Hello, Lovine.com

Wherever you go, there you are.

Category: Nickel

Life is an illusion that you choose to accept. Think about it. :)

Nickel

Team Paul and Kat

Valentine greetings from Team Paul, Kat, and Nickel!

Here's to the lonely finding company, the broken finding hope, and to the happy the gift of forever. :)

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas from Team Paul, Kat, and Nickel :)
Be safe everyone!

Gave the dog another shower this morning. I tried some Avon stuff that the forums swore by, to get mats and tangles out. I can see how it would work, but I didn't dilute the solution enough and left the boy a bit too greasy. Had to rinse him out again to get rid of the gunk. I miss his hair :'c

Leaving for SF in a few minutes to catch the SF Outside Lands Festival, then coming back Sunday morning in time to catch Radiohead (again) play at the Bowl. Should be fun times :)

Sleepy Nickel

Sleepy eyes rest on a tired smile
Trying to get out of the dizzying tumble
of a hamster wheel that answers no questions
Just an endless pitter patter
of stuff to do
Dues to pay
Things to consider
but it's really up to you,
to decide what to do.

I'm sleepy. Hopping on a plane soon, for a slew of work and other trips. Need to finish packing. I'll be doing six point-to-point legs on this trip. Sigh.

You're a star!

It's been more than a year since we've decided to take Nickel in to live with us in Tarzana. It's been quite an adventure to say the least! He's gone camping in literally freezing conditions, caught bubble gum in his hair (c/o Lovell), engaged in very inappropriate makeout sessions in our garden while a crowd of 20 watched, ridden the Vespa numerous times with his Mama Kat, taken a few road trips back to San Francisco, pee-d on snow at Tahoe, poo-pooed in Baby Lara's playpen and made her eat it, and the list goes on... For his next adventure I think we'll have to cut off his balls.

Calling him my best friend would be an understatement.

Happy fourth birthday, you crazy little guy. :)

The Adventures of Nickel
The adventures of Nickel.

_MG_3929.JPG
Around people's legs and cat's tails.
Sniffing about.

Watch your back!
The curious little boy goes places.

Golden Gate Bridge
And shares his portraits online
to put smiles on strangers' faces.

Come join my club

The Lonely Couch Club.

Nickel's rugged glamour shot
Nickel. :)

Run!
Denise and Nickel.

So I guess the yearender story is long overdue. Original plans were to take Vanessa out to Death Valley two days after Christmas, with Nickel the boy wonder in tow. Fresh from the mechanic with a brand spanky new starter and solenoid, we had unwavering confidence that the veedub would roar into life bravely after each slumber, and putter along merrily into the depths of the desert. And for the first night, it did!

It is widely known that the design of the VW type-2 Bus is most conducive to fun paced slacking rather than picking up the slack against soccer moms with 205hp Porsche SUVs on the highway. So the Vanessa Adventure Team (Paul, Kat, Nickel) found themselves two hours late, with the waning winter sunlight, outside of the park and decided to camp it out at this place called Walker Pass. Elevation: 5,000 feet. Probably not a good idea, but for all not-so-good ideas, great adventures are to be made and unforgettable stories to be told!

Hunger was averted when we barely had enough propane/butane fuel to boil water just to make two cups of noodles. Not only due to the lack of fuel, but to the damn cold.
It was literally freezing! The morning after, we discover that our water turned into a solid block of ice. Nickel's water bowl was frozen solid. All our knees were shakin'!

The pit toilets were quite interesting too. The mens pit toilet told stories of an unfortunate camper's bout with explosive diarrhea. I was curious about the women's toilet, which I would've used if it were marginally cleaner. No dinero - some (most probably heavy-set) lady missed the hole and landed a massive chunk of brownie the size of a bigmac right on the toilet hinge. I kid you not, but I reeked for a full 15 minutes after subjecting myself for a mere 15 seconds in that hellhole. Imagine what that would smell like in the heat of summer? Yumm.

The next morning, we packed our gear as fast as we could to get the hell out of there. And so Vanessa tried to wake up. And tried. And stopped trying.

We spend another half hour waiting for the sun to come out and took turns underneath the car poking fun at the starter and solenoid for it to magically cough up its troubles and grant our wishes. And, just like the randomness of winning the lottery, the engine roared into life! Crawl underneath the bus count = 1. Start the bus count = 1. As long as the crawl count was equal to, or less than the start count, we were good.

Well, as the trip progressed we eventually came up to an impressive count of 5, 5, when we were dealt with a joker card. In the outskirts of Zabriskie Point, the fuel pump started coughing up and the engine would wheeze like a suffocating fish before finally shuddering into a dead heap of metal. To make the long story short, we again played our chances fiddling with the innards and at least got the engine fired up, and running. The bus would randomly shudder through the rest of the abort journey back home, but the crew was all brave and ignored our worst-case-scenario fears of engine explosion and "by the way the fire extinguisher is expired" thoughts. What a day! Saga will be continued...

Nickel after a shower
It's been a hard day's night...

_MG_4994

I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so.


kat and our favorite passenger, and my new best friend, nickel. perfect weather this weekend! one of the biggest factors that everyone pays a premium in cost of living here in socal, is definitely the weather. however, living in the valley can have its heated moments since we're sheltered from the ocean breeze - last weekend was an inferno, the mercury was hitting 112! felt like going through an industrial grade blow drier. can't wait to take the vespa out the next few days as the weather clears up.

taking it slow this week. been starting to make some pretty big decisions lately, as far as taking the first steps go. but the first few steps always opens the chance to go either the direction you thought you wanted, towards something totally unrelated, or stagnates you into a puddle of rot in your comfort zones. the realities are still beginning to sink in. we'll see how it unfolds, i have a weird knack of swaying between being troubled over nothing and having fun trying to keep my head above the water.

soon enough. watch out, for mclovine. haha!

Categories

Archives

© 2024 Hello, Lovine.com.