Merry Christmas!!!

We just wanted to say hello to everyone and wish you a Merry Christmas! Sorry that we couldn't be home this year, but we are still thinking of you. Christmas is a bit strange without snow, but we tried to make the best of it today.....so we went to the beach and made ourselves a "snowman." Don't get too jealous, though. What the picture doesn't show is that the wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to stand, and Jessie's feet turned blue because they were so cold!

Merry Christmas!

Update...

Well, not too much going on in the Stuffel house these days.....but here's a little update nonetheless:

So the Rodeo that we bought nearly a month ago still doesn't have a title. Oh how I love the DMV. One small benefit of the military is that you get to declare a "permanent state of residence," ours of which is Ohio. Now, the nice thing about this is that it allows you to conduct all sorts of legal paperwork through your home state, even though you are not currently living there. So for an Ohioan living in California, this is good, because everything in California is ridiculously expensive.....and this allows us to retain ownership of vehicles, pay insurance, etc. all through Ohio. Which brings us to our current situation. The idea when we bought the Rodeo was to obtain a title transfer and register the vehicle through the state of Ohio, which would save us a butt-load of money and allow us to become exempt from all of the emissions BS that California mandates. Now take into account that I bought the vehicle in California, the previous owner had titled it in Alaska, I am trying to complete and out of state title transfer to Ohio, AND the average DMV worker has the IQ of Forrest Gump.......and you will begin to appreciate how difficult this has become. =) I finally sent off all of the forms that I was instucted to a few days ago, so wish me luck!

Unfortunately, it looks like we will not be home for Christmas this year. =( We really had all intentions of trying to make it, but the Air Force keeps messing around with Jessie's training dates, so we were unable to book any flights. Now that we've waited so long, prices are a bit high. Better luck next time......

And speaking of Christmas, we finally got some decorations up this weekend! There will be no live tree for us this year, as they have to truck them in from Oregon and are all $100+. So our little $15.99 Wal-Mart tree will have to do the job this year.

Merry Christmas, and we are thinking about all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving this past weekend! Jessie and I spent the holiday with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins in Las Vegas this year. We had a great time, as it was nice to see family that we don't get to visit too often. The food was great....Grandma won a free turkey dinner (with all the fixins) from a casino drawing, and my Aunt Polly's husband Randal whipped up a ham along with a whole mess of other delicious food. We missed all of you back in Ohio, sorry we couldn't be there too!


For the remainder of the weekend, we mostly hung out with my Grandma and Grandpa. They took us to play bingo a few times, but unfortunately no one was having any luck so we all went home empty handed. Friday night, Jessie and I went out to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group. If you're ever in Vegas, I would HIGHLY reccomend going to one of their shows....it was amazing! The Venetian itself was pretty impressive as well. It is done up inside to look like Venice, complete with all the shops, canals, and street performers.

The drive home was a bit of a drag....we hit the typical Sunday exodus from Vegas as all of the Californians return home from the weekend. That, coupled with an accident or two, made for nearly a 10 hour journey home. =( Maybe next time we'll just fly.....

New car! (sort of)....

So....today we bought a vehicle. It's a 1995 Isuzu Rodeo, 3.2L V6, and 4wd. It may come as a bit of a surprise (even to us!), seeing as how we weren't even planning on buying a vehicle anytime soon. But, one of the advantages to living on a military base is that people are moving all the time, often overseas, so there is always an abundance of second-hand goods for cheap because people are just trying to get rid of stuff. And that's how we came across this. A fellow a few blocks down the road is moving to some small island off the coast of Portugal, and was auctioning off a bunch of stuff so he didn't have to hassle with putting it back in storage. For now, we'll probably park it and keep driving the Saturn.....but once we have to turn the Vue in this spring, hopefully the Isuzu will be a much cheaper alternative than buying the Saturn after it's lease.

Other than that, there really isn't much new news to report. Jessie is doing well, and I am starting to get accustomed to working at C&D. It looks like we will be spending Thanksgiving with some of my family in Las Vegas this year, and we are still looking for flights back to Ohio for around Chirstmas. We'll keep you all posted once we figure it out!

Got Fog?

This has been what it has looked like at Vandenberg for the past week. Fog from sun up to sun down.....oh what fun. You actually get wet from just standing outside. I actually snapped this picture on the highway, during my morning commute to work today. Hopefully it will clear up before too long, because I'm not sure how much longer I can take of this stuff! Remind me to never complain again when it is overcast in Ohio...... =)

Weekly Update

Sorry the blogging has been a little sparse lately, but we've been busy! Here's what's been happening lately:

So it's official. I started working last week, and overall its been a good experience. I still haven't quite figured out what my niche at C+D is going to be, but I do know this much: I will be working in their VLJ (very light jet) program, and I will be learning a lot about composites. I'm pretty happy with it so far, seeing as how it's aerospace and I will be learning about something that interests me. I haven't actually started working as an "engineer" yet, and have been spending most of my time in the lay-up room learning how to fabricate composite thingys. So if you know me well at all, you will know that I've been enjoying it since I am actually making things. And if you have a spare $3.2 million in the bank and want to pick up your own personal Embraer Phenom 100 personal jet, you can rest assured that I could have been the one to make some of the parts. =)

This weekend was particularly productive. We got a lot done around the house, including finally hanging some stuff on the walls. So our house is slowly starting to look like some young-adults live here....rather than a couple of ramen-eating, futon-dwelling, spartan college students. We also went to a HUGE pumpkin patch, and picked out some prime candidates for carving. So now we're officially prepared for all the trick-or-treaters.

If you've seen the news at all lately, you'll know that quite a bit of southern California has been declared a state of emergency because it's burning to the ground. We're okay, and the closest fire is still and hour or two south of us, so we haven't felt the effects of it quite yet. You can still smell it, however, and visibility is down quite a bit during the day. Looking to the south there is a haze that is hanging it the valleys which kind of looks like heavy fog...but it's not. An interesting note though, I checked the weather report yesterday and it said this:



Yep, that's right....smoke. Not sunny, or partly cloudy, or even rain....but smoke. Now there's something that you'll never see in Ohio!

Adventures of Potato Man!

Travelocity has the Roaming Nome......we have Potato Man. Throughout our little cross-country jaunt, we took Potato Man with us and photographed him at various landmarks. The whole thing started as a little joke for Jessie's mom, and has since snowballed from there. So.....you can bet that our little tuberous friend will be accompanying us for all of our future excursions.

I uploaded all of Potato Man's pictures to a new album in our Shutterfly gallery, so you can check him out there. I know that they're not "new" pictures, per se, but there's still fun to look at. =)

Camping in the Sequoia National Forest

Jessie and I just got back from a wonderful weekend of camping in the Sequoia National Forest. The northern end of the forest contains the large, several thousand year old trees that you can drive through. While that definitely remains a must-see destination on our trip list, we actually stayed about 2 hours south of the famous trees, in the Kern River Canyon.

There a lots of pictures if you care to take a look, all of which have been uploaded to our Shutterfly account here.

It was a first time canyon camping experience for the both of us, and there are some obvious truths about canyons that don't really sink in until you're there: (1) the bottom of the canyon gets a lot less sun than the top, (2) therefore the bottom of the canyon is much colder than the top, and (3) because of the air temperature differences canyons are very windy. So with that being said, while the sun rises at it's normal time, it didn't actually get warm until around 11am! Also, it would start to get really cold again around 5pm....so really that only gave us a few hours of the day where we weren't huddled in our tent trying to stay warm. Despite our truncated days, we still made the best of it and had a lot of fun.

Saturday was our first full day, so we decided (being the adventurers we are) to hike/climb/crawl up the side of the mountain to the top of the canyon. We spent a good two hours clawing our way up the side, to then enjoy our lunch (almost) at the top of the mountain. The picture at the top is actually the view from our lunch-site, looking waaaaaay down onto our campsite. Sunday was much less eventful, as we decided to take it easy, read a book, and just enjoy the scenery of the Kern river.

All in all it was a great trip, albeit a bit chilly, and we would definitely go back later.

Jason Gets a New Job!

Well, after being in California for a little over two months I can finally say that I am about to be employed. Horray! After a lengthy interviewing process, I have recently accepted an offer for an engineering position from C+D Zodiac, located roughly 20 minutes north of us in Santa Maria. C+D is comprised of many facilities, located all over North America, and is one of the leading producers of aircraft interiors......from the behemoth new Boeing and Airbus jumbo jets, down to small corporate aircraft. The seem like a great company to work for, as they are growing quite rapidly, and I am really looking forward to doing something new. So, in the days ahead I have lots of paperwork to complete, drug tests, and all the other fun stuff that accompanies being a new hire. I will let you all know how it is going once I know more!

What the hell is that......

So, at roughly 6am this morning I stumble into the kitchen with my lovely wife in tow, when I kick something across the floor. "That's strange," I thought. Being the waining hours of the morning it was still pretty dark, so I reached my foot out for an investigative poke.

It moved.

I quickly snapped out of my usual groggy morning haze, and wondered why something the size of an Oreo was crawling across the floor. "Mouse," I thought, "wonderful." Only, I flicked on a light to be greeted by this:


"WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT?! IT'S FREAKING HUGE!" A mouse would have been just fine. I can do mice, furry critters don't really bother me. In fact, in a weird sort of way, I rather enjoy the ongoing battle between myself and them (see California Ground Squirrels). Bugs are another story. I hate all things creepy-crawly, and have more than four legs. Jessie, who was as grossed out as I was, hastily tossed me a steel-toed work boot from the hall closet. I smacked it....twice. It kind of sounded like someone dropping raw eggs on the floor. So much for my appetite for breakfast.

Well, it turns out that this was our first encounter with a Jerusalem Cricket, more commonly known as a Potato Bug. The West Coast has new surprises for us every day....they sure don't have anything like THAT in Ohio! It turns out that they are perfectly harmless, and I probably could have just picked him up and tossed him outside. Oh well. Sorry Mr. Potato Bug, perhaps your brother will have a little better luck.....

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....