Unwanted gifts

Someone left us two unwanted gifts under one of the trees at GTY.  A used diaper, and a banana that even Garry K would have said was too ripe.

Beyond the gifts under the tree, someone also left a pair of flip-flops in our driveway.  The gift tag must of blown off in the wind, so I cannot send a thank you note.

Happy Birthday to me

To round out the unusual birthday celebration, I ate my cake with chopsticks.

Andy still fun

Andy is growing fast. He is now 7.25KG, about half of what he'll be when full grown. The boys love taking him for walks and tossing his "guy" down the hall.

Happy Birthday to me

For my birthday I went to a party with 7000 people at Philippe's. Sandwiches were rolled back to 1908 prices (10 cents). We waited 5 hours in the party line. A great time was had by all. When we came for their 95th the lines were not so long - this was much longer than I expected.

Rain?

John Daley stands in the rain during our brief storm. It took me a while to remember the word for it.

It's less of a gate than you'd think

Since thing have gone so well we were able to take the morning and see a few things around Berlin.

When I think of gates, I think of barriers and such, this is more of a triumphal arch. It was still amazing to see. We also walked through Check Point Charlie, some wonderful neighborhoods, and visited the German memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.

After our morning tour, we met back at the church to finalize everything for Sunday.

Now we pray that a room full of people with GSM phones doesn't through everything wacky.

Jay puts it together

After a trip to a few stores we had what was needed to put together the system to record the sermons adapted from John MacArthur's material and preached in German. Unlike many projects this one has gone smoothly. Sunday will be the live test of the system.

German Efficiency - East Berlin Style

The hotel I'm staying used to be on Lenin Street. After The Wall came down, they renamed the street, but some of the habits take longer to change.

Earliest Yet

Labor Day we found these at the Valencia K-Mart. It's nice to know that the Christmas season now begins in September. I'm sure that one day soon, the decorations will come out Memorial Day.

Meet Andy

Well after much waiting and waiting and waiting, we finally have a dog. This is Saint Andrew Clonrichert of Waterford a Kerry Blue Terrier -- we call him Andy.

He is cute, soft, and bouncy. Now for the fun part: house training.

Fish!

Shortly after Cooper caught a fake-fish lure, he caught this genuine rainbow trout. Campbell had a few good bites, including one that got reeled close to shore before escaping.

After we got back to the condo, Ben fried the fish and we all got a small fish snack. Cooper did not like it, Campbell could have eaten several.

Sunset

We enjoyed the sunset. It was a beautiful place to enjoy the end of the day.

Gone Fishin'

After dinner we took C1 and C2 out to learn to fish. Former Ranger (Ben) gave the boys a quick primer and let them loose. The boys did not realize that fishing is all about peaceful waiting, not instant results. A good lesson to learn.

Mono Lake

After Bodie, we went for a short visit to Mono Lake. Amazing Sky.

Bodie

We took a drive off the mountain today to go and visit Bodie. The last 3 miles of road unpaved. We spent the day hiking among the ruins. Later we'll see Mono Lake.

Burned Forest

Thursday we went on a 7.5 mile hike from Horseshoe Lake to Devils Postpile. Along the way we passed through a part of the forest that burned in 1992. A benefit of the fire is that it makes for a panoramic view of the San Joaquin Valley.

Ben was a pack-man most of the hike. The rest of the children all did fine.

Friday: Yosemite.

A lake to ourselves

We hiked pased the kill zone (an area where CO2 has killed 100s of trees) McLeod lake. When we first arrived there were two others at the lake. By the time we left we were all alone. Cool to be in middle of no where.

Nice hike

Resting in front of the Postpile.

What started as a normal hike

We started our Tuesday with a hike to the Devil's Postpile. From there we took a less used trail over to Red's Meadow. I was taking some pictures of the basalt formations, when we heard a noise off in the distance, then we were hit with an awful smell. We had just been talking about what to do if we should encounter a bear. Off in the distance running and at quick pace we saw something huge and hairy. I quickly raised my camera and was able to get just one blurry picture -- I had been taking pictures of rocks, so I was not ready for a moving object.

John Daley would know better than I, but we may have had an encounter with Bigfoot.

Quality is forever

Apple Pan - quaility is forever. A great motto. After picking Ben up from LAX I took him for one of the best burgers in LA. Parking is usually an issue - but clean living got me the one space in front. Great food and great parking. Good thing it's not too close - eating here too often and forever might come sooner than you'd think.