Sorry, Judy.....

THREE FREAKIN DAYS since my last BLOG!!! LOL!

I've painted over half the hall bathroom (I need someone to help me take down the 6 foot mirror on the wall ), cleaned up the mess in the backyard from our 30 MPH winds this weekend and "babysat" Justin's pooches all weekend. I have also spent several hours scanning a MESS O PHOTOS! (Me and my maternal grandparents are here, circa Christmas 1964?)

I think the only person other than Judy, Iris and Justin that reads my blog is Tammy (next time I visit ID, I will have to meet you, HomeSchool woman), so here's a link to my photobucket... the album is "old family photos" and the password is PHOTOS. There are about 20 new pics in that album.....

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v159/sandimom/Old%20Family%20Photos/

My life is categoried in three stages.... life before marriage #1, life between then (1986) and current marriage (1993) and life as I now know it! As you look at the pics, Paul was my first SERIOUS boyfriend... from High School. We dated into College and drifted. He married Trish in 1985. Their son, Michael, was born in 1991. He is the BEST KID EVER! They took me in for a while between marriages when Michael was about 18 months old. Paul and Trish split up several years back, but I still love them all. Trish, Michael and I share an addiction to Disneyland..... I am going to miss going with them after we move..... We are already scheduled to go in January 2007!

Other than that, I've done several loads of laundry and dishes... life is an absolute THRILL around here!!!!!

Yes, it's been a while since I blogged!

I am back from my trek up to Mt Rainier. It was SOOOOOO gorgeous up there!

When I arrived Friday it was SNOWING! Keep in mind it was 85 degrees at home..... Quite a change!



Saturday morning it rained off and on with a sprinkle of snow mixed in early on. I got the "hard-hat tour" of the project which was quite interesting. Freakin cold, but interesting! Here is the picture that will make Judy spew Snapple all over her computer screen...... Yeah.... that's me in my ski jacket, gloves, fleece hat, hard hat and safety vest! Scary.....











We spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday driving all over the park. I took a ton of pictures, some of which are even half decent. We didn't see any bears, cougars or bobcats, but we did see some grey fox and a HOARY MARMOT. Yes, HOARY, not hairy. It was the funniest dang thing I've ever seen. Like a big, FAT gopher and it CHIRPS LIKE A BIRD. Here is what he looked like:


Like I said, the funniest thing I've seen.... apparently they are rodents.




Russ had to work Saturday morning, which gave me time to work on some swap cards for the Reno Regionals next month. Here is the prototype:


Regionals are October 20/21 up in Reno. I'm hoping to make about 35 of these cards by then. The finished ones will have ribbon and brads on them too. The tag slides back into the punched out hole so just the star on the top of the tree shows. It's an idea I got from a swap card from another SCS member, missellee.

I have the painter coming later this week or early next week to show me colors so I can hopefully have test patches on the house when Russ comes home on the 30th so we can get the house painted. It needs it SOOOOOO badly! I can't wait to have a house that is ALL ONE COLOR with just ONE trim color again! LOL! The grey stucco has white patches and lines of patch where the stucco has cracked. The trim colors are off white and blue (like SU's Not Quite Navy). The old gutters were painted in the blue to match the fascia boards. Now the new gutters are BRIGHT WHITE. My poor house looks like a patchwork quilt! Russ wanted to paint the house grey again, but I am hoping to talk him into a nice cheery yellowy-cream color. Like a rich French vanilla ice cream color. OK... now I'm HUNGRY! LOL! Ours would be the only house on the street that color. We have one blue, one green and the rest are either a shade of grey or brown. BLEH!

That's about all that's new here.......

Off to the Mountain in the morning!

This will be my last blog till at least Tuesday! My flight to Seattle leaves at 8 in the morning which means I need to leave the house around 6:30. I get in to SEA/TAC at 10 and then I get to find my rental car and start driving! It should take me about 2 1/2 hours to get up to Paradise. My flight home is Monday evening at 7:30 and I get home around 9:15.... well, to the airport anyway. By the time I get my bag, take the shuttle back to my car and get home it will be 10 or 10:30 probably.

Mt Rainier, HERE I COME!!!!!

You know your day is gonna SUCK when......

It starts with a phonecall from your husband saying, "You might want to bring your WARM JACKET this weekend". Uh....... WHY????? "We woke up this morning to 4" of snow on everything up here". LOVELY.... and I will be in a rental car of the clown variety (think ford focus 2 door hatchback) driving up into SNOW? This ought to be an adventure..... Can't blog long.... I got to make a run to REI for long underwear! Maybe more tonight if I get packed before bedtime.... my flight is at 8 AM which means I need to be at the airport around 6:30 in the morning. I'm already checked in and have my boarding pass printed. Now I just have to completely REPACK as I had packed for warmer weather.... SIGH..... WISH ME LUCK!!!!!

OK, Judy... HAPPY NOW?????

Since Miss Judy is on my case for not blogging, HERE I AM!

First of all, Monday was just too depressing for me to do anything but watch a bunch of 9/11 stuff and be weepy all day. To this day, I still can't fathom that there are human beings in this world who can have such a deep hatred for other human beings that they don't even know. People who have done nothing wrong but be born on another chunk of ground. I also still can't wrap my mind around the number of casualties that day.....

Yesterday was then spent catching up on all the stuff I should have done on Monday and still catching up from my 4 days gone on my trip to SPUD LAND!

Now I'm running around trying to get ready to go up to Washington Friday morning. I get back Monday night. No internet access, no cell phone, no TV up there. Gotta bring a stamp project!!!!!

Justin is coming over tonight..... he gets to move my firepit for me and remove the showerhead in Russ' bathroom so I can go to Lowes and get a new one. Him coming over gives me the excuse to BBQ!!!! YUM! OOO! I also need him to pull down a big box from the rafters in the garage!!!! Yes, I make him EARN HIS DINNER! LOL!

Gotta go and flip the meat (in the marinade) and prepare the corn!

OH! And Judy - today at my Raley's (grocery store) they had IDAHO SPUDS as big as my SHOE!!!!! 69¢ a pound. I'm just happy that we are starting to get Bartlett pears in season here! YUMMMMM!!!!!!

Idaho knows their SPUDS!!!!

OK... I promised Russ I would post these.... here are the finest examples of IDAHO POTATOES I saw during my visit. The first pic is a bin of "Bakers" at SuperWalMart. I put the cabbage in the bin so Russ could see that these dang things are the size of my shoe!!!! Sorry it's fuzzy... I took it with my cell phone!

The second photo is from the fair (mmmmm... food on a stick!) where we encountered something called "TORTATOES". Basically it's a spud, put on an apple peeler run by a drill motor that spins the spud into one long, curly peel. Then they toss it in the deep fryer and you end up with a big, long, curly, hot potato chip! YUMMMMMM!!!!!

Yeah, I'm on carrot sticks and salad the rest of the week......

I survived and I am HOME!!!!!

I am home! I missed my connection in Vegas and had an extra hour travel time yesterday. When I got home, the cat attached herself to me. I came in, ate, brought my bags in from the car, took out what was needed and went to bed! The cat slept on me most of the night. She was in my face at 6 this morning... ugh.... I DON'T THINK SO, KITTY! We slept in till almost 8! I went to a Pin Collector meeting at the Hard Rock today, and when I came home, the cat had welcomed me back by hurling all over my bed. NICE!

Judy's computer is self-destructing so my goal tomorrow is to "suck" the last files off my old computer's hard drive and find someone to help me prepare it for shipping to Idaho. I'm going to call the "PC Med Center" there and reinstall what she will need and *HOPEFULLY* ship it right to them. Then she can bring her poor PC in and they can transfer her files over onto the new machine. Hopefully I will get it out of here on Wednesday! Then Friday I am off to Washington to visit Russ and check out my soon-to-be-home. I have mixed feelings about all this, but as long as his company is willing to pay him big bucks, I will follow! LOL!

Judy's dog is not sure what to make of me......

Starburst isn't quite sure what to do with me. She will come up and sit NEAR me, but if I reach to pet her, she bolts. It's too funny!

God help me, I'm in IDAHO....

Well, I'm here. I have survived Judy's driving and my hearing is coming back after she SHRIEKED when she put in one of the CD's I brought her. She is now singing STYX's "Babe"......

The TSA or something opened one of my bags that showed up GAPING OPEN on the baggage carousel. GRRRRRRR...... It doesn't look like I lost anything, which is incredible considering the bag was WIDE OPEN. Sheesh. Our tax dollars at work......

That's all for now......

This will be short....

Blogger is NOT being user friendly today.... it has taken me almost 10 minutes to get in to post! GRRRRRR.....

Russ finally brought home some pictures from Paradise. The photo here is the Guide House, which is where he is living. See the floor with one window at the end? That's the 3rd floor where he lives. Of course, he did NOT bring me any pictures of his actual living space, just the outside.... MEN! SHEESH!

I went for a quick ride this morning.... 2.63 miles, 9.9 mph average. Now it's off to get coffee and run a few errands. I have to get Russ back to the airport by 2PM and then I need to come home and do laundry and GET PACKIN' for my trip to Ida-HO! The cat already knows something is amiss..... poor kitty.....

A quiet Sunday morning

Good morning world! No blog yesterday, but I did ride my bike for about 3.5 miles yesterday morning. No bike ride today. Something I ate yesterday made me sick for most of the afternoon. Then I thought I was better so I ate dinner last night. BAD IDEA. So I was sick half the night. Bleh. I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach. Dinner was soooooo yummy though.... I have a new baked salmon recipe that I have been making... VERY TASTY! We had that with herbed rice (rice-a-roni, the San Francisco treat!) and salad. YUMMMMMM!!!! All that's on the schedule for today is taking Russ to church and doing a little shopping over in that area. I need a new pair of everyday shoes..... Unlike Miss Judy, I don't have a different pair of flip flops for every day of the summer (LOL!).... I wear the same pair of shoes every day from about March thru October and these have just about HAD IT! I have another pair I wear every day when it gets colder. They are heavy duty though and will last me 3 or 4 years before they die on me! After church and shopping I have a couple loads of laundry to do for Russ before he leaves tomorrow. I have chicken marinating in Italian tomato-basil-garlic marinade to grill for dinner with a side of whole wheat pasta and salad. Ssssshhhhhhh.... don't tell Russ the pasta is whole wheat and GOOD FOR HIM.... he won't eat it! LOL! We went to BevMo (Beverages & More) yesterday and Russ got a couple of cigars and I picked out 2 bottles of California Chardonnay to bring to Idaho. We also went over to REI and looked at hiking boots for Russ. A nice, quiet, low-key weekend for us! Russ flies out at 3:25 tomorrow afternoon and with the Holiday, we figure he will need to be at the airport by 2.

OH... *THIS* ought to be interesting..... My friend, Trish, works for the County out at the airport. She called me on Friday to ask when Russ was flying out since THE COUNTY WORKERS, INCLUDING THOSE AT THE AIRPORT ARE GOING ON STRIKE TUESDAY MORNING! Doesn't affect Russ, but *I* FLY OUT WEDNESDAY MORNING!!!! AAAAAACCCCKKKK!!!!! Let's put it this way, Trish is an upper level Auditing Manager. She has a shift directing curbside traffic on Tuesday from 10 to 2. This will affect me most if the shuttle drivers are striking..... I park in long term parking and take the shuttle in to the terminal. If there is no shuttle..... It's about a mile walk, with luggage. I think it's time to call SUPER SHUTTLE! LOL! OK... I just looked at Super Shuttle and for a 6:50 flight time, they want to pick me up at FOUR-FREAKIN-A.M.!!!!! I am a 15 to 20 minute drive from the airport. That is INSANE!!!!! UGH! Do I chance the shuttles working and drive or bite the bullet and be on my doorstep at 4 am????? Hmmmm..... That is just SO WRONG....

I'm getting lazy....

Or crazy.

I stayed up too late last night so I missed my morning bike ride. Again. SIGH. Oh well. I got my exercise today planting some plants in the front yard and changing the bed! LOL!

Russ will be home for the 3 day weekend. He gets in around 7:30 tonight and leaves at 3:45 on Monday afternoon.

My desktop chore today is to clean up the mess of files on my laptop. Ugh.....

No bike ride today.....

Well, it looks like the move to Washington is a go. I have been doing a lot of research on our new home area and all it will take to get us moved. Last night was my first official "move-related-sleep-disorder". I woke up at 1 AM and all I could think about was the fact that I had a whole new house to paint inside and NO FRIENDS THERE TO HELP!!!!! When we bought this house (1450 sq ft), we repainted the living area, kitchen and Master bedroom. Later I painted the master bath and 2 of the bedrooms. Now I am looking at an 1860 sq ft house, that will be brand new and all painted in "contractor white" and NO ONE to help me paint it! EEK! So, with that, I tossed and turned..... the last time I looked at the clock it was after 3 AM and I shut off my alarm. I didn't wake up till almost 7!

So, can anyone out there recommend a good sleep aid???? Lunesta???? Maybe a gerneral happy pill? Welbutrin????? LOL!

Another quick blog today!

I went for my ride with Luisa this morning. 3.68 miles at 7.8 miles per hour average. It's been a little colder in the mornings.....Fall is finally coming!

Gotta buy a lottery ticket today.... It's up to $58 million. Wouldn't THAT be something? Can you just IMAGINE the stamp room I would have???? LOL!

Here is what my stamp room looks like now... well, not right now as it isn't this clean! I normally don't have the laptop in there either.

Another thrilling day....

I tried to post yesterday, but blogger was not letting me publish or save my draft. I rode with Luisa yesterday morning - same ride as today. Went down to the Stamp Store in Elk Grove yesterday and then over to the scrapbook store down there too. I had a mystery shop last night at dinner and then I came home and worked on my swap that is due next week.

Went for my 3.6 mile levee ride this morning with Luisa. I was really tired this morning.... had a heck of a time getting out of bed! I need to get a couple things at JoAnn Fabrics or Michael's today and I need to get another plant for one of the barrels in the front yard. Yes, my life really is THAT exciting. I also have 12 swap cards that have to be mailed on Friday and I decided to do stuff that needs drying time. The first step that needed to dry sat overnight. Tonight I will do the glitter so that can dry overnight. I also need to dye more ribbon.... I did not do enough the first time. I've also been working on my packing list for my trip to Judy's next week. I have a couple projects I want to do with her when I'm there! It's been a long time since I stamped with anyone, other than at convention.

Yesterday was FUN!

Yesterday Justin and I took our bikes down to Monterey. They have an awesome bike/pedestrian trail down there. We parked the car at Fisherman's wharf and rode south, through Pacific Grove and down to Asilomar State Beach (where I took the photo) and back. It was about 5 miles each way. It was a gorgeous ride, mostly right along the coastline, past some beautiful homes and a golf course. There was a wedding going on in the park at Lovers' Point, a wedding in another park between the Aquarium and Lovers' Point and we saw 2 more bridal parties doing pictures during our visit. It was a sunny day, cool with a light breeze. Man are my legs TIRED! Keep in mind, my daily ride is almost all flat. Yesterday was up and down way more than I am used to!

I went to ride this morning and OUCH! I still managed to do about 2.5 miles this morning. Averaged a little over 10mph, which is faster than I normally ride, but again, it was all flat and paved!

Oops.... I forgot to post yesterday!

I just realized when I logged in this morning that I forgot to post yesterday! Sorry, Judy! LOL!

So I'll start with yesterday..... Rode with Luisa (my next-door-neighbor). We went faster yesterday than we have the past couple days. She showed me where the park is in the first part of our area.... Northpoint subdivision is divided into 3 sections, none of them connect "inside".... you have to go back out to the main road to get from one to the next. The section I live in is the last one that was built. The park is in the first one. So we rode over there and also saw where they have put in some new houses.... they say they have 5 and 6 bedrooms, but they are not very large.... those rooms must be TINY! After that, we rode up onto the levee at that end and then to the end by the railroad tracks and came home. 3.46 miles, 7.3 mph average, 28 minutes.

The spa service man came to the house yesterday afternoon and got the spa cleaned and running again (YAY!). I have a feeling I will be VERY happy to have that back "online" tomorrow night!

This morning Luisa and I rode up the levee, one end to the other and then once around the neighborhood. 3.91 miles (my furthest yet), 7.5 mph (our fastest), 31 minutes. It was a good ride. It's starting to get cooler in the mornings..... I need to find some long sleeved shirts and sweats that aren't too baggy to ride in... Fall is coming! At some point I know I will have to switch over to riding in the middle of the day.... it will be too cold and dark in the morning. I'm looking forward to December when they finish the bridge over the railroad tracks.... Then I can start riding toward my ultimate goal.... STARBUCKS! It is 3.6 miles each way..... There's another one closer, but I haven't checked mileage there or checked to see if they have a bike rack to lock up.

Taz just came in and yelled at me, so now she is on my lap, purring, while I try to type and pay attention to her at the same time. I'm not getting much typing done, but I can tell you that it's time to trim her claws again.... cat on lap, me in shorts. NOT a comfy mix! LOL! Crazy cat..... She has taken to liking canned food. She never used to like it.... she would just lick all the gravy off it and leave the "meat", so I stopped giving it to her. I decided to try a new kind that came out and she actually ATE THE WHOLE THING! So now when I'm home at lunch, she gets lunch too! Of course the one she likes is the MOST EXPENSIVE one you can buy! My girl has good taste!

Well, I'm off to start my day! Want to be at REI by 10, when they open.... they are expecting a crowd..... No blog tomorrow since I will be leaving EARLY for Yosemite, but I will blog on Sunday, hopefully with PICTURES!

Happy Hump-Day!

Welcome to Wednesday! Grocery shopping day! I rode with the neighbor again this morning. 3.68 miles, about 33 minutes. We rode a little faster today.... 6.5 mph average. When I got home I cleaned out the spa and filled it. I have a "spa doctor" coming tomorrow afternoon to check it out and drain, clean and refill it. It's been sitting empty and off since Russ left.... Nasty!!!!! While the spa was filling, I took advantage of the nice temperature and pruned everything in the back yard. THAT was a TASK! I filled up TWO 5 gallon buckets! PLUS a HUGE armload of long stuff! But the yard looks better. Less colorful, but better. Here's a photo:
I can't get all the plants in the picture.... there's a small shrub with little pink flowers missing on the right and a butterfly bush with white flowers on the left, but this is the best I can get without getting the BBQ and the furniture in the shot!

So that was MY morning..... Hope everyone has a great day!

Did something a little different today.....

This morning I went riding with my next door neighbor and her friend, Sara, who lives a few blocks away. We rode farther than I usually ride, but they ride at a more leisurely pace than I do. We went 3.49 miles , but it took about 35 minutes. Each time I looked at the speedometer, we were going about 5.6 mph. I usually average a little over 9mph. While it was nice to ride with someone, their pace was hard for me. I think maybe I will ride with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays and ride on my own the rest of the week. We'll see!

Another Monday!

And it started WAAAAAAY too early! Russ wanted to leave for the airport at 5:15, so I set my alarm for 4:45, but I woke up around 4:15 and never really got back to sleep (thanks, cat!). Russ shut his alarm off and didn't get out of bed until about 4:50. So much for leaving at 5:15!

When I got back, it was still too dark out to ride, so I opened up all the windows to cool off the house. I started for my ride around 6:15. It was COLD this morning! Well, not any colder than usual, but I guess the fact that it wasn't sunny out yet made it feel colder!

Reno was fun.
Russ did well at the tables, so he had a good time. We went to Johnny Carino's for dinner last night. Today I get to clean up the little messes he left around the house.... the pile of stuff in the living room to shred. The pile of mail on the coffee table. The ice cream dish on the coffee table. The ice cream scoop, not rinsed, sitting in the sink. The pile of laundry. Yep..... always good to have him home.... MEN! LOL!