Bike Rodeo 2011

It's that time of year to dust off the bike, put air in the tires and participate in the Bike Rodeo held at school.



Tyler has competed in this event ever since he's been allowed which is the 3rd-5th graders. The kids take a written test on bicycle safety then do several courses that can earn them a maximum of 100 points.

It was a great day since the weather has warmed up considerably and everyone seemed to be in great spirits.

Entering/exiting and staying within the circle.

Staying upright as long as you can until the end of the course or when your foot touches the ground.

This year went above and beyond the past rodeos because the Torrance motorcycle officers showed up to demonstrate and the local cable access was there too to interview the kids. Of course, my kids wanted to get on camera and it was very cute. Josh kept holding onto the mike and Tyler was extremely confident and poised. :)

More March Madness (socks that is)

In an attempt to find new ways to photograph my socks, I used my neighbor's birdbath as a backdrop. It works very well, doncha think?



Or this photo on the steps.

Mt. Waterman

Chair 1.

On Saturday, Sherri and I took our snowboarding trip to Mt. Waterman. It was our first time there and we had a great time. The drive was pleasant and scenic. We had moments of being in the clouds then deep blue skies. It took us about 2 hours to get there and that was me being a tad slow since I wasn't familiar with the roads .

Warming hut.

It's a small, family run place that is quaint and charming with no frills. There are only 3 chair lifts and when we arrived, only chair 1 was working with chair 2 almost ready and chair 3 was still being dug out. All the recent storms left a nice base of 5 feet and the temp was about 50* at the most with nice drifting clouds.

On our way up.

Chair 2.

I don't think I would pay full price for a lift ticket ($50) but I got us half price tickets off Groupon a while ago so that turned out well. The runs are on the short side but it all worked out well for Sherri since she hasn't snowboarded in over a year and still needed to work on her basic skills.
The runs were not crowded so she had plenty of room to practice. I usually let her go first to watch her and she usually fell once but after lunch I went first, glanced over my shoulder surprised to see her right behind me following, continue on and she still is keeping up. That run was the break through for her. Monkey see, monkey do. :)

Sherri in action.

So now we need to get Sherri (and Hannah) to go again this season for more practice. Mammoth, anyone??

March Socks

My mystery socks are finished!!

I had to get some extra car keys made and I completed the toes while waiting. :)



The pattern said to start decreasing for the toe 2 inches before and that's what I did but they feel a tad short on my feet. That's okay since I was planning to give them to Kathy, my friend since the 2nd grade and her shoe size is 8.5 so I think they will be perfect for her.

A rush job on the photograph but you can see them okay. I'll try for better ones later...

Tonight is the Lady Gaga concert!! :)

Vellamo Socks

On sock blockers before washing.

Toasty toes.

Side view.

Yay, these are finally done. Well, they were done yesterday but I wanted to wash and block them. The colors are so cheerful and socks are toasty warm. :) The pattern is very nice, not too challenging and it'll be a great way to get rid of those leftovers. Win-win.

This one came out great. Yay for articulating screen and Live View.

Nothing beats showing off the socks on real human feet.  The tricky part is getting a good photo of them while wearing them and contorting my body and camera without hurting myself. Ha.

Afternoon

I spent an hour yesterday afternoon roaming the Madrona Marsh which has experienced a record year of rain and boy does it show. Lots of birds such as ducks and others I can't identify take advantage of the water.









It is nice to have this nature preserve tucked away in the heart of Torrance to enjoy.

Snails and Socks

A break in between storm systems gave us a gorgeous morning. I am up to the ribbing in my Vellamo socks so they'll be finished later today. :)

I love the pink and teal together!

Close-up. My colorwork is definitely much better than when I first began.

I didn't bring my camera with me when I took the kids to school and of course, I saw a snail on our neighbor's wall on my way home. I grabbed my camera and macro lens. When I originally saw the snail it was heading downwards toward the sidewalk but when I came back out, it had turned around and was heading upwards.

Thank goodness for macro. Gross things.

I'm adding this to 50 steps since it is within my parameters.

Thanks snail since I was worried that I would have to lay on the sidewalk to get in really close.

2 More Points

Time to get pumped up for the playoffs although, it's going down to the end for about 6 teams wondering if they'll even make it. The video is from a year ago but it's still cool.



Kings beat Flames last night in a shootout. NO pics since Hector went with He-Man last night. Hector said that He-man intimidated the Calgary Flamers fans next to them into little whispery cheers. Nice.

Rainy Weekend

The rain took a while to get here but it came down in dramatic fashion Sunday. Lots of wind gusts along with pouring rain and some blackouts along the way.

We happened to be eating lunch at King Taco when the power went out. Thank goodness we already got our food but some unlucky customers couldn't order and I'm not sure if the people waiting for their orders could get their food.

We then headed over to Insight gun range. It was our first time shooting there and it was packed. I guess the weekend and the rain brought extra people in and it was an hour wait. Ha, but I come prepared and brought my Vellamo socks to work on. :) I'll post pictures from the gun range later...

The swings at the park become a pond.

This morning (Monday) there was a break in the rain when I took the kids to school so I hauled the big 100mm macro lens out to find some rain drops. I found much more and had fun although the ominous clouds coming in cut my shooting time short.

Two big branches broke off this tree in the park.

Keep dry in SoCal because there's more rain coming!!

Super Moon

Here is a great page showing the super moon from around the world, click here. Unfortunately, here in LA it was gray and cloudy so I barely could see the moon.



Last night Hector and I went to the Ducks vs Kings game which is always a battle. Well, the game was good and both teams wanted those 2 points that will help in the playoff race. The Ducks scored first and the Kings spent the other periods trying to score which they did to tie it up. The game went to overtime and the Ducks scored and won. So the Ducks get the 2 points and the Kings get 1 point.




We've been pretty lucky when the Ducks come to LA where the Ducks fans around us have been nice yet love their team. They can cheer and boo but some fans just take it further. Last night a family of Ducks fans sat right behind us, Dad, Mom and young son (about 6-8). That little kid had a mouth of him, not the cussing kind but the annoying kind of chatter and loud. If any King fan cheered or called out, this boy would change the wording to benefit his team. For example, Go Kings Go became Boo Kings Boo. I was fine with that (at first) then it became obvious that he couldn't come up with a chant of his own. There are waaay too may to list but his parents didn't say anything to him, they just let him babble, chatter and yell. The dad did mention to be respectful when the kid decided to scream at our ear level but other than that, he had free rein. I could see into the future that kid will be become into that ultimate fanatic that gets obnoxious and drunk at the game.




It's a game. I'm fine with that.

50 steps: Outside side yard edition

Rain is forecast for the weekend but it hasn't started yet. I decided to a quick 50 steps shoot and kept it around our side yard.


The people who owned the house before us planted some really durable plants since I do absolutely nothing to help prolong their lives yet they live.



This poor bike has seen better days...

Blender Socks

Pick some random leftover sock yarn.

I keep starting new socks!! This time I'm trying to use my leftover sock yarn from other projects so these are appropriately called Blender Socks.




Follow the recipe until you run out of yarn and change colors. Fun. It's interesting to see how my 2 socks look different yet similar. The orange and purple yarn are from the same yarn but at different points so I wouldn't be able to get them to match now. I like it and they do look like they've been put into a blender. :)
It's mindless knitting so these are fun to do in front of the TV.

Knitting Away...

I found my sock knitting mojo lately as my 3 pairs in progress can attest to. Clue 3 came out Monday night and I let a couple of days go by since I was a bit confused as to how to proceed since each sock needed to be rotated in different directions to make the pattern mirror images of each other.

These are the lace challenge although it's not as lacy as I thought it would be which is a good thing!

Luckily, other talented knitters understand and post their results while other ask questions to clarify things. I read all the posts, make notes and study photos and as a result, my socks came out how they're supposed to. Yay!

Pretty shades of pink to brighten my day.

Now I have to wait until Monday night for Clue 4 but that's okay, I've other projects to do.

Thrills and Agony

A bright spot for today. Josh's basketball photo. Very cute. He was especially happy that I gave him a Prince of Persia LEGO set for his great season. Josh didn't score a basket but he did make some great passes that led up to scoring.

Now onto last night's Kings game. Really bad. Quick (goaltender) was the only one to play well in the first 2 periods then it deteriorated when the Blues began peppering him with shots and the Kings were shutout 4-0. Boo.

People started leaving early so Kat and I went to the front to sit for the last 5 minutes. All I can say is that the Kings better be ready for Saturday's game against the Ducks.

Terrifying yet hilarious

Double Dipping

I'm counting these as show n tell for my knit in progress and 50 steps since I'm confined to the house with a sick child.


These are called Vellamo socks that are nice, pretty colors of spring. It's also a good way to use up various bits of leftover sock yarn. Striped socks with an added colorwork charts.


Side view of socks. Need to continue striping and another chart near the top. They fit my feet pretty well so far. I'm looking forward to the finished pair.

Another One Down

Well, now Tyler has the sickness. It started last night with him throwing up last night (twice) and again this morning. Sigh. Poor guy, I can tell he isn't feeling well since he's laying in bed with a low fever.



Here is a cute picture when we boarded the ship. Little did we know that practically 17 out of 19 people in our group would eventually get sick. Uff.

More of the Same

Today I uploaded photos from Hector's camera that I brought on the cruise. Nothing extraordinary or different but Hector's camera is waterproof up to 10 feet so it does come in handy.






Unfortunately the water in the pool was really really cold, so I didn't go in at all. Tyler was okay with it for the most part and Josh went in only once and spent the rest of his time in the jacuzzi.





Enjoy the pictures. Apparently, a lot of our group came down with flu- like symptoms in the last week.

Monday

It was nice to have this Monday morning where I didn't have to rush off to accomplish a task. I walked around the neighborhood with Sherri while looking at houses, chatting and drinking Slurpees.




Hot coals only.


Beware of attack alligator.