Saturday, February 26, 2011

Newt crossing!

neat, Joe just handed me a thumb drive with some pics on it, so uh, read the post prior to this, and then look at the pics. Do as I command!! Or don't, whatever.



Newts!! Neato!!


I want to be a part of the ecological study.... I mean, not a part of it, but I want to be the one studying the ecology... Or something? I wanna run around the woods!


Double rainbow from our bedroom balcony Sat morning. Pretty...



Me after wine tasting on Friday on Cannery Row.


It's a pterodactyl!! AAAaaaa!!!


Happy post!

Since my last post was so complainy, I figured I should post a quick one about today, cuz it's been a very good day (even though my back is KILLING me, but that's the last I'll mention it, because luckily Joe also has back problems, woo! so he has a bunch of drugs lying around that I'm gonna take.)!

Anywho.

We got to sleep in all late (which for us is around 9:30), then we headed to REI to get some wine glasses for our upcoming camping trip in Death Valley. I pointed out that we could just drink wine out of regular glasses or even nalgene bottles, but he just gave me a look of death and insisted that we drink wine out of the proper glasses. Whatever. Then we headed to Paraiso winery in the Santa Lucia highlands because we'd never been there and we've liked most of the wine. I was absolutely thrilled to see snow covering all the hills, so pretty!! So we had some yummy wine and bought a few bottles and then took the long way back here, through Carmel Valley. Joe said he thought he saw some snowflakes, but I told him that he was crazy cuz it was still 46. But! The temp kept dropping! And soon the occasional snowflake turned into actual snow!! It was very exciting. I was bouncing up and down in my seat and shrieking like an overexcited 6 year old. So fun! Alas, Joe didn't want to stop. Until!! OMG!!! Coolest thing ever!!!! (I'll put pics up later) There was a newt crossing sign!! An actual, official, Please Do Not Run Over the Newts sign!! So then we had to stop so we could take a pic of it. Because, seriously, OMG!! EEEEEeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SNNNOOOOOWWWW!!!! and NNNNEEEWWWTTTTSSSS!!! Ok, to be fair, we obviously saw no newts, but Joe promised that the next time it rains when it's at all warm out we can drive up there and go newt hunting.

Then we drove back into Carmel, went out to eat and our server happened to be a former CPK employee, so that was fun. Then back to PG where we had to drive by Asilomar because it was breathtakingly beautiful out. We even had to pull over to gape at the ocean and the clouds. We were there right at sunset and the waves were all huge and angry looking and there were lots of white caps, but the air was so clear that we could see individual trees in Santa Cruz. It looked like we were looking across a river. So cool! Unfortunately taking pics of scenes like that is really hard. They never come out looking as amazing as they do in real life, so we didn't even take any, but trust me. It was pretty.

And now I'm home! Yay!

Is that a cheery enough post? :)

Friday, February 25, 2011

Stupid rain! And facebook! And blogspot! And work!


Of course, I decide to write about every hike I go on in an attempt to keep my blog more up to date, and what happens? Rain. Endless, ceaseless, annoyingly cold and dreary rain. Needless to say, we haven't really be able to go hiking. We were going to try to go on Sunday, but the snow level is down to 500 feet tonight. And no, I did not forget a '0' there. Joe thinks we'll see flurries here in PG, but that it just won't stick. Last night it was raining so hard that I couldn't sleep because it was too loud. Stupid rain. Right now it's sunny and 50 degrees, but I'm sure it wont stay like that long. Bah.

We did manage to sorta hike last... uh... Sat? Sun? We'll just say last weekend. Because most of the trails that we wanted to go on were closed due to the rain and mud, we ended up just walking along Old Coast Road, which is the little dirt road right before (or after, depending on which direction you're coming from) Bixby Bridge.




If you've ever seen a car commercial you should be fairly familiar with this site, although usually the angle is from the other side. This is a pic from Old Coast Road itself. I was going to put up a better pic that Joe took, but apparently you can't just copy pics from facebook anymore. Annoying!

I have a cat laying on my feet. She's very cute and all, but I kinda need to move them (my feet) because they're falling asleep. Sorry Cassie.

Anywho, so the road starts off with nice views of the scrub covered hills, pretty typical of the area, then almost immediately goes down into a nice mossy, foresty valley.


(Can I take a brief moment to complain about how difficult putting pics on here is? Why do they automatically go up at the top, instead of where I was typing? Do I have it set wrong? Cuz it is a major pain in the ass to have to move the pics down every time.)

There were a few cars that passed us as we were walking along, but it was still very nice. Lots of pretty little streams, a cute little mouse, etc. And I just tried to put up pics of that, but because they're vertical and the little box for typing is so small, it wont let me move them past the other vertical pic of Joe walking along the road. It's probably a good thing you can't hear me, because there is some language that is inappropriate for some audiences. Point being, there are going to be no more pictures in this entry. In which case, it's kinda pointless to go over the hike in any more detail, cuz you really do need the visuals. I mean, when I tell you that we stopped at the crazy gate withe spikes, barbed wire, and 4 locks, it means a lot more when you can see how truly insane that thing was. There are pics on my facebook, but that's not the point dammit!! AARGGG!!!!

*ahem*

So, moving on! I am officially done with my apartment in Marina, woo!! I've basically been living with Joe since December, but since my lease isn't up until March, we've been taking our time. I already did my final walk though and all though, and should be getting my deposit back soon. The guy looked at it for about 30 seconds before declaring it immaculate and told me that I'll get everything back from my deposit except for the carpet cleaning. I seriously never thought that anyone would ever call my apartment immaculate, but I guess miracles do happen! I've been working very hard to keep Joe's apartment (and my current place) clean though, which I'm sure he appreciates. But talking about cleaning apartments is boring. So I'm not going to anymore.

Let's see... I switched to working only days, which has been nice. This way I have the same schedule every week (Mon-Thurs, in at 11:30ish, out at 3:30ish), and I get to see Joe. And I have weekends, woo!! Still no luck on surgical tech jobs though. The career services person emailed me yesterday about a surgery center that was hiring, but it was in Bakersfield. She knows that I don't live there anymore, or, should at least. I've spoken to her on the phone a few times, and the last time she started with "How's Monterey?" so I was a little confused by the email. Whatever. Finding a real job might make my life tricky right now anyway, because I have a lot of trips planned for the next few months. We're going to Death Valley at the end of March, Mount Shasta in June, and I believe Mass. in July. Which is not to say that I'm not still trying, it's just that there is a part of me that is appreciating still having a job that is so flexible. Although I am starting to get really tired of serving, and minor annoyances that happen every day are getting very irritating. Like when you're sitting at a table by yourself with 4 menus down, and I walk up and ask if I cant get you anything while you're waiting for the rest of your party, the correct response is not "Oh hi! I'm waiting for my friends!" No shit. I didn't actually think that you needed 4 menus all to yourself, and I did just acknowledge the fact that there are more people coming. Joe thinks I need to start writing about all the annoying things that people do in restaurants, but I'm pretty sure it's just because he's tired of hearing me whine about it.

I'm sure no one wants to listen to me whine though, and since I've already whined about facebook, blogspot, the weather, and my job, I think I'll stop now.