MORE Cabo

Lover's Beach

Westin Bonaventure Hotel
Once we got back to California, we stayed at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. The Bonaventure is the largest hotel in Los Angeles. Construction was completed in 1976. The hotel has numerous glass elevators that travel on the outside of the structure with spectacular views. The top floor is a revolving restaurant. It has been used for many movies including movies like True Lies with Arnold Swartzeneger, Nick of Time with Jonny Depp, Mission Impossible III with Tom Cruise, Hancock with Will Smith, Blue Thunder, Forget Paris, Strange Days, Hard to Kill, and many more. We had adjoining rooms which seemed palatial after the tiny rooms of the ship. It was beautiful to sleep in the sky with nothing but glass between us and the lights of the Los Angeles skyline.

These are pictures from our window wall:

Lori sleeping:

Vayden in the Bonaventure lobby:

Note from Editors

Next edition we will cover Christmas, our adventures on the Ship and in California.

Volume 31

SUNDAY NEWS
November 15, 2009

Lori has been missing some day of work trying to fight some virus. Everyone else has been healthy though. It looks like it has finally cooled off for good here. We actually got some rain yesterday. Lori has been opening the windows upstairs during the day and we have been enjoying the cool fall breezes, After six years of growth all the upstairs windows now have beautiful views of the trees and their leaves. The trees have now all grown past the second story. Now when you look out the upstairs windows your see a lush assortment of different tropical looking leaves and branches. It is like not even being in Arizona. In the beginning years there were many set-backs. Some trees were killed by heat, others were killed by frost, and yet others were lost in monsoon winds. Karl did a lot work with the trees and even lobbied his neighbors and helped them plant a tree on the other side of the fence to accomplish the master plan. It now makes Karl very happy to sit in his office and look out the window at all the leaves dancing in the wind since he has waited many years for his arboric vision to transpire.

Very Vayden
Vayden is such a cute little character. She does not wait to learn the English language to communicate. If she wants a ride in Karl’s office chair, she will point and make a series of spinning motion with her head to communicate that she wants to be spun. It is like she speaks here own version of sign language. Karl took her to the zoo this week and she will now sit and stair forever. Well, almost forever. If a kid next to her has an ice cream sandwich she will attempt to take that for herself. She makes lots of friends. People seem to be attracted to her little personality. After getting to know her, more than one of her new found friends asked if it was ok to take a picture with her. So Vayden now appears in some random family albums. Don’t worry they were really nice people.

Vayden now gives kisses. She doles them out randomly, but if you are lucky enough to get one it will melt your heart and make your day. Lori got Vayden her own chair for upstairs.


Completely Christian
When Christian was asked what he wanted to include in the Sunday News, this is the event that stands out for Christian from the week. A lot of Christian’s friends and their parents call Christian, ‘Chris’. So Lori was asking him what he wanted to be called. He kept saying that he didn’t care what people called him. Lori kept pressing him possibly in an effort to get him to say that he wanted his mom to call him ‘Christian’. Christian however just kept saying, “I don’t care what you call me” “I don’t care what you call me” over and over again. Finally Karl said, “I don’t care what you call me, just don’t call me late for dinner." Christian doesn't get it but wants everyone to know that Karl is never late for dinner and that it doesn't make any sense.

Christian gets focussed on strange things sometimes. This week he had a conversation with Karl about football next year and in the future. He asked, "Dad, do you think I will always be a lineman ?' Karl answered, "I don't think so. Especially if you keep playing into high school and college because you won't be big enough." Karl went on to explain that lineman at that level are like 6'8 and often near or over 300 pounds. See an example of what Christian's #75 looks like in the NFL. Every since that comment Christian is obsessed with how tall he will be and how big he will be. If I do this will I get taller? If I do that will I get bigger? Bla . . Bla . . Bla. How tall will I be? Take a guess? How tall is this person? How tall is this player? How tall is that player? Sometimes you wish you could just take a comment back.

All Alyssa
Alyssa has been fighting a case of the swine flu. She is doing well. She also had to have surgery on a couple of her toes. She developed a couple ingrown toe nails probably victims of fashion if we know Alyssa.

Being Brittney

We came across Brittney on the world-wide web this week. Here are some pictures from her seasonal job at Carlson’s Drive-In:



Really Roxy
Vayden and Roxy now like to play ball together. It is pretty funny to watch the two of them. Roxy likes to go to the field where Karl and Christian often play football with some of the local neighbors.

Family Stories

Not Chocolate
Christian wanted this story told. Christian thinks it is funny, Karl not so much. One morning Karl and Christian took Roxy for a walk. During that walk Karl did three things. He ate a candy bar, he picked up after Roxy took a poop, and he talked on his cell phone. Several hours later, Karl went to use his cell phone in the presence of Christian. Karl noticed that there was some chocolate on his phone which he assumed he had gotten on it earlier when he was eating a chocolate bar and talking on the cell phone. The chocolate was dried on the glass screen of his phone so he decided to just lick it off. It was not chocolate! It was poop! Christian still has a good laugh every time he describes Karl’s reaction to the surprise taste.

Fast Food Custom Burger Recipe

Karl has several fast food burger recipes. These recipes take existing fast food burgers and customize them for maximum meat and flavor for the minimum price. Some of them are as easy as just requesting a 6x6 protein style with grilled onions at In & Out.

This particular recipe was stumbled upon by accident. One day the girl at Jack in the Box messed up Karl’s order and Karl’s attempt to fix it led to the creation of this burger. Jack in the Box sells what they call an Ultimate Cheeseburger for almost $5 on their normal menu, but it does not compare to Karl’s Ultimate Jack in the Box Cheeseburger.

Here is what you do:

Big Cheese Burgers are on the value menu at Jack in the Box and are $1.00 a piece. They normally come with a beef patty, two types of cheese and ketchup and mayonnaise. There is one slice of white Swiss-style cheese on the bottom and one slice of American cheese on the top.

Order a total of 5 Big Cheeseburgers at Jack in the Box.
3 of the Cheeseburgers order plain.
(this means no ketchup or mayonnaise)
2 of the Big Cheeseburgers order without a bun
(they will come in a plastic container)
Ask for packets of mayonnaise.
Ketchup packets are always available

Step 1: Take two of the plain Big Cheeseburgers and begin to pull of the top bun. The top is obviously the rounded one with the sesame seeds on it. Because you ordered it plain, the top bun will be impossible to completely pull away from the beef patty due to the Slice of American cheese which will have fused it to the patty. This is expected and actually the reason you ordered it plain. If you had ordered a normal Big Cheeseburger the ketchup and mayonnaise may have prevented the top bun form fusing. This fusion is necessary for the recipe. By pinching away the pieces of the top bun you will be able to remove most of the bun. You want to leave a small amount of the bun stuck to the patty.

Step 2: One you have completed Step 1 with two of the plain Big Cheeseburgers, these will serve as your ends. Add at least one packet of ketchup and one packet of mayonnaise to the slightly breaded side of the burger on both ends. Part of the secret is that the slight amount of beading that was left fused to the patties will now serve to soak up and keep the ketchup an mayonnaise from dripping out once the burger is completed.

Step 3: Take the remaining plain Big Cheeseburger and pinch off the bun on both sides and set aside for the time being. Just as the American cheese fuses the top bun to the patty, the Swiss-style cheese will have fused the bottom bun to the other side of the patty.

Step 4: Take the bun-less patties with cheese that came in the trays and place one on each of the previously prepared end pieces that were created in Step 1. Again add one packet of ketchup and mayonnaise to the top of those patties and cheese.

Step 5: Take the remaining plain Big Cheeseburger created in Step 3 which should now have a slight amount of bread stuck to both sides and place it in the middle of both ends. This center piece will also act to soak up and hold the ketchup and mayonnaise placed in Step 4 to each end.

Step 6: Eat your Karl’s Ultimate Jack in the Box Cheeseburger and marvel at his Fast food culinary genius, all for the price of $5.

Now before you mock or shake your head, you must follow this recipe and try it. The extra fused breading gives stability to the 5 patty burger and eliminates what Karl refers to as “slippage” which is a frequent problem when you exceed 3 patties on a burger with amble and adequate sauce elements. The breading factor also reduces and nearly eliminates what Karl calls “sauce loss.” A five patty burger does involve significant respective weight, and in order to adequately grip a five patty burger one must exert a substantial amount of manual squeeze in order to maintain appropriate control over the burger. This squeeze can lead to “sauce loss”. The strategic placement of the slight breading throughout Karl’s Ultimate Jack in the Box Cheeseburger eliminates this “sauce loss” problem. Some might foolishly say, “Why not just add a middle third or even fourth piece of bread like a Big Mac has?” This would add bulky breading to what is intended to be a meat and cheese experience. To do such would throw off the perfect balance of meat, cheese, sauce and bread.

Photos

Volume 30

SUNDAY NEWS
November 1, 2009

Lori is doing great with her back. She is working full time again and able to do most things. She gets sore when she has to do too much, but she is doing well. We spent a lot of October watching scary movies at night, but we had to slow down with the scary movies because Lori was losing sleep with all the bad dreams. Lori's unit at work won the pumpkins carving contest. Actually there was no carving involved, but they won with Octo-mom and her 8 baby pumpkins. The baby's all had diapers and a pacifier.




This week Karl drove to California to be with his younger brother Mark. Early this week Mark went in to seek medical treatment for a head ache he had been experiencing for two weeks and they discovered a brain tumor. Mark had surgery on Friday and all went well. Karl also got to meet Mark’s girlfriend Marie who has been a big support to Mark and Mark is very lucky to have in his life. Karl also was happy to see his mom who also went to California to be with Mark. Mark is still in the hospital but should be released soon.

Very Vayden
There is lots going on with Vayden. She likes to sing and her use her voice. She sings “Eee Eye Eee Eye Ohh” all the time. That is from “Old McDonald had a Farm” for those of you who are rusty on your nursery songs. She sings her own songs and they are quite entertaining. She also loves to dance. Any time a song comes on the T.V. or radio you can find her bounding to the rhythm. She loves the television program Yo Gabba Gabba now because of all the dancing they do. She can jump up. When someone is talking on a phone she puts her hand up to her ear and talks on her own imaginary phone. She is enjoying the Halloween season. She growls every time she sees a jack-o-lantern.

After hanging around and spending time with her dad who often drinks carbonated water, now when Vayden takes a long drink, she ends it with a “Aaahhhhhhh! Vayden is getting more teeth. She is tough little girl and rarely complains although we know her teeth hurt her sometimes especially when she is eating hard or crunchy food. You should see the faces she makes. She now likes to comb other people’s hair with her brush and make them ‘pretty’. She will occasionally bring the box of wipes over to us when she has done #2 in her pants and wants them changed.


Vayden loves to use her new found walking legs. She isn’t much for walking slow or careful however. We take her to the field and she just trucks all over the place. This week we picked up Christian from Webelos one night at church and she had a blast booking all over the basketball court and up and down the halls. She had a good fall on our driveway this week while we were carving pumpkins. Poor little girl went head first into the driveway. The driveway is cement and she fell into a portion that the Sequoia’s tires travel often. She came up with a black face and a bloody nose. With a little loving she was ok though. No scrapes. The black tire dust helped her face just slide. Vayden got a flu shot this week which gave her a temperature and interfered with her magic sleep switch. (See below)

Vayden loved Halloween. Nothing seemed to scare her this year. She helped pass out candy to all the kids and had a blast doing it.

Completely Christian
Christian said he was happy to be back in school. That is good to hear from a ten year old boy. Christian was also anxious to get back to football practice. Christian made a marshmallow gun at Webelos this week. The scouts had a blast shooting each other all over the church grounds. Karl and Vayden walked around inside the church while the boys waged their marshmallow war. Christian has a new Webelos leader who looks like the boys will really enjoy. The new leader will probably be hearing from whoever is in charge of maintenance of the church however when they find the remnants of the marshmallow wars both inside and outside the church.

Christian and Karl found some Buffalo.

Christian participated in a haunted house at his friend Blake’s house. Christian’s costume was Michael Meyers. Christian was a little bummed when the night was over and he realized he had forgotten to go Trick or Treating. We had no candy left at our house as this year had more Trick or Treaters than we have seen in years past.

Sooooo Shelby
Shelby is now a licensed driver. Congratulations Shelby!

Family Stories

Vayden’s Sleep Switch
We feel very lucky to have a baby like Vayden. She goes down for a nap twice a day usually for about two hours and then consistently sleeps for about twelve hours at night. What is even more remarkable is how easy it is to put her to sleep. She can be running around dancing and not look the least bit tired, but when her scheduled time rolls around all you have to do is pick her up and take her to her crib and do three things:

1. put a pacifier in her mouth
2. give her the monkey (a stuffed monkey that Christian picked out for her and she has sleep with since birth)
3. rub her back once or twice and say “Time for sleepies.”

If you do that she will wrap her hand around the monkey’s tail and pull it close to her and immediately close her eyes and go to sleep. It is like flipping a power switch. There are parents all over the world that would kill to have a baby with an off switch. We are very lucky. She goes right out without a peep. It works three times a day. Even though we have both done it many, many, times, we still walk out of the room and close the door disbelieving that it will be that easy, but it is consistently. We are very, very lucky.

She has had her Monkey from the very beginning.


Trophy’s Steakhouse


Vayden’s favorite restaurant is Trophy’s Steakhouse. She manages to spin completely around in her highchair even when strapped in this restaurant. She can’t stop looking at the décor. Christian was very impressed by this restaurant also.

He wants to be a hunter. Christian wanted to try elk when we visited and really liked it. This is very unique restaurant near us. The food is good and they serve stuff like Elk, Buffalo, Duck and Antelope. It reminds Karl of some restaurants in Montana. There is a big 24 oz Rib-eye Steak called the “Big Dan” that is right up Karl’s alley. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with many game animals. The taxidermy is fantastic. Most people who go there probably don’t realize the significance of the displays. The only reason we do is because of the time Karl spent in Montana in the company of some very serious hunters. One of the owners has obviously completed the Big Game North American 29. In order to achieve the North American 29, a hunter has to hunt all over North America from Alaska to Mexico. This accomplishment requires a hunter to travel to some very remote locations in a wide range of terrain, temperatures and hunting conditions. Here is a list of the North American 29, all of which are present in the restaurant along with some additional ones:

Polar Bear
Coastal or Pacific Black Bear
Continental or Inland Black Bear
Grizzly Bear
Alaskan Brown Bear
Mountain Lion
Gray Wolf
Alaskan-Yukon Moose
Western Canada Moose
American Bison
Rocky Mountain Elk
Roosevelt Elk
Musk Ox
Pronghorn Antelope
Northwestern Whitetail Deer
Coues' Whitetail Deer
Columbia Black Tail Deer
Rocky Mountain Mule Deer
Desert Mule Deer
Alaskan-Yukon Barren Ground Caribou
Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou
Woodland Caribou
Quebec Labrador Caribou
Mountain Caribou
American Mountain Goat
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
Stone Sheep
Dall Sheep

Note from the Editors
We have lots of photo addendums this week so keep scrolling down. There are five of them.

Happy Halloween
Booo!
Halloween 2009
Halloween Past
Vayden Photos