Today I had a lazy, slow day until I got an important email. I received an international administration job offer. Not ready to say where yet, but it's in Asia. Feeling very excited and overwhelmed. I'm planning for an international move this summer!!
Wow Kat...congrats!!! Enjoyed our nice weather...raked some leaves & picked up sticks. Then I heard a friend if family passed away battling a rare condition. I just saw her mom a few days ago... So heart broken for her family.
I know its not Saturday but today Scotland beat France which means that the England game against France will be a dead rubber as England are the 6 nations champions. I never thought I would find myself cheering for the Scots!
Busy Sunday here. Some spring cleaning, filled the two large urns on my veranda with pansies, sons and DIL for lunch. Headed over to my parents for a visit, I'll hit food store on way home.
Wales Thumped Italy 67-14. Now watching Scotland vs Ireland. Scotland leading 10-9 about a quarter on the wat through the game. These games leading up to the biggy England vs France later on. Beer all ready!
Went for a massage this morning and then stopped at the bank, library and car wash. Now I'm puttering around the house until this evening when I'll go out with some friends.
Saturday started off with 5 hours of no electricity; no lights is a pain, but we are on a well, so it also means no water. Later we went car browsing (200,000 miles on my Rav 4), and out for a late lunch.
So ... don't know how this will work out, but tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday I'm going camping all by myself for the first time. I've been camping with the ex-boyfriend a few times and I think I know what I need to bring. I will have a primitive campsite, bathroom, fire pit/grill and tent space and that's it. That's how I like it. I will take my bow and arrow and if by chance a jackrabbit comes my way, maybe I can have it for dinner. I have a hunting license, jackrabbits are ok to hunt all year round with no limit and this campsite allows hunting. Of course I'm taking food for just in case, who knows, maybe there won't be any bunnies around. I'm also taking my German Shepherd, mostly for companionship, and because it's great exercise for him, but also for protection. I'll have a sleeping bag and an emergency tent for 1 person (my doggie can fit if he wants to) that actually radiates heat back to me. It's supposed to be a little cold, but oh well. I'm excited, a little unsure, but not enugh to not make me want to go. I'm looking forward to almost 2 days in nature, away from everyone, hours and hours of hiking and just be alone with my doggie. And ust to depend on nature and my survival skills
Fiancé is on spring break this week. Mine is the following week. We are trying to combine households, which means lots of packing and making trips to Goodwill.
IMA my parents had to do that last fall... Many trips to Goodwill since they sold my gram's house!!! They have a whole bunch they had to get out... But will have garage sale this spring!!!
Rain hammered down all day today. However went to the hockey. Playoff quarter finals 1st leg of a 2 game series and we won 5-3. We qualifed 8th and play the team that qualified 1st. So tomorrow we start the game in their barn with a 2 goal advantage (total score over both games decides the winner)
Coventry Blaze tie it 3-3 with Sheffield in the second leg and so go through to the semi final round on aggregate.! Making history as the first time an 8th seed team has defeated a 1st seed team. Go Blaze!
Last night, attended an illusionist/magic show at my local playhouse. The previous Sat., it was Cats (for the 3rd time) at the same play house!
So I went hiking twice. Wednesday / Thursday by myself and with my older dog as I planned. It was fun. The campsite was $20 for the night, actually had nice bathrooms, sink, hot shower and running water outside, a fire pit / grill, bench, space for tent and parking space for my car right there. For hiking it wasn't the best, this site is better if you have a boat, it's next to the lake. The hills are very steep but me and my doggie still got some great hiking in. And I made fire and cooked dinner The ranger filled me on all the great sites on the lake (Pine Flat Lake) so on my way home I checked them all out. Then Friday my daughter surprised me and said she wants to go camping to. So for Easter, Saturday and Sunday (just came home a few hours ago) we went, took both german shepherd, bought her a sleeping bag and took a lot of food. When I went by myself I undercalculated the food. This time we took enough. So this last trip was next to a river, (Kings River), only 2 hours from here. The campsite was free, same set up as the other, but the bathroom more basic, no shower and no running water. But the river was a great source of water. Lots of hiking. Lots of people around. I talked to 2 hunters who gave me some great info on spots for turkeys (Turkey season just started Saturday) It was great. I definitely have it down as far what to take, I've made it more comfortable because of my daughter, but I can go camping with just what I can carry. I also found out about some "dispersed camp sites" which is basically camping out in the woods, you just need a permit for fire. I've ordered my tent, it will be here by Friday. I'll be def. spending a ot of time outdoors from now on, summer time maybe even several nights by the lake. Central Cali is not really a great place to live, but the outdoors make up for it. Lots of mountains, lakes, rivers, places to hike, camp, hunt... I love it.
It is snowing again!!! The ground is white! Fighting the crud that is going around. FYI...my mom works for company and flu/cold is up A LOT compared to this time last year!!!
Having a quiet weekend home enjoying the cloudy and drizzly weather. Perfect for catching up on the dvr.
Went to a school function last night (won a basket!). Today is some spring organization at home. One week away from spring break
- Morning walk - Brought home a turkey, cheese, egg, red onion, spinach, & tomato breakfast sandwich - Did just about 6 hrs of work, but not all in one sitting - Watched TV
I've recently got into archery. More specifically into shooting traditional bows, I have a recurve bow. Much more complicated than the compound bow which has sights (kinda like scopes) and all kinds of things that help shoot it. My left shoulder has been killing me for a couple of weeks, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. It's very addicting, I've been going to the range to practice 2-3 times / week. I am very very fortunate that I've made a lot of new and very nice friends who share my common interests and are willing to teach me (2 of them are the coach and assistant coach of the archery club at the local university). Having lots of fun. Can't wait to go hunting and in maybe 6 months enter some competitions.
Went down to visit my daughter--this is her last spring season of soccer. What was originally supposed to be 4 outdoor games was changed to 2 indoor because of the weather, but it was nice to be able to go out for dinner and to a movie with her. The drive home yesterday was not pleasant--drove in rain, freezing rain, ice or snow for 6.5 hours and the car had quite a thick coating of ice when we got home! Looking forward to some more springlike weather!
That sounds like fun. There was an archery area at the resort where I went on vacation last year and I tried it but was really terrible at it LOL
I went camping again, just me and my bigger dog. The interesting part was that I couldn't find the campgrounds I was looking for so I ended up camping out in the forests, just in nature, nothing manmade. I was prepared though, I printed directions, I was also looking on my phone but I was driven to some really rough backroads where my SUV wouldn't have made it. It looked like tractors were on it, and left big tracks. I didn't want to get stuck. So after I drove around for 30-45 minutes, I started looking for a good enough spot to pull off the road, leave me car there and go hike to a good spot. It was in the Sierra National Forest. I was fortunate to find some grasslands hidden in the otherwise very densely forested area and there happened to be a small creek running through it. I didn't drink out of it, but this way I didn't have to use my drinking water for my dog, wash my face, brush teeth or put out the fire. I had to carry a lot of stuff: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, extra clothes (a lot, at night I had 5 layers of shirts, a heavy scarf, mittens, extra socks, etc) food to eat, food to cook, things to cook it with, dog food, lots of water, thing to use to make fire, bow and arrows. It was heavy, but I managed. I got some good hiking in, there was actually snow on the ground in a lot of areas, but it wasn't cold. The kicker was that I had to improvise to cook my dinner, because I was counting on having a grill on the ground at the campsite. Luckily, there were a lot of very large trees laying on the ground (almost as big as sequoias) with their branches still attached and sticking out. There was one branch that ended in a fork. I wrapped the fork part in foil, set the fire under it and cooked my dinner in a foil container: ground beef, thinly sliced potatoes and zucchini. It cooked very well. Overall it was a good trip. I didn't see any turkey or wildlife, but I did bring a lot of food so I wasn't hungry And didn't get lost, I even found my car on the way back.
Weeded flower garden, cleaned a big deck bin, cleaned a big stepping stone I took from my gram's. Today cleaned our fire pit...full of ashes. Checked raspberry plants...they are popping up. Now have to wait to replant some. Did more weeding & put down pine needles for our mulch. Outside almost the whole day.
This weekend we took the doggy to a new park. He had so much fun! We will try to get there every weekend depending on the weather.
Spring cleaning. Make a full trashcan of stuff from garage. Plus dragged an old vanity, a chair, a saw horse, 2 old bikes to the curb. I won't be surprised if someone takes some of that before the trash pick up on Monday but at least it's out of my garage!
Trying to weed & getting ready to move some of my raspberry plants. They have grown so much. I need to give some plants away or I will have too many. Started raining early afternoon, so cleaned/ neatened a couple if my drawers.
We finished moving my fiancé to my house. We are prepping his house to sell, so we went ahead and moved everything to my house to make things easier. He still has a house full of items that belonged to his in-laws. He and his late wife owned her parents' house. The biggest challenge was moving the five dogs. It's also stormed for two days, and they hate storms.
I'd really like to get the tomato plants in the garden this weekend, but we'll have to see if the weather cooperates.
Working SATs this morning and then probably go and grab some dinner with my GF later on. She wants Mexican, but I'm not too sure about that for myself. We'll see. I've got baseball tomorrow; I play in a league up in the Northeast. My Sundays are tied up from April through October.
I didn't post this but last weekend was one of my "most adventurous" weekend lol. I went to a campsite by a lake that's only 30 minutes from here. I took my bigger doggie, a coworker and her 9 year old daughter. I bought a blow up boat ($37 from Walmart, can't beat it, came with 2 oars and footpump). I also had an electric pump, we all had sleeping bags, a tent and food, etc. So Saturday we blew up the boat, and then the plan was to paddle across the lake, and go hiking from there. I've never done this before, but I was the one paddling. Of course I didn't know what I was doing, so we were progressing very slowly. Paddling steadily is very hard lol. In the middle of the lake, my friend quietly whispers to me from the other end of the boat "we're losing air". First I didn't see it, but then it sunk in: the outer chamber, then one that had the most air, that had the oars attached started slowly deflating. There was no a fold in it, whereas before it was plump and firm! We had 2 other chambers, that were fine, thew bottom and the inside, but the whole scenario went through my head: the two of us, a 9 year old girl who can't swim all that well in deep water, a 100 lb german sheppard, 2 heavy backpacks with phones and food, etc. and no life jacket!!! I started paddling as fast as could, because all I could see was all of this in the bottom of the lake. Turns out it wasn't losing air that fast, after what seemed like forever (probably an hour) we did make it to the other side of the lake. The boat looked so deflated, it's scary. So we started walking, i had to carry the boat (took all the air out, but it was so heavy). We walked for an hour, but to walk back to our campsite, at the other side of the lake would have taken 5 hours, so called a friend to pick us up and take us back. Then Sunday, I decided that I wanted to give the boat another try. Blew it up really good and then just stayed close to the shore, There was a little island, I figured I'll paddle around, and if something happens, we're really close to land. And the little girl had a life jacket now. ]First it was just her and my dog and I, everything was great. Then left the dog at the campsite, and my friend, the girl and I (it was too crowded for all of us). We got out on the island, it was super hot, walked around in the water (didn't wanna swim). Then saw the a huge rattle snake!! About 4-5 feet long. anyone that has seen that picture said they've never seen a rattle snake that big. It came towards us, my friend freaked out, her daughter started crying, all I could think was I needed a weapon. I started unscrewing the oar (it was twisted on together, because it was locked so we couldn't lose it). i was just standing there, all calm (I don't get scared in any situation, I guess), watching the snake getting closer and closer, keep unscrewing the oar. It's funny to think back. When the snake was about 3 feet from me, I got the oar, stepped away. The snake wanted to go in to boat, which meant were never gonna get off of it, right? So I threw the only big rock I found at it, of course I missed. Then I found a big tree stump, did the same, missed, but the snake decided to go the other way. We got in the boat and paddled away. That was a lot of excitement lol. My friend's first time camping, I know she'll never forget. We did have some great food we cooked on the campfire for lunch and dinner and had a lot of fun. Def. not a boring weekend.