* Awesome Adventure Princess event at Agua Caliente County Park. Visited the mud caves which were amazing. They are formed by water carving tunnels through the hills, but they look like they were drilled out by man. Tested out the new pool which is unheated buy very refreshing.
* Kids had a piano recital.

* Built a bottom bunk for Jaya's loft bed
* Walked the dog in the rain
* Visited the new SRF book shop

* Had a Guides event at Del Mar Beach. We had great weather this time; no rain, thankfully. Not many activities to spoil the lazy time on the beach.



* St. A's had its Fall Festival fundraiser for the Sudanese outreach. Our chili entry again failed to win. Green Flash brewery was on tap which made a perfect compliment to the chili.

* Playing darts, dog-sitting, baking cookies, roasting chickens

The kids and I have been going to Camp Marston near Julian for several years now. I always wanted my wife to go to see what all the fuss was about. It turns out that the camp has a Woodcutters Weekend that families can attend. Your family gets to stay at the camp at no charge, but in return you have to cut wood, literally. We spend 8 hours on Saturday and a few more on Sunday turning big pieces of wood into little pieces wood.
Here is a before picture of the wood pile.

Here is the after picture of the pile; it is more impressive in person.

The family operating dangerous machinery

Slow weekend. Did two dog walks, one of which was a return to Pipe Hike (aka Manchester Preserve).

* Elfin Forest Reserve - sans kids, did the Way Up Trail to the top. Only 1.5 miles but straight up. A bit too hot still, but will be a good one to try during winter.

* Hiked Calaveras Mountain for the first time. We didn't make it to the top this time but plan to in the near future. I give the city of Carlsbad two years max before they develop this land.

* Hiked Elfin Forest Reserve for the first time.



* Adventure Guides event at Indian Hills.

* San Elijo Lagoon nature center hike - the new nature center is started to come along nicely. It is still too big for my tastes but I can't wait for it to be completed.
* Choctaw kickoff meeting at Poinsettia Park
* Fun at Cottonwood Creek Park

* A nice hike at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. We really enjoy the nature center their as it is very hands on and the people are great.

* Replaced a broken belt tensioner on the car.
* Fixed a leaky tub drain.
* Birch Aquarium - nothing new to report, although the octopus is getting very large.
* Drove around the UCSD campus and made a stop at the Geisel Library. It is a very striking building from afar, but the concrete constructions looks very rough when up close. We went up to the 7th floor to see the views but the windows were quite dirty. They had a couple of neat exhibits. One contained a small sampling of Geisel's artwork and books. On the arts and music floor, they had a Etch-A-Sketch display. Apparantly, the library will give you an Etch-A-Sketch for you to draw with and they will put it in the display. We might go back and give this a try. The kids had lots of questions about college. My daughter was very interested in the independence that college offers (mainly that no one forces you to attend classes).

* Hiked San Elijo Lagoon from the La Bajada trailhead. Halfway to the 5, Jaya sprained her ankle quite badly and it swelled up like a peach. I had to carry here piggyback most of the way back.
* Walked Sophie at Cardiff Seaside beach during the evening. I love the beach in the late afternoon to dusk.

* Lunch with Chuck at Dave's BBQ in Vista - the BBQ was excellent
* Finished painting and replacing the hardware on the garage entry door.
* Installed Tiki torched in front patio.
* Attended Cardiff Dog Days of Summer for the third straight year - this was the hottest year yet and Sophie still does not like other dogs. It seemed like the vendor booths where more popular this year but the contests were less popular, go figure. Another phenomenon was the number of pet portrait services. I don't remember any from last year but this year I counted at least 4, from photography to paintings.

My parents live in Santa Ana, last refuge of the "safe and sane" fireworks. Growing up, we bought fireworks, but never to the quantity that I wished. A couple of years ago, my brother was in town for the 4th and we were liked kids in a candyfirework shop. This year, we bought a large (but not quite the "block party" size) box of pyrotechnics. The kids loved the little items: ground bloom flowers, sparklers, worms, lightning bugs, etc. It gives a parent great satisfaction to teach their brood how to start the fuse of an explosive device without losing a finger or hand. As we set off our fireworks, the rest of the neighborhood joined in. There were multitudes of air-burst rockets, like mini-Disneyland fireworks. I imagine they were purchased in Tijuana given the area's large Mexican population. In any case, I was very jealous; the bottle rockets we had as kids were pathetic compared to the new ones.

* Started a big maintenance job on the BMW: fix two leaky hydraulic hoses (more on this in a later post), replace the transmission filter and fluid, replace the front brake rotors, fix the front brake squealing, and replace the rear brakes.
* Fixed the front garden irrigation system.
* The kids had their final piano concert until classes begin again in the fall.
* Had a PTA transition meeting from the old board to the new board (I am El Presidente).

* Trip to the dump - here was the goodbye committee:


* Saw "Prince Caspian" - not a big fan of the Narnia series but my daughter is and she won out over Indy.

* Fixed the kids' closer doors - they were a 1/8" too long due to the unevenness of the floor, so we had to shave some material off the bottom to fit in the floor guides

* Cleaned up the backyard - with the old playhouse off to the dump, I vacuumed up all the leaves and pine needles and put in a new light fixture; it looks very nice now

* Saw the whip snake at San Elijo again - this is the second time we have seen it roughly the same spot

* Biked 10.5 miles
* Great Adventure Princess event at Indian Hills

* Zoo - haven't been in a while. Noticed the new giraffe home and saw the construction for the new Elephant Mesa. The slow loris was a no-show.
* Finished the front yard patio
* Dinner with family and friends on Orange County
* Started the back yard rehab
* Did a nice 7.4 mile ride from my house to the 101 and back.

* Laid down the patio pavers.
* The pool was finally warm enough to go in.

* More work on garage and front yard.
* Mother's Day BBQ with one grandmother out sick and one wife with a jaw wired shut.

* Indian Guides trip to Vail Lake
* Got sick at Vail Lake
* Spent Sunday in bed

* Dorado cocktail party (stayed verrry late)
* Sick on Sunday (not from party...I think)

* Jyoti's jaw surgery.
* Kid's at the grandparents: ate ice cream, watched E.T., went to Disney's California Adventure.

* Spent most of Friday at Disneyland on the kid's new annual passes. Lines weren't too long and it wasn't that hot.
* Waited out the heat in our nice cool house (sans a/c).
* Grilled up a fabulous pork tenderloin with my rotisserie grill attachment. Haven't used it in ages, but it cooked up the roast beautifully.

* Adventure Guides event at Hurkey Creek near Idyllwild. Great times with laser tag, hikes and nice creek to get muddy in.




* Starting planting out the garden and getting rid of the big mound of grass I ripped up

* Jaya's 10th birthday party at Pelly's Minigolf
* Dog time at George's beach

* Pipe hike
* Started the garden rehab
* San Elijo Lagoon hike - saw 3 deer between the flood control dike and the freeway, a buck and 2 does
* Easter at Grandma's

* "Horton Hears a Who"
* Called into work
* Pompeii exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum
* Jaya's piano test, the performance part
* Choctaw meeting

* Adventure Guides trip to Dos Picos

* Very muddy pipe hike
* Encinitas library grand opening
* Cleaned rooms during another rainy weekend

* Attempt to keep dog alive after she ate a bunch of chocolate (she made it)
* Hike at Manchester Open Preserve
* Kids at Grandma's
* Clean carpets and other stuff around the house
* Jog along 101 from Java Hut to Chesterfield
* Lunch with wife
* Trail walk beside El Camino Real from Lavante to La Costa

* Walked dog at Viewpoint Park and checked out soon-to-be completed Encinitas Library. Went down D Street and strolled in the Seaside Bazaar.
* Kids had a piano recital and both did great.