Happy Halloween

We didn't get many trick-or-treaters this year, maybe because the World Series was on during prime candy hours? More candy for us, woo!

Here are some shots of the baby's costume and our cool jack-o-lanterns. 5 weeks to go before our due date! Better yet, 3.5 weeks before I stop teaching :)

Here's one of the bibs I've been making. Gave this one to a friend. They're fun and quick!

Long Time No See!

Since school started we've been pretty busy with things not terribly exciting. I've been knitting a baby blanket and made a few cute bibs but I don't have any pictures right now.

I've been swimming 2 or 3 times per week at the school pool - which is a beautiful Olympic-sized outdoor pool that I get all to myself during the school day. I'm getting quite a nice tan even though it's October. Ahh... California :) With less than 8 weeks to go on the baby countdown, I'm still feeling great and swimming feels really nice.

Super Steph and partner in crime Jen threw us a really fun couples baby shower last weekend. It was great to get friends together from all different parts of our lives. They went crafty berzerk with a fall/woodsy theme and we had chili, cider, cupcakes, and lots of owl decorations (so cute!!!). We didn't let the 85 degree temperatures spoil the fall spirit.

Here's a shot of the wreath they made out of paper and then let us take home. If you don't know about the store Paper Source, you should look it up. That place is fun and DANGEROUS!

Happy Anniversary to us (10/15)! We've been married for 5 years - woo!

Wisconsin and Ontario

The week before school started we took a whirlwind tour around Wisconsin and Ontario to visit family. We didn't get many pictures in Wisconsin, got a few at the Cubs game in Chicago, and more in Ontario...

Bleachers on rooftops across the street from Wrigley Field.

The pregnant lady gets a kiddie ride in the tube.

Gran and Michael witness Scott on one ski.

A boat ride for ice cream :P

Captain Gramps and Skipper Scott.

Gran gets a ride too.

Michael helps Gramps do some work.

McClennans, MacDonalds, and Ayersts

Scott gets the non-kiddie version of tubing.

Yosemite Weekend

Yosemite in the summer. Hmmm.... we made a valiant effort to avoid the hordes of people and I think we did pretty well, especially since we planned our little weekend getaway at the last minute. You can't deny it's amazingly beautiful, despite the zillions of people showing off their flabby bods draped in expensive gear as they shamble around in the parking lots.

Bridge troll at the base of Wapama Falls. That's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in the background.
You can see that my preggo-belly (23 weeks) is not that impressive yet.

This time they were releasing water downstream of the O'Shaughnessy Dam instead of from its face. The water spraying up from below looked crazy. Check out the picture from our last visit to Hetch Hetchy when Scott's sister and mom and Michael were visiting to see that (scroll down once you click).

Our own little sitting area at our front door was a good spot for happy hour and watching chipmunks and marmots.

We snagged one of 4 wooden cabins at the White Wolf Lodge off Tioga road. Heat, bed, private hot shower... ahhhh :) Otherwise the "lodge" consists of canvas tent cabins and a campsite. We met lots of REALLY interesting people during breakfasts and dinners since you sit at big tables with random people instead of getting your own table in the dining room.

A quick 15-minute stroll from the lodge Friday evening brought us up close and personal with a stony-looking black (but actually brown in color) bear sitting right in the trail. He must have been in a food funk after raiding someone's campsite.


We hiked out to North Dome from Tioga Road (a pretty easy 4+ miles one way). North Dome is directly across Yosemite Valley from Half Dome. There were great views! Here's the valley looking west from the top of North Dome. See the Merced River and the river of cars and buses down there?


We could pick out (er... got smacked in the face by views of...) Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Glacier Point, Illilouet Falls, and the valley from North Dome! You can only see Half Dome in this picture.

Next we're off to Wisconsin and Ontario. Hooray for vacation!

Solar Schoolhouse Summer Institute for Educators

I spent this past week in Petaluma at a teaching solar workshop. We made lots of cool gadgets, including a "solar lunchbox" which can charge an iPod or other electronics with just two little solar panels. It works great! There was lots of soldering and stripping of insulation off of wires, and I learned a lot.

The workshop was put on by Solar Schoolhouse. I've gotten a lot of materials from them before and they are really helpful and enthusiastic about solar education.

We even took a field trip to the Straus Dairy in Marshall, beside Tomales Bay. Now THOSE are happy California cows. The dairy is organic and environmentally friendly and has a methane digester which they use to capture the methane from the cow manure and generate electricity. Pretty cool.

This is where they trap the methane under a tarp-thing after separating the solids from the liquids in the manure.

We sometimes buy their milk and cream which are sold in the old fashioned reusable glass containers, and their yogurt is sooooo good!

The babies were the cutest. There was one that was only 2 days old (not this one).

I took the scenic route home down route 1 along the coast so I could stop at Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station to get lunch and some yummy cheese: organic and made with Straus milk. Yee ha!

Spicer Meadow Reservoir Part III

We headed back to our favorite canoe spot for the long weekend this weekend. After stopping for breakfast in Copperopolis (ok, I just wanted to type "Copperopolis:" so fun to say!), we arrived to discover that the reservoir was a lot more crowded than other times we'd been there so we had to scout out a new campsite. Apparently some nudists beat us to our usual spot. Despite a bit of wind, the weekend turned out great. The water was close to the high-water mark; right up to the top of the dam, so we had more lake to explore!

Indian paintbrush and some other pink wildflower were everywhere. Mmmm, reminds me of Dunkin' Donuts.

Only had to refill our water bag once over the weekend. It's pretty handy for canoeing.

Our site featured a nice perch for pre-breakfast lake viewing.

Icy snowmelt fills the streams that feed the reservoir. We cooled our feet here on our hike.

Look how square this granite boulder is!

There was a TON of driftwood and bark in the water this time. This tree was just below our campsite.

Of course we stopped in Angels Camp on the way home for lunch and ice cream. It was wicked hot there as usual. Last time we stopped there it was 110F! This time it was only 97F. We paused to remember Dan'l Webster - the clebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County. Here's the word on Calaveras County from Wikipedia:

"Calaveras County is a county located in the Gold Country of the U.S. state of California. Calaveras is named for the Spanish word meaning skulls, reportedly for the bones of fighters left behind after an Indian war that were discovered by Captain Gabriel Moraga. As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 40,554. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels Camp is its only incorporated city.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park, a preserve of Giant Sequoia trees, is located in the county several miles east of the town of Arnold on state highway 4. The uncommon gold telluride mineral calaverite is named for the county.

Mark Twain set his story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", in the county. Each year, the county hosts its County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, featuring a frog jumping contest, to celebrate the association with Twain's story. The celebrated California Red-legged Frog, feared absent from the county by 1969, was rediscovered in 2003."

Not Much to Report

I haven't had much to photograph lately, so I haven't posted anything. School ended and I started my summer job at Lockheed Martin (Space Systems), so Scott and I have just been busy with work mainly.

Some turd-person rammed our car while it was parked on the street last weekend and didn't leave a note. The driver's door wouldn't open so we spent our spare time this week getting that taken care of. We have been really happy with our insurance company, though (AAA). They made everything really easy.

In the meantime we've been watching the World Cup as much as possible - mostly on the internet (espn3.com) which works really well. Have you forgotten as I always do that Scott is Brazilian? That makes us legit. fans, ha ha ha. I'll root for the US as long as they hold on, though. Here's our window for now...