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- January-March, 2008
- April-June, 2008
- July-September, 2008
- October, 2008
- November, 2008
- December, 2008
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Between working full-time and taking an online college course in computer programming, there's not much time left for volunteer work these days. The one exception I make is for the Ukiah Host Lions club's snack shack. My hubby, Bob, is a member of the club and is only one of a fantastic group of guys involved. Working in shifts, the club mans the snack shack at Ukiahi for the home football games and for the youth football home games. The proceeds go directly back into the youth football program and we're proud to say, no child has to pay for equipment or uniforms. I'd say that's worth a few hours of my time a couple of times a month through the football season!
I spent quite a bit of time in October expanding my genealogy pages to include siblings and other historical data in the biographies. As I was reading up on the Langdale side of the family, I noticed an obituary of my paternal grandmother's great-nephew, Bradley Langdale, who died from injuries suffered in a car accident in Santa Rosa in the early 1980's. In his obituary, it was noted that one set of his grandparents were Mr. and Mrs. Ross McBurney. Here's where it gets good...
Back in high school, and to this day, one of my closest friends was, and is, Bryan McBurney. At our Senior Prom, which I attended stag, Bryan stood with me for prom pictures (thankfully his date understood!). I asked Bryan if he was related to Ross McBurney. It turns out that Ross McBurney was Bryan's grandfather's brother. In following the genealogy, I found that Bryan's grandfather was great-uncle to Bradley Langdale, tying our two families together by marriage.
Now I don't know the phraseology that defines our familial relationship, other than we're cousins in some convaluted way. No matter, it's awesome to find one of your best friends is also your family!
When I revamped TrishBeltrami.com this past winter, I failed to make the site as "user-friendly" as I could have. Each page would have menu links to related pages, but not the entire site. The only way to find every page (and there are currently over 150 separate pages) was to go to the site map, so I added a link to that on every page...not the most helpful tool. I was finding the I was having a difficult time navigating my way around and if I was, then my visitors surely would be having trouble as well.
Then Bob (my hubby) mentions that he is improving his websites' (BobBeltrami.com, Ukiah Host Lions, and GUAMRL) menu functionality as well and directs me to a website called CSS Play for ideas.
The drop-down menu structure the website has now is the outcome of many hours of re-coding. Now, every page is accessible via the menu and the menu is the same throughout the site. I hope you'll find it easier to navigate TrishBeltrami.com!
Autumn is typically my favorite time of year. I find the chill in the air invigorating and love to watch the leaves take on their rainbow of color. Of course, at this time of year, "fall" has multiple meanings, particularly at our house. The previous owners planted seven liquid amber trees at the north property line. We figure they must be of different varieties as every other tree loses its leaves at the beginning of the season and the rest drop theirs throughout the remainder. Translation: lots and lots and lots of leaves to rake up! Thank goodness they make great mulch!
I made myself a promise to actively persue some sort of exercise every day in mid-November to help counteract the upcoming holiday nibbling that often adds those unwanted pounds. With the weather being so mild, it made for perfect afternoons to get in a round of disc golf after work. It also led to throwing 12 rounds in 10 days! My throwing arm is tuckered!
In addition to playing our home course at Low Gap Park in Ukiah, Bob and I drove to Boonville and took in a round at the course at the Anderson Valley Brewing Company. This is a home-grown course and the tees are marked by rock-filled rainboots! The tee pads are rough (packed dirt or loose rock), but the course is challenging in its length and its basket placements. They really took advantage of of the large oak trees.
Lake Mendocino's water level is always low in the autumn after the summer releases, but begins to refill with the rains. We've had only one good rainstorm so far this season, so when Bob and I visited in late November, we didn't expect the lake to be very high. What we found was that the levels were much lower than we expected. You can see a portion of the lakebed that Bob and I hiked. It's incredible how much land is typically under water and now exposed.
The lake is man-made and there are remnants of tree trunks that were left in the lakebed. With the water so low, they now reach to the sky, their branches dangling the caught lines and lures of fishermen.
Bob and I attended the annual Ukiah Host Lions Christmas dinner and helped institute a new tradition. Lion Ben Foster passed away this past year. He was well known for leading the group each week in singing "America" and breaking into song. This year, the club held its first annual Ben Foster Memorial Sing-a-long caroling session at the dinner with holiday favorties such as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Merry Christmas, Lion Ben!
Dad and I try to reprise a high school tradition of ours and attend the annual REIBT (Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament) championship game at Healdsburg High. This year, we went in not knowing what two teams had made it to the finals. I was surprised to learn that one of the teams was Ukiah, where I live. It made the game so much more fun as I had a clear-cut team to root for! Unfortunately, they didn't win, but it was still fun!
December 14th was a typical Sunday for Bob and I. We woke at 7:50am (that part certainly wasn't typical!), checked out the window for a glance at the weather (cold and cloudy) and rushed to get ready to meet our disc golf buddies at 8 o'clock. Not five minutes later, we looked out again and it was snowing! Previously, it's snowed on a Friday, when Bob is off work and he would be able to play in the snow. For the rest of us, we'd always been caught at work and only able to watch the snow fall through the window.
We met Tim, Benj (and his dog, Gracie) and Trey at Low Gap Park and caught of few photos of the snowfall on our way to the first tee pad. As usual, we had to give Trey a hard time about his carrying an umbrella. We flipped discs to determine tee off order and were able to play in the snowfall until hole 10. I can now say I'm like a mailman, except while they deliver in rain, snow, etc., I've played disc golf!
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