Balloons, Flags, Farmer's/Home Produce

In the still quiet morning sky as Dino and I make our way in the early hours of one day last week -- both of us happened to notice something in the western horizon -- a beautiful hot-air balloon silently making a descent not-too-far distant. I quickly grabbed my nearby camera and was able to snap a few photos before we lost the image:

In the top right you can see the balloon (same coloring as the flowers) starting it's descent -- it was only a matter of minutes before it was completely down somewhere nearby.  We then went about our early morning routines.

This was mostly a "hot" week though the mornings have been at times cool and hazy but the sun did not hesitate to come out and nearly reached 100 degrees most days this week.

Our Viewing Pleasures this Week

In between mandatory activities this week we watched the Olympics. Since we recorded all the events we had a huge cache of material to view each day. The interesting thing was to keep the time-delay of London versus the West Coast at bay. We managed to get thoroughly confused several times because we made the mistake of watching live news events that would talk about certain events and then we would watch recorded events that actually we might or might not already know the results of . . . clear?

Anyway -- now finally we have come up with the correct viewing routine -- unfortunately the games end tonight. Never-the-less we have enjoyed the games. My favorite has to have been the women's beach volley ball games, though I did enjoy many of the other events. We have mixed feelings about seeing the games end. It will be nice to be able to get back into our "other viewing routines" as well.

It was nice to see our flag raised to the top in so many events. The games are a nice way for the nations of the world to intermix and relate to one another in a way so different than we often see in the news.

We look forward now to the Winter Games coming in a couple of years -- I miss "curling" and some of those activities too.

Status of a Project

It seems that after being here in this house now a year and one week that our projects should be coming to completion -- and we can say that the "little house" is nearing completion -- as a matter of fact I could almost hear someone saying -- "I could live there . . ." So the PH is a plus for us and a place that we hope to utilize and enjoy.

The photo at the top left was taken just a few weeks ago. The photo middle left is pretty much the final version as we see it. We scrounged through our garage (another ongoing project) and found some memorabilia from each of our names and that is in the bottom photos. We have a few more minor things to complete in the PH but it is habitable now, hot but livable . . .

In a break from the Olympics

While Gail chose her break to be working on reducing the mound of things in the garage, I had "work" of my own to do -- like a Webinar or two. This week I spent an hour and a half watching a webinar from Legacy Family Tree. The topic this week was "Wikis". Everybody seems to know about Wikipedia but there are sooo many other Wikis out there to explore.

I chose one of the many Wikis that were discussed -- WikiTree -- to highlight here. I have been a member of WikiTree for some time now and it is another way to display and research our family history. You can check out the site and maybe eventually link up with my efforts and together we can "grow" the tree even more. To take a peek:   WikiTree  there is no cost, but the benefits for us interested in family history can be huge.

And if you would like to view some of the upcoming webinars -- and there are some really good ones -- you might check out:  Legacy Family Tree Webinars

I have learned a lot from the many webinars that I have attended AND they always have had great speakers who bring gifts for the "live" participants. Check it out.

A Little Peek at Dino's Week

Dino is now 10 1/2 months old. He is nearing 80 pounds. He also is a really good puppy -- though most people are surprised to learn that he is still a "puppy". He lives a sheltered life in some ways -- he is in the a/c most of the time when it is hot outside. We did not have a formal puppy training session this week -- and that was probably a good thing given the heat and all.

Dino starts his day -- after eating and taking care of other business -- with having his hair dried. He waits for this every morning and rests contentedly on the bath mat while Gail uses the hair-dryer on him. He then usually prances into see me at my desk as if to show off his "do".

In the middle picture Dino reflects on the heat of the moment and at the same time checks the water level in the pool . . . as does someone else . . . in the bottom picture it is back to playing indoors, this time with reacting to the remote controlled car -- "Stuart Little". He doesn't quite know what to expect from that -- wait til we get out the remote controlled robot that barks and growls and all . . .

All in all Dino pretty much does what we do -- and that even means napping if we do. Next week we will have a trip to Sonoma in his training, we'll see how that goes.

From the Garden

We have been inundated with baby tomatoes, regular tomatoes and one pepper, so far. We can hardly keep up with dealing with tomatoes -- but -- they are soooo much better than store-bought. The pepper crop I'm hoping will come around later.

This was one "picking" and we are just working through a couple additional. It is a good thing that we like tomatoes and tomato sauce. The boot is a favorite of ours . . .


A Walk "to" the Farmer's Market

We decided to walk to the market earlier rather than later in the day to avoid the heat. We accomplished that and more AND we bought some tomatoes peaches. We love the activity surrounding the market and we have always met and chatted with friendly folks -- mostly, always because of Dino. Yesterday was no exception, Dino just begs people to come up to us and talk, we have enjoyed that part a lot.

Above you can see some of the many booths loaded with produce locally grown. There were lots of folks shopping and browsing. After going up and down the aisles a bit we found a place to "sit a bit" and we did. Dino just stretched out and waited for our return trip.

The Walk "from" the Farmer's Market

The walk home seemed shorter than the walk to, for some reason. We stopped and rested in the Plaza and watched the many tourist types hustling around the town square. Gail even made a purchase at the local bakery relieving them of a couple of "sticky buns". And the weather was not yet too hot . . .

The above is the "square" and then some various sites along the way home. All-in-all we were gone a couple of hours. At home we really felt refreshed to get into the a/c environment and relax, eat some lunch and watch -- what else -- Olympic events.

The "Other" Long Journey This Week . . .

At this moment my computer screen status report says: "47 %"

It has been one week and one day and that is how far the restore process is . . . it seems like it is going "45 MPH" even though there should be no limit. But -- as someone close to me reminds me, it could be a lot worse.

I'm not sure where I got the lower picture but it does express the feeling that I get . . . Carbonite though
is for me a life-saver. I am seeing my photo collection re-appearing one photo at a time -- it is amazing. I hope that the rest of my files are doing the same -- I am sure that I will need assistance in getting everything back to the way it was.

I am taking the measures as well to off-load some of the photos that I have (20,000+). As some photo folders have returned I have put them on DVDs and off my computer . . .


So that was a bit of our week. Last night while watching the Olympics, we had burgers and slaw . . .

Tonight it is going to be -- pan fried fish with, sliced tomatoes . . .

Have a good week! See you in a few . . .