HAPPY BIRTHDAY UA!

Happy Birthday To You!
Happy Birthday To You!
Happy Birthday Dear UA!
Happy Birthday To YOU!!!!!!

!FELIZ CUMPLEANOS JOSHI!

Familia,

Joshua's Birthday is Friday, October 26Th. He will be 24 years old.....BRAVO!!!!!!

Joey was scheduled to travel to Alaska this week; but was pulled into an Emergency Work Project at the last minute and flew into Denver on Monday Afternoon.......Yippee!!!

Joe leaves on a work trip to South Dakota tomorrow morning for the rest of the week, so we had only TONIGHT to celebrate all together and reminisce about Joshua's Rico-Suave Entrance into this world 24 years ago.

!FELIZ CUMPLEANOS JOSHI!

We Love You More Than Words Could EVER say!

Con Carino, Tu Familia.

Suzy's Tour- Cairo, Egypt 2nd Time

The air was so smokey that even my camel coughed.

Suzy's Tour- Lisboa, Portugal

We only had a tiny bit of time here, and on our way to the airport, both of our cabs crashed. Scary driving!@#

Flamencos

Senor Frog, Dan Akroyd and Barry Manilow

Suzy's Tour- Sevilla, Spain

What a joy Sevilla was. We found out a hole-in-the-wall place, called Los Gallos, that had some incredible dancers and musicians. The locals steered us there. I have video, but I'm afraid to attempt the upload. Plus, the dancer I filmed, before I got caught, was so tall from the front row that I had to turn my camera sideways. Hard to watch that way. The Gargoyle photos is for you Deb.

Suzy's Tour- Sinai Egypt

Ahhh, Egypt, the land of no toilet paper and holes in the floor. The first time I saw one of the holes I said, "Hell No!". Then I got real. My bladder was bursting. I carried napkins in my purse from then on. My posterior had seen better days. Due to Ramadan (sp?) celebrations, we weren't allowed to eat or drink in public until dark. A lot of businesses were closed. I was so glad I took my shawl with me, because I had only one long sleeved top. I had to cover my arms, neck, hair, legs, you name it. And it was hot! I wish that an environmentalist would go there to show them how to make compost out of their leftover crops. They burned the corn stalks, so the air was completely toxic. I got soooo sick in Cairo, first time around. Another interesting thing was the driving at night with the headlights off. I was told they did that to save their batteries. Traffic was scary! But what an ethnic feast, and I met some very interesting people. How gorgeous they are!

Suzy's Tour- Chania, Crete, Greece

I could live here.

Suzy's Tour- Greece

We didn't get near enough time in this country. I stepped off the plane and could breathe... clean moist air. I loved something about every country I went to. This baby was about 8 years old, making a living playing music. Don't you love him?

Suzy's Tour- Toscana (sp?)

Due to a scheduling mishap, we flew to Toscana, arrived at the time we were to perform, slept a few hours and left at 3:30 AM. No performance. We had an hour to run thru the Tower of Pisa, take photos and eat. I bought a few chingaderas. (silly souvenirs)

Suzy's Tour- Catania, Italy

I was told that a volcano had just spewed ash a couple of weeks before we had gotten there, so the hacking began. There was still beauty all around. Check it out.

Naples Extra

Okay, this looks bad, but it really was left cheek, right cheek, peck. That was our wonderful lighting engineer in Naples.

Suzy's Tour- Naples, Italy

There is simply too much to blog about, so I'll let the photos do most of the talking. This man is actually holding me off of the ground, but the photographer didn't capture that. He was the restaurant manager (behind) whom I labeled "One of the Sopranos" because he looked Mafioso. The food was sooooo good, and he was soooo sweet! Ymmmm!

October 16th, 1977

Hello Familia.

Today is Julie's 30th birthday and a beautiful day it is! Fall is in the air. We can occasionally wear long sleeves here in California.

Here is a picture of the Birthday girl taken this past weekend at the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay. She's standing with Jasmine and Ella Reeves. Jasmine and Ella are John Reeves's Family. John is one of my great college buddies who lives in San Francisco.

We bought a bunch of brussell sprouts still on the branch (Is it a branch Greg?) Here is Ella learning how hard an uncooked brussel sprout is. Total cutie!

Happy Birthday Julie. I love you!

Joe

MAS FOTOS DE RANCHO MORALES

Familia,

I know we might be overwhelming you with Too Many Fotos
Del Rancho.............but we went out to Westcliffe on Saturday and had a great, great, great hike. We thank you for allowing us to share our joy with you.

The land was covered with a mat of crackling, fallen, bright yellow, aspen leaves. The water in the stream was mirror like, crystal clear and running strong as a prize horse. The imposing presence of the still nature (BIG dead tree)was a command for attention that this sprawling land has a past that deserves respect. The extensive, bright, blue sky reminded us of how it is a privilege to live in Colorado. The Sangres (Mountains) continue to take our breath away, and make us realize, EVERY time we look at them, how fortunate we are to have been invited to partake in the amazing beauty of such Landscape.

Con Mucho Carino,
MoonRaka

Camping Attempt

In my Friday post you can see Julie and I had grand plans for a camping trip this weekend. Things don't always go as you envision (remind me to tell you about our beach picnic earlier this year).

Friday night we took inventory of our camping gear and composed a short list of things we needed to get at REI saturday morning. We woke up very excited, went to REI, went to the grocery store to get brats, buns smores and some large Coors light cans to celebrate the Rockies from the wilderness. We packed our bags and headed out.

(checking out the trail-head)

(totally prepared!... Sorta)

We chose a spot that was a six mile hike from the tail parking lot at the skyline near Saratoga CA. When we got there the ranger told us that no fires were permitted due to fire season risk. We asked ourselves "Do we really want to hike six miles with 100 lbs on our back so we can drink a cold beer with a pre-cooked bratwurst in the cold darkness?"

We realized that a fire is a very significant part of the fun of camping and opted not to do the hike. We drove to three other places to find the same info. Basically you either have to reserve a car-camping spot weeks in advance, or you have to back-pack 6-12 miles to reach a spot where no fires are permitted.

Again we decided that even if we did the hike, we weren't equipped to have fun in the dark. We'd need at least a small burner to heat up some food.

So what do we do now? We'd driven 100 miles to find camping and ended up empty handed. We did learn some excellent ideas for future camping trips though! We considered it a learning experience and went home for a real camping trip. Here are some pics of our improvisation at "Chez Morales":

(improvising at home)

Happy Friday

Happy Friday everybody. While you finish your coffee this morning check this guy out.. I'm so jealous of his skills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYIKfEU8yl8

Julie and I are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We had a very hectic last couple weeks transitioning renters for the loft. You can tell I've been exhausted becuase I haven't made a blog posting in a long time! Thanks to a ton of help from my Mom, Carmen and from the Reeds we were able to finish!

Thanks Mom for loaning us the car and shuttling us to the Airport! Thanks Greg for the "Amazing Race" to find that replacement drain! I don't know what I would have done otherwise! All for 6 dollars and not 600!

Julie and I are planning to go camping tomorrow night at Big Basin near Santa Cruz. We need to take some camping gear inventory tonight. Alternatively the naval fleet has a show under the Golden Gate Bridge we may go check out. Whatever we do we are going to chill out and enjoy Columbus day weekend!

Love you all..
Joey.

HOW ABOUT A GUINNESS ?

Familia,

Joe's last work trip to Europe has covered the cities of London, Dublin and Frankfurt. He's still in Frankfurt and plans on coming home this weekend, Yyyiiiiippppeeee!

From previous trips he has sent us pictures from Frankfurt (while visiting with our nephew JJ), and London, that we have already shared with you.

Here are some pictures from Dublin he just sent a couple of days ago.

SALUD! CHEERS! & Enjoy The Show!

MoonRaka