This made me laugh

I was having a stressful day the other day and needed a laugh. I looked up and saw this sign and it cracked me up. Katharine snapped the shot with the camera on her phone. I only wish the photo was larger!

Happy Birthday to Zoe

Zoe is 15 today. So beautiful, smart and funny. So grown up and sad in a way, happens way too fast.

We had chicken and homemade noodles for dinner. It was her choice. She and Katharine made the noodles, cuz they wanted to. Dinner was yummy and the cake was good too. 16 candles, all lit by Katharine. (One to grow on) Then Zoe lit them. Funny how kids like to play with fire.

All in all, I think she had a very nice birthday. It has been a very long day though and I just wanted to let you know that I am fine and still around. I planned on posting the other night and didn't get to it. But, I will.

Katharine in I were in LA the other day and I saw a funny redundant sign. We snapped a photo of it. I need to post it. Truly made my day. Well, that and singing songs with the radio from the seventies! Love that old rock n roll. Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Pink Floyd, Styx, even Peter Frampton. Saw him the other night on the new Celebrity Duet show. Love that show and he looked so old with short white hair. Gone the long blond locks. It happens to the best of us.

Off and running. I hope to catch up on Sunday!

Oh and Happy Birthday Zoe!

Labor Day

It is labor day and I don't want to do a thing. It is too hot. We have had such beautiful weather for the past few weeks and I knew the heat was coming back, but I just hate it. We had a horrid heat spell in July, August was amazingly cool and now September kicks off with a scorcher.

School begins on Thursday. This summer totally got away from us. It never slowed down really. I have been terrible about posting on my blog and even worse about commenting on other's blogs.

I am happy to report this is the last weekend for the festivals. The orange cones directing traffic and slowing down vehicles near the crosswalks will be gone by tomorrow. Yippee. Less traffic, fewer people. I know tourism is important to our town, but it is nice to have our town back.

The Visitor's Bureau says it has seen at least a 25 percent increase in family visitors because of the MTV show called Laguna Beach, The Real Orange County. There have been a lot of questions about things people have seen on the show. It seems a lot of people must watch it because they renewed it for season 3. It is not the real Orange County. It is nowhere near the real Orange County. From what I saw of the one episode I watched, it is more like Beverly Hills. Orange County is very diverse in many ways. Laguna Beach is admittedly less diverse ethnically, however, not everybody here is richer than God, as this program shows these kids to be. I suppose the city is a bit richer this year because of the show and all the people who come up to see the school. I cannot believe how many people I saw this summer taking photographs of the school. In passing cars and people who stopped to pose in front of the Laguna Beach High School sign or people standing across the street just to get a photo of the school. Seems so surreal. My daughter is a sophomore this year and she couldn't be any more different than the kids on the show.

Speaking of my daughter, Zoe is turning 15 on the 14th. I told her the other day, only three years and she will be an adult. I told her it makes me sad. She said it makes her sad too. She is one wise young woman. I told her when I was her age, I couldn't wait to be older. She is so unlike me when I was her age and good for her! She beats to her own drum. She knows what she likes and pulls no punches. She doesn't pretend to like people or go along with things, to be liked. She is her own person and I am very proud of her.

I hope everybody is having or had a fulfilling send off to the end of summer. I like most things about summer, but I wish it could be cooler. Why can't global warming be global cooling?

Say What You Will

Say what you will, but Oprah Winfrey gets stuff done! This woman amazes me. Oprah's name is synonymous with spontaneous tears to me so much of the time. Case in point, her school for girls in South Africa.

I remember when she went all over So Africa to give out gifts to kids during the Christmas holidays years ago. I remember bringing my family to the TV to watch the show with me. While I cried again, seeing it for the second or third time, I wanted my girls to see how great it is to give and how little it took to make a difference in the lives of those kids. Kids who could not go to school for lack of a uniform, were given uniforms, backpacks, school supplies, shoes, and dolls that looked like they did. It was one of the most moving pieces of TV I had ever seen. One woman with a bazillion dollars made such a difference.

There are lots of people in this world with money, some or a lot, who give generously. There are way more who do not. In Oprah's case, she is in the enviable position to see where her money goes and to direct it to where it needs to be.

I just watched a video clip on CNN of Oprah's new school. She interviewed all the students herself. They had to be underprivileged and have above average grades. All the kids were brought to the school in typical Oprah style, under false pretenses. She then told the 150 girls on the stage that they would be the first students accepted into the Oprah Winfrey School for Girls. The girls jumped up and down, their families in the audience were thrilled, I cried. Tears streaming down my face crying. It was just such a magical thing to watch.

I am thankful that there is an Oprah Winfrey in this world. I am also happy she is not a politician. She can get a lot more done in the private sector. Although, we could use some smart, kind, generous, loving, caring, hard working, HONEST, promise keeping public officials in this country. Unfortunately, I believe they broke the mold when Oprah was created. Wow, what a woman.

It's been too long

I have been thinking about posting. I looked at the date of my last post today and couldn't believe it has been almost two weeks. I truly don't have much to say though. Things are pretty mundane around here.

I yelled at a solicitor on the phone yesterday. Well, not really yelled, but told her off. I was stern and apparently not very nice according to my kids. In my defensive, these people had called yesterday, NINE times! In their defense, I didn't pick up the phone until the ninth time. Our phone tells how many times somebody calls and it adds up until it is erased, so I knew exactly how many times these people had called. No need to be here to count. When I saw they were at eight calls, I was already pissed. Their misfortune, that they called again. The phone rang, their name shows up and I asked Katharine to hand me the phone. She passed it to me as if they were a sibling in big trouble!

The poor girl on the phone, told me she was glad she got me because she had two specials she wanted to tell me about. I told her I didn't want to listen to her specials and that I had asked once before, that they stop calling me. I told her I didn't want eight or ten phone calls a day from them any more and that I would never order from them again, so take me off their list! For an instant I thought she had already hung up on me, but she was still there and said, "okay."

When I got off the phone, my girls were sympathetic to her. "That was sooooo mean!" "She was only doing her job." "I feel sorry for her." I explained that I was not trying to be mean but to get my point across to the little girl up in Nebraska who would probably have a lousy night because of me. For that, I am sorry. However, I am not sorry about telling off the company. Seriously, I did one online order with them because it was a pretty good deal. I didn't know I would be subjected to a plethora of daily calls for eternity. Hopefully, it is all over!

Little of this and that

There are two woodpeckers that I hear the same time each morning. I took my camera out on Monday and listened to their sounds to finally find one. I snapped one bird's photo, but never did see the other. The photos are just too far away. I just saw the woodpecker again and I am dying to know what kind it is. It doesn't look nor sound like the kind we are used to having around. The name completely escapes me at this point. Then again other things do to, I blame it on menopause or perimenopause, as it seems to be an epidemic amongst my friends and myself. Does that sound right?

This is finally the last weekend (three more shows) of Narnia! Katharine has a couple of weeks of play time or sleep time. Zoe is bored and would rather be back in school. The first couple of days are usually fun too and that is exciting to look forward to.

Spring registration seems as if it just ended for Girl Scouts. Now we will begin Fall Registration for those who didn't, wouldn't or couldn't sign up during spring. Not to mention, well, actually I am, Fall Product sales begin too. I am in charge of that as well. And while most of the nuts are are a good deal at $5, they are raising them. So, get out your quarter or two and pay the newly upped price of the GS nuts, in the can I mean. The cashews are still a good deal and they are really good. Usually they have some kind of peanut brittle or something in a nice holiday tin which is a perfect gift for a teacher, paperboy/girl, mailman/woman, gardner and anybody else you may want to give a small gift to during the holidays. Some people are upset by the quarter or fifty cent increase. I see it as a nice challenge for some of the younger girls to learn to count back change. A lost art if you ask me. And, these girls will tell you thank you. Not wait til you say thank you and then tell you, you're welcome. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I may not have a lot of hobbies, but I have many pet peeves!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I am off to get some yummy tomatoes among other things at the farmer's market with my friend Jana. We have make this a Saturday morning ritual. It is great fun. We have known each other for about ten years, when she was my youngest brother's girlfriend. We have an email and phone relationship and didn't see each other nearly enough. Now we see each other every Saturday morning before everybody gets up!!!!

Happy weekend and nice cool weather to you all.

Things work out

Sometimes things work out and I am happy about that. The play is good. It is fun and cute, but was way too long on opening night. I was not in attendance. It was three and a half ours! Their first show with out interruptions from the director and so they didn't know it was going to be so long.

Last night we went to see the play. We had a lovely night. We started by having dinner at a restaurant called Mozambique. My brother, sister in law, niece and her non-boyfriend were there. As well as a couple of my friends with their daughters and hub's in tow. We were escorted to a room with a long table and huge chairs with very high backs. The table was beautiful. We had a delicious dinner and felt like royalty. It was a nice change from the first time I went there, with the same two friends, and had terrible service.

After dinner we went to the high school for the play. They were handing out fans to the audience since the air was not working. Luckily we have been having the most beautiful August weather I have ever seen. In the seventies! We had record heat then pleasant heat. I am sure we are in for more heat until November or so. Anyhow, we had front row seats. The show was very good, the little kids were such hams and really were cute! The set and the costumes were stunning and could have easily been from a Broadway show. We were told by a friend and mom of two of the leads, that they cut the last scene. Apparently the producer made that call. He said he didn't want people walking out. Unfortunately the scene they cut was the scene when the kids come back thru the wardrobe and talk to the professor who has also been to Narnia. It would have tied it up a little better, and I don't think another ten minutes or so would have changed much. However, it was still good. The kids got lots well deserved accolades and it was worth all the long miserable nights of rehearsing. I am not convinced it was worth all the yelling the kids endured though. These are my thoughts, not Katharine's. She is pretty happy with the play.

One show Friday, two yesterday and one today at three o'clock. Now she is home with her friend spending the night and absolutely no plans for the next few days. A nice change for them. Four more shows next weekend and done.

I haven't seen my brother and sis in law since Christmas and we got to see them twice in one weekend. We saw them last night and then today as well. We headed inland to meet at a restaurant to get together with my cousin who is visiting from the Sacramento area. I don't think we have ever seen her without our folks being around. It was pleasant though. She told me that her mother (my aunt) said she should have been my mother and visa versa for her (my cousin) and my mother. She was the good daughter and I was the wild daughter. So true, so true. I told my cousin the least my aunt could have done was give my mother some pointers on how to deal with a wild child!!!

Yesterday would have been my parents 53 wedding anniversary. A week from yesterday, next Saturday, will be 8 years since my father's death. He died a week after their 45th anniversary. She, eight months later. I really thought about my mother today since seeing her sister's daughter. I miss her and my father.

It's Frustrating For a Mom to Watch

As most of you know, Katharine wants to be an actress. She loves it and everything about it, including rehearsals and auditions. She misses it when she is not in the theatre or acting, she told me last night. Well, right now, she hates it and it is so heartbreaking to watch. I realize she is tired and over wrought, but she was so sad last night when she got home from rehearsal for Narnia.

First off, we got home at midnight. She got to rehearsal at 5:00. Katharine tells me each night how the kids get yelled at. She tells me how the director tells them not to ask questions. They should not "bother" her with questions. Some of these kids went thru a workshop to be in this play. These are very young kids and for some, this is their first play and perhaps their last! I feel so bad for these kids whose spirit has been broken by this director and the other "adults" in charge. These kids would no sooner sign up for this abuse again next summer, nor probably forget that it was this particular theatre putting on the play from hell for children. I would love to tell this director what I think of her and her tactics and how she is effecting these children. I would love to tell her that she is not doing anybody any good by making examples out of some kids and embarrassing them in front of their fellow cast members. I will say, most of the kids understand what she is doing and are very supportive of the "outcast" of the day. I cannot tell this woman any of these things though. It would be like me going to the school bully and telling him to leave my child alone. My child has to deal with this, not me. Although, if I were a mother of a younger kid, I might just have to jump in.

I realize these kids need to be tough for this complex play. They need to pay attention and work hard to make the show a success. Everything they do reflects on the rest of the cast, crew and the play itself. I can see why the director would get aggravated by kids not doing everything perfectly, the show opens tomorrow night. However, it is a show full of kids. Kids are particularly hard to direct, I would imagine. The way to handle them is not to constantly verbally abuse them. It is not to continuously yell at them. I know from personal experience that it does not work and it can scar for life.

The last few nights I have been at the theatre, waiting in the back, listening to how these mostly young actors and actresses are handled. They are constantly talked down to. They are afraid to ask questions they need to ask. I heard one young boy ask a question and he was told if he were not goofing around, he would have known the answer to that. He is a kid. A five year old. He goofs around! Especially after being in a seven hour rehearsal, ending at midnight! She cannot simply tell him the answer in a nurturing, quiet manner? Of course not, it is the theatre and they need to be professional. If she answered his question, she would have to answer everybody else's.

I have spent countless nights telling Katharine that this is the profession she has chosen. She will be working with lots of people with whom she will not agree, like or respect. She will be fortunate to work with people she likes, agrees with and respects. In this business you need a tough skin, I tell her. She knows. She really does. She is very talented. She is very critical of herself. She shows up on time and she works very hard. She has several costume changes and gets yelled at because she cannot get her wings on. Only one person knows how to put them on and he was there for one costume change last night. These are multi layered costumes. Beautiful costumes, but hard for adults and kids to put on. There is no down time with this play. She is running back stage to change and have her makeup redone after each scene.

It is a tremendous undertaking to put on this play in the six weeks or about that. Especially with the cast being children. My problem is I understand both the director's frustrations as well as Katharine's, but beating them down night after night is no way to solve anything. Katharine hates this play and doesn't want to perform it nine more times. At least last night she didn't think she could. She knows she can and she will. Will she ever work for this playhouse again? Probably. Will she ever work for this director again. Not likely.

The set is beautiful. The costumes are amazing. They have pulled out all the stops to put on a very fine production. Hopefully they will pull it off and everything will come together tomorrow night. I wish success to everybody. I would love to hear how fun it is at the end of the day, but I am unlikely to hear that. Which is the saddest thing of all. This was supposed to be fun!

Past Post Resurfaces

Last week I got more than five hundred hits in one day and subsequent high numbers in days following. As you know, I have not posted as frequently as I have in the past, nor have I written anything profound. Sparked by the curiosity of this, I needed to investigate. I found a link on a website had been linked to this post from last September. While I did not know why it was chosen, I did find out that Yahoo Search and Google both have it on their sites. If you put in good housekeeping 1955, up pops wifebear and this previous post.

I received this very article in an email from a friend this morning. It is going around again thus sending people to search to see if this was in fact how it actually was or if MEN want things this way. I can tell you from what I have read in the last couple of days, the answer weighs a lot on the side of, yes, they do! They want more too, but that is nothing new.

I posted this because I thought it was so damn funny. It is timely again though, as ribbons in the hair look so darn cute on 13 year olds and are a trend again. However, maybe not so cute on wife aged women. I won't even go to that topic and how young girls did get married back then. My grandmother got married at 13.

Here is the post, although I omitted my remarks from the original.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Good Housekeeping 1955

This is from an actual May 1955 Good Housekeeping Magazine. Fifty years ago.


The good wife's guide

* Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious
meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know That you
have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men
are hungry when the come home and the prospect of a good meal
(especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

* Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he
arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-
looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

* Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need
a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

* Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house
just before your husband arrives.

* Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc and then run a dustcloth over the
tables.

* Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for
him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and
order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will
provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

* Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and
faces (If they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their
clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the
part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the
washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

* Be happy to see him

* Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please
him.

* Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the
moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his
topics of conversation are more important than yours.

* Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to
dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to
understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at
home and relax.

* Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and
tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

* Don't greet him with complaints or problems.

* Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night.
Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

* Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have
him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

* Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing
and pleasant voice.

* Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or
integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always
exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to
question him.

* A good wife always knows her place.

Does this offend you?

See here

It does not offend me in the least! Whoopee a breast. I was a discreet breastfeeding mother of two children totaling 25 months. If they needed to eat, that took priority over everything else. If somebody got a glimpse of my breast or didn't like what I was doing, too damn bad!

We are taught that breastfeeding is the best for our babies. Why is it so disturbing for people to see a breast? The photo on the cover is of a sweet baby looking up at its mother. I remember that loving look. How can it be a problem to put this on the cover of a magazine with people thinking it is gross? Are breastfeeding mothers supposed to stay out of sight and only come out when they know their child will not be hungry? That is totally unrealistic. They eat on demand, they eat different amounts at different times due to growth spurts, among other factors. It is impossible to feed a baby and expect he/she will be content with full tummy for a shower, let alone a trip to the supermarket!

We live in a culture of teenagers and young women with their thongs or cracks hanging out of the back of their pants and that seems to be acceptable everywhere we go. I find this trend disturbing a lot more than a baby breastfeeding. I hope my daughters grow up and breast feed comfortably and without shame and if it helps now to "put it out there" so to speak, then I am all for it!

Long day, but worth it!

Friday we drove two hours north of here to a town called Fillmore. It has been used in many movies for its location and its retro look. Quaint little town. Great place to film a music video, or it would have been on any other day than Friday! It was 105 degrees and they had the kids dressed in black. Katharine was in black corduroy pants and a black sweater in that heat!

The video was for a band from Canada and apparently well know up there, not so much down here. We hadn't heard of them until we looked them up. Punk band called Billy Talent. They want to become more known here and have begun their US tour the day after they filmed their video for their new song called Red Flag.

We arrived at 6AM. Woke up at 3AM! The song is about how things are left for their generation. Every street, other locations and city hall was draped in red fabric, for filming. Red Flag about how we are leaving our world for our children. I think the video will be pretty cool, although a sad fact.

Katharine was among 24 other kids who were there to film scenes running down the street, around town and being in the crowd watching the concert the band was putting on. Military tank and smoke machine included. There were over a hundred extras as well. We hope when it comes out that Katharine will be scene! If so, she will be on MTV and myspace.com/billytalent. We should know in a couple weeks.

It was miserably hot. I had to go to a hotel room to cool off for a couple of hours. At one point Katharine was filming around the corner from where we were hanging out and the band members came out one at a time and introduced themselves to everybody. Really nice guys. I got autographs and photos of all but one member, whom I didn't see. I told them my daughter was filming and they were so nice about how awesome all the kids were. All three band members that I saw, posed very graciously for me to get a photo or two in some cases for Katharine.

We left Fillmore for LA about 8:30. Took about an hour to get to the hotel we booked for the night. I picked up some friends from the airport on Saturday morning and saw no need to go home to Laguna for ten or so hours. We had a beautiful room with heavenly beds. Took hot showers, had room service and passed out in the heavenly beds. We were awakened at 8:30 by the phone. The operator told me room service was there with breakfast and we slept through their knocking. We ate and waited for our friends to call. Picked them up with no problems.

Hot as it was Saturday, Katharine and I set out to find another hotel. Anywhere with a/c. Everything was booked from here to about 20 miles away. We found one hotel and after hanging out for two hours with a broken a/c, we got our money back and left. The owner told me it was hot out and there was a high ceiling. No shit! Still hot though! We finally found another hotel for the night and slept okay. Wasn't a posh place like the first night, but it had air.

Today, foggy and a beautiful 75 degree day! Just in time. People are snapping and cranky! We picked up Zoe and David from their DC and NYC vacation. They got back just in time for a nice cool day! I don't think they believe how hot it has been out here. LA county saw the hottest recorded temp on record the day of the filming. 119 degrees! Okay, that's hot.

We are happy to have Zoe and David home. So are the animals. Glad they had a nice vacation.

I will post some of the photos later. Off to get Katharine from rehearsal. Only a couple more weeks of this nightly stuff, although pick up time moves to 11:00 soon, for a week or so before the show, which I believe opens a week from Thursday....Finally.

OUTSOURCING

Titled: World Class Talent

I have cooled off since I first wanted to post this. I called Circuit City today to discuss somebody wiring our TV and other connectable items and I got to talk to a woman in India! She spoke so fast that I could not understand most of what she said and I asked her to repeat every question at least once. I cannot even tell you how much this PISSED ME OFF!!!!!

What the hell is wrong with our country? Okay, bad question. Why are we sending phone calls to India instead of giving them to some people who can work from home? I mean, seriously, come on! It can be anybody who needs money who answers the phone. Just as long as we can understand them. How about those unfortunate people who call us and we hang up on them for bothering us during, well, anything. Telemarketers are in dire need of money to take the haranguing they get. Why not keep the customer service in this country and give those verbally abused people a break? In turn, giving the rest of us a break because we can understand the person on the other end of the call!

We could do this here! DUH!!!

After she takes my information, she has to call somebody in the states and they have to call me back. Seems pretty damn stupid if you ask me. I know AOL does it, I know other companies do it as well. I was rather surprised to hear the Indian woman on the phone today. I am sure I sounded annoyed. I could have probably been nicer, but we have so many homeless and poor people making below poverty line minimum wages in this country. It seems pretty lame to be sending away jobs that they can have.

Outsourcing really pisses me off! For the record, I am reasonably sure the woman I spoke with and others in the past and future, are perfectly nice people. That is not the point!

Long time no post

It seems like forever since I posted. It has been a busy summer. Hot too, as I am sure you know.

David and Zoe are leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow for DC and NYC. I am taking them to the airport about 5 AM. I think they will have a great time. They are meeting David's sister Phoebe in Charlottesville, VA, then going to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Next they will do some touristy things in DC and make their way up to NYC to see Phoebe (again) and other relatives. I think they will have a very good time. Zoe is not too keen on seeing old mansions. She has seen enough of those in our own state capitol apparently. I bet she will like the Smithsonian though.

Katharine is still doing nightly rehearsals for Narnia that will open and play eight shows next month. Exciting news is that today she auditioned for a music video and got the gig! They asked Zoe if she wanted to audition too and she said no. I told Katharine last week that people get offers like Zoe did all the time in Hollywood. A couple of weeks ago we met sisters who were auditioning. Only one was auditioning one day and they took her sister too. Now they both audition. Not Zoe though, we need her to be the shrink for our family.

Anyhow, I had never heard of this band until we researched it a few nights ago. I like them, they are punk rock and play to younger teens. They shoot the music video for one of their new songs next Friday. Katharine plays a tough funky teen. Serious acting for this role! It will be about 110 degrees, but it is her first real gig and we are very excited for her, but not as excited as she is! I will share more details after it is done.

I have not been feeling well this week. Better tonight, but the heat is a killer. Drinking lots of water and keeping it down is a good thing. Tomorrow I will hit 21 weeks (or five months!) of no smoking and have over $700 in my non smoking account. My brother reminded me that my dad bought a 1969 VW with money he saved with his cigarette fund.

We did go see The Devil Wears Prada. I loved Meryl Streep in her role. Sarcastic and just great one liners! This movie is not for young girls who have a tendency to think they are fat. They say in the movie, that size six is the new fourteen. And one girl says that she is one good stomach flu away from her goal weight. I actually thought that was funny. I know, that is bad of me. Good movie though, one I want to own and see again. I bought a couple of used DVD's from Netflix. Nothing is over 9.99 and they are guaranteed. Some of the videos are 5.99. I think the most recent video I got was the Family Stone, it's pretty good.

I am done with Girl Scout registrations finally. I have to admit, it was a lot of work. I will be getting on to cleaning off my pool table, cleaning out junk drawers and sending some Barbie stuff to a little girl in KY. Things I have been meaning to get to forever! Not to mention visiting blogs that I haven't read in far too long!

Happy weekend!

The 4th of July

It's quiet this morning. People are sleeping in or they are headed downtown to stake out a spot at the beach for the fireworks tonight. Enjoying the quiet while I can. The birds are up. Katharine noticed the birds were up at five something yesterday morning. She is not used to that time of day and was surprised. They didn't let her get back to sleep. She has a very bad cold and needed to sleep. The birds don't seem to be disturbing her this morning.



We have no plans for this day. No bbq to go to. No invitations. None given. Just a wide open day. It feels strange being a Tuesday. A broken weekend for some. For others, day four of their long weekend. They cannot sleep it off tomorrow either.



Fireworks here in town are beautiful. They start at 9pm and last a whopping fifteen minutes. People are already staking out their spots on the beach or the nearby grassy areas to get a good seat for the show. Funny thing about fireworks, you don't need to sit near them to see them. The traffic will be insane. The number of people in town will swell to probably four or five times our normal population. Take the bus, take the tram. The tram is free. Leave the car home. By 9:30 tonight a line of tail lights from here to there will be seen. From up here, almost as pretty as a firework show.



We don't need to go down to the fireworks. Up here we can see several firework shows. Unless the fog rolls in too early. Since the trees have been cut, trimmed and generally cleaned up, we have great views all around. Enjoy it while we can because these trees grow back fast. Did I mention that CNG (creepy neighbor guy) got a tree trimmer with enough guys to hold tarps under falling branches? They tied tarps in some areas over the "sensitive" plants. Did I mention that said plants are bent and tattered from the tarp itself? Oh how I take joy in that. Bad, I know.



Thanks to the soldiers who are away from their families on this Independence Day. Thanks to the families who are one short of a perfect picnic today.

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), from the Declaration of Independence

So I Thought

Summer if off to a busy start. Things were going to slow down, or so I thought. As I sit here yawning, thinking of going back to sleep, I know I need to be up.

I normally give Charlie chicken jerky treats first thing in the morning. I am out of them this morning. Instead I gave him a bone with vitamins in it. He dropped it and looked up at me. I walked away and he took the bone to his bed. He seemed to handle being out of the jerkey treats better than I thought he would.

It is going to be hot again and I have been shutting the blinds early to keep the sun out. This morning, I am leaving the doors open to let the cool air in. I will close the blinds in a bit. I am not sure why I do this because it will get hot in in here later anyhow! With no a/c the only thing that really would work is opening skylights that will let the heat out of the roof. We don't have those though. Actually, we have a perfectly good a/c. It just doesn't work on our non-insulated home. I hate the heat!

I got a call on Wednesday night from K's manager. She told me there was an audition in the morning at 9:45. We got up there around tenish. There were lots of little kids running around in costumes for this commercial. We called the agent and she said that K's audition was there and the part was for a girl rolling her eyes. We were finally told at 11:45 that her group would begin auditions at 12:30. We stayed. I tried to get her to go try out for a Ford commercial while we were there. The guy kept coming out and asking if there were more people auditioning for Ford. Obviously they had not found the right person for their commercial. K would have no part of it! One mom quizzed her about how much she really wanted to be an actress and mentioned that her mother (me) would rather be anywhere else but there. She took K over to sign her up and K would have no part of it. Called the woman psycho. The woman said she has no patience for that. She said if they wanted to act, then they better act! Then she hauled her son over for the audition.

It was past 12:30 and they still had a lot of parents and neighbor handing out candy auditions before K's group. Finally, the woman gave her a script to read all of thirty seconds and took K and a boy in to read. The director told K that she is a very good actress. She was stoked to hear that. Finally we were out of there.

On the way home, I missed two sigalerts. Sig was a man who designed these alerts, which were for major traffic tie ups. I am getting used to all the freeways in LA that will take me home or to Egypt. I listened to the radio and heard about the sigalerts. I took a different route and thought I was so smart! I got off the fwy in Long Beach (about half way home) to get gasoline. I had to drive for miles to find gasoline. Got back on the fwy and there was a sigalert and I was right in the middle of it. Apparently a big rig had gone thru the center divider and there was also a fuel spill. Both sides of the fwy, and three lanes on each side, were closed. It took an hour for me to reach the first off ramp where I could get off the fwy. I followed the road the GPS told me to follow. It took me back to the fwy. I looked at the fwy and it was empty. I had gone around the accident and had the surreal experience of being with less than dozen cars on a wide open fwy in the middle of rush hour.

Stopped at the store. Got dinner fixings, cooked them, ate them and then back in the car to take K to her rehearsal for Narnia, the play.

Poor Z and cousin L were stuck in the house all day. I dropped them off yesterday. Z is staying with cousin L for a couple days. Today they are going to the huge Anime convention. They will register and get their neck tags. They are going back tomorrow as well. Cousin L is dressing up. Z is not. I think they were pretty excited to be going to this event.

Last weekend my cuzsis Pam stayed in line at Disneyland for 14 hours so they could all see Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean. L got a kiss on the cheek from Bloom and a hug from Depp, so it was worth the wait. 14 hours, that is a good mom!

I am off to Farmer's Market. Have a great weekend.

Anger Management or Venting???

I wonder if I need Anger Management. I am not postal or anything. Things just annoy me and they don't seem to be getting any better!

I will begin with a couple tips to avoid road rage from somebody, unlike myself, who is sick and tired of a few things and they are so damn simple to fix. But, people need to play by the rules!

Number 1. When you are turning, please signal! How hard is that, put the lever up or down. Can't remember? POINT! I am not talking about a four way stop out in the middle of the desert where no other cars are. I am talking about being on, for instance, a street that turns onto another without a stop or signal for turning traffic. If say, I, were waiting at a stop sign and say, you, were turning onto my little road, you would be kind enough to signal, so I could then turn safely, knowing you are not going straight. This is sooo simple, yet, people refuse to turn on their dang signals. I know in some cases, it is space cadettes, in others, it is because they are on the PHONE!!!!!!

Number 2. Hang up and drive! I know I have said this before, but it is worse than ever now. Here is a simple hint to avoid being rammed by another vehicle by a person who will later have no recall of the event. Be it Ambien or short term memory loss! Oh, not me....Seriously. Tip. If you are at a four way stop and you are chatting with your bud about your new breasts or Botox injections and it occurs to you that you really should go because the person behind you honked, WAIT! Look around to see who is new at the intersection since you have been there and let them go first unless they let you! Just cuz you have been there for three or four minutes does not give you the right to just go! Pay attention.

Can you tell Summer is here? Traffic is a nightmare again. Tourist season has begun. As long as the side streets are still available, all will be fine. Now, if people would remember driver training and apply lessons learned, it would just be a little simpler!

On to the creepy neighbor guy. (CNG) It may not be capitalized if I don't feel like hitting shift! Anyhow, my daughter says that I am obsessed with talking about him. I just wanted acknowledgement that I am right about him. I got it too! HA

David and the CNG talked about getting our shared trees trimmed. Huge Eucalyptus trees. He found a guy who was going to trim the one going thru our back eave for $450 each. David agreed to this. I called my guy, cuz I figured I could get a couple hundred off that price. I did. CNG told David he was okay with our guy, but he wanted him to come next weekend so he could supervise! After a day of Euc branches falling and being put into a truck, the front yard tree looked great. CNG told Bruno (Trimmer) that was exactly how he wanted his trees too. Bruno left and came back yesterday. One of his guys got here first and started on our side of the shared tree. CNG was watching. He then began yelling at the guy in the tree. One of his plants had been damaged. I believe it was a horse tail plant? Green, like bamboo, about the circumference of a straw and can be a kid's best friend when they pull them apart every four inches or so. Anyhow, the guy in the tree had not been in his yard, nor had he dropped any branches over there.

Bruno shows up and after verbally sparring with CNG, he tells me he is not trimming his side of the tree or the other trees that he wanted him to cut! CNG is outside picking up leaves one by one in his yard. Picking them out of the dirt from in between plants. My cuzbro was here and he said CNG was about to explode over a mere 25 or so leaves. Bruno and his guys finished and were going to do one more tree in the front that the nice neighbor on the other side was paying for. When he began to pull away from the curb, after they had cleaned the yard, the CNG said to Bruno, "That is all you are going to do? You are not going to do my trees?" Bruno told him he didn't want to damage his plants! CNG said all Bruno had to do was have two guys holding a tarp and a guy in the tree cutting. Bruno told him no. CNG told him his guy was better anyway and to get out of his face!!! Bruno has more that enough work and doesn't need to work for people who treats him like that.

So, David who told me he thought I was just nagging about the neighbor has decided that the guy is a genuine ass. Also, Bruno and his guys concurred with me as well. All I had to do was sit back and watch!

Three More Days

Three more days of school! Half days as well. Finals this week too. Doesn't that just suck? Last week of school and three days of finals. Last year they had three days of finals and the last day was basically for yearbook signing. This time, they will be busy for the final three days. It lessens the excitement of the end of the school year for the kids. Zoe isn't feeling the excitement and when I picked up Katharine and a friend yesterday, they concurred.

Actually, Katharine, who is in middle school has two days of finals and one day of yearbook signing. She will have fun on Thursday afterall. They will get their yearbooks and spend the half day signing each other's books. The way I think it should be.

These kids work very hard. Much harder than I did when I was in high school. The amount of homework is insane. I realize that the teachers don't have time to go over everything in the curriculum, but to send it home every night is rough on the kids. As in years past, the teachers have spent the past couple of weeks cramming in the remaining work that was not done thru the year. This is very hard on everybody. The teachers also have to keep the grades up to date on the computer for students and parents to get with a click of a key. You can bet there are parents who call the school if the teacher has not updated the site in a day or two! While handy to have all this information, it is more work for already overworked, underpaid teachers.

Had this technology existed when I was in school, I probably would have been a better student. Well, that would also have depended on whether my parents would have used the technology. We got cut notices in the mail every Saturday like clock work. I got them before my parents did and destroyed them every week. The school did not call either. It was pretty lame. We had minimal homework given. Nothing like today. And we had a blast the last week of school. Ditch day, off to the beach daily after school. No finals the last week! We got to be kids and I wish my kids could be feel the excitement of how the last week is supposed to feel. I know they have in the past, maybe as they get older, things are just different!

In other news....31 years ago today I was having a baby. 6:51 AM, June 20, 1975. He is 31 today. If he is still alive. I hope he is and that he is having a wonderful birthday celebration with his family!

Another Eight Days

It has been eight days since my last post. Doesn't that sound like I am making a confession to a Priest? It does feel that way, the guilt is real!

I know we are all busy right now. Beginning of summer. Kids finishing school. Finishing up work that must be taught by the end of the year, which is next week, being crammed into their already full schedules. And all the shows for elective classes and after school activities!

Last night we went to Zoe's Chorus Concert. It was AWESOME. They sang all eras of Broadway show tunes. Most poignant was their singing For Good to the outgoing Principal. The songs lyrics say, "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good. It was so very touching. The one thing that hasn't happened to me in a long time happened though. I got a tall guy in the seat in front of me who seemed to move his head to the left or right simultaneously with mine! Not to mention, I was first in line at the door, got a good seat and at the very last minute, Mr. Six Foot Five sits his ass right in view of my daughter singing! UGH

Spring Registration for Girl Scouts just ended. This is important to me because I am the GS Registrar for Laguna Beach. We are just going online so I am now a glorified data entry person as well. It will take a lot of time to input all the registrations, but it will be worth it and it is fun. I just flashed on writing this or a portion of this before. Oh well.

I was listening to Bill Gates yesterday. He still sounds like a very young man. Nerdy guys really come into their own in their fifties! They finally look better than the rest of the boys they went to school with. They look younger, their wives have updated their clothes, their glasses and tossed the pocket protectors as well. Good for them! Good for us that Mr. Gates and his wife will work to help the world. We need it. So, thank you to them!

School gets out on Thursday. I am stoked about that. There will be plenty of things going on this summer, but the schedule will be more laxed. Katharine has rehearsals for Narnia, lots of them! Hopefully, more auditions in LA during the day. I do hope she spends time playing at the beach too, just to relax.

Zoe will be helping David at his office this summer. She will be running the place by the end of summer, I have no doubt. She is going to an Anime (Japanese cartoons) Convention soon with her cousin. Her cousin is dying her hair and dressing up. She is also coming to stay with us for a week, right after school gets out. Again later in the summer as well. Zoe and David are going to DC and NYC in July. Seeing family in NYC and being tourists in DC. It's gonna be hot!

That's about it. I hope everybody is well and I will be blog surfing very soon, I hope! Unless of course I run off to Tahiti for a few weeks! Don't laugh, it could happen!

Just Another Crazy Week

We finally got the new TV put up last Friday. It works, even in HD, but the Tivo and DVD players and speakers are not hooked up yet. Mark, who put up the TV, is going to rewire all the other stuff. I had to purchase a TV stand for the living room that is no wider than 18 inches. We have decided, while nice, the entertainment cabinet is impossible to work with. It is low to the ground and all the wires are in the back and it is dusty and dark. Now they will be easily accessible and easy to dust, plus they will stay cooler. We can take all the DVDs and CDs that are on top of the entertainment cabinet and actually put them inside and shut the doors. Right now, we have to keep at least one door open to use the remote controls. It will look much nicer when it is all closed up. The cabinet would not have been my choice if I were out purchasing one for the living room. The fireplace mantle and the cabinet are made of Koa wood from Hawaii. It is very beautiful wood and I am not sure they can still cut down Koa trees. The cabinet is L shaped and takes up a whole wall. Limits rearranging furniture in that room! Anyhow, it is nice to have a TV upstairs again.

Zoe had her award ceremony at school last week. She got most outstanding in Biology and Geometry. A couple of nights ago was Katharine's award show. She got an award for most outstanding in Social Studies. She seemed surprised by this. I was happy in was an academic award. She would have been happier if it were for Drama! She and Zoe are both straight A and A+ students, any award is icing on the cake to me! I am very proud of the girls and how well they do in school. I am a lucky mother.

Katharine had her first two auditions for commercials on Monday. She was only supposed to do a Bratz Doll audition, but we got a call before we left home to do another one while we were in LA. She did a cell phone audition at another location. The first one was rather silly, but she can play younger. The second one, she had a blast doing.

The building we needed to be in for the second audition was above a Petco store. We parked in the parking lot and a security dude told us we could not park there. He saw Katharine had her head shot in her hand, so he knew we were going upstairs. Anyhow, I asked the guy if he meant we could not go into Petco. "We cannot go into Petco?" I asked a couple of times. He told us we could, but we had to come right back out and move our car. He told us to park down by Ralphs. Apparently, he didn't care what that security guard had to deal with. We went into Petco and bought a toy for Charlie. When we came out, I pointed out that the sign said "ONE HOUR" parking. He said it was only for those still in the store! Finally we left after I gave him sufficient shit! We went around the block and parked on a busy street, right in front of the store. We went inside, up the stairs. Katharine finally did her audition and we headed back down to the car. Wait, there is something on my windshield, I thought. Shit! A freaking ticket. I looked and I was one inch into the red zone. ONE INCH and I got a ticket for $65.

I asked David if he would fight it for me. He told me he would if I came with him to court in LA. Plus it will be 120 miles round trip and he would miss a morning at the office. Overall, it is better to just pay the damn thing. It really burns me up that I have to pay that ticket. I imagined the way it would play out in front of a judge.
Me: I was only and inch into the red.
Judge: What does red mean?
Me: No parking.
Judge: And you were in the no parking area, yes?
Me: Yes, but only an inch.
Judge: Pay the $65!
Me: #$%# $% running!

Nancy Drew

No really, Nancy Drew the sleuth.

Years ago Zoe finished the whole collection of Nancy Drew books. I think there are sixty five books in all. A while back she brought them all upstairs and boxed them up. She needed the space on her wall to wall, ceiling to floor bookshelves. The space was filled up quickly enough. Anyhow, normally I take the books up to the elementary school library. Last haul I took, I was told to take them in to the library. I took them in and thought it would at least warrant a "thank you!" Not.




I was happy about giving books to the school over the years, but with no appreciation, I was pretty done! We gave them several hundred books over the years. I should have been giving them to a needy school instead. This time with a full set of books in hand, I thought why not put these on eBay? They have been sitting in the garage and need a home. I thought maybe we could make a couple of bucks on eBay. Apparently, that is about all they are worth!




I went to Amazon.com to see what they were going for. Little did I know the books go up to more than 175 currently! I thought the writer Carolyn Keene was real too. Apparently that was a pen name and there have been and continue to be several writers for the Nancy Drew Series. So, we no longer have a full set of books. Neither does my friend Jana. She has 56 books that she read when she was a girl. I called her and she is now giving away her books as well. Used books are going for up to about two buck each. New books cost about eleven bucks these days. By the way, all the new books, which come out every other month or so, are in paperback. We have hardcovers. The books looks are updated, but that is to be expected for something that has been ongoing since 1930!



Here is a link if you want to read all about it. Nancy Drew

The first book shown is number 2 of at least 175. Then it shows a Gameboy game of Nancy Drew. Also shown, the newer look, is book number 134.