Wow - how do I let time slip by? We had a great vacation and traveled home all the way on Highway 1. We stopped in Santa Cruz for some of the best Indian food I have had in a very long time. We were very pleased that driving the coast we ended up with 29 MPG on the Vue. Considering the ups and downs and twists and turns, that is really good mileage.

I was very excited on Monday for the arrival of my new sewing table - which did not happen. I called the people at 4:50 to ask were they still going to show up and they were clueless. As it stands right now, no one knows where the heck my table is. I talked to the people in Oregon that I bought it from and they are going to just ship another one - which I will not get for at least 7 days. The table that I was sewing on is gone because we were making way for the new one. I really am disappointed, but I guess I will just have to make do with the dining table or a card table.
I finally found an embroidery I was looking for and did a quick one on my shirt at a spot that was frayed. I am thinking I should make a nice white shirt and place several of these things on the back. Might have to add some red for effect!

After a trip to the vet and $260, Darci is feeling somewhat better. I swear I had the same conversation with my Ortho doctor just before I had my arthroscopic surgery on my knee. She seems to have torn a ligament in her knee. After the x-rays it was nice to know that her hips are not as bad as we thought they were. Hopefully the pain/anti-inflammatory mediation will do the trick and she will be all better. Sure would be nice if we had dog insurance to cover all the medication and such for both the dogs. I actually was happy that the bill was under $500!

Later . . .

Thursday

Well today turned into a bit of a surprise for us. As we were lounging around watching TV in our room, we received a phone call from the desk asking when we were planning on checking out. Max’s response was TOMORROW! Unfortunately, we were only booked for six days instead of the seven I thought we had. We were planning on a lazy day and watching the free movie we won playing bingo. We gathered our stuff, showered and got ourselves out of the digs. Not to be discouraged, we went to lunch at the Old Port Inn (delicious fish/shrimp and chips) and then headed out for a leisurely drive up highway one. It was a really nice drive and we ended up in Monterey to spend the night. We went to the beach and took some pictures and are now settled into our room WITH free WiFi! Actually it has turned into a nice change of pace and we will head home tomorrow.

Pictures will have to wait.

Later . . .

Monday

Well crap - I did a post and loaded some pictures and proceeded to have it all disappear. We came down to the Custom House so we could connect to the internet and I am now losing battery power and no place to plug in. I guess the pictures are going to have to wait until another day (possibily tomorrow).

We had a fun day today. We slept in and then went into Pismo for fish and chips (shrimp for Max) and a bowl of that famous Splash clam chowder - yummy good! We went down to Oceano to see if we could catch any wind surfers, but the wind was actually not blowing. Don called and he and Sharon came down for a visit and we spent a fun afternoon with them.

We did find a place that was ever so YUMMY on the way back from Pismo. They had everything fresh that you could imagine - pies, scones, muffins, cinamon rolls, ice cream and candy. They also had a bunch of animals that we had fun playing with and taking pictures of. We ended up with a child's portion of ice cream ($2.50) which was the biggest ice cream cone I have ever purchased ( I can forsee more trips to that place).

Darci is having some real problems with her hip/leg and has been in pain and won't use the leg and has not been eating. Kathy finally got her to eat today and if she does not get better she will be taking her to the vet. Poor baby - I hate it to happen when we are not home and able to take care of the situation ourselves. We have known from the gate that she has hip problems, but hope it will not be anything really serious.

Still having a wonderfully relaxing time!

Later . . .

Sunday

Sunday
My brother Don came down for a visit and we checked out the golf course after we had a “long awaited” breakfast at the Custom House downtown Avila. It was a very relaxing day and after Don left we ventured out around the complex in search of a WiFi connection. We were not successful, but did hear that the Custom House restaurant had a free connection. We took a walk down there and did get to connect, but I was not really prepared to upload pictures. I will do some work on that and get organized so I can get some pictures uploaded. We caught some amazing shots of Pelicans, sea gulls and sea lions fight for pieces of fish that were being thrown off the pier while people were cleaning their fish.

We were really disappointed this evening because they cancelled the “bond fire at the beach” because one of the employees called in sick. We were really looking forward to the experience AND the smores. We ended up hitting the vending machines for candy and just settled in the watch the Emmys.

The one thing to be said about this place is it is really kicked back and relaxing. The weather is beautiful and I love the coast – the cool breeze off the water is great. Since we are right on the water side we get this incredible breeze that combines with the crashing of waves to make for a really nice night’s sleep.

Later . . .

Update

We are sitting on the sidewalk outside one of the local cafes to be able to get a wifi connection. I was not really prepared to do any uploading of pictures, but at least we got connected instead of using the dial up that is provided in the rooms. At least now we know where we can connect and will be able to do a bit more in the coming days - if we choose to come down here.
We are off to the bond fire on the beach.

Later . . .

Avila Beach

Saturday

We had a nice slow day and did some driving around checking out the area. We drove the coast and stopped to take pictures when the shots called to us. I think Max got some good shots and so did I. We stopped in Oceano and had lunch at the Rock & Rock Café. It was a quaint place and the food was excellent (way too much, but excellent). We continued our excursion and picture taking until we returned to our digs. We signed up for the “Bond Fire on the Beach” (smores fixings provided), the “Ice Cream Social” and Root Beer Floats and Bingo”. It is way cool how these Resorts put together special events. Don is coming down tomorrow for a lunch/brunch and hopefully we can convince him to hang around for the whole bond fire on the beach thing. This is proving to be just the relaxation that we both needed and this is a really awesome resort.

Pictures to come later . . .

Avila beach Vacation

Friday
Well we ended up in Avila Beach, but it was a long delayed start. We waited for the gardener to show up because he had missed the back yard on his last unexpected visit and we really needed to have the back yard mowed. He was to do the back yard first so we could put the dogs in the house and be able to split. We slow played it because we could not check in until 4:00 PM anyway. We let the dogs out in the back because the gardener said he was done in the back (he always is aware that we need to have the gate closed because Kodi will take off given half a chance. Well unfortunately, the gate was open and of course Kodi was gone. Darci was roaming around the front looking for Kodi, but there was no Kodi. After an hour and a half of driving around the neighborhood, we regained possession of Kodi from the “friendly Animal Control Officer”. Someone had called about Kodi running down Concannon! Max ran into her and let her know we were also out searching for him. When we finally left, we had a nice drive down to Avila Beach and I ended up with 245 miles on a half a tank of gas! Considering the Xterra has always taken almost a full tank of gas to make it to Atascadero, I was very happy with the mileage. The Vue drove very nicely and I am pleased with it and its comfort. After we settled into our BEAUTIFUL accommodations, we attended the local street fair for some sights and a tri-tip sandwich for dinner.


The picture was taken from the balcony of our room.

Later . . .

What's Happening

I have been busy cleaning and rearranging my sewing room in preparation of the arrival of my new Koala Treasure Chest Plus III Studio. I had to do some serious changing and moving to get the table to fit. I am very excited about it because this is the first time I have found a table the does not make me feel like a big person sitting at a little person's desk. The table is 35" high and has a high chair to go with it. It should be arriving right after we get back from Avila Beach. We are taking off tomorrow and spending a week at the San Luis Bay Inn. Will get to relax and hopefully spend some time with my brother, who lives in Atascadero. We plan on relaxing and doing some exploring and picture taking.

In anticipation of my new sewing table, I have all the pieces cut out to make a WILD new quilt. I picked all the bold and bright colors I could find and plan to do another quilt similar to the one I did before (The bright colored Brick Road). I have many projects in the works and am ready to come home and get busy doing sewing. With winter coming, it will be fun to be working on projects.

BTW - Max has had her time extended - so she will be employed with the new company until at least December 2008. That takes some stress off and once the new company takes over there should be other jobs opening up that she can apply for that are CAREER positions. Of course, she may get hired as career in her present position, but at least we know we have insurance and a paycheck coming for another year.

Later . . .

TaDaaaa

Well here is the new car! It is really a very cool ride and the more I drive it the more I like it. I have around 60 miles on it and the needle has not moved from full. I am anxious to see just how many miles I will get on one tank of gas (16.6).

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Went out to dinner and comedy at Tommy T's last night with Kathy, Paul, Michael and Debby. We had a really nice time and the show was good. It has been a long time since I actually went to a comedy club.

Our satellite went out yesterday and that has been a pain. We have been having some problems with a few stations and then NOTHING. Both Max and I spent many hours on the phone with DirectTV and someone is coming out tomorrow. We tried to explain to them that when we check our information it indicated that our account was closed and that both satellites were disabled. However, they continued to tell us we were in good standing and that could not have anything to do with our problem. Huh, about three hours later the satellite was working and our account was in good standing and both satellites were enabled. Go figure, they must have disabled our account by accident. We still have them coming out tomorrow and hopefully we will get the scrambling problem taken care of - one of our favorite channels is TNT and is often comes in scrambled.

We had a BBQ at Debby's this afternoon and now the long weekend is over. It is time to get back to a regular routine.

Later . . .