someone pulled or cut its head off too, which I think wasn't necessary as A) it's DEAD and B) it's not a rattler or anything!

Backwards question mark.

This is water that comes out of the Cross Valley canal, or River canal, can't remember which. It's a lined canal that runs parallel to the river and always has lots of water, unlike the river itself. And this outlet sometimes has a little flow. Even with just a little flow, it's surrounded by native trees and I almost always see foxes and coyotes here. Must have been what the river was like all along its route back in the day.

I did 6 in the hills Sunday. I did tower line again, because I got out there late and there were too many people on my usual route. Here's the view from the top of towerline.
The sheep were back! I saw the sheep herder (shepherd?) at the top of the hill, sleeping in the grass. His dogs did all the work. You can see a big white dog in the lower left. He was barking and keeping the sheep from scattering as we ran by. What a good dog!

My camera in the phone doesn't do the wild flowers justice. They were gorgeous!

Like I need another project

2010-03-14T19:59:00.001-07:00

I decided to move my old bed into one of the spare rooms but when I got it out of the shed it was pretty ratty looking. So I thought I'd give it a quick refinish. Idiot.

It's a really cool bedframe, the posts are like tree trunks and it had this unfinished piney look. But the varnish was all chipping off and the old stain had gotten really dark.

I had this bed from the time I was a teenager when we first moved to the ranch. It had been there for decades before that, so it's damn old.

As I was sanding down one of the sides, I found this etching I must have made when I was like 15. It says LH + someone, but I couldn't make out the name, and it's inside a heart with an arrow through it. Maybe after some stain the name will come out and I'll remember who I was so in love with all those years ago that I'd scratch it into my bed!
The post on the left is unsanded and the one on the right I just sanded down.

I got a stain called "puritan pine" but after I did a couple of the pieces I didn't like it, WAY too dark. And it didn't look anything like the color depicted on the can. DAMNIT! Now what am I gonna do? resand? UGH! This quick refinish is taking over my life.

Friday night drinkies and evil tech fairies

2010-03-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

I had an appt. for AT&T to come out and install u-verse. What a nightmare. Of course I had a RANGE when they would come out, between 9 a.m. and noon, so I let my boss know. Then they got out here and after an hour or so said they weren't sure they could even install it. Mind you, I had been advised by AT&T earlier that u-verse COULD be installed in my neighborhood AND that I should cancel all my other services prior to the tech's arrival.

Soooo....I waited around the house for hours and they finally decided it could be installed. The tech showed me how to operate everything and it was all good. (9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. was only how long it took)

I went out for drinks and Robin said she hoped the evil technology fairy didn't come to my house while I was gone and ruin everything. Guess what? Yup, doesn't work...well it works in the garage if I wanted to hang out out there in the cold and breathe paint fumes (little project I have going).

Here's what my TV looks like now. Yes, big giant red X in the screen. And this was after hours on the phone w/tech services.

A tech person is coming tomorrow, Monday, between 4 and 9 p.m. Whadda ya wanna bet it'll work fine when he/she gets here, then big red X as soon as they leave?

The Padre Friday night. Beene and Robin...COZEEEE

Wilkie and Alisha...she was fun!
Wilkie's ghost finger ruining another shot!

I took 3 photos of these guys (Don and Kerry) and all the same, blurrrrry. It must have been them...certainly couldn't have been ME!

My big acomplishment today

2010-03-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

Two sets of friends and then finally I tinkered on this over three days, but dang it, we finally got the ceiling fan up and working...good thing we're not in charge of anything actually important!

Out and about

2010-03-07T16:12:00.001-08:00

I went out Friday night to the Padre (still need to get photos from the fun Brimstone bar!) and then MetroGalleries and to dinner at Enzo.

I actually curled my hair and got a photo before I left the house, because, you know, it wouldn't last long!

Here Jan and I are at Enzo w/Scott and Theresa. As you can see, my lovely coif is already flattened out. And it appears from my pose that I may have had a few glasses of wine.

Scott and Theresa!

Then Saturday night, I got an invite to a fund raiser for West Rotary, I think. I don't know I was confused by it and since I didn't buy the ticket, I can't be sure what it was for. But it was a ciopino feed with steamed clams and lots of wine. So whatever it was for, I'm sure it was a very GOOD cause!

Here's my boss and pal getting giddy over the thought of those clams!

Clams have arrived, down to bidness!

Glad I didn't have to clean up after us, we were MESSY!

Post Buffalo running

2010-03-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

Random truck I saw. I liked the name of this club...seems like a club I should belong to! I'm definitely a dirt doll!

OK, back to business. Running.

I want to keep up the basic training sked I'd gotten into so I can do more half marathons this year. But I admit, I wasn't ready to run last week until THURSDAY!

It was a flat run along the river.
6.38 miles, 1 hour, 9:28 average, 6:13 best, 670 calories burned.

Then Saturday, March 5, again along the river
7 miles, 1:16 hours, 10:53 average, 7:59 best, 735 calories burned.

BUT I did the last mile in the riverbed, which was super hard.

The camera in my phone isn't taking the best photos anymore, they're really dark and cloudy, when it was pretty nice this day. The weeds are coming up thick with all this rain. You can't make him out in this photo, but Boxcar is out there in the middle somewhere.
Chico Pete eyeing the lay of the land.

The "mighty"Kern River! Sigh. Well, maybe we'll have at least some of it back someday, if we keep fighting for it!

And then Sunday in the hills. It was gorgeous out, despite all the weather forecasts calling for rain.
I was admittedly slow, but the hills were HARD. I went up "towerline" instead of my usual "pistol" run and I forgot how long and steep that one gets.
Plus I had to stop for photos and puddle breaks for the dogs, and Boxcar wanted to chase after some cyclists....if I can think of any more excuses, I'll put those down later.

5.84 miles, 1:22 hours, 14:06 average, 5:28 best, 685 calories burned.

These little white flowers were every where and looked like fresh patches of snow on the green grass.

First hill. Look how steep it is!

Top of "mesa loop" I think.

Starting down "toads" gully.

And in "toads." It's hard to get a photo that conveys how fun toads is. It's about a mile long, all down hill in the bottom of this canyon that twists and turns for what seems like forever. You have to hit it really fast, which is where I'm sure I got the 5:28 pace. It's pretty treacherous when wet, though.

Back to Bako ...and chores

2010-03-01T20:14:00.001-08:00

Pretty flowers...

I finally got all the dogs to stay together in one spot long enough to get a photo!
My one daffodil...since I didn't plant any bulbs this fall. I think I kind of bent it with the trimmings.

I really wacked these trees. They were so overgrown I just went a little overboard, I guess!

Then I started in on the bottlebrush tree! Cause, you know the old saying: Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But give a woman a chain saw and STAND BACK!

Ummmm....it'll grow back...I swear.

The Buffalo half marathon!

2010-03-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

We arrived on Friday and it was lovely.That didn't last!
The morning of the race, I noticed a mannequin in the window of an apartment by our hotel.

I forgot totake a photo at the very start of the race, this is part way up a little hill right out of town.
Another view further up the hill. This historic Casino building was being worked on.

I took a TON of photos of Avalon from various hills.

See?

This is the start of the REAL hill. It went on for miles and miles.

Not kidding, it just kept going up.
Oh, look, more uphill...

This was somewhere near the top, carrion birds were waiting to pick off the weak and slow.

I was soooo looking forward to the top for the great views. Instead, I got fog. I can get that in BAKERSFIELD!

There's Avalon down there somewhere.

I ran with a husband and wife, two doctors, for a while. She was running BAREFOOT! With just these little feet gloves on!

Wrigley memorial.

There go my doctor pals headed for the finish line. Here it comes! I finished in 2 hours 41 minutes and 14 seconds. About a minute after my doc pals, Nahiri and Daniel (I think!)

Sitting in a wine, dessert, sushi, pasta, candle bar later that afternoon, a rainbow busted out. Then a full moon came out and showed off.

The next day was bright and sunny, so I went for a walk on the mountains on the other side of Avalon.

You can see the mountains on the mainland, covered in snow. That's 26 miles away!

View from the Catalina Express "Jet Cat"! bye bye Island!

Besides the pain in my quads and my photos, here's what I have left from the half marathon.

Padre gets a new sign

2010-03-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

And then we had mai tais at bills!

Gary's really not this cranky...well not all the time!

But Wiz, he's always like this

Jason's weirdness returns to the newsroom

2010-03-01T18:52:00.001-08:00

It was Jason's birthday last week and SOMEONE foolishly indulged his unicorn fetish.

This, he told me, wasn't Jason, it was Rodney Alacorn. THIS, I told him, was worth a trip to 3B in KMC.

Last training runs before the half marathon

2010-03-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Feb. 20 I did 6 miles on the river
58:37
Average 9:44
Best 7:25 (OK, so I went out the night before!)
Calories burned 633

Sunday I hit the hills again
10.33 miles
2:12 hours (lots of stopping and looking around because a mountain bike race was taking all my best trails, bastards!)
Average 12:15
Best 7:09
Calories 1248

And NO it wasn't enough for the race, which was really hard!

View from top of Hanglider...hadn't been up there in a while.
Memorial to a guy named David Freed, don't know who he was, But he liked coming up here.

Not even sure where this was!

While in Sacto...

2010-02-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

I met this kid...he's 33, so he's a kid to me, while I was eating dinner at the bar at McCormick and Schmits

His name's Chris Orozco. Life is so funny, turns out he grew up in Sonora of all places and worked at Dodge when he was about 14 or 15. Small world.

Anyway, he's a "professional" skateboarder now and guitarist for a Sacramento band called Machete.

Here's an interview w/the band some time ago. He goes by Roscoe or Rozco.

http://www.musicemissions.com/artists/Machete

They're apparently getting close to the "big time." I wish him luck!
This is his MySpace photo...he didn't look like this at the restaurant. He was fully clothed, but of course had on a sideways ballcap.

He was actually a really nice kid, smart and funny.

It's good to win!

2010-02-18T16:33:00.000-08:00

I drove to Sacramento on Monday (what a wonderful way to spend a holiday!).

And attended the State Water Resources Control Board Tuesday, which decided the issue of whether the Kern River is fully appropriated.

I've been advocating for two years now to have it deemed NOT fully appropriated based on a court decision that forfeited some of an ag districts rights. The city has applied for the water covered by those rights and has vowed to run that water down the river.

Yes, for those of you who don't live in the glorious "Golden Empire," we have a big beautiful riverbed with NO water in it.

The city was up against formidable odds as several powerhouse agencies urged the state board to find there was no unappropriated water (even though they'd also petitioned the board to change the river's status and give THEM the water).

But in the end, the board found the river not fully appropriated. Yay! That's a big win in this process, HUGE.

It's also just the first step of a very long journey.

But the really cool thing is my newspaper had started a campaign to get people to write in asking the board to make this finding and more than 4,000 people did!

It was noted by the board staff during the meeting and apparently made a really big impression on the board.

I like to think I had a small hand in that.

So it's good to win!

President's weekend

2010-02-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

Doing a little catch up because I was neglecting to blog for a couple days.

OK, Friday run on the tracks
3.17 miles
30:55 minutes
9:66 average
6:31 best
328 calories

And I got this pic of Bear Moutain with a jaunty little cap of clouds.

Saturday run

7 miles on the coyote run heading west along the river, well, the riverBED anyway.

No deets because the GPS conked out about 4 and a half miles into it....old batteries.

Here are Jack Jack and Chico Pete at the turn around.

Sunday run

6.24 miles - HILLS!!

1:13 hours (lame, I know)

11:51 average

6:32 best

716 calories burned.

Beautiful day!

Blue dicks!

You can't tell, but at the top of the ridge are hundreds of sheep. They were all over scarfing up the new grass. I ran into the shepherd and his dogs a little further on. Really good dogs! Mine, um...not so good...it was a little embarassing.
Then Sunday I began the process of trimming the olive trees which I've neglected far too long.

Here's the front tree, which I haven't gotten to yet.

Here's the back view of the back trees still waiting to be pruned.

And here's the one side I did get to. I know it looks awful, but I've done this before, you have to really cut them back hard or you'll have to retrim them in just a couple months.

But this was all I could do because I ran out of room in my green waste barrels!

Oh well, there's always next weekend.

Monday's run was a shorty on the tracks.

3.19 miles

32:52 minutes

10:18 average

6:48 best

323 calories burned

Into the hills

2010-02-07T13:30:00.001-08:00

Took all the dogs on a little 5 mile run into the hills on Sunday. I'm avoiding cleaning the house!

Here's the start at "pistol range".

UP the hill for a mile

Some wildflowers are just coming up. My friend Cyndi, who's a naturalist, says these ones are called "blue dicks" but I think she just gets a chuckle hearing us say, "Oh look at the nice blue dicks coming up..."

This is starting the last mile where you go down, up, down, up, around, down up and up up up for a while.

It was raining and MUDDY (which will have consequences for me later)!

View of "hanglider" from the top. Ooops! Here's what my GPS looked like after I took a little spil in toad's gully.

And here are my pants. I got a couple scrapeys but nothing too serious. It was especially nice after I fell when all my dogs jumped on my to make sure I was OK. Thanks doggies!

DEETs:

4.77 miles

1 hour

12:35 average pace

6:25 best pace (and that was even downhill, yikes I was going slow!)

560 calories burned (that's ALL?

Foggy bottom river run on Saturday

2010-02-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

I did close to 7 miles Saturday and it was fogggeeeee down by the river.

And yeah, it was the coyote run again on the north side of the river west of Stockdale bridge and YES, another coyote sighting!

This time Boxcar spotted him first and ran after him. I thought for sure it was another ambush, but I think it was a lone coyote cause he took off and Boxcar chased him into the brush then lost him and finally came back to me. Dumb dog!

Deets:

6.93 miles

1:10 minutes (hey, I had to deal with the dumb dog!)

10:12 average pace

6.14 best pace

730 calories burned

Padre back in biz

2010-02-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

The historic Padre Hotel, katty corner (or is it kitty corner?) from our building has been refurbished, revamped and reopened.

This shot is from before it officially reopened. I've had drinks there twice with friends now, it's really cool!

Puffy clouds

2010-02-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

We've had some nice rain lately and I love the after-rain clouds, though this is kind of a wierd shot on my way to work last week, I think...

Running and my "live shot"

2010-02-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

My running is pretty pedestrian (ha ha) these days. I just don't want to suffer another freakin' injury, so I'm keeping it slow and low key.

Consequently, I'm not getting the mileage nor the hills I need. I'm now trying to sell my slots and my hotel room for the Catalina race. There's just no way I'll be able to run it. If I can't sell it, I may go down there but won't run. SIGH. I've always wanted to do that race too.

Here's the running rundown this week.

Monday

3.17 miles

30:57 minutes

9:46 average pace

6:22 best pace

337 calories burned.

Tuesday I had to do a live shot w/a local TV station at 5 a.m.! RE: The city's and The Californian's efforts to get water back in the river. So, since we were meeting at the bike path, I put in my jogging clothes, brought some dogs and after the interview went for a run.

Some photos of Kate Larsen, morning gal for Ch. 29 at the river and interviewing Jack Jack!

Tuesday

4.19 miles

50 minutes (hey, it was dark and there was debris in the trail!)

10:12 average pace

7:23 best pace

506 calories burned

By the way, Tuesday was my 17 year anniversary for quitting smoking. SEVENTEEN YEARS!

Wednesday

3.16 miles

30:53 minutes

9:46 average pace

6:39 best pace

325 calories burned

Running log

2010-02-01T20:58:00.000-08:00

Before I left for the cabin and ruined my streak, I was doing good.

Thursday Jan. 28
3.20 miles
34.47 minutes
10:53 average pace
7:41 best pace
336 calories burned

Friday Jan. 29
7.12 miles
1 hour 12 minutes
10:08 average pace
6:54 best pace
747 calories

Two days of skiing and drinking and EATING!

Monday Feb. 1
3.17 miles
30.57 minutes
9:47 average pace
6:22 best pace
337 calories

Even so, Don and I were talking today about selling our spots in the Catalina race. Neither of us is ready after injuries and other problems. Oh well, maybe next year!

Cabin trip w/the Vincent fam

2010-02-01T19:40:00.000-08:00

Running, weird dream and dogs

2010-01-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

OK, here are the dogs...they're so cute Chico Pete loves to sleep on my pillow and doesn't like to be disturbed as you can see.

I was supposed to go to spin class this morning but couldn't get up at 5 a.m. because of this weird dream I had, which I'll get to in a minute. So instead, the dogs and I did the standard 3 mile track run.
3:17 miles
33 minutes (slower than yesterday)
10:36 average
7:45 best (again, slower)
335 calories burned.

So I had this dream that I was living in my old apartment. Or a compilation of various apartments I'd lived in.

Chad Vegas, a holy roller high school trustee and pastor here who I've written about numerous times and not in a nice way, came over. He worked for Chevron in my dream. He told me a lady named Genevieve I. Inn was stalking me and to be careful.

I said that was silly. But just then a gust of wind blew open the back door and the doors on my washer and dryer. Strange, I remember thinking, this apartment doesn't HAVE a back door.

I looked her up on the internet and could only find that she was a motivational speaker at some dumb conference.

I went to bed and woke up with a strobe light going off and Genevieve was in my room!!!!

She had short dark hair and was very nicely dressed in a black dress with a business jacket. She was very tall and thin. When she saw I was awake she unhurriedly walked to the doorway where she had to duck because of her height.

I was trying to yell at her, "I see you! I know who you are!!" But in my dream I couldn't wake up enough to get the words out and I remember thinking how I hate that when you can't yell because you're sleeping. Only I was trying to wake myself up into my dream, thinking that was reality.

Larry finally hit me on the shoulder and I woke up.

I went back to sleep and dreamed my crazy cousin and I were in her old bug racing up and down really tall sand dunes at the beach, much nicer dream.

Monday morning run

2010-01-25T13:11:00.001-08:00

I did 3 miles, lame, but I gotta start somewhere!

So deets were:
3.12 miles
32 minutes (faster than the last 3 miler last week!)
Average pace 10:38
Best pace 6:45 (I swear I'm not making that up, that's what the GPS said!)
Calories burned 338

Bear mountain as the sun rises. Was a pretty sky.
Smokey looking like he's about to do something naughty, but he didn't cause he's a good boy!