Palm Springs- Oct 21-22

Jesse and I drove down (well, down and over) to Palm Springs last weekend to visit Chris and Dale who were there on vacation. Palm Springs is about 2 and a half hours south east from Northridge. The ride there was pretty boring but as we got nearer it got more interesting. This was mainly due to the huge valley of windmills. It was nice to see that at least in one area of the country people were thinking about the environment.
Then again, maybe not.Palm Springs (actually we were in Indio, which is a little farther south) was pretty much what we expected. Golf, nice cars, golf, swimming pools, and more golf. There were even golf cart garages in many of the houses. It was all very beautiful, and a great place to take a vacation.
One of the most interesting things was the RV garages. Ralph, I think you would be jealous!
Most of our time was spent just hanging out with Chris and Dale which was a lot of fun. Jesse really enjoyed the chance to get away from his busy life here in Northridge. I mean watching Extreme Engineering, Trucks!, Take Home Chef, Frontiers of Construction, American Chopper, American Hotrod and Holmes on Homes takes a lot out of a man. On Sunday we all went to the Living Desert which is I guess a zoo, but much cooler than the one in Toronto because the atmosphere seemed more natural and the vegetation was awesome. And by cooler, I am purely referring to the intrigue because it was very hot that day. I've included some pictures of the trip. Below is a date palm. I don't like dates personally but the way they grow is interesting.



I liked the goat area the best because we got to go in the pen and play with them.
I can tell I miss her because the hyenas reminded me of Stella.
This little pathetic looking cactus reminded me of the Wagler family christmas tree, except that its more uniform and it has more branches.
This next picture is of a prickly pear. I've never known what a prickly pear looks like but ever since that one song in the jungle book, I've always wanted to.
Again, Stella.
Jesse made sure that he checked out the local crops.

Thanks Chris and Dale!

Knott's Scary Farm

Halloween came a little early this year as some classmates and I decided to go to Knott's Scary Farm which is in Orange County. It is actually just a halloween version of Knott's Berry Farm with a clever title. Since he doesn't like rollercoasters or haunted houses and we were going to a haunted theme park, Jesse stayed home. We went to Tito's Taco's for dinner on the way there which was really good. It was this tiny little restaurant that serves cheap but delicious Mexican food. I had the all beef burrito, which was pretty much just a handful of meat with the added bonus of a tortilla wrap so that your hands don't get messy. Mmmmm....beef. Anywho, traffic in and around LA never seems to let up, so even though we left at around 6 (with a short dinner stop), we didn't get to the park until 10. With only 4 hours until the park closed we headed straight for a rollercoaster. Almost 2 hours later, we actually got on the rollercoaster. The ride was pretty awesome though so the wait was almost worth it. Emily and I made sure to get the seats at the front, even if it meant an extra 15 minutes in line.Below is a picture of Rishona and Brett showing their excitment for finally getting to the front of the line.
After our one rollercoaster ride, we went through some of the haunted mazes which was the main attraction of the Scary Farm. And I have to say, I was actually scared. They mostly consisted of narrow dark hallways, stobe lights and people dressed up in costumes sneaking up behind you or jumping out in front of you. I'll even admit that I screamed a couple of times. I got some pictures from the website because cameras were prohibited.

it's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood

Just a note for those of you living in Canada. Yesterday here in California it was 26 C and the sky was a beautiful bright blue. As my mom would have pointed out, it made me want to paint a picture. So if you can't enjoy such a beautiful view, feel free to enjoy ours.

things are a little different in California

Well, things here are a little different. First, I am taking a course which involves group therapy for the last hour of each class. Second, for another course, one of our classes involved going over to the instructor's house for dinner and wine, which we ate and drank while she gave her lecture. And finally, everyone here gets around via the skateboard. Now you are probably imagining an entire school of baggy clothes wearing teenagers from Baden but you are wrong. Skateboards here are actually just a mode of transportationg and not a lifestyle. I have seen the typical "boarder", however I have also seen well dressed girls on skateboards as well as a mid-30 year old guy who was also wearing socks with his sandals and pretty dorky. Its very different, I have to watch where I'm going so that I don't get run over.
Anywho, enough of my rambling, here is a picture of the CSUN Genetic Counseling Class of 2008. All 7 of us.

canadian thanksgiving

Our first thanksgiving went pretty well, even though technically we were a month and a half early for our new surroundings. I invited my friend Rishona over to join us seeing how she is a fellow Canadian. The meal was pretty good, although I really can't take very much credit because we did buy a precooked chicken. Everything else was typical: beans, wild rice stuffing, mashed potatoes and for desert, halloween chocolate bars. As you can see, we even brought out the fine plastic china. I should say that my mashed potatoes were not as good as my dad's so I guess I still need some practice.

you know you're a geek when...

This past Thursday I wrote my first Human Genetics quiz. For those of you who have never written a gentics test of any type, you should know that they usually entail problem solving. For example, "if a woman has a brother who has hemophelia, what is the probability that her first son will also have the disorder?" and so on. Now the interesting thing is that I actually enjoyed taking this quiz. I almost found it fun. Finding a quiz fun seemed a little odd, and therefore it lead me to think that maybe I am a geek and that my dad was right all these years. As horrifying as this may sound, at least it means that I am persuing a career that I will enjoy. I would also like to point out though Ed, that 50% of my genes are from you and therefore you cannot be completely excluded from the geek category.