Her humans are gone for a 4 day trip to the Grand Canyon.
We are not sure about how bad the weather will be, since this weirdness that we have been living through the past few days, will still be sticking around.
If you want to check us out, as we detrain at Flagstaff, it is due in around 7AM Eastern Time.
Here is the main view that pans around the track. PTZ East Cam
And The West Cam, without the chat feature, but it might have the better view of the last few cars, where we will be detraining.
It just amazes me when we get bad weather.
I showed you a spritz of rain falling on my house in the late afternoon.
This is the sunset we got, peaking through these clouds.
Just enough to interest me and so I took a photo.
I was not the only one who did, at least in the Santa Clarita Valley.
As I mentioned before, an unusual occurance here.
When you live in a drought area, you forget what it is like to feel and see rain.
This tiny weather front came through and brought thunder and lightning with it.
Extremely unusual and my cat just disappeared, as soon as we took the first hit.
We did not have much rain, but it was fun to watch.
We will see how much it bothers our trip east on Friday.
My Son asked us if he could get a new laptop for us.
The main one I work with is from long ago. As a matter of fact, it was my Son's first "real" laptop computer.
I have put money into it, over the years, but though it works, it is very heavy.
Sometimes we use our netbook, but it too is very old and stopped working a few months ago.
Instead of putting more money into these old things, he wanted to get us a nice one with lots of memory so we gave him permission.
I didn't expect it to come so soon, but here it is and it has come just in time for a little trip we are taking this weekend.
A shakedown "trip" you might say.
This was last Saturday nights sunset.
I was told about it by my Husband.
So I ran out to the front of our house and found this.
No filters or anything, just a wonderful sunset at its peak.
Glad my Husband clued me in.
My Water Post For Today.
Back to Santa Barbara and there is a outlet for water to wash into the sea.
Of course birds find it and look for something yummy to eat.
I just wish the city took better care of it.
A nice nature break, on the walk down the Arts and Crafts displays.
The City of Santa Clarita has an oak tree ordinance, that protects the native oak trees in our valley. I have mentioned oak trees in several posts over the years. HERE and HERE are two examples.
When we visited our relatives in Simi Valley, there was this tree in the area and I immediately realized that the City of Simi Valley must have a similar ordinance to ours.
I looked it up and it is called the mature tree preservation ordinance.
Different wording, but it covers the native oak trees in Simi, too.
The developer did a nice job on this tree, by the way.
I got a pork shoulder the other day at Stater Brothers.
I never made Pulled Pork and decided to try.
I found a couple of videos and took the best from them.
I browned it on both sides in my Dutch Oven and cooked it with spices, lemon (and orange) juice.
About 3 hours in the Dutch Oven and then removed from the pot and placed onto a cookie sheet and pulled apart to brown.
That took about 15 minutes to do.
Pulled Pork
Ingredients
Salt
Cumin
Oregano
Sliced Oranges (I used lemon and orange juice)
Olive Oil to brown the shoulder on all sides.
Chicken broth or water or whatever you want (wine, vegetable broth, etc...)
Directions
Place all the dry spices on the roast and then brown in the dutch oven that has about an inch of olive oil in it.
When finished browning, pour in the lemon, orange or whatever citrus you have.
Add a small amount of chicken broth or water.
Cover and cook for about 3 hours, until the pork will start pulling apart when you use a fork to check it.
Remove the roast and lay it on the cookie sheet. Use forks to pull it apart and then take some of the juice from the pot and pour it on the pork to brown the pieces.
Finished about 15 minutes later in a 350 degree oven.
I really could not see the sunset from our relative's house on Wednesday, so I give you a pretty orange one from Thursday evening.
I was a bit late to the party, so it was leaving the sky, but still, it was colorful.
As for the celebration, we did enjoy seeing each other on Wednesday and I felt sorry for missing the service at the Temple.
But that is life.
Inscribed for another year.
Of all the things I saw at the Santa Barbara Craft Fair, the one that caught my attention was this metal corkscrew with a ball in the middle.
The craft fair is right on the waterfront, and since anything that hangs by the water gets the ocean breezes, it is constantly in motion.
This one gives the illusion that the ball is falling down the column of the corkscrew.
Except, it never does fall.
As with almost everything there, I did not see a price on the object and so I did not purchase it.
I think they really want to sock you, price wise.
The only thing I bought was supposed to be $49 and yet when I got the bill on my credit card, the charge was much higher. Taxes? COVID-19 charge?
I have no idea.
Glad I didn't buy anything else.
The best part of the Fall season is stopping by the farm stands along the highway to Ventura.
It has been over a year since we traveled on the 126 and so we have not seen anything.
Since I was the driver, I checked out the one we usually go to on the way to Santa Barbara.
It looked good and so I decided that if they had not yet closed on our return, I would pull in and do a bit of Fall shopping.
There were people there, so they were open and I picked up some wonderful navel oranges.
I also bought 3 baby pumpkins to decorate around my home. I debated getting some gourds, but decided against it.
It felt good to bring them some business. I am sure they had a hard time during the pandemic.
He's been gone for several years, but he is still missed.
The Santa from Santa Claus Lane in Carpinteria.
Our friends who we got together with on Sunday mentioned that they waved at Santa as they passed him in Oxnard.
I was like "What?"
Ends up we don't go that far on the 101 Fwy and so we did not know this fact.
They took a photo for us on Monday and we now know we can visit him next time I go to visit my former work partner in Port Hueneme.
I can't wait.
The whole story, is HERE.
My Water Post For Today.
The Waterfront at Santa Barbara!
I haven't been there since 2017, if I am not mistaken.
We met up with friends and spent the day walking around the crafts, the beach and the wharf.
Had lunch at Brophy Brothers.
It was a nice day, all in all.
As I have mentioned several times before, I watch the Amtrak trains pass through Fort Madison.
There is a River and Rail weekend going on and when I checked in at my normal mid morning time, the mod mentioned that the normal mod was on camera at 3:37 in the morning.
I go over and check it out and there is John Stafford laying in front of the Kingsley Inn, looking like a homeless person.
What is amazing is he is controling the joystick that operates the camera up above him.
It was truly an unforgetable view and I am so glad I saw the chat post that mentioned it.
John is one of the best mods that we have on Madison. Very intelligent and cool.
We are currently in the middle of the 10 days that signify the High Holy Days in Judaism.
I made a very nice matzo ball soup and cooked two cornish game hens that I picked up at Vons for just $5. Costco had a very delicious package of scalloped potatoes that we also had picked up about a month or so ago and being it was so large, I placed half of it into the freezer. A perfect accompaniment to the meal.
We have been eating them all for the better part of the week.
In my humble opinion, this was a total win/win situation and I am so happy that Vons made it a $5 Friday offer about a month ago.
To make the meal just a little special, I cut 2 apples and served them with the honey to dip them in.
The traditions go on, and even if I am a shiksha, I do what I can.
