We Have a Boat!

Chris has been wanting a boat for sometime now. In the last couple of months...well, let's just say from almost the beginning of the year, he has been doing all sorts of research and looking at used boats. At one point he was thinking of going in on a boat w/ our neighbor. Finally, he came home one day w/ all this info from Schock boats in Newport Beach. One thing lead to another and we now own this boat:


Shocking, huh? Who would've thought? It's a 17' Boston Whaler...seats 7 adults. Nice little boat. The loan papers were signed on Thurs and we took it home the same day. Great people at Schock, btw. Very knowledgible and totally non-pressure.

Chris wanted to take the boat out the very next day to break the engine in and just to have a family outing. Here's us getting ready to launch at Newport Dunes. There just happened to be practically no one there so no stress involved :-)


Here's Capt. Chris


Me cicking back and telling myself I'm not gonna be sick. hehehe


As we were traveling down the bay towards open water, we saw a Harbor Patrol boat in the distance. I jokingly asked if Chris knew anyone working the area. Next thing we know, the Patrol Boat lights up and pulls up next to us for inspection. Personally, I kind of liked that that happened our first day out. Made me feel better knowing that we had everything we needed for saftey's sake. The CLCGB's (Cute Little Coast Guard Boys) checked our saftety equipment out while we talked to the deputies on board...who it turns out, we'd both worked w/ at one point or another. :-)




We checked out fine so off they went and off we went. (my my, those little CLCGB's were cute. shhhh...don't tell Chris the 3 of us girls we looking. hahaha)


So we traveled a little further and finally got through past the jetty. The water was calm, air was nice and cool...felt great on that little boat. Finally we were out past the jetty when we saw this brown stuff on a buoy. Wondering what it was, we got up a little closer to discover that it was moving and not just moving, but SEALS!!!!! They were all sitting out there just sunning themselves and having a good ol' time. Totally cute!



We went out a little farther out along the coast. Chris was going at different speeds breaking in that engine. At one point we stopped to fish for a little here:


Overall, a great day. I just wish I'd done a better job at using my sunscreen. It was overcast, but I still got toasted on my upper thighs where the sun hit while I was sitting there enjoying the ride. OUCH! Aloe Vera is my friend :-p

Can't wait to get out on the boat again, that's for sure :-D

Tweakers and Cops in the wee Sma's

The Bear and I didn't get to sleep til almost 2am this morning. Yes, it was THAT HOT last night. We finally got to sleep only to have a rude awakening at 0500. Someone was pounding on the door so Chris staggered over to answer it. There on the doorstep was Mr. Policeman with... get this OUR HOME PHONE (cordless) in his hand...yes, you read that right OUR HOME PHONE IN HIS HAND!

Turns out that someone hopped our fence, took the cordless phone out of my studio in the backyard and called 911 to report that he and his girlfriend had been robbed at gunpoint. Apparently she'd also been kidnapped. When the cops found this guy, he was roaming our neighborhood w/ our cordless phone in his hand. It took the cops a few mins to figure out which house the dude had gotten it from, but there Mr. Policeman was, at our front door.

The Bear and the cop went out to my studio to make sure nothing was missing. What's super weird is that nothing had been disturbed AT ALL. Where the phone is cradled, I have one of my Star Wars models balanced precariously on a stand. I was a bit amazed that nothing had been knocked over. What a nice, careful tweaker visitor!

Why am I calling the guy a tweaker? Well, the officer told us the 'victim's' behavior was somewhat suspicious and sketchy. Also, we found out that they'd located the 'missing girlfriend' who told the officers that she was alright and that no, nothing like that had happened. Hence, the tweaker suspicion. Nice, huh?

What bugs me is that whereas before, I thought at least my studio was safe. I don't always lock it. Now I'm all about using the locks. *sigh* Quite frankly, I shouldn't have to worry about that. I guess I have to now. Also, how incredibly creepy is it to know that there was someone ROAMING AROUND OUR BACKYARD LOOKING FOR A FREAKIN' PHONE!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!!

YARN!!!! WHEEE!!!!

Not that I've gone to a lot of yarn 'Bag Sales'. I really haven't. This was my very first one. The LYS down here...Yarn Lady, had their semi-annual Bag Sale. I'd heard a lot about this sale so I decided to go.

There were free bags of bulk yarn hidden in these bins and you sort of had to 'dumpster dive' to find yarn you might like and these free bags. You got 1 free bag w/ your purchase for the day.

My free bag? well, first I should say the first freebie I found was kind of weird w/ odd yarn. They were sort of an orangy/browny/peachy selection. Really not up my alley, and apparently no one else's. I held that bag up and said, "hey! I found a free one! who wants!!" everyone looked up, made a face and went back to foraging for yarn. hahaha

Needless to say, I tossed it back. The 2nd freebie I found, I totally kept. It was a HUGE bag of Colinette Point Five. Now, I've never heard of the stuff, bear in mind, I'm knew to buying more expensive yarns. I'm usually a craft store shopper where the bargains are. However, now that I've discovered how yummy some of these yarns can be, I've slowly started picking up skeins here and there for special projects.

Anyways, when I found this bag, I was so excited! The colors are totally ME and there was the equivalent of 5 skeins of the stuff in there!!!! SWEET!!!


I won't post all the other stuff I found. Although they were pretty cool finds. I was just really excited to find the free yarn and then it be so awesome! I just have to think up something really nice to make w/ it. Maybe a knitting bag? Any ideas?