whackadoodle coconut

This past weekend was my birthday.  And unlike many other people, I love having my birthday. It is always the best part of the year.  I don't mind getting older.  It's cool with me. This year, the hubby and I went to the Carrizo Plains and Bakersfield for lunch.  Let's take a look at the adventure. Our first two stops were Soda Lake and then Painted Rock.  Then we went to visit Wallace Creek at the San Andreas Fault. It was a really good adventure!  We had some rain while we were hiking and had to take cover under the rocks at Painted Cave and then we saw a bunny doing the same thing. Here are a few panoramics I stitched together in photo shop.      

Our little family had a rough one this year.  I am pleased to say that despite all of the heartaches and trouble, we are in the Christmas spirit and enjoying the holidays.  We are looking forward to what the God has planned for us in the year to come.  I am thankful for what he has already done for us and how he has changed our lives and how all things glorify Him. So what have I been up to lately?  Coming out of the forest has made a big difference to what I have "felt" up to doing.  I've taken up a "hobby" if you can call it that helping out a friend restore his WC35 ( I think).  It's been a learning experience as to what goes into restoring a historic military vehicle.  I also have learned a lot of its engine parts and how to clean and paint them for installation. I've knitted a partial mitten and then discovered it would be too big to wear and realized the yarn was most of the problem.  I also knitted a purple monkey for a friend who asked...

if you have been following cookinator , you'll know that I've been trying some new things for dinner lately and they have turned out really good.  so this week that we're summing up, I've just been on a roll. busted out a ton of chores and I'm ready to relax for the day and get a little fun stuff in before the afternoon activities start.  I've spun a little and visited the range a little and ate some candy. that's yesterday's target.  still not totally satisfied with it since there were 3 that were off target.  but in the end the bulls eye didn't elude me this time.  that's progress and improvement.  I could tell the difference between my shots and where they were landing when I focused on the sight and not the target.  and that is a huge difference, then wondering why it wasn't going where I wanted it to. I also promised to take a photo of splitting cards and unfortunately all I have is the aftermath -

it wasn't anything like that at all.  funny, but nothing like it at all.  this last weekend we head south to Santa Barbara to meet the nice people at Ear Inc. who create instamold ear protection.  the company is based in Colorado and the couple that we met up with are from Idaho by way of Santa Barbara.  lucky that they were in town for a while and could take some time to do a sale. it takes about a couple of hours from start to finish.  you can get just about every color combination imaginable. or mix of colors.  there's also two styles to choose from.  an instant mold (impression) of your ear and a lab fit from an impression of your ear.  we opted to get one of each to try them out and see which one we like better. pricing is reasonable, when you can spend anywhere from $15 to hundreds for good ear protection, $65/$75 for ears isn't bad.  the higher price is for a mix of colors.  the lab ones are $110, but you can't take those with...

this past weekend my hubby and I used a gift that we were given to stay in Solvang and a couple tickets for the Theaterfest and had a wonderful getaway that I can't even explain its luxuriousness. the Petersen Inn was old world styling and the décor matched and exceeded my expectation.  we had reservations at 5:30 at their café and I couldn't have had a better meal. for a complete rating check out my  cookinator blog. everything was amazing!  I love lamb and knew I would order it when I got there. it was THE BEST.  overwhelmingly the best lamb I have ever eaten on the planet.  J ordered the filet and I tried it and it was also so good!  flavorful for a filet and of course it was so tender you could probably have eaten it with a spoon. the show was so funny!  we saw Spamalot and it was also exceptional.  everything we've seen in solvang has always been great, but this really outdid the previous.  we both really like monty python, so...

This past weekend was my birthday and I had a great time!  Friday, J and I stopped at Ostrich Land in Solvang to check out the ostriches and emus.  This was on our way to Village Spinning and Weaving shop on Alisol to get my pre-birthday present of TONS of fluff.  More on that later. Loved the Ostrich Farm, one of the coolest things I've done!  I love feeding "wild" animals.  Last anniversary, we fed the giraffes at the zoo - very cool.   Then we purchased some fluff and head out to the next adventure.  I had my favorite soup on the weekend, plus John made me birthday enchiladas.  MMM YUM!   So far this week, I've spun some fiber, dyed some fiber and relaxed away a few lazy days.  AAHHHH - so nice!