Cool pics from disposible camera

I just got my underwater disposible camera from the Nicaragua trip developed. A lot of repeats and a bunch of lame stuff, but a few cool shots.



Skye underwater in Laguna de Apoyo


A shot from the middle of the lake. I swam out and did my best.




The new owner and thus our host at the guest house at La Orquidea, Mike, after a dive off the dock.

Tour de France; What the f---k is going on?

I was loving the Tour. I was finally getting it, understanding the points, the jerseys, the tactics, etc. I was cheering for Alexandre Vinokourov, who had a horrible crash and some 30 plus stitches in his knees and kept at it. I loved that Michael Rasmussen, "the little chicken" was stepping up to defend the Yellow jersey when he would have been happy with the king of the mountains jersey and then....

First Vino, the day after he won his second stage with no chance of winning the tour, he gets busted.

And then days away from winning the tour, also after winning the stage for the day, still in his yellow jersey, little chicken gets booted by one of his teams sponsors.

They better change something and quick, because as much as I love the Tour, this is getting ridiculous.

Comings and goings

Have summers always been this hectic? What ever happened to the lazy days of summer? Since that momentous event on 7-7-7, we have been at it. I rested for a few hours one day and felt like a total slacker. Granted much of our commitments have been merrymaking, which still takes an effort, believe me. Skye has been off to Camp Hollywoodland for a week of sleep over camp, followed up with Bubblefest, a fun homeschooling bubble-making extravaganza, and then sports camp. Cindy and I have meanwhile been looking for work, partying like rock stars and cleaning up like Cinderella, pre-glass slipper. Have seen lots of friends and chilled and worked hard.

Party at Max's. Skye was in the pool for hours.


Patrick and Steven, guests for a week, found a place in the OC and are off to pursue their skimboarding dreams, good luck guys.



Amazing brunch with friends, Charles and Karen.


Skye with Hollywoodland camp counselors

There were movie outings, other dinners and parties and lunches and on and on. These are just those that I had photos of.

Pizza making a go-go

On my 40th birthday bash we fired up the pizza oven and did our best to make a few pizzas. A lot was going on, I was pulled in ten different directions, we had the grill going; it perhaps was not the best time to craft a fine pizza. That being said, we turned out a couple of OK, not so bad pizzas. Even though we got it fired up pretty hot, we never got it to the extreme heat we needed it at. (Sorry, no pictures)

The second firing, I definitely got it up to a huge heat, too huge. I could barely get the pizza in and off the paddle. It was charred almost before it came off the paddle. I singed my arms, but the pizzas were pretty yummy. (Again no photos)
Third firing, getting better. (Sorry no pics)

Meanwhile, I had been studying and reading about pizza-making. Purchased and perused, Pizza, A Slice of Heaven , very interesting history of pizzas. Also took a nice research lunch at Mozza, amazing pizzas, great wine, wonderful atmosphere, what our pizzas want to be... and came pretty close to at ....

Our fourth and latest pizza making night.
Yummy. yummy, yummy



Nice fire, hot, oven heat in the 900's F, oven floor at around 650F- 750F.
Pizzas took between 2 to 4 minutes to cook.
I can barely remember the various types of pizzas we made, busy tending to the fire and the turning and moving the pizzas.



Click to enlarge this photo and then check out the pizza. These were pretty close to perfect. By the way all this experimenting, great for the soul and taste buds, not so great for losing weight. Oh well, can't have it all.


Sondra, a fabulous guest.

Old, great friend Terrell and me


Max and me.



Charles and Sondra


Guests from Tokyo, amazing friend and filmmaker Deborah and new friend Taka.

Dog gone!!! No really lost dog, dog is gone!!

LOST DOG, PLEASE HELP

When it happened, I mean I was in full party mode. There were around 100 people over the course of the day. When Cindy told me Diego was missing, I figured he was hiding, like dogs do on Fourth of July, you know the fireworks freak them out, but they come back after a day or so.

Where's our friend, Diego?

Or maybe he jumped in someone's bag and they'd give us a call and we'd pick him up or something. But we've recently gotten a couple of e-mails from him, and now I'm concerned....


1st E:mail

I am lost.


We respond:

 Where are you?? We've been so worried!? It's so
good to know you're alive (are you still?)? Please
come home to us... Anyone with information regarding
our dearly beloved puppy - PLEASE RETURN HER TO
US!!!

2cnd E:mail

Hitched a ride tonight. Not sure where I am.

We respond:

Baby you must demand to be let free - you're showing signs of stockholm syndrome - and felipe and pepe miss you so much... dearest diego, please come back for the sake of our family -

3rd, final and latest e:mail:

This looks nice.



Meanwhile Pepe and Felipe scour the "Lost and Found" in the paper.



They can't believe he's really gone. They are heart broken.



P.S. They both agreed you can have your center spot back and they're willing to call you Jefe, if you would just come back.

Skye's off to sleepaway camp; Camp Hollywoodland

Skye was off to camp Monday, a week-long sleep-over camp. Wow, what an adventure. She was incredibly nervous. But of course, once we got there after dramas here and there she was good to go. Originally her friend Amandla was to be her "cabin buddy" , but at the last minute Amandla ended up in Denmark, no seriously she is in Denmark, that's where father Tom is from. Anyway at our pizza-making party it is discovered, revealed, what have you that Tru is also off to Camp Hollywoodland. She being a year older and camp veteran makes for the perfect mentor as we, Cindy, Skye, myself and Tru head out to Camp. Well, here they are, with picture-perfect good-byes.

What to blog about? Where in the world IS Jon?

My 40th birthday was to be an apex of sorts. It took place on a pretty awesome date as far as numbers go 7-7-7, pretty cool. I had just finished a pretty rigourous traveling tour. (Left me wanting more.) Skye's first year of homeschooling would be coming to a close. The mammoth backyard project was to be completed. (It wasn't and like any and all homes, the projects and upkeep never end.) I had decided to officially and forever end my quest for a college degree.(That has only opened up my mad and crazed desire to learn, and turned me into a starving student with ADD, starving for knowledge and ADD because there are so many things to learn and now with the internet, cable, a billion magazines, etc, there are countless ways to find info and learning stuff.)

Anyway, blah, blah, blah, blog blog blog, point being, after a day or so, more like a few hours of chillin and relaxing, I am back in the whirlwind. I will be writing(hopefully) more and more often, linking, exploring. Where in the world is Jon? refers not only to the physical where but also the mental and emotional where.

So where am I these days?

Cooking
Have always loved cooking and entertaining, and now with the new outdoor cooking Xanadu I've created with a wood fire pizza oven, (it cooks all sorts of things, but so far this is it, much experimenting to come), a commercial quality, kick-ass grill, with rotisserie,(again have used grill for basics, still haven't installed or experimented with rotisserie attachment) and then fresh herbs growing all over practically begging to be used. And it's summer. So come over and cook or eat

Gardening
Finally, it's mostly all planted, it's a matter of tweaking and rotating stuff in the beds. Right now all sorts and manners of thyme, basil and mints. Again come over pick stuff or just wander about picking a sprig and crushing it with you fingers and smelling and just let scent one of our underused and under appreciated senses get some exercise.

Music
Right now kind of in a wierd eclectic, hip-hop, pop, lots of covers kind of mood, open for recommendations and comments. Listening to Brother Ali, Feist, MIA, and then so many covers that I have been collecting for a while now.

Tour de France
Lance is out, retired. A lot of others are out; doping or alleged doping. Leaving a wide open race.

Basketball
Really it's about the Lakers and so goes the question, Kobe what the f--k is up? And I plan to dunk withing 6 months, mark my words.

Traveling
I have Nicaragua to tend to and that's cool. I mean I love spending time down there. But investment-wise, Mammoth is beginning to really call to me, but Croatia has my heart and Turkey intrigues the heck out of me.
Then there are the new Seven World Wonders

THE NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD
The New7Wonders organization is happy to announce the following 7 candidates have been elected to represent global heritage throughout history. The listing is in random order, as announced at the Declaration Ceremony on 07.07.07. All the New 7 Wonders are equal and are presented as a group without any ranking.
The Great Wall, China	Petra, Jordan	Christ Redeemer, Brazil	Machu Picchu, Peru
Chichén Itzá, Mexico	The Roman Colosseum, Italy	The Taj Mahal, India

Homeschooling
School may be out but I am so intrigued about learning, education, homeschooling, the politics, the way we learn, how we grow, etc. It's help mold my world outlook, which was already way out of the box.

Misc stuff; AKA what life throws at you
Currently, Steve(17) and Patrick(20), sons to my very good friend from Miami, Florida, starting way back on True Lies, and Speed 2 and GI Jane and more, Michael Calabrese are staying with us looking at SoCal as where they'll end up because this is the skimboarding mecca. Yeah so I learned about skimboarding and it looks pretty cool. So you learn and get introduced to all kinds of things if you leave it open

Let the pictures tell the story

The Guests arrive

Richard and Jackie brought along the possibility of a double birthday.

And more pics and guests..........