Mother's Day

Mother's Day sucked this year. There's really no other way to say it. I miss Mom.

Hunger Games Prep

There was a Groupon for an archery lesson and I couldn't resist. I always loved archery when I'd go to Club Med in the 80's.

Our lesson was at the Olympic Training Center near Chula Vista and our instructor was an Olympic hopeful (for 2016...he missed the 2012 cutoff by 4 points).

Anyway, I channeled my inner Katniss and did pretty well overall. I think I'm ready for the Hunger Games.

Since it wasn't too far, and was sort of on our way home, we stopped at Bleu Boheme for dinner. I've been there twice before...the first time was good, the second time was great and this time was fantastic.

We started with Basil Martini's and rustic bread. Then we shared Pommes Frites, sprinkled with Herbes de Provence, and a Salade Lyonnais. For our main course, Matt had a Filet Mignon that was so tender, you hardly had to chew it. I ordered a honey/curry pork with a fig and port wine sauce. OMG. It was probably the best pork I've ever had...and I'm not exaggerating. We had to take home some Chocolate Mousse to enjoy later.

This was one time where I felt our expensive meal was worth every penny.

Scruff

Looks like they left all the skin when they removed

his leg and shoulder. I get a little fixated on it sometimes.

Idyllwild

Last weekend we went to a memorial service for the mother of Matt's co-worker. They grew up in Idyllwild and that is where she still lived. I think the entire town turned up and then some. They had to have it in the school cafeteria to accommodate everyone so there were children's painting all over the wall and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Some interesting characters spoke and a terrible bagpiper played Amazing Grace. It was like an episode of Northern Exposure. But, there is something to be said for living in a tiny close-knit community like that.

This was a photo taken just outside of town looking out from the mountain. So pretty up there. I remember going there once as a kid to visit my parent's friends . All I remember was that they had a giant rock in the front yard that we played on.

Nice

They fixed the cracks in our street.

Isn't it lovely?

Biking

Matt was all gung-ho about bike riding New Year's weekend so, on the 2nd, he cleaned up our bikes and aired up the tires. I couldn't refuse after he'd done all of that work.

We biked over to the lake which only took about 20 minutes each way. However, there were a lot of hills and we went through these skinny dirt paths that didn't agree with me. I felt like I was in a Mario Kart game....I'd run into the bush on the right and immediately run into the bush on the left and so on.

It was pretty fun overall so I think we'll do it again but I'm choosing the route next time.

January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!!!

Well, my "year of pictures" experiment is over. Did it inspire me to take more photos? I think it did. However, I still forgot to take photos at some of the most important times. I tend to get wrapped up in living the moment and forget to record it. Nothing wrong with that but I'm one of those people that cherishes my memories so it's important to me to have something to show for them.

I've long kept scrapbooks and photo albums so I want to continue to do something like that in my blog. I also want to share some of my favorite things. I'm still going to strive to post to my blog weekly, at the very least, but I feel the daily aspect forces the issue.

So, what about today? Well, here are 2 photos taken last summer at my dad's retirement party in La Jolla. Mike Nicholas was there and took a bunch of photos of our extended family with a few exceptions (Will, for one). The first includes my dad's brother and family (The Shanks). The other includes my mom's brother and family (The Shooks).

Shank squared

Shanks and Shooks