Category Archives: Friends and Family

My Pacific Northwest "Vacation"

Posted in Animals, Cats, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Non-cats, Travel, Vacations by
So last week I used 40 of my hard-earned annual leave hours to fly up to Portland. I had originally planned on simply visiting my mom and brother (it was his birthday on the 19th – happy birthday, Paul!), his wife, and new daughter Adelaide. However, additional vacation duties also included helping my mom pack up her house, clean it, and drive back down to Escondido for her move back down to SoCal. I still had a good time though, even though Mom’s cat, Leo, had to be put down the morning I arrived in Oregon. Leo will definitely be missed, although I don’t think we could have fit him into the car for the long trip south considering that the parrot and dog took up the majority of the available space.Other activities involved visiting two (!) REI stores, walking around Lacamas Park in Camas, initiating a corruptive influence on my beautiful and awesome niece (I bought that ABCD onsie for her when she was only a fetus!), celebrating Paul’s 33rd birthday at Deschutes Brewery in downtown Portland, and spending the better portion of a day walking around the Pearl district.

Lacamas Park in Camas

Corruption Phase 1 Initiated


Packing for the trip home…

The drive back down to Escondido was fairly uneventful, and let me tell you that the landscape only gets MORE BEAUTIFUL as you travel south, leaving the lush green fresh scenery of Washington and Oregon for the shriveled brown smog-laiden traffic-scape of our urban coastal community. Sigh. And, to make things even better, Michael (Mom’s parrot, severe macaw, actually) took the opportunity to fly away the evening of our arrival home. She went missing for two days, but Mom miraculously recovered her after plying her with wheat thins, peanuts, and a squeaky ball. I’m thinking that with this experience, Mom now has the know-how for earning supplemental income recovering rogue feathered pets.

Then it was back to work on Monday…it will only take another five months of work to gain those 40 hours of annual leave back, so I’d better get on that I guess.

Babies Babies Everywhere Babies

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Wow, you people are reproducing machines! It seems like all of my friends and relatives are having first-time babies in the past few months. I feel like a reproductive failure in comparison! But not really – I’m glad that someone else is doing all that pushing and Lamazing and C-sectioning, rather than me. Here’s the short list of the latest batch of critters that are new to the world:

– Autumn Laura Monroe, born January 10 to my friends Jeremy and Dana
– Rhoan Morgan Alexander, born January 15 to my friends Ben and Jen
– Raimi Anne Juncal, born April 28 to my cousin Beth and her husband OB
– Adelaide Helen Koski, born May 22 to my brother Paul and his wife Anne
– Lucas William Craig, also born May 22 to my friends Kristi and Adam

So congratulations, all! Just remember, you only need to have one more in order to replace yourselves in the next generation. I know the babies are cute and everything (especially my new niece), but let’s not get crazy!

Dad and Mom’s Visit to San Diego, Days 4-5

Posted in Animals, Day Trips, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Non-cats, Travel by

Like I said previously, my dad and stepmom timed their trip to San Diego perfectly. Just after the rainy season and before the heat, that is! It’s a perfect time to head out to the desert, so that’s what we did. We even took Teddy Bear, who loves the desert, but who does not like riding in cars because it makes him nervous (where are we going? the vet? the groomer? oh no…whine whine whine…). We made a big loop going north and east on 76 out to Anza Borrego Desert State Park, where we toured the visitor’s center and had lunch at Borrego Springs’ only Western BBQ / Chinese restaurant. I had sesame chicken, and the folks had burgers (I think). After that, we drove out to see the wildflowers, which were spectacular, north of town and then south in Little Surprise Canyon. Click HERE to see all of my desert pictures. We had to go back to town to pick up some guide books that I put down on a bench and forgot, but I was lucky that they were still there when I remembered about them. Either the people in Borrego Springs are nice honest people, or they have no interest in San Diego native plants and southwestern dragonflies. I think it’s probably the former. Anyway, we drove back through Julian on 78, stopping by the Julian Apple Pie Company for warm apple pie and ice cream. Yum!

To make things easy, I ordered a pizza for dinner, and we spent the evening chowing our pie and watching Aliens in a pooped-out daze. The next day, I had to take the parents to the airport, but we drove to Old Town San Diego (near the Presidio) for brunch at a really nice little Mexican place, El Fandango. I ordered the huevos rancheros, but I think Dad won with the chorizo. Fresh tortillas! Home-made salsa! Champagne! Dad asked for mimosas, but I don’t think the waiter understood, so he brought us a separate glass of fresh-squeezed oj, which mostly ended up spilled all over the table. Honestly, I can’t take these guys anywhere!

But really, I had a very good time and was so happy that Dad and Mom came to visit me. It was nice to spend one-on-one time with them, and I hope that we got to know each other a little more. I think they enjoyed their visit too, and returning home to flooding in St. Louis probably was not too fun, compared to the warm sunshine of SoCal. Man, I really am getting spoiled here, I guess.

Dad and Mom’s Visit to San Diego, Day 3

Posted in Animals, Cats, Day Trips, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Non-cats by

Now I LOVE the Wild Animal Park, located right here in Escondido. I even worked there for a summer as a guide. But I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so much of the park at one time as I did on this day. We went everywhere! The weather was great, and I had free admission tickets for everyone. It was the perfect time of year to go, too, because flowers were blooming and the butterflies and orchids exhibit, which shows only a few weeks of the year, was on display. We walked around Mombasa Lagoon, checked out the gorillas (which kind of freak me out – I’m not a big fan of primates), then saw the butterfly exhibit in the Hidden Jungle. Butterflies were everywhere! We were swarmed by rainbow lorikeets when we fed them nectar, and I got some really great pictures. We then hoofed it over to Lion Camp, where I got to see my old lion friends. It’s the best exhibit in the park, I think. That day, both moms (Mina and Oshana) and Dad (Izu), and all seven cubs were out. They were initially just snoozing (trying to make sure they fulfilled that 20 hours of sleep per day quota), but as we were waiting in line for the safari tram, Mina caught a duck that had decided to fly into the lion’s enclosure. So, I took about fifty pictures of the lions running around with the duck – it was really fun to watch (although I’m sure the duck didn’t enjoy it).

After the safari tram thing, we ate lunch and walked back up through the Heart of Africa, then walked out to the tiger and elephant exhibits. We made it up to Condor Ridge, which shows some of North America’s most interesting critters (although the burrowing owls were no longer on display – boo hoo), and even walked through the Baja botanical garden and Bonsai house. By then we were pretty beat! But we managed to drag ourselves over to the Petting Kraal and through the gift shop. When we got home, Dad grilled up some salmon on the miniature BBQ that they bought for me on Saturday – it was delicious. Mmmmmm.

Click HERE to see all the pictures from the Wild Animal Park, including the lions having fun with the duck (which won the 2008 waterfowl division Darwin Award).

Dad and Mom’s Visit to San Diego, Days 1-2

Posted in Day Trips, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel by

Wow – Mom and Dad came to visit me from St. Louis and we did SO MUCH that I have to break my blogging up into three parts! Plus, I’m staying home sick, so I have plenty of time to do so, but more about that later.

I picked up the folks on Saturday (March 15) and we had lunch at one of the best places to eat in Escondido, the French Bakery, downtown. It was tasty! After that, we went back to my apartment and just chatted for a while, which also included Teddy Bear barking his head off for about a half hour. They stayed at the Best Western, just down the road from where I live, and I was relieved to see that it was relatively nice (not charging by the hour was among my first criteria for selecting a hotel in the area, which ruled out a lot of places). Amazingly, we did not take any pictures this day!

Which brings me to day 2. Let the whirlwind begin…

We had plans to go to my cousin Beth’s (and her husband OB’s) house for lunch in Oceanside, so we decided to first drive out to Encinitas. We walked down to Swami’s beach memorial (just ask me about Finnish sisu), toured the Self Realization Fellowship’s Meditation Garden, and tried to find a flower shop that was open. During our ride over to Oceanside, my odometer passed the 150,000 mile mark! Woo hoo!!! Beth and OB served up some delicious fish tacos (a California favorite), and from there we went to Sea World. Mom and Dad got free tickets from a friend who works at Anheiser Busch, so that saved us a TON of money. We saw the Shamu show, checked out the bat rays, the penguin exhibit, and the Arctic Exploration exhibit, which is my favorite part of the park. Below are a few pictures, but click HERE to go to my picasa web album to see them all.

Christmas in Camas

Posted in Animals, Cats, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Non-cats, Travel, Vacations by

I flew up to Portland for Christmas this year to spend the holiday with my mom, brother, and sister-in-law. I stayed with Mom, who lives in a really cute house in Camas, Washington. Camas is home to a huge Georgia Pacific paper factory, or as it appeared to me, a tree crematorium. Paul and Anne live across the river in Portland, and they came over to open presents Christmas morning. Lots of presents. I think I like giving presents better than receiving them, especially when I get to give presents to the fetus that is nestled in Anne’s tummy right now. I gave the fetus a black one-piece outfit that says “ABCD: for those about to read we salute you”. Awesome. It snowed a little on Christmas day, but was otherwise gray, dark, rainy and cold. Huh – who would have thought that winter in the Pacific Northwest could be so dreary? I enjoyed sitting on the couch by the fireplace during most of my visit, staying warm and dry. Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Christmas Eve – yup, that’s a pink tree, and “A Christmas Story” on the TV behind it.

A very bad picture of me, but clearly Mom’s cat (Leo) and I bonded during my visit.

Below, Bailey savors the remains of his stuffed turkey, destroyed and eviscerated within 15 minutes of presentation.

Everything’s turning up…PREGNANT!!!

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My god, everyone is getting pregnant these days. I feel like some old freak, single, not wanting kids. That’s ok though – I’m perfectly fine being “Crazy Aunt Marci”. Here’s a list so far:

Cousin Beth and OB
Brother Paul and Anne
Friends Kristi and Adam

Yay, pregnant people! Anyone else I need to add to the list? Huh? Huh???

Festival of Lights

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Can you believe I haven’t been to the Wild Animal Park in over a year? It’s true. But that all changed when Janet (from work) invited me and a few other girls to go see the park at dark, a.k.a. the Festival of Lights. Apparently, the wildfires of October destroyed a trailer that contained most of the lights, but they were able to cobble together a fairly decent display. It was really cool to see the lions and tigers I regularly visited while I was guiding for Roar and Snore in 2005; I got to see Delta’s three Sumatran tiger cubs, Izu at Lion Camp – all grown up, and Mbari in the big lion exhibit. I can’t believe how huge those lions have gotten!



Fishy in San Francisco

Posted in Career, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel by
At the beginning of September, the Fish and Wildlife Service paid me to attend the American Fisheries Society annual meeting in San Francisco. Of course, I was born there and all, and have been to the City many times since then, but I decided it would be a fun trip. So, I whipped up a poster to present some of my graduate work during a poster session and set off. It was a nice week away from the job, but I soon discovered that going away for a week is not necessarily a vacation – you still have to meet your deadlines, so you basically have to bust your ass trying to get stuff done before you leave, and then when you get back you have to bust your ass trying to get to all the stuff you missed while you were gone. It’s not like I actually got to skip any work – it was just crammed in other places! Anyway, the trip to SFO was good – I saw lots of people from Colorado State, and we had a good time eating out and going to socials. Oh yeah – I also went to a few of the scientific talks – they were pretty good, I guess, but not a whole lot of new information, I thought. Want to see some pictures??? Here they are:
I stayed at the Parc 55, right downtown. This was the view from my room on the 21st floor at night.
Monday night was the poster session / social – right in the middle of it, these drums and symbols started banging and a couple of Chinese dragons came around to harass the meeting attendees. It was good fun.
A few of my CSU friends – Jill, Matt, Ayeisha, and me.
Jeremy (right) had a screening of his documentary film, River Webs. It was awesome! Afterwards, a few of us went out to sushi (that’s me on the left, then Owen and Miki, Dr. Fausch from CSU, and Jeremy).
Thursday night was the best social ever – they closed the Hyde Street Pier (near Ghiradelli Square) just for the AFS’ers and gave us access to the National Park’s boats. I declared myself captain of the Balclutha.
We all enjoyed the many buffets throughout the pier (serving fresh tuna, all sorts of salads, soups, fresh vegetables and fruit, and chocolate fondue), as well as the completely open bars that were set up and didn’t stop serving. That’s me above, Andrew, Jill, Matt, and Ayeisha.
The last day I was in the City I walked down to Japantown. I hadn’t been there since I was a little kid, and it had really changed. There was hardly anybody around, and all the shops were totally pricey and upscale – no bargain bins of stilt sandals and tabi sock anywhere! But at least I got a picture of this completely bizarre business sign. Good times!

Jes and John’s Wedding

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Mark and I were invited to attend Jes’ wedding to John, which happened July 13 at Breaker’s Beach on the Coronado Naval Base. It was such a pretty spot! The beach is only open to military personnel and their families, and they rented out a really nice little deck hall for the wedding and reception. I know Jes from working at the Wild Animal Park, but she recently moved to South Carolina, so I’ll miss her. I also got to see a few old friends from the Wild Animal Park that I hadn’t seen in a while – yay Emily who just had a baby girl a few days after the wedding! I miss you guys!!! Waaahhh!!!