Brains...Brains!

Day #27 & #28

And so starts another week. 

Tonight’s post will be short and sweet. As no one wants to hear about the details of Monday’s (or Tuesday’s) work so let’s move onto Monday night. (Sorry…about your work…the details of your work).

So Monday night we ventured out to the local Cinema. Eme had a date with Brad (Pitt that is) and Cole and I went along as well. 

Welcome to World War Z!!! 

I guess that since the move has been out for a while it was demoted to the smallest theater that they had. How sad…zombies get no love.

The movie was in the fair to good range. Mr. Pitt did a fine job as the one sent out to find out how the zombie infection started. The action scenes were very fast and chaotic with lots of crashes and zombie parts.

The zombies themselves were not your typical slow, leg dragging, calling out for brains zombies of the past. These things were faster as a zombie then they were when they were alive, which was a different twist for the living dead.

One of the scarier moments of the movie was when the people across the aisle from us dropped their glass bottle of whatever they were drinking. I think that made several people jump when it shattered all over the floor.

If you like zombies (and Mr. Pitt) and can wait a bit it might be worth saving the $30 and wait for the DVD.

Here are a few photos of an upcoming movie.

To the Sea

Day #25 & #26

Well I thought that by giving my nemesis some time to recuperate from the long journey home that by today there would be a new post. Maybe something like an epilogue of the pilgrimage to their homeland or a photo-blog of all the outtakes from their zillions of photos.

To be fair, I did get a note from Jen saying O’Megan is taking a small sabbatical.

So we’ll hope that she is back in the blogosphere soon as she is a worthy opponent in the battle of the blogs.

Today’s blog takes us to the lovely town of Rio Del Mar. After the fog burned away it was actually warm-ish (high 60’s) with a slight breeze. Normally I wouldn’t venture down there on a summer weekend, but we got a call from a friend that we haven’t see in about 4 years. I won’t bore you with the details of the reunion (if you want to know how boring it was just ask Cole) so we’ll skip ahead to some of the more interesting aspects of the trip.

Here we have the Old Bathing Hole. Apparently in the 30's it was once home to the world’s largest fresh water swimming pool. Here’s a current photo.

Little tip, don’t try swimming here…ever.

Some other random pics for your viewing pleasure.

Zombie S'more Patio

 

The highlight of the trip was a tour of my old residence. They were having an open house so we just had to stop by to see what it looked like.

Here is a picture of it looked like when I lived there. It was originally a duplex and I lived on the upper floor. It had two bedrooms and one bath which was only accessible through my bedroom (hey, it was the late 80’s and if I remember right fairly cheap).

 

Now it has been turned into a 3 bedroom, 3 bath luxury showroom. OK, well maybe not a showroom, but much nicer than when I lived there. If you‘re interested it is listed around $730,000, but I believe it has a bid on it already so hurry!

It’s Friday, Friday…

Day #22 - #23 - #24

Whew…where did the non-vacation go???

Seems like just yesterday that we started our ‘staycation’; and it is now already July 5^th. It’s been so hectic in the last couple days that I finally got a chance to add a post to the blog. 

Wednesday, after a proper mourning period for Mr. Bossy, we made a quick trip to Grocery Outlet to pick up a few welcome home goodies for the O’Eldredges to help them transition back to life in the states. More about that later…

Thursday was America’s birthday and to celebrate the occasion we headed to Aptos, the ancestral home of the O’Eldredge’s. As if the weather knew they were returning later on that night the ‘June Gloom’ returned just in time for the ‘World’s Lamest Parade’. (OK, OK, officially the ‘World’s Shortest Parade’ so says the ‘Guinness Book of World Records). Apparently Guinness was only interested in the length of the event and not the actual content, which to me anyway, is what really makes a parade. 

We went to support our offspring as she joined her rag tag band of horse loving brethren, so far so good. We arrive at the designated hour, 9am and proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait until they actually joined the parade route at 11am. In the mean time we waited idly by until the parade started at 10am where we were off to a hopeful start. There were CHP motorcycles, fire engines (minus the spotty dog) and an actual band. 

Beyond that there were only groups of people walking slowly down the street. They did have a banner telling you who they represented (go Aegis!), but that was pretty much of the extent of their presentation. So by all means, I urge you to go if you enjoy watching people minimally dressed in patriotic attire shuffling down the road and waving. 

I remember a time when parades were filled with things that were actually entertaining such as bands playing music, floats with riders throwing candy to the crowds, horses followed by pooper scoopers, annoying clowns making balloon animals, stilt walkers and unicyclists and fire eaters, and at the end…Santa! Oh well…maybe that all went away when it was declared that it was not ‘politically correct’ to keep out people that have no talent.

After the parade we made a quick trip to the O’Eldredge’s to put a bit of food in there otherwise empty cupboard. When we arrived Lori was already there preparing for their return (So nice of her!). She had brought flowers to spruce up the house. We began to unload our supplies, but when we opened the fridge someone else had already had the same idea. We added our contributions to the milk, eggs, O.J etc. plus some of our one of a kind treats such as Top Ramen, two types of tea ( I hear Jack is a tea fiend now), some coffee and of course…SPAM! 

Apparently, we didn’t consider that the kids would be missing their vegetables so much otherwise we would have brought along some broccoli, kale, beets, spinach, okra, collard greens, Brussel sprouts, lima beans, fennel & eggplant. Sorry kids!

Finally here are some pictures from today. They are pretty much all totally unrelated, but a blog is always better with photos. 

Here is a picture of the wildlife up at work. A mom and her babe.

 At the pet store I happened to spot this lady...and yes, she was in the cat section.

And this was parked outside. I'm not sure if this was her sweet ride or not, but I can always hope.

Welcome back O'Eldredge's...

Farewell Mr. Bossy

Day #21

Today brings sad news regarding Secret Agent 326 (aka Mr. Bossy).

 He has been called to the light.

Gone to the other side.

Become a root inspector.

Transcended into Glory.

Is taking a dirt nap.

Returned to his source. 

Left the building.

Gone to Davy Jones’ locker. 

Reformatted. 

Visiting the Groundhog’s den.

Went to visit Colonel Sanders. 

Danced the last dance.

Bought the farm. 

Became the living-challenged. 

On a permanent vacation. 

He was hatched on a warm March morning in the year 2009, the only chick of six to break free of his confining shell. He was nurtured as a young chick by his faithful companion Eme who once taught him to perch on her shoulder.

As time pasted he grew into a strapping young roo with glorious plumage and a fiery temperament. He was bold of spirit and afraid of nothing. He did have a small bout with SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) and was miserable when it rained. He outlived three of his fellow companion hens (Cheeto, Blondie & Red) and lived the life of a solitary fighter for his last several months.

His joyous morning chorus to the rising sun will be missed; as well as his early afternoon, mid-afternoon and late afternoon crows. He was born with the name of Secret Agent 326, but was always affectionately known as Mr. Bossy. Or sometimes just the Boss, or Bossy, or Evil Chicken.

As we bid the king of cock-a-doodle-doos farewell please take a moment to pause and think about the time that you spent with him and what he meant to you. If you never met him then take a moment to look at his photo and gaze upon the glory that was ‘The Boss’.

2009 - 2013

In Hot Water

Day #19 & #20

Hello? Hello anyone there???

I figured that if the world’s best blogger was having technical difficulties posting her blogs for the last couple days I’m sure it was Google’s fault and not hers. We too have been having our difficulties over the last 48 hours. We’ll get to that, but first…pictures!!!

Welcome to World Famous Gizdich Ranch. I hear that they are so popular in Ireland that no one will talk about them and they will even act like they don’t know what you are talking about when you bring it up in conversation. Mainly because if they did acknowledge it they would go crazy and need a piece of apple pie immediately.

Handicapped seating only

After Gizdich we headed into the scorching heat of the Santa Clara Valley.  It was a bit like driving into…Heck look at the temperature gauge rise! (Please note, all temp. readings are in Fahrenheit. Over here Celsius is something you end up with on your thighs and need to have liposuctioned).  

If you look hard enough you can see Bigfoot

World's slowest driver

105!!!

So we finally get back home…ahhhhh relief.

So in the last 48 hours two very disturbing evens have happened.

First, out newish water heater died. The pilot light wouldn’t stay lit and after googling it we decided to take the recommendation and call someone out. (first mistake). So the plumber (not Mario) came out on Monday afternoon. Showed up on time, (good start), determined the problem, (very good) and then spent 45 minutes calling Sears (or someplace) to see if we had registered it and if it was under warranty. 

He tells Sharon that it could be three (3), yes three (3) days, before he’d have a part to replace the broken pilot. Three days???!!! Umm hello! Who do you think we are? The O’Eldredge’s that only do laundry every eleven (11) days??? He proceeds to tell us that his coworker may have a part (he doesn’t) and if we can find one he can install it. Bloody heck!

I make a single call, find the part and ask the guy if this is something I can install or would he advise calling back the useless plumber? He asks me if I can tie my shoes. (Well, on a good day I can). I also ask him about a second part that the plumber says we need. He says yes they have that, but that rarely goes out. So I run down, buy the part $79.99 (USD) and rush home.

After an hour of fiddling (ok it’s really a violin) I get to work on the water heater and about 60 minutes (I don’t know what that converts to in Irish) we have a working water heater!

So a few things to take away from this: One, Google doesn’t know all. Two, if you’re a plumber, you might want keep basic parts in stock or know where to find them. And three, I only charge $60 (USD) per hour for water heater repair.

On another note, Secret Agent is not doing well. There may be a funeral in sight soon so if you have any Irish prayers please send them our way.