Probiotics

I raided Whole Foods today for Probiotics...anything to keep me healthy instead of contently sick like the last few months. I'm still a little sick from the virus/sinus infection I got 3 weeks ago.

Last year I was under complete stress from June-March and only got sick once for 4 days. Since March I've been sick almost once a month. Even my Add Doc mentioned it. I do have a very sensitive immune system that freaks out a lot. I get cold symptoms for a day or two after a sunburn?? And after an activity that gives me sore muscles?? My sinus flip out after I inhale particles in the air, even though I'm not allergic to any airborne items. And to temperature/humidity changes overnight...which is why I don't camp out.

I do think there is a possibility I'm getting another food allergy and that completely destroys my immune system! I'm looking for an allergist that will do a more comprehensive food test.

Your Money or Your Life

"Your Money or Your Life: Transforming your relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence."

I've just started reading this book with the objective of being smarter about money. The first exercise it has you do is very interesting:

1)Total your gross earnings from the time you started working...I've made almost $500,000!!
2)Total your money, ie 401k, savings, life insurance, home equity, etc
3)Total your debts
4)Record and total the cash value of everything you have if you were to sell it. List possessions as prices you could get at a garage sale or consignment. This makes you realize how much stuff you have when you have to itemize everything! It helps you get over the "I need" or "I don't have" when you look at a spreadsheet of thousands of items you own.

Sleepy Ari

Ari was wiped out by the swimming. Poor thing. She is actually sound alseep with her mouth & eyes open. She didn't move/flink/flinch when the flash went off = )

Yosemite on the way home

Yosemite was pretty. I like the Eastern side better. More white rock & desert like. The main Yosemite attractions are in Yosemite Valley which is in the Southwest of the park. There are the sites: Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Falls, & lots of other Large Edifices. We drove around and took pictures but didn’t get out and hike. We were on our way back with the girls & dogs are not allowed on Yosemite trails.

Half Dome on right ---->

El Capitan \/ Yosemite Valley \/ To Yosemite Valley \/

Panum Crater

Panum Crater was more fun then Mono Lake in my opinion. Although it is just from a Volcano not an Asteroid or UFO…that would have made it really cool! The crater is water drop shaped. There is an outer rim and then an inner splash/plug if you will. On the inside is a lot of Black Obsidian rock.

Ancient Bristlecone Pines

So the Bristlecone pines are very cool. I would like to go back and do more hiking there and in surrounding areas. It was very quite and peaceful. The trees are neat looking because they are so gnarled. The video was quite fascinating at the visitor’s center. The living trees are up to 4000+ years old. The oldest trees are called Methuselahs. The dead trees on the ground date back 7000-10,000 yrs old because there is so little decay in the high dry elevation. The Bristlecone pines mostly live in the White Mountains because they seem to like the Dolomite mineral which makes the rock white.

Apparently the trees actually verified & corrected the carbon dating technique. They took core samples of many trees, marked the rings, then lined the marks up. This way they were able to line up marks for up to 7000 years. Then there is a gap from 7000-10,000 then the marks start up again for another couple thousand years. From this they compared wood from archeological sites and were able to date that wood which dated the artifacts in turn. Even though the wood from the archeological site may have been from the another continent, the average environmental conditions for earth were comparable which affects tree growth & the tree rings. That is how the comparison was made. Pretty cool from an anthropological standpoint.

On a side note…I always like anthropology: how man evolved and the first ancient civilizations.

Pictures here!

Bishop, CA

We stayed in Bishop and it was a cute little town. North of Death Valley & East of Yosemite. It sits along Route 395 which is a main drag through the Eastern Sierras…from Las Vegas to Reno essentially. They did have a really neat Dutch bakery there...Erick Schat's Bakkery.

It was neat to see such different scenery. I’m so used to East Coast/Midwest that the California/Desert/Sierras just seems so exciting. Funny though I’m just not fond of the Oregon/Washington/Southern Alaska “rainforests” with all the Coniferous trees. Hiking Mt Rainier was fun & pretty but I don’t want to see that all the time. I’m not sure why but it bugs me??

I was also surprised I didn’t have more of a problem hiking in the heat/dryness. The first day I had a few issues but once I did some serious hiking & used up that adrenaline I was fine.

I hope Nam had a good time being dragged through half of CA ; ) He drove the whole time and has a ton of Dalmatian hair in his car to prove it. He also has this really cool GPS hookup from his laptop which came in handy in Yosemite @ 11pm at night where there are very few useful road signs… We were actually going the correct way though!

Mono Lake

Mono Lake was neat but I wouldn’t make the 5hr trip just for it. The Tufas were okay but nothing too special. . I did prefer the sand Tufas to the Calcium Tufas in the water.

The Lake is 10% salt solution so you do float which was neat. The natives cultivated the Alkali flies as their main protein source…eewww.

Here is video of a Seagull scooping up flies from the shore...





We did go back a second day to take the dogs swimming on the way home. By going in the water I did get both girls to swim. It did seem a little easier for them too because of the buoyancy. And they managed to find a jackrabbit around the sand Tufas = ) The whole adventure wore the girls out!

Here is a video of Ari still doggie paddling even when I hold her out of the water!

Busy Busy Busy

This has been a busy month…First I was stressed with Vikki…Then I took the trip to Bishop…then more Vikki stress…Catering 5 days in one week…Then being totally ill STILL! And Vikki should appear this coming week and I’ll probably be somewhat sick for another week. Whew!

So now, on to the vacation diary (with YOUtube videos!)