Summer 2013 Recap

 Well HELLO THERE blog!!! It's been awhile. I have big goals to actually actively blog going forward (heard that one before?). I make no real promises, just putting my intentions out there.

So since I was last here, summer has come and (almost) gone... at least in the everyone is heading back to school sense. We have a growing chicken coop, 16 birds now. J is working hard as always, I changed jobs and am all settled in at the new place now. My knee is still bummed out; can't run longer than 1.5 miles or so - trying to find new training ideas that will help me lose weight (always the goal) and work on the continued rehab of my knee. I would love it if I could accomplish that half marathon goal before 2013 is over, I've eyed the local races through the rest of the year and have a target picked, if I can really start seeing improvement in time to actually train back up to that distance. We've spent time with family, kayaked, seen a couple of great concerts, had some beach days, just generally lived and enjoyed life.

Check back... hopefully I'll follow through and be regular with the blog again. 

Here's the summer in pictures...

 July

A dozen chicks hatched on July 1st.

4th of July on the roof, waiting for the shows to start.

Picked up a new sunshade at the flea market.

We enjoyed some evening bike rides at the lake.

Waiting for Counting Crows at the America's Cup Pavilion

The Bay Lights in San Francisco

Zeus checking on the chicks.

Ms. Molly celebrated her 12th birthday!

A great beach day @ Twin Lakes in Santa Cruz.

Waiting for Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z at Candlestick

The show! First time I had been to CandleStick in about 20 years. I'm glad I went before it's final season.

August

Kayaking on the SF Bay from Redwood City

Power tower on the Bay.

Awesome shorebirds on the Bay.

Catching up with the rooster!

The 'baby' birds moved to the coop.

One of the many ways that I used our zucchini.

The babies like to snuggle on each other.

Working on my running... took the dogs with me. Let's just call it interesting.

And finally we celebrated our 5th anniversary yesterday!!

Chickens!!! A 'spring' morning in the yard.

On Sunday the chickens got a little bit of 'free range' time. It was brisk and our yard does not get a whole lot of sun in the winter. In fact it stays wet and cold from the first rain through about May. The chickens were searching hard for what little bit of warming sunshine they could find.

This is one of the chicks that we hatched in September. A cross between the Rooster (Buff Orpington) and Jan (Americauna). He takes after his pops in that he is another rooster - his crow has laryngitis so far, but it definitely is there! He is so pretty though, I can't think of getting rid of him, I hope we can keep multiple roosters; I guess we will have to see how much noise they really make - and how they continue to get along.

Baby rooster and one of his sisters and his brother. That's right... two baby roosters plus Big Daddy Rooster. Apparently I need to practice my day old chick sexing techniques... not that I would have 'disposed' of a day old rooster if I had known he was one, I just don't have that in me. Too much of a softy for real 'homesteading'.

All 7 birds in one shot!! Rooster is still very much in charge. The rest respect him, can be seen moving swiftly out of his way when he is on a tear, and he will nip at me if he thinks I'm getting too touchy feely with any of his brood. Fortunately his nips are not aggressive.  I once had a fairly catastrophic encounter with a rooster who escaped the pen at my aunt and uncles house. Well at least it was catastrophic to my 5 year old self at the time - he flew up and bit me squarely on the nose [I like to think a scar still exists but I've always been a bit of a hypochondriac ;) ]. It was a big enough deal that I 'hated' all birds up until last March when I gave in to the notion of raising chicks. Fortunately I was right and the project of raising a chick from day old helped me bond with them as I watch them grow, so I was not disgusted by or afraid of them.

Now I look at this handsome guy and just think that he is fascinating and beautiful. He's inquisitive, smart, like to tease the dogs, and his crow is pretty awesome.

Nutcracker!!

Work has had one focus recently... The Nutcracker!! Well we opened this weekend and all was fantastic!! Plenty of background technical things to give me a few headaches, but when it came down to it, the performers were wonderful, the audiences were appreciative, and the reviews are good! Here's the one from the San Jose Mercury News, and here's another.

Today while I was working the Ballet Boutique our last customer of the day was a Bay Area sports hero, Mr. Steve Young! I was very excited to see that he and his family chose to come to Ballet San Jose for their Nutcracker experience. He was very gracious, taking lots of photos with fans, including mine!

Ballet San Jose has had a fun contest for patrons to submit Nutcracker themed photos of their kids or pets. These pictures are my submissions, even though I was ineligible to win tickets, a backstage tour, or the other goodies, I couldn't resist taking the photos of my pets.

 

 

 

I will continue to live in Nutcracker land right up until Christmas Eve. I hope that coming soon (maybe this week) I will get the chance to Christmasfy my own home... no big gifts this year, but I still want to find time to put up our tree and the lights outside.