Rants and Raves

Nothing of real excitement to report this week....just a few random thoughts.

Rant: Wonderbread. One of the great things about NE Ohio, that you would never notice until you leave, is that you are never really more than 50 miles from a bread factory. So when you go to the super market to pick up some fresh bread, it is, in fact, fresh. Out here, unless you stop by the local bakery, the "fresh" bread is hardly that. It's all at that stage where it is starting to get a little crusty....about the point where you'd normally debate whether or not to just throw it out and go get a new loaf. How I miss the early mornings at U Akron and the smell of fresh baked Wonder. Oh well.

Rave: On the flip side, one thing that we do have out here in California is produce. I guess that goes without saying though, seeing as how we grow over half of the nations fruits and vegetables. Not only are all of the supermarkets lined with the good stuff, nearly every town around here has an open-air farmers market once a week where local growers come to sell their goods. And seeing as how everything grows out here, we have started a little garden of our own. Right now we have lots of herbs and spices sprouting, and even a dwarf mandarin orange tree! I will miss having fresh fruits and veggies every day once we have to leave here.....

Rant: Squirrels. Again. Every time I think that I am getting ahead, the little buggers start popping up in new places. The base housing rules prohibit using poison of any sorts, but my neighbor tells me that bubble gum is highly effective. Hmmm.....

Rave: All of our beaches are finally open! Thanks to the little fella pictured on the right, the Western Snowy Plover, much of the VAFB beach access is restricted for the majority of the year. It seems that they are endangered of sorts, and have taken a liking to our beaches for their nesting grounds. Well, according to the "lead snowy plover monitor at Vandenberg" (now there's a title), all of the chicks had properly "fledged" and the beaches are now officially opened. Here is a quote from our very own ambassador to the feathered friends:

"It's interesting to note that a majority of successful plover nests on the southern California coast can be found on Vandenberg, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Naval Station Coronado near San Diego," stated a report by Mr. Evans. "The Department of Defense is a leader in wildlife conservation, though our primary mission is to protect our nation."

Horray!

Bagel Making

I'd like to think that Jessie and I eat better than the majority of Americans (other than our enormous weakness for Starbucks). We rarely get fast food, seldom drink pop, only occasionally eat red meat, and generally try to avoid pre-packaged and/or processed foods. This leads us to cook for ourselves nearly every night of the week....and in doing so we like to experiment every now and then with something neither of us has a clue about. Our latest culinary foray led us into the art of bagel making. While effectively killing and entire Saturday afternoon, we were able to produce 18 misshapen, slightly mutant looking, chewy, golden ringlets of bread. They might not have been the prettiest, but the sure were yummy! Perhaps we'll get the hang of it next time....

Delta 2 Launch

One of the perks of living at Vandenberg Air Force base, is that they shoot things into space. This Tuesday, we got the chance to watch a Delta 2 rocket push the latest global imaging satellite into orbit. So, the next time that you fire up Google Earth, you will be looking through the eyes of World View Satellite-1. I was roughly 2-3 miles away from the launch pad, and the morning was extremely overcast, so I wasn't able to get as good of a view of the launch as I had liked. Even from that distance, though, it certainly was LOUD. About 6 seconds after lift-off the rocket disappeared into the clouds, and about 30 seconds later I got a good enough view through a break in the clouds to snap a few pictures of the first stage burning and the vapor trail.

Jessie was a few miles away at work, but was able to get outside during the launch. From her vantage point there were far less clouds, and once the rocket popped through the ceiling she was able to watch it burn all the way through the first and second stages, and disappear off into space. All in all, it was a pretty neat experience, and hopefully (weather permitting) I can get some better pictures of the next launch. You can check out some professional images on Vandenberg's homepage here, and watch a streaming video of the launch here (sorry dial-up people). The video is rather lengthy, and the actual launch doesn't occur until 20 minutes into it...so you may want to fast forward it a bit.

Ground Squirrel's

Californian's love their lawns. Now don't get me wrong, I know that you Ohioans spend plenty of time and money trying to keep up with the Jones', but out here it's a bit different. Back east, if you put something green in the ground, it grows. Pretty simple. Sure you might fertilize, trim, water occasionally and weed too keep it pretty......but if it doesn't rain for two months, and everyone's lawn turns brown and dies it's no big deal, right? That's Mother Nature, and now you have less to mow.

Well.....not out here.

They say that in California everything grows. Well they are right, but what they didn't tell you is that you have to water it. Constantly. And oh how people do love to water. Everyday they water their lawns......and their driveway, the left side of the house, the neighbor's dog, the sidewalk, and half of the street. And the Lord forbid you forget to water for a week, or else your grass will shrivel up and die like a freshly-salted slug. I find it rather humorous, because the news constantly speaks of what a water crisis the West is in. Reserves are low, Lake Mead is down nearly 100 feet, etc, etc. BUT, people have green grass and are therefore happy. So, now that I have grown quite accustomed to this little ritual, I'd have to say that I am rather enjoying it. It's been a fun little challenge trying to keep on top of things and making our yard look a little better. And just when I thought that I was starting to get a hang on things, I get thrown a curve ball:

THE CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL

These little guys are a royal pain in the ass. Unlike their eastern tree-dwelling brethren, these little guys like to dig holes. Lots of them. In my lawn. And each new hole is always accompanied by a nice big pile of dirt, and it tends to kill my grass. Kind of like this:

Needless to say, after spending so much time trying to keep our lawn alive, I was not too happy about our new visitors. So, I decided to do what anyone would in my situation.......teach squirrels how to swim. =) The little buggers have proven to be pretty resilient, and so far the score is Me: 1, Squirrels: 4. Perhaps we'll have to resort to more drastic measures.

Road-Trip Pictures

Well, we finally got all of our pictures posted from our cross-country trip out here. We now have a Shutterfly address, and should be updating it semi-regularly as we visit other cool places out here. You can access all of our pictures at: www.stuffel.shutterfly.com

If there are any that you would like copies of, just let us know so we can send you a hi-res copy (rather than buying it off of their site).

Welcome!

Welcome to Stuf's Blog! I figured since Jessie and I have recently moved across the country, this might be a good way for a lot of you to keep in touch with us. More to come in a bit....