Daily Archive: June 1, 2008

animals

Summer

Summer has arrived!  Steve and I did a Saturday “solstice” ride in the morning. Nice easy  18 miler out to the end of the trail and back. Good ride.  Right at the end, by the Isherwood bridge, there was a HUGE tree branch that had fallen onto the trail. There was another cyclist there trying to move it out of the way. Not only was the branch HUGE, it was wedged tight between two other branches. We were working it, trying different things. By the time we got it out and moved off the trail,  there were about eight guys helping. Our good deed for the day!

Picture 083 We were supposed to head to Healdsburg in the afternoon to attend a summer solstice party hosted by good friends Pat and Sue.  Barb was having some problems with her legs. Cramping and aching, she took a muscle relaxer and slept away the rest of Saturday.  Sunday morning it was up and out early for the 9:30 mass at Holy Spirit.  Team Vandenbusch was going to head to Santa Cruz later to exercise the dogs and enjoy a bit of the day. Picture 085 Barb was feeling a little better so we decided to join them. Over the hill and to the coast and over to Hidden beach.  The dogs played in the surf for a while, then we had a nice little picnic (thanks Vicky!) at the little park right off the beach. Great summer day on the coast. After that we drove over to the beach that Barb and I usually hang out at when we go to Santa Cruz. We parked over by the Crow’s Nest and took the dogs for a little walk on the beach, watched a little of the world go by, and then headed back over the hill. We stopped in Los Gatos for a burger before we hit the road for home.

Any day that includes church, the beach AND hamburgers has to be good.

It was good. Real good.

animals

Pupdate

Meet Mali and Bruno. The cutest most popular dogs on the block!  Even the mailman loves them. They are almost four months old and coming into their own.  Spending most of the days hanging out in the front yard, backyard or in the house. A dog’s life!  They go go go all day long, but still find time to enjoy both morning and afternoon naps. Mali is a cutest little dog. Still looks like a mini-lab.  Bruno, on the other hand, is cute in his own special way. It doesn’t come out to well in the photos, but he is a strange cross between dog, Yoda and Gizmo, Throw in an under bite, ears too big for his head, a splotchy nose and bowl legged walk, he is simply irresistible. The funny thing is he thinks he’s all that! The little man is too cool for the room.

animals

One Flap Down

 Its not about  former S.F. Giant Jeffery Leonard. Nicknamed “HacMan” after the popular video game PacMan, Leonard was known for his “one flap down” routine: running around the bases after hitting a homer with one arm hanging motionless at his side.

Its about Mali the dog and her hanging ear. Neither her nor Bruno have “pedigree” ears. They aren’t UP like a Chiuaua, but kind’ve stuck out and hanging over. Only problem is that Mali has one ear that hangs out to the side (like her bro) and one that hangs to the front. ONE FLAP DOWN!  A cute look for her but who would’ve thought that Bruno would end up the “normal” one.

friends

My Jeopardy dream board

It took some time but I was finally able to get around to catagorizing most all of the 550+ posts that make up jimsjoint. WHEW!!  Check it out on the left hand side bar,

and the categories are…..

animals – From Luke to Lulu ,and dogs too!

bike –  all the rides – all the fun

family – our kids, our folks, our fams, and us

flashbacks – oldies but goodies

friends – our circle  

GOOD VIBES – battling the demon cancer           

health -getting healthy and stay there

hike – Mission Peak and beyond!

holidaze – all of them

kate~n~kel– nuff said

night out – date night!

remodel –  from demo to done

sports – soccer, swimming,  water polo,

vacation – all our good times

“I’ll take GOOD VIBES for 800 Alex”

Uncategorized

jimsjoint:

IMAG0151 They say its the little thing in life that makes things interesting.  We have been riding out to Coyote Hills and Alameda Creek for years now. These days and weather permitting , we take an old levee road out to “no man’s land” where the old salt ponds meet the San Francisco Bay. Whenever we get out this far we usually take a break.  Someone else had set up some old pieces of washed up scrap  wood  to create a makeshift bench.  We started to call it the “bus stop”.  This is the same spot where we have seen seals bobbing around during high tide. Also saw a couple of sharks trolling in the shallows just a few weeks ago, and tons of birds feeding and flying when the tide is out.   The last few times we’ve been out there and the tide is out, we set up a little game of  “hit the ring”.  There is a stick sticking up out of the mud, we found an old rusty metal ring and balanced the ring on the wood. Then we would stand up on the levee road and throw rocks or sticks and try to knock Untitled the ring off the stick. Click here to watch video.  We have come to call this activity the “Olhone games”  after the local native American tribe that used to inhabit this land.   There are times when we get out to the bus stop and the tide is in, the wood is underwater and metal ring on the bay floor.   Whenever the tide is out and we set up the ring, we hope that its still “up”  next time we ride out there. So we rode out there yesterday.  A muddy ride to say the least.  We get about half way out the levee road and the rain from the recent storms had turned part of the trail into slop. Mud started to cake up on the tires (and everything else! ) and at some point we were only going forward because we were afraid to stop for fear we couldn’t get going again! It eventually got a little better, and as we rode up on the bus stop we could see the metal ring still hanging, only this time way out in the water!  The  ring was barely hanging on as the waves lapped up against it and the wind blew.  Still pretty cool to realize it had hung there since Saturday with all the wind and tides and rains.   Amazing!

friends

Hills Ride III

Picture 037 Some weekends are good. Some are great. This was a great one. Up early Saturday morning and on the road at 6am. Bikes and bags packed in the back of Steve’s van. Onward to “Castle de Kahuna” in El Dorado Hills. Pulled into Mike’s around 8:30.  Mike was already putting his bike on the rack. We got dressed,  loaded up and and headed to old town Folsom. Parked,  unloaded and hit the trail. I’ve mentioned before how much fun this ride is.Picture 033   Good mix of paved trail and single track along the American river.  Beautiful morning for a ride. And what a ride it is!  Really gets your adrenaline going as your blasting over river rock, around tree stumps, up and down, over and around the single track trail that hugs the river. We actually went 11 miles downstream before we took a break along the river. Vandenbusch was ready to do a river crossing but thought better of it after the first few feet.  The ride back was just as fun. I took a few videos of Mike and Steve working the trail. Check it out on the jimsjoint channel over at YouTube.  All in all a great ride.

Picture 047 After the ride it was off to a local watering hole in old town for a well deserved cold one. Ahhhhhh. Then back to Camello’s where we lounged by the pool, had a great lunch, watched a little 3rd round US Open coverage, and even took a  little afternoon nap.  Total kick back afternoon. Picture 052 Later in the day we even got back on the bikes and cruised over to the town square. They were hosting a wine tasting so there were tons of “beautiful people” sipping wine and schmoozing, while enjoying live music on a most beautiful California evening. Very cool. The boys settled onto bar stools at the corner bistro, had a cocktail (or four), and watched the world go by. Good friends. Good times. The sun was Picture 063 setting. We didn’t want to get stuck riding the bikes back in the dark so we high-tailed it back to the castle for dinner. Dinner at Castle de Kahuna is the complete dining experience.   Rock and Roll music fills the air. The Kahuna created some melon ball margaritas that were lip smack’in good.  Fresh veggies, hand picked out of the garden by the Kahuna himself, then sliced  “drunken Samari” style.  The guy can cut meat while balancing a pineapple on his head!  The grill was hot and on went the steaks and all the fixins. I think we ended up eating a great meal around 9:30 that night. FANTASTIC food. The fun went onto the late hours of the night and into the wee hours of the morning. We finished off the night with a little Sinatra on the IPOD. Can it get any better?  An end to a long, great, day.

Up (not too) bright and (not too) early for a little breakfast and we were on the road for home by 10am and pulling into Fremont right around noon. A whirlwind and blur of great times with great buddies. Can’t wait til next time.