Boiled Belly Bomb

What do you get when you bake a "cake" out of boiled clementine oranges, ground almonds and lots and lots of eggs? You get a belly ache that is unrivaled by any belly ache you have ever known before. Some of you may be thinking.... "Why yes... because what kind of an idiot would make such a cake? Surely such a nincompoop deserves a belly ache!! Who thought up this silly baked good anyway?"

People. I suffer. And therefore I can't elaborate much more than to say I thought it all seemed like a good idea. An adventure in the world of cooking! You know... I thought I would make something really different. So I made the boiled oranges cake. I got the recipe off one of my very favorite and trusted cooking blogs. In her photo it looked quite appealing! And I will say that it may just be my freakish digestive system at fault here and not the boiled cake's fault at all. Or maybe we are really not supposed to eat whole boiled and then baked oranges peel and all? Whatever. Just consider yourselves warned. This cake is dangerous to those who have low tolerance for rich, off beat food items. It may be days before I can stand up straight or before my face does not feature a pained grimace brought on by my belly ache. Billy seems to be fine (of course) but then he has guts of steel. He regularly eats rusty nails and spoiled milk for breakfast with no dramatic results.

What else? Hmmm. Not much. We are visiting with Billy's Dad, girlfriend and little sisters this weekend but most all of them are sporting a bad cold so I am hiding out in the trailer and not being very social. Tomorrow is our appointment at the Airstream dealership in Manteca so we shall see what that brings about.

I have a few photos from our day in Carmel this past week. We drove out to the coast to look at a site we may rent on private land for the trailer to nest on. It was a fabulously gorgeous day so we sat out on the beach for hours soaking up the sun and letting Rudy play with other dogs.

Here is yet another shot of Rudy's dazzling pearly whites. And disgusting sandy beard.


And my favorite action shot of the day playing leaping deer games with another bigger doggie dude.


Finally... a reflective moment. It's always so much better to thoughtfully gaze out over the ocean with an impossibly huge tennis ball crammed into your mouth.

Big Changes

Howdy doodies. So this past week has been a bit of a whirlwind. I landed a job as an art consultant at a gallery downtown in Carmel and started a few days ago. Quite a switch up from our original plans of camp hosting in Big Sur. There have been some wardrobe issues mainly due to the fact that Patagonia wind pants are not exactly the right apparel for selling oil paintings. At least not at this particular gallery they are not. And congratulations to you if you work in a gallery where wind pants ARE appropriate. I want to know where that gallery is and plan my future around it. I am much better equipped to work at the wind pants gallery than at the grown up lady clothes galleries of the world.

Anyway... I am a working thug again. Back in the saddle as they say. I love being in downtown Carmel and when I get off work I can walk down to the beach in less than 5 minutes which is fantastic. Although... the party will be over as of November second when the time change occurs and we all have to deal with it getting dark at 2 in the afternoon for the next 5 months.

I am working a big opening event for a watercolor artist this Saturday and plan to shoot some photos that day. I will be sure to post some up here for all to see. Until then.... I have today and tomorrow off and am hoping to get to see my good friend Bernadette who is visiting California from out East for the next few days. Bernadette was my saviour when I first moved out to Nantucket in 2000. She gave me a job, fed me, helped me cope with the enormity of the disaster that my life was at that moment in time and introduced me to all the island's characters. I have not seen her in several years and hope we can swing a visit today or tomorrow before I have to head back to work for the weekend.

Also.... I started up another blog to chronicle the days and nights of DOG in Carmel. It's the most dog friendly city in the universe you know. You can see this new blog at www.dogsbythesea.blogspot.com.

A Whole New Plan

Okay! So.... last I told you we were possibly going to head down the Big Sur Coast to Limekiln State Park for our camp hosting gig. AAAAannnndddd a day or so after that we found out the whole area was on fire. Still IS on fire actually. The planet is still working on itself in this neck of the woods.... working out the kinks, giving itself an extreme make over. It can't be bothered with a couple of geeks like us. So... once again we had to start thinking about a different plan. We spent a few extra days at Big Sur Campground where the nice folks who own the place offered us a chance to stay and work there for the coming season or two. We considered it but ended up not signing on because they needed rock solid workers through til next Fall and needed more hours than we were willing to commit to with our own businesses and the attention they require. They were great people and we wish them the best of luck in this upcoming rainy season! They have a lot of work to do to get the campground ready for possible flooding in the Big Sur River.

Also... we have to send a shout out to Betty Le at Pfeiffer. She is the ranger we worked with down there and is a super cool person. We shall return Betty. In a time when Big Sur is not heaving like a pissed off grizzly bear.

I got a bunch of neat pics on one of our last days in Big Sur while out tide pooling. This one is a great shot of a sea urchin... what a beauty. Click through to see it big, it's worth it.




So now we have returned back up to Carmel. We really love it here and may just stick put here for the winter. There really are not any state park camp hosting jobs turning up in locations we are interested in spending the winter so since this is one of our fave spots we may as well just hang out. And if we give Rudy a choice... he would pick Carmel over just about any place in the whole country. So there you have it. But don't hold your breath or count on anything. Our plans have changed 19 times in the past three weeks so anything could still happen.

Billy suffered through some serious finger pinching for me to get these two shots...





Rudy is glad as Hell to be back in Carmel. This is Dog City. We went down to the beach this afternoon and he celebrated his return with a few new friends...

I like to call the first two "Runs with Seaweed" and then "Dances with Wolf Hounds."





It is so great to be able to let him hang out and play with all these other dogs. He is crazy for it.

Right now I am in the midst of a cookie baking marathon. I have one small cookie sheet and a crap load of dough to bake off. It is an enormous waste of propane but it's happening. Tomorrow I am feeding this campground cookies. Unless Billy eats them all tonight.

True Grit

So tomorrow Rudy's poop will be full of sand. It can't really be good the amount of sand he seems to swallow every time we take him to the beach. He just gets his mouth totally full of it. He goes crazy. I don't know.... maybe it is the ultimate fiber experience or something. He loves it.

Today was our last day in Carmel so we went to the town beach for a good long while. Rudy is doing better with coming when called and staying when told to stay. I thought it would never happen. Usually if he even lays eyes on another dog (and it does not matter if said dog is 3/4 of a mile away) he rips off straight for them. Carmel's beach is a totally dog friendly place and dogs are allowed to be off lead but I personally think we look like assholes if we let him run like a nut way far away from us. So we have been battling this habit and it seems that we are finally making headway and coming to a place where everyone can be happy. We had fun today because we were not screaming "RUDY...NO! NO! Rudy COME!" every 6 seconds.

We dig holes...


We people watch (and dog watch)



And generally just hang out...



There are of course still moments when he reverts to demon like behavior. I think it will always be this way. He is dog... he is dirty. It does make for some super funny photos, that's for sure. Sometimes I think he is part terrier and part swamp thing... if there is a dirty, muddy pond to dive into he is there every time.




And for the next 5 minutes after getting wet he rips around growling and snarling. It's quite entertaining. It's all fun and games until the next morning you look over and see this happening...



Those are my pillows. Where I lay my CLEAN FACE at night to go to sleep. Sigh. Oh well... my immune system is probably the stuff of legend now that it is dealing with that dirt on a daily basis.


I think that will finish it for today. Have a great week peeps and I will report in from Big Sur once we get set up down there.

It's Thursday

What significance does Thursday have? None. I just could not think of a better title for the post. At least it is a good, honest title.... because no one can deny the fact that it is indeed Thursday. Now that we have established that we can move on.

What goes on around here lately? Well, we are making decisions about what to do at the end of the Summer and getting ready for our upcoming trip in the Airstream to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. We leave in two weeks for that trip and if those two weeks could just hurry up and get it over with I would be very appreciative. I can't wait to be standing on the edge of the canyon feeling like an insignificant speck of dust lost in the enormity of the universe. Because that is how the Grand Canyon always makes me feel. It also makes me feel like I want to eat hearty "victuals" instead of boring old "dinner."

My only worry about the upcoming trip is Rudy. He has become a real puss about riding in the truck. He cries and shivers and pukes and carries on like a sick baby. This is going to make for a long drive to Flagstaff on the first day out. We may have to gag and bind him and tie him in a sack on the roof of the truck. Is that against the law? It probably is... so don't tell anyone our plan. He has also become "scared" at night lately. This new development is bizarre and unexplainable. It started one night last week when we let him out front for his final pee of the evening (he does this every single night around 11 so there is nothing new about it) and he freaked out barking at something in the dark. We could not see or hear anything out there (our front yard is the size of half a postage stamp and completely fenced in) and had to physically drag him back inside. That ended up to be a looong night. He never gave over to calming down. He was fully committed to the idea that we were all in serious peril and if he did not keep a diligent watch we would all be dead by morning. He patrolled the house growling and whining. He watched the door and the windows with wild, wide eyes. The hair was standing up on his back. I can only assume he came in to direct contact with the actual boogie man of myth and legend in the front yard. We tried to put him to bed in his crate but he was not havin' it. So we ended up dealing with Mr. Scaredy pants for most of the night. Try sleeping with a growling dog standing on your chest.

This behavior has remained in that now if he hears the slightest noise outside after dark he barks and patrols and grumbles and carries on for ten to fifteen minutes no matter what you do to try to shut him up. This is not gonna fly once we are back camping in the AS. It's not lookin' good for the rest of the summer in this casita either. We live next door to a small dirt parking lot (the only thing dividing us from it is a half assed coyote fence) for a bed and breakfast and people are in and out slamming car doors all hours of the day and night now that it's tourist season. Once we hit hot weather that requires open windows it's gonna be a constant battle against the barking. Ohhhhhh, the high pitched, sharp barking. Do I love my dog? Yes. Do I sometimes want to skin him alive? Double yes with a cherry on top. Do they make doggie ear plugs? If they do we need some. Send me some if they are out there. Or a sound proof booth! With a built in treadmill! That would be the best all around answer. Run Rudy on a treadmill encased in a sound proof booth for about 4 hours a night. Then everyone could get a good night's sleep. I am sure the people at Sharper Image can come up with something... this kind of crap is right up their alley.

So. Dogs. This has turned in to a really doggie blog over the past year has it not? Well, I am rollin' with it. Like it or not, you come here... you will be met by dogs and all of their vile behaviors.



As I have said before... Dogs keep it real. I like that about them. They may be dirty. They may eat garbage off the ground on the street. But unlike most people I meet they are genuine and enthusiastic about life for the most basic of reasons. They don't require fancy trimmings. Dogs just want everything to be more fun than boring and for everyone to feel OK. Truly.



There is one exception to the above rule in the world of dogs and that is our friend Larry. He wants everything to be more boring than fun. I kind of like it about him though. He is as mellow as mild cheddar and he just wants everyone to relax, relax, relax. Why the hurry? Why do we even need to go out today? At a certain point in any walk with Larry he decides that enough is enough and he becomes one with the ground he stands on. You cannot make him budge an inch unless you concede and walk back in the direction of home or the car. Once he is sure that he is on his way home he perks right up and marches ahead of the group to lead the way. Billy shot this portrait of Larry yesterday at the dog park in his moment of deciding that he would go no further.



You can also contemplate the calm demeanor of Larry in the humpy fight photo above where all the other dogs are engaged in either fighting or humping but Larry is steady as a rock and somehow just caught in the middle (unfazed.) Way to be Larry, way to be.