No Photos, Just Text

The kids just got back from camp. "Kit" got home yesterday. "Lets have a treat", I think.

"How about vegetarian corn dogs and sweet potatoe fries for dinner", I ask.

"Mom! I ate that kind of junk all week at camp" she replied, clearly rejecting the idea.

She ate a salad for dinner.

Today "the boy" returned from camp. Not learning my lesson from last night, I asked "Would you like sloppy joes and some sweet potatoe fries for dinner?"

"Yuk!" he exclaimed. "We had that kind of food at camp all week."

What did he want for dinner? A salad.

So, the moral of the story is. . . if you want your kids to eat more vegetables, send them to camp.

* * * *

On another note. . .if we went to more cocktail parties, it would be a popular topic of conversation. But, we don't. So, here it is. . .

We are a family where both parents work for the State of California. We are now furloughed 3 days a month, each. This means a reduction in pay of about 15% per month, each.

We're lucky. We have no car payments. We buy our clothes at thrift stores, and "being thrifty" is our hobby. Our only debt is our house payment.

Some of my staff are in much worse situations, because they don't make as much money. The workload hasn't changed, so if you don't go to work voluntarily on the furlough days, the extra work stresses you out. Personally, I don't work for the paycheck, so I'm trying not to focus on it, or I'd be depressed.

"The Dad" works at an office that completely shuts down on 3 fridays a month, now. They lock up the building, and even the parking lot! So, in one way, its nice to have some extra time off. However, his department may soon be turning away budget stimulus projects, because the reduction in staff time is preventing them from being able to complete the projects.

On top of it, we are only taking pay reductions. Our benefits (the state's "burden") are still in full effect. Nice for us, but that really doesn't save much!

Its a bizarre situation. And, the new "Fudget" means this isn't the last we'll hear of it.

Silver Polisher

The Boy has decided that he now collects silver. He got home from Grandma's he was excited to see the thrift shop find we got him. He polished it and added it to his "collection".

Birthday Girl Redux

Late birthday presents arrived today from Grandpa Dave and Grandma Lynn. Fun!

5th of July

This year, with our annual REI rebate, we purchased a GPS unit. I thought geocaching would be a fun thing to do with the kids this summer, and perhaps it would be a good motivation to get outside more often. (Last summer, when I was back working at "that park" I noticed that there were geocaches at a lot of the really cool, secret spots).

It has taken me a while to figure out how it works. But, today was the day. It was tempting to stay at home and clean the house, but "Kit" was insistent that we needed to go for a hike.

First, I got carsick trying to program it on the way up the mountain. Then, we couldn't find the first simple geocache we were attempting to locate, so we went on to the complicated multi-cache. After we ran into a ranger, and even he couldn't help us, I thought we might be doomed, but we finally found the wonderful trail along the ditch and flume.

Kit was frustrated, because we never located a single cache, but I figured the GPS unit did its job-- it helped us locate a trail I never would have found on my own (and the forest service websites haven't been much of a help).

The Boy, indulging in his recently acquired herring-addiction, had brought along 4 cans of tinned fish. He accidentally dropped one into the ditch, and had to go in after it (and a second one he lost trying to catch the first). We apprehended the two cans, but he decided it was so much fun to hike in the ditch, that' s just what he did the rest of the hike. Made for slow going upstream. (I have to wonder why people don't bring tubes and use the ditch as a flume ride, its perfect for it.)

Then he and Lulu stopped for a herring snack (she likes the leftovers). Kit and Dad had to backtrack to make sure that we hadn't missed the clues somehow.

We never did find any of the caches there, but we found some great trails, a really awesome small campground right on the river, and some nice swimming holes.

On the way out, we were able to locate the first geocache we had attempted, so we got an idea of how it is supposed to work. We'll be doing more of this! It had an amazing way of keeping the kids focused on the hike, in anticipation of finding the treasure. Fun!

(I just noticed he's wearing the same shirt on the 4th and 5th. That's the way it is these days. I understand they grow out of it eventually. . .)

4th of July

Ok, so "the boy" still has never caught a fish in the wild. I know, I know, it seems, well, pathetic.

But that's the truth. (May be related to his father being a vegetarian, but lets leave that to the shrinks when he gets older. . .)

So, on 4th of July, they decided it was time to go fishing. And, it was "free fishing day" (no license required for the adults), so the boy and his dad decided to go catch some fish.

Then, my car broke down. (The most dependable one, too, the Honda. I think it has to do with the fact that "the dad" was researching new cars to buy all day, and it was some sort of cosmic retribution). So, they had to come rescue me, and the dog and I joined them. We went down to camp 9, on the Stanislaus. It was very nice. But, still no fish.

We stayed until dark, then I threw "the boy" a can of herring, and he "caught" some fish.