Today is the first round of playoffs for the Blue Warriors. Max’s team had only 1 loss and 1 tie during the regular season and so has progressed to Area playoffs. It is double elimination, with 1 game today and 2 games tomorrow.
The games are played at Pleasant Valley Fields in Camarillo. It is cold and extremely windy. There is a brush fire just on the other side of the park. Lots of smoke.

Toby has been looking forward to the the weekend of 18-20 Nov 2011 for a long time.  This was a combination of our 14 year anniversary and Toby’s birthday weekend.  Poppa and YaYa generously took all 3 children for the 3 days. 

After Toby dropped the kids off on Friday evening, we met at The Cheesecake Factory in Thousand Oaks.  Toby was running late already and the very thick, Friday night traffic caused her to be about 30 minutes late.  We were seated almost immediately, and when the waitress came over, Toby said “Please bring me a bowl of any soup.  I am so hungry I am about to eat this spoon.”  The very kind waitress immediately brought her the soup, so the dinner was saved.

On Saturday, Toby and I spent the afternoon at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa.  In June, at the Salem company picnic, Toby won a raffle for a $200 gift certificate to the spa.  I had a ‘gentleman facial’ and a massage while Toby had a Chumash mud bath and a massage.  Afterward, we ate dinner at the resort restaurant, the Maravilla.

What weekend for Toby would be complete without a movie?  We saw ‘Tower Heist’ at possibly the only theater in town not playing ‘Twilight: Breaking Wind part 1’.  It was very funny.

We met my parents and grand parents at Woodranch in Ventura for an excellent late lunch.

All in all, it was an excellent birthday / anniversary weekend.  Lucy enjoyed her BBQ ribs at Woodranch.

After a bit of a rough start, we spent the day at the Monterey Aquarium checking out the exhibits, displays and tanks.  We saw sharks and rays and jellies and ocean life of all kinds.  Since it was ‘Homeschool Day’ there was a room for homeschoolers set up with hands on exhibits.  Max and Lucy had a great time.  The weather was beautiful and the drive home was very easy (and long).

Lucy’s favorite part at the Aquarium was the rescued otters and the sea horses.  She thinks the otters are soooooooooooo cute.

Max’s favorite part of the Aquarium was the ‘behind the scenes’ tour that we took.  It was a guided tour that showed how the Aquarium operates.  Lucy didn’t really like the tour, and when I asked her what would have made the tour better, she thought for a second and said ‘some ice cream samples would have been nice.’

Toby’s and my favorite exhibit was the sea horse room.  In this area, we saw many different kinds of sea horses, including the ‘leafy dragon’ (http://www.worldmostamazingthings.com/2011/04/sea-dragon-leafy-weedy-sea-dragons.html)

We also learned that sea horses are the only animals in nature where the males give birth.  The female sea horse drops eggs into the male’s pouch and then the baby sea horses pop out of the pouch some time later.  God is amazingly creative.

Today we left for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  We will be visiting on ‘Homeschool Day’.  The admission for parents and kids is free!  Poppa was available to watch Roly for the duration.  Our plan was to drive up and stay at a local motel the night before, visit the aquarium and then drive home after it closes at 5p.  That plan took a little detour but disaster was averted.

We left a bit later than we wanted to.  Nothing serious.  We were just settling in to some audio books as we passed Buelton when Toby (the driver) says : What is that, is that us?  I turn around in my seat and look out the back window to see a large billow of grey smoke emanating from our van.  I had Toby pull over right away (in the triangle of space between an onramp and the freeway.  I look / feel under the car and I come away with lots of oily liquid on my hand and there are spatters all over the back of the van.  I lift the hood and check the oil dipstick, and it is dry.

We called AAA and the plan was to have the van towed to Carp (riding in the tow truck), get the Honda and start over.  Yaya had come up to visit with us for part of the weekend.  Toby had the idea of asking if Poppa/Yaya could bring us a car in Buelton.  Toby called and explained the situation.  Before she could ask, Poppa had suggested that he and Yaya bring us a car in Buelton!  Yay.  Poppa to the rescue, again!

The tow-truck arrived early and dropped us off in Buelton.  Because we pay for the AAA ‘Plus’ membership, we have 100 miles of towing included.  The tow-truck took our car to Tom Watts Automotive (about 60 miles).  The tow driver said that towing is $7 per mile without AAA.  Poppa called right after the tow driver left and said ‘I see your van on the tow truck’.  A few minutes of transferring luggage and we are back on the road heading north to Monterey.  Poppa and Yaya saved the day!

Man, oh man.  I thought I was an above average marksman.  The Appleseed Project weekend says differently.

Max and I arrived at a cold, wet outdoor range on Sunday.  I had brought some tarps so I laid those out to keep off of the mud.  Max borrowed the same rifle from Saturday, but this time one of the instructors put a bipod on it.  Max was in heaven.  He spent most of the day in the prone position blasting away at the targets.

I spent the day trying to qualify.  I had a very hard time shooting on anything smaller than the 100 yard target.  My best score was 84 (out of 250).  Pathetic.

I am looking at getting my own Ruger 10/22 and putting some peep sights on it.

I will also be making a visit to the optometrist.  I had a very hard time seeing the smaller targets out of my right eye.  My left eye was able to see the targets, but they disappeared once I sighted down the gun.

There were a bit less than 20 shooters there both days and 6 volunteer instructors.  Of those shooters, only 3 achieved Rifleman that weekend, and all 3 had been to multiple Appleseed weekends.

Max and I ended up shooting more than 700 rounds this weekend.  Although I performed horribly, I am excited to go back and improve my scores. 

I appreciate all the time and efforts that these volunteers put in.  Thanks Appleseed.