Happy Birthday Jason!

Today was Jason's 26th birthday!  I spent most of the day cooking.  For lunch I made some questionable mushroom soup and lotus root tempura.  Lotus root is pretty good.  I had it in china in many different forms.  It kinda tastes like tater tots.  

For Jason's birthday dinner, I made fajitas.  After dinner was dessert which was a great strawberry banana trifle cake.  I have come to the decision that trifle cakes are the best cakes.  Especially when there is more pudding and less cake.  Jason got some nice gifts for his birthday like the canon 40D, a wetsuit, and a new leatherman. Happy Birthday!

Mosey's Elizabethan Collar

Mosey was neutered a little over a week ago. However, on Thursday, I happened to notice that his incision had suddenly turned pink and inflamed. Jason took him to the vet and they outfitted him with his very own Elizabethan collar to keep him from chewing on his incision site. Poor pathetic little Mosey.


Of course no silly collar can break Mosey's spirit!!

Final Projects and Graduation!

Today my Clarity in English class (ESL) finished their final 10,000 word projects. They have been working on them all semester. We ate Chop Chey ( I am sure that is not the right spelling) and ginger spice cookies and celebrated their accomplishments. Each student chose a different topic to write their project on. The projects were Alzheimer's, Alan Greenspan, Greek Mythology, and How to become a flight attendant. I will miss them.


Tonight California Preparatory College had our first ever graduation!! It has been a long process from sitting around white Costco folding tables talking about how to start a college to having a graduation! We had two lovely graduates who completed their Associates degree. One was Vanity, who was a wonderful student in my undergraduate speech class.


I can tell she has a bright future ahead of her. She is transferring to La Sierra for their combined Master's in business program. It is nice to see the fruit of your labor in such a tangible way. I am very happy to be a part of this important endeavor.

London

My mom may be going to London for the first time next month.  I am really excited for her so I am loaning her all the guidebooks I have about London and telling her where the good places to go are.  She probably has different taste than me though, so do any of you have any suggestions?  Here we are looking at some of my "London Walks" cards.  

Memorial Day Quiche

Well, I didn't do anything for Memorial Day except for smile at the American flag hanging from our front door and make my first ever quiche.  I have a lot of organic vegetables that need to be eaten so I made a quiche and some stew today.  Here is a picture of the quiche.  It is broccoli, zucchini, and bell pepper.  It was pretty good.  

Bad Dog, No Dig!

Mosey has been very bad today.  He dug as he has never dug before, and he has definitely dug before.  Here is our lawn after he did his damage.

  

Here is my foot for size reference.  

I have big feet.  

Still camping but in better weather

Today we got up early and made a delectable breakfast. Jason job was to do the making, my job was to take pictures of him and tell him how he could do it better.

Later we went down to the beach. Jason and the boys went boogie boarding and the girls and I read. Mosey dug and barked at passing....... anything. All in all a very fun day except that I got a capri tan line.

Camping at San Onofre Beach

This Friday and Saturday we went camping at San Onofre Beach with Jason's classmates Rudy and Stephen and Rudy's wife and her friend. Today there was pretty miserable weather. It rained most of the day but stopped for awhile while we ate. We brought Mosey with us camping for the first time and were worried about he would do. He did fine except that he was cold. I mistakenly thought that it would help to snuggle the shivering puppy on my lap in a towel. I forgot how excited he gets around towels.

Apricots

In the space of a couple days, Jason's attitude towards apricots has gone from "What are these called again?  How much were these?"  to "You need to stop by Costco on the way home from work today because there are only three apricots left and I am going to eat two with my dinner."

I mean, I know they are delicious but geez, you keep eating my centerpiece!

Say Goodbye to Your Little Friends.....

Tomorrow morning, Mosey is finally getting neutered.  So this is his last night with these.....

Mosey Graduates....Again!

Tonight Mosey graduated from his intermediate puppy training class.  Honestly, I thought this day would never come.  He has really been having some issues with behavior in class.  During the graduation walk-through he wouldn't do any of his competencies.  So you can see why I was worried.  Tonight though, he surprised all by once again doing everything right the very first time!  I guess he is good under pressure.  

Trouble Visits

Tonight, Trouble came to visit with his owner Louisa.  He and Mosey had quite the galloping time.  Here they are panting after a hard hours play.  

Tapioda Puddin'

That is what my family has begun calling it for some reason.  I made some the other day.  Yummm!  There is nothing like homemade tapioca pudding.  Emphasis on the homemade.  If you haven't tasted homemade tapioca pudding, you haven't tasted tapioca.  Sorry to be snottish...  Anyway, this time I ran out of milk and still needed just a little more for the recipe....  So I used a couple cups of soy milk.  I know this to be a bad idea from previous experience, but I had no other choice.  It actually turned out pretty good!  In fact, Jason really liked it and kept asking for more which NEVER happens with sweet things (with a few exceptions).  This time I put Costco frozen berries on top.  SO good!

Tandem

On Saturday, Jason, my mom, Rudy (Jason's classmate) and Motoko (Rudy's wife) went to Santa Monica to try out our new tandem bikes.  Jason found a good deal and the boys bought one each.  It was quite fun but horrible for me to be out of control because I sat in the back while Jason steered.  It turned me into a shrill nagging hag.  "JASON!  Are you trying to steer us into the sand??" and "What are you trying to prove?  That you have more testosterone than Rudy??!!  Slow down!"  Anyway, Jason is a pretty easygoing guy so it barely ruffled his feathers.

  

You can see me just peeking over the back of Jason's shoulder.  We biked from Santa Monica to Venice beach which is about 4 miles away.  It was quite relaxing when I didn't look where we were going and how close we were to imminent danger.  On the back of the tandem, I could do just that.  In fact, I could even let go of the handle bars without fear of falling.  So that was fun.  

After, biking and laying on the beach for a while, we headed to a Japanese market in Torrance.  Motoko needed to stock up on food stuffs and I was all too eager to follow her around asking questions.  I bought some cool mushrooms that I had in a great soup while in China last year.  I will endeavor to accomplish the same recipe.  We will see.  Then we went to the food court.

After eating some great udon, I taste-tested some "siduhowbogi" that they gave to my mom for messing up her order.  It was not what I was expecting. 

As Jason said after taking a huge bite, "Hmmmm... a salty gummy."  Which is exactly what it was.  It tasted like a bouillon gummy bear.  I will let you know how the mushroom soup turns out.  

Blanket Monster!

I was washing the dishes when I decided to check on Mosey because he had been really quiet for awhile.  I looked into the living room and this is what I saw.  

To the untrained eye, it may appear to be a simple blanket laying on the floor.  But I (having......trained.....eyes.....) immediately saw that Mosey had decided to tangle himself in the depths of the throw all by himself.  

Mosey's favorite part of the taking baths is when I dry him with the towel.  In fact, if I don't dry him long enough, he barks at me.  Anyway, I think he was trying to recapture that moment here.