California State Fair

Okay so while I'm waiting for Jenifer Rauzon to send me her bunch of State Fair pictures I thought I'd still provide you all the details.


I've been going to the State Fair every year since I was a kid. My great uncle was over the entire ag dept. at the fair so we always got not just free tickets but VIP tickets. They were SWEET! They employees there treated us like royality. (Royality at the State Fair...classic) Anyhooo...


The last four years I've been attending with the same group of people. This year it was me with the Jones and Rauzons.
Every year our group changes just a hair, i.e. pregnancies, marriages...all the good stuff. Okay enough of the boring stuff...what we ate as a group. We have got it down to a science. At random times individually we will go buy different foods for all to share. The list contains, corn dogs, BBQ corn on the cob, french fries, awesome blossom, chicken shish kabob, chicken & veggie shish kabob, funnel cake, coke, water and their famous lemonade. The trick is to pace yourself.
Ryan and I went on the best ride at the very end. The line was about 45 min long and for a one-year-old...that's a long arce time!
Thanks Dan, Aveena, Jen, Ryan, and Lilly for another killer year at the fair!

Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Melanie and I had a group over last night for a book club meeting to eat and rap over the four book series of Twilight. Good food, good folks, good discussion, and good fun!

Thanks to everyone who finished...it's true you see three men...they read all four as well.

What's next?

I probably shouldn't ask...

I'm at a lunch work meeting today, enjoying my split pea soup and blt wrap and lo and behold...I heard a crack and then felt a weird feeling in my mouth. SH*%! My front tooth broke off. Now my two front teeth have been porcelain since I was 8 and about every 5-7 years I get new ones. So I thought I'd show you all what everyone else gets to see/laugh at.

Unreal what one tooth will do to your smile and whole appearance. I look like Rustin Stephenson did last year. You can see the back of it is still on but yup there my right permanent tooth. Pretty huh? They grind it down to put the cap on it. I'm debating while I wait to hear back from my dentist, super glue or tooth bondo? I'm leaning more towards tooth bondo since I'm scared what kind of reactions super glue could have in my mouth besides gluing my lip to my top gums. Perma smile...

Half Dome or Clouds Rest?

Mike Moore and I left at 9:30 Friday night to begin our adventure to make it on top of Half Dome before sunrise. It took us about 2 hours to drive to Yosemite Valley and then our hike began around 11:30 pm.

We've done the hike through the night before with friends and loved it. So when an opportunity arose we jumped on it! A few things, doing night hikes in August is the only way to go. Make sure you take the bug spray with you on the trip...it doesn't last 10 hours and it was mosquito haven. Pack plenty of water, you'll sweat a lot. Go when there's a full moon, it's amazing, it's like you have night vision.

Hiking in the night does have it's disadvantages...lack of sleep and you can miss signs. We really had good intentions to get to Half Dome.Here's Mike enjoying the hike up. Side note: One thing I hate about the hike...the hike down. I would much rather go up than down any day. Anyway...about 6 miles into Mike and I missed the Half Dome sign and just kept following a trail. We ran into some guys that were going up too and Mike asked if this was Half Dome's trail. Yup you're on it. Alright if they say so. LIARS! No it actually wasn't. Four miles later we are on top of another mountain that is east of Half Dome, Clouds Rest. ARRGG! So you mean to tell me that the last 5 hours we've been hiking was done in vain? YUP! RATS!! We made it for the sunrise just the same but it wasn't on top of Half Dome it was looking at Half Dome. If you ask me I'd rather have done this hike since there's no cables here. (I HATE the cables).

After a few photos Mike and I started our decent. We ran down most of the first 4 miles. We ran into a camera that someone had dropped and we looked through the pictures to see if it was anyone we had met along the way. Sure enough it was a member of a group that had left Clouds Rest about 30 min before us. It helped that we were running to catch them. In the mean time Mike and I were having so much fun we took a few pictures on their camera to remember us by. (I used my camera to copy them)

All in all it was well worth it. We want to do it again and be mentally as well as physically ready to tackle Clouds Rest.

I'd take nature over Vegas any day!!

After we got home I slept for 14 hours straight.

Olympian Rejects

I hope this works...funny stuff. My personal favorite, women pile up on the vault.

Can't get enough

I'm sure most of you are watching the Olympics. My schedule has been a bit off since they've begun. They show all the best events and moments so late at night that I'm gong to bed around 12:30 and getting up about 5-5:30 for work, then I'll come home and take a nap just so I can stay up to watch more Olympics. I LOVE the Olympics for various reasons but I think mostly it's to give those athletes that aren't getting paid the big bucks like NBA players and have a real time to shine and represent our country as well.Up to this point I think the best moments was watching the men's swim relay Sunday night. The French team was talking so much smack and at the very last second we take the gold right from under them. I love the pre and post pictures of this relay. I think the picture of Michael Phelps represents how we all were feeling. Victory!

These guys are machines!

The runner up to favorite moment would be last night men's gymnastics high bar, Justin Spring.

Birthdays/Pranks at work

Here at the triple wide trailer, AKA home to those of us that work in the field...when we celebrate birthdays there are pranks that always follow.

Valerie was gone most of last week so it we me vs. the men here. Mike Wallick is a superintendent here and Valerie had a great idea to make a big whoop-te-do out of his birthday during the trade meeting since #1 he was turning 50 and #2 he would be out of town the following week to actually be present to receive "crap" from all of us. We bought doughnuts, milk, OJ for the trades. While Mike was going over his agenda the three of us Tim, Mike Moore and myself were gearing up as you can see.

I walked into the meeting and just stood there. Right when Mike Wallick was about to ask what he could do for me I started singing Happy Birthday very loud and right then and there he knew what was coming. CRAP, from all of us. The trades were able to get a card and get it around to all the foremen to sign. We bought Mike a beautiful plant of yellow flowers and a Belle balloon to top it off. We bought his favorite doughnut and made him blow out the candles.

To be honest he was touched that we'd all go to the extreme to make sure we celebrated his special day.

Later Tim came up with the brilliant idea to take Belle and stick at the back of Mike Moore's truck so when he drove off you'd see her yellow skirt flowing through the wind. Too funny!

Mike realized it was there later and then had placed it one the back of my Jeep. Yes, it's true I drove from work to the gym (a whole 4 miles) with Belle on my bike rack. Like I said before there's a big difference of a man driving a huge truck with Belle than there is a woman with Belle. So later that night, like at 10:30, I drove to Mike Moore's house and put it back on his truck. I knew it would be easy since all his lights were off. No less than 30 sec after I left his house I get a phone call from Mike Moore asking if I was done. No way...way he spying? No he actually feel asleep and woke up from my lights reflecting off of his trucks bumper and had to get his laundry and then saw what I was up to. CRAP I was caught! No one knows where Belle is currently but trust me...She'll be back!