Blanket of Clouds

The sunset and cloud were pretty flying in from the Bay area the other night....

 

The Ups and Downs of Water

Go take a look from this post - when Folsom Lake was near its peak...

http://tangemanfamily.blogspot.com/2010/05/folsom-lake-nearing-capacity.html

Now here's what we've got.... everything you see should be underwater except the most distant hill in the first picture!

Helen and Mittens

Here's one I thought Dad would appreciate!

Yikes! The Broncos are...

  In a surprisingly bad game where the highlight was clearly our chicken nachos at home... who would have thought...

Elle at Dance Class

Now you know how Elle learns her moves...here is another video from dance class.

Death Star Construction Well Underway

Jack and I have started building the Death Star.   About 3 weeks in we are roughly a third of the way done.  Here Jack fine tunes the trash compactor.

Mom has graciously given up the dining room table to support the endeavor.  Current expected completion date is March 1...

Elle Dances with Flags

Elle's dance  class - which I finally go to take her to! featured flag dancing.  Here's a snippet...

Perform This Way - A Lady Gaga Parady by Weird Al!

I'd missed out on this one and the video....

Meet the Cat...and his Hat!

Jack dressed up as the Dr. Seuss Cat in The Hat a few months back at school!

You Can Dance If You Want To

You can leave your bro' behind.  In this completely unscripted video Jack begins dancing to one of Men Without Hats best new songs, Head Above Water . Not to be shown up, Elle (bronchitis and all) sets her ice cream cone down and shows Jack how it's done.   I guess those dance lessons are paying off!

Pizza Hut Testing New Concept in Nebraska

I recently read that Pizza Hut was going to test a new type of restaurant in York, Nebraska and Pawtucket, Rhode Island.  I happened to be in York on the day this new Pizza Hut opened so I checked it out for lunch.  The new concept is that they sell pizza by the slice at a "slice bar", sauté pastas, and make salads all in front of you.  You run through the line kind of like at a Subway so you can see them making your food.  If it's a success in these test markets, the concept could go national.

 I ate one of the "Big 'N Delicious slices of pizza.  The precooked pie was sitting out, and once you select what kind you want, they heat it up in the oven and bring it out to your table.  It was quick and the slice was large and only cost three dollars.  It was a decent slice of pizza.  My one disappoint with this was that I couldn't choose exactly what toppings I wanted on the slice.  I had to select from about five pre-decided options.

A 1937 Indian Motorcycle!

As seen in the Cooper Winery in the Shenandoah Valley...

Arkansas State Joining Big 12 (Fake)

http://www.rockcitytimes.com/arkansas-state-announces-move-big-12-beginning-2015-football-season/

College Education has a Positive ROI (in aggregate) at only 150 schools

A recent study from the 2013 Global Conference indicates there are only 150 schools that offer students a positive ROI. The new is good for Georgia Tech students. Tech is one of only two public universities in the top 20 from a ROI perspective.  May want to think twice about that philosophy degree from Sonoma State!

Cupcake Frenzy Fading...

Our best local cupcake shops are closing their doors.    They were good cakes but obviously not good enough.  The sad thing is the cakes were really good so this should serve as a warning to future cupcake entrepreneurs.

Elle Starts Dance Class

I think this was bigger than Christmas Eve in her eyes!  She had trouble sleeping the night before even!

Jack's Hip-hop Class Performs to Lady Gaga's Applause

This was the only class that was dominated by boys!

Happy New Year!

Our plans for celebrating fell through so we decided to take the kids out to Chicago Fire for pizza!

Happy 2014!

Who are the presents for??? Me!

Elle is in the phase where she thinks all the presents belong to her!

Santa Indeed Has Come!

Christmas Morning Report - The Bait and Switch

Jack received a note from Puff the elf in his stocking explaining his number one gift - the Star Wars Lego Republic Gunship - had fallen through.


























Here he reads though note and tries to internalize the impact...

Visions of Sugar Plums!

Got this shot at the zoo last night...

Singing at Church

They had "children's time" at church last week-end where they brought down all the kids to sing a few Christmas carols...



Both Jack and Elle were included though pretty hard to see them....

Elle's Big Birthday Gift!

None other than....

Now this is a Cool Company up in Canada! WestJet Airlines gets a Grade A

Elle Turns Three!

A few recent quotes.

A few days ago on a walk upon seeing a black and white dog..."look - a panda bear"

Being tucked in on her birthday..."is my birthday over"


Elle and Jack made a gingerbread house with Mom!

She dressed in birthday attire for school - including her hat!

Elle scores a Hello Kitty scooter from Granny!   And loves it

Cold in CA? Watch Kimmel

Similar reaction in Northern CA though we tend to get slightly harsher temps and storms.   There was, in fact, real snow this afternoon out our house.... just a flurry.

Elle at the Disney Store Castle

Elle can't contain her excitement in the Disney store princess castle....

Brrr! Sacramento is NOT Supposed to Be 11 Degrees Colder Than Muskegon in December!

 
 
 

 And even a chance for snow on Saturday....

Our Visit with Santa

We saw Santa early this year as I guess he has a pretty busy schedule. It turns out, actually, that Santa is quite in demand and will be spending a lot of time before Christmas in San Francisco at the famous Ghiradelli Square.

Elle was still a bit leery of the plump elf and couldn't be talking into sitting on his lap. She did, however, cautiously run up to him in order to accept a candy cane. She now declares that she'll sit on Santa's lap on Sunday.

For the first year ever, Jack did not ask Santa for a wallet! Rather he asked for 1. The Star Wars Lego Republic Gunship 2. The Star Wars Lego Count Dooku's Solar Sailor and - since Elle was was too scared he allocated one of his three items for her. He asked Santa to bring Elle a dollhouse.

Christmas Time is Here...Again!

Jack got it right on his poster he made for school last year.

He thought Christmas was about: Love...Giving...Family....Hugs....Friends....and finally Puff the Elf. He pretty much nailed it.

My "Black Thanksgiving" Trip to Target

We finished dinner, finished most of the cleaning and the guests left.  My problem?  I was too full from all the food so going to bed didn't resonate.  What else to do but go to Target!   Here's how it went down and my observations.

10:30pm - Arrive at Target.   It looks busy.  Fortunately JoAnn's wasn't open so there was still pretty reasonable parking options...

10:35pm - First sign that this was NOT going to be a regular trip to Target.  No carts available.  Had I known that I would have grabbed one from the parking lot.  Oh well - less to buy.  Steph had actually given me a grocery list!  Not to be tonight.

10:40pm - You hear tales of the crazy folks who make a full day of Black Friday.  Well they come out for Thanksgiving shopping to!  as you would likely suspect.  These ladies were in full on matching footy pajamas and had set up a central, monitored hub that the kept ferrying stuff back to.  I obviously had to be discreet when capturing their shopping zeal.

10:50pm - I encounter a line in the electronics section. Inquiring, I learn it is the "Apple" line where customers hope to get Gen-1 Apple Products at ~$75 discount. There seems to be very little movement in the line.

10:55pm - I had one target (no pun intended) item I was looking for and finally found it. Sold out :( But they did have a nice substitute available that was slightly more spendy (but also a door-buster bargain) so I went with it. Another observation - there were tons of employees there. One I heard complaining he had worked a 14-hour shift the day prior. Here's one employee busily restocking Legos with the "Apple Product" line in the background.

11:00pm - In line to check out. I was somewhat stunned to to see the check-out line. The had set up switchbacks between the cleaning type aisles. I was tempted to opt-out and leave my items behind but I knew that a single queue, multi-server line was extremely efficient so decided to wait it out. Fortunately, the weaving took my right by the Windex so I picked up two bottles including a hard to find vinegar based bottle - that was perhaps the highlight of my trip! It took about 20 minutes to check-out. Based on my experience of this first "Black Thanksgiving" it will definitely be back. Target seemed to be doing a gang-buster business and my guess Wal-Mart was the same way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"It's Thanksgiving' as performed by Phoenix Elementary in Folsom

Celebrating Thanksgiving with Jack's Class

The class performs "Mr. Turkey" and "I'm a Little Indian"

As Christmas approaches so do the Funny Sweaters...!

The Wrap on Soccer - Year 2

 Jack's soccer season wrapped up this week and it was a good season for him and the team.  Most of the team remained from last year and progressed quite a bit. 

Jack emerged as one of the fastest kids on the team and one of the most defensive minded players.  He also seemed to develop a "pass-first" mentality over the course of the season.

While he still had his moments he progressed nicely year over year and already says he'd like to play again next year....

Happy 11/12/13 Day!

The Harry Potter Mouse Wizard?

Here's a cute snap of Elle from Jack's Harvest Festival!

Fluffy Snow Dessert!

Fluffy Snow Dessert!

It is almost a certainty that this place will be "going soon" as well.  Maybe I'll get to try one before it fades into oblivion!

Turkey Time Already!

In grand tradition, here's a gobbler I shot (with a camera, not a gun!) back in January...

Granny's Visit

Kids are having lots of fun with Granny visiting.  Halloween was fun - pictures coming - but they everyday comings and goings from school are too.

Picking up Elle from school!

Fun misbehaving at dinner.

Here are Jack and Elle's "school" costumes.

This is Jack's class pumpkin from school. Obviously, the girls won the coin flip on pumpkin color!