Cough - Hack - Sputter!

And I'm not kidding. Last Saturday we had a few thunderstorms roll through the area which started over 800+ wildfires. Consequently this whole week has been horribly smokey! The following pictures tell the whole story....

Our normal view across the street

Our view for the past week

Can you say......YUCK!

2008 Bay to Breakers - This years pictures

When I completed 2008 Bay to Breakers on May 19, 2008 post, the only pictures I had available were the 2007 race pictures. I now have the '2008' pictures, Yay! Everyone looks like they had such fun. There are a few runners running nude in this race that I will not post as this is more of a 'family' blog. All in all it is an interesting race, quite colorful. This was the 97th year for this race. I have lived here for most of my life and I can't believe I have NEVER heard of this race before. Enjoy the pictures......

Yes, that IS a toilet she is sitting on.

San Francisco Part Deux

At the end of the relaxing day in San Francisco we decided to eat dinner at a really nice restaurant. We wanted to relax at a nice table while watching the boats, water and surf. We all decided on a place to eat and waited for the 'perfect' table with the 'perfect' view. While waiting for the 'perfect' table, the theme song of the Godfather kept playing through my mind. Hmmmmmm, wonder if 'hey, how ya' doing', and 'I'll make him an offer you can't refuse' preceded the running theme song. The food was delicious and service was good. Our waiter looked like the movie 'Ratatouille' restaurant owner. All in all, the trip was wonderful!!

San Francisco

Photobucket Album

One of the main reasons I drove to San Francisco.....my brother Brandon!


The Oakland Bay Bridge


Fog beginning to roll in...


Kite surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge. You can't even see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge because of all the fog.

These murals were painted in the 1930's during the depression for the Coit Towers. They are amazing!

Bay to Breakers Run 2008

Photobucket Album

So...imagine my excitement when my brother told me he would be in San Francisco for four days and did I want to come see him. Wow, get to see my brother AND visit San Francisco all at the same time? Wonderful. Jim and I drove the three hours to San Francisco and met up with Brandon. We thought it would be nice to go to the Golden Gate Park where there is among other things an arboretum and a japanese tea garden. We kept running into 'Road Closed' barriers throughout this huge park. A local resident told us that the roads were closed due to the 'beta breakers' event. What?? What the heck is a 'beta breakers'? Come to find out it is this 7.5 mile run event called 'BAY TO BREAKERS'. The run starts at the Embarcadero (bay area) and ends at the Great Highway (Pacific Ocean). There were over 75,000 runners with world wide entries. This was the 97th run. Quite awesome, although we never got to see any of the things we wanted to see at the park. But we saw quite a few other things which I will post later.

Southwest Airlines also had a costume contest. This year Southwest Airlines gave out prizes to the best “California Theme” and the best “Keep it Green Theme”. These two categories were judged based on runners’ costumes representing California or how we can keep the environment healthy and green. Some outfits were really out there as you can tell from the following pictures from the 2007 entries. As soon as this years pictures are posted I will replace these. I was so busy gawking at all these crazy clothed people I totally forgot to take pictures. (duh!)

Strange Sightings in Oklahoma

Again....more snow!

Strangest weather.... It would snow during the day and turn to icy/rain in the evening. The temperature should go DOWN in the evening. We have had two sunny days now but there is still snow on the ground.

The cats were NOT amused!

Snow is not Bradley's cup of tea! He looks bored or....upset or....whatever!

Stripes was really digusted about the snow and acted as if it was my doing!

This moth was really confused....it thought it was a butterfly or a bat!?!

Day After Thanksmas 2007

Aaron, Payton, parents and grandparents spent the afternoon riding on the carousel and train. Everyone was having such fun! (even the adults)....... There was even an ice skating rink, with actual frozen ice, if you wanted to skate. All this located in an open shopping mall. The sun was warm and we had a nice cool breeze. Such a great day. Click here for more pictures.

I think Aaron was trying to choose what animal he wanted to ride. He was so patient.

Aaron chose a running rabbit and Payton wasn't so sure of any of the animals so she chose a stationary bench.

There was so much to see from the train, but they did actually wave to grandma!

Snowing......yet not!

We woke up to patchy white 'stuff' this morning. This weather is really quite weird. First it snows (wet snow) then it hails.....then comes the rain. It has done this scenario at least five times today. The sun came out for a little while and the water was just dropping off the branches and catching the light. It was just too pretty to not take a picture. Click here for more pictures.

Storm of January 4th 2008

Wow! What a storm this was. Rain started at 12:30 am this morning and didn't stop until 3:30 pm this afternoon. It just POURED! And the wind was the worst I have ever seen up here in Brownsville. We had sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph (although it felt worse than that). It sure was a good beginning to refill all of our low resevoirs up here. The rain stopped right around sunset and the light was absolutely beautiful I HAD to take pictures. Bradley, our cat, looked at the total mess of our outside furniture that the wind left behind. Click here to see more pictures.

The wind was still blowing a little as I took a picture of the tree relected in a puddle of water. The sunset made for a warm light for all these pictures.

This picture was taken directly toward the sunset which made the rest of the picture so dark.

This is the same picture manipulated in picasa2 using more fill light in the photo. What a difference in picutures, huh!!?!!

Another Snow Day in Brownsville CA

We woke up to this sight on December 28th. Not a lot of snow but we had a few inches. Such a pretty sight. We are at about 2400' in elevation and on the west side of the Sierras, so we don't see a lot of snow but when we do we LOVE it! Click here for more pictures.

Thanksmas 2007

Thanksmas (that's a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas) 2007 was again held at Trisha & Ian Keith's house (thank-you, thank-you, thank-you). A great time was held by all. Instead of the traditional holiday meal we had Thai food from a great place in Irvine. That way no one had to have the stress of making the meal. Sounds like a good idea......but we may have to go back to the traditional fare due to prohibitive costs. It tasted absolutely wonderful though! Last year all my pictures had grandchildren only and I did do better this year to include the parents and other adults. I could still improve though - I will try to improve next year. This picture is sooooo typical of pictures with little boys and little girls. Notice the huge space between Aaron and the girls (Payton, Seattle and Savannah). It was so hilarious to see them doing that. Click here to see more pictures.

There are the grandchildrens' Gingerbread 'Houses'. They are soooo cute!

Aaron and Seattle are loving the bounce 'house'. Great exercise for them as well!