The Catalina Crew

OK, so I am finally getting around to it!

We had an awesome Halloween. It was really fun to have the old-fashioned neighborhood Halloween experience again. With all of the “Trunk-or-Treat” events that people are using lately instead of traditional “Trick-or-Treating” I have really missed seeing kids running around en-masse with friends and family, socializing and making a neighborhood a neighborhood. Avalon is one of those all too rare communities where urban fear has not yet gotten a foothold.

We started out of course by getting and carving our pumpkins. Jacob’s school sponsored a “Pumpkin Patch” where the kids could pick out their own pumpkins instead of going to the super market. Jacob chose a trio of good ones and we set to work making them look great. Jacob designed and helped cut his into a “Silly face.”

Jacob took a while and had several different ideas on what to be for Halloween before settling on cowboy. On Halloween evening, the city had a costume parade down Crescent street with all of the school kids participating. The community TV station filmed the parade and Jacob made the broadcast.

Jacob was a little unnerved by Dad’s costume and realistic looking scars and asked him to take the wig off. After the parade, we went over to Luau Larry’s for the traditional Wednesday $2 cheeseburgers and then hit the streets to gather loot.

By the end of the evening Jacob had filled his pumpkin basket to beyond capacity and Mom & Dad had met several new neighbors. Jacob did not want to stop but eventually we had to call it quits and head back home in time for bed.

Jacob with his friend Cory

OK, so most of you by now who are registered have noticed that our blog got hijacked by a spam robot. Fortunately, our anti-spam engine caught the posts before they actually went live onto the site and deleted them. However, the notification script we were using sent out a bunch of emails letting you know that the spam comments were posted before they got deleted.

Thanks to Karen’s sharp eye, we were alerted and I have disabled that part of the script. Unfortunately, this means that you will not be able to get a notification when someone posts a comment to the blog, only when we post a new blog entry. When I get a second, I will see if I can fix that. In the meantime, I have changed the blog settings to require users to either be registered or enter a valid email address in order to post comments. (You should register anyway so that you will be notified when we post!)

Anyhow, aside from that, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Sue and I both took an extra day off to have some much needed family time. We spent Wed evening and Thurs morning together getting Thanksgiving dinner together. Jacob helped out from time to time and while the Turkey cooked, we walked up to the “Net” at the golf course to hit balls around.

“The Net” is one of Jacob’s new favorite places to go. Whenever mini-golf is closed, his first response is “Let go to the net!” After about 30 minutes of watching Jacob hit his balls and playing games like “Dad-you-go-stand-over- -there-and-try-to-get-the-ball-and-I-will-hit-it-away-from-you-ha-ha-ha!,” we came back home to see how the turkey was doing.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm! Smells delicious!

Our Thanksgiving feast was nearly ready and once the Potatoes were mashed and yams broiled, we sat down to dinner. Yummy yummy turkey stuffed with the best home-made stuffing ever, freshly made cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes with gravy, yams with pralined pecans, and melt-in-your-mouth rolls, followed by home-made pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. Loosen up the belt!

On the way home from work on Wed, Sue had picked up several dvd’s at the library, so while we digested, we watched movies until Jacob fell asleep on the coffee table where he had piled couch pillows into a rather lumpy “bed.”

Friday we slept in for a change and took the morning easy before hiking out along the seawall at Casino Point to do some fishing. I think the fish were taking Thanksgiving weekend off as well. No nibbles, but it was fun just hanging out and being together.

We finished off the weekend by going kayaking up the coast past Hamilton Cove. Saw a lot of pelicans at close range and a couple of sea lions. (In case you didn’t know… Sea Lions have external ears, Seals do not have visible ears. That is the easiest way to tell them apart!) Jacob was a real trooper and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure despite getting soaking wet. The highlight for him however was when we stopped off at the Hamilton Cove beach for a snack and a side trip to the beach side playground there.

It was a super fun holiday and none of us wanted to get back to the daily routine. There isn’t much that we would rather do than hang out and spend time with each other! …And what a great place to do it in!

WOW!! We now have two Television Superstars in our family!

Last night was the Catalina Island Museum’s annual fundraising telethon. It was a thrilling evening of Small-Town Americana filled with great highlights on Catalina and its history.

As manager of the store at the muesum, Suzanne was on hand to tell people about the wonderful things going on in the store and the new products they have there. She has been an incredible addition to the museum and the directors are overjoyed with the work she does there.

The highlight of the telethon was the segment on the Children’s Halloween Parade. We were sitting at home watching the telethon hoping to be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Jacob in the parade, when suddenly he appeared, front and center for what seemed like a full minute! (Actually about 2-3 seconds, but in Mom & Dad time that is a full minute ) Jacob went bonkers and we were all shouting with excitement!

After dinner, Sue left to go down to the Museum for her segment and Jakey and I went upstairs to get ready for bed and played “Bad Guys,” shooting each other with Nerf guns and dramatically falling on the floor or across the pillows, while occasionally pausing to watch some of the telethon segments. Finally, near the end of the evening it was Suzanne’s turn to be on. Jacob shouted out “There she is!! Hi Mommy! Hi Mommy! Mommy is on TV!” Then he sat in my lap and giggled while Sue talked about the museum store.

After that it was off to bed, a little late but with a big smile.

If you want to see Jacob and Sue on TV, or watch any of the other neat specials that were on during the telethon, Click on this link. The Halloween Parade starts at minute mark 8:50 and Sue’s segment starts at 189:30.

You can also help support the Museum by visiting their website and clicking on the “Donate” button.

Well, it is official! I am now a Triathlete!

The Catalina Triathlon was today, and I was lucky enough to be counted among the finishers! It was a great experience and totally different from any other race event I have been in. Very cool.

My store, Del Sol, was one of the local sponsors for the event and I had been toying around with the idea of competing for a few weeks but never really committed to it. (Sue had started talking about wanting to do a Triathlon after we did the Carlsbad Marathon and got the initial spark planted in my mind.) Anyway, about 9:00 last night, we were coming home from the supermarket and Sue said “Hey, what if you ran the triathlon tomorrow?” I waffled a little bit and decided that “What the heck, I will give it a try.” So, without any training or preparation, and less than 12 hours later, I found myself at the starting line for the Catalina Triathlon! To make a long story short, the swim was tough, the bike ride went smoothly, and the run started hard but ended great. I didn’t push myself super hard because I didn’t want to bonk and my main goal was just to finish and have fun doing it. My time ended up being 1:53 and change, but my ego and permagrin are beyond compare! I can’t wait to do another one!

Before the triathlon began, I took a quick warm-up swim in the bay. When I got out of the water, Jacob came running up to me shouting “Daddy, Daddy! Did you win the race?”

Sue and Jacob were there for the whole race from start to finish. They watched the swim portion from the green pier and then hit the streets for the cycling leg and waited near the finish for the run. Whenever he saw me, Jacob would greet me with a loud shout of “Hi Daddy!” The icing on the cake for the day was when Jacob met me about 50 yards before the end and ran with me across the finish line!

-Pics coming soon!

As some of you may already know, Jacob is a Miniature-Golf fanatic! On any given day, if you were to ask him what he wanted to do, the odds are high that he would reply: “Lets go play mini golf!”

Another Hole-In-One

Back in Salt Lake, his favorite place to play was Dottie’s on 33rd south. Many people will remember this as the old Arnold Palmer Mini Golf Course. Every week or two, we would make the short journey down the hill for a nice $6 round of golf. (That was $6 for all three of us!) After we moved here it didn’t take long before Jacob discovered the Golf Gardens, Avalon’s incredible mini-golf course. Within a few days Jacob became a regular at the course and mastered several of the holes. He knows exactly which tunnel holes to hit for the best result, but still insists on getting his ball into each and every tunnel on the multi-level holes. Jacob is very serious about his game but doesn’t mind sharing the green with other kids on the course on occasion. Unfortunately, however, he takes particular pleasure in blocking Dad’s attempts to score by standing on top of the cup.