A Rare Sight

If I don't start writing posts consistently soon, they'll be as rare as this solar eclipse:

Wow!  My aunts had come over in the afternoon and we were headed back from the pool down the street just before 6:30pm when we noticed the light changing.  It occurred to us that, Oh Yeah!  there's a solar eclipse tonight.  It was a partial, not a full.  You can see the form of the eclipse in the shadows cast by the leaves.  Everywhere we looked the leaf shadows were circular shadows.  The lighting was similar to that at sunrise but filtered - hard to describe and it shifted the perception of colors as well.  VERY COOL!

And then it was over.  I think the next one will be 2017?

I promise - promise - that I will post again before 2017.  Hah!

We still continue to adjust and reconnect with life here in CA.  Just tonight we were going through the drive-thru of In 'n Out for dinner after Swim team practice and after our total of $14.72 was announced (4 burgers, 2 fries, 1 drink), Kendra says "wow, I can't believe how cheap it is!"  Considering we paid approximately $36 for the same meal at McDonalds in Wadenswil for years, we are still adjusting to certain aspects.  What I appreciate is being able to wait for sales here instead of just buying what we need because there is no other opportunity as we did on trips home from Switzerland.  That said, we'd all love to hop on a flight for Switzerland right now.

Since I last posted, I keep meaning to post pics from Spring Break - Washington DC - but, but as soon as we returned, swim team practice started.  I'm still trying to get the girls schedule coordinated so I don't have to drive back and forth everyday to the pool but by time it really works, school will be out and practice will switch to 7:30am!  I don't see them going to practice 5 days a week.  Do You?

The garden has also required some work.  I've been planting some perennials and herbs in the regular beds and planting the garden boxes with tomatoes, green beans, squashes, melon, peppers, etc....  I didn't realize how easy my gardening had really been in Switzerland.  Besides slugs and some cool weather issues, there wasn't much I dealt with as far as challenges.  In Iowa it was the deer, rabbits and squinnies (like chipmunks) but here!  I'm going to look like Bill Murray in Caddyshack pretty soon.  There are moles, MOLES!, tunneling under my new plants in the flower beds - eating the strawberries! - and I didn't know we had moles in CA.  Gophers yes.  Moles?

There is also the issue of water.  CA garden watering is an art form.  I've been away for a while and I'm still trying to figure it out.  There hasn't been enough natural water this year so it's a bit of a guessing game as to what portions of the garden need what.  Oh, and there are more 'blights' and 'funguses' and diseases related to temperature!  What was I thinking?  So I am trying to take care of all of this without killing my family or dog with toxic potions.  A castor oil treatment is being used for the moles - non-toxic - and I hope they go back where they came from.

What else?  Oh.  Mr. Eiger.  Latest escapade involved my forgetting some boxes on the garage floor from a Costco run.  I had to run out for just over an hour and put him out, the boxes not in view of the door.  Sooooooooooo, he ate an entire bag (large!) of Cheezits and got into the Swiffer duster box destroying the duster refills and more worrying, I found only a part of the plastic handle that comes with this product.  Worrying because I knew there were two missing Gatorade caps from his interest in a flat of that beverage two days earlier.

So back to the Vet (prior week he was in due to Colitis) because I could not induce him to vomit at home.  Vet was reluctant to induce him at first until the xrays were viewed and we could see not only the plastic but a large amount of Cheezits that had not started digesting.  In the words of the staff "Eiger threw up an impressive amount of Cheezits.  We've never seen a dog throw up that much."  Gee.  My special dog.  Not to mention that he gained 6 lbs from his prior week weigh in - I did mention it was a large bag!  Fortunately, almost all the plastic came up too.  He's doing great now and we've finished the clean up/organizing of the garage not to mention we are working on crate training for daytime confinement - he's already crated at night.  We have to protect him from himself!  That said - he rocked at Puppy training class - having fun with his training.  He's quite smart outside of the ingestion of anything that fits in his mouth!

So that is all keeping me busy.  That has really filled up May.  We are looking forward to some fun things coming up and I'll be sure to share.  Until then, I wish you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if I don't get back here.  Remember those who have served for our freedoms!  Take time to thank the veterans and servicemen/women who are arround us now.  :)