Santa Ynez Valley

I am not usually a weekend getaway kind of person--I prefer long vacations across oceans, but I did a road trip over July 4th weekend. And it was great! I went to the Santa Ynez Valley, just above Santa Barbara. Golden, rolling hills, orchards, and vineyards. If you saw the movie "Sideways", that's the place. I stayed at the same hotel they did in the movie, and drank wine at the same restaurant bar. It is a very agricultural area: 60 wineries are located there, along with apples, pears, apricots, blueberries, strawberries, farms, ranches, and a casino! My highlights were Ostrichland, Quicksilver Ranch, and Nojoqui Falls. Ostrichland was just what you'd guess, hundreds of Ostriches--that you can feed! My favorite sign said "Yes, we like to bite". These birds are huge (250 - 350 pounds) and very messy eaters. They violently attack the food pan that you hold out to them--and you have to hang on very tight to that dish! Small children aren't allowed to feed them. It was horrifying at first, but once I got used to it, it was kind of funny. I went from giant birds to tiny horses. Quicksilver Ranch is a miniature horse farm. Miniature horses, not miniature farm! They were beyond cute. The adults grow no more than 34 inches, and the newest babies were maybe a foot and a half high--the size of an average German Shepherd. I really wanted to take one home! You can buy them, but I didn't think they would like my small apartment. I love waterfalls, love, love, love them! Thanks to a friend who used to live in the area and told me about the place, I went to Nojoqui Falls. Pronounced no-ho-we. After a long drive down a winding road in the middle of nowhere, it's half mile hike into the woods. Very pretty, very peaceful--which basically, sums up the whole weekend! I might turn into a weekend getaway convert!

The Weiner Affair

Oh, what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. Love that poem. It's something everyone should read, and heed. Congressman Weiner takes pictures of his bony, naked body and sends them to women who are not his wife. The wife to whom he's only been married less than a year. So much for that 'honeymoon phase'. Then, he lies about it, over and over and over. Lets' face it--he's not the first, not in taking the photos or in lying about it. There have been a rash of men doing the 'post picture and lie about it' routine lately. Let's not forget Brett Favre texted a pic of his junk, unsolicited, to a female employee of his former team. Not smart. What makes these rich, famous and powerful men think that taking, posting and sending these kinds of pictures is a good idea? What makes them think we want to see it? OK, I admit I'd be willing to take a gander at Brett Favre, but that's just me. But in all seriousness, why??? Why do they do it? It's just plain stupid! Do I think Weiner should resign? Yes, but not simply because of the pictures themselves. Do I care that he violated the trust of his new bride? Not really. I don't know her and it's not my business. I don't have time to be concerned about the millions of people who pick scumbag spouses. I do care that he violated the trust of the people who sent him to congress. I feel sorry for the people of his district--and for all of us, since as a congressman, his votes affect the entire nation. He made a very poor decision. He should be smart enough to know better. Poor decision-making is not a good quality for an elected official. I want him to resign because of the pure idiocy of the act and the blatant lying about it. I question what other stupid things he's doing, and then lying about. It makes him untrustworthy and unfit to make decisions on any level, much less a national one.

Work, TV and Blogging

I feel so bad that I haven't blogged for such a long time. Since I got a job, I haven't had the time to do any fun things to blog about! Actually, that's not true. I've been having fun, I just haven't been writing about anything. The main culprit for not blogging is television. I only watch three shows--House, Glee and American Idol--but they take up four evenings. Way too much time to be spending in front of the boob tube. Fortunately, they all had their season finales last week, and since I don't do reruns, I can get my life back. I feel free again!! I'm looking forward to cool summer nights, more tennis, longer happy hours, sunset walks on the beach, and of course, more blogging! Stay tuned.

Work is for the Birds

I'm sitting at work and I keep hearing this tap, tap, tapping sound. Every time it happens I think "What is that damn noise?" I look around but I don't see anything. Finally, I look up. There is a skylight above my desk. Let's in lots of light--I love it. So, apparently, do the crows and pigeons. These birds eat seeds, but instead of dropping them on the ground to open the pods, they take their find to my skylight and peck at the seeds to get at the inside. The skylight is frosted glass and dome-shaped. I can see the critters up there. The stupid birds don't fly to the flatter part of the glass, they attempt to walk up the slope. Glass on an incline must be slippery to bird feet because I watch as they slide back down. Up they go again. Up and down. Up and down. When they make it to the top, they drop the seed, which I can see through the glass, and frantically peck at it. Tap. Tap. Tap. Over and over and over. Of course, in their zeal to open the pod, they slip on the glass, and slide back down. God, it's entertaining! Fortunately it doesn't happen daily, but every so often that glass must hold special appeal for the birds. And obviously, special appeal for me, too!

A year and a half

Well, as most of you know, I start a new job tomorrow. After a year and half being unemployed, it'll be nice getting a paycheck again. But, I must admit I had a good run this past year. My life didn't change too much, although I did give up my addiction to shoes and Perrier. I got to do and see things that I couldn't have done with a full-time job. I learned where to find deals, discounts and freebies. Day trips to the Grammy Museum, Olvera Street, a Buddhist Temple, Koreatown, a National Cemetery and San Diego were great ways to spend my time. I got to ride the Goodyear Blimp--definitely a major highlight! I volunteered as a tour guide for grade-school field trips at the wetlands, worked food drives with the Fire Department, and got to play tennis when the courts are empty during the weekdays. As a sports fan, it was a good time to be off work. I saw all of the Olympic curling matches, and learned to love the biathlon. I only missed a few of the 4:30am World Cup soccer games, and I caught all the action of the Masters and Wimbledon, in addition to all the golf and tennis majors. I got to attend town hall meetings, a city memorial service, and be available to friends who needed rides to the doctor or when their car was in the shop. I ate shrimp and crab because I started reading grocery store ads and only bought what was on sale. I learned that Pantene works as well or better than Paul Mitchell, at one-fifth the price. And I can read a ton of books for free from the library instead of wasting money at Barnes and Noble. So, being laid off was a good learning experience--and there is no other way to take that long of a break mid-career. So, I'm looking forward to my new chapter of life, starting tomorrow.

Kids and dead things

I led another educational tour at the wetlands this week, a group of 7th graders. I generally like that age as they are old enough to talk to you on an intelligent level, and young enough not to have attitudes yet. And this particular group was from a very wealthy area of Southern California. So, we head out onto the trails, and I talk about the wetlands habitat, pointing out herons and egrets, showing them the difference between ground squirrel holes and gopher holes, smelling coastal sage--the usual stuff. There are are a few overlooks on the path at Bolsa Chica where we stop to talk about the mud flats, good bacteria, and the Pacific Flyway. Well, we've just been through quite a few big storms in this area. Do you know what happens in wetlands when storms come through? Lots of trash, gunk, and pollution wash down the storm drains and end up at the wetlands. Even dead dogs. Of course the dead dog ends up right smack in front of my lookout point--in clear view of everyone. God knows where it came from--it likely died somewhere else and was washed down the storm drains. It sure wasn't fresh--its fur was gone, and its skin was hard and red from exposure to the sun and water. I wanted to talk about mud flats and egrets. All the kids wanted to do was look at and discuss the dead thing. I tried telling them it was a coyote because I didn't want them to think it was someone's pet, but they didn't care what it was. They were thrilled to see something dead! They wanted to know how it died: did it get in a fight, did it fall off the cliff, did it drown? One kid said "That's the biggest dead thing I've ever seen." It made his day! They were all fascinated! They completely ignored the beautiful egret that was feeding on the mud flats. I had to practically drag them away to finish the rest of the hike. On the way back they wanted to stop and look at it again. I said NO. A few of the little punks lagged behind me and ran to the lookout point when I wasn't watching them. I know they all went home to their estates in the hills and told their parents about the dead animal, the highlight of their day! I hope the wildlife care center personnel get out there and pick it up before my next tour!

Goodyear Blimp ride

After I saw the movie The Bucket List, I actually made my own list, even wrote it all down. Some of the things I'd already done, like run a marathon, and stand in Red Square in Moscow. Some things are still in the future like attending Wimbledon and owning a pair of Manolo Blahniks. But, this week, I got to cross off an item. I rode the Goodyear Blimp! It was a totally amazing experience! You can't buy a ride on the blimp. It's free but you can only go via an invitation. It's all about who you know. Fortunately, my friend Dan knows the right people and he invited five friends as the blimp seats six, plus the pilot. We arrived about 45 minutes early, we were all so excited! We had to sign our names and watch a safety video--that's it. Easy. Guess what? There are no seatbelts!! You can get up, switch seats, open the window. Once you board the blimp, the ground crew tosses off the weighted bags that keep the blimp from floating away, then they push you up and you're off. The pilot told us that, at takeoff, we are 200 pounds LIGHTER than air. That's wild--especially when you've got 7 people whose combined weight is over 1000 pounds! It took no time to reach 1500 feet above the earth. The view is incredible--very different from being in an airplane. Because the blimp is so much slower, you can really study everything below. We headed south and floated over Long Beach, the LA Port, the Queen Mary, the Vincent Thomas Bridge, and the Home Depot Center. We all took turns sitting in the front seat, and the pilot had fun "body-surfing" on the wind. Our pilot, Nathan, was awesome. He's a tour guide pointing out the landmarks below. He's an historian filling us in on local history. He's a meteorologist explaining weather phenomena and how it affects blimps. He's one of only 70 blimp pilots in the United States, about half of whom actively fly. And he was fun--we tried to buzz an oil tanker in the harbor, but at blimp speed, I think they saw us coming! We learned that blimps react differently when underneath a cloud. You can actually feel it being pushed downward, and you can tell when you get out from under the cloud--it's like the blimp goes "whew, made it!" The winds really determine when you can land--and we had to stay up an extra 20 minutes because of it. And the landing! WOW!! It's a lot of physical work for the pilot. Then the ground crew, about 16 people, run toward the blimp and grab these long ropes that hang from the nose. They assist the pilot in guiding the blimp into a tiny little pole that connects to the nose. The landing was a work of art and choreography, absolutely beautiful. It was a once in a lifetime experience and we are all so grateful to have had the opportunity. It's a great feeling to check another item off my bucket list!