tut-tut it looks like rain

this is what happens when it rains in california:

ben decides to work from home today because traffic is too hectic

the teacher for my second class cancels becasue she says 'no body comes to school when it rains'

gotta love california.. we just shut down when it rains..

scuba steve...

last week, while ben and i were at play it again sports i found a scuba wet suit for 30 bucks.. these wet suits usually run over a hundred dollars for a cheap one.. usually more.. this was such a good deal that i vowed that even if it remotely fit, i was going to buy it.. and it did fit.. it was a little tight.. but ben assured me that 'tight' is a good thing..
today ben talks me into scuba diving... we headed out to cardiff and we had a great time.. and my suit works perfectly.. it turns out that tight was a great thing.. i was warm, hot even, the whole entire time.. what a great deal...

ben getting our gear ready
 
  

Gophers - 1.5, Ben and Chara - 1

The gophers have eaten 1.5 of our nice flowers

and what happens when you eat 1.5 of our nice flowers

you die. that's what happens.

the moral of this story. Don't eat our nice flowers!

caddyshack take two...

ok.. we have been having gopher problems for a while.. and i've been struggling with how to handle this situation.. do we just try to shoo them away?? do we kill them??? trap them?? how should we handle this? we tried poison.. and that got rid of them for a while.. but now they are back.. and they hate us even more..
ben.. being so very cute.. planted a bunch of gerber daisies in our front planter.. this morning i went out and i noticed one of the very pretty plants seemed a bit lower then the others.. like something had tried to pull it into the earth, but quit halfway through.. but i wasn't sure if i was seeing things... so i left it alone.. this afternoon i went out to get the mail.. and that very same plant was gone.. vanished.. nothing left.. not a leaf, not a twig.. not even a flower petal.. whatever is underneath my lawn ate the whole gosh darn thing.. and now gerber daisy # 2 is on its way down..
so now.. it is on.. i let ben set two different traps down the gopher holes.. that's right.. horribly mean traps that will probably kill those little furry guys in unhappy and uncomfortable ways.. i can no longer feel sorry for them.. no longer do i feel guilt over my hatred.. they have destroyed too much..
stay tuned to see if ben and i win the great gopher war of 06...and if you have any ideas.. let me know.. i'd rather not loose another plant to the little critters..

And the winner of the Chili Cook-off is....

Thats right, I Ben, have won the DivX second annual Chili Cook-off with my newly created and now famous Brokeback chili


 

I tasted some of other Chilis and it was by far the best. I am so very proud. And Chara is very happy as the prizes were from William Sonoma which she can now return to buy her very sought after red spatula.

 

watch for falling coconuts

the other day ben notices that one of the tires on the car is in bad need of repair.. ben has ordered new tires but they will take a couple days to get here.. so ben tells me about this questionable tire... bad move.. all i worry about now is that the tire will explode on me while driving and i will run into something or someone.. so i ask ben 'is it ok to drive' and ben says to me 'yeah.. just be careful'.. ok.. maybe it's just me.. but how do i do that? what excatly does that look like? 'can i drive it on the freeway.. can i go the speed limit' i ask.. ben says 'of course... just be careful' what does that mean? i have no idea.. i think it means nothing.. it's just something ben is saying so that if something did happen he could tell me 'i told you to be careful'
.. this reminded me of something i saw in thailand.. before the tsunami phi phi was a very busy island.. in order to avoid injuries, the hotels on the island would employee locals to climb up all the palm trees and remove the coconuts..after the tsunami the island was very slow and the coconuts where no longer removed from the trees.. instead there were signs every where that said 'beware of falling coconuts'... what does that mean? if a coconut falls from a tree and your underneath it.. there is no way that 'being aware' is going to do you any good.. and it's not like you can avoid walking near palm trees.. they are everywhere.. so i'm thinking the purpose of the sign is so that when you get hit on the head with a coconut the people on phi phi island can shrug their shoulders and say 'we don't know what happened.. we told her to be careful'..

Beatiful Sunset

Felt like a summer night tonight

it was 80+ degrees outside, warm evening with a beautiful sunset

pretty nice



 


This was taken from Lake Dixon as we were rock climbing 

Chara climbing at Lake Dixon

Took cousin Vanessa out rock climbing this afternoon

great weather, as it was warm with an awesome sunset as we were climbing

Chara showed her how it is done


 
 

stupid internet

most of us would say that the internet is a good thing.. but today.. today it is a bad thing.. here is why i hate the internet today.. when a teacher forgets to assign homework last thursday, she can email you the assignment late tuesday night, you are still responsible for turning it in on thursday.. great..

Almost a blimp ride

Actually they call them airships, and we almost got to go up in one of the biggest in the world, but the weather did not cooporate.



but we did get to sit in it and hover for an hour while we waited for the weather to clear up. Didn't happen, but we did get chicken and waffles for lunch since we were in Long Beach so its all good

Ben...