February in Review

We didn't do too much this past month. With Christian's truck still needing repairs and our horrific experience in Joshua Tree, we didn't even go do anything over the President's Day weekend. Mostly Christian worked on Emily's birthday videos since her birthday is coming up really soon. There was also rain in the forecast to most of the areas nearby that we might have wanted to go to.

We took a break and went for a walk in the Box Spring Mtns here in our backyard on Monday. We did a little climbing. Mostly we took videos of the kids.

----------

While the weather has not been very good for our outdoor adventures, it has been nice and chilly to work for our adventures in charcuterie. We have all kinds of sausages and coppas in various stages. Some are cold smoked and other's are fermented. It has been pretty crazy when we stop to think about what we are doing but no one here is complaining as everything has been really tasty. We have all kinds of shelf stable meats that we can take with us now on our adventures...now the problem is being able to get out there.

--------

Caitlyn's school made a half assed and late attempt to reward their honor roll students for the 1st trimester. Caitlyn got a 4.0.

It was well into the third quarter at this point. The principal didn't even bother attending and then they marked her for being truant while she was at the assembly.

Nightmare in Joshua Tree

At the beginning of the month, we headed back out to Joshua Tree to attempt to get in some climbing as we have not been able to work on it as much as we would have liked to this last year.

We started off on an easy climb on Trashcan Rock to warm up (B2).

Christian went up and set up the anchor. Emily lead next. Caitlyn followed and cleaned and I just top roped the climb. 

It was very crowded and noisy. We couldn't hear each other speak on the climb. It was pretty irritating. Of course, by the time we got off and decided to head elsewhere, most of the noisier people moved off.

Our next climb was a short hike in from the Boy Scout Camp parking lot. There were several possible climbs out there. Unfortunately, when we got out there, we found that all three routes were being hogged by one party. They had their gear and ropes up on all of them but they were climbing none of them. While we were trying to what was going on, two other groups came by wanting to climb the same route as well. At that point, one of the people in the first party trotted over to pretend that he was going to start climbing. Of course, when we confronted him with his bad behavior, he tried to not take any responsibility for his actions saying that the rope wasn't even his but his friends'...like that made any difference.

We left in a huff while the other parties that also wanted to climb. but couldn't because these people were hogging up the routes, couldn't even figure out why we were even upset. We left and tried to decide what to do next. There was virtually no parking anywhere. We got the last spot in our parking lot. We did not think the other parking lots in the park would be a whole lot better since it was so crowded everywhere. Meanwhile, we kept looking back at the people hogging up our climb and after another 30 minutes or so, still no one was climbing the friggin routes!!!

We ended up just wandering around and scrambling on the rocks. We were not very happy. We did find a couple of nice little practice boulders and climbs but not much.  The sun was starting to go down and we decided to head home early. There was a group of nasty giggling girls hiking up to the top of one of the rock formations we had just left. They were super loud and obnoxious. When they got to the top, they pulled their pants down and mooned their own camera and just thought it was the funniest or cutest thing. It was seriously time to leave.

We stopped by the McDonalds in town to let the kids get a quick snack to hold them over until we got home for dinner. However, when we got back into the car to leave, it would not start. We were pretty low on gas but should still have had plenty to get to the gas station which was our next destination. We thought that maybe the meter was not working well or something. We dumped our white gas into the tank to see if it just needed a little more to get it started, but nothing happened. We emptied our water container and Christian and I walked to the nearest gas station to get some gas. We brought back more than two liters of gas but it still would not start. We seriously started to panic at this point. 

Christian decided to leave his i-Pod at home as he usually brings it but never uses it. I usually bring my cell phone but had left it plugged in to the charger under my desk and forgot it. We had no numbers memorized but found Marian's home phone number in Christian's glove compartment as we sometimes use it for discounts on gas. Unfortunately, we had no phone. We walked up and down a couple of nearby shopping centers but there are no longer pay phones anywhere anymore. It was dark at this point and we were stranded. We had even checked at a rent-a-car place in one of the shopping centers but they had just closed. It was a nightmare.

We ended up at an auto parts shop to get a wrench. We were going to attempt to disconnect the battery to see if it was just some freak computer problem that we would reset by disconnecting the power. No dice.

Finally, I forced the kids to come with me to ask a stranger to borrow their cell phone. I found a nice family inside the McDonalds that leant me their phone. As luck would have it, Marian was home when I called! Christian gave her directions and she headed out to come rescue us. Meanwhile, I talked with the guy that happens to work at a parts store and knew a bit about cars. He suggested that we try to trigger the fuel reset which sometimes pops in accidents and such. He told us where to look and we profusely thanked him to check it out and wait for Marian who would have been over two hours out still.

We could not quite see the fuel reset. At this point, the family that leant us the phone was getting ready to head out to take the kids to the circus that was in town. They stopped by to check on us on their way out. The fuel reset did not work but he told Christian to turn on the car and listed at the tank. He told us that our fuel pump was not engaging. He banged on the bottom of the tank a few times and told Christian to try it again. The car actually started!!! It was unbelievable. We tried to call Marian to see if she had already left but could not get a hold of her. Unfortunately, we did not get her cell phone number from her earlier so there was no way to contact her. We had to wait until she got to us.

We drove the car out to the gas station and filled up. We also got food for everybody back at the McDonalds that we were waiting for Marian at. We were too afraid to shut the car off though and just left it running the entire time. Marian finally arrived shortly after the McDonalds closed for the night. I rode back to our house with her and we followed Christian and the kids in the truck to make sure that it made it back.

It was a pretty stressful night and situation. We made it back safe and sound, thanks to a kind stranger and Marian, plus we found out what was wrong with the truck. 

January in Review

We spent most of January with family. My mom's birthday this year landed on January 16th. We celebrate her Chinese birthdate, so the date changes every year. It was on a Monday which turned out to be the Martin Luther King day and the kids had the day off of school. Christian had to work though, so the kids and I headed out to visit with my mom. My sister had planned to take her out to lunch and we were all going to show up to surprise her. My brother had to work as well, but he had the kids at home. He tried to meet us for lunch but there wasn't quite enough time and ended up getting some lunch to go. His kids stayed to hang out with the rest of us.

My sister took us all out to eat Thai food. Emily and Caitlyn had never had any so they were pretty excited to try some new things and hang out with their cousins.

After lunch, we stopped by a park so that the kids could run around and we wanted to get a picture of my mom and all her grandkids since we were all together.

Then we all went back to my mom's house for cake and presents. I made her a Bostom Cream Pie with the weird cake pan I won from our trip together in San Francisco. Plus I made her a Shutterfly book of our trip there and to Lake Tahoe.

Afterwards, I dropped my brother's kids off at their house and headed home with mine.

--------

We went back to visit with my mom again for the next couple of weekends. First for the reunion dinner. I went with my mom to visit with my father for a while. It was pretty depressing. They had him strapped down on his chair so that he would not constantly get up and fall down. We wanted to bring him dinner but the lazy people at the home fed them all early so that they would all retire to their rooms so that they would not have to watch them so closely. He did not know who we were but he was talkative and took some steamed cake that my mom made for him. He was a little frustrated that he couldn't quite remember us. It seemed like a memory that might have been there but was just out of his reach.

The following weekend, we went back to celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year. As usual, we spent the day making dumplings and eating them. Unfortunately, we were too busy working and eating to take too many pictures. The kids got their lucky red envelopes and got to play some more with their cousins.  

This year was the year of the rooster. Caitlyn's year, which means that she will turn twelve this year!

Joshua Tree

Before the kids returned to school. We made one last ditch effort to go do something. The weather was still questionable, but we decided to try to tough it out. We drove out to Joshua Tree for the day.

We headed out to the Barker Dam area. It was cold, windy and pretty miserable...and yet, it was unbelievably crowded. 

We headed out to the dam first. There was actually a decent amount of water there from all the recent rains.

Christian and Emily scrambled around on some of the rocks surrounding the area to see if there was anything interesting to climb.

Caitlyn and I stayed with our gear and huddled down to stay warm and attempted not to get run over by tourists. 

We attempted to find a climbing route near the area, but when Christian finally found it, he didn't think anyone would actually want to climb it. It was just too miserably cold and windy. For as miserable as it was, I just couldn't get over how many people milled around out there. The camping sites were all full and we could barely get any parking!

We had some lunch and tried to come up with a plan with what we would want to do next. In the end, we headed out to Keys View to walk around and decided to try to catch the sunset. 

We got lucky and got a parking space. There were just non-stop cars coming up, trolling for parking spaces. At some point, some idiot pulled up in pack of our car and blocked us in. We were up on the hill above the area. When they finally left, we thought that it was best to leave while we could. It was neat on the hill with the clouds and mists blowing through, but it got old and cold after a while and the sunset was less than spectacular. 

Winter Break

I am woefully behind on my posts. It has been difficult to work up the enthusiasm to write when there isn't anything much to write about.

Once again, we had to cancel our family trip. A lot of weather systems has been moving in and our original plan was to drive out to Utah. To visit the Arches National Park and other normally busy places while it is too cold and miserable for the majority of tourists to want to venture out in. Unfortunately, the weather system that we've had over us over the holidays would start moving off to the east in the direction we had planned to travel. We would end up following the rain to the east which would eventually turn to snow. It was just too far to travel to endure that kind of weather that would end up hampering most of our activities.

On top of that, since Emily started feeling sick on Christmas Eve, it turned into a full blown cold with a fever to boot. There was no telling how much worse it would get if we dragged her out to camp in those elements.

So we stayed home.

I decided to take the opportunity to work on the house. My project was to paint the eaves which badly needed some serious attention for the past five years or so now. Truthfully, the previous owners slapped on a thick layer of thick paint on painfully neglected eaves just to sell the house. It started falling apart and peeling after our first season here. Because of the many problems we had with the house in the beginning and then taking every opportunity to get away most weekends for the past three years or so, we have not made the time to work on it. The weekends we were here, we had other obligations or more pressing matters to catch up on.

I scraped and sanded the neglected wood as best I could before applying primer and paint, but honestly, half of the wood should probably be replaced. If I waited to do that, I knew that it was not going to happen any time soon, so I just did the best I could with what we had.

The kids helped out a little here and there with the painting and in the yard. Mostly, they ran off to play with the kids in the neighborhood. 

For the first couple of days, Christian stayed in and cooked and cleaned for us. It gave me a lot more time to work on my project. We had so much food, we did not have to cook for another day or two afterwards. 

After Christian's cooking frenzy, he spent most of his time researching and preparing for his big project over the break. He needed to change the timing belt on my Trooper. We have nearly 100,000 miles on the Trooper and since we were not going anywhere, he took the opportunity to take the car apart to put in the new timing belt while we didn't need the vehicle.

It still rained here and there so I did not get as much done as I would have liked before the break was over, but it was a good start. I was just worried that I would not be able to keep my momentum on the house up. After a day of scraping and sanding, I was pretty sore and there was always so much to clean up. Without Christian making the meals and having to go back to dropping of and picking up the kids from school, the window of time I had to work on the house was greatly reduced.

Christmas

Marian came over to spend Christmas Eve with us, as is are tradition. She got us a rib roast which Christian has been dry aging for the past 3 weeks. We spent much of the time preparing for our dinner feast.

Christmas morning brought lots of presents.

The biggest gift that Emily got this year was a new bedding set. She actually picked it out some months ago and I wrapped it up for her. She has been patiently waiting for Christmas so that she could actually see it again and use it.

Caitlyn's big gift was a pogo stick...which I thought was really random and weird.  Of course, we grew up with one, but I didn't even know that they still made them. She put it on her wish list, so that's what she ended up getting.

The girls actually bought real presents for each other this year. Caitlyn got Emily a kind of owl watch fob on a chain necklace. Emily got Caitlyn a himalayan salt lamp because she still likes to have a nightlight on in their room and Caitlyn loves rocks.

Caitlyn even bought her dad a giant tube of gourmet popcorn for Christmas. 

We got a lot of miscellaneous Columbia clothing from Marian for Christmas for our many adventures. Unfortunately, our adventure for Christmas break looks like it is going to be cancelled. We had planned to go to Utah, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Emily started feeling sick on the morning of Christmas Eve and it wasn't getting any better. There was a snow storm moving into Utah ahead of us. It was supposed to snow almost the whole time. Plus, it was expected to be super cold.

Christmas with the Wongs

We celebrated Christmas this year with my family before Christmas Eve. Normally, we celebrate on Christmas Day, but this year, my sister and her family will be on an early morning flight to Japan on Christmas.

We got together for dinner, so we had most of the day to prepare food. Christian still had to work and the kids had their last day of school right before Christmas (which was totally insane). Christian started some bread before heading off to work in the morning. We planned to serve some of our dry cured meat with crusty bread and herb infused olive oil. We also made some desserts and a side dish to bring over.

All the kids are getting so ridiculously big now. Both of Wendy's kids are currently in college. For a while, all the yearly Christmas pictures had her boys towering over all the other kids but the rest of the varmits are starting to shoot up.

The kids spend most of the time playing together. Luckily, they all pretty much get along. The adults spend most of the time finishing preparing food and chatting. At the end of the evening, we open presents and have dessert.

The girls got red envelopes from from my mom, art supplies from Uncle Norman and from Aunt Wendy, Caitlyn got a ukulele and a big warm jacket for Emily. Caitlyn had been trying to teach herself to play the ukulele from youtube videos with the little play ukulele that a coworker brought back for me from her honeymoon in Hawaii. It plays okay actually, but it doesn't keep it's tune for very long.