Chachi is Going to College

Kerissa and I.
One moment you are at a hospital waiting for her to be born and the very next she is saying good bye as she get ready to leave to get a higher education in some Virginia University. That's pretty much what happens when you blink an eye.

So my comadre threw a going away to college party for my goddaughter and we all had a great time. Now when you drink a fruit punch where the fruit soaked in vodka for two days and have an endless amount of jello shots, yep you are bound to have fun.

So, here are some shots I captured that night:

Chachi.
Nikki, Chachi, Me, and Juan.
Michelle and Nichole.
Michelle, Juan, Chachi, Nikki, and I.
Awwww, duck attack!
Feeling the love.
Not so feeling the love.
Juan trying to steal my spotlight.
Nikki and I.

Meet Cosita

"Cosita"
If you know me then you know that I am not a pet person, I just cannot commit to their care, I think it's too big a responsibility so I have learned to like and enjoy the pets of others when I get the chance but then I know when I am gone they stay.

However Abby does own a pet and therefore I too will be the co-owner of said pet, and to top it off said pet seems to like me as she never barks at me and comes to me on command. So it is with pleasure and as a request of my dear friend ChrisJ that I introduce to you "Cosita" (Little thing).

Cosita is an eight year old female chihuahua that has captured my heart as well as my attention. During our 12 hour road trip from La Puente to Cotati it was my duty and my pleasure to take her out for a walk which in many cases turned into jogging around various parking lots and it was actually fun. A couple of times when I stepped out of the car she actually cried for me, awww I felt the love. It was like, "Hey jogging partner, where in the heck are you going without me?"

So, needless to say we have inevitably bonded and I too look forward to having her here with us and maybe taking our walks around the lake. Oh yes, I know she will really enjoy that very much.

Feed me mama!
Cosita and I in some fields in Gilroy, California.

"Grrrrrrrrr Cosita you sexy thing, why don't you dump this fool that has you by the leash and come with me into those fields of love in front of us" I bet you that's what "Blacky" there was saying to Cosita.

Awwwwww!
Story goes that while Abby was visiting me here in Phoenix Cosita had to stay behind in La Puente and was to be doggysat by her niece Alexis but somewhere along the line Cosita got depressed and would cry, I imagine for Abby. So Rosie, Abby's youngest sister stepped up to the plate and took over the care of Cosita. Needless to say they bonded and here in this picture the had all gone to the park and after biking for over an hour they were all exhausted. So, too pooped to do anything else they all just layed on the grass and chilled.


We were chillin in the park
Just waiting for the sun to go down (On a Sunday afternoon)
It was Rosie, Jade, and Cosita
A Lighter Shade of Brown (On a Sunday afternoon)

Tidbits

Finally I got me a decent camera, it had been a while since I had gone out hunting for photo ops and all of a sudden I find myself traveling a lot which is giving me the opportunity to get a few good captures. I still don't know if I want to continue posting on my Arizona... But it's a dry heat! blog because it's too much work as I have to go through PhotoBucket first in order for the images to come out big. But we'll see, I am still thinking about it. In the meantime I am going shutter crazy once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Image captured by my daughter Nichole.
Ahhhh, gotta love our weather. I just went to my mailbox to get my mail and the wind was blowing, I can see lighting in the horizon, and it feels like a monsoon may appear at any moment, but then again it may just be knocking on the door and I just may not open it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seven, eight, nine, tenteen, eleventeen, twelveteen, thirteen, fourteen... Yeap, there will be a lot of counting this Friday at work as we will be doing our mid-year inventory. As easy and well organized as we have them, I still dread inventory. But, we will survive it, hopefully we won't have any major discrepancies. I think a drink is in order on Friday after inventory just to relieve the stress. OK, I really am not stressed out at all but a drink actually sounds good anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Found this on the Internet and I want one, except I can do without the Irish and Patriot Guard patches. Other than that yep I like it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I can't remember if I posted this before, I stole it from my brother's FaceBook page and although I don't agree graffiti is good I do think the mural on this trains wagon is definitely pretty awesome.

The Baby Shower

The trip we took to Cotati last week was to attend a baby shower. It's Abby's oldest son's first baby and we felt it would be special to make the trek. Abby was going anyway. Me... I just wanted to tag along and I am so glad I did.

So now what was I to do at a baby shower? Well let me just explain it to you as I saw it with these images:


First it started like this, just a typical baby shower with the typical babyshower games. With food, friends, and a good time.


But then my camera started aiming itself towards other cool subjects. I really love this pond and if you look at the gazebo's roof you will notice that it is a parabolic antenna.


I love fountains and I have posted my good share of them. The reason I love them so much is because of the noise the running water makes. This is not a fountain but the sound effect as the water comes down into the pond is very calming.


The top sign says, "Do not feet the bears". lol

LOL

Plenty of sitting space. All the girls were out there playing their games. I too participated in a couple of them but totally bummed. I really suck at baby stuff. lol

Oh what a cutie pie. This is the grandma to be for the second time.
Ummm if all grandmas looked like that. Grrrrrrrowl. :-)

That little dog in the pond swam back and forth with the fish for well over and hour. Poor dog, I think his name is Roscoe had a fish complex, I think he had scales under that fluffy hair. Although when in the pool he looked more like an otter than a dog.


This little structure was actually cute looking standing all alone in the yard. I don't know if it's just a storage shed or what but I just thought it was cool looking.

So, there... I probably see baby showers a bit different than the girls do.

ABC Wednesday -- "C"

Click here for more ABC Wednesday participants.

So today it's Letter "C" for ABC Wednesday.

Joe Cool and "Cosita" taking a walk through some fields in Gilroy.
The letter "C" is for:

"Cosita" and Cars.

This one is pretty easy for me. Being an automobile enthusiast the obvious choice for me to highligt this week is cars. It is becoming our pastime to spot a car on the freeway and if we like it we catch up to it and snap a few pics. Fun stuff and something to do in those crowded L.A. freeways. But first meet Abby's little dog "Cosita" (Little Thing).

So, here we go I may have to many cars to highlight so bear with me and just enjoy them.



The emblems said Ferrari but I kept thinking this is a Toyota Spyder. Ummm! I liked it nevertheless.
A favorite stop of mine everytime I go to California is Chiriaco Summit. There are so many photo ops here it's amazing. I have captured many images of this place and it seems everytime I pass by they have something new for me to photograph. Last time I drove by they had these:




Obviously these have seen better days yet they looked so magestic where the sat.
We went to Sedona and this is what a saw:

This one hanging from the ceiling.

And this one flying down the highway. OK no just cruising down the street.

Sunday at The American Legion

The other day I received a text from a dear friend of mine whom I met during Karaoke Friday at Manny's and he was inviting me to go see him sing on Sunday as he would be performing at The American Legion in Glendale from 2:00 ~ 5:00 p.m.

I had not seen him and his family for well over a year so I was happy to oblige. I was glad I did, he sang three sets during that time and he did most of my own karaoke favorites. Yeah, ever since Manny's stopped karaoke my country music singing has been in the back burner as I have been mostly singing in Spanish at Noche de Bohemia, so it was definitely fun to sing along with him. I video taped a few of his performances but almost by instinct I probably did voice overs as I was singing along. lol He'll probably will love that... Not!

Here is my friend Steve singing and giving me a shout out.
He even told me that if we were to practice a couple of songs he would ask me up the stage to join him. Ha! He should know by now I don't practice, I just look for the lyrics in the screen and sing away. Je je je, you can just imagine the mess I make out of the songs I sing. Ummm I wonder if that's why he said "practice"?

Steve and I have actually done a duet. We sang "You make me feel brand new" by the Stylistics and we did more than OK. I do the manly voice and he does the high voice.

Thanks Steve for the invite, I had fun and will join you again elsewhere as you continue to get more gigs, I am truly happy you are making some money by doing something you love and that we actually did for free during karaoke. Keep up the good work and sing away.



Here Steve sings a song I used to sing a lot at Manny's. Of course I couldn't resist and had to sing along. lol

Driving to Cotati

Oh what fun to travel for 12 hours straight with these two. Loved it!
I am finally catching up with all the goings on of late. I think I put my car in cruise control and automatic and it finds its way to California to be more exact to the City of La Puente.

My new motto is STOP and read those darn maps before you hit the road.
Last week I took a small vacation and headed to La Puente right after work on Wednesday, the plan was to leave for Cotati the next morning but for one thing or another we didn't leave until Friday at around 10:00 a.m. The as fate has it I immediately took the wrong freeway but not to worry because that one too would meet Hwy 5 too. Once on the 5 and back on track we pushed north.


It wasn't until I was in this town and saw the freeway entrance signs said I was on Hwy. 99 and not on the 5 as I should have been.

Up the hill past Gorman you will find the split for the 99. I was driving on the far left lane so I assumed that lane would continue to be the 5, wrong! I guess at the split it does a crisscross and I did not notice so a few miles ahead we stopped for lunch. We walked the dog and had some hamburgers and then it was back in the car to hit the road. As I am entering the highway I notice that it says 99 North... What? 99? How in the heck did this happen? why am I going towards Fresno instead of San Francisco, grrrrrr for the second time I took the wrong highway.



Not realizing we were on the wrong highway we enjoyed a couple of hamburgers and walked the dog in a nice little park across the restaurant. At that point all we cared was that we were traveling together and having fun. Which is what makes a road trip that much more enjoyable. Oh, by the way, that little thing on the leash is appropriately named "Cosita" (Little Thing)

Now going back would have meant an hour delay so I decided to push forward on 99 event though I knew it was adding many miles to my trip, but I also knew that eventually it would lead to a pass to cut across to San Francisco. Sure enough, we went through Los Banos and it was at this time Abby called her son for instructions.

Well, he said take such and such highway but be careful as it splits even though it remains the same number, do not go towards San Francisco but take the one that says
Berkley. Well my co-pilot and I missed that split so guess what, we we found ourselves in a mess of traffic to cross the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. Can you see a pattern here, once again we took the wrong highway and found ourselves in a city that was so enclosed in fog that the sun (and it was a sunny day all day long)would not shine through.




We crossed the Bay Bridge into San Francisco and just like that somewhere along the middle point we went from nice sunny skies to dark, foggy, gloomy weather. It wat really cold too.

I started climbing up some streets that went up, up, up a hill into a residential area. I am one of the few men that will actually will stop at a gas station to ask for directions. So I get off the car and bam it hits me, it was freaking windy and cold and I am wearing Phoenix summer attire, so I run into the convenience store and ask the attendant whom had a thicker accent that mine.

"Excuse me but I am heading to Sonoma and somehow I am here, can you get me back on the right track" I said. "Sonoma? Then what you doing here my friend, you no need to come to city to go to Sonoma, so go and cross the bridge and you will find the 101, take it going north" he said. "Crap that means I have to pay six bucks again right?" I said, "Oh no, come into city you pay, you say bye bye you no pay" he replied.

No matter what the situation is I always know there's light at the end of the tunnel.
By this time we had Abby's son found us new route again to get out of this mess and it coincided with what the guy at the gas station told me. We were instructed to cross the Golden Gate bridge and go about a mile, then we would find a mall so we were to wait there.

Yep, 15 later they showed up to pick us up. lol I tell you, this is the last time I go out without printing my mapquest maps as I always do. While Abby was here in Arizona her phone's GPS led us everywhere but somehow in Northern Cali it kept freezing and repeating the same instructions. Grrrr frustrating, and my phone was not any better as I know I have a cheap service so I expected for it to malfunction, except mine was actually doing semi-good too.

Yeppers! That is actually me walking Cosita at the mall's parking lot.
Before jumping on the 101 we had dinner a Cheese Cake Factory restaurant, ummmm my chicken enchiladas with black beans and rice were most excellent.

Finally at around 10:30 at night we were finally at our destination. But to me it was all fun and part of the experience, we got to see many places that normal tourists will never see, unless like me they keep taking the wrong highways.