Chris and Victoria

On Saturday, July 18, we went to a reception to celebrate the marriage of my nephew Chris to Victoria. It was a very nice day and we enjoyed meeting the new members of our ever-growing family.

I'm happy for both Chris and Victoria, but at the same time, I feel really, really old. How is it that my nephews are already young men - and one has gotten married?! Chris, I can still picture you in a high chair. Or singing "Chuck, Chuck, fo . . Christopher, stop that!" Oh, yeah, you were a handful. Sad how quickly those days pass. Victoria, we think you are a very sweet young lady and are delighted that Chris has brought you into our lives.

It really drives me crazy that I choose the pictures in the order I want them to post, and they come out completely opposite! Of course this post is about Chris and Victoria and their photo was supposed to be first. Ugh! To see all the pictures, choose Chris and Victoria's Reception on my sidebar.

This little girl melts my heart!


Chris' Nana, Mary Alice Lytle, Chris, Victoria, Victoria's father Jim and grandmother.


Mi familia

The happy couple

Tourists!

We know! It's silly. But the boys haven't been to Hollywood in awhile, so we decided it would be a cheap thing to do on a Saturday afternoon and would be fun to act like tourists. We kinda look like tourists, don't we?

This is what Drew looked like in the 80's. I met him playing tetherball. Just kididng! But really, this guy was awesome! Never broke character.




I didn't know where MJ's star was, but knew we were next to it right away when we saw the crowd. Some woman gave an MJ impersonator a kiss on the cheek and was nearly in tears. Really people!




Terminator!

This was the best MJ impersonator out there - and there were quite a few. An added bonus was that he was hanging with Prince. Or is he still the artist with no name?


There was a huge Amish-looking group singing to save all the lost souls, but really, how do you compete with Jesus?

And my favorite - Jimmy Durante's nose.

Octogenerian!

My dad turned 80 on Friday, July 10th. To celebrate, we went to Red Lobster (his choice - and don't tell him I said this, but it was horrible). I tried to get him to go to the OC Fair or even a movie, but he just wasn't interested :-(

This looks like a mug shot!



He wanted to crawl under the table - told my mom no singing, but didn't tell me!!

Man, my arms are going to be sore tomorrow!

Ha, I don't post for months and then I bombard you!

But we rounded off the weekend with a day of kayaking. It was great. Due to budget cuts, there was no swimming allowed at the lake, so it was deserted. We literally had the entire lower lake to ourselves. We rowed all over the lake, took a lunch break and went back out for more.

I don't know why my pictures are posting backward, but here is a series of the boys going under the ramp. Drew made me go first and I thought we were both going to bang our heads, but we made it.












Shark!!

This duck swam right up to me and ate out of my hand - or wanted to but he was a littel aggressive and scared me.

Happy Fourth of July!

We drove out to Lancaster to watch fireworks with Mike and Lauri, the kids and some of their friends from Lauri's "mommy club." It seemed so strange to be able to just pull off any of the streets and park in basically an expanse of desert. No curbs, no buildings, just dirt and Joshua trees. But the sunset was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. It was very relaxing.




Already learning my gangsta signs








Aside from the fireworks, barbecue and a day off of work, we should remember why we celebrate the fourth.

Americans sometimes forget the history surrounding the date. The Fourth of July commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence which serves as this Nation's official certificate of birth. Interestingly, the Declaration was actually ratified on the the second of July, not the fourth, 1776).

According to researcher Kenneth Davis, as early as 1676, a man named Nathaniel Bacon wrote the "Declaration of the People." This document criticized the British for levying unfair taxes, placing favorites in high positions and not protecting the western farmers from Indians. Americans boycotted the taxes; the British sent in troops. What ensued was the Boston massacre, which turned out to be the beginning of the end of British rule.

In 1773, the colonists decided the British would not monopolize and tax the sale of any one item, such as tea. On the night of December 16th, men from all ranks of society clandestinely boarded three, tea-filled Royal Navy ships and dumped cases and cases of tea into the harbor (the Boston Tea Party). Shortly thereafter, the Revolutionary War began and when America won the War, (and after the ratification of the Declaration of Independence) it was deemed a glorious occasion worthy of an annual celebration. John Adams - one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence - said: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance; it ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."

Recycle, Re-Use, Reduce.

About six months ago, I was at the Red Cross donating blood and noticed one of the volunteers collecting the tabs from the little orange juice cans. She donates them to some charitable organization, who then turns them in for cash. This made me wonder if the same could be done with water bottle caps.

I didn't really find a good way to handle the caps, but did learn that quite a few bottles that are put in the recycler with caps on are simply tossed out because it is too time consuming for workers to remove the caps.

Here is one explanation found on wiki.answers.com: (Most sites I looked at pretty much said the same thing.)

I've seen this question answered both ways. However, my research shows that plastic recycling is very complex and requires that the same types of plastics be seperated from other types so as to not ruin the meld. Also, just because plastic has the "chasing arrows" doesn't mean that they are recyclable. This just tells the trained eye what type of plastic they are. That being said, I've read that the tops of the water bottles are often made from a plastic resin which is obviously different from the plastic used to make the bottle. When plastic is recycled and melted down it is crusial that all the plastic is the same type. If one cap gets mixed into a batch, the batch is ruined. To be safe, I would at minimum remove the plastic bottle cap from the bottle to make the recycling process easier. Some people even throw the caps away in the garbage. http://www.gcbl.org/forum/can-i-recycle-the-caps-to-my-plastic-water-bottle.

I also learned that if a bottle still contains soda or is soiled, it can contaminate the batch as well. So those bottles cannot be recycled.

I have three recycle bins in my side yard. One that is provided from the city, where we toss all cardboard, milk cartons, newspapers, cereal boxes, etc. One that is mine for only plastic bottles and another for only aluminum cans. We clean everything out - but that is mostly to avoid attracting ants and rodents. Now I will start removing the caps as well.

So if anyone has a good art project for those bottle caps, let me know :-)

As a side note, I'm planning to go kayaking at Castaic Lake on Monday and this whole subject has reminded me of how filthy that lake is due, in large part, to the number of dirty diapers in it. How disgusting is that?! Come on people, use a trash can!

Seven Layers of Skin

Welcome to the world of mountain bike riding! Brandon was hauling butt around a bend, came upon a hiker, couldn't stop and, well, this is the result. Funny thing is that this didn't bother me nearly as much as the reports that a rattle snake and a coyote had crossed their paths. This happened yesterday (as did the coyote) but Drew was with them and that gave me a little sense of security, albeit probably a false sense of security.