Clash Day

Crazy Hair Day too


Clash Day


Seriously, how many people do you know that could put on six layers of mismatched clothes and still look chic, not to mention skinny?

They had Clash Day and Crazy Hair Day at the middle school right before ski week. I think Katharine looks amazingly cute considering how may patterns and colors she has thrown together.


Impending Rain

The weather heads are predicting a lot of rain beginning tomorrow. Any rain is welcome here. Our wettest month might not be a wash after all. Okay, so maybe it will.

Girl Scout Cookies Are Coming

Thin Mints

Tis that time. Starting next weekend, March 3rd, Girl Scout Cookie Sales Begin. The booth sales only last for two weeks, but by the time the sale is done, it seems like the cookies have been around for months. Everybody is tired of seeing them. Everybody has already bought some. Nobody wants to see them again for another year. Except the occasional cookie junkie. They will think they need just a couple more boxes in their freezer. They will bring them out in October and surprise their friends with GS cookies and tea!

I will get our troop cases on Tuesday, Feb. 27th and no, we may not sell them before Friday, March 3rd, so don't even ask! Sheesh. We didn't sell as many this year as we did last year. In fact, almost half as many. My garage will only have 87 cases this year. Still over a thousand boxes of cookies. The girls are older and they are not as in to it as they were when they were little. Just keeping a daughter in scouts by the seventh grade is not the easiest thing in the world either. They have already worked for and received their bronze award. They should be working toward their silver and then gold award, if they last that long. Luckily, when the girls get older, they don't have to wear the little brown or green uniforms. The downfall is that those little darlings in those brown and green uniforms can sell better cuz they are cuter! Missing front teeth and a big smile asking for you to buy a box of cookies. Who could resist that?

We will be selling after school on Friday, March 3rd and again on Sunday, March 5th. Wanting to sell while they are still new to customers was our thinking. But the second week, at least here in our small town, everybody has been hit up more than once and not everybody is very happy with seeing Girl Scouts at the entrance of the grocery store.

So, keep your eyes open and buy some cookies if you want!

*******

In other news, I am feeling so much better today that I am taking the girls shopping for a few things. Nothing too frivolous, just necessity stuff. Thank you to all of you who sent me get well wishes and those of you who tried to bully me, I mean persuade me, to go to the doctor. I did talk to a doctor, I just didn't go in. I knew what I had and I know how much better I feel now. Thank you!

We finally got a half inch of rain last weekend. We needed it even if it was a small amount. Back to the 70's today. Another chance of rain by Monday. Not holding my breath for that "storm" either.

BRONCHITIS

That is what I have. I am very sick. I took Katharine to get her hair cut and was almost certain I would be headed for the ER after. I got my inhalers and I think I am actually a little bit better. If I still feel like shit tomorrow, I will go to the ER and have a respiratory treatment. See how sick I am? This made no sense. I am very sick, although I took Katharine to get her hair cut. Then I was going to the ER and didn't. Then as if I actually admit to feeling a bit better, although in the first sentence I was very sick. Then if I still feel like shit tomorrow, I will go to the ER. I realize this makes no sense to a non medicated person. Sorry.

Oh well, face it, I am sick and my hairdresser told me even my eyes look sick. That only seems fair to me. If I am sick, my eyes are entitled as well, are they not?

Actually, I have been ill for days, Zoe and David had it, Katharine got it on Sunday. We all want to feel better. I guess it will just take some time.

Hope you are all well and staying healthy!

UPDATE

I am feeling a little bit better today. I called my doctor to get the inhalers yesterday. She told me if I didn't feel better or if I got worse, that I had to go see her. I agreed to that. I am going to see her next month for my yearly physical anyhow. I really wanted to avoid another visit. I am very aware of how I am feeling and I can tell I am better. I can breathe a whole lot better. I will keep on top of things though and call my doctor if I don't feel even better by tomorrow.

Late Notice, etc.

Ever had something for a very long time and all of a sudden you realize something you didn't notice? I was typing this morning and hit a button and the line moved down. I wondered what the heck I hit. Right there, on my keyboard, next to the apple button is an "Enter" button! I am on iBook number three and I just noticed the little bugger! I hate that. Of course, I know where the regular Enter button is!

I use the same flat street to get to two different roads that go down the hill. There is not a day that goes by that I notice a house or yard that I have not noticed before. We even trick or treat on that street. Strange how that happens, even after living here for over eight years.

We had a mini van for three years and as I was cleaning it out to return it at the end of a lease, I discovered the cup holders that would have been 'oh so helpful' when the girls were little! Not only that, this was the second mini van I had, same make and model. I was bummed that I didn't know where they were hidden for what, five years? And, they were hidden!

I know you are thinking I am just oblivious, and maybe I am about some things. Normally, I am very good at noticing things. Too good in fact! I could be a private detective and a damn fine one at that!

*************************

I watched the Olympics for about a half hour last night. I just cannot get into it. Every time I had turned them on before last night, I hit a commercial. Last night, NBC boasted thirty minutes without commercial interruption. That hooked me. I was not very impressed with the male figure skating programs. None seemed to be great. Of course, they are all terrific athletes, but they didn't seem to be Olympic quality last night.

I have gotten so spoiled watching TV thru Tivo, where I can zap the commercials. I just cannot watch the commercials that NBC insists on shoving down our throats! Unfortunately, unless I Tivo the Olympics, I will unlikely be a viewer this time around. I have no idea how their ratings are going, but I do know they are out of control with the way they leave a sport and when they come back, they tell you that coverage of whatever was on will return later. I am not playing that game. I can't. I have neither the time nor the patience to watch conventional coverage of the Olympics any longer. I don't think I am alone in this. I could be, but I doubt it. It is sad really, because I used to look forward to watching the Olympics. End rant!

I have been catching up on all the episodes of many shows that I have been Tivoing since last October, in some cases. I watched ten episodes of one of my favorite shows, Grey's Anatomy. This show rocks. I am happy that Fox has stuck to their regular programming. I am not missing House or 24 and that makes me happy happy!

Not Much Going On

I don't have much to say today. I have been under the weather with a nasty sore throat and headache. Zoe and David had it too. It could be due to the weather. One day 90 the next 55 degrees. I know this doesn't account for the fever, but I know it plays havoc on my body. Not to mention seasonal clothing. If I were the type who actually put summer clothes away til summer, I would be pissed right about now! I suppose it is fortunate that I am the worst at changing closets to what is in season, let alone putting anything in the damn closet once it is washed. It all seems to stay in the laundry area of the garage. Doesn't seem like much use to put it downstairs when I am upstairs and going to be using it all again. I should have a closet in the garage for my clothes. That would make more sense.

On another note, I have been waiting for shorts to come back to the stores. Zoe only wears shorts, year round. She needs some new ones and they have not been anywhere to be seen. They sell men's shorts, why do they not carry women's or junior size shorts? Especially in California. Sheesh. There are a lot of women who wear shorts all year long here and you better buy them before the winter season, otherwise I hope you like the ones you have until next "shorts' season.

Next week is "ski week." No school. Another week off school. Didn't Christmas break just end? Sure seems like it. I know I didn't have this many days off school when I was a kid. Although, my kids are much smarter than I was. I think it is partly genetics on their dad's side, but they work hard too. Harder than I did. Perhaps they need the extra days off to regroup to work hard til the next break. They take school or at least their grades seriously. I never cared about my grades or trying to make them better. I also didn't have nearly as much homework as they get.

Finally, this whole Dick Cheney thing is just so damn interesting to me. Everybody has a different opinion. The guy shot another hunter, it was an accident and he didn't step up and alert the media. I am not going to get into the whole thing about that being just one more secret of the Bush Administration. I just think it is interesting to see what people think. David was wondering why their wives were not there, yet they were hunting with two women. Usually, that kind of thing would have been the first thing I would have noticed. It didn't even occur to me until he mentioned it. Now, that makes me wonder a bit. At least it adds a bit of intrique to the story. I don't believe they were with these women for the purpose of having an affair. I think these women were hunters and their wives are not. If I were the wife, I would have rather been anywhere else, other than hunting. Fishing is a love of mine. Shooting is not.

Survived the Sleepover

All asleep this morning

Katharine awake, while the rest saw logs

Katharine modeling with all the other girls

Look at this gold metalic purse

opening gifts

Here we begin

Blowing out candles

Fifteen girls. Lots of giggling, dancing and singing. Lots of presents, food and beverages. Not the kind I am having right this very moment. I think they finally got to sleep about three this morning. I know that is about the time I fell asleep and was wide awake at five. Off to the store at 7:00 for bagels, donuts, muffins, cream cheese, oj, strawberries and bananas. One of the photos is of all the girls ASLEEP! All the furniture pushed up against the walls and sliding doors to make a big open space in hopes that nobody cracked their head open. It worked, I am happy to say!

Got home from the store, where I took my sweet time cruising, all the girls were awake. We cleaned off the table of what munchies were left from the night before and put out the new spread. After they ate, the girls started playing games again and I mentioned that their parents would be here soon. Nobody moved. I got a little more forceful and they picked up all their sleeping bags, pillows, blankets and stuffed animals and a couple actually asked for a broom! Yes, a broom! I love these girls! They are an awesome mix. Some more helpful than others, but all very nice.

One of the girls got a robot claw and got up on a bar stool and took out no less than two dozen balloons that were wrapped in one of the ceiling fans. That was very cool. About 10:30 all were gone. Katharine excused herself to her bedroom. Zoe, David and I cleaned up. David got the ladder and took out a leftover ribbon in the fan from last year or the year before. The fan has only worked on low for a long time and the penny dropped. It could have been the freaking ribbon all along. With the ribbon gone, the fan still works on low, but the ugly sound is gone. While the ladder was in the house, David decided to change the burned out light bulbs above the kitchen table fan. This, I knew would result in dead moths falling down. It did, we cleaned that up too. Needed to be done, not the best time, but, when is?

After we placed most of the furniture back where it belonged, I went down for a nap! I slept very peacefully for a solid two hours! Our bedroom was not as hot as upstairs. Usually stays about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than upstairs. I had the ceiling fan and another fan pointed at me and I conked out! It was lovely.

For dinner, fish filets, tater tots and chicken tenders. Katharine told me thank you for unfreezing the food! UGH and LOL.

We hit 90 today. I am envious of all of you in the nor'easter! Lucky ducks! We did get some cooler, foggy weather for a few days, then back to the heat wave. YUCK! I am glad to see that global warming has let some of us remember that winter still exists!

Where's Winter?

It rains 98% of the time on Katharine's birthday, Feb 6th. It didn't rain this year. It hasn't rained significantly for months. February is supposed to be our wettest month and the TV forecasters don't see any rain until about nine days from now and they say it looks like a 20% chance. The northwest is getting all the rain. I would like them to share it with us!

It is not even 6:30 yet and it is already 68 degrees! Holy crap, it is winter and it could hit 90 today! UGH

Our rain accumulation is tragic. Last year was a record year with 30 inches courtesy of El Nino. Now we have La Nina and only a couple of inches of rain since last July!

We have a red flag fire danger in place. We have had a fire here in OC that is still burning. No structures, but about 4000 acres of chaparral. Lots of smoke. This is not supposed to be our fire season either! It is dangerous, especially living on a canyon with dry vegetation! I just heard that there is another fire in the Santa Monica Mountains and that Malibu Canyon residents are getting nervous. The fire department told them they should be ready to evacuate if asked. Temps near 90 and 40 mph Santa Ana winds are expected!

The one thing we have going for us is goats. There are couple of herds of goats in town who eat the vegetation that surrounds our town. This has turned out to be a very economical way to get rid of the overgrowth near homes and other structures. It does look like Lebanon when they are done and there are the people who disagree with the goats eating native plants. It all grows back eventually, in time for the goats to consume it again.

Katharine just came up with a new sweater on that she got for her birthday and I mentioned it might hit 90 today. She replied, "It is February!" Now she is changing to a cooler shirt.

I want sweater weather and rain. Is that too much to ask?

Somebody please do a rain dance for us!

Super Bowl, Super Nachos, Stuff

We don't have a team in here in the OC. I am not into football like I was years ago. There are teams I have barely heard of these days. But, when the Super Bowl is on. We watch. I love to see the high paying commercials. I want to see the Stones this year as well. The other fun thing on Super Bowl Sunday is my nachos! Made with homemade chips, salsa, gaucamole, beans and of course cheese. As long as it is a good game and not a low scoring defensive game, we will actually watch the whole thing. It will be fun any way you look at it. A low scoring game means a nap could very well happen. An exciting game would keep me tuned in.

Blogger seemed to have something wrong yesterday and I could not get on my blog most of the day. I hate seeing the word forbidden! As if I am trying to get into some national security website. It is just my little blog. I tried other blogs as well and the problem seemed to be wide spread. Made me feel a little better. At first I thought it was my MAC.

I had a handyman (Mark) here for two days last week. I've met this man at my cuzbro Ronnie's house several times. He is a member of the Porch Bastards. They play music every Thursday and at most of the parties at Ronnie and Pam's house. They are all very good. Anyhow, I had a list of mostly small stuff to get done. Faucets that were not working properly, a toilet that rocked, a light switch where the hole in the drywall was too big for a switchplate, among numerous other little repairs. It was at least an hour drive down here for him. He charged a very reasonable hourly fee and he did a great job. Nice to know that there are still good guys out there. He fixed the kinds of things my father had always done for me, before he died. Nice to know that Mark is around! He will be back this week for more repairs. It is nice to have that crap done!

David and I had date night for our anniversary on Friday night. Dinner was very good. We then went to the video store and Zoe's best friend was there. Her folks own the store. They ended up not charging us for the rentals and wished us a happy anniversary. It was unexpected and very nice of them.

I finally watched all six hours of Angels in America. I am still trying to decide what I thought of it. One minute I would love it and the next, I was wondering if I should finish. I am glad I did. I was one of the most unusual movies I have ever seen.

Happy Super Bowl and I hope your team wins!

Our 16th Wedding Anniversary

I know some of you have heard this before, but it is my tribute to our anniversary!

I met David while I was a bartender. I bartended for about two years and loved it. Playing shrink without a license was something I enjoyed as well. I had been dating the owner of the bar for about a year at the time I met David. The bar was sold not too long after I started working there.

One night while I was working, David and an old girlfriend came in. They didn't sit at the bar. They took a booth. They nursed their beers, so it was not a pain to wait on them. My bar was pretty full and I was busy. At one point I heard David talking about getting in there and working with his hands. I asked him if he was a surgeon. He told me no, he was a lawyer and gave me his card. I put it on the back on the bar and didn't think much more about it.

I had just turned 30 the month before I met him. I had never been married, although, I did live with a man for many years and we had been done for a couple of years by the time I took the bartending gig. There were lots of reports of a woman's chances of getting married at 30 were about as good as getting struck by lightening! I was not fretting about that. I was having a really good time.

That night was the night before Thanksgiving and I was looking forward to the next day off. As David and his friend were leaving the bar, he made a turkey with his two hands and it made me laugh.

The day after Thanksgiving, I was back at the bar. David came back. He was alone and he sat at the bar. He charmed me with his stories and jokes. He asked me out and I told him I was dating somebody and would have to let him know. The next day, I told the man I was dating that I had met somebody I wanted to go out with. We broke up. It was not a bad break up, but I really wanted to go out with David.

We dated and saw each other almost daily. He had taken me to his house and it was lovely, sparsely furnished and new. One Sunday near Christmas, I was working, mainly because I was the only one who could get all the football games tuned in from the satellite for the seven TV's that we had. It was much different than changing channels like it is today. Anyhow, David stopped by the bar and told me he was out buying pool supplies. I said, "You have a pool?" I had been there several times at night, but the blinds were always closed. I was not impressed that he had a pool, just thought it was funny I didn't know that.

He told me he wanted to give me a personal Christmas gift before he came to my family Christmas. He gave me a pair of sapphire and diamond earrings. They were beautiful and when he left, my boss told me he was a keeper. Suzie, who had bought the bar, was a very opinionated Japanese lady. She made me laugh because she didn't like many of the guys I had dated in the two years she known me. She acted like a mother hen.

One day David asked me if I wanted to take a vacation with him. He told me to pick a place. I chose Paris. We got tickets, passports and were ready to leave on Feb 3, 1990. I broke my ankle for the second time in January. I got my heel caught coming out the front door, which resulted in a compound and shattered bones break. Exactly like it had been done when I was 16. I was in the hospital for several days and when I got out, I went home to live with David. We never made it to Paris, so we went to Las Vegas on that day 16 years ago to get married. I was in a cast, used crutches going down the aisle and cannot remember most of the vows. We were both nervous getting married. It was quick and we headed home the next day, me in the back seat with my leg elevated.

Lightening had struck. I was thirty and I was married. Zoe was born the next year and sixteen months after that, Katharine was born. We had a nice little family and we were very happy and having a lot of fun.

We never did go to Paris, which is fine with me. We have traveled to places I never thought I would see. We went to Honduras after my ankle healed. Roatan, for scuba and snorkeling and then to Copan to see David's daughter and the Mayan ruins. We went on a cruise to Alaska when I was six months pregnant with Zoe. We spent a couple of days in Vancouver after the cruise. We went to NY and CT pretty regularly before and after the girls were born. There have been vacations to other countries as well. Before I met David, I had only been on two planes. One to go to Mexico City and once I took a sea plane to Catalina Island which is about 26 miles from our coast.

We have had our ups and downs, mostly ups fortunately. I have been blessed to be married to this very generous, handsome, funny and exceptionally intelligent man for the past sixteen years. We have been very blessed with our girls as well.

Last night we went to see Walk the Line with the girls and tonight we are going on a date to Mozambique, a restaurant here in town!

Happy Anniversary David. I love you.