Breakfast at the Griddle Cafe

Cooper was spending the day in Burbank with his grandparents, so we took Campbell on a food and fun adventure. We all started (Cooper included) in Granada Hills for flu jabs, and the traditional after jab snack -- cookies and juice. Then we went to the Griddle Cafe, where we had great parking, and ... no line. Had a great breakfast. Campbell wanted to try our the Venice Skate Park -- many good skaters, but a grand collision in the bowl, made everyone stop. We passed a Faux-gi taco truck trying to get someone to buy their copy-cat food. Coffee break at Intelligentsia, then a snack at the real Kogi truck. Great day. More pix here.

Family Celebration

My mom made a wonderful chicken lunch and got this delicious cake from
Portos to celebrate my birthday. Peaceful day in Burbank with my family.

Red Bull Races

We found a place in the shade. Race starts at 1pm.

LA County Fair

Last week we went of a field trip to the LA County Fair. Here is a link to some pictures from our adventure.

It's only four words

To get so many words wrong in such a small sign takes real work - or a
command of Engrish.

Day out

After church and lunch we all went to the mall. The men found this
photo op near the elevator. Nice time walking the mall.

Kogi Truck Run

After back to school night I checked twitter because I knew that the Kogi truck was going to be in Sherman Oaks. The tweet said that the truck was still there, so we drove as fast as we legally could to Sherman Oaks. We arrived just as they were closing the line -- 8:30. Some lady pushed in and said that she was there before we were, so she grabbed the sign and got behind us. If she had been there before us, it would have be logical for her to step in line in front of us. But logic does not hold for crazed Kogi lovin' people.

After a wait of about an hour, we had some of the best tacos. These are not ordinary tacos, they are Korean fusion tacos, and they are amazing. Only Cooper was disappointed -- he did not agree with his kimchi quesadilla, but is willing to try something else next time,

More PIX are here.

Santa Clarita Sunrise

This was the sunrise this morning; the colors were strange because of the Station Fire in Acton.

Acton Fire

Smoke plume from the Acton fire (Station Fire) as seen from Santa Clarita.

I ate a hot dog

I'm not a hot dog guy, but Fieri said this was the place for dogs so
we went. Kerry, C1, and I had the bald eagle - a fried dog with a
special topping. C2 had a grilled dog. We split one LA Dog - grilled
with bacon, peppers, onions, mayo, and jalapenos. It's the kind of dog
they grill on sidewalk stands throughout the city, except you'd buy
one from here because this place has a county health permit. If you're
in Reseda eat here.

Bicycle built for six

We stopped by Whole Foods after church today - they we celebrating their 5th anniversary in Santa Clarita. Besides all the great samples, they also were giving rides on this contraption. All the Ficketts loaded up and we went on a tour of the parking lot. More fun than we thought we'd have shopping.

Thirty-one years ago

I don't remember too much about my grandma; I remember her laugh, her smile, and her voice. Most of my time with her, that I remember, was spent in her room in a nursing home. I'm glad my boys are able to spend so much time with their grandparents.

I took this picture through the fence of the cemetery.

Burbank View

A quickly stitched panoramic view from the Burbank hills looking towards the Hollywood hills. You can see the airport to the right, and glimpse downtown Los Angeles to the left.

El Centro Memories

About two times a year we venture down to visit friends in El Centro. Generally we go in the Spring and Autumn, the Summer is too hot for a civilized visit. Everytime we are suffering with 90+ in Valencia, I remember that our friends in El Centro are facing 110+. They've adapted to it, our family would just melt.

This truck is part of a larger art installation, "Salvation Mountain". The colors at sunset are amazing, but worth the visit any time (summer excepted).

Missing them

The fam has spent the past fortnight in Lafayette visiting the Pop, Nana, and Mamaw. While they’ve been gone I’ve taken care of some projects around the house. Tomorrow will be my last trip to LAX for a while – I hope. I miss them all , This photo was taken on our last trip to El Centro to visit the Flowers.

Some things never change

Campbell July 2006



Campbell July 2009

Campbell loves chasing the lizards, he's been doing that since he was old enough to chase them.

GTY art

I found this drawing on a white board in the shipping department the
other day. Anyone like to guess who it is and who drew it?

Free food at Chick-fil-a. The boys an I joined Ben and John for
breakfast in Oxnard. Ben had a cow costume everyone else had cow
masks. It was enough that we all had free breakfast. Ben was the only
person in a cow suit - including employees.

Family Secrets

We are back home from our Mammoth holiday. While packing up to go home, I realized that on the whole we are a bit odd in our must haves. We had to take our panini press, and our blender. Chicken is just better when it has been pressed, and our blender's 3 hp of blending power is handy. We needed powdered sugar, and only had regular, so we put it in and made our own.

Note the light bulbs in the photo, they are regular wonderful incandescent light bulbs. When we arrived that fixture and many others had horrible fluorescent bulbs. We did not bring any bulbs with us (they are on the list for next time) so we went to the store and got enough bulbs to make our stay nicer. Yes, before we left we changed them all back.

While the weather holds

We took several smaller hikes today. We hiked again to Lake McLeod (spelling changes for this lake from book to book, and trail marker to trail marker), we hiked up the trail beyond the Inyo Fault, and we hiked along Hot Creek. The road to Devil's Postpile is expected to be opened again on Sunday -- we hope to hike in the valley. More pictures here.