Christmas Surprises

This year I didn't stress out for Christmas, I was so proud of myself. So grateful. In past years I've threatened to become Buddist. But this year I wasn't working, and altho I feel some anxiety about that, it was really nice. K has been working extra (basketball coaching), so I picked up the slack. Plus, the Girl is such a big help that I had presents ready and wrapped on time, cards sent out, everything.

In fact at one point I was remembering how sometimes Holidays have a way of telling me that I'm not important - over and over, and how much I hate that. But, no sign of that this year! I'm so lucky.

We had some work done downstairs which meant we moved lots of stuff to the garage, and our Christmas stuff is still stuck in the back. So I picked up some cheap decorations in blue (my favorite color) and our little tree looked so cute! But one day I was looking at it and realized - it's all blue! Is it a Hanuka tree? I still don't have the answer to that.

The Boy was home from college, desperately looking for a job.

A few days before the holidays we drove upstate to see K's sister & BIL who were renting a house in Cambria for the Holiday. No job yet for the Boy, so he came with us. They are dog friendly, so we took the dog and had a great time. Especially the dog, as he LOVES getting to run off-leash and especially at the beach. They'd already opened their gifts, and remarked about how generous my in-laws are. After all, they just gave everyone in the family a cruise. We'd expected them to cut back at Christmas. But no, it seems they were more generous than ever! I couldn't wait.

I'm really lucky that both my parents and my in-laws are so generous. It's something I had come to look forward to. But this year we tried to be generous too. I picked up an electronic photo frame for my Mom, and gave my Dad a CD of pictures to load onto it (plus some other stuff he likes). K decided to give his parents a TV. He gave them one about 20 years ago, and that's still the one they had! So he arranged for his Sister who lives nearby to pick it up and deliver it to them for Christmas.

With the kids I tried to give them ideas of what to get me, and I finally asked them for a magazine subscription that they would split the price. I didn't want to end up with a box of candy like I did last year. (My figure would protest)Then I felt guilty because $12.50 for half a present seemed like a lot for a 12-year-old, so I gave her a couple of books I had picked up for myself (at the $.99 Store), telling her she could just give me those. I talked to the Boy and gave him some ideas of things I might like.

The first sign of Christmas trouble came when my Mom called me. They'd received a package, but it was very light and taped and strapped strangely. There were no presents in it for my parents! It seems that someone opened the box, took out the heaviest and just a bunch of things, left a few gift bags and taped it back up, strapped it closed, and sent it on its way. WTF? The only thing of real value was the photo frame, the rest is a bunch of junk to anyone other than who I intended it for! SURPRISE!!

The Boy's birthday is a few days before Christmas, and when he opened his present from the in-laws, he was stunned. They gave him $1,000. That was a BIG surprise! He called them up to say thanks and ask why, and they were nonchalant, saying they had meant to give it to him in September for the school year. Wow! They really WERE being generous this year! That's just so crazy, I don't want to tell MY parents. They sent him a more reasonable amount of money, and I don't want them to think they have to compete. BTW, he is no longer looking for a job.

Then the day before Christmas Eve I noticed that I had what looked like a book from the Boy. So I asked the Girl, and she she'd given one of the books to him to give me. SURPRISE!! I know it sounds stupid, but I was really disappointed. SO disappointed, it brought tears to my eyes! After the year I've had with him, I was really looking forward to seeing what he'd get me. Instead I got something I'd bought myself. I guess I deserved that, for trying to control things so much.

Oh, and BTW, my FIL had bought my MIL a TV for Christmas! So it seems that even tho we both tried to be generous this Christmas, it was all for naught.

Stupid holiday.

Don't judge me. Sometimes we all need to vent.

Thanksgiving

The week before Thanksgiving, the Boy texted me that he'd gotten a piercing in his eyebrow. OK, I was afraid he was going to get a tatoo, so I guess a piercing is better than that. But he acted afraid of what his father would say, but what COULD he say? He just shook his head.

I love our turkey. I adapted an easy roast chicken recipe I saw on TV once (which is also great.) First empty out the turkey. Then I take apart at least 2 heads of garlic but leave the skins on, and scatter them on the bottom of the pan. Put the turkey on top, and pour a few cups of wine over the top of the turkey. Bake as directed.

Since I don't have a roaster, I also use those cooking bags for turkey, and a disposable roasting pan. It smells SO good once it gets cooking, and it's just so easy. Tastes great too. Yum.

I was telling the Boy about my recipe (once he got here) and how easy it was, and that song popped into my head, "Just put it in the bag." I heard Whoopi Goldberg on the View talking about how she gets up all night to baste the turkey (it's a tradition), and there's just no need for that. Just put it in the bag!

This year I noticed that I've been making the same mistake for several years now. If it says the turkey will be ready in 3-4 hours, I tell everyone it's ready in 4 hours. But it's always ready in 3! That's kindof OK, because I have to bake the sides, but that doesn't really take a whole hour.

And this year the Boy was a little late. He hit traffic, and his new girlfriend was bringing him. She couldn't stay, tho. So it was a little ackward. We were hungry, it smelled so good, but we waited for the Boy. When he finally got here, he introduced his girlfriend (v. pretty and seems nice), and we wanted to EAT!! So she kindof had to leave right away.

The meal was nice, and the Girl helped me quite a bit. It's a lot less stressful when I have such good help.

We had a nice visit with the Boy and I tried to be as pleasant as possible. He is really riding that line between childhood and adulthood, and even said, "I want all the perks of growing up but none of the responsibility!" when we were urging him to check something out with the school counselors.

We were asking him about his new girlfriend and he said he knew her last year, but she was dating a real jerk. The Girl and I both wondered aloud how he managed to do that again. He acknowledged that he only has to do the minimum and she thinks its great because she had such a bad boyfriend before him.

He also let it slip that he'd met up with her family a few times during the semester. I was surprised to hear that, as he only visited us ONCE all semester, when we asked him to come take care of his dog so we could attend a funeral in Indiana. He said it was because he was afraid of what we would say about his piercing.

He also surprised me by saying he needed to give us his Christmas list! We said, "What?!" We were already done and weren't planning on giving him much anyway. He's not a kid anymore! He doesn't get to give us Christmas lists anymore! He just doesn't know that yet. He asked us for things like presents for his friends and a plane ticket to visit his girlfriend!

I asked the Girl if I should tell him, and she said no. I said, "What if we just tell him we're already done shopping and he can use his money to buy what he wants?" and she said no. Next thing I knew, she was checking online and actually working to get him something he asked for (Clippers tickets). She offered to pay half. Isn't she the best?

On Sunday his girlfriend came back to spend the day and take him back to college (he still doesn't drive.) I had taken some steaks out for dinner, so I told him to let me know if they wanted to stay for dinner. They went out to the mall and visiting friends, and I didn't hear from him again until around 5, when he called to say he and his girlfriend would be there for dinner, and could he bring his friend too? (so his girl wouldn't feel put on the spot)

We went from 3 for dinner to 6, just like that! Luckily I had enough food and it came out well. I've been sauteing chard in garlic and olive oil, and it is SO good! It's good with rice or mashed potatoes.

The Boy called us a week later to ask what restaurant we go to in Chinatown and where it was. It seems he likes to show his friends the cool things we've done with him. I told K he'd probably do that with his kids too, and then they'll grow up and not visit him all semester.

But really, I'm thankful. I have a nice, handsome husband. A smart, charismatic son, and a beautiful, kind and helpful daughter. I have a roof over my head and more than enough to eat. I have my health.

Thank God.

Frayed Knot

Near the end of last summer, the Boy was really testing my patience. We'd have conversations like this:

Me: Boy? You said you would take out the trash. When are you going to take it out?

Boy: Why are you fighting with me? I've been trying really hard to get along with you today!

Plus I'd been angry with him about a few incidents in Europe. They weren't worth discussing after the fact, but it did change some things. Suffice it to say, he won't be going on any more vacations with us. I look forward to vacations too much, and they are too expensive to waste time being angry.

So I knew that there were problems, but it just seemed like a normal part of his growing up. But somewhere along the way I came to realize that he really has a problem with ME. Not BOTH of his parents, but me in particular.

So being a terrible curious snoop, I found something he had written about me. I found out that he's been telling his friends that altho he loves me, he doesn't really LIKE me as a person! And this particular rant went on to describe a fight that happened in Paris, and how it illustrates all that he hates about my personality.

Well, of course I was upset and my feelings were hurt. I hate the unfairness of it all - that his father could fight with him about basketball his last 2 years of high school, and he ends up angry with ME. And to think I tried to shield him from his father's pressure, which seems terribly disrespectful to my husband now in retrospect. Yet another thing he's made me regret doing for him.

But I tried to look at it all rationally. I've tried to tell him many times that altho I will try to respect his wish for information when he asks me "why?", I won't always be able to do so. Sometimes I'm under stress, in a hurry,
etc. Sometimes I only have a vague idea in my head of what I'm trying to make happen, so I don't even have a plan that I;ve verbalized to myself. But I always have a reason, and I wish he would just trust me.

But he seems to have decided in his head that I just make things up to mess with him, and just make decisions willy nilly because I'm mad and drunk with power!

Plus there's this whole thing about once you tell someone WHY you want to do something a certain way, that opens the door for them to decide for themselves whether or not they think your reason is worthy. Sometimes you don't want to open that door, you would just like things to go the way you are trying to make them.

By the way, this was all about sandwiches that I had made for everyone, and he wanted to eat early. I wanted to wait until we got to Notre Dame, and he asked me why. I was already feeling unappreciated for making these stupid sandwiches that people took for granted, so I just told him it was because I had made them. I thought I had the right to make that call because I had made the stupid sandwiches! I thought even in some kind of playground rules that making the sandwich should give me the decision-making power over them. So maybe I didn't articulate how nice it would be to sit down and eat them as a family, but I don't think he would have agreed that it was a good reason anyway.

Anyway, I know I'm not perfect. For instance, I'm an incurable snoop. I have a temper, but I don't beat my children (like I was) or verbally abuse them (like I was.) But here I am, thinking I have a fine life and how much I've overcome the bad temperment I grew up with, blah, blah, blah, and life slapped me in the face and said, "Your life is not what you think it is!"

One of my favorite movies is Another Woman by Woody Allen, where a woman finds out that her life is nothing that she thought it was. It was such a good movie, but it sucks when that is YOUR life, and you're completely surprised to find out it's not what you thought it was!

So anyway, I'm glad I got this out of my system before the holidays, because I knew I had to forgive him before Thanksgiving. I decided that he's still just a kid, looking at things from his kidlike point of view. I realized that I'm STILL very hard on my parents, and feel fully aware of their flaws even today. And all of our feelings are normal I guess.

I realized that a lot of the things I say discipline wise may seem funny to me, but not everyone thinks they're funny or no big deal. It's strange to me that as much as my kids seem to ignore me, on the other hand some of the things I say seem to loom so large for them, and have way more importance to them than I thought.

I remember once when I was little I told my mother I hated her, and she looked SO hurt! I remember thinking that she shouldn't take it so seriously, I was just a kid after all. So I try to remember that and rise above it to be an adult.

So anyway, I'm glad I was able to get over it so that I could be nice to him on Thanksgiving break. And for this kid anyway, my snooping days are over. I definitely got what I deserved!

Fall

The rest of our Fall has been very busy. After our trip to Indiana, I took Part 1 of a 3-part tax test that is pretty difficult. The whole time I was taking the test I was also praying to God to help me and cursing my bad luck that got me such difficult questions. But, I passed! I do tend to be good at taking tests, but still it was an accomplishment. I got to enjoy it for about 2 days before I had to start working on Part 2.

I'm supposed to be studying for that now, which explains why I am writing a blog post instead. Argh! I hate it!

Then we took a long weekend to visit some friends in Florida. Actually, one of my best friends has a senior attending Stetson Univ, and we went to see her play Vollyball before she finished school. We also have friends who have a condo in St. Augustine, and their son just entered school at Flagler. They were still in town, so we got to visit with them and eat some GREAT food, as well as see two games in DeLand. They weren't having a very good season :-(

I liked that the Charlotte airport had rocking chairs in it. I liked the outside of the Women's room in the Jacksonville airport. I especially enjoyed the BBQ we ate at the Charlotte airport and O'Steens (in St. Augustine), a place that takes no reservations or credit/debit cards. How good can shrimp be? Go there to find out! We really like it in St. Augustine, and it's really affordable housing-wise. I'd love to be able to buy a vacation home there.

That was Halloween weekend, so we left the Girl home to play in her soccer game and go out for Halloween with her friends.

I know I did some brave talking at the end of last season, about how if The Girl's soccer team lost a few girls it would be no big deal. Except that one of our best players left, and some of the others didn't leave until right before the season started. We played in a fun league last summer, where we played boys teams and learned some new tricks. But our official league started up, and we were short 1 player!

Lots of us had tried recruiting girls all summer, but ran into bad luck of one sort or another. We ended up getting our old goalie back, who we once considered too short, but we were now glad to see her. The coach actually recruited one girl at a taco stand, but her skills were behind the rest of the girls, and they were too hard on her. Finally we got a girl who only spoke spanish, but she showed up to almost every game, and that was great.

So even tho I predicted that this season would be a lot easier, it was brutal. We had barely enough girls and NO substitutes. If one girl didn't show up or got hurt, we played short. One ref went out of her way to tell me after the first game how well-conditioned our girls must be, to play a whole game with no subs.

I may have mentioned before that there are 8 teams in our division, and the top 2 go up to the next level (where we were last year), and the bottom two go down to the next lower level. The Girl said more than once that they did NOT want to go down a level, and if the team did, they would probably break up.

They tied the first game and then it was loss after loss. It was painful to watch and live through, and some of the parents took it the worst. One girl was sobbing after games because her parents were being so hard on her. What's the point in that? If I tried telling the Girl ANYTHING about how to play, I'm sure she would quit in a heartbeat.

When they got too negative, I reminded them that every great sports story starts out with a difficulty. I told the Girl, "Everything happens for a reason. I don't know what the reason is for your team to be struggling right now, but maybe it will make you stronger." And I think it did!

Then they beat a team in a game when they were short a player. Then they lost a game, then tied another one, then won again! Slowly, game by game, they clawed their way into the middle of the pack. Finally, in the last game of the season, they won 4-1. It was glorious, being able to score so many goals! It was truly the highlight of the season.

I don't know if they were happier about knowing they weren't going down a bracket, or finding out that their enemy Palmdale Thunder WOULD. Even the team we beat in that last game was happy about that.

Right before Thanksgiving we had some work done on the house. It turned out to be Asbestos in our popcorn ceiling downstairs, so first we had that removed. (Well, first we moved everything out of the basement! What a job!) Then we had the asbestos removed and primed the wall of my bedroom. Next we had a guy come in to redo the ceiling and also put in the new floor. He brought some relatives with him, and it was strange. At one moment they would be yelling at each other in Spanish (such language!), and 2 minutes later they'd be singing (in Spanish.) One guy in particular seemed to be behind most of the singing.

After they left, the weekend before Thanksgiving, the Girl and I started painting. She is really a blessing to me because she's so helpful and energetic. I couldn't have gotten it finished without her. We also roped K into helping paint every now and then. It still needs molding, but the walls and flooring now look great!

Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Netflix and FaceBook

One thing that happened this Fall was that we joined the mainstream internet users and joined both Facebook and Netflix. We're a little challenged with Netflix right now, as most of their "new" movies are ones we saw this summer. Between the two plane flights and the cruise itself, we saw:

He's just not that into you
The Reader (think I missed something in this one)
The Watchman
Bride Wars
Made of Honor
Hotel for Dogs
Bolt (very cute)
Mama Mia
Last Chance Harvey
Wall -E
Benjamin Button
Bedtime Stories (most of it)
Marlee & Me
Horton Hears a Who
Monsters Inc.
New in Town
Yes Man
Mall Cop
Definitely Maybe

And possibly some others I'm forgetting. So we're scraping the bottom on Netflix right now, but hopefully this situation will improve.

I joined FB because someone invited me to be their friend, and the only way to do that was to start my own account. Plus the Girl wanted to, and I told her she could only do it if I was her friend (and could monitor the situation.) It's been around for years, but I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I do. It's a great way to keep up with people you don't see a lot.

I've noticed a few things about FB politics. First, FB got right into my Yahoo contact list in order to suggest people I should befriend. This brought up pictures of people whose blogs I've read and communicated with, altho I'm not sure that they were ready to be that known to me. Now I know what they look like! That seemed like some kind of violation of privacy, but I seem to be the only one who's against it.

Then, the Boy blocked me from his posts when I complained that his cousins could now see his questionable language and pictures. So he filters himself somehow, which I guess is fine, but I still wish he'd be more appropriate. I only hope he's filtering his cousins too.

Then I noticed that the Girl hadn't seen some pics I'd posted, and I figured out that she blocked MY posts! I asked why she would do such a thing, and she said she was just mad at me. Mad at ME? Whatever for? So I tried to unblock myself and think I may have completely deleted myself from her friend list instead.

Sigh.

I've found that there are different ways people can post too much. The first is like my original friend from HS who invited me to be his FB friend. He posts multiple times a day to say things like, "I'm up. I think I'll have coffee now." or, "Time for bed." OK, we all do those things. Should we all post similarly?

And don't get me started about people who post things, but never seem to comment on other people's posts. Why? Do you only care about yourself?

Then there are people my sister calls page hogs, and they post 4 things in a row that take up your whole page! They post their every accomplishment in Farmville, every video of songs they like, things like that. OK people, get a life! Maybe they just like to share.

But I have to admit that there were a few weeks when I first joined that FB helped me immeasurably in my efforts at procrastination. Particularly, Zanga Poker. I was supposed to be studying for a BIG TEST, and I was trying not to think about people drowning in Alaska, so I found FB poker to be a great outlet. Plus, I won lots of money! I started out with $5,000 and now I'm up to $290,000. Now my husband wants to send me to Vegas, but in real life I'm sure people don't go "all in" with such junk in their hands.

At least I hope not.

The rest of September

OK, so what happened in the rest of the month? First, K started having problems at his job. First, they gave him a crumby shift = the worst shift you can get. Basically he has to work during ALL the holidays. He was offended because he works really hard and should get some kind of seniority, but it doesn't work like that. This shift was weak and he is strong, so they stuck him there to balance it out.

Meanwhile, management has been implementing changes that make it harder to do K's job, and not staffing the place correctly to cut costs. K told them he wouldn't be Acting Supervisor during his shift anymore if the staffing levels were short. As it is, K still thought it was weak, and told a Supervisor that it was "a setup" to fail.

K went to work after the shift change, and tried to talk to his supervisor about his shift. His supervisor said that if he wanted to be promoted, he should help him with a mentoring program he's putting together. He implied that the shift would be changed if K agreed, so he said yes.

Then, K did something to tighten things up. Later, after he got home, he found out he was "under investigation" for doing so.

First, he might be promoted. Now, he might be fired? All in the same day. Wow.

Then, he took a shift off for a little "staycation." On Friday night (during his regular shift), there was a riot! Sheriffs were called, kids were shot with paint pellets, people went to the hospital. So much for cutting costs.

Of course Management never took any responsibility for what happened, but one Supervisor kept telling K, "You said it was a setup! You were right!" But, again, nothing has changed, including K's shift.

THEN...

We got a call while K was at work that one of his best friends had died. His friends from High School in Indiana take a hunting trip every year, and this year Rick didn't make it back.

There's one friend from that group who lives out here near us, I'll call him Don. Don looks forward to this trip every year. This year they went to Alaska, a place that Rick had been before and loved. His daughter even lives up there now, so they visited with her before they took off hunting.

They were on their way back to start home. Don had shot a Caribou, the only game any of them had killed. He and Rick were carrying the meat on their backs as they crossed the river. The river was mostly not deep, but somehow Rick lost his footing and got swept up in the current. Don tried to go after him, but didn't get any closer. Finally he got scared that HE wasn't going to make it out, and somehow he dragged himself out of the river.

Anyway, they didn't find Rick for 6 days. Don felt guilty that he couldn't save him and that Rick had been carrying his meat. But they all do that for each other, and sometimes you just can't save people.

It just so happened that K saw Rick in June, right before we took our big trip. He flew back for just a few days, and now he's so glad he did. He hadn't seen him in about 8 years before that.

Anyway, we flew to Indiana, but it took Alaska a long time to release the body, and they had to keep pushing the funeral back. Finally I had to get back, but K was able to stay another day and help carry the casket, etc.

On the plus side, we found that Long Beach has a little airport, and it's really cute.W e also came out of it closer to some of our friends.

But we were glad to see the end of September, and October was a big improvement.

More about that later.

Drama is my life

OK. I was going to write about my trip this summer and all the wonderful places we went, but life went and got in the way and I've been really busy lately.

First, my sister R came to visit in late August, and we had a great time. We went to the Sunset Street Fair, Melrose, Universal City Walk. At the airport we saw Ice T, and she got his autograph. Then she went home and the fires started. A friend of ours who lives at the beach called because he heard we were evacuated! He invited us to his house, and that was nice.

The next night The Girl saw the fire on the way home, when her friends Dad drove right by the fire in the town next to us. She came home crying, and I tried to comfort her. She said it looked like a wall of fire.

The next day I woke up coughing at all the smoke, and had to turn on the AC just to filter the air so we could breath!

But the fire was still a long way from our home. The next day The Boy wanted to move back to his dorm at a certain time. I stopped at the store to get some Starbucks, and in the process of getting pressured to hurry up, I locked the keys in the car! He was SO mad! I asked some policemen who were there if they could open it for me, but they called the Auto Club guy for me instead.

Meanwhile, everyone in the store parking lot was looking at the fire, which was now on one of the mountains behind us. It was an impressive sight, coming over the hills bearing down on us. The police warned us that the street was getting evacuated later that night. The Girl started crying again when she heard this.

The Boy was only concerned about getting to his dorm, so he told her that it would never happen and this was all just a bunch of alarmists getting upset about nothing.

Somewhere around this time the Girl started feeling stronger about the situation. I told her I used to have bad dreams about fires, and I think it speaks to a fear of a loss of security. She agreed, and somehow it seemed to make her feel better.

The next day we went to visit our friend at the beach, and had a nice time. We could see the smoke from a long way on the drive home, but it was dark and it didn't look that bad.

The next morning, at 2:30am, we got a call that told us to evacuate! What?

I was immediately wide awake! I've never been evacuated before. I had gotten a few things together after the police had told us about the possible evac the day before. A few pictures, my best jewelry, my leather jackets and boots. Important papers. A change of clothes. It's strange when you think about what to save when you're leaving your home behind.

So I had the car packed in no time. K decided to take a shower, so there was some waiting for him. Meanwhile, there were police cars driving around talking on some loudspeaker, telling us we had to evacuate.

It was a surreal scene, being dark outside, hearing the police and seeing our neighbors packing their cars. A guy came across the street and told us he'd come to his parents house from Pasadena, when he'd gotten evacuated there. Now he was evacuated here too!

We grabbed the dog and the fish and got into the car. We drove to the local High School, which was the evacuation center. When we finally found it, it was small, it had cots, and the lights were on. Who could sleep in there? Plus there were no pets allowed, so some elderly people were sitting outside with their pets. I thought this was a real glitch in the system, because lots of people have pets.

I also noticed the teenage girls carrying around their pillows and blankets. I was jealous, and now I know what to take if I'm ever evacuated again. A pillow! A blanket! (plus my pictures and jewelry and important papers.)

We drove around for awhile. I didn't want to wake my friend who lives down the hill from us, because it was SO early and I knew there was already someone (and possibly some dogs) staying there. I decided we'd wait until 5am to wake her up.

Meanwhile, I tried to sleep in the van with the dog. Then we heard they might let us go back, so K drove back up the hill, and at 4:30 am they let us return. It was really hard driving around with the fish sloshing in his bowl. We kept telling K, "Be careful! Drive slower!" Poor fish.

Anyway, we got back home and went to sleep. They evacuated us again the next morning, but a man down the street was listening to everything on his police scanners, and he advised us to stay put. He'd let us know if it really got dangerous. We no longer trusted the evacuation system, and it was a hassle to leave home and find a place for the dog.

So we stayed home and watched the fire. The Fire Department decided to burn the hillside nearest us on purpose - to get rid of the fuel and avoid a bigger fire I guess. So we drank a beer and watched it burn and fielded phone calls from people who were worried about us.

The worst thing was the smoke, which came down every night and blew away every day. Since we didn't evacuate, we couldn't leave the house, either, because then they wouldn't let us come back up the hill. This lasted for a few days.

The police drove around, which was good, because there were lots of people who had their valuables sitting in their cars, ready to evacuate.

All in all, it was pretty dramatic, as you can see from the pictures. Now we have to worry about the mudslides, since the hillside no longer has vegetation to hold the dirt.

It's always something, right? I'll tell you about the rest of September in my next post.

Whew!

Blarney and Dublin

The next day of our cruise we went to the Blarney Castle. We docked in Cork, and took a bus to the castle. Of course, I'd heard of people kissing the Blarney stone before, and since we were there it seemed like the thing to do.

It turns out that this Blarney stone is at the top of a dilapidated castle, right at the edge, over a hole. To kiss this stone, you have to lean over backwards, at the top of a castle, over a hole. The stone is at the bottom, too, so you have to lean backwards, hold onto a rail, and lower yourself as far backwards as you can and kiss the wall.

There was a long line, and The Boy grew increasingly more anxious the higher we climbed. Neither one of us like heights, but he has me beat in the anxiety department. When we got to the top he wanted to go back, but since we'd climbed an ancient, small, and winding stairway that was full of people, there was no going back.

So we all kissed the stone and hopefully now are more eloquent and persuasive.

That day we watched the beginning of Bolt (so cute!), Enchanted, and Yes Man.






Day 4 was Dublin. By this time I'd devised the perfect breakfast, and I had it the rest of the trip. Their scrambled eggs tasted a little sweet, and I didn't like the omelets either. But every morning they served eggs over easy, so I'd go in and put some bread in the toaster, then get an egg and a piece of ham. When my toast was done, I'd assemble an egg sandwich and it was delicious. Sometimes I had the fresh pineapple too, as that is a treat.

They served some strange things for breakfast on the ship, probably catering to the many different nationalities on board. Some of the odder things were fried hard boiled eggs, fried rice, miso soup, fried liver, and cooked tomatoes.

I also made sandwiches for times we'd be away from the ship around lunchtime. I'd take a hard roll, cut in in half, spread it with butter, and insert a piece of ham. Yum!

Anyway, Dublin was MUCH bigger than I expected. I don't know why I expected it to be little, but it's a major city. We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It was really interesting. In the Long Hall upstairs they had an exhibit about Napoleon, which I also found very interesting.

We walked around the Temple Bar, which is a cool part of town. We went to the big park in town, an it was lovely and full of people. When we stopped to see the ducks in the pond, The Boy spotted a fox across the pond, sitting on a rock! When we were pointing it out to each other, a lady nearby said she lives in the area, and goes to that park every day, and she'd never seen that fox before!

When we went back to the ship, we grabbed a piece of pizza for my snack. One of our favorite things about the ship was the hamburger bar and the pizza station, which were open nearly all day on deck. We really missed them when we got back home.

That night we watched Hotel for Dogs.

Captivated!

That book turned out to be really good! I was taken captive for awhile, but it was worth it. Now I'm back to reality and will post more about my trip soon. I practically promise!

Guernsey

The first stop of our cruise was in Guernsey. I learned that there are islands in the English Channel, called Channel Islands! I was surprised to learn this, as there are islands off the coast of Ventura, California, that are also called the Channel Islands. Makes a bit more sense in the English Channel I suppose.

I was also surprised to see on a map that Guernsey is much closer to France than England - we could faintly see Normandy in the distance. But it was a political reason that they ended up belonging to England.

My In-laws had decided to rent bikes, so we ventured onto the island and searched for the bike shop. I was impressed with the island - it looked like Catalina's harbor, but with a lot of nice flowers. Clearly they take pride in their flowers!

It had been a long time since I'd ridden a bike, but I managed to avoid falling down! The Girl and my MIL both managed to fall into traffic (right next to the bike path!), and luckily I was not there to see either. I said a prayer for the Girl as she rode off without me.

K and I decided to ride over to the Castle Cornet, an old castle on the island. It was fun riding the bike there, as there was less traffic and it was much faster than walking.

We walked around the castle and got a really good view of the canon they fire every day at 1pm. Even tho I knew they were going to fire it, it still surprised me when it went off. I kindof screamed and took a less-than-perfect picture.

It was interesting to find that England abandoned these islands during WW2, as they were too close to France and too hard to defend. That must have been an interesting time to live there.

When it came time to ride back to the bike shop, I followed K into traffic and said a silent prayer for the best. We ran a red light in a busy intersection, and everyone was driving the wrong way, but I just followed him and we made it back without incident. Whew!

That afternoon and evening we watched BOLT, DEFINITELY MAYBE, ENCHANTED, and BRIDE WARS. For dinner I had ceasar salad, black bean soup, and tiger shrimp kabob.

I just bought a book about Guernsey that takes place during the German occupation, and I'm looking forward to reading it! It's called THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Schaffer. I'll let you know if I like it...

Family Cruise

Day 1 - Traveling and Waiting

K's parents decided to take the whole family (12 people) on a cruise to the English Isles to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They've been planning it for a long, long time. I was packed at least a month in advance, but I was still rushing around at the last minute until we left. There's always so much you want to get done before leaving for vacation.

Anyway, one of The Boy's friends drove us to the airport, in our own van, and that worked out nicely for us. At the airport it turned out my bag was 8 lbs overweight, so they asked me to put some of my stuff into another bag. Somehow in the midst of transferring things, my suitcase managed to get poured out onto the floor, but we were able to quickly scoop it all back in and nothing too embarrassing fell out. Whew!

The flight was fine. We'd stayed up late the night before, hoping it would help us fall asleep on the flight, but all it did to me was give me a headache! I didn't sleep much on the way there, which was only about a 10-hour flight. I saw some good movies - He's Just Not That Into You, Bride Wars (never quite saw the whole thing), New in Town, and The Reader. I think I missed something crucial in The Reader, tho, as I didn't quite understand the end.

Ten hours later we landed in London, where it was 7am! Going through customs, I was advised to put two perfectly good packages of beef jerkey into the "Honesty Bin" = which looked an awful lot like a trash can. So much for honesty!

I bought some coffee at the airport, and some wine for the cruise, as we were allowed to take a bottle each (adult). Then we were shuttled to a bus, then driven to the port about an hour away, then into a large waiting room for over an hour. Somewhere around 1 I think they let us onto the ship, and we made our way to our room.

I was pleasantly surprised to find our room and bathroom a bit bigger than the last (and only other) little cruise we took. We got settled and then set out to explore - getting some fries from the hamburger station on deck, and eating them beside the pool. Ah... heaven! We saw K's sister and BIL, KT and David, come out of the buffet, and we got to visit for awhile.

I told everyone to try and stay awake until our new bedtime, but the Boy went ahead and took a nap that afternoon. I think this threw him off for the rest of the trip, as he kept waking up at 5 in the morning after that.

Peanut RIP 7/7/09

We just got back from a fabulous cruise to the English Islands. It's a little overwhelming, but I plan to journal it all soon. Lots and lots of pictures.


For a long time I've been meaning to post about our cute little pets and their stories with us, but I still haven't gotten around to it.

Meanwhile, upon returning from our trip, we found that one of our two cats, Peanut, is missing. I did some pet detecting, and Peanut was last seen next door at 6am on 7/7. Peanut was our cat, but he was appreciated in several homes on this street.

Something happened that morning, because the cat two houses down became very upset and fearful and demanded to be let into the house. Its owner said it kept looking up and around, as if afraid something was coming to get him. So it seems that something happened that morning that Peanut did not survive. What with all the large birds and animals that come down from the mountains, it's a tough neighborhood for small animals.

We got home 2 days later. I feel sad that it happened while we were gone, but truthfully, our being here would probably not have made any difference. And it happened in the daytime, apparently.

Peanut was a cute cat. We got him at the pound when he was a little older than a kitten, but still pretty young. We got him to be a companion to Cosmos, a large black cat that we took in, but was in the process separated from another cat that had been a long-time companion. So we thought that Cosmos was lonely for a companion, and adopted Peanut.

Well, Cosmos could not have been more pissed off! He was completely offended that we'd brought in another animal, especially one as lively and playful as Peanut. Cosmos would come in and eat, but he refused to stay in the house and would NOT let us touch him in any way. This lasted for about 2 years.

Then we had to keep Cosmos inside for 10 days when he got injured, and after that he seemed to feel that we loved him again. After that he would come in the house and even stay all night. Sometimes he meows at us to pet him, which we sometimes do, even though Cosmos is HUGE and we are all scared of the size of his claws. Plus cats are liable to turn around and bite you without warning when you are petting them.

Well, like I said, Peanut was cute, but on the small side. He was playful and liked to tease other animals (including Cosmos and sometimes us) by bopping them on top of the head. He was very smart, and could open a screen door with his paw. Cosmos watched him do this many times, but never has had the idea to try it himself.

Peanut was also a great mouser, and often brought us gifts from nature.

Peanut was very affectionate too, until we brought home the dog, Gallo. Then Peanut got pissed off with us, and hardly ever came home or gave us affection anymore. The people next door really loved him, and I tried not to be jealous, as Peanut loved being a free cat and I think they gave him fish. If I didn't let him go out, he'd pester me and meow right in my face until I let him out.

In the last few months I'd tried to keep him in the house longer, and he got a little more affectionate with us. He got so he'd sleep inside for longer and longer periods of time.

I really miss him, and I wish I'd had more time with him.

I guess that's always the way.

June Gloom & Jazz Fest

June Gloom

1. I've never seen the clouds stay so low for so long out here in sunny CA. Last year, at the Boy's graduation, I almost melted from the heat! This year it's been cool, cool, cool.

Meanwhile, we're supposed to have a party in 2 days. Supposedly it's going to warm up for that day - I sure hope it does!

I've been really busy with end-of-the-6th-grade activities I'd volunteered for. Thursday we knocked out these Memory pages we'd made the kids. Friday I went with them on their 6th Grade Trip to go ice-skating and bowling. Whew! I had fun talking with the other Moms (OK, except one), but it tired me out!

It's also been gloomy because some of my favorite bloggers seem to have stopped blogging. I've tried to find others I like, but so far not much luck. Also, it seems to be re-run season on the talk shows, and there's been lots of reliving Thanksgiving and such. Yawn...


Best Day Ever.

2. Last Saturday we had another Best Day Ever. It started out with a nice, relaxing, romantic morning. The Girl's game wasn't until noon, so we all got to sleep in.

She was in kindof a bad mood, so I think it was good that the other team scored right away with a ridiculous mixup by our defense. That put us immediately behind and they played really hard the whole game. They had to win this game to have a hope for getting into the playoffs, so the coach was on them to be serious and play their best.

No one else scored in the first half. The second half, their goalie touched the ball outside the box, and since he was the last defender, he got an automatic red card. We scored with a penalty kick that was just under the pole. Then they got on a roll and scored 2 more times! Yay!

Then, near the end of the game, the Girl (who is sweeper) went for the ball but missed and hit the player on the other team, got an automatic red card because she was the last defender. At first she didn't even know, and the Ref had to tell her to get off the field! So her team had to play short, but the joke was on them because she can't make the next few games anyway. Ha!

We were still up 3-1, but the other team scored on the penalty kick resulting from the Girl's red card. Her team was still up by one, but went ahead and scored again for good measure.

For us it was a good win, a good game, and the Girl was laughing about her red card. Now she says she's gotten every color card.

Then we went home and got ready to go the the Playboy Jazz festival. I'd gone to Trader Joes and loaded up on hummus, chips, flatbread and pita bread. I made some ham and arugula wraps and some drinks, and then we hit the road. We were a little more prepared than last year, taking lots of food, jackets, umbrella, etc.

Like last year, we took the shuttle from the LA Zoo and it was great. It dropped us off right there, and we picked up our tickets and hiked our way to our seats. Our good friend Schlow was there, visiting from Philly. We saw the gang from last year, and it was fun.

This year we were sitting in the middle, so we had a great view of the Hollywood sign beyond the Bowl. After awhile we took a walk, and I discovered a path that leads to a picnic area that has a great view of the Observatory! Too bad I didn't take my camera on that walk.

The bands were great. Each band that came out seemed better than the last, although truthfully I enjoyed them all. When the Pete Escovedo Orchestra came on, his daughter Sheila E. was with them, and she played a little bit of her hit song (Glamorous Life).

People were throwing mardi-gras beads - I guess the Bowl sponsored that, because there were sure a lot of them. I never did need to put on my jacket. Near the end of the evening some guy gave me a glow-in-the-dark stick. I played percussion for awhile with it, but finally stuck it in my hair.

The last band was the Neville Brothers, and they really jammed out to songs like "Fire on the Bayou." It was so fun - good music, good food, good friends.

What more could you ask for?

Hot Dog Soup

The other day I accidentally made hot dog soup. Usually I pride myself in being a good cook, but this soup was ill-advised. I had purchased what claimed to be "Hot Sausage" , and thought I'd use it to make a soup like the sausage-potato soup they serve at Olive Garden. Then I discovered that our potatoes were no longer edible, and K suggested I use the rest of our uneaten mashed potatoes in the refrigerator. Anyway, I think the soup turned out ok except for the meat, which turned out to taste like spicy hot dogs! There was no getting around it - good soup, but hot dogs. I won't be making that again!

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1-800-Dentist

Commercials keep running for 1-800-dentist, quite a few during the daytime. I sometimes suspect my own dentist of being more interested in my pocketbook than my teeth, so one day I called to see if they had a dentist we could use. The guy on the phone (advisor) was extremely nice and asked a few questions about my preferences, location, etc.

"Well, good news!" he enthused, "I found a few in your area!"

"Great!" I answered, "Where are they?"

"One is in Beverly Hills," he said, "and the other is downtown Los Angeles."

Well, neither one of those are anywere near where I live! Who wants to drive 35 miles to visit the dentist? Or even 25 miles when I know there are probably 10 on the nearest big street alone! He claimed that there are only a few dentists who can meet the strict criteria of 1-800-dentist. (I'm thinking that means "dentists who are willing to pay the fee.")

But only 2 in the whole Los Angeles area?! Why even bother to run commercials all the time if there are only 2 dentists in all of Los Angeles? How can they afford to do that?

What about a smaller city or town? How far would they have to drive?

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Reality TV

I got a chance to be part of a Reality show today! They had asked for volunteers to comment on something in the show, and it was pretty fun. I had to be there at 7:30 am, which is WAY early for me, but I woke up excited to go.

It was interesting, it was fun. I can't tell you anything else about it or I could get in really big trouble. But if you see me on TV, let me know!

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Across the Universe

This movie was recommended to me by more than one person. I mentioned that we saw "LOVE" in Las Vegas, and one of my best friends lent me the movie to watch. We've actually had it a long time, so last weekend we sat down to watch it.

What the...? Parts of it actually made my eyeballs hurt! It was a really strange movie. Looking back on it, it may have stimulated my imagination somehow, but it wasn't an enjoyable process.

I've asked around, and people seem to really love it or hate it.

Decide for yourself, at your own risk.


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Lakers vs. Nuggets

My son walked out of the house wearing a Nuggets jersey today. Carmelo Anthony. I told him he's only asking for trouble, but he thinks it's funny I guess. I hope he makes it home OK.

What now?

1. I saw this video, and thought it was really funny. I guess it's more funny if you've seen Jaime Fox's "Blame it on the Alcohol", which is kindof funny all by itself because Ronnie Howard is in it.

2. When my Boy was home for Spring Break, he walked around one day singing, "Kanye West - thinks he's the best" I thought that was pretty funny, for some reason. (because it's true?) The Girl says kids at her school put three fingers in front of their eyes to imitate Kanye - I guess they're making fun of the glasses he wears in one of his videos. I think he's OK, but I don't like that new, flat sound of his new songs.

3. A few weeks ago Lil Kim got voted off Dancing with the Stars, and I just couldn't believe it! I guess there are a lot of country fans out there, but that Ty was pretty cute. I was really impressed with Lil Kim. I'd watched her Reality show, but this show showed her in a different light, and you could see how sweet and pretty she is. And even though this isn't her kind of dance, she gave a really good show every time. She's a real professional.

Usually I don't even vote, but this time I voted for Gils at the last minute. He was the only one without any dance training (I think gymnastics trains girls somewhat similarly to ballet), and I think he did a great job. I was surprised that Shawn won in the end, but they really were all so good, it was pretty even.

4. Could American Idol have been more surprising? Everyone was saying that Adam would win, and I think even Kris believed it too. I have to give him credit for still trying his best and doing a great job with "Heartless." This is also a Kanye West song, and the Girl said, "He managed to make that song sound good!" But when Ryan Seacrest announced that the winner was Kris, the Girl, who was listening from the bedroom, said, "First Lil Kim and now this!"

Don't do this, don't do that

As Mother's Day rolls around again, I'm reminded how much my little girl is growing up. One year she saw Regis & Kelly on TV say that they were looking for people to write in about their wonderful mothers and get them something from their dreams. She looked up at me and I could see she was thinking I was a great Mom and she should do that for me, and I told her it was OK, she didn't have to write a letter. I was happy that she thought I was a great Mom.

Now she's getting older and quieter, while at the same time more irresponsible and silly. She recently didn't even tell her father about the father-daughter dance they'd gone to the last few years, and he was sad about that. But I can see she's gearing up for middle school, and starting to withdraw and fight with us more.

Finally last weekend I told her that she's fighting with me too much. I can see she's headed into the years where everything I tell her is going to be wrong.

We learned from the Boy that kids try NOT to do what you tell them. For instance, I always told him, "No matter what you do, don't bring home a C. I'll get you tutoring, I'll help you any way I can. Just don't get any C's. So his last semester of school he got 4 A's and a C. Everyone says, "That's great about the A's!" But the C was the one thing I told him not to do!

So with that in mind, I want to say to tell the Girl the following:

Don't get good grades. In fact, quit school! Quit sports too.
Get into a relationship early, and what the heck, get married as young as possible!
Don't read, and whatever you do, don't go to college.
Don't learn how to drive, or get a job.
Don't be happy.

Hopefully, in her need to have us be wrong about everything, she'd go against us in a positive direction.

Think that would work?

Eight things

My horoscope, at Free Will Astrology.com, said the following for this week:

"identify five other ways to enjoy yourself without having to spend a fortune or hurt the earth. It's an excellent time, astrologically speaking, to experiment with the hypothesis that cutting down on consumerism can help you discover new approaches to feeling really good. "

So I sat down to think of 5 things, and I thought of a few more, too!

1. Drive somewhere high and look at the lights. You can even take something fun to eat or drink - like a box of doughnuts! No alcohol, though, as that could make the drive down too scary!

2. With kids, it's fun to make your own pizza. Make the dough in advance, then at dinner time divide it into pieces or into one big pizza with everything you want on it. Kids like making their own and eating their own creations.

3. Drive somewhere and enjoy nature = to the mountains to see and play in the snow, to the beach, to a waterfall. Take a light picnic!

4. Movie night! Pick out a few new movies (or oldies but goodies) and make some special popcorn (like maybe Tabasco Popcorn) and get comfortable!

5.Go to a restaurant and split something, like an order of nachos or a bowl of Pho. OK, maybe order a margarita or two. Relax, enjoy, talk and have fun.

6. Make an appetizer dinner. Dig your tin of smoked fish out of the pantry, some capers, olives, maybe some cheese in the refrigerator. Make one or two of your favorite snacks, and add some crackers and/or tortilla crisps, and snack the night away!

7. Have a soup party! Make one or two of your favorite soups, and invite your friends to bring a soup as well as a mug and a spoon. Share the soups, maybe provide some crackers and bread to back them up. Inexpensive, and not much cleanup, as people rinse out and take home their mugs and spoons.

8. Keep track of local restaurant specials. Often they have deals to get people in during the week, or have snacks for FAC. For instance, the local restaurant has "Taco Tuesday" and another has "Margarita Monday." We did this a lot in college too, and it made for some affordable dates.

Things I learned from Reality TV in 2008

-I learned that nearly every problem with dogs can be solved with chicken - or else you tell the dog "Uh uh!." from "It's me or the Dog."

-I learned that every problem with a dog is the fault of the human. And also that humans exude an "energy" that is picked up on by dogs, and we all part of the pack I found out that it's more important to be a good pack leader than a friend to the dog, and to forget the past, look to the future, and live in the now. - From "Dog Whisperer"

-I learned way more than I ever wanted to about Cloris Leachman - from "Dancing with the Stars."

-I learned that every overly messy houses and hoarding problems are "foolishness" and a symptom of another issue. I also learned to put a large flower in my hair. - from "Clean House."

-I learned that even someone with 8 kids can have OCD and refuse let their kids walk barefoot on hotel room carpet (like the bedspreads are better? - from "Jon and Kate plus 8."

-I learned you have to taste your food before sending it out to be eaten - on "Top Chef."

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a nice New Year's Eve. I ate way too much, and now have to start exercising more.

My sister, R, went to Aspen to visit friends for New Year's Eve. My Dad was worried about her driving in the mountains, but it turns out he should have been worried about a nut delivering bombs to banks. What are the odds, right? They ended up evacuating parts of town, so altho she didn't get evacuated, she couldn't go out for New Year's Eve! Everything was shut down!

But I guess she could hear the police cars and the police detonating the bombs. I heard the guy left long rambling notes around town, threatening mass destruction. I think he just wanted to be heard, and thought no one would read his long rambling notes unless he punctuated them with bombs!

My sister- she's always where the action is.