Mandy

Sweetest, most best dog ever. She's a quiet, giant. Half german shepherd and half rottweiler. Liz and Dan rescued her from a woman in the Nevada desert who has a dog shelter run out of her 2-wide home. 

Valencia?

Driving from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas with Liz and Dan caravan-style.

Liz and Dan are picking up fresh fruits and vegetables behind me.

santa barbara zoo

inspired by cute overload
and therefore, (probably, maybe) rhonda for showing it to me... proper respect. But I mean come on? Who's to say I wouldn't have found it on my own?

a: Jackass Penguin going by the name "Brown"

b: Hila Monster name unknown

Hendry's Beach

Beach cave and a glassy sea... hypnotic. 

Grandpa's BB Gun

 I stumbled upon this little gem while cleaning out my old closet, upon mum's request. It's a Daisy bb gun from the 1950's... grandpa Russ used it to fend off neighborhood cats from his backyard birdbath. And yes he would be in a rocking chair, smoking a pipe on the back porch while doing this. 

Craftsmanship really went into the crapper after the early sixties. This thing was build like it was suppose to last longer than 6 months and still accurate as heck.

xmas eve still life

Even in the dead of winter the fruit is pretty dang great in southern california. I think the avacados the size of my fist is my favorite part. Mom's collector christmas plate in the background... 

more snow

It snowed something like 2 feet in Portland over a period of a week and a half. Apparently this doesn't happen often. Some have dubbed it the '40 year Snow'... 1968 being the last memorable snowstorm of this size. Following typical Portland, Oregon fashion the city pretty much just called it a wash, and just be, well, snowed in man.

menagerie

 

snow days

It's been snowing, for far too long now (nearly 4 days). But I still have to say Chicago was worse. I've watched The Shining, Star Wars Ep. V, Misery, Teeth,  and Lawrence of Arabia (bizarrely appropriate) since Sunday.  I heard on the nightly news that it snowed in Las Vegas up to 3". Things don't seem to make much sense these days. But then I suppose that unpredictability will do this sort of thing.

Today I went out to get groceries, post some letters and get a good cup of coffee. Everything was fine until I got back home and got stuck trying to get up our driveway. Had to shovel my way out. 

Sent my resume to a print shop that is surprisingly hiring at the moment. Hope I hear back.

2 pictures: (1) Fall day in the backyard burning a broken chair in the fire pit [taken just two weeks ago, aww those days of yesteryear], (2) Snowy day in the backyard.