Sunday "Church"-Hit the Trail

The list from today's hike with Daddy, Jake and Cameron:

The beautiful stuff:
* Thousands of butterflies, they're migrating. Awe inspiring. Wish you could see them in the picture. You can see the dots in the second picture. The wind was taking them faster than I could snap them. I've never seen so many monarch butterflies in action. I felt like I was in fairyland.
* Blue tailed skink, an interesting looking lizard built for escape.
* Mission blue butterfly, more like lavendar, sigh.
*Countless wildflowers: lupine, sun cups, larkspur, popcorn flower, etc.
* Fuzzy catepillar, awww.
* Fresh, green leaves everywhere, on the valley oaks, the scrub brush, everywhere.

The gross stuff:
* Dead squirrel, coyote and norwegian rat,or bits of them.
* Scat-o-rama: horse, coyote, deer, dog (eww)

Willow Springs Pond was full of tadpoles, no frogs they're all hiding. Have to be there at night.

Ahhh, sunny, windy, blue skies, good work out, even the kids were tired at the end.

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning. You know you've been busy when you're just happy to have a free day to do it.

Bonus: going through old photos, holy macalaney.

Wow! What a Day!

Walnut Creek Little League opening day. Always a boost. The field at WCI was freezing but kept reminding myself how soon enough the kids will be roasting on the field.
After the uplifting ceremony and speeches, the head coach encouraging kids to "use their outside voices," I went back home for some last minute cramming.

Ron and Jake stayed on to eat hot dogs and hit some home runs. Jake did the home run derby and from the grin on my boys ears as they told the story, Jake did pretty well. Even got asked to pitch to the AAA boys. Two strike outs. That's my boy.

I'm so glad we stayed in single A. At 8 years old, you need to work on fun, form, teamwork and confidence. Not climbing up the ladder, so to speak.

Jake LOVES baseball and we want to keep it that way. We already burned out one son with baseball overload, we learned our lesson. There is no hurry, he'll tell us when he's ready.

I went off to Encinal High School in Alameda to take the Foundational Science CSET and it kicked my ass. I love the technology, ecology, nature and natural history of science, not the formulas and physics equations. But it's all part of it and I hope to fricking God I passed cuz I don't want to do that anytime again soon. 116 multiple choice questions and four essays. Yikes.

Then Jake had practice at IV.

Then Ali, bless her heart, had dinner waiting for us. Her and Jake wrestled, threw the ball and watched the As/Giants cactus game. Couldn't have picked a better godmomma.

Ok, Jake's yelling at me to come play. "always on the computer Mommy!"

I'm tired but today was very productive. I'll keep ya posted on my CSET results.

FROG POND HIKE

Dusk. Backside of Shell Ridge. Lots of kids, grown ups and flashlights.
Frogs are funny, friendly creatures.

The only time they seemed bothered by our presence was when we first approached the pond.
When they first sensed us, the caucophony of frog song stopped. Once they decided we were friend, not foe, and probably just stopping by for a drink from the pond, they continued their happy jumping, swimming and singing.

The kids were in frog heaven. Big frogs (holy cow!), cute little frogs and a centipede or two. I hope we didn't scare them too much.

The sun set into dark and we continued to pond number two, skipping over horse number two on the way, ewww. Another rush of silence as we approached, then back to their surprisingly loud chirping.

Frogs really are cute with their big brown eyes and their funny sucker feet.

A great hike organized by Leslie and enjoyed by the Indian Valley kids.

Ribbit.

Wacko Jacko

Last night when watching American Idol, showcasing Micheal Jackson, Jake asked,
Mommy why is he black in one picture and white in the other?
I'm still laughing.

Indian Valley Hiking Club

Mud, coyote scat and sticks.

Connor said it was the best hike ever.

The boys ran down the hill while us girls took the switchbacks.

The rain made everything clean and green.

On my top ten list of great places to be; Shell Ridge amongst the prehistoric shell fossils, raptors and old oak trees, almost to the clouds.

I'll Be Back - A List

Ron, Jake and Jake's buddies are watching Terminator. I think that is possibly the greatest boys movie ever. I feel a list coming on.

Great "Boy" Movies (but girls like 'em too, well some girls)

1. Terminator
2. Die Hard
3. Any movie that has a meteor hurling towards earth, a volcano blowing up, a wall of water sloshing to shore, or other natural disaster
4. Road Warrior
5. Transformers
6. The Matrix
7. Enter the Dragon
8. Legend of Drunken Master
9. Spiderman
10. Goldfinger, arguably the best Bond film ever
11. The Wild Bunch
12 Star Wars 4,5,6
13. Speed
14. Gladiator
15. First 3 Raiders movies
16. Aliens

Think I need to go put the toilet seat down.

Berkeley Punks

Ok, so, I've been spending way too much time on the facebook group, Berkeley punks 1978-1982.

So freaking fun. Hundreds of old photos. Seeing old friends, bands I loved, memories floating to the surface, sometimes rocketing. Like, why haven't we done this sooner?

Liz is having so much fun with her daughter, showing her pix of her Dad, aka Paul Mondello, on stage at the Keystone Berkeley, etc.

Ok, so, Monday night 99 cent shows at the Keystone Berkeley, Pyno Jams. What a hoot.
We were so young. I had a crush on the bass player, the crazy artistic type I've always been attracted to. I thought he was so cool. This is what he looked like: