Disaster at Sea

Jon is really into fishing now. In fact, we took a trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Rancho Cucamonga (yes there really is a place named Rancho Cucamonga). Jon calls it Disneyland for rednecks. And it is, no lie. There are stuffed dead moose (mooses? moosi? meese? whatever the plural is), a river runs through it (wait, wasn't that a movie with Brad Pitt??), and there is a waterfall (seriously?). The place is totally awe inspiring. And it has every camping/fishing/hunting/outdoors item you would never know you need. And more important - fudge! Anyways, I bought him a new fishing rod for his birthday and he wanted to try it out at my dad's house in Laguna Beach. My dad (who used to fish alot) told him to go at high tide (mistake #1). Jon decided to wear shorts and not bring a jacket (mistake #2). Don't worry, it gets worse. They went to Fisherman's Cove which has a rock ledge on one side which, when hit by the waves makes this huge wall of water (can you see where this is going?). Anyway, poor Jon was fishing by himself (he is 14, and taller than my 19 year old) while I took my dad back to the house (the high tide was hard on his back because of the wave action) and I was just coming back down the steps when the tsunami hit him and swept away his new tackle box, shoes, chair, phone (yes he brought it - mistake #3), bucket, etc. Not to worry, we got back everything but one shoe. I think I saw it floating on the water off the island of Catalina :). Jon was drenched and we tried resusitating the phone (which was new at Christmas) but it was declared dead on arrival. The Titanic has nothing on the Arroyo family! Oh, and just to top things off, Jon has a cold now.

Depression City

Well, the big show that Karen and I have been working our tails off for was yesterday. To describe it as a flop would not do it justice... it was below flop. Because of our tremendous run of luck, the temperature for the day had to be at least 106 degrees and humid! Hey! I would not have been there if i didn't have to be. To get to the hall where the show was being held, people had to walk through a portion of the Arboretum, and pay an entrance fee to do so. If the day had been nice, people could have made a day of the event by coming to the Arboretum, see the show and then walk through the lovely grounds. Nobody in their right mind would want to step out of their air conditioned homes or cars and stroll through gardens when their skin is being fried off of their bodies! Needless to say, we will not be doing another summer craft show in Southern California! Well, at least we have a lot of inventory to put up on Etsy now.