January 31, 2012

Sophie the Destroyer. Sophie tears apart all of the doggie toys.

January 30, 2012

Look carefully. I took a nice long (20 mile) bike ride on the American River Bike trail today. These deer came right up onto the trail. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera out in time to get a close up, but they cooperated and stood still long enough to get this shot. "Thank you, Deer."

January 29, 2012

Zombie bulls. Day two of PBR. Glad my flash didn't rile them up.

January 28, 2012

PBR @ PBR @ PBP. That's Pabst Blue Ribbon at Pro Bull Riding at Power Balance Pavilion.

January 27, 2012

Pampered Chef Party. I want that and that and that.

January 26, 2012

Bike Trail Greeter. I decided to dust off my bike and hit the American River Bike Trail. As were were riding, Roger noticed that not many people greeted us along the way. He was determined to get people to say hello. It was a little discouraging to realize that bicyclists, unlike, motorcyclists and Corvette owners don't acknowledge fellow enthusiasts. That is, until we reached this guy. He was sitting on the side of the trail greeting people as they rode by. He would even ring his cow bell at those who greeted him. We got the cow bell. Thanks cool biker dude, you made our day.

January 25, 2012

FU Mario. Saw this on my walk this morning. Someone wasn't happy with Mario. I'm assuming it was a woman, because of the purple nail polish. Also, a guy would probably just deal directly with Mario, rather than passive aggressively write this on a telephone pole. I wonder what poor Mario did to deserve this rather permanent visual insult.

January 24, 2012

Beautiful sunset. Didn't have time to dig out my tripod, so it's a little out of focus, but you get the idea.

January 23, 2012

Michael came to visit. And he brought his mom, Tara. What a cutie!

January 22, 2012

Perspective. We have Monster Trucks at the arena this weekend. This, however is not one of them. It's a remote control car. I just got a close up shot of it.

January 21, 2012

Family. Today I flew to Seattle to say goodbye to my big brother, Alf. He passed away on December 21. I will never forget his big booming laugh. He laughed a lot. Laughing is good for the soul.

Front Row: Roger, my brother in law and Nancy, my sister.

Back Row: Alex, my nephew, Mike and John, my brothers and Andrew, my nephew.

They decided to do the wave for my picture. Alf passed on his legacy of laughter to his sons. What a nice gift.

January 20, 2012

Dogs, dogs, dogs. Sophie, Charlie and Tucker are patiently waiting for treats.

"To err is human, to forgive, canine."

-Unknown

January 19, 2012

Go big AND go home. Keurig coffee is expensive. Sam's Club has the best price per unit. Of course, I have to buy in bulk. 160 servings should last awhile.

January 18, 2012

Tucker hates baths. He stays mad at me pretty much all day. He does ultimately forgive me, because that's what dogs do.

January 17, 2012

Training class. A sorry attempt to get a picture in. I did pass the test though, so that's good.

January 16, 2012

How to ride a horse:

Step one: Mount the horse

Step two: Stay mounted

I have only ridden a horse a couple of times in my life. I spent the day with my best friend from high school, Jan. She and her husband own a ranch outside of town. She suggested when we decided to get together today that we could ride horses. I'm not so much afraid of horses, as I am of them kicking me. However, I was game as long as the horse could not smell fear. She assured me it didn't. So here I was riding a horse. Who cares if it was round and round in a corral.

Photo One is the official photo of the day, because I have to be the photographer.

Photo Two is proof that I was actually on the horse.

January 15, 2012

Globie. The Harlem Globetrotters' mascot. He's waiting for his grand entrance. Hope it doesn't give him a big head. Bad joke. Sorry.

January 14, 2012

My own little "Storage Wars" moment. I went to a couple of garage sales this morning. I bought these three pictures by Ted Lewy. I paid $10 a piece. (I should have offered $25 for all three. Not sure why I didn't). Anyway, I came home and looked the value up on the internet. Nicely framed and with the little sticker on the back, they could fetch $40 each. A tidy profit of $90 if I were to sell them. Not too shabby, but like, Barry, I'm keeping them.

January 13, 2012

Junior Varsity Basketball. Hana, warming up at her game this evening. (another example of my photographic talents...not!)

January 12, 2012

The Archer Series Photos 1 & 2

What self respecting grandmother wouldn't use her beautiful grandson for her photo blog?

Photo 1. Brandi soothing a distraught Archer. She's such a good mommy.

Photo 2. Ok, so this picture is a little out of focus, because I didn't want to use my flash on the little guy. He looks so dang cute here. I couldn't resist.

January 11, 2012

Second Day of Cirque du Soleil. (Hey that rhymes!) Remember yesterday? No photos allowed. I snuck a photo of a case outside my office.

January 10, 2012

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda. Today's photo isn't really about Sophie running. It's about the photo opportunities I didn't take. Cirque du Soleil is scheduled for two days at the arena. While they were moving in, I happened upon a couple of GIANT shoes (Michael Jackson loafers, including white socks). They were really cool. The only problem was that the show didn't want any photos taken. Later, I spotted the Double Rainbow guy of You Tube fame. I wanted to take his photo, but I chickened out. This photo of Sophie is pretty cool though.

January 9, 2012

Working out with weights. I read a lot about fitness. Unfortunately, I read more than I do. There is a consensus that working out with weights is as important or maybe more important than cardio exercise, so I'm adding weights to my fitness regimen. Ironically, I naturally carry a lot of extra weight. You would think that would count.

January 8, 2012

The Home Series. I bought a home 6 months ago. Taking pictures around the house is kind of a last resort (lazy) attempt to get my daily photo taken. However, if I call it something fancy like "The Home Series" and tell a little story about each picture, I can feel better about myself and claim to be artsy.

The Home Series - Photo 1 - The pillars. I'm sure these brick pillars were beautiful and straight when they were first built. Time and tree roots have taken their toll. One day, I might take them down, but today I'm claiming that they provide character to the front of my home. They seem to be saying "Welcome. We're all a little off balance here."

January 7, 2012

Celebrating a milestone. Happy 90th birthday, Joe. What a wonderful family. Thanks for letting me share in the celebration.

January 6, 2012

Surveying their world. Nothing in the backyard gets past these two.

January 5, 2012

Pink Eye! Yuck! Super contagious...Stay away...

January 4, 2012

I get the news I need on the weather report.

January 3, 2012

Sophie Roux

Sophie, our 5 month old Mini Aussie, went on her first "official" walk today. She got the hang of it pretty quickly. These daily walks should be good for both of us.

January 2, 2012

Uncle Eli.

Eli smooching on his brand new nephew, Archer. Of course, Archer is the cutest baby ever!

January 1, 2012

I decided to start taking photos and posting them again. I don't know why, but what the heck.

Marty, my pool guy, put the cover on the pool. A little late for the fall leaves, but it should save on chemicals and stuff. The dogs can now walk on water, so to speak. I wonder what they will do when we take it off.