9.23.2007

All's fair in love and LA

me and "bossy"

what can i say, crows like me
Meg was off all this weekend (a rare occurance) so i negotiated a trip to the fair with her. We had never been to the LA county fair (in pomona) and thought we'd check it out.

lousy tourists

as animal hobbyists we like to go see the offerings of the local livestock scene. as far as fairs go, the LA one was surprisingly full of animal exhibits, moreso than the OC fair and close to that of SD. there was a big petting zoo with hoards of kids and ewes, that was probably the highlight of the day.
Meg prefers "goat rendezvousing" to "mutton munching"

goats, however, seem to prefer "nate and meg munching"
we picked a lousy day to go, as it was intermittently raining, making the covered areas around the stalls much more coveted, and the ground a sloppy mess of wood shavings and animal waste. (meg wore sandals-but didn't complain)

we wandered through the shopping pavilions and were dazzled by the sheer quantity of tacky crap in the world. we now have 6 chamoise that can hold 30 gallons of water each, knives that can cut through a brick and still fillet a salmon, and the latest in juicing technology-it was hard to get out the door with just one. (all of the above is a lie-except the tacky crap part)

in all we had a nice time, and came home tired and ready for a nap.

9.16.2007

...You're always 17 in your hometown.


SO... been a while since i posted, no good excuses. but a momentous occasion of momentous occasions occurred over the weekend-my 10 year high school reunion. for those of you who i have not bored to tears with the minutiae of my preparations for the festivities, this should be interesting, for those i have--well you listened to the boring stuff--why not this.

i will at this point draw attention to the fact that this blog will contain NO gossip, not that i am above that sort of thing, but for one thing most of you who read this will have no idea who these people are, and for two, you should never post gossip in a litigious society such as we live in (whisper it, it sounds better).

i had a nice time. turn out was a little disappointing, there were probably 60-70 graduates, plus their +1's. it filled the room nicely, but out of a class of over 300, there were so many people you hoped to see, but didn't. although it was a nice number that allowed you to talk to everybody in the room as much as you wanted (some more, some less) without feeling like you would never make it through the crowd. i probably knew 75+% of the people there, at least casually, it was really the people from elementary and junior high that were there, my core group of high school friends were noticeably absent with the exception of Amanda (formerly stickler)
(flashback: winter formal 1996) fortunately i had frequent dalliances outside my group and had more than enough people to catch up with.
most notably Melanie (formerly mcgee). she was/is a crazy talented artist from a crazy talented family, who has a penchant for vintage (60's-70's) clothes. she was there with her husband of 2 weeks, Michael.

(don't let his boyish good looks fool you, Michael was a madman on the dancefloor)
they were a lot of fun and we spent most of the night together. Mel recounted to me a story which i had forgotten, and makes me look like a jerk, but it gives an accurate portrait of my personality in my formative years.

we were in a play together, and in the play were romantically involved, in the climax of the scene i am embracing her and move to kiss and then walk away. (you can only imagine how horrible this must have been performed by freshman drama students. ) anyway, Mel being the sweet innocent girl she was had never been kissed, when this piece of information made it around a dare was made. a person, who memory has shrouded off stage, gave me $5 to kiss her on stage in front of an audience where she would be confined by the scene to act accordingly. so i did it. it was awkward. clearly she has not forgotten that i stole her first kiss, and for that i am sorry. i had no right. but she seemed to bear no grudge.

i also ran into Micah dudley
(this is the face i make when i realize that he's taller than me now)
, a friend since elementary school, who now lives in orange county as well, and who i hope i will run into now and again. Ryan cody is now an assistant pastor,
(here he is being asked to leave) which was news to me-not like he was a hard living, gang banging excon the last time i saw him, but it just surprised me, i thought he would be a farmer.

there are many more stories, but you'll have to get them from me in person.

8.27.2007

school days...

Back to school today. got up at 330 for work, changed clothes in the parking lot, and went to my botany class. got out early (it was the first day after all).

here i am all dressed up for the first day of school. lunch bag and all.

8.17.2007

The bare(ly) went over the mountain...

...but all that he could see was the other side of the mountain.

i had a few days off and there has been a mountain that has been begging me to climb it as i drive by it on the freeway. anyone who has looked east of I-5 in orange county has seen it, it looks like a saddle. the front peak of the saddle is santiago peak. it is the highest spot in oc, and marks the boundary between orange and riverside counties.
The "road" into the canyon

Not a good sign when you are in the rough according to your car's gps


The box at the trailhead

it always looks so close and relatively gradual, and at 15 miles, i thought, heck i could do that.

yesterday i tried. i got started around 7, and by 830 i was wondering if it was possible. the first hour was cool and tree covered, then i broke the treeline and followed 2miles of unshaded chapparal switchbacks. i took advantage of all the shade i could find, believe me.Nasty blister about 1/3 the way up, solved the problem, and was fine.

at about 1230 i reached the top.
TOP

it was quite a disappointment. i had known that the peak was covered in tv and cell phone repeaters, but the trees and bushes prevented any sort of view.
Neither picture is from the top (that is lake elsinore)

about a quarter of the way down i ran out of water. and with 11 miles to go that was not a joyous discovery. i went as fast as i could down the mountain. i stopped for a half hour in a particularly cool and shady spot, for a nap, but otherwise limited my breaks. it was in the low 90's and i had a long stretch of "not shady" to go through. reaching the treeline was a mixed blessing, a half mile into it the trail stopped and you walked through another half mile of cabins. no one was around. with less than a half mile left i was dryer than i have ever been, and hoping someone would be visible for just a cup of water, but no such luck. i did eventually make it to the car, and a nalgene bottle full of hot water. there was a family there who offered me cold water, and i am grateful to them for it. so miserable.

8.07.2007

This Just In...



another shameless retooling of a classic sitcom--or the most anticipated movie of 2008.
let's hope it isn't just a frank drebin/austin powers clone.

bANG-381


Actually it is 6ANG381, but the similarity to BLINK-182 did not escape me. My license plates came yesterday, on Meg's birthday. It was nice to have something to open too.

Meet (some of) The Kaisers

Meg's family came up on Sunday to celebrate her birthday,

her brother Cameron,


her father Terry.

They took us out to lunch and her mom brought up a great cake (that we're still working on) It was a very nice afternoon.

Sorry, i thought i got one of Sandy, but i guess not, i only took 3 pictures.