Christmas Party

Yep, that time of year, Christmas party, Tree, Lights, music, lots of people, presents all around, oh and food, did I mention the food?

So, lots of folks, if you were there you can probably name more of them than I can at the moment!

Frosty Days followed by Fog

Just some pics on how the weather changed here abouts;

Heres out to the south

And out to the east. Pictures snapped from windows on corrosponding sides of our house.

Frosty Morning

So it dropped to 24 degrees the other morning, the picture doesnt show the white ness of the frost very well, but it WAS COLD!, Thank goodness for the new central Air / Heat unit!

Tis the SEASON!!!

Something musical for the christmas season that really says it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E-47VmFopE

and there you have it.

Thanksgiving Time!

Thanksgiving day down at my Jeff and Lori's house. Food, food, food... Pie..mmmmmmmmmm more Pie........ did I mention the Pie??

Were on our way! Took off Wednesday noonish time to beat the traffic.

Lori at the ready in the kitchen.

On the right is the Penny family, sister Lori, husband Jeff, Daniel and Erica.

Ashley

Erica, Erin, Chris and Lori

The Table

Debbie and Beverly

                                                                       The Jay Jay

Chris

So Erin, Beverly, Chris, Ashley, Lori, Jeff, Daniel, Erica, Alan and Debbie , plus the Jay Jay dog. A time to be thankful we could all get together and remember those that went on before us and those that couldnt make it this year.

Kitty Door

Got a couple of cat doors, thought to put them into the Laundry room hall door and the Laundry room door to the patio, so our cats could get to their beloved water fountain when ever they wanted.... Tons of work for that, weakens the doors etc. Sooooooo;

So Kitchen window it is!, noticed that the size and thickness of the cat door would lock into the window frame fairly tightly. A piece of lexan plastic sheeting filled in above it, edged it with wood trim on the outside wand pipe wrap insualtion cut to fit to make it as tight seal as possible. The cats are loving the free access also!

Kitty Pictures

Must have up to date kitty pictures!

Machivelli and Neitchi  (Machi and Neetchee) for short.

Pinecrest Camping Expedition

Bit late of a post but, hey, Im on my own schedual now it seems. So we headed up to Pinecrest Camp Ground in Middle East California, in the high Sierras. So, let us see hmmm... Base Camp was established.



Moving along we soon discovered that the relatives had successfully negotiated with the treacherous mountain paths, natives and wild life to make the trip up also.



Here we see, from left to right, back of Debs head, behind her in the grey hair and plaid shirt is Erin, then Lori giving us her "im a blond with to many marguaretas look" and then her husband Jeff "of the devious machine". More on that later...

So Erin likes a nice, Tall, camp fire, though if I recall rightly, Jerry, seated, was taking a bet on how long that log would remain upright...



So us guys hit the bikes and roared off to explore the lakeside,... as a side note Erin brought his Binoculars so as to help identify Landmarks.. so he said..

Jeff and Jerry catching their breath.. along with me... oh, the bikes were the pedal type..

Now, here is Jeffs Machine.. actually explained as an early christmas gift for Lori, its an Ice crusher for Margaretas..... Which was experimented with and in the end much consumption for frozen concoctions came about!

Our party was 3 members strong;



Here is the indomitable duo, Debbie and Becky, after they had their morning coffee, the before picture without coffee would shatter peoples minds if they had to see it..heh. (Debbie was in charge of the heavy weapons and Becky was doing all the demolitions for the Indiana Jones style cave trip... thats another story..)



Here's the Camp, uh, Leader...uh huh, the "right away dear" guy working hard.
Later, Becky was running out of time and luck to remain so I came up with a plan to let her stay:



Didn't work to well though, forgot to drop the other gate behind her.



"Whats wrong with my cell phone? Sure its a little old" quote the Debbie.

Beckys major find on this trip was the body of water, still not sure what she named it yet...

Oh yes, we played horse shoes, at which I'm the wild card.. Here's Jerry and Erin looking and watching for one of my horse shoe pitches to come back down...



A shot of Erin that just seemed to capture that rested spirt from camping really well.

The whole operation Camp Out came off due to the tireless effort of Bev, wife of Erin, who played the telephone reservation game with precision and determination.

No major hurts, falls or oopsies that I know of this time out, new friends and chance meetings all around.

And there you have it.

Pennsylvania Trip

Off we went to Pennsylvania for a week at Joe Bakers, our on line gaming friend whom we have known for around 5 years and as he has been out to our place we figured to return to find out more about his abode and state.

After jet lag recovery we headed out to ride the Titusville rail and see the Oil Creek valley, where oil was first pumped in the US. Thats one of the cars we rode in, though for over half the trip we went and stood in the open flat car so we could really see the colors of fall.

Yep, thats Joe in the Blue and white coat with the very cushy western hat. Alan is in the brownish coat, and Debbie in the fuzzy hat. Brisk was the ride out there, but Debbie was a champ and stuck it out for most of the time I was out there.

So, here's one of Alan looking back down the train car line and you have to clik the picture to get a better look at the Wooden Oil Dereks on the hill in amongst the trees. The recorded commentary through out the ride let us know that at the time the oil field was in full use, there were No trees left standing, or brush, all of it went to build deriks or into stoves etc.

Next place of interest was where we hung our hat for the duration between traveling hither and yonder.

Nice green lands surround Joe's place. Seems everything was growing, unlike our place in Sacramento where everything is.... brown for 9 months of the year. Now for a picture of Joe's command center, being an on line gamer and all,

Thats a kidney shaped piece of plywood, sanded and sealed to be his moveable lap table for his computer key board, mouse, drinks , you name it. Have to make something like that for Debs recliner where she plays her laptop computer at.

So once we were rested up again it was time for other World of Warcraft on line gamers to come on over. So here we have some of the usual suspects in the line up, Shawn (aka Goone), Joe (aka Imina), Alan (aka Merksa), Debbie (aka Debbie), Dean (aka Hetama) and Cathy (aka Littlelat).

Of course John Golling and his daughter Dakota made it and are in the next picture;

John's eldest daughter, Emily, somehow grew up to be almost 16 when Deb and I weren't looking! Alas, she couldn't make it to the party.

Okay, off to Niagra Falls!

Room Floor

Here is the progress:

First the base coat color for the over all floor, the wall color is washed out do to our really powerfull flash from the camera. Next is the effect accomplished with rags and a darker color.

Now waiting for it to dry in Very Humid conditions.... fans going 24/7 for awhile...

Here we go

Time to regroup my thoughts and try new things,