Happy New Year and two days of kiting

Happy New Year!!!


Two baby shots to ring in the new year. This is Jacob Thomas Helm, Kristin's new nephew. He was born Dec. 29th at about 8 p.m. His weight was 8 lbs. 13 oz. and was 21 inches long.

This is Kyle and Elisa's little baby boy Sidney. Isn't he cute.....

If you have any other baby pictures to share please send them to me and I'll add them.

Hope to see you on the water soon
:) :) :)

---------------------------------------

Dec. 30, 2010

A little wind but clear and cool

It's about 3 o'clock and we are out for a walk. Harley in the closer dog and Bebe is in the rear. Today they weren't so cold, but maybe board. I was trying to get the kiters in the shot too.

It wasn't very windy but there were two guys trying to get out. Unfortunately there was more walking than wind.

As we walked up Bay Shore I noticed the snow filled mountains. So cool.

So we walked to the bay over bridge to get another shot of the mountains

Harley and Bebe on our way home. They loved the mountains too.

Dec. 29, 2010

Clearing winds. Windy and cold.

At about 4 o'clock Ruth sent me to the post office to drop off some boxes for her parents in Cleveland Ohio. I saw the wind was coming up and some kiters on the water. It was time to get home.

By the time I got home and grabbed the dogs it was about 5:30, but I wanted to check out the action at Belmont. Unfortunately Bebe and Harley did not like the idea of going for a walk. The wind was very cold, but they hung in there.

It's tough to tell but this is Kyle going starboard. He told me later that the guys that were out were Dong, Trevor, Chuck, Faycal and naturally Kyle.

This shot is a little closer but with the sun going down I was limited with what I could capture.

Under the circumstances this was a pretty good jump. I was trying to hold the dogs, and both were barking, with the sun going down catch a jump.

It's now close to 6 o'clock and it's starting to get dark but the group hung in there until the wind died.

I always find the sunsets amazing. As you can see by double clicking on the picture, the sun us going behind the island and there's still a little wind.

Clearing winds and cold

Dec. 29, 2010

Clearing winds and cold

It's OFFICIAL, we now have two dogs!!!

December 27, 2010

It's OFFICIAL, we now have two dogs!!!


Ruth arrives at the Hearts for Hounds site at the Marina Farmers Market on Sunday Dec. 26th

It was two weeks ago that Ruth came here to drop off some doggie clothes and we left with Harley.

There were plenty of cute puppies, but for us two is enough.....for now.

It's official, Ruth has all of the papers for Harley (aka Oreo). Next stop...home.

We got Harley and Bebe to pose on the neighbors wall. Aren't they cute together...OK it's time to take them for a walk and then feed them. Isn't this exciting????

More about the shooting

Dec. 13, 2010

More about the neighborhood shooting

I admit I'm a retired guy with too much time on his hands so yesterday I walked around with the two dogs and talked to my friends and neighbors about the shooting of Doug Zerby.

Most of us have driven up and down East Ocean Blvd. looking for a place to park. Well you probably have driven by this apartment, which is right in the middle of the block between Santa Ana and Pamona Avenue. This is where the shooting took place.

I can't tell you how many times I have walked between these apartments when I go to the beach. Now it will forever have another picture in my mind.

This is a shot into the courtyard where the shooting took place.

And these were the news crews that lined Ocean from the early afternoon until about midnight.

This was a real life vigil for a man the was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Here is a report on one of our local TV stations. You can see it on YouTube by pasting the following into http://www.youtube.com, Long Beach Police Murder un-armed 35 year old LB man for watering friends lawn Belmont Shores LBPD or going to Inside Edition at, http://www.insideedition.com/news/5498/man-holding-garden-hose-nozzle-shot-to-death-by-police.aspx

I would hate to think one of us would point a water nozzle at somebody if we had been drinking too much and not live to talk about it. I'm sorry to say but I think this just got out of hand.

Dog Beach dedication, Michael Buble & fostering a new dog

Saturday Dec. 11, 2010

The day started out with a walk to dog beach for the official changing of the name from Dog Beach to Rosie's Beach.

There was quite a turnout at Dog Beach. Mark Sandoval, the Director of Marine Services, spoke about all of the work Justin Rudd did in order to create Dog Beach years ago and that the city of Long Beach was behind the change to Rosie's Beach to honor Justin's dog.

Justin read a proclamation from Congresswoman Bonnie Loenthal and then the sign was revealed. WOW it looked great!!!

Ruth and Bebe, wearing their Christmas outfits, stand in front of the tribute to Rosie the Bulldog.

We later got dressed to go see Michael Buble. He was playing at the Honda Center in Anaheim. We decided to go to dinner near the venue and went to the Prime Cut Cafe.

Here Ruth is giving me a Birthday Toast. I guess your only 70 once so we are going to stretch it out as long as we can. Next stop.....Michael.

If you are just being introduced to Michael you can check out some of his hits by dragging this into your web browser and scroll down to a song you know:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=michael+buble&aq=2
If you want to get a sense of what his concert was like watch his rendition of "Fever"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiMAh2cLczY
or watch his perform "Save The Last Dance For Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmi3EPUrw6g
But unfortunately you can't get the real feeling of what a real superstar is unless you see him in person because it's about the feeling you get when he interacts with the audience. It is also impossible to describe the feeling of sound and visual other that say "It's over the top."

Sunday Dec. 12, 2010

Today we were going to go to the Farmers Market and get a Christmas tree...
BUT NO!! Ruth dropped by the pet rescue place to drop off some clothes that Bebe had out grown when she called me over to see what I thought of getting another dog. Instead of adopting the dog outright they let us take him home to try him on. The called it "Fostering the dog." I called it "No way can I say no when there are five women saying YES."

We called him "Harley" because "Bebe and Harley" sounded pretty good together.

Naturally Ruth had some Harley clothes to put on him, then we took them for a walk.

Here's a shot of Harley wearing real Harley Davidson clothes.

At about 6 o;clock, a little after dinner, I decided to shoot the afterglow of the sunset. Much to my surprise there was something else going on down the block. A shooting.

It took a little doing but I grabbed this shot of the scene. A man was shot and killed about a half a block from our house. It is actually just two doors east of Al's place. They had it on the news but I was only able to get this radio report of the shooting that took a mans life.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/12/12/man-dead-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-long-beach/

After our neighbors filled us in on what we missed we walked over to Alamitos Bay, near Bay Shore and First Street. The evening was spectacular. It was very warm and the reflections of the lights were really great. Unfortunately my camera couldn't capture the moment.

Ruth is standing in front of the house showing the dogs the Christmas decorations. Time to get in and give Harley a bath. I don't know what's in store the next week but I have a feeling we now have two dogs in our family.

OK, 70 isn't so bad after all

December 3rd, 2010, my birthday....

OK, I guess being 70 isn't so bad after all!!!

Ruth, Dan and Sara have been talking to me for sometime about my birthday and finally came up with the idea they would do my birthday in two phases. Phase one was tonight and it was going to be small. Phase two would come when the warm weather arrives and people return from their kite vacations. We will have a much larger party then.

For tonight Ruth picked Bono's Restaurant on 2nd street but she wanted to make the table setting much more elaborate. She and Sara worked fast to put it together.

In less than 20 minutes they finished the center piece.

At 7 people started arriving. Here is Sara, Steve and Lenni. All ready to party.

Here's Dan and Kristin. Dan brought a few bottles of wine from his eclectic collection.

Pat and Terry were the people that introduced us to Long Beach. We used to water ski with them at Lake Havasu.

You probably recognize Klaus, in the center is Ruth and her sister-in-law Liz.

Ruth's brother Randy came over to give me a birthday hug so I gave him a head rub. A little tit for tat.

Ruth gave the table quite the festive feel with the red roses.

In keeping with our birthday tradition Dan gave the first toast

Then it was Ruth's turn to give me a toast, or was it a roast???

Sara followed her mothers lead and continued the toast and roast. I can't wait for the next party.

Klaus worked the room taking tons of pictures. Unfortunately he had caught a cold and was not feeling very well.

The food has arrived so it's time to eat. SMILE!!!!

Klaus came over for this fun shot and then he went home early

Now it was time for the cards

Everything went well until Dan's very sentimental card. I couldn't control it..

I don't think the waiter could fit 70 candles onto this little wedge of chocolate cake. That's OK I was able to blow out all of the candles with no problem.

Ruth gave me a present too!!!

Thank you all for coming tonight and to all that sent their Birthday wishes too. Sadly all good parties have to come to an end and I think all of the people in the restaurant were happy we were going home too. I think we were kind of loud,

That's a wrap for now, but I can't wait for part two. I have a feeling that the theme of roasting and toasting will continue. Until then in the words of my neighbor "Jim, seventy is the new fifty." I like that idea