Summer in Review

So life has turned full circle since the last update. John just went back up to school this past Tuesday. I started my new job in July and time seems to have flown since then. I just hope it keeps flying til December when John is done with school!!!

So I took an official "first day of work" picture. I had new shoes that gave me horrible blisters that day. I had to walk around a lot to met people and what not and then my supervisor took me to visit the site of a project I've been working on. I still have marks on my heels from those blisters and it's been almost 2 months! Work has been going alright. Sometimes it's been rather slow, but for the most part I've been able to get 40 hours a week. I get paid hourly rather than a salary and I don't get any benefits, so I am always hoping we get more projects and that there's more work for me to do.

One thing that's been nice about being back in California is the Dodger's games. I think I've been to about 7 games so far this season. It's fun to go and relax, hang out with family or friends, and make fun of the drunk people all while cheering on the soon-to-be World Champs (*crosses fingers... knock on wood...) That is if they stop losing to the stinking last place Reds. And of course we made some visits to La Tolteca before a number of the games.

Another great thing about being back is the beach. John finally got to take me to Huntington to teach me how to surf. The water was pretty warm when we went so it was nice. I got up on my knees quite a bit, but only made a solid transistion to my feet once. I was just riding on the whitewater, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to get up. I sure got a lot of bruises though!! I am very thankful for the extra padding provided by the wetsuit over the knees and elbows!!! The 2nd time I tried to surf didn't go so well. The waves were too close together and too choppy for me to fight it out much. Although, I have gotten better at handling the 9' board. And it's a lot of fun even just trying. And boogie boarding is great if you're too tired to surf. I got pretty mangled just catching waves on a boogie board in those choppy waves.

John and I got the chance to go to The Redlands Bowl a couple of times this summer. For those of you who don't know, the Redlands Bowl is an outdoor amphitheater (like the Hollywood Bowl but smaller). A local association does fundraising so that all the events are free. They put on a musical every year. This year it was 1776. A friend of mine from choir and theater in high school happened to be in it.

On the way to Redlands, we got stuck in traffic on the 91 (what a surprise) because Mr. Trucker thought he could go higher than the curve rating for the ramp between the 60 and the 91 and did this:
Whoops. Don't see that everyday. We also went to see Opera a la Carte perform Pirates of Penzance at the Redlands Bowl. My very good friend sings with that group.

And here's the first attempt at commemorating a visit to the bowl:
And the final: Last Friday, John met me at work and we took the Gold line (first station is by my office) to Union station to go to little Mexico. Forget the name of the place, but it has little stands and shops with Mexican crap (made in China of course). We got some good food and got a few knick-knacks and did some different.

So with me driving to Pasadena everyday and John going back to school, we needed to find a mode of transportation for myself (would be nice if the metro came to glendora...). So we found a little 2007 Corrolla with only 20k miles on it. Nothing fancy about it, everything manual, but a great little car to get me to work everyday and paying practically nothing for gas.
And of course, I became an Aunt July 15th. Lucas and Monica had Mackenzie Joy. And she is most adorable. She's a little chunker (born 9 lb 1 oz) and was early (c-section). Here's one of Monica's recent pics of her giving a little smile:

So if you're not in CA right now, you may or may not know about all the fires. On Tuesday night, a fire started at the Morris dam, which is just on the other side of the foothills from Azusa/Glendora. So we were breathing smoke and ash for a couple of days. And just when it's getting better, 2 more fires have started. One started Thursday in Rancho Palos Verdes on the coast near Santa Monica. The other started Wednesday in La Cañada just over the mountain from my office in Pasadena, but it didn't really start picking up until late Thursday so here's what it looked like Friday afternoon from my office: So that's just about everything I remember doing this summer. I spend most of the day working and trying to earn monies, so usually there's not much time in the day to do much. And now that John is gone, I feel a bit like a bum when I come home from work. At least I have the Dodgers to keep me company and college football starts next weekend with pro football to follow. Come on Cowboys! Let's win a playoff game this year!!