Our first Desert Race

We had decided to ride in our first desert race. Here we are at sign-up.









Here the girls are asking each other " what the heck did we get ourselves into?"














'A' and her friend 'H' were going to race as beginners, and I was going to chase them. Chasing them was tougher then racing. whew! The start is a dead start. Which means all bikes are shut off, and you have to wait for the flag to drop, then you can start your bike, and take off. They had a good start. Lots of dust, it was nearly blinding, but it thinned out quick.









We caught up to a few people, at a big sand hill. We did not get through it cleanly, and it was just the begining. The girls did real well in some very rough sections. they went through some hellish sand, and lots of rocks, and old river washes. They had the toughes time with the hills. Believe it or not there are some large hill climbs out there. Between the two of them the probable had about 12 falls. 2-3 hills each that they had difficulty negotiating. It is hard to build up speed to climb the hills, because there are lots of large bumps at the bottom, are a sharp turn, and you need speed power or lots of skill to get up the hill at that point. We were scheduled to 2 laps (23miles each) but we took too much time, and we only completed one lap. The girls took a beating, and they were exhausted. Here is an "after" picture.














Here is a picture of Kelly ( in the white and black) and the girls. Kelly came along for his first desert ride, and really seemed to enjoy himself. We borrowed a 250 for him from another generous friend. This is also the bike I need to get Amber next. She is just too big for her 80.


















A quick vid of 'A'riding by:

Chargers advance in PLayoffs

We watched the Chargers beat the Tenessee Titans on Sunday to advance in the post season NFL playoffs.

Thirteen long years after their last postseason victory, the Chargers finally came to life late in the second half Sunday to beat the Tennessee Titans 17-6 in an AFC wild-card game.

Now it is on to Indianapolis Colts. Indianapolis? My sister is in Indy. This is going to be good!

Christmas, pageant, and Christmas morning

"S" had a Choir Christmas concert. Of course, to be politicaly religous neutral, they sang "Holiday nights", and they sang of every ethnicity. so we had to set through a song for every religion, and race.... She did a good job, here is a video.:





Ah Christmas morning. The girls got a lot of clothes, and a guitar hero for the playstation. We went down to Kims parents house for what might be the last Christmas at that house. I was fortunate enough to recieve a very nice Ryobi cordless power tool kit. (drills, saws, sander, vacuum, radio,. tool bag)










Dec. 24th, and 26 were golfing days. I did not get any pictures, but we wore shorts and short sleeved shirts, and enjoyed some beautiful weather. The girls both golfed, and did very well. I may have to get her on the highschool golf team. We also went to the Del Mar state beach, where you can bring your dog. We brought my good friend Kelly who is stationed out here in the Navy, attached to the Marines. We Met up with a friend of mine and his family we ride motorcycles together, and our daughters play ball together. He had his Great Dane out there. The beach was full dogs, babes, families, and a horse.

The show, and the Snow

Saturday started off with The girls and I going to the international motocycle show in Long Beach Convention center. We picked up Kelly, and made our way up to LA. 2hrs.
All the manufacturers were there with their new models, and all kinds of vendors, and exibitors with there new products, and liquidating their old products. The girls got all kinds of stickers, sat on bikes, and watched a streetbike stunt show. Kelly and I got our eyes filled with other eye candy as well.



Sunday morning was a break in the rain. We loaded up the trunk, and we took Kelly, and went to the Cuyamaca mountains outside of San Diego. It is about a 45min drive, and we were in snow!
We took a few pictures, threw a few snowballs, and drove to a lake resort and got a cup of hot chocolate. We drove to the Indian reservation, where there is a outlet mall. bought a few items. We had to.. its Kims law! Had some dinner at the Casino, at the outletmall/ Casino. and we made our way home







My first snowball in years

Chino Hills Holiday Classic

We had another overnight tournament this past weekend. IT was cold! The Chino Hills Holiday Classic. was almost rained out, but the facility has artificial turf. This stuff is top of the line stuff. The pouring rain had minimal effect on it.during the day it was 50-55 deg., and when the sun went down, it dipped to 35 deg.. We bundled up, used heaters and blankets. We could see snow in the mountains just north of us about 10-15 miles away. The 14u team that I coach, and 'A' plays on, made it to the semi finals, where we met a very strong team from Cerritos, and lost 9-1. We tried everything, but just couldn't hit the ball. The 10u team met some girls that were obviously overaged, and outsized us. The 10's gave everyone they met, the best they could, but when you are playing teams from Orange county, lets face it, they are the best in the U.S. which makes them the best in the world. Softball is done for now. we will take about 1-2 months off, and we are going to try to go riding, and do some golf. We got the Christmas lights up on Monday, but I did not get any pictures yet.

We are the Champions!

What a great Thanksgiving Day weekend we had.
We went out to Las Vegas for the Annual T-giving classic Softball tournament. Every year we finish aroiund .500 win vs. loss. This was also the first year that Mira Mesa had a 10u team for the little ones. The 10u team is new, and had a large learning curve., But 'S' hit for the cycle ( a single, double, tripple, and home-run) her home run was hit very far, and recieved a huge ovation. She played 2nd base very well, and even turned a double play.

The 14u team Which I coach, and 'A' plays on, had a great weekend. We had 2 wins, and a tie on Saturday, and @ wins on Sunday to win it all A' was aable to pitch quite a bit, and did very well. She also played shortstop. She batted well, and is showing a lot of power in her hitting. We had a nail-biter of a game for the Championship against Pico Rivera, we led 5-0, the they tied it up 5-5, then we squezed in 2 runs by bunting, to lead 7-5. 'A' was the pitcher for the first 4 iniings, and was taken out. Our relief pitcher was hit in the face by a one-hop shot, and it took her out of the game. Amber came back in, and two girls hit hard off of her, and we caught them out in the outfield, to seal the win.
It was a glories win that I am still high from. The girls played great, and were sooo happy. here are some pictures:
















We had one poor young girl pitching, and the batter drove a ball back, and drilled her after it bounced once, and she went down, and needed attention for her contusion. check out the lump:

Overnight in the Desert

We finally took the whole family for an overnight trip to the Desert. More specifically, the sand dunes of Glamis Ca. It is a recreational area of thousands of acres of san dunes. It was a busy weekend, with about 40k - 50k people. The camping areas were very full, and the dunes were not too bad. We stayed with a great group of people from our softball community. Some family's had trailers, campers, RV's, and tents. We set up a tent, that was designed for warm weather camping ( such as the desert). The only problem with that is that it can get very cold at night in the desert. There were a few drawbacks, too many people, dust, noise, one of our quads broke down, got cold at night.
On the plus side, Kim came out with us.
The riding was great.
The kids were able to learn lots of riding techniques in the sand, and the sand hills. We had a veriety of vehicles to ride, and share. Quads, dune buggies, motorcycles, a razor, and a jeep.

We rode out to a big sand hill named "Oldsmobile" and the girls had never seen something so big, and they were able to get on some quads, or motorcycles that were strong enough to make it up. Both "A" and "S" went up the hill by themselves. Yahoo!
Here are some pictures:

Halloween 2007

The fires have died down. The Harris fire To the South, and East of San Diego, is 100% contained. So it was safe to go out trick or treating. "A" dressed up as little miss Muffet, and "S" was a pirate girl.





















Kim like every year went as a witch. :)


















The dog even got into the spirit.

Fire and Desert

Well at the end of the week the fires started to disapate, but the skys were still red, and yellow. got a picture of the sunset.


















We decided to get out of the heat and the dust of the fire,...... and go out to the desert to get away. The girls got to ride two quads that we borrowed. They had a good time, but riding the quads was a learning experience. "S" had one rough little get off, but the quad never tipped over, and she try to bail off only to get her legs hung up, and she had to ride it out. Quite frankly she was a little scared, but it Looked funny. She is a tough cookie. she got right back on, and off we went.
Here she is doing a photo op.

still under fire

Not much better today. We have had a few friends evacuated. We wish them the best of luck (Thomas' , Fischer')
Just a few more pictures to let you know what it looks like. The Stadium is an evacuation center. You can see the smokie haze/ overcast in the background. Some nieghborhoods are surrounded by fire. We have lost 1,000 houses, or bussiness'.

San Diego is ablaze

We were trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner tonight. I suggested we just go outside with a couple of hotdogs on a stick.












Yesterday (Sunday) a few fires started, and by nightfall the skies all over San Diego were smoke filled. They are saying this is bigger then the Crest fire 5 years ago. We step out of our house and it smells like a bonfire was extinguished. While driving from north County down to our house ( about 24 miles) the headlights were all yellow, and visibillity was poor. Not much has changed this morning. The 15 freeway is shut down, entire cities/ communities are being evacuated over 250,000 people have been evacuated. I will try to get some more pictures up later, but they also want people to stay off the streets, and off the cell

Well, Another busy weekend. We made some progress on the shed. Dallas came up, and we put the walls up, the roof on ( what a pain that was). 'S' and 'A' helped, and we even managed to get some siding up. We finished the weekend by putting some shingles on.
Both 'A' and 'S' had games this weekend. Unfortunatly 'A' hurt her back and saw limited play time. 'S' got a few hits in her game, her hitting is developing well.






Here are some of the girls playing ball( 'A' had hurt her back, and didn't play much, and hit ok) here is 'S'
















And 'A' with her hit:



















here are some pictures:
showing progress we are adding the roof






















putting up the walls: