Fat Tuesday!


Don't forget to eat your Paczki (poun-ch-ski)!

Peter's Scenic Shots

Sunday afternoon Peter and I went down to Solana Beach to hang out...we found three sand dollars. Nobody really knows what a sand dollar is so I did some research:
"Children have been known to say that sand dollars are pressed sand that has been dried or even the money of mermaids washed-up from the deep. In reality, the fragile disk is the skeleton or "test" of a marine animal. By the time the test washes up on the beach it is missing its velvety covering of minute spines and appears somewhat bleached from the sun. It is hard to believe it was once alive.
Sand dollars are from the class of marine animals known as Echinoids, spiny skinned creatures. Their relations include the sea lily, the sea cucumber, the star fish and the sea urchin. When alive, the local species, Echinarachnius parma is outfitted in a maroon-colored suit of moveable spines that encompass the entire shell. Like its close relative the sea urchin, the sand dollar has five sets of pores arranged petal pattern. The pores are used to move sea water into its internal water-vascular system which allows for movement. "

Over the weekend, we found a total of five sand dollars!

Here is the view from the front yard looking east...as you can see we definitley live in the hills!

Family Day At The Beach!

We all went down to the dog beach today...it was a little cloudy but still a lot of fun!
Ironically enough, Peter and Chris dressed exactly alike today...they did not notice until I pointed it out! :)
This was dad's first trip to the beach with the doggies...somehow he managed to be the pooper sccoper on his first day out!
Cos was excited to play ball with dad! (Notice the light-dark sand line...that is the difference between high tide and low tide. Just behind that bridge is the Del Mar Race Track.)
Rudy has learned to play ball since moving to CA...he actually gets the ball and brings it back now!
Cos had to learn to find the ball in the waves...
but he figured it out after a few trys!
Rudy was all over the place playing with other dogs and hanging out in the ocean.

Doggies Big Day: Cos and Rudy Go to the Beach!



The ocean pre-dog...nice and peaceful!

Than we let them off their leashes! :)

Cos just likes to lay in the water...even though it was pretty darn cold! (We did play quite a bit of ball before he went in though...we all know how he likes to lay around after a good session of ball!)

Rudy decided that might not be such a bad idea...

Than I think the cold water got to him...he went crazy! This is him running out of the ocean right after sprinting into it...

And he just kept going and going! He actually got quite brave and went further and further out, I kept calling him back in...I was afraid he would get stuck in the undertow...he did not seem too worried.

At "Home" in Cali!

The back of the house. The balcony belongs to mom and dad's suite.

The pool and hot tub!
The front of the house...you can see Joey is enjoying a break after the 18 hour drive and HUGE (!) hill mom and dad live on top of!

Last but not least, the ocean...a whooping 15 minute drive! :)
I will save the inside for later...Peter and Chris, there are LOTS of boxes to unpack this weekend!

MY NEW TOYS!

The time trial bike: Cervelo...wheels are in the works
(Craig says I need to learn to ride my rollers while in the aerobars...that is going to be interesting!)

The new road bike: Blue Competition

And the newest addition, my Jeep Liberty!
(With trip to CA coming up, the Spyder was not going to cut it. Three bikes would have been a tight squeeze in that back seat!)