Happy Halloween!

Today for Halloween Lance and I decided we would go apple picking! We completely stole the idea from Ryan and Emma's blog so stop by their blog if you're looking for cool things to do! =) When I first read their blog about going apple picking I thought to myself how cool would that be! But I never really thought us Orange County kids would have a place close enough for us to visit. Well, pretty much I had never thought about apple picking ever before until I read their blog. Thanks to the power of googling we found Riley's farm.

We both had the day off today so we got up, had some breakfast and headed out of the city. It took us about an hour and a half to get there but it was a part of California neither Lance or myself have explored before. The whole picking process was actually really quick so we decided when we go back, we are going to go on a day that they have more things to pick. Today they only had pumpkins and apples. Other times of the year they have blackberries, raspberries, pears etc. That way we can head up there and pick a whole bunch of stuff!

We had a lot of fun picking our own apples and we just had one a little bit ago and it was very yummy! Hopefully Emma will post some apple recipes on her food blog to help me use all these apples!! ;-)

Here are some pick-tures (get it?? hahaha)
This is the first apple I picked and can you tell I was excited??


It sure is a good thing I brought the tall guy with me! Apple picking is not a thing for short people to do. I pretty much pointed out apples I thought would be good and Lance grabbed them for me!

Here is our half full bag.....

And our very full bag!!!

Here is Lance at the pumpkin patch. We didn't buy any pumpkins this year, but they sure had some cool looking ones!


This was the general store of the farm. They said the barn was built in 1880. Lance captured the beautiful hills behind the barn too!
We saw this goat on the way out and it made us laugh. He's just so funny looking. I've never seen a goat like that before. He did have the same colors as our Murphy but Murphy isn't so spotty. Maybe the goat thought he was a cow???

We also saw this beautiful house on the way back home. Lance and I decided that if we ever win the lottery we want a house built like this one. We don't want to buy this one because it's in the middle of nowhere. And frankly, we are city folk. We did have a great time on the farm though! The weather was fabulous at 75 degrees and we were able to pick a bunch of really delicious granny smith apples!

Financial Crisis aka Suzanne's Rant

I can't believe what has been happening with the stock market this last week. I've lost 45% of my 401k in a week. In one stinking week. I've been working the last 10 years to have my 401k cut practically in half in one week. And there are people out there who have it a lot worse than me. At least I'm not planning on retiring soon. How can those people retire soon? They must have no money left. It's so sad.

I've been watching all the shows on TV that have been trying to explain what is going on. And how come we have found ourselves in this predicament. On one of the Oprah's they called us (the middle class population) Annie. What I realized after watching that show is that I'm pissed at Annie. I'm pissed at the banks and the financial institutions. I'm pissed that our government is bailing out these companies and the CEO's are spending $400,000+ for spas and vacations. I'm pissed that the banks went out and offered loans to Annie's who could not afford them. I'm pissed at Annie for taking those loans and now Annie can't make the loan payments.

Lance and I didn't go out and get a home loan, because we knew we couldn't afford it. We didn't go out and buy $50,000 cars and run up our credit card bills because we knew we couldn't afford it. It makes me irate that certain politicians want to buy out home loans for the people that are foreclosing on their property. Why? So they can stay in their homes and my taxes can go up? No thank you. So that the bank can still make their profit off of the loan? Maybe the bank should not have loaned so much money out to high risk Annie's!

Ok, I think I'm done ranting. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. Now, I'm going to stuff my money under my mattress. I kid I kid things aren't that bad..............yet! And I promise to not use this blog as a place where I rant....too often! And I promise not to spew my political views........too often! Hopefully everyone will be voting in a few weeks!

The Fat Lady Sang....Loudly

Wow. Sad. Pathetic. Enough said.

Hunt for a RED October

The Angels post season started last Wednesday and oh my goodness has it been a dismal post season so far. The Angels finished the season with the best record in baseball. They clinched the American League West Championship in early September, way before all the other teams clinched. On paper they are the best team in baseball. On the field, they sure didn't look like the best team in baseball! We lost our first two games against Boston on Wednesday and Friday which just blew my mind! This is only a best of 5 series how could we have lost the first two games. Which were played here at home too! During the first game of the series Lance and I got to hold the flag again. My dad did it with us this time and we all had a great timeLance, my dad and I are all on the left hand side of the flag. Lance is the first person down there, I'm the 3rd tiny speck above him and my dad is the 5th tiny speck above me! I just love this picture though, it just shows how huge this flag is and how many people it takes to pull it off!

The Angels FINALLY pulled off a victory last night. It took them 12 horrible innings, but they finally did it. We play Boston again tonight in Boston and it's do or die. I would love for the Angels to come home on Wednesday with the series all tied up!

Tonight is also Monday Night Football and Lance and I will be wildly rooting for Minnesota. Not because we are Minnesota fans, oh no! We are Buffalo Bills fans! I use "we" loosely here. Lance is a dumb Dallas fan! =) Baseball season is not even over yet though so I can't begin the Dallas bashing until November. Wait for it, it will come! So, back to rooting for the Vikings. Lance and I are in a weekly football pool and it looks as though this week, I am in the running for er.....um..... some credits! We don't live in Nevada, and betting is illegal here, so credits it is! I'm tied with 5 other people going into tonights game and those 5 all picked New Orleans to win. So, if the Vikings do win, I look like a genius. If they lose, well..........

When I do my picks, I do them in about 30 seconds. I go down the list and check off my teams I think are going to win. Lance, well, he takes the whole week to get his picks in. He studies the teams records, and their roster and their injuries. Blah blah blah looks like my way worked this week! hahahaha GO VIKINGS!!!!!!!!

Ryan, Lance and I were wishing your Cubs would continue on to the World Series so you could come out here and watch an Angels/Cubs world series. Looks like the Dodgers kept that from happening! We are excited for the Dodgers though even though Cubs fans have been waiting 100 years for a trip to the world series. I wonder how many it will actually be until they make it there and win it? When they finally get the goat off their back!! =) Maybe next year you can join us for a Angels/Cubs world series!!! The Angels will win of course!! hahahahaha

Alright everyone cross your fingers, toes, legs, arms and anything else you can cross and send good mo-jo that the Angels and Vikings win! For those of you who just don't give a darn, I'll keep you posted, because I know deep down you do! =P

Rally Monday

Well friends, the baseball post season is upon us. And I am SOOOOOO excited! Last Monday the Angels held their annual Angels Rally. It's now officially an "annual" rally since they had one last year. I guess if one year they don't make the playoffs, well then, no need for a rally..........but I don't see that happening in the near future....hopefully! =)

Monday's rally produced tons of Angel fans and oddly enough a few Boston fans. How much confidence do you have to show up to a Angels rally with 20,000 Angel fans wearing a Boston hat and jersey??!!??!!

The best part of the rally was when Bobby Gritch (former Angel circa mid 80's) got on the stage grabbed the microphone and yells, "give me a A". Crowd "AAAAAAA". Bobby, "give me a N". Crowd "NNNNNNN" So on and so forth. The problem with his cheer was that he spelled Angels A.N.G.L.S. hhhmmm When he followed the G with the L the crowd kind of looked at each other with the funniest look on all of our faces! At the end he yells "What's that spell?" And then I yelled, "Not Angels!!!"

This years rally was super cool because they actually had active players. Last year they only had former players. Here are some pictures of the players that showed up.

Mike Napoli

Howie Kendric Jeff MathisTorii Hunter

Smashmouth performed and they were pretty darn horrible! They only have a few hits and those hits are much better heard on the radio or CD! Live, well, they pretty much sucked!

You can't really see them so well from this shot. That's why I took all the players pictures off of the jumbo tron. We were sitting on the side of the stage so it was hard to get any really good pictures.

Here are the players revealing the new 2008 American League West Champions banner!

Rachel and I were the only ones that went to the rally. Lance really wanted to, but he had work. Cat, well, she must not be a real Angel fan since boys seem to be more important than supporting your Angels. Hehehehehe It's my blog and I get to say whatever I want to say!!! hehehehehe
We had fun together anyway, even though Cat was too busy for us!

Tonight the Angels begin game 1 against Boston. Lance, Rachel, Dad, Cat and I will be there. All dressed in red with 44,000 of our closest friends! Let's hope for another halo victory!!!