Roadtrip Riverside

Had a nice afternoon and eve up in Riverside with Katie's dad Greg and Debbie. Also had the great pleasure of seeing Katie's good friend from UCLA John. All in all a fine day.

Oh, so I should explain the last picture. I drive a ton. Gayle may soon be driving to work herself. So let's see, should I drive the '67 Buick...10mpg, the truck at 13mpg or the tractor 2hpg. (that's hours per gal for the city folk) Nope, it must be time for a commuter car. So I google best mileage cars and start from the top. Prius? Too trendy and I'd be humming the theme to Larry David all day. Civic Hybrid? I don't really qualify as plain 20 something gal. Jetta Diesel? Let's just say I no longer find Jettas attractive. Mini Cooper? Well Gayle used to be a subject...let's go Brit. And hello 36mpg.

So in my search, I decided the only thing I didn't want was a silver mini. Reason being, that was the color of Greg's mini I drove back in '06. I figured if I'm going British...I may as well go full monty...British Racing Green with tan leather. We fit the baby seat and the two of us in fine. Enjoyed a nice ride up to Riverside. Pulled up to Greg and Debbie's.

Turns out I'm senile and BRG is quite popular.

Back to school night

Summer draws to a close and my sister's kids have a night before school dinner. We decided to tag along. Always a pleasure seeing the Kurth clan. Caden was on his best behavior.

Size 'em up

G took our pride and joy in for his 4 month checkup last thursday. He took some shots in his pudgy thighs, squealed some but did quite well. He was back to a happy lil buckeroo by the time I got home from work.

For those keeping score...Let's see. Head measures 46 cm, solid Lee genes. A wee 14lb 2 oz and a sprouting up to 26" long...mostly torso. When our doc mentioned his long torso, short legs, Gayle cracked in with some Phelps humor. Apparently doctors don't have time for the Olympics. I figure that's all the excuse i need to get a pool installed out on the ranch.

Curious Caden

It's not really an unassisted sitting, more like a well positioned bulldog squat. All the same, he sure does enjoy sitting up. Our little monkey is all giggles and smiles these days.

Good Country Livin

What a week. Let's see...we've been battling AT&T, really since the fires last year, but daily for the last three weeks. The digital lines that allow G to work from home sound like they're sponsored by Rice Krispies. She's now driving to work before dawn and rushing home to test with Snap Crackle & Pop. It's enough to drive a seasoned IT dork to madness.

Monday I returned to the ranch to find both the well pump and the booster pump chuggin away. We had water pressure but I couldn't figure out why all the pumping. After some thorough investigation, I somehow lost all water pressure. A couple evenings full of locating underground valves and turning knobs and I was able to get the pressure back, but now no water was pumping to our tank. Still tho, the well pump was chuggin away. I decided to call in the pros as we were either staring at an empty well or the line from the well to the tank busted. Dry well means we're paying someone to truck in water...no bueno.

Turns out there's a hole at the top of the pipe in our 500' well. So our pump pushes the agua up to the hole, out it goes and falls back down to the pump. I've never been so excited to waste three days of electricity in my life.

Then there was the septic disaster. I was walking up to the house from feeding the cows, when I was crippled by a malodorous cloud of doom. I stood half paralyzed thinking wow every cow pie in the pasture must lock into some sort of vapor tunnel that leads right to this very spot. Until I looked to my feet and noticed something ripped a two foot hole in our septic tank and I was staring directly into the belly of the beast. What a mess.

Alas, we persevered and Caden never seemed to lose his cool.

Beach Party

We packed early and off we went for Caden's first visit to the beach. The second annual Metro (Gayle's work) Beach Bash. It was a first for G and me as well, as we've never been to Silver Strand State Beach. It is located between Coronado and Imperial Beach. A fine day of baby bouncing, beach baseball, beautiful bbq and swimming in the lagoon. In fact we had sooo much fun, we forgot to take a single pic. Fortunately, team Galaz had the good sense to snap a few.

Friday Night Lights

After a nice long week of work, we look forward to a easy going Friday night. We decided to stay in, cook a nice meal and prop the lil man up for a photoshoot. Perfect ending to a busy work week.

Riding Lessons

Chelsea spent some time this morning teaching Caden to ride. The lil buckeroo is about ready to take on mutton.

Sweet Saturday

The day started with some regular feeding and finger snacking.

Caden always has time for a quick pose or two.

The ladies readied themselves for a day at the spa and afternoon in La Jolla.

The men folk held down the ranch, tending to the long list of laborious chores.

Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out

Sherry and Chelsea came to San Diego by way of San Francisco. They spent a day exploring an area popular with the kids these days, called Haight-Ashbury. They were quite excited and shared some odd sounding music and poetry, discussed compassionate cooking, and something about breaking the shackles of the establishment. It was all confusing to me, but they did bring Caden a nice colorful shirt, some brownies and funny smelling incense. Caden seemed to like the attention. He spent the afternoon giggling away and munched down more formula than we could make.

Enter Canuck

Sherry and Chelsea came down for a visit from BC. They arrived on Friday and could not wait to meet the lil man. We played hot potato with Caden while chatting the night away.

Hey lil sister

So we knew we were going to have guests on the ranch Friday, but we had no idea this lil gal was due to arrive. Born 8-8-08 we were going to name her Lucky, but Aug 8 is also my sister's bday...so Lil Sister it is.

Her mom Burgundy Wine was doing well and hours into her first day, lil sister was stumbling about the pasture. She may be the cutest lil calf we've had yet. Proud papa must be getting used to me or bored with his offspring. He didn't chase me around a tree or try to stick a horn in my ear.

Dog days of summer

It's August and it's warm on the ranch. Caden likes to lounge about in a diaper and make funny faces. Either that or scream "I'm bored" in baby gibberish.

Happy Birthday

Caden took his momma out on the town for a birthday lunch. Gayle and Deb took turns showing our lil pride and joy to all the restaurant. Caden was good for a bout 40 min, then decided to scream his way out of there...

La Familia Vasquez

Three fifths of the Vasquez clan came out for a Sunday visit. We had a nice chat and enjoyed a game of horsehoes. Caden had no problem getting into his tough guy mode when Fernando picked him up.