Monday, April 28, 2008

Glorious Weekend


Hey!

So I just had a very productive and amazing weekend that I just have to share! So Saturday I woke up with my honey – after sleeping in a little – like 8am -9am – THAT’S LATE FOR ME! LOL! Anyhoo – so we got to the local Big 5 Sporting goods store to go find me either a glove or some tape to cover my old sticky handle of my freebie Tennis Racket I got from a friend with their grandparents pasted away – and ended up finding a really cool new Wilson tennis racket for only $24.99! Totally loved the way it looked and felt, couldn’t wait to try it out! Also got Ryan a backpack so he’d have something to put stuff in on our bike rides, got a great find there too! Like $15-25 and perfect for him!

Then we headed out on a bike ride, didn’t really plan on doing anything specific, just start going down the trails near our house and see where we end up! Well I live near Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa, and we ended up going almost all the way to Sebastopol, we went past Willowside Road and then found ourselves at a dead end… there were lots of ways to go we just wanted to see how far in that direction we could go.

So here are some pics… this was about 45-hour into our ride we were riding along this creek the whole time – but stumbled across this picturesque spot with bridges and vineyards down the side:


As we walked around checking out the scene Ryan notices a Mama duck and a whole slew of babies stuck in this fenced area – almost ALL sun… just feet from the creek… she was trying everything she could to find a way out that didn’t involve her leaving her chicks behind… after some thinking we decided to unlatch the latch of the fence, leaving the chain lock – so she could squeeze out… don’t know if she did… but the opportunity was left for her!

Later about 15-20 minutes down the trail we stopped again and found this neat scene:


And a male looking duck quacking down the creek looking for someone – maybe the mama duck and the babies? It’s a whole other world out there… so much fun!

Here is Ryan posing with his sexy new backpack – GERRR! ;)

The we continued on – past Willowside and found this place… unfortunately the pics don’t do it justice, because it was beautiful, luckily for us that it was there because the trail after Willowside to the dead end – was nothing but giant loose rocks and it was a horrific ride… but that one location made the perilous journey worth it!
So we turn around and about 5 miles from home (we ended up going a total of 13 MILES!!) I really started feeling tired – it was a lot of bike riding for a rekindling biker but the sun was beating down on us pretty good! After a little while of tired biking I suddenly see a giant black and white snake – Ryan says it was a King Snake literally like a foot or two ahead of me, and I couldn’t stop in time- I had to run him over!!! I freaked out and threw my legs up so he wouldn’t get me if he tried, I didn’t know what kind of snake he was – he just looked dangerous – after I ran him over – I felt soooo bad. Ryan said he was alive but squished… the way he was laying – all sunbathing and happy I ran him over like 3+ times in a single swoop! Poor dude! We made it back to civilization and stopped by Safeway for a sandwich.

After we were fed and dressed for regular life again, cleaned up – we went to a pet store and picked up two placostomous’s (I’m sure that’s not proper grammar) and went and introduced them to the tank – they couldn’t believe all the food there was to eat in my tank… I decided a while back that cleaning my tank killed my fish… so I stopped cleaning it… it’s FULL of algae – but also very happy fish! The placostomi’s were totally gorging it was hysterical to watch!

Later we went and picked up Josh and had a nice evening of Burgers and Fries from Stony Point Grill and Dr. Who.

Sunday I woke up with a slightly twisted ankle and it was Tennis day! So I took some advil and went anyway… maybe not the best plan – but we had a lovely time and my racket rocks! By the end of the day Ryan had me on couch arrest and I wasn’t allowed to walk anymore – I am a bad patient when it comes to things like that – he all but had to tie me to the couch to keep me off my ankle… but it seemed to work… I’m much better today!

All in all – it was a glorious weekend!
Hope you enjoyed my story and pics!

Much Love,
Kela

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Magical Journey

So I've been having some personal problems these days, fears for the future mostly. Haven't been sleeping, been late to work... all this fun jazz.... then last night Ryan and I were doing our regular routine... and suddenly remembered that we both had good bicycles now... so we decide to go outside and test them out. After a few minutes I got the hang of it again - its been a while - and this bike is a bit big for me... even with the seat all the way to the bottom, I can just barely touch my tippy toes to the ground - its good times I tell you! LOL.

Anyhoo- so after about 20 minutes or so driving around in our car port area... we venture onto the street and soon find a path past the last house on the cul-de-sac leading to a trail we'd never noticed before! Ryan and I slipped past the last house, thru a little ravine and voila - we were in beautiful nature... the ghetto neighborhood millions of miles away! We've lived here for close to 4 years and never saw this path before... Ryan and I have vowed to go riding every night we can, keep us in shape and unwind after a long day. We rode around for a good hour, hour or two until it got too dark to be safe... close to 9pm LOL. I ended up sleeping better then I have in ... well a LONG TIME... and woke up on time feeling refreshed! Who would have thought!?

Course I'm eating up time sitting here telling you my story... so I gotta get off to work!

Have a great day EVERYONE!
Much Love,
Kela

P.s - Thanks for reading!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Ode To Red


So long dear friend, its been wonderful journey. I remember the day I first saw Red, he was sitting under a tin roof awning sparkling clean with a feather in his visor. It was love at first sight. I got my license late - at the tender age of 20 and this was to be my first car. The first day I drove him, was the day he first became legally mine, I had gone with my brother to my parents house to pick it up on my lunch break, I worked a town away, and never really practiced driving this fickle stick shift 86 Nissan. As i slowly made it through the gears, my brother watching me in confusion in his rear view mirror, I knew we'd be together a while. I did make it back to work that day, but I apparently locked the steering wheel when I got out, because I couldn't get it to start when I got out of work. First day with the new car - not going so good. Ryan arrived to the rescue gently crushing my ego as with a flick of the wrist, he unlocked the wheel... damn him. Lesson learned - I guess.

I will always remember that truck-style Nissan aroma he had, and the time I accidentally hit the poll blocking the gas pumps. Thank you Red for all the comfortable rides, listening to my favorite music, and for teaching me how to respect a giant machine such as yourself. Thank you for giving me my respect for the manual transmission - automatics are for suckers! ;)

I ideally wanted to send you off in style - being blown up by the gang at Mythbusters, but you my friend are traditional, and dependable - not some wild myth prone vehicle. So as my final so long to you - I say thank you for all you've taught me and for all the great memories. May you keep other vehicles running for many years to come, and live out your days useful, and not sitting in our drive way covered in dust, and Spanish sayings I have yet to translate. A special Thank you to my neighbors for that contribution.

For those of you who do not know - today Red is being Junked.

May He Rest In Peace.

Love Always and Forever,
Kela

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

My Life Today.

Hey - I haven’t written in a while - well at least not on here. :D I’ve been working a bit on my "novel" - its a work in progress for sure - who knows if I’ll ever be satisfied or done with it... but its been good for me to write again. The story I’m writing is my story, the story of myself from a more insecure time in my life - its strange how something like this can leave you feeling empowered, and yet so vulnerable you don’t know what to do or say. For the most part I feel I’ve changed a lot since those old days of Teenage Angst to the Extreme and have become quite comfortable within my skin, and mind. Other times - I’m less convinced... but the more I realize this - the more I’m almost relieved! Part of who I am is this old girl - I don’t want to loose her, I want to embrace her and learn from her mistakes...

With all that said - my life is an interesting array of miss-match pieces - sorta like a puzzle - with most of the edge done... you can see where its going... but it doesn’t all make sense how all these little pieces are going to come together and work out to that beautiful picture on the box.

My job is good - and I’m thankful for it because of how terrible the job market is these days, however - my heart isn’t in it.. and I’m growing tired of faking it. I’m just going to keep going forward and pushing myself, I cannot deny that I have a great set up. Independence, good pay, benefits, a consistent challenge, great co-workers... but there are definitely some downsides.

Ryan is unemployed again - however he’s getting to take the time to really decide what he wants to do for the rest of his life, and its exciting to be part of this first step of the rest of our lives with him. He is still super baby minded - which just makes me laugh - yeah buddie - we are going to get pregnant while you are unemployed and we are still stuck in the ghetto! HA! What am I on "Cops"?

On the topic of moving out of our ghetto Apt. - the new plan which has been "the plan" before - is to share a 3 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood with Ryan’s buddy Josh. Which I think could be a great solution for all of us - if Ryan and I don’t scare him off. Last night I realized we are the bickering couple that makes people uncomfortable... so I mentioned this to Ryan this morning that if we need to talk about something - we should go in the other room if Josh in here... and Ryan agrees he needs to tone down his hostility when dealing with computers and other malfunctioning electronic deals... which is usually the cause of us bickering.

In other news - my sister Kara from PA (she’s the oldest on my dads side - his first daughter) came to town and it was great to see her - for the 2nd time ever, the last time was like 6+ years ago! She is too cute. My other two sisters, Nicki and Angela have been playing tennis, basketball and running every Sunday for the past few Sundays and plan on keeping it up, that mixed with my Yoga on Tuesday’s - I’m really starting to feel my body reacting positively! It’s a good thing. :D

Last - I am having a strange friend situation - since the wedding - most of my friends have sorta been MIA - I’ve seen Lily 3-4 times since then - the most of any of them - and she lives the most far away! Besides my awesome cousin Rachel, but I don’t expect to see her often - she lives all far away! Its funny though, but with them being gone I’ve found myself more inclined to spend time with other people I may not spend that much time with, the girls from work, family... the girls from work have proven to be quite a lot of fun, and a fun new support system I am enjoying to have around.

Not sure what all this means - just wanted to write and share my thoughts.
Hope you enjoyed!

Much Love,
Kela