Valentine's Day Visitor

Things at the Ashby household have been pretty low key. 

 The pups have been enjoying the warm weather.

Our rock-awesome neighbors gave us a fire pit for Christmas, so we've been enjoying s'mores in our own backyard.  Love this!! 



 Dave recently decided to re-wire the house with Cat 5 Cable--totally out of my department.  All I know is that the office floor used to like something like this:

Now it looks like this:

So I'm definitely happy.  It makes this stuff all over the house for the last few weeks worth it:

Finally, a cute little cupid showed up for Valentine's Day this year :)

whirlwind of a week

i've decided that since summer never came to the bay area, i am exempt from blogging about it.  the past few months will just have to live in oblivion. 

so, i will start fresh since it is essentially fall now.

a couple weeks ago my sister, steffanie, came to visit and it was an awesome, action-packed week.

the day after she got here we wasted no time, and left at 5am to hit yosemite.  four hours later, we were in the valley taking in all the sights.



the sights happened to include one of these; which, btw, is on my "scares-me-to-death" list. 

after going aroud the valley, we decided to hike up to the top of vernal falls.

we still had a ton to see, so once we hit the top we didn't linger very long.  we literally ran down, so we could rush to glacier point.  when we got there, you could see where we had just been.

next on the list was mariposa grove.  steff had never seen "big trees", and these did not disappoint.

by the time we were done in the grove, it was getting dark, so we headed home.  after another four hour drive, we were home around midnight, and ready for bed!

day2

oakland temple, half moon bay, pescadero:

half moon bay was a bit of a bust, but we got some awesome artichoke bread in pescadero...totally worth it.

day3

point reyes:

our timing wasn't perfect--apparently the light house is closed on tuesdays and wednesdays, but the day was incredible.  no fog! the view was crazy amazing.  from chimney rock you could see point reyes, and the golden gate bridge.

day4

san francisco:

we did all the major tourist stuff which included a cable car tour of the city. 

day5

monterey bay aquarium and whale watching:

once again, we left early and drove down to monterey to go whale watching.  we'd never done it before, and it turned out to be pretty fun--despite freezing the whole time.

we saw lots of dolphins

tons of these funny guys

and we managed to find some whales to follow

day6

steff to the airport and candace taken' it easy. 

unfortunately the taken' it easy part was mostly because i was feeling sick, but i'll take it.

just so you know, i'm giving myself props for posting a picture like this of myself.

plumber for a day

so, the other day dave asks "will you pour some drano down my sink".  i respond "sure".

however, being the compulsive person that i am, i knew that wasn't going to solve the problem.  i wanted the problem fixed.  so, i fixed it.  gross-out alert!!

seriously, this is one of the grossest things i've ever done! 

i don't get paid enough for this.  then again, i don't get paid enough to have someone else do it.  oh well. 

on another note.  we recently fit two cars into a two car garage!  we cosidered it a miracle.

tales of tahoe

SO, a couple weeks ago, a friend called me friday morning and said..."we booked a room in the lodge at sugarbowl for tonight and tomorrow, and won't be able to make it.  would you like to take it?"

and i said, "of course! that would be great!"

unfortunately, dave was working on a project, and could not go; but suggested that i enjoy myself and go.  so i did....for the most part.

on the way there, just past auborn, i encountered a 20 mile backup due to an 8 car pile-up.  i sat on the highway for 2.5 hours, without moving.  i left the house at 2:30pm; by the time the accident cleared, it was 9pm.

by this time, it was snowing quite heavily, and i began to be a little concerned about the chain control check-point.  luckily i bought chains on the way there, but had NO idea had to put them on.  i am from florida.  i'd never even seen chains in my life!!

 good thing: there were men you could pay $30 and they'd do it for you.  bad thing: i didn't realize i needed to do that BEFORE the check point.  so, the po-po made me exit the highway, drive back 2 miles (which had taken me 2 hours to get through), get back on the highway, and then go through the chain line again!!  at this point i called dave and cried.  by the time i got through chain-control, it was 12:30am.

now with chains on, and only able to go 30mph max, and with another 30+ miles to go, i finally made it to the exit i wanted around 1:30am.  and unfortunately from here, google maps gave me the wrong directions. sigh.  i had no idea where i was going.  thank goodness for a pg&e guy working late who gave me directions after hollering at him out the window.

i finally made it to the lodge at 2am.  yeah!!  i hadn't eaten in 12 hours, or tinkled in 6 hours.  i was truly grateful that i didn't have to pull over on the side of the road, alone, and improvise!

The next day, i was both wired and exhausted; however, the skiing was awesome! 

the snow was amazing! and everything was beautiful!

i had a great time!

now i just had to make it home...

and being the silly florida girl that i am, i thought i could handle the chain removal myself. ha.

so, 20 minutes after leaving sugarbowl, i find myself on the side of highway 80, with the chains caught over the axle behind the two front wheels; laying under my car on the muddy, snowy, road alone and, well, lots of other emotions.

so, not ashamed to ask (or beg) for help, i flagged down a random blue tahoe in hopes that someone could or even would help.  fortunately for me, what must have been the 3 nephites, stepped out of the tahoe, took off my tires, removed the chains, and sent me on my way.  and from there, i was home in no time...though very gross and dirty.

moral of the story:  it's okay to go alone, just do it in a truck!!

the handyman can

i am always complaining about the sliding doors in our house.  the reason: they don't actually slide.  it's like pushing a brick wall out of the way.

so the other day i came home from work to the smell of paint thinner in the garage.  when i opened the door to go inside, i was greeted with this:

dave had managed to take the entire door out and fix the problem.  of course moxie assisted.

now the door slides like it's on air...it's WONDERFUL!

one down, two to go.  how nice to have a handyman around.

moxie's obsession

for whatever reason, moxie has always loved the laptop; as such, she has developed amazing talents when it comes to utilizing the laptop. 

after sending any unintended or random emails, she enjoys pressing buttons to perform functions that i dare say even the finest of silicon valley's tech gurus could not accomplish if they so wanted.

after such hard work, moxie often takes pleasure in a quality nap with the laptop.

if one of her humans would like to use the laptop, she makes sure that we are well chaperoned.

moxie is a very good dog, and always looks forward to conference on the laptop.

she even enjoys the laptop's company when it's not on.

and finally, just to show that she is not limited to an electronic medium; moxie is also a fan of tolkien.

the kitchen: the saga's outcome

sorry it took so long to post an update--what's a couple years here and there?  so, here are updated pictures of the kitchen for those of you who haven't seen them (apologies for those who have).