Jacpot Returns To The Mountains

With the beginning of a week off for Spring Break we have arrived back at our cabin in Cold Springs. Cindy, Teresa, Jacpot, and myself walked a few miles around the Pinecrest cabins today.

Jacpot Enjoys The Poppies

Running in the desert can seem brown and dry sometimes, but I always enjoy the many contrasts. Today patches of poppies and other wildflowers were evident everywhere along the trail.

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Jacpot Enjoys A Warm Spring Day

The weather is definitely warming up, but we still had a great time, with Teresa joining us for a run in the hills.

On the way home we met some friendly people and their dog Jazz.

Jacpot Looks For A Pot of Gold.

After a little rain in the Antelope Valley, Jacpot enjoys the rainbow.

Jacpot Goes To March Birthday Weekend in MB

What a great weekend we had in Morro Bay. The 10 of us celebrated all the March birthdays (6 out of 10 of us have birthdays in March... I mean 11 when you count Jacpot, oops.).

On Saturday we had a picnic near Cambria at a park near the ocean.... Jacpot enjoys the view before lunch.

The wildflowers were incredible.

All 11 of us gather to pose for a shot in the tree.

Jacpot, Cindy and dad, Jerry.

Jacpot gets a gift from Eric and Cherie and gets to know his new monkey friend... and then eats him.



Jacpot plays with new friend Paloma... he didn't eat him.

Time to open birthday presents.

Dad's hoping he scratches off a winner.

Mom and Eric watch Jacpot play in the ocean.

Dad, Cherie, and Jacpot wait to be seated at Bayside Cafe.

On our way home we stopped to see all the butterflies at the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach.

Jacpot Says Goodbye

After a great visit from Kim and Frank, it was difficult for Jacpot to see them leave. At least Jacpot and Frank got to kiss goodbye.

Jacpot Earns Money

A few weeks ago, I decided to pick up trash with my "grabber" while Jacpot and I walked around schools, parks, etc. After a while I realized I was picking up a lot of plastic recyclable bottles. I decided to switch gears and pick up plastic bottles and aluminum cans, especially after reading that somewhere between two-thirds and 80% of all plastic bottles end up in landfills. After picking up bottles and cans for the month of February, I took in my second load today and Jacpot earned a combined total of $60.20. One might say I am the one picking up the bottles and cans but I have to give full credit to Jacpot for getting me out there on our adventures.

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Perhaps Jacpot will inspire other dog walkers to pick up recyclable bottles and cans on their outings.

Jacpot Goes To Garage Sales With Frank

Frank and Kim are visiting us this weekend. While Cindy and Kim were out and about, the three of us went to garage sales. Frank was fortunate enough to have found a Donnas CD.

Jacpot Keeps On Running

We got some good snow in Palmdale on Friday which meant for a beautiful run in the hills on Satruday. I don't know if Jacpot enjoys the added beautiful scenery as much as I do, since he has a great time on any run, but I tend to agree... any run is a great run!

Below are a couple of old photos when Jacpot, Steve, Teresa, Cindy and myself ran around Pinecrest Lake each day back in Novemeber when we were up at the cabin. Now maybe Teresa will quit bugging me about what happened to the pictures we took.

And finally...

Jacpot likes to hang out with me while I read the newpaper in the morning.

Jacpot Gets An Idea From Survivorman

On the Discovery channel there are two different shows about guys that go into the wilderness and show how to survive in harsh conditions. One show, "Man Vs. Wild" is very well done and looks slick but the guy takes along a camera crew and althouth he is very good (I sure wouldn't want to have to drink liquid from camel dung to get rehydrated) it is not very raw. Another show, "Survivorman" is more raw and the guy is all alone and must do all of his filming himself. On many clips he will set the camera down and walk off into the distance (or wherever) and then have to hike back to get the camera... double the effort but it gets a good shot.

While shooting video of Jacpot on our run this morning, I thought it might be nice to get both of us in the shot. Below is some of the footage, thanks to the idea from Survivorman.

Below are a few bloopers. The first video was taken of me trying to get a shot of Jacpot running into the distance. I was going to first pan across the aquaduct and then get Jacpot taking off along the trail... he was too smart for me.

The next video was of Jacpot and I running by the camera and then off into the distance together, at least that was the plan.

The third and final blooper should have been a very easy shot. I just set the camera on the asphalt next to the aquaduct and Jacpot and I would run into the distance. The problem was I had picked up a couple of sticks that I wanted to take home and use for something in the classroom...