Ski Trip, 3:3

Sam is all clear--nothing to worry about. Yay!! :-D
Next vet excitement . . . Thomas goes in for the Big Snip on the 29th. I feel like we should invest in the vet's office!! They're very good though, so we feel lucky.

And now for the final ski trip post:

Ben cooked us eggs for breakfast. . . yumm! Thursday morning Erik & I decided that we weren't up for skiing and instead would take a drive around Lake Tahoe with a picnic lunch. We dropped Ben & Pei off at the hill and set out. It turned out to be an especially good idea as they said it was colder than the past two days and later started to snow; worst of all, the runs were icy. They did some skiing/boarding, and some more hanging out and shopping.

Erik carrying my camera bag :-D Some shots from around the lake. . . it was cool to watch the weather roll in. It rained on us a little, but we eventually drove out of it. Back "home" with a toasty fire, we watched the Gators beat Oklahoma in the championships . . . who knew Pei was a crazy gator fan?! And yes, Ben did call to taunt April when OK lost. ;-D . . . this has to be my favorite people pic of the trip :-D On Friday morning we needed to be out by 10am so the cleaning staff could get in before more people came in the afternoon. We were on the road at 9:55am! We stopped for a bite at a trendy little lunch spot on our trip home . . . . . . and then switched drivers. Ha! To be fair, they didn't sleep ALL the time. But they do tend to konk out in the car! Friday night, back in Bakersfield after a yummy Thai dinner with Bill who watched our kitties while we were gone. Ben & Pei drove back to Pasadena, we picked up the pooches in the morning . . . and we're still trying to get back into a regular routine again! I guess that means it was a Really Good Vacation, right? :-D We had so much fun!!!!

Ski Trip, 2:3

Here's the group on Day Two at Squaw Valley, riding the Cable Car up the mountain. What a sexy group, eh? :-DThis is a view from below. You can see the tower up there on the mountain (it's not the top, just the first crest). Every time you go past one of those on a crest, the car sways a bit (don't worry, mom--the operator warns you ahead of time). During the course of the cable car ride you go up over 2000 feet from where you started. Then you can get on a chair lift and go higher! Over all a pretty trip up and over some very interesting terrain (see our car's shadow in the corner?) I love those rocks!!At the top of the cable car lift is an uber-chalet. Not some dimly-lit, close-quartered cabin where you smush together and buy cocoa and warm your toes . . . this is huge. There are restaurants, an olympic-sized ice rink where you can skate, an Olympic museum, and an outdoor swimming pool (not frequented in the winter)! There's also a great picnic/observation deck area that looks out at Lake Tahoe from a distance. Pei, ready to rock the hill on her board Ben, after a long skate over a flat starting area, coming to tell me that I was not going to get any good downhill shots from that angle Our time was not wasted, however! Erik helped haul a snowboarder out of the pit around one of the lift supports. How many times have you heard the words, "Thank you, kind stranger!" floating on brisk winter air? ;-D

We then spent some time in the Olympic museum, which was neat! It's small and well-organized, with posterboards outlining the audacious proposal to have the Olympics in the relatively unknown mountains outside of Europe, as well as news stories from the 1960 Olympic games. It was really interesting! Erik won the gold for being patient and waiting for me long after he was done reading stuff.How about that blue sky?! I took approximately 1 bazillion pictures while trying to catch the flag open enough to read. Ha!Heading back down in the cable car (if you click and make it bigger, you may be able to see the buildings at the bottom) . . . whoops! As I click and look, this isn't the cable car; it's the funitel, which is similar, but smaller and it doesn't go as high. It's also a continually rotating line of cars (there are only two cable cars and they do not make a loop--they take turns going back and forth every 15-minutes). The funitel cars have seating and standing room for 28 people (that would be CRAMPED) while the cable car, when stuffed full (not when I was on it, thank goodness) holds 110! Erik & I took it really easy that afternoon--watched some Warren Miller footage that Ben had along (FUN stuff!), and picked the young'uns up in plenty of time for an early dinner/movie/game night--and a Real Fire!

Back in our digs, Ben videotaping. . . everything. Hey, it's a new toy. ;-P Just called the vet and Sam is out of surgery and doing well. He'll be ready to come home late this afternoon. Now we wait for the biopsy.

On another note, I made Gammy's Fish Chowder last night. I'd never made it before (and I haven't had it in YEARS). It tasted like home. It was so good! Come over and have some. ;-)

Ski Trip, 1:3

I'm going to split our Lake Tahoe ski trip into three parts in the interest of . . . well, I just am. :-)

We left the morning of January 5th, so naturally late on the night of the 4th we started packing. Cats are always so helpful when you're packing (Sam actually managed to insert himself into the sleeve of Erik's coat at one point). Ben & Pei rolled in sometime in the middle of the night, coming after work (and last minute packing). Monday morning we got up, but we were on vacation! We spent the morning running some errands (i.e. buying socks and trying on hats), and then we left! Some were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed . . . and some were not. It was a long day of driving, but we stopped for some amazing sushi at a place Pei knew about before settling into the hotel. Yum!!!! Erik was WAY too excited about the luggage cart--clearly this was before he'd tried out the mattress. Seriously the worst beds EVER. And you know it's bad when Erik thinks we ought to write and complain. The only comfort in our suite was that the next morning when we got up we'd be less than 2-hours from Tahoe! :-D With all the errands the day before, you wouldn't think we'd need anything else. But the first time you open your bags after leaving you inevitably discover something wanting. There's really not much action in retail in the early morning though, so it was easy in, easy out.Then suddenly we were in the Squaw Valley parking lot bundling up for what turned out to be a lovely day! It was pretty warm, though we were glad for our layers up on some of the exposed high parts of the mountains. Overall just a gorgeous, sunny day. After much rigmarole renting equipment (three different spots for four people all wanting something a little different), buying lift tickets, getting maps, etc., we left Erik taking his ski lesson and headed up. . . and down! It was pretty neat to be at a big ski area--and a little frustrating. Things were not labeled well and as we were not familiar we felt a little lost.

How about . . . this way? The snow was ok, but not great. Pretty though! :-D Seems like I'm always taking pictures of silly signs, but we enjoyed this one.At the end of the day we were all ready to find our lodgings and get comfy. . . . I got nuthin'.The view from our back door. The buildings you see on the right are actually huge condo thingys associated with Squaw Valley. That's also where the parking lot was for skiing--pretty close! Ben . . . showing off his dirty hand after trying to start a fire (Pei actually started it a little later). We crashed hard and early that first night, so it was ok that the fire didn't really get crackling--we had great fires every other night!

More tomorrow--I'm off to bed! Be well, all. Think of Sam tomorrow!!

Thank you!

First of all, Huge Happy Birthday Greetings to Clare, John and Noelle!!!! I'm a big putz and didn't get cards out again. :-/

Today is kind of the first foray back into Real Life after the holidays and our vacation. I'll get pics up from our trip to Tahoe soon, but have to wade through the sorting of pictures first.

So, I've been volunteering with a Community Reading Program in Bakersfield. For an hour a week, I get to sit with four 3rd graders (15-minutes each) and have them read to me. They're students who need a little extra help to get their reading level up to that of their classmates. . . studies apparently show that if a child isn't up to reading levels by 2nd & 3rd grade, they just get further and further behind. Anyway, today was my first day back after the holiday break and I asked each of them about their holiday (and if they read any books!) And while one little girl had read a book at her cousin's house, I mostly heard that they didn't have any books at their house. :-( One of them has a grandmother living nearby who has some books, but another told me that when her grandmother saw a book she didn't like, it went into the fire!

It's hard to imagine a house without books. . . to imagine parents and relatives not reading to me. So THANK YOU to everyone who ever read me a book, bought me a book, listened when I read a book, talked about books and reading. . . I'm appreciating the gift of reading more than ever today!!We had a great week in Tahoe with Ben & Pei; did some skiing/boarding, some lazing, some eating, game-playing, movie-watching, and sightseeing. . . a Real Vacation!
I'll get pictures up soon. Tonight I'm going to my first of three classes about using my camera, hoping some new information will sink in!

Also, we found a lump on Sam's leg after we got home; he's having it removed on Friday so say a little prayer for him! And the next issue of In the Mist is out, though they didn't put in my favorite winter pictures from Big Bear. They published a poem this time too.

Christmas, Final Installment

On Tuesday we packed up Mom and headed down to Pasadena for just a little more visit time before she had to go. We got to Ben & Pei's mid-afternoon, just in time to open our fun package from Susan and say goodbye to Pei (on her way to volunteering to prep a Rose Parade float)--and I was sans camera for some reason! Then we piled back into the car for a trip to downtown L.A. to see the La Brea Tar Pits.

Our directions weren't great, but we did get there before it closed! What an amazing spot. It's so crazy to think of camels, sloths and lions, saber toothed cats, mastodons and mammoths tromping around Los Angeles! And it's astonishing how many animals were trapped in the tar pits. I didn't get a picture of it, but there was an apparatus in the museum full of tar, with metal bars sunk in it. You could pull on the bars to feel how difficult it would be to get out of the tar . . . a very freaky, claustrophobic feeling!

Ancient BisonGround SlothMastodonMammothAn entire wall of Dire Wolf SkullsThe Fishbowl Laboratory where you can see people working (when they're working)American Lion!!!CoyoteThe pond outside is a flooded asphalt pit. It's still kind of dark and oily, and the trapped statue makes you want to toss out a lifeline. It's so crazy to see it all against the backdrop of L.A.!Another oily pit--it would be fun to go back in the summer when you can watch actual excavations going on!!The boys made An Important Discovery on our walk outside . . . maybe the bear made them?Erik, Noelle & I headed back to Bakersfield after dinner with a cabinet atop the car (thanks, Pei!!!!); Mom spent the night with Ben & Pei and flew out the following morning. We took Noelle to the train station in Bakersfield Wednesday morning too. Reading the letters from children posted inside the station was. . . heartening. Ha!Everyone got home all safe & sound though (no word from Noelle on whether the snack bar was as good as Alaina V. claims). It's strange to have an empty house, but we're looking forward to a winter vacation next week and are busy getting the house back in order before we go. Pray for good snow and good weather at Tahoe next week!!! :-D