A storm like no other

Last Tuesday, there was a severe storm here in the valley that produced winds that had to be atleast 70 mph, golf ball sized hair, quarter sized hail and was over all, unlike any storm I have ever been through. This is the aftermath. I took video and will try and upload it. I wanted to take pictures of Jimmy last night sweeping the roof. We lucked out at the house and the only damage we have is a broken condensation line on the air conditioner and plastic chairs with big holes in them that are now going to chair heaven. The neighbors trees were shredded onto the lawn and into the pool. Jimmy is cleaning up the yard today. Stay tuned for video!

Jimmy and Mel on vacation

We finally got to escape the heat and take a vacation! We drove to Palm Springs to break up the driving and spent the night there, got up then headed to Palmdale, CA to see my Dad and Hanh. We went to the Peach Orchard and picked more fruit than I thought possible. We had a nice visit with Dad and Hanh and even got to play a 3 hour game of Mexican poker.

The next day we set out for San Diego. The traffic gods were on our side and we got there before noon. Just in time for Jimmy to hop on a boat and go sport fishing! He was in hog heaven and so was I. I got to lay by the pool and read a magazine (something I never get to do on vacation).

We also had a beach day. We packed a picnic, our beach chairs, blanket, umbrella and got ourselves a good spot on Mission Beach.

Me lounging at the pool

The View from our room

We also got to spend a couple of nights in Huntington Beach. I reminded Jimmy it was basically the exact same trip we took when we got engaged, minus the Palm Springs and Palmdale stops. We got to hang with our good friends Tamara and Pierre and thier little munchkin Sebastian. Looking forward to taking more vacations!

San Diego Swap meet sights

Here's a video I took of a couple of guys and thier homemade instruments. Not sure if you can tell but the guitar, drums and amp are all made out of suit cases. Pretty unique

Walking around San Diego

Jimmy and I took the train to down town and walked around a bit. We went to the new Hyatt property on 5th called Andaz and went up to the roof where they have a bar, pool and amazing views. You can see the view from the roof. The Padres were playing at Petco park and we could see and hear it!

Manager's Outing to Chase Field

Jimmy and I were able to leave work around 1pm, head over to Sliders to enjoy some food, drinks and company of our fellow managers. It was a nice break in the day. We got to go to the D-backs Vs. Padres. It was also the first grandslam that I have been in the park for. Brandon Allen hit a grandslam in the 7th inning and the D-backs won 5-2. It was pretty awesome. Our GM gave each of us an authentic game ball that the Oakland As used for practice. I made James pose for this pic and I also told my brother that he caught the grandslam ball. Too bad we were sitting in left field and the grandslam was hit in right field. After I had him going for a while, I told him the real story!

Ray Lomantagne and David Gray with Matt

Last night Matt and I went to the David Gray concert. It was one of the best I've seen. This video is a portion of his song 'Nemesis'. After watching the video, I wish I would have recorded more. The lights in the front were so bright, it looks like one big light but there were 6 individual bright lights that caused me to wear my sunglasses in an otherwise dark auditorium. David Gray is amazing and Ray Lomantagne was unlike anyone I've ever seen.

My 3rd Natalie Merchant Concert 8/17

I was asked the other day, why I am not updating my blog more frequently (you know who you are). As I looked at some other blogs bookmarked on this page, I noticed that some of them haven't been updated in as much as 11 months. So, that leads me to believe that I am doing okay with the blog. And where I slack off, I have Florence and Norm to add some pics and posts of thier Kauai adventures. It's hard to keep up on the blog when you work from 7a-7p 5 days a week. That leaves little time for much and the time I had, I just wanted to plant myself on the couch.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Shannon and I went to Dodge theatre to see one of my favorite musicians, Natalie Merchant. She was amazing. She adapted childrens poems to music. She was animated, fun and engaged with the crowd. She played so long, it felt like 2 concerts. She played all of our favorites. Her last song was Kind and Generous, which was played at my mom's memorial service. It was a great ending to a most enjoyable show!