in g-town

at the moody gardens
at nops, talking on the bat phone
the kiddie beach park at moody gardens

enjoyin' the sweet pool

at the new hamptom suites in Boerne, TX

seriously the whole place was sweet

inside the cave

our cave leader was cool. not sure if you can see the nose ring. i was really really glad when he was our tour guide cuz i thought he would be the most interesting.
i asked if was cold for him, hence the hat in the cave. no, he said he doesn't like what the humidity in the cave does to his hair...

cave fun

cave dadda
w/ cave kiddos
t-rex 1 and t-rex 2
cave mama liked the sign

On the road to Texas

our first stop in the california desert. the golden arches (which max now recognizes!) for breakfast and exercise (playtime).
last words before snoozing "i love Wall-E" zzzzz
we eat, we sleep, we eat...

pop rock

sharing chocolate milk

Noozhawk photo of the day...

click on the photo to go to noozhawk.com

Here's one answer to my wonderings about the animals

a whole hearted...

As i was walking along Cathedral Oaks, watching the helicopters get water out of the ranches resevior and fly up to the burning spots and dump, about a dozen fire trucks drove by, and in each one a fire fighter waved. by the time the last ones were going by, i was clapping and waving to them. them i saw this sign...

keep up the good work FFers!

Then i stared thinking about the critters, the wild ones who live up there in those mountains. About a week before the fire, there was a bear spotted in a neighborhood on the other side of the freeway, and later that day there was a report of a bear crossing the freeway - going back home to the mountains, i guess. I wonder how the bear is doing now? I hope he is okay, but i fear the worst... i was thinking a lot of them must be hanging out in these foothills just behind my house, and i started to think i would see a mountain lion run accross Cathedral Oaks or find a bear huddles in the schrubs beside the sidewalk. i am really surprised we haven't heard any reports of wild animal sighting. maybe that comes a little later...

I saw this at Stow Park, but i didn't see anyone sleeping there...

i wonder if anyone is doing anything else for the FFers? bringing them lemonade, or chicken wings? i think i need to work on this...

These huge helicopters were banking turns right above our house. really great for the napping. and porter was almost in heart failure.

the fire doubled last night

click the photo for more and the article.

this fire is really putting a damper on things

- perhaps that is a literary example of an oxymoron -

but maybe literary is the wrong word

anywho, it is a total bummer!

weather prediction

light ash flurries

for our nuclear winter
some flurries will be large, like 3-4 inches.
it is seriously crazy ashy outside. it feels like bugs are crawling on your skin when you go outside.

and the light in those first 2 pictures was at like 6pm. if you looked on the otherside of the house, you could see a crevice of blue sky beneath the black clouds.

the drive home

was full of fire fighters and their big toys. too bad max was asleep...

the good guys holding a meeting
this was the second GIANT bulldozer that went down this road. seriously, i have never seen such a big one. i followed the first one until it went into a private ranch road they were probably using to get up to the flames or whatever.

what was funny was this mini cooper that followed it in. i guess the bulldozer driver really liked to get away from his work when he's off... bulldozer by day, mini by night.

Taken at 11pm wed. from Goleta library.

Wed. afternoon from our roof.
a little later from lake los carneros
about 5 on wed. - an earie light on the back deck

The Fire Burning Behind Our House...

Fire update here They are calling it the GAP fire.

I think they should rename it...

Last night was pretty scarey. We could see the bright red clouds of smoke and flames on the ridge behind our house from our bedroom window. I had a hard time taking my eyes off it lying in bed. It didn't help when the smoke alarm went off at 2a.m. and Porter is in a panic state.
The helicopters don't go at night, but we had A LOT (a hundred, maybe) of fire trucks racing along the road behind our house (Cathedral Oaks). It is actually closed at Glenn Annie where they have set up a command center.