Yo Yo Yo Yosemite

Given that I am a major procrastinator, I naturally did not “have time” to do laundry or pack until Saturday morning. I woke up early and was running around trying to get everything done, clean up the place a bit, etc. Apparently I’m too good, since by the time I finished with all the cleaning and the packing, I still had two hours before we were planning to leave for the airport. Damn I’m good!

5 minutes after we were supposed to leave, we realized that the dogs’ blankets smelled like anal glands. GROSS. We weren’t about to leave that for the neighbors to have to deal with for a week, so we threw it in the washer and waited until they washed and then were kinda dry. We ended up leaving the house 35 minutes after the planned time. Which didn’t really matter: there was no line at the airport so we breezed through bag drop and security, and had loads of time to wait for our flight. (We flew JetBlue—I highly recommend it! It was a nonstop flight, and each seat had its own TV. Awesome.)

We landed at Long Beach Airport, and walked out of the plane onto the tarmac, and then up the ramp and into the airport…through the airport and back outside to baggage claim. It’s a wee little airport, by the way. Brad and Trish and Tristan were there to pick us up and on the way to their house we ordered some dinner—a pizza and spaghetti and salad. It was all actually really really quite tasty.

Sunday we jumped out of bed, I repacked my stuff into the smaller bag (no way was I going to take my big suitcase camping for pete’s sake…I don’t know what everyone else was thinking, but I knew what I was doing. J

We loaded up the Tahoe—the reservation had been for a minivan for the 6 of us, but none were available so we got “upgraded”…which meant that one of the very back seats had to be taken out for our stuff, and someone had to be put in the other very back seat with no leg room and no foot space. Nice. Made a stop at Target on the way out, and we were off!

So my knowledge of California’s geography consists of : LA and San Diego are in the south, Sacramento is the capital somewhere in the middle, and San Francisco is in the north. I apparently had no idea that the entire state is desert. And the San Joaquin Valley is uglier than west texas BUT it has mountains surrounding it—they’re just very very far away. And it’s a huge valley. I thought we were never going to get out of there! Mom informed me that the SJV provides the US with much of its produce….we did see a lot of orchards and fields. Brad even asked me what one field was—I guess because I worked for an ag professor in college I was the expert. ;)

Fortunately we stopped in Bakersfield for lunch—at In N Out Burger—YUM. If you haven’t been there, you need to try it. It’s delish. I always have to have it when I fly out there—though usually I get it on the way from the airport. (There’s always one on the way to the house, no matter what!:)

We arrived at Yosemite, but instead of turning left to go check in, we turned right to go to the Mariposa Grove. Beautiful huge trees—though at ~300 ft tall, these are the “smaller” version of the giant sequoias. We wandered around admiring..and smack in the middle was a huge one they called the Grizzly Giant—one branch in particular was 7 feet thick! Another big one had had a hole cut out of it and a road put through it—Just wide enough and tall enough for a horse and buggy! Inside the hole people had carved their names and dates…one I took a picture of was from 1929, but I think there was one from the 1890s too. And the sap that had seeped was orange and glowed like lava when I took a picture of it.

We finally left the Mariposa Grove and headed to Curry Village to sign in. Unfortunately by this time it was dark, and we had a little trouble reading the map and figuring out where we were supposed to park and then find our tent cabins. Dad saved the day though and figured out we were in the wrong parking lot. J We found our cabins and got settled in, making sure to put scented stuff (food, toiletries, etc) in the bear lockers just outside the door.

The next morning I woke up bright and early, and what a view! Took some photos of the rock face right above, and then off to a quick shower to get ready for the day. We had breakfast at Camp Curry—I had a bagel—and off we went. We drove around the valley floor checking out all the beautiful vistas, and watched rock climbers climbing the face of El Capitan. It was really interesting—hard to see, they were so tiny—but interesting at least for a short time. Brad and Trish also pointed out a tree growing all by itself in a cliff face…amazing, but even more so when you realize it’s at least 80 feet tall! We stopped at Fern Springs, where we met some people who had brought their own empty water bottles to fill there. We then decided we were going to get the Glacier Point talk that night and see the sunset from there, so on the way we stopped and went on a ranger walk. We were a little late so we had to rush to catch up to the group, but we still managed to learn a lot, and at one point he had us get on all fours, ease to the cliff edge, and drop to our stomachs to look down. If we were standing near the edge and looked down, we were likely to get vertigo and fall over the edge. As it was we had to make sure and place our sunglasses and other loose items on the ground before we eased over to the edge. It was amazing! The walk ended at Taft Point where there was a railing set up so you could check out the view…and the USGS seal, which stated we were at 7503 feet above sea level.

From there, we hiked back to the Tahoe and drove up the road a little ways, and then found the trail to Sentinel Dome. This was quite steep, and on the way we saw evidence of bears—where they had scratched the bark of a tree. As we neared Sentinel Dome, I noted how much like Central Texas’s Enchanted Rock it was. Cool! J Brad, Trish, Tristan and I went all the way to the top; Mom and Dad stopped at the base of the Dome and enjoyed the views from there. Then, the downhill (and much easier) hike back to the car, and we headed the rest of the way up to Glacier Point for the sunset talk. Glacier Point has marvelous views of Half Dome and the rest of Yosemite valley at any time of day, but at sunset the sun makes Half Dome glow a beautiful rose. It was awesome!  Back to camp for dinner and bed.

Early the next morning, we heard a loud rumble. I had remembered hearing that we were supposed to have thunderstorms, so I assumed the storm had arrived. But when I peaked out my door, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. What had happened? I stepped out of my cabin and saw other campers looking up at the cliff face above us. There had been a rockslide! A number of cabins at camp curry had been closed and fenced off about 6 months or so before our visit due to a rockslide that had done some damage and caused injuries. Had that happened today? A couple from a neighboring cabin started following the “smoke” and I took off after them. Sure enough, huge boulders had fallen but had landed in a rock field just above the residential apartments next to camp curry. Fortunately no damage had been done, just lots of dust everywhere. Brad had joined me, and as there was really nothing to be seen other than the clouds of dust, we headed back to our cabins. After breakfast we went to Happy Isles and followed the trail. I believe that’s part of the Merced River (?); it had low water and lots and lots of rocks. At the end of the trail, we clambered on the rocks. There were also large fallen trees that crossed the river, so Brad walked out on one..and talked my paranoid, worst-scenario-thinking sister-in-law into joining him. Then once she was back on land, I walked out to join him, and our dad walked out on the one nearby. We saw some Steller’s Jays here, and of course squirrels. We headed back to the car and went to the trailhead for Bridalveil Falls, one of the few falls still running this time of year. It was still beautiful! I can only imagine the roar of the falls during high water. After the falls we headed to Tunnelview, a popular scenic roadside stop to get fabulous shots of the entire valley and all the major views. Then we headed to the Ahwahnee for a drink at the bar (it’s expensive…we didn’t want to spend a lot ;) and went back to Curry for dinner, where we had some visitors---in the form of raccoons and coontails. During our stay at Camp Curry they were showing the Ken Burns national parks documentary so we would go to the outdoor amphitheater, which happened to be right next to our cabins, and watch for a bit. This night, Tristan cuddled up in my lap to watch it while everyone else took showers and got ready for bed, and he promptly fell asleep. J So sweet.

Wednesday was our last full day in Yosemite. I had woken up early and was just reading in bed for a little while when I suddenly heard Trisha say, ‘Amy, close your door!” I thought, it IS closed! And then after a moment I peaked out, didn’t see anything, and opened my door. There had been a black bear coming to visit!! And now it was loping through the amphitheater. We saw rangers running past to look for it; apparently there’s one that had been a rather constant visitor, so if it was the same one they were going to capture it and release it in another area of the park. After such a rousing morning, we had breakfast and went to the Yosemite museum and Yosemite Valley Visitor Center and saw tipis and other exhibits pertaining to the Ahwaneechee people who lived in the valley, including a reconstructed village. The visitor center had information about John Muir, who was big in the movement to develop national parks (and was the founder of the Sierra Club), and they also showed a documentary called the Spirit of Yosemite. We then wandered around a bit doing a spot of shopping in some of the gift shops and galleries. Next we went to meet up for a bear walk with a ranger; it was a little disappointing because the ranger talk was quite elementary, juvenile, whatever. It was interesting, though, to see possible bear dens and such. The rest of the day we kind of wandered around, and then went to the Ahwanee hotel for a twilight nature walk; this was interesting, she based it on “scales”: from a wee little pine cone (2-3”) comes the huge mariposa trees (60 feet), like that. This naturalist was very interesting and I felt made up for the ranger who did the bear walk. J From this twilight walk, we met a couple and their little boy from Mesquite, so we invited them to Curry for dinner. They were a nice family; their little boy was quite a pistol. After dinner, we went our separate ways, and my family went out to the meadow to gaze at the sky. The stars were beautiful of course, but the moon was very bright so we didn’t see as many stars as we expected, but we did see the unexpected—moonlit domes and peaks! Absolutely gorgeous! We also saw a flash about mid-way up El Capitan…Dad flashed his flashlight in that direction, and the rock climbers flashed back. Very cool! J

The next morning, Thursday, was our check-out day. We loaded up the Tahoe, and checked out, and then went to the meadow to go on a ranger-guided wildlife walk. Also interesting and this ranger had props—she gave Tristan a bobcat pelt to carry—and we ended at the woodpecker tree, an old dead tree with so many holes in it, and each hole holds an acorn left by,--of course—the acorn woodpecker. They called this tree the Granary.J

After the wildlife walk, we headed out, back to the O.C., stopping again at Tunnelview since it was a sunny day. It was about a six-hour drive back, so we didn’t do anything that night but unpack, shower, and rest.

Friday we did more of the same—rest and recovery. Friday night we decided to go to the beach for a bonfire. We loaded up (two cars) and headed to Bolsa Chica State Beach, and staked our claim on a fire pit. Brad got the fire going, and we set up the chairs and used the beach umbrella as a wind break (it was pretty windy). Luckily the beach wasn’t crowded… Once we were ready to start cookin’, everybody got a stick (or unbent hanger, whatever) for their hot dog. Well. Everybody except me—I don’t eat the nasty things. I had myself a deeeelish PB&J. Yum! (Everything tastes better when you’re eating outside!) We hung out, walked down to the water, tristan chased and was chased by the waves, Mom looked for cool beachy stuff like shells and stuff, and I watched the waves and the sandpipers. The water was pretty cold, and with the wind blowing like it was, I wasn’t about to get in—it wasn’t exactly a hot day! Later after the sun went down we roasted marshmallows…absolutely a delicious evening. Brad helped me take pictures with my camera (as opposed to his fancy camera) of the moonlit waves. It was a very fun, very relaxing evening. The rest of the weekend was just relaxing and recovering—that was a very active vacation. J Sunday we flew back on JetBlue to A-town. Monday back at work.

Miscellany

So it's still freakin' hot here. I think we're now at fifty-something days of triple-digit temps. And they've been talking about seasonal affective disorder--it's not just for winter anymore! It explains the rise in crime this summer....the craziness....the crankiness...The economy hasn't helped, but together it's quite the double whammy. They just closed the last public boat ramp on Lake Travis...the lake is at its lowest levels since 1963....it's kind of a depressing time....

A couple weeks ago, some friends and I went to a speed dating event. Yep. For real. An event at a bar wherein the women each have a table and a number, and the guys each have a number and rotate tables. Unfortunately I believe the age range was 25-35....and it's unfortunate because I found out my matches are ~25....and I am 34....and far too young to be a cougar. Five years younger is my limit--granted, it's a somewhat flexible limit, but nonetheless a limit. This would have been an awesome event for guys--there were about 20 women, a few that may have seemed desperate but most that just seemed to want to give it a whirl (I think registration was free for this particular event)....but there were only about 10 guys. The thing about an event like this, in my opinion, is that it needs to be at a really cool place (dave & buster's = NOT cool!!!) and you need to go with fairly low expectations. That is to say, don't go expecting to find your Mr Right, or even your Mr Right Now. Several friends that went were expecting to find superhot supermodels with great personalities...and what we got were some guys that seemed nice, some guys that were looking to get laid, some guys that maybe just don't work in a place where they would encounter many women. My point is, you have to go in and just have fun. (Alcohol helps. ;)

So I'm trying to decide what kind of car I should get. I am not sure yet if I want to replace my Miata...I rather enjoy having a cute little car...but it would be so nice to have something very slightly larger! Right now I'm thinking about a Mazda 3, a Scion tC, and...I don't know what else. My brother suggested the Honda Element--that is probably the ugliest vehicle I have ever seen, aside from a Hummer. Sheesh. I know I don't want an SUV or a crossover or anything very big--and keeping in mind that for six years I've driven a Miata...a Camry feels gigantic to me!

I am going to strive to cut back on saying certain words and phrases ..."like".... "totally"... "seriously"... "for real"...."whatever" ... I know some people who use these words nonstop all the time, and it has been getting on my nerves...more so because I know I've been guilty of overusing them too. I'm also going to attempt to cut back on the cursing. One of my coworkers drops the f-bomb pretty regularly, and if not the actual word then says things like "effing", which is really no better. So I'm going to try to clean up my language, if only to the "basic" curse words (hell shit and damn). Those are my goals. We'll see how it goes. :)

Anyhoo...that's the news for now. It's funny...I think of all kinds of funny things in my head while I'm driving, and I think, "I need to post that somewhere!" And of course invariably I completely forget about it...

Hot. Hotter. Hottest.

So I heard on the news today that Austin is now up to 24 days of triple-digit temperatures. Last year, we had 50 days of 100+ temps...I'm betting that we'll have more than that this year, especially considering that most of the 24 days were in June! Lake Travis is less than half full...we are, quite obviously, in desperate need of some relief from the drought, a little rain. Not flooding, just some gentle showers would be nice. Something to give us a bit of a break from this drought. Sheesh.

One thing I've noticed is that all this extreme heat has made me FLAKY. And lethargic. I back out of plans all the time, if I ever even committed....especially if it involves being outside. Even if it involves a pool or something that would help ease the heat. It's kinda pathetic... and part of me feels bad for being such a flake, but I've noticed that as I get older I am much more concerned with being comfortable. And this weather is not comfortable and no amount of margarita will make it easier to tolerate. So any plans I make require air conditioning...I know! It's pretty sad. But damn, it sure feels good!

Please don't eat all the Morsels...!

When I was in college, one of the things i would do when I was depressed or really really stressed out or whatever is buy some cookie dough and chow down. (Seriously. I even converted one of my friends to doing the same thing.) It's actually rare that cake batter or cookie dough ever actually makes it to the oven to be baked, as a matter of fact. :)

So the weekend before the layoffs at work, I was actually feeling really anxious about the house. I knew it was in great condition, seemed well built, and I had done a good job negotiating the price...but I was stilll concerned about all the startup expenses--the utilities, buying things like lawnmowers and such...Was I really ready for this? So I was talking it out with my mom, and she suggested getting some cookie dough and making a few cookies (ah yes, see where I get the emotional eating from??)...so I drove up to HEB and picked up a couple tubes of cookie dough. Pillsbury peanut butter (no nuts!) and Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip.

So over the weekend I'm noshing on cookie dough, and occasionally baking a handful of cookies...and Monday after the layoffs I continued, and ended up snacking in the evenings all week...when to my surprise my mom emails me to ask if I'd thrown out the cookie dough. What?!?! Apparently there was a voluntary recall on the Nestle Tollhouse cookie dough tubes, and they were asking consumers to return them for a refund. Nice.

I looked into it...seems there have been some cases of E. coli (probably mostly in the northern states...they always seem to have rashes of food poisoning up north!) and Nestle decided to go ahead and recall the suspect products. One of which I happened to have in my possession, and which happened to be at least half gone by this time.

Fortunately I never felt any ill effects from eating it--my system is probably too strong (from DECADES of eating raw cookie dough!) to be overtaken by a little E. coli. :) Or something. :) Though I did make sure to tell my friend Adriana about the recall Saturday night at dinner...she's always grossed out when I tell her I eat cookie dough raw, and is always warning me that I may get sick from it.

No illness yet....I think I finished off the cookie dough that Sunday. ;) YUMMMMmmm...sure was good! :)

Sigh....

I just can't think of anything to write. And the sad thing is, I thought of something really funny and cool to write about earlier tonight...and now I can't for the life of me remember what it was!! Dammit! Damn this hot weather! (because that is what I am totally blaming for the memory loss and writer's block!)

Ah well. Just listening to my "dance around the house" music and relaxing. Happy times. Survived a Monday, which is always good :) On to the next day and surviving the rest of the week!

~A.Mo

No House

Wow, how life can change in just a few days. Last week, I was feeling pretty confident in my job, pretty confident that I could buy a house right now....This week--as of Monday, actually--I have lost confidence. We had a round of layoffs on Monday....and this time the selection was very surprising.

We last had layoffs in February--shocking in and of itself, as we had no warning, no idea, and the company had only had layoffs once before in its nearly 20-year existence. It seemed like more of a "trimming the fat" kind of deal, getting rid of low performers and such. No real surprises in who they chose to let go, though sad and a shock all the same.

This time, four months later, was a total shock. They had told us in February that they expected we would be okay, they had gone with a very conservative model, etc. Well, apparently it wasn't conservative enough, and we were NOT okay. Rumor has it that the company that bought us is looking at our numbers every quarter--hence the timing of this second round of layoffs. Makes me feel like I have a pretty good chance of losing my job come October!

What does this have to do with my house? Well...Monday was the last day of the option period, in which I could opt to terminate the contract, with minimal cost to me. Needless to say, I took the events and upheaval of the day, and the timing, as a sign that I don't really need to be buying this house right now. I did consider all my options, looked at everything from every angle--I considered that if something were to happen, I could get a roommate, I could lease the house out, I could sell it, or I could hand the keys back to the bank (NOT recommended!). After careful (but quick!) consideration, I chose to opt out.

My current living situation is such that if I were to lose my job, I could work something out. And believe you me, the relief I feel is far greater than the disappointment at not buying a house. It stinks a little, though, because I had an awesome rate, and I already had a closing date scheduled.

Oh well. I'm good with it. I hate my commute, but my rent is cheap (and could be cheaper if need be). It could well be worse--I could have a mortgage I could no longer afford, I could end up foreclosing....I recognize that buying a house is always a gamble, but right now I really am not up for gambling with that kind of dough.

House

So...I'm buying a house this year. I wasn't going to, I was going to continue with my living arrangements for another year and try to save up as much money as possible...but several things happened: Someone sent me an article about the first-time home buyer tax credit....One of my friends built a beautiful (and affordable) house...and several of my coworkers are taking that plunge as well. So after speaking with some friends about what steps one takes to find out if one can even think about buying a house, I contacted a mortgage broker. I figured I might as well see how much house I can afford, if any. (Suffice it to say, I am still impressed with my credit score. :D )

After meeting with her, I contacted a realtor whom several of my friends had worked with, and away we went! I don't know how many houses we looked at--not as many as some people, I'm sure--but one neighborhood I think we looked at about six houses....

At the end of my first week looking at houses (I think we had gone out maybe 2 or 3 times), I fell in love. (NOTE: Don't let yourself do this!) I made an offer on a house--a darn good offer!--but the owner was clearly not ready to sell, as she did not want to come down on her asking price one little bit. I was saddened, but not willing to pay that price. We kept looking....

Funny enough, maybe two weeks later I made an offer on a house 3 doors down--a similar floor plan, but slightly different, and I lowballed, to see if they were willing to negotiate. Well, I nearly fell out of my chair when my realtor called me and told me they had countered! I thought for sure that they would flat-out reject my offer. So I countered their counter, and then we reached a compromise. Awesome! And really scary! Holy cow, this crazy house-buying idea of mine is becoming more real!

It's exciting--and periodically I feel a little panicked, because O.M.G. I am buying a house!!! I had scheduled the inspection for yesterday--he didn't find anything major--and then of course last night we had a huge storm move its way across Central Texas! Grreat! (Fortunately, i have friends who live in nearby neighborhoods, and they didn't have any damage. Whew.)