November 12th's Pun

Why does the stadium get hot after the game?

Because all the fans leave.

July 2024 - A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

July was a month of a little of this, a little of that.  Nothing major happened, but I did several fun things.

The first weekend I went paddleboarding for the first time since I hurt my shoulder in May of 2023.  It still bothered me a little, mostly in an "I'm not used to this way" not in a "I'm going to be injured again" way.  And it stopped as soon as I got off the water.  I haven't made it back out again, mainly because I haven't wanted to buy passes again quite yet.  I'll probably do that in the spring.  I'm hoping to make it out a time or two before then.

The second weekend, I went to support a friend who was preaching at his church.  This is the first who hosts game day, and much of the group are his friends from church.  The result was plenty of people I know there, which was fun.  We went out to lunch afterwards, and it was the weekend of game day, so we spent a lot of time together that weekend.

I also went down to Santa Monica in July to enjoy the beach and some cooler weather, which was nice.

And I attended the launch party for Ellen Byron's new series, which is set in the California Gold Country.

As you can see, it was a full month even if nothing big happened. 

June 2024 Part 2 - Friend's Wedding

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

In the middle of June, I finally made it to St. Louis!  I'm not sure why, but I've wanted to go there for a long time.  Okay, so I was only in the city itself for a few hours, but I did get to go up in the St. Louis Arch.  Going up in the Arch itself was just okay, and I'm not sure I need to do that again.  But I would like to go back and spend more time in the museum.  I really missed out there.  Then I had dinner nearby.

After that, I headed to Southern Illinois, which was my real destination.  I was there for my friend Brian's wedding.  We hung out a lot in college and spent some time together when he moved back to So Cal later.  I was honored to be included in the day.  I enjoyed getting to spend time with he and his now wife and her family.  With the wedding going on, that was the focus of the trip, but I'm glad I was able to be there for him.

June 2024 Part 1 - Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2024

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Saturday, June 1st, I got to get muddy this year. Even better, it was at Camp Pendleton. 

The one mud run I had signed up for cancelled on me (sadly, since it was always fun). I thought I might not get a mud run in this year, but then Camp Pendleton announced they were having a mud run on June 1st and it was opened to the public again for the first time since 2019. I signed up right away!

The course was only 3.5 to 4 miles instead of having the full 10k (6.2) mile course like they used to have. We started and ended with the old route, but had a different part in the middle. 

It was a little cooler than I would have liked.  The sun did come out while I was there, but it was overcast to start with.  Still, I’ve done it in colder weather.

I was disappointed by how few people were there.  Granted, it made getting in and out easy, but even as other events started to die down, this one kept going strong.  I hope they don’t take this as a sign of lack of interest and don’t have it in the future.  The did only announce that it was open to the public six weeks beforehand.  And it was the first one in five years.  So hopefully, they will allow it time to build up again.

Because I had a BLAST.  I think I was smiling almost the entire time I was on base.  Even driving to and from the venue itself.  And yes, I was smiling while running.  It was so fantastic to be back.  Yes, I would have been happiest doing the entire course that I used to do, but I was more than happy to take what they offered me.

After a lunch at the Pit Stop Diner (love that place) in Oceanside, I started making my way home.  But I stopped to visit friends in Orange County along the way.  These are family friends from growing up.  I didn’t get to see everyone I would have liked to see, but it was nice to visit with the ones I could.

September 2nd's Joke

The bartender says, "We don't serve time travelers here."
A time traveler walks into a bar.

May 2024 - A Mostly Quiet Month

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Not much happened in May.  It was a cool month, especially for So Cal.  We can be pretty hot.  We can also be pleasantly warm.  It's rare that it was a cool as it was.  We had one week where it didn't hit 70.  That's winter weather!

Other than that, it was work and my monthly game day.  The friends who started that a couple of years ago and kept it up.  It's definitely a highlight of my month.

Speaking of them, I did have them over the last weekend in May.  They're huge fans of the show psych and hadn't had a chance to watch the last couple of movies.  Since I have Peacock, we fixed that.  They were okay.  Definitely not the best the show/franchise has to offer.

I also went to the theater a couple of times.  I discovered my theater offers discounted tickets on Tuesdays, so I went to see Unsung Hero and The Fall Guy.  I thought I might take more advantage of that, but I haven't been back.

Other than that, I played disc golf a couple of times with friend who also happens to be my pastor.

As I said, quiet.

July 9th's Joke of the Week

Be thankful it's not snowing outside.

Imagine shoveling snow in this heat.

Lunch with Friends - April 2024 Part 2

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

There were some authors who were going to be at the LA Times Festival of Books on Sunday, and I was considering going back for day 2, until I got a text from my friend Donald.  He and his wife, Heather, were going to be coming through town Sunday afternoon and wanted to know if I wanted to have lunch.  I immediately said yes.

We met over on the other side of town from where I live, but it wasn't too much out of their way.  Not a big or fancy restaurant, but it was a delicious.

And it was very nice to get a chance to sit and catch up with them.  We could have talked much longer, but they needed to drive home.  I always wish we could spend more time together, but a small visit is better than nothing.  And I'm usually the one who has to drive away since I usually visit them driving to and from visiting my family.  So I really can't complain too loudly, can I?

LA Times Festival of Books - April 2024 Part 1

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

April was the LA Times Festival of books again.  I went down on Saturday and just Saturday this year.  I had a fantastic time.

The real highlight was getting to spend the day with my friend Angelique.  We've been going together for decades at this point, which is scary to think about.  Heck, it's scary to realize we've been friends that long.  Doesn't really seem possible.

Naturally, we spent most of the time around the mystery booths.  We got to talk to some authors that we've become friends with over the years, which is always fun.  We did wander around the rest of the festival as well, but the mystery section (and the booths are all right together) is always home base.

I managed to get away with only buying one book, too, which was pretty amazing for me.  Of course, considering how many books I have around here I haven't read, I need to show more restraint like that.  Or find more time for reading.

The festival isn't what it once was.  We can often get through what we want to see by early afternoon.  But we found a nice bench to sit on and just talk, which was so much fun. And the weather was nice.  Not too warm, not too cold.  Considering how cold April and May were overall, that was a blessing as well.

July 2nd's Joke

I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.

March 2024 - Family Trip to San Diego

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

The middle of March, I met up with my family in San Diego.  We'd done it a couple of years ago, really enjoyed it, and decided to do it again.

Mom and Dad rented up a place to stay right on the beach.  It was a different place from two years ago, but still very nice.  In fact, we might have liked it a bit more in some ways.  The plan was to enjoy the beach, plays games, and be a bit of a tourist.

We did still play tourist a bit, spending one day at Sea World and another at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

However, we got sick while we were there.  My nephew had gotten sick a couple of days before, and Dad started to get sick our first night.  I was just getting over being sick, but I got sick again.  And my brother got sick.  The ladies stayed healthy, until we left.  Then they got sick at home.  What's the weirdest is we all seemed to have slightly different symptoms.  I was the quickest to recover, and it took some longer than others to get over it.  But eventually we all did.

So it was a bummer of a trip in some ways.  But we did still have fun, and we are glad we went.

February 2024 - Catching Up

Well, I managed to get behind again, didn't I?  Let's work on catching up.

Honestly, not that much happened in February.  We started out with weather in the 70's, but wound up getting lots of rain.  Fortunately, no flooding in my garage, which was nice.  Did miss some running because of the rain, which is a Southern California problem.  But before that started I got a nice afternoon of ultimate Frisbee.

I did my taxes on my President's Day holiday and wound up owing this year, which was a bummer.

The bigger bummer is that I got sick at the end of the month.  Sick enough I would have taken time off work if I weren't working from home.  I might have if nothing else had been going on, but I got sick at the end of the month, which was quarter end, so I plowed through.  I did see a doctor, and it just seemed to be a cold.  I was negative for other things.  Of course, I'd managed to give myself pink eye as well.  Got drops for that, which cleared it up.  The rest slowly ran it's course.

May 27th's Joke

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

A Day at the Beach in January

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

At the end of January, we had some very nice weather.  We're talking mid-70's.  Yes, we can get that in Southern California in the winter, usually at least once, but it isn't the kind of thing we always have.  It's been mostly cool and raining the last couple of weeks, for example.

So I had to take advantage of that.  So I went down to the beach in Santa Monica.  I parked where I also do these days, and then walked along the beach.  I'd just set out to walk, but I wound up walking down to the Santa Monica pier.  It's been years since I was there, so I had some fun playing tourist and wandering around to see what I could see.

It was a quiet, relaxing day.  And the weather really was so wonderful.

Lunch with College Friends

About a month ago, I met up with a couple of friends from college for lunch.

It started because Brian is getting married this summer, and he asked John and I to be in the wedding.  He was about to move to be closer to his fiancee, so this was the only chance to hang out and see him before we go back for the wedding.

To my surprise, they both came up here.  In fact, we wound up not that far from my place.  I feel a little guilty about that, but neither one of them seem to mind.

We sat around and talked for several hours, sharing memories and catching up.  Yes, we talked a little about the wedding as well.  It was just a nice, pleasant afternoon.

February 19th's Pun

A three-legged dog walks into a frontier saloon, sidles up to the bar, and announces, “I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.”

Jury Duty 2024

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

I had jury duty again the third week of January.

I'd had Federal jury duty in October of 2022, and I had to actually show up.  And it was in downtown LA, which wasn't fun.  This was back to LA County.  Fortunately, that meant I was going to be going to a more local courthouse.  Still not the one in down, but closer than downtown.

They'd originally called me for the week of Christmas.  Since I was out of town with my family for Christmas, I postponed.  I couldn't have showed up if called to show up.  But I wanted to get it over with, so I just postponed by a couple of weeks.

What I didn't like?  I couldn't call in until after 7 PM.

But I did pick the week of Martin Luther King weekend, so I only had to call in for four days instead of a full week.

And I never had to report.  It was so great every night hearing "You don't have to report tomorrow."

My boss was on call that week, too.  At the same court house.  She never had to show up either, but we were checking in with each other first thing in the morning each morning.

Hopefully, it will be several years before I have to go through that again in either location.

Master's University Winter Classic 5K - 2024

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Well, you can see how good a job I've been doing at keeping up with this blog this year.  So much for my once a week life updates, right?

Almost a month ago now, I took part in the Master's University Winter Classic 5K.  Last year, it was cold and threatening rain, with a little bit of sprinkles on us.  This year?  It was cold, but not nearly as cold.  But the sun was out.  Once we started running, I warmed up pretty quickly.  I finished in a little over 36 minutes (like 36:10 or something), which I was happy about.  I took a couple of weeks off from running in December because of my cough, so the last couple of weeks before the run were a struggle.  I took a couple of walk breaks, but did better than expect overall.  (And I generally walk at some point during my runs, even before I took the break in December.)

As always, I saw a couple of friends there, which isn't a surprise after attending school there and then my time working there.  However, it wasn't the friends I normally see.  Still, it was nice to say hi really fast to them.

February 4th's Pun

A rancher counted 196 head of cattle when they were out on the range, but when he rounded them up he had 200.

January 27th's Pun

“But why?” the man exclaimed to the vet when she insisted she had to put his dog down.  “Because he’s heavy,” the vet explained.

January 11th's Pun of the Week

I went to the butcher’s the other day, and I bet him fifty bucks that he couldn’t reach the meat on the top shelf.  He said, “No, the steaks are too high.”

Starting 2024

I finally did it!  I got all caught up.  I'm hoping now that I'm caught up to stay that way.  As part of that, I'm going to be using the beginnings of my Sunday/Monday posts over on Carstairs Considers over here, too.  I might pop in with other things as well.  We'll see.  But at least I want to keep that much on top of things here.

(And a reminder that if you landed here after I left a comment on your book blog, you probably want Carstairs Considers.)

I had a quiet New Year.  Church Sunday morning, and then a quiet day at home.  Yes, I stayed up until midnight.  Actually, I stayed up until about 1 AM.  There were some fireworks, but none of the pot banging and yelling that we often have.  I was awake in time to watch the Rose Parade live, too, which doesn't usually happen since it is so early here in California.  And you tell I'm not a morning person?

No, I haven't started undecorating from Christmas yet.  That was on my agenda for the weekend, but it just isn't going to happen.  Honestly, I think I'm going to struggle to get the two reviews written I need to write and the others edited.  All I really want to do is curl up and veg.

Let's see, what else?  We got the month closed at work without too much in the way of surprises.  It's nice that it wasn't fiscal year end this month.  As much as I had having to deal with that around Thanksgiving and then into December, it's nice that the December close is fairly quiet.

My cough is getting much better.  It's still there sometimes, but not nearly as bad as it was even a week ago.

My life group at church met Saturday morning to clean the church.  After that, I stopped at a local nursery and picked up some pansies for my planters.  Hopefully the wire I have in them know will keep the squirrels from digging them up, although I did see one sniffing around the box a couple of hours ago.

December 2023 - I Was Home for Christmas

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Naturally, I went north again for Christmas.  This time, the complication was my health.  I got what I thought was a mild cold, but developed into a low fever and cough.  The fever only lasted three days or so, but the cough is still hanging on, even now (as of when I'm tying this on New Year's Day).

But my family said to come on up, and I wasn't about to argue.  For one thing, I don't think I'm contagious.  And it's more annoying than anything else.  (If I had tested positive for Covid or the flu, it would have been different, but I was negative for both.)

And I had a great time.  I didn't have any repeats of the traffic drama on the way up, although it was sluggish on the drive back on the 26th.  Still nothing like it was going.

I was there for three full days.  And they were pretty chill.  We all went out looking at Christmas lights one night, which was great.  My brother had mapped out a plan of attack, and he did a great job leading up to some fun displays.  Sunday was Christmas Eve, which meant a morning and evening service this year instead of just the Christmas Eve evening service.  And I loved how they rearranged things for the evening service with us around the instruments and improvised stage in the middle.

Christmas Day, we were at my parents' all day.  My uncle and aunt came over for a while.  We opened presents and had a great meal.

As I said, it was chill.  Which was wonderful.

November 2023 - Thanksgiving

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

In November, I went home for Thanksgiving like always, despite the traffic.

Seriously, I wish I had paid attention to a traffic report before I left because I got stuck in some of the worst traffic I've ever been in.  What should have taken me one hour took me give hours.  The traffic heading north the Wednesday before Thanksgiving can be bad/sluggish, but it's never that bad.  Once I got past the slow down, things were fine.

What I've heard is that a track carrying pipes lost it's load on the freeway.  Everything was cleared up by the time I got to it.

What's frustrating is, had I known, I could have easily avoided it.  There were a couple of alternatives I could have taken.  I just assumed things would be fine.

The bad part is that I missed seeing my friend and his family on the way up.  By the time I made it past the traffic, I just had to drive.  As it was, it was after midnight by the time I got home.

But the rest of the weekend was great.  My brother hosted as always, and his in-laws were visiting.  It was fun to see them.  Friday, we went to see my uncle and aunt plus my cousin and his family were down.  Saturday and Sunday were just quiet days.

Fortunately, I took Monday off so I could drive home that way.  I would not have bene happy having to fight traffic on the way back on Sunday.  But the traffic was much better on Monday.  I did drive through Fresno and see my friend and his wife, which was great.  I just missed seeing their kids.

October 2023 - Universal Studios

 My brother and his family were down in Orange County at the beginning of October to visit some family.  They were planning on one day in Universal Studios during that time, and invited me to join them.  At first, I didn't think it would work, but then I thought about it some more and decided to ask for the day off, which I got.

I'm so glad I went.

I hadn't been there sine 2007 or so, and I had been there most recently of everyone.  And we had a blast.  The Harry Potter world was fabulous, and the main attraction there was a ton of fun.  Super Nintendo World looked amazing as well, although we didn't like that ride quite as much.  The other rides were fun.  I feel like the backlot tour used to be better, but it was still fun.

And we had a great time together.  I think that was the most fun, just hanging out together in line.

September 2023 - Computer Issues of Some Kind

In September, I had a computer meltdown of some kind.  My laptop just shut down on my and it had to wait for the battery to drain itself to be able to turn it on again, a process that took several days.  Fortunately, I have my old laptops, so I was still able to have access to some stuff, although my old laptop is really, really slow.  And a friend at least helped me a little diagnosis the problem.

Both times it happened, I had plugged in my external hard drive to run a backup.  I started plugging it in after the computer had been on for a bit so it had time to warm up, and everything has been fine since then.

Until this last Sunday, when it did it again even though I thought I'd given it long enough to warm up.

I bought a new laptop, although I haven't even taken it out of the box yet.  I'm wondering if it is the laptop or the extern hard drive.  And wondering how I can even go about testing that out.  But I should try to figure it out sooner rather than later, I know.

Got to love technology.  That is, when it is working well.