They still exist...

Bargains in Vegas that is. Behold, the $6.95 steak dinner at Ellis Island Casino. It includes a pint of beer they brew on site. Can't beat it! It's 11:00 Halloween night. Back in the room for a piece of pizza, then off to check out costumes out and about on the strip!

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That time of year....

It's not winter yet, but we are coming in to the time of year where the sunrises are amazing. I always want to stop the car and take pictures. This picture was not taken from a parked car, but I *was* wearing my blue tooth headset, does that count? As always, my Blackberry can't do justice to the real thing, but this gives you a general idea. It was lovely, and kept changing all the way into work. Not a bad way to start the day!

We head to Vegas tonight for a little debauchery. Going on the cheap (well, as cheap as possible) for a few nights. It's supposed to be in the mid 80's all weekend, so looking forward to laying by the pool & relaxing. I suppose I'll find some time for drinking and gambling too ;-)

I feel better now

After a "chat" with the Yes on 8 gentleman in front of the grocery store two weeks ago, I've really felt compelled to do something. So, I did. I've got a "Defend Equality: Vote No on 8" sticker in my car window, we've sent additional money to the HRC for the No on 8 campaign, and I wrote a letter to the editor, which they ran today. You can read it here if you scroll down a bit. None of the three things may make a difference, but I had to do something, and I feel good now that I did....

A lovely weekend

Well, the weather on the coast wasn't lovely, but the weekend overall certainly was. We had an entire weekend at home, which was great. Got a number of chores done around the house, did a lot of relaxing, and went to AG Saturday night for dinner with friends. Saturday, we headed up to Paso & Templeton for a few errands. We stopped at The Little Market in Cayucos and grabbed a sandwich for a picnic. On the way to Paso, we stopped at Donati Family Vineyards, which used to be Mostantuano, and used their picnic area. It was nice out - maybe 78 or so, and it was great just to sit, relax, and eat.

While in Templeton, we stopped at a landscaping materials place and looked at gravel. I think we are ordering gravel to replace the lawn this week (the work won't happen until 11/8 though). I'll keep you posted on that....

Hilltop sunset

Jeff took this last night from the hilltop. Beautiful! I was enjoying the same view, but floating on my surfboard in Cayucos, watching the dolphins frolic and (I'm pretty sure) procreatin'. Happy Friday!

The contradictions of Fall

This is a spot I frequently walk by on campus. I think the trees are Liquid Ambers, and they are one of the only trees to show true "Fall color" around here. Yet, even as these trees are looking a bit like New England, we've been roasting here. OK, not roasting, but it's been in the 80's in SLO, and the 70's at the beach. Plus, the off shore winds have been ripping. They've been so strong that we are having to shut doors and windows at night because everything outside is flapping around & it's really noisy. The problem is, the winds are also really warm, so we've been waking up to the house in the low 70's, which is a bit toasty.

The trade off though, is the beautiful evenings. Last night was so nice out. I got in a short surf and it as just beautiful!

At least somebody is relaxed

I know, I've been bad about updating lately. I've been busy, but not with anything terribly Blog worthy. Well, *almost* nothing :)

So, I give you this picture of Decker dog, doing what he does best - relaxing. Now if that isn't the good life, I don't know what is.

The weather has still been warm, and I got two days of surfing in this past weekend. It's been windy after work, so I've pretty much been limited to paddling out on the weekends. Maybe I'll get lucky a few days this week and have somewhat glassy conditions at 5:00. Not too much longer before after work surfing will be on hold until mid February. Once we have the time change, it's not light enough after work to surf until about Valentines day.

Debate-able

So last night was the last of the three presidential debates, and frankly, I'm glad they are over. I watched all three of them. I have the VP one recorded - but haven't watched it yet, and at this point, I'm not sure I will. I don't know why, but I find it kind of exhausting watching the debates. And to be honest - the only people they are going to sway (I think?) are the people who are undecided. I seriously doubt somebody registered in one party is going to vote for the other party after watching a debate, unless somebody *really* flubbed up, and I don't know that either party did. Do you know anybody who has changed their opinion after watching a debate?

As always, a good resource is www.factcheck.org. You can click here for a direct link to their analysis of the last debate, and here to get to their home page. I think it's a great website and I hope it's as unbiased as they claim to be.

Seal Beach

Well, Huntington was a blow out mess this morning, so I headed north a bit. This is the Seal Beach pier. Much more protected so the conditions were clean, but just waist high waves dumping over. I went for a nice beach walk, but didn't paddle out. Maybe tomorrow...

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Flatz

A little excitement in Ventura :-) "What was that noise?" Blow out on the 101. Fortunately, an easy change to the donut and we were off. Just dropped $450 on new tires in Huntington Beach. Just doing my part to help the economy.

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The Barn

On our way south for a few days. Quick stop at the Avila Barn for cider and apples. Its hay ride/pumpkin patch time so even though its a weekday morning, there are families and children everywhere. There are some darling pygmy goats in the petting zoo though :-)

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Fall

This was taken this morning at 6:20. 70 outside, 72 inside already! Ahh, Fall. Yesterday, the offshore winds were ripping, today, it's pretty calm, but still warm. Yesterday was supposed to be the warmest day of the week, but I don't know, today is starting out with a bang :)

Kelp

The first big swell of the season is winding down. It uprooted a lot of the kelp that's grown over the summer, and deposited it on the beach. This makes for tricky beach walking conditions, as you have to do a lot of winding around if you don't want to trudge through it. Lots of bugs buzzing around as well. No big swells on the horizon for now, so with some high tides, a lot of this will wash back out to sea....

Grape juice....mostly

We went wine tasting on Saturday at a few places. This is a nice time of year to go because they are still harvesting some of the reds and you can frequently see some of the work in progress. This is at Hugg, in Paso. The sun was out, so they brought the fermenters outside to warm up & help things along. A couple of times a day, they use this tool to push the "cap" down into the juice. The cap is the grapes, stems, etc. floating on top of the juice. This picture doesn't do the color justice - it was beautiful! These are Cabernet grapes, and we got to taste some of the juice. Still about 60% grape juice and 40% wine. It's sweet still, but starting to take on the characteristics of wine.

Here's another picture of the action. The setting at Hugg is not particularly romantic, but they make excellent wine - so we don't mind. The gentleman in the baseball hat on the lower left is the owner & wine maker. Edgar, doing the work while we watch, is the assistant wine maker.