Oops, didn't update...

The last update never showed up! That's okay, here's a quick run down.

 

We went to the meteor crater and then to the Lowell Observatory in one day.

 

We went to the Grand Canyon and it was beautiful, just like last time. Very beautiful!

 

We drove to New Mexico. Today I picked up my van. I will have to post pictures when it isn't raining anymore. It's SO COOL! It has the front two seats (driver seat/ passenger seat) the two seats behind it turn in a 360. Then there is the back bench that turns into a bed. Behind that is a CLOSET! WOOHOO! The two front seats lay down flat to make a bed with the two back bucket seats. I will definitely be posting pictures of it tomorrow. I love it!

 

Tomorrow we'll be heading to TX. I'll try to post an update during the trip stops.

 

Dotchi

Here is Mendel with his sculpture. It is so strong that it can hold up this skillet full of pancakes (approximately 4 pounds)

Standing on a corner in winslow arizona with seven women on my mind

We're standing on a corner in Winslow

Enjoying the mountain air! (Or lack of...)

Man, I forgot about the altitude change. We came from sea level to something like 3,000 ft above sea level in a day. I thought I had a touch of a headache, but I brushed it off because I ALWAYS have a headache. It's nothing new. But then I got out of bed to go pee and got a touch dizzy and lightheaded. I made it downstairs to the bathroom just fine but I didn't put 2 and 2 together until Mendel 1.0 started reading about "altitude sickness" and listing symptoms. I am fine now. Took me a little while to adjust, but other than that, it was just a nice reminder of how nice it is to have oxygen!

The kids- Miles, Mendel and Sara's son Jeff, have been outside playing all day or watching TV. They built a fort in the woods behind the cabins and made some friends. I've sat around being lazy and surfing the internet, answering emails and enjoying Sara's cooking. She is a great cook! I am going to adopt her and take her to TX with me. I got to sleep in this morning. So far, basically, I haven't done very much. I am actually starting to FEEL lazy, which generally means I am over vacationing and ready to act like a non-lazy person again. Wow. It took about a month when I moved to San Diego to get over that feeling. Here, one day. It's nice. I might actually wash dishes in the morning... who am I kidding? They have an automatic dishwasher!

Tomorrow we check out and we'll probably go see the crater. Hopefully the Grand Canyon because I REALLY want Mendel 1.0 to see it. It is quite awe inspiring.

I finally came out of the cabin to do laundry. It was that or camp in a nudist colony and I didn't want to traumatize the nudists. I'm not so much fluffy as I am floppy. While the kids would remember it forever, I don't think anyone wants to be blinded by my pasty white skin. No, I am not really this brown. It's a tan. Under my clothes is skin the color of the Pillsbury Doughboy. The clothes are drying now and I am going to go play online until they are done.

In a cabin in the woods....

We are in an A frame cabin, actually. But anyway, it is LOVELY here. We met up with Sara and Jeff somewhere, I wasn't paying attention to where we were, I was taking pictures of the clouds. Now that I have cooled off...

The heat in the desert was miserable. I was melting. And to top it off we do not have air conditioning in the car. It only reached 110 yesterday, compared to 111 the day before. I thought I would DIE! I did have a teeny allergy attack and a slightly discolored chin because of it. But at least now we have a vehicle with A/C now so all is cool LOL.

Well, Sara is done cooking breakfast! So I better run. I have to do laundry today but I will post more later and hopefully get some pictures up here too. Til then!

We made it safe and sound to Flagstaff and we are setting up the cabin.

Mendel exploring the area

My two Mendel's at a rest area in southern Arizona.

We are in Arizona now!

We are in Arizona near the Mexican Border. We'll be heading to Flagstaff shortly. Mendel 1.0 is trying to fix the air conditioning in the volvo right now. It is HOT here. Okay, so it isn't TN, heat and humidity hot. But it is still hot. At least I can handle this heat. I think I will lose weight here for sure, I sweat about as much as I drink, maybe more. Hell has competition. But the town we're in is nice, the people are friendly and most signs are in spanish. I have been practicing what little spanish I know, which isn't much. I have been amusing myself trying to figure out what the signs say that are written in spanish. So far, I am doing better than I thought. I can read spanish better than I can speak it.

 

The boys are melting but having fun for the most part. They got to watch TV last night and this morning. That is a big treat for them. They think it's funny that dad's "vacation" is into the pits of hell (the heat that is) and we've been giggly amongst ourselves. Must be his TN training. See, some good comes out of TN. Well, I better run for now, we have 20 minutes to check out. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon. I had to charge my cell phone.

--
Dotchi
http://dotchi.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday to Miles!!!

Miles is another year older today! He is 12 years old now! One more year and he'll be a teenager! UGH! My baby is growing up!

Today he got to go swimming to scrub the neighbors boat. He was thrilled. Mendel 2.0 and I drive to the North Island Commissary to get him a cake and had them put "Happy Birthday Miles" on it. I forgot to get pictures of it before we sang the birthday song, cut the cake and ate it. But it was a 1/8 sheet cake done in blue. It had a hot wheels car on top that clocks the speed (to scale) of the car. That was my decoration, they don't really have one like that.

Tonight we are going to the movie at North Island to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3. It's free :) I love the perks of Navy life.

So happy birthday to my Navy baby!

PS... we leave town in 3 days. We'll head to Arizona to buy the van and see the Grand Canyon and then head to Texas to visit family. We'll be back by the end of August for sailing camp. But I'll work on keeping the blog updated.

Later, Dotchi

I am a new AUNTIE!

My brother Daniel and his wife Yuri had baby girl!!!

 

Aurora is 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long and born about an hour ago!

 

Way to go you two! I am so happy for you! I'll have to try to get out there to see the beebee soon. Just HAD to let everyone know!

 

Dotchi

Interview with Dotchi

A request from a blog reader (who asked me not to post names) asks me to post an interview on my blog. Okay. There were no questions with the request so I went online and searched for questions to answer. My internet is terrible out here so I am making some up, calling Donna for some and I would like everyone to post a question too. Here we go:

 

What is your favorite color?

 

I don't really have a favorite color. Right now I am on a red kick because it is easy to see on a boat. I have a read hat, red purse, red sunglasses, red hair ties and a red household notebook.

 

Do you have any hobbies?

 

Yes. I love blogging, photography and writing. I like to read, I love sailing and swimming. I love to travel and try different foods. I would love to get back into crocheting, knitting and sewing, but the boat is only so big. If I put everything in here that I wanted to keep, it would sink!

 

Do you miss Tennessee?

 

Not really. I miss Penny and I miss my in-laws. I miss having my own quiet land in the middle of nowhere. But I don't miss the heat and humidity, the staying inside all the time or living an hour from civilization. I need a time warp to go in between TN and San Diego and then I would be VERY happy!

 

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

 

Right here at The Cove. I would only sail out. I would have a store right here that has everything I ever needed. I would never leave except to go sailing to other ports. I just love it here (except the internet could be better). That would be just lovely! Once we get a live aboard slip, we'll be living here 24/7 and that will be GREAT!

 

Who do you admire most?

 

Leslie Bradshaw, for giving her life being a devoted friend.

 

What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?

 

Sitting here at The Cove answering interview questions for my blog. I'll have 3 books out, have a successful blog and be a millionaire. I can dream!

 

And that is all the time I have for now. I am going to go make manwiches for lunch for the boys. They are over at a friends house right now. I think I'll start answering the homeschooling questions next.

 

More pictures to come later this week! Keep looking!

 

From Overcast San Diego,

Dotchi

PS I thought it June Gloom out here? It's July. Why is it still cloudy?

 

 

Our trusty foredeckman. He hanked on the jib sail under sail

Our trusty captain of the day. Captain speedy. (we Are passing everyone)

Mendel and his buddy playing in the while we sail.

Here are some really teeny detailed planes that Mendel 2 built after watching Victory At Sea.

My sailor in training! Yes he is really doing it himself.

Transformers- sneak preview!

Got your attention? It had mine too. We showed up over an hour early, had to park 2 blocks away and walk to the theater and then stood in line for 30 minutes to find out that all the seats were full. I was so pissed. But I decided to take the California attitude of "no worries" and took the boys to the Pizza Parlor. Pizza in California sucks, but not as bad as standing in the sun for 30 minutes to find out that you couldn't get into a sneak preview.

We played air hockey and pool and pinball. Air hockey is oodles of fun, until your finger gets between the puck and the hitting thingy. What do they call that anyway? That HURTS! I can still feel it. I mean, poor Mendel... yea. Miles and I played pool our way. He got the 8 ball in so technically he lost. But since that was such a short game, we agreed to play until someone had all their balls in the pockets and had hit the cue ball in too. It was fun. Miles kept hitting the ball off the table Bahaha! Then we walked back to the car and went to Starbucks for coffee.

So I noticed that on the side of my Starbucks cup is the following quote:

The Way I See It #258

Because true conservatives are pessimists, they are happier than liberals, for three reasons. First, pessimists are rarely surprised. Second, when they are wrong they are delighted to be so. Third, pessimists do not put their faith in princes - in government. They understand that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. Happiness is an activity; it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
George F. Will - Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist.

And apparently this man has not run into the conservatives I know. Although they are great people to borrow money from because they expect you will never pay them back... they are NOT the happiest people I know. In fact, they delight in telling you that you will burn in hell for being "wrong"... come to think of it, I can't think of many conservatives who would even admit they are wrong. They tend to be happy because they are making everyone miserable. But hell, we are all human, right? Well, except for my mom, I think she fell off of Mars or something.

Conservatives, hell and crazy people aside, why is this on the side of my cup of coffee? I just wanted to drink my venti terrazzo filled to the syrup square, watered down to the shots square, whitened to the decaf square, sweetened with sugar and iced. I'm not too picky about it all. I mean, I just wanted to drink the damned cup of coffee without having to disagree or agree with the quote on the side of cup and then have to hunt down the HTML code so I could post it on this blog. So I read that it is a conversation starter. It's meant to get people talking to each other. Are we so anti-social now that we have to have quotes plastered everywhere so we can start a conversation? Probably so.

Take the bus ride the other day. I was asking the bus driver how to get to the 923 route and he pointed to a sign. I thought it was going to be something like "get off at 3rd and Broadway" but it only had a hamburger and a drink in a circle with a slash through it and under it was "Food and Drink Prohibited" in English and Spanish. Couldn't he just say "You can't have your drink out, Ma'am, please put it up."? No, he had to have a quote from the California department of transportation to help him.

I am not trying to be all social and start conversations. If I wanted to do that, I'd go on an internet chat room and start chatting with a bunch of abbreviations and misspelling words to make it faster and easier.

On Monday I am sailing from the ASW base to the south bay area where we will dock at The Cove for the next 13 days or so. If I don't blog after that, then I probably sunk the boat Bahaha! I'll send pictures.

Tomorrow we will be going to the theater to watch Shrek the 3rd. I've heard mixed reviews. I'll let you know what I think when we get back. Probably in the evening though.

Tomorrow is also the FIRST DAY of JulNoWriMo! I am so darned excited!