La Jolla Dive

Mike and I were lucky enough to go to La Jolla for a weekend get-away. The weather was chilly! I was in a sweatshirt the entire time! "May Gray" was in full-force down there. On the way down there, we even drove by a RV engulfed in flames. We even drove by before the fire dept. got there!

Also, in La Jolla they had what they call "Red Tide" invade the ocean. Apparently it is a small organism that makes the water appear red and/or murky. We checked our the Cove on Friday, preparing for a dive on Saturday. The visibility was very low, but we saw a ton of triathletes out for a practice swim, so we figured the water couldn't be too dangerous, at least. Determined to dive, we went for it on Saturday. Donned with wet-suits, and 50 lbs of gear, we walked the 30+ stairs down to the beach. Without too much trouble, we made it in and started swimming out. The view right around the shore was great; gharibaldi and sea grass were abundant. Getting about 75 yards out, we decided to go down. That's when we realized that Mike didn't quite have enough weight on him. Face down, swimming at a steep angle, Mike was trying as best he could to sink! Every time he would get close to the bottom (which at this point was only about 25 ft.), the surge would pull him right back up towards the surface. Poor guy! After getting thoroughly exhausted just trying to get down, we called it a day and swam back to shore. The surge was so strong, it was very slow going. Once back to shore, it was a VERY LOOONNNGGG and slow walk back up those 30+ stairs! But, we made it and happily rinsed us and gear and headed for the yogurt shop.

Although it was difficult, especially for Mike, I consider it a success. I had my own goals for the day (scuba-stuff, like, not kicking when I'm trying to drop down. You can imagine why this is important to remember, but subconsciously hard to do. Also, just practicing my buoyancy. Not bouncing off the bottom of the ocean - an important thing not to do!)

Here are some pictures I took of our trip....

Auto Collage

Just came across the coolest new product.... Ok, well it's not new, but it's new to me. ;-) It's a Microsoft product called, AutoCollage 2008. The downloadable software uses pictures from your computer (that you choose to use) and creates a professional-looking collage. There are options for different paper sizes, and number of pictures used. After it creates the collage, you can email it, save it as desktop background or to a file. What would take many hours (for me at least) in blending, stacking, and cropping in a different program, now can take literally seconds.

The 30-day demo is free, then it is $19.95 (for Windows users). IF YOU ARE AN EDUCATOR, you can sign up for Microsoft's Partners In Learning network (free), and you can then download Auto Collage for FREE!

For a demo of the product, click here.

Magical Forest

We went with our friends to the Magical Forest here in Vegas a few days ago. It's a really cool place, with lots of Christmas lights, a train, giant slide, and yummy elephant ears (or funnel cakes for West Coast people). Don't do what we did and go on a Friday night! It was BUSY with LOTS of people everywhere. Except for the lines, we had a great time. The kids, Claire and Aedan, did great, even with the lines. It's always fun to hang out with friends!

More Magical Forest Pictures

Apparently, it was only go to let me upload 4 pictures a post, so here are a few more...

Kathy, Claire and Aedan on the slide


Claire and Aedan competing in a Big-Wheel Race


Claire with the cute snowman


Daddy and Claire!

Hot Air Balloon Experiment

Claire decided she wanted to make a hot air balloon. Well, Yaya (my mom, Ellen) was staying for the weekend at the time. When Yaya's here, projects are a major business. Claire and Yaya got to work, made sketches, and started to make a working prototype. Here is the final project. It turned out really good! You could put a blow dryer in the hole on the top piece and it would actually blow up the "balloon" part! I have a movie of it I will attach. Claire couldn't just make the hot air balloon, she also made crash helmets, safety-first, of course. Claire and Yaya modeled the helmets for me so you could see how neat they are. If you can't tell, they are lined for comfort too. In the one picture, she's holding her travel box. It has emergency supplies, snacks, water, note paper and pencil, map, along with many other essential items while flying in a hot air balloon. (It's still packed in her room, if you need it the next time you're flying in a hot air balloon.)


Claire amazes me with the things she thinks of..... Right now we are making a catalog of all the Nevada license plates we see as we drive around time, just because it should be done. (It doesn't matter the DMV has these records already, Claire thought they needed to be written out, just in case.)