What We've Been Up To...

The baby has not arrived yet - 9 days till the due date!! We've been spending our time in a variety of ways - mostly relaxing, getting ready for the baby and wondering what the hell we're going to do with it! Ha ha...actually, we're feeling pretty good about welcoming a little one into our lives. It's scary as hell, but super exciting at the same time. The diapers and covers are ready to go, the clothes are all washed and waiting, our freezer is packed with food for the first weeks, our neighbors are on call, the midwives are ready. It's very exciting!! Other than baby stuff, we've been up to this:

Eating Passionfruit - they look absolutely disgusting, but they taste amazing!

We spent a night at El Capitan Canyon Campground (which is a fancy resort "campground"). We got upgraded (for free!!!) from a Safari Tent to one of their nice cabins. It was fabulous! We made s'mores and sat by the campfire. What a cozy and fun way to spend a day off together!!

This is not our cabin, but it was like this.

After our night there, we went for a lovely walk at El Capitan State Beach. Here I am sitting on a picnic table.

Today we went down to the Santa Barbara Harbor to see a replica of Colombus' ship, the Nina. It was surprisingly small - definitely NOT something you'd want to use for sailing off to a new land. Apparently, it worked for them, though. I did not take this picture, but if I had, I'd be very proud of it. When we saw the Nina, the sails were furled (can sails be furled?) and it was docked. The tour was six bucks each, so we passed up on that, but it was still cool to check out from the dock. Then we went for a chilly walk on the breakwater and watched tiny ducks go diving for food. Rosie came with us and smelled everything.

What 33 and a half weeks can do to your midsection

I'm feeling good and enjoying my pregnancy. Eric and I are getting the house ready for our new arrival. We had our shower last weekend and it was a blast! Many of our friends came and we enjoyed Mexican bbq and fabulous weather. December 2 is fast approaching!!!

















April 10, 2008




















October 18, 2008

My sister Maria

Marvelous
Animated
Responsible
Intelligent
Amicable

Independent
Snazzy

Awesome

Driven
Optimistic
Resourceful
Kind

Gap Fire Update

Everything ended up working out for us. We were allowed to return home yesterday. Other than the light dusting of ash, it's hard to tell anything exciting happened here. It's been such a surreal experience. I can't believe it was only four days ago that we packed up our lives in our cars. I'm so thankful to the firefighters for saving our property, to Eric, Serena and Michael who packed up all our stuff and to Susan for letting us crash with her. And, to Rosie for being the best dog anyone could ever ask for. Oh, and of course, to all our friends who called us concerned and offered their homes to us. Thank you!!!

Evacuating is no fun

We had to evacuate from our house last night. It was really scary because the hillside above our house caught on fire. Eric happened to go home right after it caught fire. He, his cousin, who is visiting with her son, packed up his car with our valuables and booked it outta there. We met up and went to my coworker, Susan's house where we spent the night. We're now down in Huntington Beach with Eric's family. It's very odd to distill your life down to a carload of *stuff*. Makes you realize how unimportant stuff is.

The ranch and our house are fine as of now. Luckily, our neighbor happened to see the plume of smoke and called 911. 4 or 5 big trucks came blasting down our road and up into the woods. The firefighters did an amazing job and put out the fire there. Oz's investment in widening the roads on the ranch really paid off. But, what's really scary is that the main fire is moving towards the hills above the ranch. So, we'll see what the next few days bring.

What we learned:

1. Make a fire list - what valuables and other things would you want to bring with you? Keep the list out where you can find it easily. We did this last year during the Zaca fire. Eric, his cousin and her son found it extremely useful and are sure they would have not been able to pack as well without it.
2. Have a meeting place set up. I was trying to get home and couldn't get in because they closed our road. I couldn't call Eric because we have SUCKY AT&T and there's little to no coverage in the area around our house.
3. Have a disaster kit ready with water, food, batteries, candles, flashlights, battery powered radio and corded landline phone. Know where this is!
4. Keep all your important papers together in an easily moveable container.
5. Remember that pretty much everything is replaceable.
6. Even if a wildfire seems far away, it can jump to where you are in seconds.

Life on a ranch is wonderful, except for the evacuating part. Two and a half years ago we had to evacuate due to too much rain. Sure would like to have some of that now.

I'm a Believer

My dad got me into "hypermiling". This is a strategy for driving that aims to increase your miles per gallon. Let me tell you - IT WORKS! I tried a few techniques on my last tank of gas and was blown away by the results. I normally get 26 in town and 30 on the highway. This last tank of gas was half in-town driving and half highway only (drove down to L.A. for our friend's memorial - more on that later). So, you might guess that I'd get about 28 MPG for this tank. Okay, so....wait for it.....I got 34 MPGs!!! Woo hoo! So cool. This is what I did:

I drive a stick shift, so that makes some of this easier.

1. Accelerated slowly
2. Short shifted
3. Approached red or yellow lights slowly (downshifting when necessary) so that I used my brakes as little as possible
4. Coasted down hills when possible (slightly scary, but fun, too)
5. Went the speed limit on the highway (this was hardest to do - everyone speeds here in Cali)

I didn't think these actions would make that much of a difference, but apparently, they do! I did the math twice just to make sure I really did get 34 MPGs. So cool.

If you're interested, here is a site that I found very useful:

http://epistolary.org/6337.html

I must say that many of those ideas I think are pretty freaking crazy, like turning your car off to coast or drafting off of a big rig. No thanks. I'm not that nuts, just a bit.

Oh, one more thing - I love how these gas saving techniques have made me drive more slowly and calmly. It's nice not to feel like I'm in a rush. I just cruise along, comforted by the thought that I'm saving gas ($$$$).

Big Ben chillin' at Figueroa Mountain

Summer Vacation on Cape Cod! Ooooh la la!

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