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.

Pissing Into The Wind With A Swollen Face

If you have ever wondered what it might look like... Rudy has offered up a fine example here.



The place pictured above was apparently the scene of the crime that ended up pretty much ruling our day yesterday. Those of you who have known Rudy since the beginning will not be surprised at all to hear that he was stung or bitten by something awful while out on our walk. For those of you who have not known Rudy that long.... allow me to introduce you to the world's most stung dog. Bees, wasps, scorpions, spiders... you name it... he has been stung by it. Why? Because he pokes his nose in to EVERY hole he sees.

Whatever got him yesterday remains a mystery. But it was something nasty. He has never had such a bad reaction. Allow me to display the reaction... (sorry for the bright photo it's the only one I took.)



Please note the enormity of his swollen face. His eyes were swelling shut and his cheeks (do dogs have cheeks?) were like 5 times normal size. He did not seem to be in any pain but I was worried that he would not be able to breath if it kept up or got any worse. So off to the vet we went. They gave him shots of cortizone and an antihistamine. It seemed to do the trick. Today he has been a puking mess and I am not sure if this is from the meds or from the poison of whatever nailed him. But lets just say I have cleaned up many a pile of dog puke today. Hopefully we will have moved on to calmer shores by tomorrow.

I have been working my A.S.S. off getting new stuff photographed to go in to my Etsy store. I am starting to try to get some handmade stuff up in there along with the vintage. I finished this cute crochet cuff with vintage buttons and listed it today. I will embark upon some sewing projects with vintage fabrics this week.

Saturday afternoons have come to mean a regular meet up with Chelle at Cafe Paris. We usually go late afternoon and just hang out talking for awhile. If you would like to see what this looks like I can provide images. Here is what I look like at Cafe Paris...



It has the air of Cirque du Soliel don't you think? Or perhaps the air of a crazy person who also happens to be very excited. Here is what Michelle looks like at Cafe Paris....



Lovely, calm and mysterious. Well... she is not mysterious to me. But I want her to be mysterious to you. Think anything you want to about her... as long as it is packed with danger and intrigue. Our waiter today tried to feed me seafood quiche. I ordered a vegetarian quiche and boy was I surprised when I sank my teeth into a big honkin' stink assed piece of fish. Fish with eggs and cheese. Who the Hell thinks this is a proper way to eat? It was all ok in the end though because he brought me the right quiche out immediately after and also gave me two free cookies. This is exactly how to handle a situation like this with me... free baked goods.

OK. I think that just about caps off this post full of random tidbits of information. Oh... I almost left Billy out. Here is what Billy looks like while I am out eating free cookies with the mystery lady.



He is smiling because A. I am gone for a few hours and B. I will bring him home a slice of cake.