There's no way...

...I was gonna do that drive again anyway. But it might have been worth something on eBay...

The last day of my vacation...

Another week would sure be nice, but I have had a blast.

Yesterday we went to Lauren and Paul's for a barbecue. That was fun. Paul made bacon wrapped sausages.

They were delicious, but I could only eat half of one because they were so rich. And as usual, the eating went on all day - chips (proper English chips) and salad and so forth. Oh, and cheesecake to celebrate Lauren's birthday.

Aside from the fun, Rachel and I have got our house pretty well in order. And we can just relax and enjoy our home and the lake and each other's company and all that. We used to always feel like we should be doing something. It's been great.

Most of it we got done a while ago, but I don't think I posted any pictures. Here's the exercise room - formerly the sun room where we crammed stuff that didn't have a place. We hung some drapes and moved all of our exercise equipment in there - got a weight machine, treadmill, exercise bike, elliptical...

and Jake's favorite, the punching bag...

We also got the garage in shape. We filled two whole dumpsters a few weeks ago. It's silly, but it is really nice to pull in to the garage instead of parking outside.

And having room in the garage lets us tackle some projects we've been meaning to get around to. Rachel replaced the sliders in my dresser drawers. And I got our inflatable kayak all patched up. We bought it at a garage sale like 3 years ago.

Today, I loaded up the Hotel Yorba Courtesy Car and drove down to Little Beach for the maiden voyage of the Hotel Yorba Kayak. It was a lot of fun. I paddled over almost to Big Beach. Saw our house from the water. I brought my little mp3 player in a plastic bag. I dropped a line in the water. It was great. Only problem was one of the patches was right where my arm brushed against the side of the boat while paddling. And the slow leak kicked in. So I headed for shore. But it wasn't bad for a first outing. I plan to do more of that.

Oh, and we got some new wheels on the golf cart. They look pretty sweet and the cart rides much better now.

The tires are low profile and DOT rated. So when Jake gets his license, we won't have to worry about him having a blowout.

That's about it.

We're home...

The drive sucked. We left at 2:30 PM and pulled in to our garage just after 4:00 this morning. Two planned stops only, lasting maybe an hour each.

First there was an accident on the 5 ahead of us at Broadway. So fine, I zigged over to the 405.

Then we got back on the 5 and there was this...

*BREAKING NEWS* : July 1 Fire Backs Grapevine Traffic Up for Miles


(LEBEC—July 1, 2009, 9 p.m.)—Closure of northbound lanes of Interstate 5 due to a wildlands fire forest land north of Castaic backed up traffic for miles during rush hour today, according to a Los Angeles County Fire Department public information officer. The fire was said to have consumed about 25 acres. At least three helicopters and a first-alarm unit comprising more than 100 people were dispatched to the fire, LACFD said.

But we're home now.

Not at all looking forward to the drive home...

Jackson's body to be put on public display at Neverland

The cable TV network CNN and the website TMZ, which first broke the news of Jackson's death, both reported that his body would be taken in a 30-car motorcade tomorrow the 130 miles from his home in Los Angeles to the Neverland ranch.

Police were working out how to avoid major traffic problems as the convoy wends its way to the ranch, as it would draw tens of thousands of fans.

Yeah, we have to drive those very same 130 miles.