Not quite normal. - robinislost's Blog - Bakersfield.com

If anyone feels like it...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:49:01 PDT

I entered some photos in a Fair Climate Project photo contest.

As I was saying before, if anyone feels like it, you can go check them out and vote for them on the Fair Climate Project Web site.

Here are the links for each of the photos that I entered.

First photo of a horned toad lizard
fairclimateproject.org/fairclimatephotos/submitted-by-robin-is-lost/

Second photo of the horned toad lizard
fairclimateproject.org/fairclimatephotos/submitted-by-robin-is-lost-2/

Field of strawberries and blossoms
fairclimateproject.org/fairclimatephotos/submitted-by-robin-is-lost-3/

Strawberry blossoms and an ant
fairclimateproject.org/fairclimatephotos/submitted-by-robin-is-lost-4/

A single strawberry plant before sunset -- my favorite.
fairclimateproject.org/fairclimatephotos/submitted-by-robin-is-lost-5/

A busy little bee working its magic on a blossom
fairclimateproject.org/fairclimatephotos/submitted-by-robin-is-lost-6/

I think you have to sign up before you can vote for them, so it may be asking too much of you. The sign-up process is simple, though. Still, I'm posting this just in case someone feels like voting for me.

I chose to enter photos in the contest because I care about the environment and see the importance of getting things done now so that our future won't look quite so depressing. I have some more stuff written about each of the photos on Flickr, but I'm not going to post those here.

Unlike many of the other people who entered this photo contest, I actually read the rules and regulations all the way through -- multiple times. There was a deadline on Sept. 15, and Sept. 30 is the deadline for public voting, so you have to vote today if you plan to actually do it.

Well...thanks for reading my blog post, anyway. See y'all later.

Robin

P.S. How are you guys? I haven't been on the blogs for a long time, so I haven't talked to any of you for weeks. Oh, how I have missed chatting with my blogging friends from B.com! Stop by the comment box and say hello, OK?

America's Back Lot -- "What are we doing?"

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:49:44 PST

I read this blog post the other day and wanted to share it with you all.

America's Back lot

The blog post was written by a man named Dan O'Brien, who has written "Buffalo for the Broken Heart" and a few other books. He runs the Wild Idea Buffalo Company with a few of his friends in South Dakota. He seems to be very good friends with one of his buffaloes, Curly Bill, who was one of the orphan calves that he had taken in years ago. Now he's a huge buffalo who has his own Twitter, MySpace and Facebook accounts. That's one lucky buffalo!

I ran across his site while I was doing some online research and heard about his book, so I have been reading his blog posts for a while now.

Someday I would love to take a trip to South Dakota just to see his ranch and his beautiful buffaloes, but for now I will sit back and enjoy his pictures and writing online.

Hope you enjoy it. :)

Robin

Geocaching in Kern County

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:43:39 PST

Has anyone ever heard of Geocaching before? I had heard about it once or twice, but it didn't look interesting enough to research. Apparently, you log on to Geocaching.com and look through lists of Geocache pages, and the pages have precise coordinates leading to wherever the cache is hidden. You're supposed to use a GPS device and go to those coordinates, and then you search for that cache. There's supposed to be some sort of log book, too, so you can write the date and your name for everyone else to see. Some people also take and leave things behind.

Well, the reason I'm asking you all if anyone has ever heard about this before is because I found a letter in our mailbox last week. It was from a guy who planted one of these caches on our property, and he wrote the letter because he had heard that my dad was not happy about where the cache was hidden. (If you knew where it was hidden, you'd understand.) The guy says they talked about it and my dad had given him permission, but we don't remember that. He planted it there at the end of 2007, so it has been there for over a year now. The reason he planted it was because he wanted everyone else to see our animals. This whole time, whenever I saw someone stop by, I was watching their suspicious activity, and I had no idea what they were doing. It was strange.

I just posted this to see if anyone had anything to say about Geocaching. If I don't leave any comments until later in the evening (around midnight...) it's because my Internet hasn't been working very well in this weather.

Robin

What font are you?

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:52:34 PST

I stumbled upon this quiz just a few minutes ago while reading through my Twitter feed. I'm following PBS Engage, and they posted the link to this quiz called "What font are you?"

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/quiz.html

I am Helvetica. What are you? I'm kind of a boring person, so this font seems to fit me well, although I really don't use it. When you're finished with it you can click next to read the descriptions of everyone else's fonts and see what they're like.

Take the quiz and enjoy.

Down at the county fair...

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:57:18 PDT

I really miss showing my animals at the fair. It gave me a chance to ditch school for two weeks and spend some quality time with my animals. I showed more animals than I could possibly remember, but I enjoyed it every year, and I'm glad my parents gave me the chance to do it. I showed pigs every year, but I also had a pygmy goat and attempted to show chickens and a rabbit when I was younger.

I received a phone call from an old friend the other day. "Robin, I'm at the fair. Where's your goat? I want to see your goat!" The goat and I have retired. I'm too old to show and the goat is too fat. (I'm not even kidding you.)

The last year I showed an animal was during junior year of high school. I was 16, and it was right around the same time I started blogging on Bakersfield.com. I remember mentioning it to Nancy on the old blogs. That year I had transferred back to 4-H after two somewhat decent years in the Liberty High School FFA chapter; I had to quit because I couldn't stand the teacher anymore and wanted to try journalism.

I belonged to the now-defunct Old Farm 4-H club for many years when I was younger, but the club began falling apart during my high school years, and it was a mess during junior year when I was showing my pig.

I was excited to be showing for Liberty FFA after so many years in 4-H. After all, I was going to be a farmer someday, so it made sense to be in the Future Farmers of America club, right? I do admit that I had tons of fun while I was in FFA. It was the only time I would wear a skirt, as it was required for the girls during special occasions that involved the FFA jacket. I know the teacher has old photos of my friends and me from different field trips and events, and I wish I could have copies, but I'm not friends with that guy anymore. Too bad.

OK, OK, I'll shut up now!

Did anyone else participate in FFA during high school or show animals at the fair through a 4-H group? Feel free to share some memories.

Check out my photo gallery to see some old photos of me during my 4-H and FFA years! :)

Bad timing on my part...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:01:53 PDT

How about that, folks? It wasn't the tomatoes after all.

I was lying in bed a few minutes ago listening to National Public Radio when I heard something that didn't settle well with me. I've given you the link to the AP story via NPR's Web site.

I don't like tomatoes. I never eat them by themselves, even though I love to grow them. I will use them for salsa, which I do love, but I won't eat them otherwise. That's why I was never concerned about the salmonella outbreak. But more recently I have become obsessed with peppers of all kinds, using them on my pizza, sandwiches and anything else on which I can put them.

On our way home from Cambria we stopped for lunch at Carl's Jr. and my choice was a sandwich with charbroiled chicken, onions, pepper jack cheese (I think), topped off with tons of jalapeno peppers. Since I got home I've making sandwiches similar to that one. We bought three fresh jalapeno peppers from Winco and I'm in the middle of the first one. I had two sandwiches yesterday and made one for lunch today.

Well, it looks like that's the last sandwich I'll be eating with fresh jalapeno peppers on it. Ugh. Yuck. I guess it's back to throwing pepperoncini on top of the sandwiches. Hopefully my bell peppers and Fresno chili peppers will start producing more often so I don't have to buy peppers from the store. I never really trusted them in the first place, and I don't like the taste as much as the homegrown ones.

Has anyone else been eating jalapeno peppers lately? (Heh. My apologies, but I don't know how to get the squiggly line above the n. I know it's supposed to be there so you know how to pronounce it properly.)

Robin

Greeting from a cool place!

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:14:04 PDT

I've been on vacation in Cambria since Monday. I wish I didn't have to leave, but I'm going home tomorrow. The weather has been great here, and I really don't want to go back to that hideous heat after getting used to wearing a sweatshirt all day.

On the other hand, I'm looking forward to being home and watching my garden grow again, although I'm not looking forward to the myriad weeds I know I'm going to find. That will not be a fun task.

I'm also looking forward to seeing my newborn calf that was born yesterday. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see it, but I'll get over it. There's always next year, right?

Anyhow, while I've been here I've taken quite a few pictures, and some of them even turned out well. I watched the sunset last night and took quite a few pictures, which was interesting because of the fog blocking the sun. That's disappointing. I was hoping to get some good pictures like the ones Casey Christie took in his Morro Bay gallery, but I've gotten nothing like that so far.

I have uploaded a few pictures to a new gallery: Cambria -- July 2008. Check them out if you feel like it. I'll add more later, but it takes forever to do the whole thing, so I only feel like adding so many pictures at once.

I feel like going back to the beach, so I'll see y'all later.

Robin

Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns!

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:27:56 PDT

Did anyone watch the premiere of Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns last night on PBS?

I had heard about the new show when I was listening to NPR one day and knew I wanted to watch it, but then I forgot. While I was flipping through the channels last night I got lucky and saw the show had just started when I found it, so I watched both episodes.

What did you think of the show? I think it's great. I love the show because I'm already a huge fan of Car Talk. It's the only time I can listen to something and want to learn about cars. Otherwise, talking about cars will put me to sleep, because I don't understand it. Click and Clack are hilarious. They're funny guys, and that's what makes listening to their show so amusing. You always learn something about cars when you're listening. They always have answers.

As the Wrench Turns

Car Talk

Check them out if you've never listened. They're great.

Peter Rabbit is my worst enemy.

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:48:14 PDT

He was a cute little rabbit when I was young. Adorable, really. But he isn't cute anymore. I can't remember clearly how the story went, but I believe it was something along the lines of Peter the rabbit sneaking away from family to go under the fence and steal carrots from a farmer.

If that's the correct story, I am the farmer in this case. For the past month, at least, my dad and I have been working on the garden. He put the rows in and planted the potatoes, onions, peppers and okra. We have been working hard to keep them alive, and I am eager to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of my labor -- quite literally, so to speak.

Everything had been going pretty well for a while. The potatoes and peppers were growing quickly, and the onions were beginning to sprout. After we planted the okra, however, the whole thing seems to have gone somewhat downhill. Not entirely, but somewhat.

I thought worms had been eating the small okra leaves one by one, but it turns out there have been rabbits eating them. It didn't take long for them to get through the whole okra row, and when they were done with the okra they moved on to the potatoes. Dad says he has seen the rabbits, and there are thousands of squirrels living around here, so we know the squirrels are doing some damage, too. They ate two of the pepper plants and haven't touched the tomato garden.

Those cute (they really are cute, unfortunately) rabbits are doing damage to the garden, and the plants will not produce if we don't stop it soon. I have done tons of Google research and plan to try a few different methods. Any ideas, suggestions about ridding these dreadful creatures?

Robin

P.S. Sorry for my absence from the blogs lately. We had a newborn calf yesterday morning, so we have constantly been monitoring it to make sure it's OK and the mom is caring for it. :)

I posted my first photo gallery...

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:38:54 PDT

I had been trying for days to post a photo gallery with absolutely no success, but after switching computers I finally managed to get a photo gallery posted.

I'm not sure if it's just my Internet or what, but I can't post large photos, so I tried posting my San Francisco pictures that I had taken with my five-megapixel camera two years ago and it finally worked. Yes!

Check out my San Francisco photo gallery. I posted 54 pictures. I spent over an hour uploading them, and a lot of time typing in captions and titles. Some are random and others totally suck, but I posted them anyway. The last picture is my favorite.

Jason, thanks for replying to my e-mails and helping me out. I'm sure I drove you insane!

I intend to create more galleries, so hopefully I'll be able to get the pictures to upload. Are any of you going to create photo galleries?

Robin

Tom's idea -- photography blog

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:22:28 PST

Hey, guys --

I was reading the blogs last week and Tom had mentioned something about perhaps starting a photography blog. No one said anything about it, but the next morning I was taking pictures of the fog and had time to think about it, and I found the idea intriguing.

So, Tom, if anyone else is up for it, I think it would be interesting! I was thinking, perhaps, we could create a separate account and perhaps an e-mail account for it, although I'm not sure. We could post topics and pictures, and anyone who's interested in photography could freely post comments and discuss the topics, etc.

What does everyone else think?

I have a test to study for this week and I'm starting two online classes today (I have tons of homework already), but I should still have some time to stick around on the blogs.

That's really all I needed to say. Let me know what you think, and we'll see what Tom says.

I have to spend some time with my family tonight for my birthday, but I should be online most of the day even though I have a thousand homework assignments to do this week. I'll be back after I've had some sleep!

Robin

A smoky sunset -- Is the sun melting???

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:58:46 PDT

Hi, guys!

I'm back again. How are you all doing?

I just stopped by to share a picture of the sunset that I took the other day. I was just going to post the one I liked the most, but then I decided to post more of the pictures I took to show you what I did to get my best picture -- that would be the one with the border around it and my crappy signature in the corner.

I was busy feeding the animals and watering my garden this evening (last night), so I didn't have time to post this earlier. I'm exhausted now, though, so I hope this doesn't take long. (I typed this post last night and was going to post it, but my computer crapped out on me, so I'm posting it today and don't feel like deleting anything.)

I call it the Zaca sunset because the smoke had blown our way from Santa Barbara County, as I'm sure you all know. I think I'll post the fourth picture to my Deviant Art page tomorrow after I've had a full night's sleep. I added most of the EXIF data to each caption for all the pictures so you can see what I did. That was tiring. Oh, and all the pictures were taken on Aug. 3.

How many of you are going to be entering pictures in the fair this year? The deadline is coming up. I have over 30 pictures to choose from this year, so I'm having a hard time deciding which pictures I'm going to enter. It's so hard to choose! I have already taken over 1,000 pictures this summer with my new camera, so that makes it even harder for me.

I've seen sunsets like this before, but I've always either been busy feeding animals (they hate waiting for me to feed them), watering the garden or I didn't have my camera handy at the time. I'd say I'm disappointed I didn't zoom in and take of shot of the sun itself before it broke through the smoke. Also, I had no control over the pole behind the olive tree, and I couldn't help the fact that my neighbor's semi was blocking part of the scenery, either. Too bad. When it's smoky enough in the evening, sometimes you can see the sun through the smoke as a big red ball; it's so cool! I also want to get a picture like that.

Well, I should probably go now. I'll talk to y'all later! Enjoy. :)

Robin

Confessions of a Liberty graduate

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:10:40 PDT

I graduated from Liberty High School last night. To be honest, it was one of the most boring events I've ever been to. I'm going to miss some of my friends. I'll miss my journalism teacher more than anyone else on that campus. She is the coolest teacher in the world!

I'll get on with my silly confessions now. :)

Last night I found out that apparently I have a tiny head. I haven't quite figured out why my head is so small...

OK, OK. Here's the most serious confession. I hid my camera in my skirt in order to have it with me during the graduation. For some reason unbeknownst to me, students weren't allowed to have cameras. They weren't allowed to have anything besides car keys, which I understand because students often screw around with cell phones. But I don't understand why they didn't allow cameras like that.

Sneaking my camera in with me was strictly for the sake of photography. It's my passion. It's my obsession. But most importantly, it's my niche. Unfortunately, however, because my camera is point-and-shoot, it limited my ability to get the perfect shot that I had been waiting to take for months. I was going to get a shot of all the hats being thrown in the air, but it didn't come out the way I had wanted it to, and suddenly it was all over. I didn't time it right and plan it correctly, I guess. I'll include a few pictures anyway.

On the bright side, after I got home, my parents gave me my graduation present. I now have a new camera -- one that would have been able to get the shot I had been hoping for tonight. My photography skills should start to improve when I learn how to use this camera. I'm very excited!

Since I'm on the subject of photography, I might as well include this piece of information. I saw the funniest thing while waiting in line. The photographer from The Californian was taking pictures of people ahead of me and went over there to get names of the people. As the line started moving and we all started walking, she ran into one of the basketball poles. Well, I guess she didn't completely run into it, but she was right in front of it and I thought it was hilarious. I told her I'd be blogging about it on The Californian's blogs, so here I am typing it in on my blog. I'm evil. I know. I wish I had had my camera out to take that picture.

I guess I should stop here because I've already written so much. I could confess so much more about graduation night, but I've already written too much. If you actually read the entire post, I'm surprised; if you didn't read the entire post and skipped to the end, I'm not surprised because of its length.

Robin

My favorite obsession

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:41:08 PST

Well, I know y'all are usually talking about your two favorite subjects -- religion and politics. I'm not particularly fond of those two subjects, so I'm going to change the subject. (It's not my fault that they don't make sense to me.)

I'm changing the subject to agriculture!

Did anyone ditch work last week and go to the World Ag Expo in Tulare? I first found out about the ag expo when I was a freshman, and I asked my dad if he would take me. He had been taking me every year since then, except this year. My dad was busy this year, so my friend invited me to go along with her and her dad because I'm the only nerdy friend she has who's obsessed with agriculture. We came back with tons of junk picked up from all those vendors. It was a wonderful expo, and I can't wait for it to come around again next year!

Did I ever tell y'all I was in the ag class for two years? Oh, yes. I used to be obsessed with agriculture. In fact, I wanted to be a farmer before I ever wanted to be a journalist. I love and respect farmland, and I wish they'd stop throwing it away to use for housing. It's really making me sad. I miss the old Bakersfield, quite honestly -- the one where we were actually recognized as an agricultural community and not as some growing city. Maybe I haven't been here long enough -- 17 years, but 18 years in 12 days -- but I am fully under the belief that we didn't used to be an actual city.

But I have been here long enough to watch Bakersfield change dramatically. I used to think it was amazing when we finally got our own Albertsons down here on Rosedale because it took us so long to drive to the other one. But now it bothers me because the city is starting to move in on me, and I don't like that. I love living where I am right now, but the city is slowly moving in on me, and I hate it! Have you no respect for the farmland? What happened to all the farmers? How come I never see farmers around here any more, except for the very few I do know about?

If I could buy a piece of farmland and turn it into a real farm, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But I know realistically that as quickly as this city is growing, by the time I'm old enough to do so, there wouldn't be even the least bit of farmland left for me. It's a depressing thing for me to deal with. I'm pretty much thinking I need to move away and find a small town that isn't growing like that. But I suppose I have to get through college before I can find a new life in a small town. I'll probably wind up working as a copy editor at some newspaper...

So what do y'all think about this? Does anyone else miss the old Bakersfield, or is it just me? Was anyone else ever involved with FFA when they were in high school? I know I talked forever, so it would make sense if you didn't read it all. Let me know what y'all think.

Robin

P.S. I may come back later to add more pictures. I have tons of homework to do, though, so I'll be back later.

I'm proud of Lost Ocean!!

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:32:11 PST

FINALLY!

My brother-in-law's band, Lost Ocean, is finally getting the media coverage it deserves!

Since most of you folks are older, you probably won't care as much for their band as your kids will; the music's probably meant more for younger people. But I've been waiting a long time for The Californian to actually write a story about his band, because they were signed to Credential a long time ago.

I didn't know if I'd ever see the day. :)

Well, anyway, I'm proud of him and his other band members. I guess there isn't much more to say than that. I wish I could call and congratulate them, but I don't want to bother them while they're on tour. I'm sure my sister will talk to him soon.

I'll post the links for anyone who's interested and doesn't feel like getting them from the story.

Official Web site: LostOceanMusic.com

PureVolume Web site

MySpace Web site

N.L. Belardes' blog post

Psssst. Hey, Belardes, I know you're out there somewhere, because I've seen you on Bakersfield.com before. You don't mind if I have a link to your blog post, do you?

Enjoy!!

Robin

P.S. If anyone knows where my newspaper has been going and would like to tell me, that would be wonderful. I haven't been able to find my newspaper for a while now, so my only news source is the Internet. Isn't that sad? I want to see it on paper!

Who snitched?

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:39:21 PST

One of y'all snitched on me.

My teacher knows I'm blogging on Bakersfield.com, and that's just not cool.

I demand to know who it was that snitched on me and told my teacher I've been blogging on Bakersfield.com!

Does ANYONE know who it was? Come on, now. Maybe it's not important to you, but it is to me. One of y'all knows who snitched on me and told my TEACHER (of ALL people) I'm blogging here. How am I supposed to blog in peace knowing that anything I write on here could be used against me at school?

No, really. I'm not kidding. WHO DID IT???? Someone knows. I want know who it is!

Robin

P.S. GRRRRR! :)

P.P.S. The part that really doesn't make sense to me is that this teacher is a sports person, so you would think it was someone into sports who told him, and I don't talk to anyone on here about sports, so how did that work out? Hmm...SNITCH!

California's Gold.

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:41:54 PST

Has anyone been watching the Kern County series on "California's Gold," the PBS show hosted by Huell Howser on KCET?

While I was flipping through the channels on Sunday night, I came across Huell's show, and he was in Bakersfield. I then discovered at the end of the show that his show is going to be all about Kern County this week.

I am a huge fan of Huell Howser, I must say, so I have been enjoying his show this week, and I love learning new things about the county I live in. I must admit, though, that I am sad that I didn't know he was here and didn't get to meet him. I would have liked to have gotten his autograph and talk to him, but clearly I missed the boat on that one.

Is anyone else a fan of Huell out there? I grew up watching Huell Howser on TV because my dad has always enjoyed watching his show, so I was forced to watch it and now I'm addicted.

Oh, man. Am I just a nerd? I thought so. You should really watch the show, though. It's pretty cool. I believe it's on at 6 p.m., but tonight I was napping and missed it, so I watched the rerun at 12:30 a.m. There you go. I don't have cable, so I watch it on local channel 46, but I don't know what the cable channel would be.

Robin

P.S. If I ever get around to it, I was thinking about posting a blog about my trip to Philadelphia last October. I've been busy doing homework since I got back from Philly, but hopefully I'll post it someday soon.

What's with the weather?!

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:09:00 PDT

I went to bed at 2 a.m. last night, and as soon as I jumped in bed I saw a rather large flash of light through my window. The blinds were down, so I knew it was something huge since I could see it through the blinds. I had no idea what it was until I looked through my window and saw massive bolts of lightning flashing everywhere in the field across the highway.

I woke up this morning periodically and kept hearing thunder, which was driving me insane and wouldn't let me sleep. The thunder has been going on all morning over here, and the rain has been crazy. The rain has been weird, because it will be calm for one minute (like now), and then It'll start pouring.

Here the rain is again -- pouring, as usual.

Is the weather like this in Bakersfield? I know sometimes my house is prone to weird weather that you folks don't get in the city, so I just wondered if it was just me.

In other news, I got back from Philadelphia on Sunday, and when I checked the blogs, everything seemed to be different. What's this -- is Bakersfield.com now competing with MySpace.com? Just thought I'd check.

OH, and another thing. Why does The Californian have the right to print the names of all the fair winners? And what gives the fair the right to hand them over? I don't remember seeing that anywhere in the book or on the entry form. I didn't even have to SIGN the entry form -- only my mom did. Darn it! And then they printed my name six times, but I only won five places. What's up with that?

OK. I think I'm done complaining. Should I throw in some Philly pictures to make up for the complaining? Yeah, I guess.

Robin

Ditching Liberty.

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:41:55 PDT

I have decided that I'd rather not attend a public high school -- or any type of school at all.

With only a few remaining days until the school year starts, I'm in the process of begging my mother to take me out of Liberty and home school me. I like the idea; she doesn't.

I have found the public high school to be rather obnoxious, full of annoying little teenagers running around. The majority of the teachers couldn't care less about the students and haven't a clue how to teach.

If I ditch Liberty, the only thing I'll be missing during my last year of high school is journalism. That's the only thing I can't get out of home-schooling. I can't decide if I would rather stick to the crappy high school for one more year to be in one class, or ditch it and wait until I go to college to get back into journalism.

What do y'all think -- public high school or home school? I need thoughts, opinions. You're all adults, so many of you have children and chose a particular way to school them. Help?

Robin

One of those 'fun' family vacations.

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:28:29 PDT

Did anyone notice I was gone for a week? Probably not. But I'm back, and I'm here to tell you all about my fun (sarcasm) little "family" vacation.

Every year since the summer before my freshman year, my parents have taken a week-long vacation somewhere around the U.S. to torture me. This year, instead of doing a normal vacation, my parents dragged me to Reno, Nevada, for a Purina convention. Don't bother to ask what it is, because you don't want to know. This is also the first vacation without my older brother and sister, because my sister got married and moved out, and my brother just moved out.

We were supposed to leave on Friday or Saturday, but we took too long to pack everything up and get the travel trailer hooked, so we didn't leave until Sunday. We must have left rather late in the day on Sunday, because our first stop for the night was at an RV park in Chowchilla. I'm not sure how far away that is, but I'm sure you all know. The RV park was rather nice, as it was the grand opening; it had a huge golf course, but we didn't bother to look around or anything, because we had to get back on the road the next day. The little brother liked it there because he liked using the free Wi-fi on his Nintendo DS; I'm not one to play video games often, but I have a Nintendo DS, as well.

Anyway, after we left The Lakes RV Park in Chowchilla, we made our way to Columbia, where we walked around the little old town for a bit, but left later because we needed to get back on the road; it was terribly hot that day, and the horses weren't out running tours because it was too hot. The park ranger said that once it gets above 102 degrees they can't do the horse carriage tours because it's just too hot and unhealthy for them.

From that point on we made our way straight up to Reno, where we stayed until Friday morning. There wasn't much to do, because my parents were constantly busy with their Purina stuff. Every once in a while we would go somewhere fun, but I usually skipped out because I felt sick most of the time; I guess I'm not one to like traveling much. We ate at a little restaurant called Ruby River Steakhouse. Actually, it's not that little. It was a pretty good restaurant, which is amazing for me to say, because I'm definitely a picky person. Has anyone ever eaten there before? Or heard of it, for that matter? You should try it if you ever run across one while traveling. It's basically a want-to-be Roadhouse Steakhouse (is that the name?) like the one on Rosedale, except I'm leaning towards better than Roadhouse.

We left around 11:30 a.m. and were on our way home; we got home about 10 p.m. last night, and now I'm HOME! I'm so glad to be home. I know...I talk too much. I'll attach a couple pictures; most didn't turn out well because it's hard to take pictures while in a moving vehicle -- especially without flash

I miss the farmland our city used to be known for. I saw so much farmland while we were on the road, and I also realized that I love seeing the stars at night, and I really missed being able to see them while we were in Reno. Just thought I'd add that.

Robin

P.S. I'm too lazy to check for mistakes. Maybe I'll check later.