A Cali Favorite Pastime

This weekend was a 3 day weekend for me. So I spent all of Friday re-painting the Kitchen. Since deciding to remodel we knew we would have to change the color because the blue in there now is way to dark to go with our new cabinet plans. So instead we decided to paint it a much lighter blue/purple color. I only got about half way done on Friday. So I spent Saturday listening to college basketball and doing more painting. About 7pm I was so over painting so I cleaned up even though I still had about 3 hours of work left. Dave ran around Saturday trying to determine what was wrong with out backyard sprinkler system. So after a day of hard work on Saturday I told him we needed to go have some fun together. So we headed to bed early and got up Sunday morning and drove to Santa Barbara (about 2 hours away) where we drove into the hills for an afternoon of wine tasting. We must have hit 6 different wineries and bought 4 bottles of wine to take home. While we were there we ate at Wine Cask in this cute small town “Los Oblivios”. The town was so cute and if you blinked while driving you would totally miss it. We actually did miss it the first time we drove by. Our favorite wines were at Fess Parker and their sister winery Epiphany. About 4pm we decided to head back down to Santa Barbara where we wandered around the beach and pier. We finished the day with dinner on the Pier at Moby Dicks. Then we were homeward bound. It was a nice ending to the weekend. I of course took photos (some good ones too) so check back for a link to the gallery soon. I really love going wine tasting with dave, we have so much fun together. And we've both really gotten into tasting all the wines. It works out well though because he really only likes the whites and will tolerate the reds, where as I will drink either. So I usually end up with most of the red. Its so much fun just wandering around the property of each winery. They are all so elegant and nice. We decided that next time we will bring a picnic lunch to enjoy. What fun! I can't wait to do it again.

Here are a few photos. Please let me know what you think, I'd love to get some feedback in the comments. I shot all of these in manual.

The rest of the photos can be seen at http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/2631255

Is it May yet?

I am so looking forward to the month of May. I mean it’ll be totally sad because summer will be approaching (my lease favorite season) but we have so much planned for May. Dave’s companies’ employee party is set for May12th at the Sheraton at Universal. Last year we missed this because we were in MD and the party was at the Kodak Theater! Four days later is Dave’s 30th birthday and we should be celebrating in the Burbank area with some friends. We will then hop on a plane at 6 am on May 17th to head out on our long vacation. We will be in Europe for 2 weeks and then we will head to Pittsburgh for my friends wedding. Therefore we will be having fun from May 12th – June 3rd!!! How sweet is that! I so can’t wait. The vacation is going to be super cool and crazy. We have the trip all planned, just have a couple of day tours and train tickets to book, Directions to print out, and we are good to go. It seems like this trip was easier to plan then Italy. Of course I don’t have to worry about finding accommodations at the Olympics this time!

Kitchen Remodel

So here is what I'm thinking for our new kitchen cabinets and countertops. We are thinking of going with Kraftmaid Cabinets and Zodiaq countertops. The zodiaq is engineered stone that requires no sealing and is very hard to scratch. Perfect!

Cabinets that we will most likely order:Countertops : we're still deciding on these

More Basketball Comments

Okay, so here’s my post on College Bball that you’ve probably been wondering if I’ll ever say anything. Honestly I wasn't sure If I was going to say anything at all, but here it goes. Saturday was a tough day for Terps fans. I pretty much left the sports bar crying. Fortunately Dave was there to try and cheer me up, as he knows exactly how I was feeling. If you don’t know me well enough, I am very emotionally involved when it comes to College Bball. The good thing is us Terps fans have a lot to look forward to. We got great insight into what Grevis Vasquez and Eric Hayes will offer us (only freshmen this year). From what I’ve heard there are some more good freshmen coming in and Gist improved so much this year. Dave and I were talking last night and he predicts sweet 16 next year, and the final four two years from now. So it will be interesting to see how his predictions come out. This team needs to get back to the final four as its been 5 years! MD is rish in basketball tradition and we won't accept anything less. I know how I felt on Saturday, so I can only imagine how the terps and Gary felt on Saturday.

We all know that Strawberry was playing sick and only scored 8 pts the entire game. We also know the free throw shooting was pretty lacking. If it hadn’t been for at least one of those factors UMD would have won that game. I’m not going to make up excuses for them; the facts are what they are. I wish they would have pulled it off as I don’t think this team got the credit they deserved this year. How many other ACC teams can say they went on a 7-0 win streak in conference play! In my heart this is a final four team, and one that could have beat UF. If you look at the stats the two teams are pretty evenly matched. Unfortunately we’ll never know who would have won that match.

As for the teams that are left, I’m still sticking with UNC, Texas A&M, Kansas, and a ? now in the Midwest. I don’t think the UF is the best team out there and I don’t think they will win the tourney. They showed on Sunday that Purdue surly could have beaten them. Therefore I think one of the “better” teams is going to show them whose boss. They were not the best team last year, only the best against the 6 teams they had to play. That’s the thing with the tourney, its not to prove the best team in College Bball. In fact it’s not even the top 65 teams who play. It’s an elimination match up and if you have an off day, you’re not going to make it. I’m sorry FL fans, but I am not rooting for your team. As an ACC fan I will root for UNC and Tyler Hansborough. My second choice is Texas A&M as I think they are an underdog for the final four.

UMD women’s is still going. I will be rooting for a repeat title with them. I also think it would be so cool if it was an all ACC final four! Go ACC!!!

MD Women's Video: http://link.paciolan.com/viewmsg.cfm?n2012s100c29433t100

On a side note: Dave decided that I needed to go shopping on sunday to cheer up a bit. So off to the antelope valley mall we went. After shopping at the mall, we went to lowes and got it set up to have them come out and measure our kitchen so we can get it remodeled.

Desert Sunset

Tonight Dave convinced me I need to go out and take some sunset photos since I've been a bit down in the dumps this weekend. Here are some photos I took.

GO TERPS! FEAR THE TURTLE!

All I have to say is GO TERPS! As a team as a whole UMD rocks! We don’t need a 30 pt shooter to score 80 points. They do it as a team. Sweet! Gotta love those terrapins. Besides Testudo is just too cute to not like! Anyway it was MD 82 Davidson 70! So all you people that thought this #4 team was going to be upset…Ha, your bracket already has one red line!

http://umterps.cstv.com/index-main.html

Don't forget the last time they won the tourney was in Atlanta! Could they be the underdog but Atlanta bound again?

Gators Schmaters

Ok, so I know all you FL gators fans are going to hate this post but I just have to vent about this. I am so sick of hearing how wonderful and great it is that all the FL players came back to play again this year. Like they are some sort of gods or something. I mean that is what they should do. I absolutely hate it when players leave early for the NBA. Get a degree!!! After all you are playing college Bball. Now let’s look at Steve Blake from UMD. After UMD won the NCAA tourney (2002) did he go to the NBA…nope he played his senior year, graduated, and then went to play in the NBA. Now that is the way it should work. I’m so sick of people praising the FL gators players for returning and treating them like some sort of god. It’s ridiculous. They did what they should do and they shouldn’t be getting all these props for doing so. Ridiculous. It's pretty sad that we praise these kids for coming back. I'll be willing to give these guys more credit when they finish there degrees.

If you haven’t analyzed the bracket…it’s looking like its set up as a FL vs UMD sweet sixteen. (Rematch from 2003 possibly…when UMD won at FL). If both teams make it past the first two rounds, we’ll be witnessing a good game. One that I feel UMD has a chance to win. If UMD shows up with their entire defense, shot blocking, 3 point shooting, and driving in the paint team they can pull it off (They have already beat a #1 seed this year). Beware of Vasquez, Hayes, Strawberry, Gist, Ibekewe, Bowers, etc…. They are determined and fired up to go as far as they can!

March Madness is Here!

Oh boy! It's a great time of year! March Madness! For thos of you who aren't familiar, I'm talking about the NCAA Div 1 Tournament. And boy will Maryland fans be busy watching games. Not only have the mens been seeded as 4th in the Midwest division, but the women are a second seed! So we have two teams to root for this year. And a possible repeat for UMD women. sweet! I'm so excited. So UMD mens will play Davidson on Thursday afternoon. Part of me thinks they can go far. As I do agree with lots of the commentary I have heard through ESPN. MD mens has athletism and talent. If they show up and play as they did the last 8 games of ACC play it'll be very hard to get past them (yes, even the gators). MD can be tough and they play in only the best confrence in college basketball. Therefore they are used to playing tough games and they are used to playing with rowdy crowds. (thats a huge difference dave and I have noticed about watching ACC and SEC games, the crowd in the SEC is so calm!) You go to an ACC game and you never sit down, in fact you jump most of the time! MD knows how to play and MD knows how to play off a crowd. They've already beat UNC once this year and Duke twice (even at the Dukies home place) plus there are the wins agains Illinois, Michigan, and breaking Clemson's undefeated record. I'd watch this team for sure. One commentator I heard today predicted if two ACC teams only were to make it to the sweet 16 it would be UMD and UNC! If UMD shows up deteremined and with all there might they can be very dangerous. My picks in my bracket for final four today were UNC, Texas A&M, Oregon (I changed my mind, although my bracket has UMD), and Kansas.

Watch a UMD Mens short video
http://link.paciolan.com/index.cfm?n2012s101c29433t101o240

Yose-Mite Weekend Trip #4

Where did the Schanker’s go this weekend...Yosemite NP! (Our favorite outdoor playground). Talk about one of the most beautiful places on earth. Most of the time we visit in the summer for hiking and camping, but this time we decided winter would be a nice time to see the park. Unfortunately with the low snow levels we’ve had this year it wasn’t as expected. But it was still beautiful as the waterfalls have started and the rivers are flowing. The upper elevations were also still snow covered. In fact on Sunday we drove to badger Pass and went cross country skiing. The skiing was easier than we expected and we really enjoyed it. Neither of had ever done cross country and I’m sure we’ll do it again, It was just nice to be out in the snow. On Saturday we hiked around Mirror Lake and the Valley Floor shooting lots of photos. I got some pretty good shots so check smugmug soon. On Saturday night we watched the sunset lighting reflect off of Half Dome (again shooting lots of photos) and then headed to dinner at Yosemite Lodge. After dinner we enjoyed a pint of beer at the lounge, and then headed back to the cabin. Now its back to the weekly grind.

Rest of the weekend photos:

http://schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/2571690#135366586

What do you think about this...

Michele Schanker...Asisstant to a local Wedding Photographer. Pretty sweet huh. Yup, the photographer thats been teaching my class asked me if I'd like to be his assistant. I know I'm going to be busy but its a great opportunity to learn more about photography and improve.

Dave's 30th B-day Trip

So for months now I've been saying that we are going to take a big vacation around Dave's 30th birthday. It is all official as we have purchased the airline tickets. We have gone back and forth on the exact itinerary, but we finally came to a conclusion and we are leaving on May 17th! The schanker's will be spending two more weeks in Europe for Schanker European Adventure Part 2. We will start in Paris (about 3 days) then head to London via the Chunnel where we will spend an additional 3 days. After London, we will hop on another train to go to Edinburgh, Scotland. While in Scotland we plan to take a day trip to Loch Ness and also see some of the many castles. Next we will spend a day in Glasgow prior to heading by ferry to Belfast. We will spend a day in Belfast and take the two hour train ride to Dublin. Where we will finish up the last 2 days of our trip by drinking Guinness and seeing a horse race. Then we fly back to Pennsylvania where my friend from high school is getting married. We will finally return to LAX after the wedding. It will be another long trip since we will be gone about 18 days. I can't wait. I'm so excited just thinking about. I think I'm mostly excited about returning to Dublin and being Dave's own personal tour guide, since I've already been there. Although the thought of drinking a bottle of wine in a little cafe in Paris is pretty exciting too. Only Seventy some days to wait!

Sunset in the Antelope Valley

Tonight I skipped my weekly Gym Class to go take photos in the desert at sunset. Where I went there were no Joshua Trees so instead I found a few other trees and shot some photos. I got a few pretty good ones. Check them out. What do you think? Leave me some feedback in the comments.

Welcome to Terrapin Country!

So I am a huge, and I mean huge ACC basketball fan. My team of course is the MD terrapins. When I met Dave he was not into basketball at all. In fact he kept betting me that teams would beat MD during the tourney. He must not have understood MD’s history at that point in his life. Needless to say, he lost his bets and MD won the tourney. Dave has since become more of a b-ball fan and even a Terps fan. Last year the UMD Women’s team got there opportunity as they became national champs, and MD became one of only 4 schools that can claim both women’s and Mens B-ball championships. So after two years of not meeting terrapin’s fans expectations, UMD men’s team really seems strong this year. Defiantly could be a sleeper team come March. They just aren’t getting as many props as they should. Let’s see they’ve won 6 straight games including two wins against Duke and one against UNC. Both were ranked pretty high at the time of game time. Earlier in the year they beat St Johns and Michigan to win the 2K sports hoops classic tourney, and then they beat Illinois at home. The freshmen on this team are strong and MD is a big contender. I’d keep an eye out for this young, but impressive team. It’s nice to see them strong like they were a few years ago. This is a team that made it into March Madness 11 years running…and they are back! ! (and don’t forget the strong Women’s team to!). Whoo-hoo! GO TERPS! And go ACC! (Only the best conference in college B-ball!). It would be nice to see both teams win the ACC tournament for sure. I’d give my predictions for the final four, but it’s still a little early. I’m thinking an ACC team (but its hard to tell who. There are to many to choose from with 6 locks into march already), Ohio, Wisconsin, and maybe UCLA.

GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS

Sequoia Winter Wonderland

This weekend Dave and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend at Sequoia National Park. We stayed at the lodge, as we’re not into the snow camping thing! It was a little weird to be there and not be camping, as this is our third trip to sequoia but our first to not be camping. We arrived at the park around 8pm fri night, so it was already dark and we could barely see what we would be in for the next day. I decided to get up early sat morning and go take some photos since the ski shop wasn’t going to open until 9am. Wow! What a beautiful sight I was in for. I stepped outside to the cold mountain air, a clear blue sky, and amazing pristine snow conditions ( about 4 feet of fresh snow). I shot photos for about a half hour then headed inside to wake Dave up. We ate breakfast and headed out to rent our snow shoes. We hiked through the Big Trees trail and part of Topokah Falls trail. On the Topakah falls trail I was able to take some photos of the Watchtower (we hiked through there last Labor Day weekend). It was neat to be down below in the valley and see exactly where we hiked about 6 months prior to this trip. Snowshoeing was harder than hiking, especially if you had to make your own tracks. But it was a lot of fun just being out in the snow. Sunday we woke up to a snow storm! We were not expecting this as the snow wasn’t predicted until Monday. Our car was covered in 4-6 inches of snow and it continued to come down all day. I am so glad we bought a Subaru, as our car handled like a champ. We just drove past everyone else while they were putting on there chains. On Sunday we snow shoed on Congress Trail for a little bit and then headed home. Seeing Sequoia covered in snow was an amazing trip and I’m sure we’ll be back! I can’t wait until our Yosemite trip in two weeks!

Trees in the snow with the sun peeking through

A trunk of a redwood surronded by snow covered trees

Me in my snowhoes (check out how high the snow bank is)

I've started posting photos...the rest should be up later this week.

http://schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/2516829

On our way home, there was this awesome rainbow over the valley. We could see the entire thing. So we stopped the car so I could get a few photos with the wide angle lens (thank goodness I own a super wide angle!)

A wonderful sight to see...clouds and gloomy weather

Most people frown upon seeing clouds and rain in the froecast. But at this time of year that is a welcomed happy day for a skier. So it is currenlty raining in the antelope valley and it's cold. I don't think the high got up over 47 today. Meaning our mountains are getting snow. Sweeettt!!!! And we will be skiing for a few more months. The snow should be over by tomorrow morning, just in time for our weekend trip to Sequoia NP. We are staying at the lodge on the mountain (~8000ft elevation) and they are expecnting 2 feet of snow! I am off on friday but Dave has to work, so as soon as he gets home we'll be on the road. We will have lots of fresh snow to play in. Our plans are to sled ride, snowshoe on some of the trails, and take tons of photos! Speaking of photos...I learned some stuff at my photography class that I should have known about months ago. Well I'm hoping it'll come in handy this weekend and I'll get some awesome photos. We'll see. I am so looking forward to this trip, even though we won't be skiing (downhill). But I promise next weekend we will be on the slopes somewhere! I really love winter!

Weekend Recap - Ski Trip!

After mammoth mountain finally recieved a good amount of snow, Dave and I quickly determined an available weekend to drive up to mammoth. It just happened our free weekend was President's day weekend and all the condos were requiring a 3 night minimum. So on Thursday we called the Condo rental agency and they gave us a place that hadn't been rented yet. It was about 1/6 mile from the lifts and had some really good size hot tubs. So we really can't complain for last minute reservations! We left work a tad early on Friday to get to mammoth by dinner time. After checking in we ate dinner at the condo and enjoyed some hot tub time. We then turned in early to be well rested for a full day on the slopes. I got up about 6:30 to try and snap a few photos of the mountain in the early morning sun. Then I woke Dave up for breakfast and we headed to the lifts. Saturday was great...bright blue skies, no wind, and awesome powder. Saturday night we again enjoyed time at the hot tub. Sunday morning we woke up to snow showers. So all day we had fresh powder although the visibility was not to good. We still had a great day. I'm so impressed with the progress both Dave and I have made with out skiing skills. Dave has only been skiing for a few seasons but wow did he look good this weekend. He was even skiing moguls like he'd been doing it for years (he had lots of trouble with this last year). I on the other hand have become so confident on my skis that I just fly down the mountain. I finally ski like someone who learned 15 year ago. Even the moguls didn't give me much trouble. It is so nice to feel so confident and just go. I can't wait to get back on the slopes!

Yummy Oreos

While I was shooting photos last weekend, I got some cute shots of our Friends daughter during and after she finished her oreos.


On another note: Mammoth finally got some snow...so you know where the Schanker's will be. We managed to rent a condo by the ski lift (totally last minute)! so we'll be spending two days skiing. I can't wait. Next weekend we will be at Sequoia NP hiking and playing in the snow! I hope to get lots of cool photos while we are there.

Photoshoot

Today I took some photos of our friends kids. Their son James was Baptised and then we went back to their house. Here are some ones I shot today. Please post comments and let me know what you think of the shots.

Italy photos one year later

Well, It's about the one year anniversary of our trip to Italy. So I did something I've been meaning to do for a while. I created a gallery of some of my favorite Italy/Switzerland/Paris photos. So if you've never taken the time to look through everything check out the gallery.

http://schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/2441951

Tour De Cure

I just signed up to do the Tour De Cure through work to raise money for Diabetes. The bike ride is not until May, but if you wish to donate towards this wonderful cause, please visit this website. I will be riding 30 miles in the Thousand Oaks/Ventura area on May 6th.

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&JServSessionIdr001=3vewqifnz1.app17a&fr_id=4405&px=3195519

Michele