Photos * Carmel-by-the-Sea

I finally decided to post some photos of our amazing trip and the beautiful 17 mile drive.


Here is me and Jack posing at our first stop.


Here is Cindi and Jack (mid shake) walking along the beach


A beautiful view of the crashing waves

Awesome view of bird rock filled with shorebirds, harbor seals and sea lions

Another beautiful view of the coastline

The Lone Cypress

My very favorite photo of the day; the endless sky and ocean

A close up of the Lone Cypress

The ghost tree

Update-sort of

I didn't realize it had been over a month since I'd posted. I've been busy and actually staying away from the computer when I'm at home in the evenings and the weekends.
We had a wonderful holiday and even managed to get away to Carmel for a few days. We took some amazing photos up on the 17 mile drive that I'll try and post sometime.
The year has started out good, though Cindi has been sick and Jack is having issues with one of his back paws. I finally got brave enough to sit down and update my resume and apply for a new job. I haven't heard anything think but I'm keeping hope.
I'm still working on coming up with things I'd like to work on this year but haven't managed to write any of them down. Cindi gave me a gift certificate for yoga classes so I'm hoping it will prompt me to do yoga more often this year.

Motivated!

I found some motivation this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Friday night we went out for dinner since neither of us felt like cooking and I was craving a hamburger. When we got home we watched Strangers with Candy the movie and I finished our blanket I've been knitting forever. It's really small so I've decided to give it to our nephew for Christmas. After I completed that I taught myself to purl. The knitting mystery I've been reading has motivated me to be more brave in my knitting.

Saturday we:

• Attended our weight watchers meeting, lost weight this week, and received awards for weighing in for 16 weeks, Cindi received an award for loosing another 5 lbs (totaling over 20 lbs)
• Went grocery shopping
• Cindi gave Jack a much needed bath and I dried him off
• Cleaned & reorganized the kitchen including sweeping and cleaning the floor on my hands and knees (we don't own a mop). I've now decided I want a robot that mops ;)
• Vacuumed & dusted most of the house
• Oiled our bamboo cutting boards
• Cleaned the spare bathroom
• Unpacked all but one box that was left over from our move
• Organized the office a bit more
• Decorated the house with holiday cheer
• Knitted a change purse & bookmark from scrap yarn
• Helped Cindi water the plants
• Moved one of our hanging plants from the bathroom (where it was very sad) to the kitchen where it'll get more attention and much more light
• Organized our bedroom closet (accidentally running into a hidden wrapped Yule gift, oops!)

I think that's about it but I'll update if I remember anything else. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do laundry and maybe some more knitting. We're a bit poor right now so I'm going to have to be happy with knitting with scrap yarn until I can afford new yarn & needles for new projects.

Work

I'm having a very hard time getting motivated today. It's cold and very windy outside. I'd decided I was going to treat myself to a mocha after I braved the elements and deposited my pay check. But I'd forgotten our local coffee shop is closed on Wednesday. I'd been looking forward to it all morning and was counting on it giving me some energy and motivation to get through the day. But no. I braved the elements and came back empty handed and feeling even less motivated. I just want to curl up on the couch with a mocha and my book.

Our Thanksgiving

Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Cindi and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home just the two of us. It wasn't our first Thanksgiving alone but it was the first Thanksgiving we had our own special dinner. Our first Thanksgiving alone was in 2003 but I spent the day sick and all the wonderful food we purchased was never prepared. But we definitely made up for it this year!

The best part of our Thanksgiving was the surprise day Cindi took me on the day after Thanksgiving to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The picture above is of an old fish skeleton and probably one of my favorite pictures from our day. We arrived in Monterey and had mexican food for lunch. The food wasn't all that great but the super giant margaritas we had made up for it.

Me and my raspberry margarita

Cindi and her fancy melon margarita

After we finished lunch and our drinks we walked over to the aquarium and waited in line to buy our tickets. There was a couple in front of us and he had a coupon for $5 off each ticket for up to four tickets so he offered to share it with us. We finally made it into the building and it was packed! I wasn't prepared to be around so many people and so many children. It was *very* fun but after a few hours it was a bit too much. They had a couple great white sharks on display but they were much smaller than I was expecting and our memory card was full so we didn't manage to get any pictures of the sharks. We did get some amazing photos of the jelly fish and some very cool tiger sharks.

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Happy Halloween!

This is my very favorite Holiday though it's been hard for me to get in the Halloween spirit this year. It's been years since I had a costume or an excuse to wear one. I think next year we need to have a Halloween party so I can create a cool costume and have somewhere to wear it. I've wanted to be a pirate for years but have never managed to pull it off.
Today is not only Halloween but it is also Samhain, the pagan new year and a very powerful night for magick. We are participating in a ritual put on my our local community. I am looking forward to participating in traditional Samhain activities to get me ready for this next turn of wheel. Looking behind me at what I've accomplished this last year, at the present acknowledging who I am at this very moment, and at the future and what I want to accomplish this next year.

My *Current* Favorite CD

The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events
The Gothic Archies
Once I became aware that this was going to exist I knew we had to have it. Currently we own #1-#6 from A Series of Unfortunate Events and will eventually own them all. I adore them and am already looking forward to reading them to our future children. Cindi and I are huge fans of Stephen Merritt and I can't imagine a person more suited to create music for these books. The first time I listened to it I thought of all sorts of witty things to say and now I've forgotten them all. If you like the books, Stephen Merritt, and especially if you like both, go buy this CD right now! Preferably from you local indie music store.