Merry Christmas 2007!

Merry Christmas to all (even though this looks like a Hanukkah picture...)!
It's just the color of my cockpit cushion (I have no red or green cockpit cushions) that fools you.

We had a great day at our brother-in-law's house yesterday with the kids and family. We played some very competitive bingo - Meghan & Ryan both cleaned up!

Then our new family tradition of the "white elephant" game where we each get to pick an unopened gift or one someone has already opened. This was a LOT of fun and had us all laughing.

The food and conversation were great. We all did well with on second Christmas without our sweet sister, Donna (love of his life to John, daughter to Mom, Mom to the girls and sweet sister to the rest of us). And without Dear Old Dad (I don't think he would mind us calling him that).

Then for our little Christmas on our boat.
It has a theme - edible, consumable, drinkable.
No knick knacks for us! First some morning Champagne!
Then the edible consumables fill the boat!






This year we concentrated on filling the wine bilge (no cellar on a boat...)!
Happy Holidays to All!

Our Boat Cost $5 Less Than We Thought...

It pays to search hidden spots behind stoves and under cockpit floors on a boat...
Jim was installing "something" (not sure what as he has been installing a lot of things lately) on the boat and kept coming across pieces of wire, stray screws and bits of hardened caulk etc, and saw a folded piece of paper.

It was his lucky day!

He found this - a $5 bill from The Central Bank of The Bahamas!So our boat just cost us $5 less than we thought...

Now if we could just find about 33,000 more of these, we could break even.
Oh wait, we would need about 4,880 of them to pay for the shipping of the boat from Fort Lauderdale to Ensenada, and then we could break even.
But wait, there's more!
We would need another 5,000 or so to pay for what we have put into the boat since it got here.
And all the stuff that Jim is installing!!! Oh no, that another 2,000 of these bills...

Ok, gotta go - I'm going to search behind the stove now~~~

Parade of Lights

We can't believe how fast this year has gone by...
Already time for Ventura's Parade of Lights!
Which means two nights of dock parties, friends, beautifully decorated boats and fireworks! Mike, Bibiana, Stan, Nancy & Bob joined us for chili, guacamole, wine and chocolate on Friday night.









We stayed up WAY too late on Friday night but had a great time!

Margi and her dog, Sophie came for Saturday night, and Bob & Nancy joined us for the same menu and same amount of fun!



We had perfect weather both nights - not too cold and little wind!






The boaters and harbor did a wonderful job!

Five Day Trip to La Paz, BCS, Mexico!

The morning after...

The morning after Thanksgiving we got up very early and were actually still full.
We had a little leftover pie that we placed on Stan's deck as we had a plane to catch.

We flew to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico to visit Jim's brother, John and his son.

My cousin Julianne just happened to overlap our trip by about 4 hours, so our visit with her was in the airport! Off to the Los Arcos Cabanas, where we had stayed when we took Mom in February.

We spoiled our nephew, Johnny with toys and our leftover Halloween masks.











And his Christmas gift - a remote controlled 4WD Toyota FJ! Which he called his "grande regalo" and loved! He also caught on to the operating of it very quickly and then decorated it...

John took us out to the house that he is building with Brad. The house is in El Sargento (near La Ventana), with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and an awesome view of the Cerralvo Channel and Isla Cerralvo. It will be for sale when completed - anyone interested, let us know!

We visited with George, Melinda and Joshua from "Southern Belle" for a night.

We found a new great restaurant, "La Boheme", and of course hit the usual spots, "Bros Gonzales Shrimp Tacos" and "Rancho Viejo". A quick trip, but nice to be warm for a few days!

Thanksgiving with the Family at Linda's NEW HOUSE!

We had a great Thanksgiving at my sister's NEW HOUSE! Jim cooked the turkey and stuffing and everyone else brought snacks, pies, rolls, other stuffing, vegetables, sweet potatoes and MORE! Liz-beth & Keith came from the far, far and away town of Bakersfield, Jennifer, Jeremy & John came, Mom, and our next door neighbor, Stan too! Ate like pigs at didn't feel too well when we got home... too much good food!

Visit with Dave & Kellie "Sweet Lorraine"

Dave and Kellie of "Sweet Lorraine" came for a quick one night visit on "Motel Meerkat". Always great to catch up with them and enjoy their company! It was too short of a visit, but we enjoyed it anyway! And I was able to get Dave's sportcoat out of my storage locker (I brought it home from La Paz for him a year ago...)!
And since we saw them up here, we didn't have to deliver anything to them in La Paz (a few days later we flew to La Paz & delivered mail to "Southern Belle" and a washing machine to "Southern Belle" for "Lovely Reta")! We forgot to take any pictures...

Visit with Jon Tisler!

Another good friend from my "Port Hueneme condo and volleyball on the beach days", Jon Tisler came for a visit!

He used to be roommates with Chuck (who visited us the beginning of June) and Mike. Then Mike was my roommate.
The four of us (pre-Jim) were pretty much always together.

Jon now lives in Pensacola, FL - hadn't seen him for at least 4 years! And he hadn't changed a bit!
Still goofy...
(remember, this is after Halloween...)!










We had a great visit!
It was wonderful to catch up with him and spend hours listening to his crazy stories! We called Chuck and surprised him - they hadn't talked to each other since Jim & I got married - 12 YEARS AGO!

I think he enjoyed seeing "Meerkat" and spending a night here.
He said he slept great.

Here he is pretending to do something boaty...





Hopefully it's not another 4 years til we see him again!

Cherryl & Dave's Birthday Wine Tasting Trip to Paso Robles (Jim's Birthday too - sort of...)

Time for the annual birthday celebration of Cherryl and Dave (married with birthdays three days apart) and Jim (my guy) who's birthday follows a week later!

This year:
WINE TASTING IN PASO ROBLES!

and such good wine too... not!
For some strange reason Dave bought this in the liquor store on Friday night.
I just liked the color.


We drove up late Friday afternoon and met Dave's sister, Nancy and her husband, who drove down from the Bay area. A little vino in our hotel rooms (not this crap though) then off to dinner in town!

We have never seen so many wine glasses at one table... Great food - this was my dinner (I ate it all)...







Then off to check out the local hot spots - found this one!











Jim had some nice scotch, Larry & Dave had something-or-others and the ladies had foo-foo martinis (all great!).

Then a walk around the downtown central park.
Where we found a local's truck...
And Jim & Larry couldn't resist posing as the locals... Back to the hotel where I pulled out all the birthday decorations!
My tradition is to decorate us.
Here is the birthday princess with her fabulous jewelery.







And a few of the many faces of Jim...









And all of us!

SATURDAY - TIME TO GO WINE TASTING!

We took our decorations and set out on Highway 46 East.
Tried a couple of new ones and a few we had been to before.

Dave skipped the wine but wanted a bloody mary, so we hit the local golf course for that.

Cherryl, Heather & Nancy











Nancy, Cherryl & Dave















We went to our favorite winery, Penman Springs and between the Malcolm's & the Donnell's, we pretty much bought the place out...

Great wines, nice people and wonderful snacks! Spent a little time with George, the winery cat at Rio Seco.
He kept putting his paw on my wallet.
Hmmmmm... did they train him to do that?








Then it started raining!

Dave, Cherryl, Nancy & Larry went back to the hotel, and Jim & I made a last stop at a new winery, Vino Robles - what a beautiful huge tasting room!



Reasonable prices too (yikes, how are we going to fit this all in our car?)...



Then back to the hotel for a soak in the jacuzzi (in the rain!), snacks and to prepare for another dinner and night out on the town.

This must be how Jim prepares to go out...









Jim & Heather
Dave & Cherryl, the birthday kids at dinner









Dave's dinner - "Elk" and beans in a pumpkin...





Everything was beautilly presented and wonderful!

Our sense of humor and decorations were wonderful too.

Remember, this is a few days before Halloween...

Larry, Nancy & Heather Then off to a couple local watering spots.
Ended up back at The Crooked Kilt, where the happenings were happening with their Halloween party!

I loved this scary tree! Watched the crowd for awhile then walked back through town to the hotel.
Even the front desk manager liked our decorations!



Jim & I crashed - the rest stayed up for another hour or so.

Then the hugs & goodbyes the next morning and we headed for home...

The embarrasing part was emptying the car and unloading all of this:





Another wonderful annual birthday celebration for Cherryl, Dave and Jim!

SoCal on Fire

Then the fires started...
What a horrible week for all of Southern California.
We had between 11 & 15 major wildfires burning at the same time, from Santa Barbara to the Mexican Border. I haven't checked the latest statistics, but somewhere around 1200 - 1600 homes were lost...
This is Harbor Blvd in Ventura around 3 pm on Sunday, October 21st. This is the sunrise a couple days later.

Congratulations to Pamela & Roger! Engagement Party Sunday 10-21-07

Congratulations to our friends Pamela and Roger on getting engaged! Pam is our yoga instructor. We've known her for about four years an love her yoga classes! Roger has been around the last couple of years and we decided we will keep him. He scored some major points with all of us with his wonderful toast to Pamela and carrying Pamela's mom down the stairs!

A friend of Pam's gave them a lovely party with great food, lots of friends and a wonderful view.

Ventura's Highland Games - Sun 10-14-07

Time for Ventura's annual Highland Games! This year, John, Jenny, Don & Judy, all boaters, went with us.
John fits in as he is from England...
The people there don't know I was born in Scotland, but I still fit in...








We checked out the music, booths, bagpipers and people!
My favorite t-shirt I saw was "You can take the girl out of Scotland, but you can't take the Scotland out of the girl". Unfortunately, they only had kid's sizes...

We loved watching the little kids!











This kid was ready for battle...











We missed the pipe band competition, but had a blast watching "Tempest" and "The Wicked Tinkers"!
What I like about the Scottish Rock Bands (besides their music) is their dress.
The guys have their kilts on, a t-shirt and the biggest, baddest, black boots they can find!
This the The Wicked Tinkers.
Guess which one has a boat on C Dock?



Do they have Wet Wednesday races in Scotland? Love the Braveheart look!

It was a lot of fun, but you almost need to go both days to see all the bands and bagpipers - we never did see any of the Highland Games...