that's me and rubayi, the lovely hiker i met a month ago at the sbtc bbq. we've been keeping in touch and i think she's swell. i even added her to waffles' facebook page!
10:30 am
that's rubayi and tom arriving in style to meet us at ucsb parking lot 6 before walking down to the labyrinth.
an overcast day
i first heard about the labyrinth from natureshutterbug. she was kind enough to disclose its location by sketching a map for me. we had no problem finding the not-a-maze.
rubayi striking a pose at the entrance
let the contemplation begin
wholeness and separation
grounded
hello labyrinthers!
beach primrose
seen on the way back from the labyrinth
ant on deerweed
it was a lot of fun hanging with tom and rubayi. i hope to hang with team goleta again and more frequently. i believe rubayi already has a plan for our next outing. woot!
6 pm on cabrillo
that's me during a very brief moment of stability on the slack line. it took me over a dozen tries to get up on my own.
i believe!
(note awesome skirt custom made by andrea)
that's connor, the owner of the slack line. he is the current intern at my office who is kind enough to let me and jg crash his rope walking session. anyway, connor had to support me the first few times. as you can see, as soon as he let go, i fell off the line.
the guru
the grom
as usual, jg improved in no time. he suffers a bit of pigeon-toe but he managed to move five steps before falling off.
connor with impressive balance
enormous planks of stability
thuy: hey connor, let's see if you could get on the line by jumping.
jg: [frowns with dread]
connor: sure.
still the master
jg and i gave up after an hour. who knew that slack lining could be so tiring? connor stayed behind to work on the jump start. said he would let us try again once we've recovered from all the floundering. next week, i hope.
that's a hummingbird's nest i discovered in our neighbor's redwood. it's located surprisingly low on the branches. i only found it because mama bird would come swooshing out of the tree real close to my head each time i walk by on my way to the squarefoot garden. it took a few close encounters before i figured that her nest must be nearby.
i love how the nest is secured to the branch with heavy duty spider web and how it's decorated with lichen. i wonder how well the egg is protected in this rain.
that was taken today on our training hike. i took a series of seven shots but for some reason photoshop decided to use just four.
lots of indian pinks and sticky monkeys blooming along the trail. lots of poison oak, too.
the squarefoot garden is doing well although not entirely successful. i planted four zucchini seedlings and something has eaten all their leaves. so far the most productive crop is peas, second only to the lettuce group.
that's me with geoff roes, the crazy ultra runner who came to santa barbara to run the trail race, the same one i volunteered at last year. i ambushed him at about mile 80 and made tracy, fellow volunteer, take pictures.
01 may 2011
another terrific shot taken by tracy. it's of me with pat and patty, 77 and 70 respectively. they are a lot more colorful this year than last. it amazes me to no end that they are 50k runners.
slow times at devil's canyon aid station
we had a fantastic group of people at our aid station this year: scott, paul, tracy, chris, me, and a couple of ham radio guys. we had gourmet dinners like lamb with couscous and stayed up all night to assist the nuts who ran 100 miles.
jg ran 15k in 1h 42m
1.5 months of training got jg 3rd place of 12. he got a finisher's medal and a nasty case of poison oak which didn't manifest itself until three days later. he has not had the desire to run since the race.
that was actually taken a couple of nights before the race when jessica invited us over for shark tacos. her text said "... bbq with a few friends." turned out to be five couples. and a baby! few is relative, obviously.
after the feed fest she made everyone play michael jackson on the wii. by everyone i mean jg. he looked more like a unfocused air traffic controller than a dancer.
schmee loves jessica
i want to emphasize that jessica is a brand of awesome all her own. not only did she let us eat her food and hang at her house, she even lent me her truck so i could volunteer at the trail trace.
12 may 2011
that's from a san marcos high production called me and my girl. both of my friend paul's kids were in the play and it was a great show, the most sophisticated of all the shows i've seen.
25 may 2011
that's from the spring encore concert at san roque church. both of paul's kids are in it, too. the madrigals are my favorite group. amazing voices all in all.
14 may 2011
that's april with abby by skype. i hadn't seen them since march. don't let the crazy cat lady demeanor fool ya. she can rock a webinar like no one's business!
the force that is april s.e.
seen on the way up romero canyon
22 may 2011
seen on the way down romero canyon
that's the race director. running. i didn't believe my eyes until he nearly ran past me. i sent him back down the trail to re-enact his approach for pictures. within seconds, jg came blasting down the trail.
a trail race reunion: runner, director, and aid station volunteer
28 may 2011
that's a four shot photomerge of me, rubayi, matt, rajam, and tom at the san ysidro falls. first time i ever saw a true waterfall in santa barbara. and the second time i saw this beast around here:
it was speeding around on the rocks next to the creek where we were having a picnic lunch. made me very nervous. we all took turns taking pictures of the slime ball. rajam even posed with her tongue sticking out real close to it. brave.
28 may 2011
jg and i got a private tour of ken and susan's house up sycamore canyon. he's an architect and she's a landscape architect who specializes in native plants. i loved that they keep chickens.
while touring the grounds, we ate blueberries and strawberries picked along the paths. i enjoyed every minute of the visit. on top of it all, susan gave us half dozen of freshly laid eggs and a copy of her book. of course i asked her to autograph it. woot!
28 may 2011
that's the view of the creek from our driveway. there were two very drunk guys in the upside down car, both lived after flying 20 feet past the cul de sac and landing 30 feet below. the whole accident happened 50 feet from our front door but we didn't know it until the police and firetrucks showed up.
3 firetrucks and a fleet of police vehicles at the top of our driveway
hordes from the neighborhood showed up. it was like a block party complete with strobe lighting. it took 2 tow trucks almost an hour to fish the car out of the creek.
firemen and ambulance crew staging in our driveway
at one point during the 4 hour crisis a k9 was deployed to search for one of the two survivors who tried to escape by walking down the creek. i didn't stick around long enough to see if they found him.
29 may 2001
i can't believe the egg hatched already. wish i could train a live web cam on the nest like those eagle cams. should be fledging any day now.
30 may 2011
that's me with crazy hair and a decrepit dead crab at hammond's. i wanted to take it home and make a head piece with it but jg wouldn't let me. he did agree to pose for this next shot:
tainted love
i've been noticing a lot of heart shaped things lately. i think i've become warm in fuzzy in my old age.
lance leaf dudleya at romero canyon
watermelon at trader joe's
30 may 2011
that's a wasps' nest, i think. it fell out of the wall vent (you can see it in the left picture) while i was outside sweeping for spider webs. appears to have been abandoned for some time. it weighs almost nothing. so delicate!
by the way, if you squint a bit you can see jg in the right picture. see if you can guess what sort of home "improvement" he's up to.
indeed
31 may 2011
overall, it was a good month. a bit less hectic than april, but still very busy. it flew by all too quickly. we had a lot of fun, i guess. how was your may?
