Smog City

Saturday night Chad and I went to our first roller derby bout. The event was held downtown and the local team, the Smog City Roller Grrls won against Chino's Prison City Derby Dames with a score of 121-70. We had a blast and will definitely go to the next game in September.

*Sorry for the poor quality of this photo. The lighting was way funky in the venue and I had a heck of a time even getting a shot this good...

Patio Furniture

After weeks of searching for the perfect patio furniture we finally bought this set on Sunday. It has everything we wanted except for one thing: the color of the frame. I was hoping to find a set with a darker brown metal frame but finally realized that after searching everywhere I was going to have to compromise. Since this set had all the other elements I wanted (metal frame, glass top, decent price, comfy chairs) we went with it. I think it's going to work out just fine.

Camping

Here's where we spent our weekend. Friday afternoon we drove to Hume Lake in the Sequoia National Forest to a campsite we reserved near the lake. Immediately after we arrived we unloaded the car and set up the tent so we could explore for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Before dark we managed to walk around the entire lake and then make dinner at our camp. Saturday we fished for a good part of the day, sat at the lake and enjoyed the views, ate lunch at the snack bar, walked around the campgrounds and listened to a talk from a naturalist about birds. Sunday morning we fished some more before packing up our camp and heading off. On the way home we stopped by Grant's Grove to see the General Grant tree, the third largest tree in the world.

Garden Update - 7 Weeks

Here's a new photo of our garden. If you go back to the posts from April 27 or May 18 you can see how much its changed. The planter box seemed so large when the landscaper put it in but it definitely doesn't seem big anymore. Every day there's something new to see out there. Our watermelon plant is getting greedy and taking up the middle section of the box. We may have to figure out another place for it because I don't want it taking over and shading everything else. It's grabbing onto the strawberry plants and pulling its way to the ends of the box. Weird. The corn stalks, tomatoes and the rest of the lot are still growing well. No ripe tomatoes yet but lots of flowers and small green fruit sprouting...so that's a good sign.

Jennie Lake

This weekend my dad, Chad, and a friend went on their annual hiking and fishing trip to Jennie Lake. It's an 11-mile hike and from the tales they tell it's a grueling but fun trip to a remote area in our local mountains. They each caught their limit of rainbow trout and enjoyed the day spent in the mountains. Here's a photo of the three taken by a camper there that day.

Strange Glow

Here's what I found in our planter this morning. I have to leave it alone because there's nothing we can do to save it. Too bad. I wonder what kind of birdie she would have become? My guess is a dove.

Gardening 101

Today I spent a fair amount of time pruning the plants in our garden. It was a great day for working in the yard (although a bit too windy for the corn again, I'm afraid). In addition to pruning I planted some new seeds: cucumber and zucchini squash. Both take less than two weeks to germinate so hopefully mid-month we'll see activity in those spots. Our watermelon plant, with no watermelons yet, is starting to grow out of control. I'm crossing my fingers that it'll stop growing out and start growing fruit. We'll see.

Look at the surprises I found today in the tomato plants:











The first photo is of two early girl tomatoes and the second shows little grape tomatoes. Yay!

Americana

The Americana at Brand opened this past month and I finally got to see what it was all about. I watched them tear down the old businesses, flatten the area and ultimately build the center that is now home to high-end shops, restaurants and condos. Since I moved nearly eight months ago I didn't get to see them put on the final touches nor did I get to attend the grand opening. But I can say that I've been there now and it's a great shopping area. I would have had lunch at the park there every day.

While we were in Southern California we also went to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana to see the Chinese Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was actually really interesting. Saturday night we went to a farewell party in La Canana-Flintridge and Sunday we spent the morning in Montrose and the afternoon in Old Pasadena. We fit a lot into two days and had a great time.