Regular Old O'Brien weekend!

Wacky Weather Weekend! In southern California one is supposed to have backyard BBQ's, hang out at the beach and just be outside. Well that was not the case this year! It was down right cold, rained and cloudy all weekend.

Pops flew in on Friday night (1 O'Brien and counting), we had breakfast with Shelley and Alex (2 more O'Brien's) on Saturday morning and went to see Aunt Lynne and Uncle Cliff today (another O'Brien). Man it is Monday night and poor Denis has been subjected to 5 O'Brien's in one weekend!

We have had a great relaxing weekend and did everything we could to find my dad a rich woman in Del Mar. No luck so far, but maybe next time.

Because we do live in San Diego we have managed to grill twice, had Mexican food and even went running. After this weekend I need A LOT more running to say the least.

Bet you are asking "What happened on Saturday Afternoon"

Since we had such a great Saturday morning I bet you are asking what we did to top it on Saturday afternoon (okay, well I know you aren't actually asking that but humor me. You are reading our blog aren't you?)

So after the beach, eggs and my personal favorite real life chicken shit, what could we do to top it.

Look at the picture below. Denis convinced me that we now needed hybrid bikes. We already have mountain bikes and we don't necessarily ride road bikes like the millions of other yahoos around here. So we settled on: http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/road/fx/76fx/

Since next week is "Bike To Work Week" MLH will be riding to work on his new toy. How very earth friendly of him!


I, on the other hand will be on a plane to NY once again. At least I don't drive anywhere once I get there.

We took the bikes out for a little ride. It makes such a difference to have bikes actually adjusted to fit you. The seats still suck, but MLH tells me it is because of my bony butt!

Just to make the day a little bit better, I have a fresh batch of granola in the oven. I'm going to need my new bike to ride off the granola. We tend to eat it by the bucket load.

Saturday in San Marcos - Well Carlsbad and Vista!

Not so sure why I felt the need to post about our Saturday morning when it is only 12:42pm, but I am anyway.
If anyone remembers I got MLH (my loving husband) a ocean fly-fishing rod for his birthday. MLH wanted to try it out this morning so after getting all the crap together, stopping by Starbucks, driving to the beach ... we reached nirvana. With my latte, Bon Appetit (thanks Brady) and beach chair in hand I followed MLH down to the sand. He, looking so damn cute in his waders and boots headed straight for the water while I got comfortable in my chair and opened my mag. It hit me a few minutes later ... good god are we lucky to live here or what?
Oh so back to the mag! If Bon Appetit mag doesn't inspire what does? What about three groups of married couples doing their part to save the beach? Yes, apparently the three couples in their late 60's to early 70's walk the beach in Carlsbad every morning picking up other peoples crap that they left on the beach, most of it plastic mind you.

I saw them comparing their trash picker-uppers, you know long rods with a trigger at the top and clamps at the bottom? They do this EVERY morning. I felt the need to thank them.

On the way home Denis took a not so normal exit off the freeway and I yelled at him to turn at the "Fresh, Organic Egg" sign. It has happened ... I have officially found a person who sells their own eggs and has the chickens on site. NIRVANA twice in one day? Hold onto your hats, he even gave me a bag of chicken shit for my compost bin! Yes, you guessed it NIRVANA three times in one day. I feel complete.

Tomorrow we are hosting Mother's Day for Denis' family. They wanted to eat on paper plates, but hell no! We are eating on the china and everyone will like it. Especially since they will be eating farm fresh, organic, no carbon footprint eggs!

How does 31 cents become $4.36?

This post pains me to the core! I have been looking forward to .31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins for over a week now. It was even in my calendar for gods sake, we only had vegetables for dinner, I was calorically prepared. At 8:15pm (after watching two more rounds of stupid boxing) I dragged Denis out of the house.

He pulled up to B&R and Denis said "Oh hell no, NOT A CHANCE"! The line snaked it way out of B&R, down the strip mall concrete and more people were getting in line ever second. Good God, it is 55 degrees outside tonight. My dream of GMR (gold medal ribbon) was smashed into smithereens as I pulled out of the parking lot.

Now if I would have been by myself I would have waited ... the pragmatic husband, not so much.

We drove over to the frozen yogurt joint in the next strip mall and spent almost 5 freakin' dollars on mediocre frozen yogurt.

I'm crying GMR tears.

LDR's? It just means it got away!

Denis and I are coming off of one of the best vacations we have had in the past few years! To celebrate Denis' birthday we headed up to Mammoth Lakes, CA with Jeff and Tamara. The four of us haven't been away together on a vacation in probably 4 years. Believe me the four of us together can be a dangerous match!

Thursday - Denis 0 Fish "Sucka" & Jeff 0 Fish "Sucka"

The man got skunked!

On Thursday Denis couldn't wait to throw his line in the water ... and I like a good wife pulled up a beach chair or creek chair and read a magazine. Nobody was biting so we just waited for Jeff and Tamara. Once they arrived we went out to Hot Creek and you could see the damn fish in the water ... they weren't biting either!

We had a great dinner up in Mammoth and had the best margaritas ever. Funny thing about drinking at 8,000 feet ... you get drunk really fast!

The condo was beautiful and right in the middle of the Village. We all came to find that many locals are not very thrilled with the Village or the idea of expanding the airport! The Village is VERY high-end and attempts to have the Aspen/Vail feel. The airport ... I am not even going to go there!

Friday "No Skunkn' here"

Jeff and Denis headed to fish at around 9:30am and we didn't hear from them until 7:30pm! The fish were biting, the men were catching and well we were SHOPPING!

Above are a few of the beauties! Now these men said they caught a ton of fish but there are only pics of a few of them. Both of them came home and told us that they had a lot more LDR's. You might be asking "what is a LDR?" Long Distance Release ... in laymen terms it just means the effer got away!

Saturday: Just Hanging Out!

The boys decided that they could spend some time with us on Saturday! We headed out to Tamarack Lodge which looks a little like the hotel in The Shining ... except not to creepy!

Denis and Jeff got in a snowball fightTamara and I watched and threw a few ourselvesHanging out in the Eastern Sierras

Just after this pic was taken we watched this stupid woman throw a ball to her dog and it landed in a 75% frozen lake. Of course the dog goes after it and can't get out. the next thing I see is Denis heading over to try and get the dog out of the lake! This man most definitely has a place in his heart for doggies. (Note: the dog got out and was okay ... the lady on the other hand is still stupid).

The birthday boy looking over the wine menu at Tamarack Lodge.

T relaxing at the Lodge.

Later in the day we decided to head up to the main lodge at Mammoth Mountain. Tons of people were still skiing and the weather was awesome.

We took the gondola up to 11,300 feet were you could see the back side of Yosemite. It was amazing!

As you can tell, Tamara is not so thrilled with heights!

We hope to go back soon! During our next trip we want to do a full day horseback riding trip into the back country where Denis can fish!

Happy Birthday Denis!

YLW

Birthday Weekend in the Mams

We are celebrating the Husband's birthday this weekend! All he wanted was to head up to Mammoth and fish his brains out, soooo that is indeed what we are planning to do.

Stay tuned for pics from our trip!

Happy Birthday Hus!

YLW

Howard the Hass

Finally after three years in our house we planted an avocado tree! Howard the Hass has joined the family and I am can't wait for him to bear fruit. Denis' new plan is to plant something every two weeks. It was really amazing to walk through our backyard today and see everything we have planted in the past three years.

Be sure to welcome Howard to the family - Jake loves avocados and has eaten many of them at grandma's house! Maybe he (Howard) will bring a piece of avocado joy to your house someday.