Olympics and such

We're going to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics !!! Just yesterday we were able to get more tickets:
* Opening Ceremony
* Freestyle Skiing - W Moguls
* Luge - M Singles (Medal)
* Speed Skating - M 500 m (Medal)
* Ice Hockey - W Russia v USA
* Ice Hockey - W Sweden v Canada
* Curling - W Tournament
* Snowboard - W Halfpipe
* Freestyle Skiing - W Ski Cross
* Ice Hockey - M Qual Playoff 4
* Speed Skating - W 5000 m (Medal)
* Short Track Speed Skating - W 3000 m Relay (Medal), W 1000 m, M 500 m
* Snowboard - W Parallel Giant Slalom (Medal)
* Curling - W Medal round
Needless to say, I am not going CURLING ! but going for the rest of the events and of course thrilled we did get Opening Ceremony !!

In non-Olympic news, we did go fishing last weekend (dennis and myself) although the rivers were blown out, it was amazingly gorgeous ! In town this weekend for women's day at the Fly Shop, lots of raffles, fly casting and knot tying seminars and bbq, so that should be fun...I also get to meet some of the folks that will be going on my Ansel Adams wilderness trip in July that I just signed up for...here is more information for those that want it...Golden Trout Wilderness..the guide Ange is going to help me out with a list of what to bring and all that, Dennis and his brother-in-law might go as well !!
We are also going again up to Dunsmuir next weekend with Lance, Dennis, us and the two dogs ! we have rented a cabin on the Upper Sac (Sacramento for you non-locals) and I am sure we will have some pictures from that and hopefully stories to tell about all the fish we are catching !! We hired a guide for Saturday and Sunday, so that should help ! I also have to shout out to my cousin that that fly box and flies were quite productive this weekend, I just wish the trees behind me weren't so hungry for them flies :D !! The weekend after that we're heading up to Austin to see Chris and John, little wee Claude will hopefully stay with Auntie Karen, so we will
be having some good ole' tex-mex and bbq that weekend as well !!
In June we have tickets to the Opera- Porgy and Bess as well as Tosca, so I'm very excited about that !! We also have tickets to see Michael Pollen (who wrote Omnivore's Dilemma) and then we're seeing this show "Three Girls and their Buddy featuring Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller" which we can't wait for either, so its a pretty hectic couple of months but of course well worth it !
In other news, I am in week two of my Visa Boot Camp- a fitness thing twice a week from 7am-8am at work, so far I haven't passed out and I don't seem to be the worst one in the group...I can't run or really do anything "jumpy" with my knee but its great exercise to augment my every other morning going to the gym at 6am to get back into shape !! Hopefully I will be in excellent shape for my big wilderness adventure ! I am riding the bicycle 3 times a week to get my butt ready for the horseback riding !!
I also recently signed up for our mobile alerts pilot where I get a txt message for every transaction on our shared credit card at time of purchase, its a Fraud detection thing that has turned into a very useful tool for the guys at work whose wives don't work and shop all day !! ha !! but its pretty fun, I am sure I will get sick of it at some point but its still fun to see when Daner goes to lunch !! ha !
so that's my story, when I figure out how to download pics from Dana's new camera, I will load them ! in the meantime, we're going to have 80degree weather this weekend, so hope you're all staying cool while we're heating up !!

Awards Ceremony

Maegan was recognized tonight at the PNG Awards Ceremony for being in the top 2% of her class.

Maegan, Ayah, Taylor, Nikki and Dara

Weekend

Here are pics from our wonderful Mother's Day today! The first one is me and Meggie going off to church. We enjoyed the service and getting to see everyone and of course everyone was asking about Mom! We sure did miss Nan on the pew next to us though. The watch is my Mother's Day present from Nan and Maegan. After church we came home and I cooked fried pork chops with mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and it was pretty yummy! Right in the middle of our meal Maxie popped his little head up next to Maegan so he could test out the food for himself. :-) Then I took a nap and went to Dillards to get links taken out of my watch and then to Sonic for a drink! Meggie was curled up in bed with Maxie reading her book with the woofas next to her when I got back. We are about to watch Grey's Anatomy and get our stuff ready for another week of school and work. Hope everyone has had a wonderful Mother's Day today...wish my mother weren't halfway across the world!!! We Love You All!!

Maegan and the Flowzie and her Woofa's.

Maegan in her Berkley shirt

Miss Maegan on a Monday morning wearing her cute new dress we bought in Haight while we were shopping in Cali. And yes, she has on my sequined Converse. She did look precious, cuter in person than her standing for the picture. She went to her dad's this weekend and to Nikki's bday party Sat. night. We had HORRIBLE weather Sat. night. A group of us went out to eat and back to Lisha's and my friend Jamie's car flooded out and three of the girls couldn't get out to get to the restaruant. Somehow my little Honda made it okay, but I was sure wishing I'd have been in Big Green. Friday night's weather was almost as bad as well. I helped Jamie tabulate judges scores at the Mercado Days pagent (Mexican Heritage) and we had to stop the pagent for an hour and a half because of the weather. It was under a pavillion and the lightening was so bad that they unplugged everything on the stage and then unplugged our calculators! Needless to say my hair was a big frizzy mess by the time we left. Hope everything goes well for Aunt tomorrow, we are all anxious to hear the results. I am testing all week so it will be stressful and hectic in Rm 405. Kind of like it is every day otherwise. :-) Hope everyone has a good week. Love you all...

p.s. Just as a side note, I had to channel mother and her newspaper editorial skills and blast someone this morning on the Beaumont Enterprise online comment section in an article about Nick. Tee hee.....kind of felt good.

Dont' have time to blog about our wonderful trip, but here's a video I took of Honey today at Moms.

~m

Maegan got 5th place Sat. in News Writing at the UIL meet. Her Journalism team got 2nd in district so they will compete at regionals at the end of this month.

Aloha and Happy Easter !

So we, meaning me, have been a bit behind in our blog posts...and in general to get information TOO Isreal, we did actually get cards and such to mail but wouldn't you know the UPS store doesn't sale international postage- you have to go to a Post Office, which I know my grandmother would have laugh at me but who goes to a physical Post Office anymore? I mean really?? where are those ancient dinosaurs and even worse, what are the hours? not after-office hours but I digress...I haven't been good at email though either, despite the two phones, 3 email addresses and all the possible communication devices known to mankind but of course none of those worked in Hawaii....this is me at the Lava rocks, what a very cool adventure that was !! we of course did NOT read the safety video and went right up to the Ocean to take pictures, we found out later that 40 acres fell off into the ocean last year, I guess its still HWH (hard way holly) as Dad would say !! but it was fun and relaxing, we went to the Black sand beach, the green sand beach, Mauna Kea, Hawaii volcano national park, Po-lo-lu lookout which has amazing views of Maui and the northern coast of the big island...we cooked, played scrabble, played wii and generally had a great time ! one minor note is that if you don't buy maps and expect the GPS to give you directions, you must be in cities with satellite reception- which most of hawaii does not have! But again, we had a great time and it was really just incredibly relaxing, it took a couple of days at work (as opposed to the 3 hours it usually takes) for me to be back in the swing of things and my brain caught up the following week....
So we have been getting the house ready for our guests, we had Davey in from Hawaii (although he is en route to move back to Houston next week) and had a great time with him. He was here to try out for Shear Genius, a bravo TV Show which he didn't get called back but it was a good experience. We went and ate at Chloe's for breakfast, had hamburgers with Dennis (more on that later) and got to spend a couple of days in the very warm sunshine...it was 80 degrees this past weekend and of course with Melissa coming its back down to 60 degrees...we just can't seem to schedule the weather for the girls !!
So other news is that we did get rid of the armoir I hated (which really happened last year) and finally got the credenza, TV, picture frames and ipod dock for the spare bedroom, so we are now a full service hotel with all the modern amenities...the room looks so much better, I finally have a place to rest when I am sick and best of all that huge armoir is not there ! we still need to get plants and we're going to paint the alarm box but otherwise that is all done...We bought a side table and coffee table (I just had the thought that I know all of this rambling sounds so incredibly insignificant from jerusalem, or africa, or really anywhere !! but I digress again) for the living room, the coffee table didn't work, so it went back (and I tell you what an ordeal, we did however save almost $300 picking everything up ourselves so we didn't have to ship it, using Paul's van and car, but whew that was a lot of work and running around) to the store, so I still don't have a coffee table (10 years later, can you believe ?? but of course now that I think about it I don't think I ever owned my own coffee table, hmmm) anyway, its been a long time and I want a coffee table. my friend Nelli from work suggested I go to Ethan Allen, showed me a really great coffee table but of course I had to say that I was biased against it because my mother buys her furniture there and although it is of hte highest quality, we have very different tastes ! ha ! but it was nice, there is one around the corner from work, so we ran up there one afternoon to look but didn't really like it, so back to the proverbial drawing board !!
Next topic !! Big exciting news is that we have the girls coming in this weekend, I assume there will be a couple of good blog posts, we already have maegan fired up about rip-sticking but I am not sure the weather (or my knees) will cooperate with us, we're going to have to play it all by ear...Dennis is unfortunately out of town for Kristi's birthday, so we're going to have to go solo without him...Paul is having the annual fancy easter dinner after church, so that will be exciting- I am making a lemon poppyseed drizzle icing cake for dessert that is a Jamie Oliver recipe- I did review 6 recipes with paul for pre-approval and that was the agreed upon dessert...I am hoping we can scrounge up some frozen or canned veggies but will have to see, its not likely :D but it will be fun and of course the table settings will be beautiful ! anyway, we are all very excited to have our girls in town, hopefully noone will end up in jail !
Speaking of jail, we did go fishing on Sunday, its two weeks from opening weekend which I am going to miss because I am going to be in Houston for Lynette's 20th bday (april 24th weekend)...we did not catch anything on Sunday, a friend at work (one of the russians) said that he has fished there alot and never gone home empty handed (aka we don't know what we're doing) but again it was very warm and sunny, so we had a good time catching up..we are going fishing the first weekend in may since that will be the first time we are both in town after the opening of trout season...I am hoping to have some great trout adventures to write about this summer, of the monster fish I am catching or wild trout I continue to hook in the high sierras, I can't wait to really participate in my first full trout season, the different hatchings (BWOs or caddis or Humpys)...I am considering taking some fly casting lessons just to make sure I don't get creative and start bad habits and we will be getting a guide in May with Dennis but otherwise, I have mapped out (with my 8 maps, books, etc...) many options for the summer, so weather willing, it will be a productive season....So other than that, the usual life irritations of losing my drivers license (because of that silicon blackberry case), having the transmission replaced in the smart car, work and people- life is perfection ! ha ! still going to meetings, still being of service and looking forward to my family being on the same continent again ! Work has unfortunately continued to be crazy as we struggle with operating as a public company but we still have high hopes, its just not happening as fast and smoothly as we think it should...its great having Dennis around though and of course taking each day as it comes, I still really love my boss and the bay area, so we are here for now...Claude sure does send all his love to the family, Dana says hello and happy easter, hope ya'll are eatin as good as we are !! Here's a picture of springtime almond blossoms we got blown up to hang on the wall....I have enjoyed some excellent books lately- The Nine, Yiddish Policemans Union, Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, Speaks the Nightbird, Fire in the Blood, if anyone is looking for some good reading....anyway- enjoy and au revoir !

Weekend Report:

Track meet Thursday night was long and cold! Poor Meg got there at 1:30, the track meet didn't start till 4:00 and she didn't run her first run until 6:30 and her last until 9:30. She didn't get her time for the runs but she thinks she did good on the last run, the mile. In between runs we went to Jack in the Box to warm up and grab a hamburger. Friday she got out at 1:00 but PNG was hosting UIL this last weekend so I brought her back up there from 4-7:30. She had to go back up at nine Sat. morning and competed in News Writing and got fifth place and another medal! We just relaxed at home the rest of the day. Maegan went to Sunday school this morning and I washed the car. It was a beautiful sunny day today, she went to Dara's to lay out and try to erase the tan line she's developed from track and I layed out here and finished my new Jodi Picoult novel. So nothing too exciting to report on. Maegan is going to run her District track meet, which will be the last, on Tuesday in Beaumont. She's having to run JV for District because we're going to be gone one of the days of the Varsity meet. Four days till we leave for my sister's in Cali! Yay. Need to find a suitcase and get to packing. Love you all.......

Little weekend snippet. Maegan had a track meet Friday in Silsbee. She got to run her first run, the 2 mile and got 8th place! The weather got really bad and it started raining so they cancelled the meet. We had severe weather in Texas, blizzard in Amarillo, baseball size hail in Austin and hail in Houston. Maegan made it back to school and I went to pick her up and Paisley and Jansen came and got her from here. I packed up and went to Houston to dinner and met some friends and then to Aunts. Jansen's first day of TBall was Sat. and they went to opening ceremonies and then to his game at 1:30. It was REALLY cold on Sat...the temp was 38 that morning and didn't get over 60 the entire day. Maegan said they were really cold out there. Saturday I went to a Spring Fling/Music Festival sponsored by a law firmed owned by a friend of mine's cousin. It was really fun..live music and catered barbeque, etc. My friend Jamie was in Houston as well so a big group of us met at a karaoke place later that night and watched the crazy fools who were brave enough to get up and sing. The weather was really pretty all weekend, cool and sunny. James and Paisley dropped Maegan off this afternoon and I sat in HORRENDUS traffic (twice) but finally did get home. People were all stopped and out of their car visiting. It was crazy. Anyway it wore me out but I got home and did some laundry and Maegan did her homework and we are getting all ready for bed. And work/school tomorrow. Sure enjoyed getting to see my aunt, even if it were for only the brief periods of me running in and out to change clothes and go again. =) Hope everyone had a great weekend, I know my mom surely did. Love to you all.....

This is Maegan's new watch she got for her PERFECT Semester grades! It's really cute. No real news this week. Maegan has a track meet in Orangefield today where her friend Lexi goes to school. Her first run is at two so I'm goign to catch her second one tonight. She doesn't have a UIL meet tomorrow, can't remember exactly why but we're both glad she doesn't! We are super excited that the Twilight movie is coming out tomorrow! Lisha is having a bunch of girls over for dinner and drinks and a movie viewing so I'm looking forward to that. Maegan is going to the movies and to eat with a group tomorrow night. Today, after two years in our new building, we finally were issued keys to the building! I know it sounds trivial, but for two years we have been locked out of all the outer doors in the front and the back of our school. So that's all I got. Nothing exciting. I'm glad mom made it safely to Israel (finally) and had a better ending to her flight than we started with! Love to you all....hope everyone has a great weekend.

Saturday Part II

Here's Maegan this afternoon after the UIL meet with her medal . She got fifth place in Math. At this meet they competed by grade level so she competed against 9th graders and there were only three other schools there so she got fifth!! She didn't know her score but I was proud she got a medal anyway!

Well today's blog will be short because there's not much to report and Mom will be home in 2 days! I almost missed Maegan's running last night. The track meet was in Vidor and her first run was at four. Our aide was out today so I couldn't leave work early for the first run. She said she bettered her time by over a minute in her 2 mile which was really great. Her 1 mile run is the last thing at the meet and she usually runs around eight so I planned on leaving around seven and running by to pick up some food for us. At 6:10 she texts me and says there's only 2 runs before hers. Now there is several heats of girls and several heats of boys, so 2 events really means like ten runs. Still I got a little panicked and hopped in the car to race out to Vidor. As I was exiting the highway she calls and says they've called for her to warm up. Yikes! I got there a few minutes later and raced to the starting line at the fence. She was still on the field warming up and she didn't end up running for about fifteen more minutes, so I was there in plenty of time. Maegan said so many kids were not there because of Spring Break that there were fewer heats in each race and the last run that was scheduled at 9:45 ended up being run at seven! Anyway, she did a good job and I was there to cheer her on. She was so tired, we came home and she showered and was in bed before ten. Then she had to be up at 6:45 this morning to go to UIL at her school by 7:45!!! Poor baby just can't slow down and get rested. Then she'll have to get up for Sunday School in the morning so I know she's looking forward to NOT hearing that alarm in the morning. The UIL meet is at PNG today but just for Math and Science so she's only doing her Math event today and she thinks it will all be over after lunch. On Tuesday she took the Reading TAKS and when I got home and asked her how it went she said "It was easy". That's all the info I got and exactly what I expected her to say. She also got her report card yesterday, all A's, of course. Anyway, that's all my news for this Saturday morning. I'll see all of you on Monday. Love you....

Here is beautiful Maegan on Friday getting ready to leave to go to her Dad's. She met Steven at the mall for a movie and then came home to a house full of four year old's! She had to be at school Saturday morning at 4:45 to go to Deerpark for her UIL meet. She competed in Editorial Writing, News Writing and Math. Her Journalism sponser didn't go to the meet and I think the other teachers were pretty upset with her because the kids didn't know for sure what events they were competing in and they didn't have dictionaries or supplies. Their team didn't do well at this meet, all the other meets someone from PNG has ranked in the writing events and this time none of them did. Maegan scored a 64 % on her math test however, and this is double what it was the last meet. Her math scores have doubled each meet so she was pleased about that. She babysat Jansen Sat. night and had some funny stories to tell about Jansen and the dog. They had quite an eventful evening, splattered food in the kitchen and dog peeing on the carpet, etc. They just dropped her off after their soccer game, and it's FREEZING here so she and Jansen stayed bundled up under the blanket for the whole game. Maegan is sitting in the recliner now doing her study guide for English on the Elizabethian Age and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She just looked up and said "This is easier for me than all the other's because I've listened to Nan talk about it so much and then I learned some on our trip to London". I knew Mom would be pleased to hear that little snippet! She has her lines of Romeo to memorize as well and it's a BUNCH. She'll get it done though, I'm sure it less daunting a task for her than it would be for me at my old age. I've been in and out and had some sweet messages from my Mom and my Aunt. One more week and then Mom will be home! Yay for us all. I hope everyone has stayed warm and had a good weekend. See you all next week. Love you.....

I put a couple more pictures from Friday's track meet on the Snapfish Track album. It was FREEZING Friday night so Maegan had on her black spandex when she ran. We were all bundled up under blankets in the stands. Maegan bettered her 2 mile time by over a minute and her 1 mile time by almost 30 seconds. I talked to her coach briefly and she was very pleased with Maegan's progress. As were we. She came in middle of the pack in both races, which is treat for a freshman running against juniors and seniors on varsity. After her first race we kidnapped her and ran over to Sonic to get Paisley, Jansen and I some dinner. It was so cold and she doesn't really know anyone else on the team so she just rode with us to warm up a bit and then we went back. Paisley's parents came right after her last race had ended, they had been at the PA Mardi Gras parade and drove straight over hoping to catch Maegan's last race. They are always so sweet and supportive. Saturday Maegan and I went shopping and she got 7 shirts and a jacket. We went to Target and then to Parkdale Mall. I got a few things of course I'm returning one of them. She also got a possible prom dress at Forever 21. I think it's cute....but a bit short because shes so small and so tall. It's a strapless black silk short dress. I'll try to get a pic of her in it this week. We came back and she had Nikki, Dara, Steven and Bobby over to play Wii and watch a movie. The Wii remote batteries have died so they didn't get to play but they did watch a movie and popped some popcorn and laughed and talked. They THOUGHT they were going to turn the lights off during the movie but I soon corrected that situation and they watched a very scary movie and everyone was gone by 10. Maegan had to be at church at 8:45 this morning to help put together choir notebooks for the Mission Trip she is going on. So that's our weekend, I washed the car and did laundry today and Maegan did homework and read her book. We're watching A Walk to Remember on TV and then I guess we'll go on to bed. Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Love you all.....

Honey Video

Track Videos

Just a quick word before I get in bed. It's been a long day. Maegan ran the 2 mile at 3:15. There were 28 girls in her group running at the same time. She said she thinks she got like 15th. I think she was thinking she would do better, but that was a TON of girls. I called her after school and she said it would be at least seven before she ran again. There are 12 running events, girl and then boys, and then there are several heats for each run. So it was going to be a long while before her turn because her mile and a half was the second to last run. I got there about 6:30 and James and Paisley and Jansen had arrived just before me. Leo and Sandy got there about ten minutes after I did. Turns out she didn't run until eight o'clock. So it was a long night of sitting in the humid wind. But Jansen entertained us all and Maegan came and sat with us for a little while. There were 28 girls again....WAY to many. They had to stagger them to start which really wasn't fair since there were four girls in each lane and no one had to stay in the lane they started in. Paisley and I were wishing Maegan were a little pushier and would have pushed her way to the front, but they were lined up by numbers so she was about in the middle to start. She got about fifteenth again I think. She starts off so slow and then is so tired by the end she just never catches up. We were all saying she needs to start out faster and then pace herself. My friend Kevin that teaches at my school is one of the Memorial track coaches and when we were leaving he said "She has too much energy at the very end, she needs to start off faster". Which is what we thought too. James ended up having to leave before she ran because he was working. I took some pictures and some video clips but I have Maegan's camera and she has the cord at her dad's so I will have to wait and put them on Snapfish Sunday when she gets back. Maegan and Jansen rode home with me, because of course I forgot her bag and laptop here even though it was sitting by the front door. He's so cute and sweet to everyone, such a joy to be around. Maegan is supposed to go to the movies and to eat tomorrow at lunch time with her 'boyfriend' Steven and a few other people. So that's all I have. I've had a long couple of days and predict a hard day tomorrow so I probably won't post for the weekend. Love you all...

TIKAL TEMPLE COMPLETED!!!

SEE VIDEO BELOW

Well Maegaen finally got her class rank today. She's number ONE with five other people! Out of 391. SO that was pretty big news. She also got her track bag with her uniform and practice clothes in preparation for her first track meet on Friday. Lyndi, Lexi and Lynli Bonin came by tonight to pick up a shirt and stayed for a while and visited which was really nice. Lexi and Lynli both love Maegan and she doesn't get to see them very often since they moved to Orangefield. So that's our day.

Temple Completion Part I

So construction is finished on the Tikal Temple. FINALLY. 100 hours later. Now we are in the final stages of putting all the pieces together and getting it on the display board. Then we'll add the grass. This is the first pic of the end process.

Here's a pic of the original temple:

Max's Video

Just wanted to see if I could post a video. Max got on that soft blanket Holly gave me for Christmas and has ensconced himself on it.

Sunday
Maegan made it home last night around 9:30. She was pretty exhausted because she'd been up since 5:45 that morning. One of the girls in her room, Dara, had to catch the early bus at seven for her Ready Writing event (and ended up placing 4th) so they were all up before six. She did well in her News Writing event, she got sixth place and a ribbon. I am really proud of her. It was her first time competing in that event and she's only written one practice article for it last week. PNG won the sweepstakes for the whole event so overall everyone did very well. She also did Math, which is unbelievably hard. She only answered 11 questions I think but her score was over double what it was in the last meet. I looked over her math test she brought home and I couldn't believe she even knew enough as a freshman to answer those eleven! She also brought home a little bit of her news article, she didn't have time to recopy all of it, but what she brought home was really good. She and her three friends stayed in a room together that had a connecting door which they discovered connected them to a room full of junior and senior boys! Good thing these were all really good girls or that might have been a little bit of trouble. She said they went to Barnes and Nobles but did not get to go to any kind of book store on campus. They stopped in Conroe and ate at some Mexican place last night on the way home. I went yesterday and got Max so he accompanied me to pick up Maegan last night and she was thrilled. I got the temple sprayed yesterday so today she is going to try to get the front staircase finished and attached. She has to turn it in Friday and it still has to be attached to the board and then we bought some kind of kit that makes fake grass. So that will have to be put on and she has to write a short summary of some sort about it. I sure enjoyed Holly's posting and pictures, loved the little Wee sitting next to the 'big art'. So sweet. I'm waiting on Maegan to get up and Mom's going to try to call when she does. Zoe is resting in the brown chair and Max is sprawled out on the carpet in a patch of sunshine. Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. Love to you all.....

Well, first of all, we are very excited we will be having visitors in April (mel and meg)... I told mel tonight that the heroine can help tutor meg in math for her next UIL meet , NOT !! hellooo, how did she get to be such a good and smart girl, its beyond me !! but anyway, I am hoping we can take her to see Berekly when they are here, its such an amazing campus and I think with all those smarts, she can just make that her FIRST choice ! who needs new england winters and all those ivy league snobs !! bah....
anyway, its about time I step up and write our various goings on here in SF....Claude LOVES his trout ! see picture !! still having very warm weather which is of course great except we will have severe drought this coming summer if we don't get more rain....mostly the city is abuzz though, even with the recession finally hitting here, folks are still out and about...talked to a friend who was interviewing for ONE restaurant server position, she had been interviewing people for 2 hours and still have over 200 people left in line to apply...really sad stories of course, lots of people unemployed and now the state is holding back our tax returns...Dana decided she is going to mail the IOU from the state to the Property Tax folks and tell them they can work it out amongst themselves ! Ha !! I have to say though, a recession or not, its not the middle east and today I did NOT have to put my used toilet paper anywhere but where is GOES (P.S. Mother, I remember you telling me that but I had conveniently forgotten for my own peace of mind)
Anyway, I took the boys to the beach today, it was Izzy's first time (jake's little brother) and we stayed an extra hour, they were just so cute !! I could watch them for hours...mr grump (claude) is finally getting used to Izzy and starting to interact with him, so that was fun and then I went for coffee with Randy Hyde who I found out also went to UT after graduating from PN-G and lived in Los Angeles for 7 years before moving to San Francisco ! We met for coffee at Ritual coffee, amazing lattes, and had the best chat...he was going to dinner, so we didn't have long but it was so fun to see him and lament our jr high (he got me my second corsage ever and we went to homecoming in 6th grade) and high school days...
So staying pretty low, cooking alot and Im going to meetings...work has been insane, just keep laying off more and more people but work still keeps coming in, I have been slotted once again to step into a role I know nothing about while a dev manager is in New Zealand for three weeks, its amazing how many areas of my life the program works !! Next right thing, first things first, etc..etc..so I will be working a bit more than usual but thats ok, I haven't had too much overtime the last couple of years and its really good exposure...

We are having a literary dinner weekend after next with one of the managers in my group, her husband and Dennis to discuss the book, "Master and the Margarita" which is famous Russian literature...She has a book list for me of books I read and her husband is a big lawyer, very smart, I mostly will be saying "what are the words coming out of your mouth" but will try to find a Cliffs notes something so I can have something intelligent to say about the book which I did read...anyway, Nelli is her name, she is the one who will be in Israel for a month in April, assuming her father isn't still sick , but anyway, she said the other day that I was the most trainable person to have come into that group ever and what a good job I was doing, which was HIGH PRAISE from her, she is very tough and hard, so it really felt like the last two years of learning and doing whatever they asked really has paid off, I do know the tiniest bit about data warehousing and Visa, so its really rewarding to have someone notice !! in these economic times, I am grateful for a job and that I can pay my mortgage, so its all lagniappe !!
So I also got the big painting today from that gallery in Houston, 6 months later and alot of drama but its beautiful, I posted a picture on Facebook, Mr Claude had secured his spot on the blanket right below it of course !! we're going to put it where dana's grandfathers WWII picture is, its really the only spot big enough...and I got a little card thing that was hand calligraphy from Paris framed last week too, its going in the downstairs bedroom, I will post a picture when we get it...Dana just informed me Claude has repositioned himself by the painting again...ha !! he's too funny !!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Maegan made it safely to A&M today. I stayed at work all day but my kids were so bad that I should have stayed home. I haven't been able to talk to Maegan, she just texted me but if there's anything to post when I do I will let everyone know.

Flu News

More news. I started feeling bad this morning during our grade level meeting and went to the nurse around ten and she took my temp. and it was 100.5 so I had to scramble to find an aide to take my class for the afternoon. She had been in Missy's room all morning because Hannah has the flu as well. So I didn't get to leave until around 11:45. I came home and laid down for about thirty minutes and then drug myself to the doctor. Which surprisingly only took 40 minutes instead of the usual hour and a half. He said he felt like it was too late for TamiFlu because you are supposed to take it within the first 48 hours. But I told him I'd chance it. His suggestion was to take Tylenol/Advil and drink lots of fluid and wait it out. So I went to Wal Mart to bring my prescription and went by Sonic to get a drink because my mouth was dry. Came home and slept till 3:15 and left to go back to Wal Mart to pick up my medicine and called on the way over there and sure enough the lady said it wasn't ready and I'd have to talk to the pharmacy tech about why when I got there. I hung up and thought bull on that....I want to talk to him NOW! So I called back and he said that the dosage on the scrip was no longer available and they had called Dr. Nooori and hadn't heard back from him. RRRRrrrrr... SO I promptly called Kim and she said she just got off the phone with him that she didn't get the message until after she got back from lunch. So irritating. So I went on up there and had to deal with three differen't people who didn't realize the doctor had called and FINALLY the pharmacist intervened and said he was going to get it done right then. It ended up being $40 which was confusing because Mark's was only $10 for the same medicine. So that's just one more thing I'll have to investigate. I also got some DayQuil and NyQuil and plan on taking it to combat the symptoms. He said for me not to go back to work until Monday but I really need to be there Friday so we'll see. I just picked up Meg from track and she is doing her homework. They are having some kind of Evangelism thing tonight at church so she is going to stay and work on her project. We've got to get this thing wrapped up before February 13th and she's going to be gone this weekend. So we're home for the night. That's all I have for now.

Hello everyone. It's Wednesday, thank goodness. Only two more days to go after today. I've been sick since last week and can't quite seem to get rid of it. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to make the trip to College Station this weekend as Cheryl has two young babies and I certainly wouldn't want to get them sick! Maegan went to her UIL meeting yesterday and got all her info. They will leave school at 1:30 on Friday (which we don't understand because none of her events are until Sat.) and she will be staying in a room with Dara, April and Taylor (Stevens). She is really looking forward to it and I hope that she will get to see the campus some while she's there. They will be back home between 8-9 on Saturday night. She still has a lot of work to do to complete the temple, the stairs are still killing us! She said yesterday that they were telling her teacher how much money they had to put in to this project and he said he had no idea it was that expensive and might not make the classes do it next year. It is a bit ridiculous, and I can't imagine what those kids do whose parents don't have and extra $75-$100 to spend on a class project. Anyway, it's been a chore and she is very ready to have it done and over with! Styrofoam is a VERY messy thing to fool with and there are little white flakes all over the carpet all the time. I talked to Sandy Hebert for a little while yesterday, she is so sweet and offered to bring me some chicken noodle soup. I had to get off the phone because when I talk it starts a coughing spell and it just goes on and on. I talked to my sister later about our trip out there for Easter and she said I sounded like Aunt and I said I wished I had an oxygen tank to hook myself up to! I hope everyone is having a good week and is well. Love to you all...

Well not much to blog about for the weekend. Maegan was with James and Paisley this weekend. She went to the movies with a group on Sat. night and then spent the night at Dara's that night. Paisley and James dropped her off today around four on their way to a Super Bowl party at Paisley's sister Crystals. I am still feeling sick and started running a little bit of fever, not much but still enough to sort of put me out of commission for the day. I'm taking some medicine and hopefully will feel better tomorrow. Maegan worked on the temple some tonight, we spent a great deal of time being frustrated at the thought of how to get the stairs built. We attempted to start on them but don't know if our plan will work or not. We'll see tomorrow. I got to talk with Mom for a little bit yesterday and was so happy to hear the box I sent finally got there! I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. Love to you all...

New glasses pic for the family.....$200 later I'm sure I'll find my other ones sometime soon. ;) Took a half day off to take Maegan to the optomotrist for new contact and glasses prescription. It was nice for both of us to sleep in. Even Maxie slept in a little. Took her back to school around ten thirty and ran by McDonald's for Lisha and I (yes, we love McDonalds) and am just getting to school. Maegan starts track today and will run Mon.-Thurs. every week. She will also have UIL meets every weekend until after spring break! Busy busy girl. She started the clay steps of her temple a few days ago....and found that the clay had cracked this morning after it dried. So we'll have to see what can be done about that. She is supposed to go in to see the counselor at some point and ask about class rank. Donna DeRon said they were going to issue them next week but Meg said that some of her friends went yesterday after school so we'll see if she gets that done and what they say. The youth went over to Jeremy's church last night and led their Wednesday night service. Meg said it was a small turnout but her friend Allison spoke and did a good job. I've had two kids out with the flu in the last week and a half so I am taking Airborn every day to combat that and am trying (unsuccessfully) to get Maegan to take it. She really hates it and I insisted last night that she take one but I don't think she did. Anyway, my heathens are about to be out of lunch so I need to run and wrangle them back into civility after being with a sub all morning. Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!

Well we had a quiet weekend, so nothing much to blog about. I was off of work yesterday in celebration of Chinese New Year. We always have that day as a comp day off from work because our Asian students always miss that day and it hurts our attendance records. I went to get my oil changed and learned I need a new battery and new front brakes. Which was astounding considering that Mark just put a new battery in for me in the fall and changed my brakes. We've about decided he only did the back so I guess I'll be forking out the big bucks and getting the front ones done. I went to the optomotrist and then went to order new glasses because I've lost mine. So it was quite an expensive day. I picked Maegan up after school and she did homework and worked on the temple until time for dance. I picked up Maxie while she was there because we were missing him. Of course, Zoe was none too pleased by it but Maegan was so happy to see the little devil that it was all worth it. She has a long dance night tonight and I've got nothing else to report so I'll blog again in a few days. Love to you all....

Well today has been a cold and dreary day out. Maegan went to Hot Hearts last night in Beaumont and they didn't get in until almost midnight and then she had to be back up at the church at 8:30 for the Saturday part. She said it was pretty good, the speaker was better than last year, but the music/concerts were not. I think they had a pretty small group from our church go this time around. I picked her up around 4:30 today and we came home and put on warmer clothes because the temperature had dropped radically during the day. Maegan worked on her project for a couple of hours, making the cut-outs in all nine of the base pieces and spraying a couple of sections the top part with the texture spray. The 'superivsor' has gone to his daddy's for a few days, so she was able to work pretty much without interruption. We've just been here watching movies on TV and staying warm. I got to talk and Skype with Mom for a little while this morning which was nice. I also got to talk with my sister today so I just had a wonderful family day. She goes on her big outing tomorrow so I'll be anxious to hear how that turns out. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Love....

Well I published this once and accidently deleted it and now I'm too tired to repeat it all. I tested some kids at work today so I had a sub in my room all day. Left work a little early to meet Maegan at home and go to Hobby Lobby in Beaumont for more styrofoam. We also went to Best Buy for an iPod cord since I'm going to be returning the one I have to it's owner soon. Maegan signed up for track today and they will start practice on Wednesday. She came home and worked (with her supervisor of course) on her project and is not searching the kitchen for food for dinner. I think she's decided on Ramen Noodles and macaroni and cheese. I know, very healthy. We both have headaches today so we're going to turn in a little bit early. I know everyone is looking forward to the weekend. Love to you all....

MAX HELPING WITH THE TEMPLE CONSTRUCTION

Well first day back at work this week. Came home and had just settled down on the couch to go through the mail when Gail from my dentist office called and asked where I was since my appointment started fifteen minutes before. I, of course, had totally forgotten I had the appointment, even though I confirmed it two days ago when I brought Maegan. SO I jumped up and raced over there only to discover I was completely out of gas. I flew into a gas station near the office and planned on only putting a couple of gallons in to get me there and home with. Of course, I put in my credit card and there is an error and I have to go in and see the cashier who tells me I have to leave my card and pump and go back in a pay. I tried to convey through looks and body language that I was in a SUPER big hurry, but needless to say she was NOT impressed at all. So over fifteen minutes later I run into the office and Gail starts in by telling me since I'm late there will be no TLC for me and then proceeds to make my gums bleed relentlessly. Dr. Kennaugh pronounces me fit to go and I rush home. Maegan had a ton of homework and wanted to get some work done on her Temple so she opted out of going to church tonight (they were having some kind of Game Night that involved duct tape instead of their study) and I dyed the underside of her hair black. Sounds more dramatic then it really is. She worked a bit on her project, with Max showing up intermittantly to supervise. She took that pic with my Blackberry and I decided to post it. Love to all....

Holly and Calvaros County Fish and Game

So this started off simply wonderful, Dennis and I head up to fish the Stanislaus around noon on Saturday hoping to take in some of the afternoon hatch...Dana stayed home with Claude and we took Charlie (Dennis's dog) with us....we arrived about 4pm and weren't sure where to fish, we tried one road that ended up being blocked with a huge tree and about 30 mins later up past Arnold (can i just give a shout out for all the books and maps from christmas birthday for fly-fishing and of course my museum books from mel !! I have not stopped looking at one or another and they are just perfect) anyway, we are about another 30 mins away up past Arnold to where we were gonna fish the next day and first we see one foot of snow, two feet, etc...until about 8 ft of snow drifts and the road we need is completely blocked...now all you hear these days in the bay area is how there is NO SNOW, anywhere, and here we are practically in a blizzard...so needless to say we head back to our cottage (literally the worst place I have ever stayed at, we almost left and went to a hotel or anything else, I told dennis if he had rented it, I would have never let him live it down, too bad I had made the reservation !! ha !) so we head back down, end up going to Mary Buckley's cabin, she works for Dennis now and we know her from our early Austin days, super sweet lady who had two of her three kids in (one is in college, very cute and smart girl just like Mary and her son who is in high school) for a ski break....They have a very nice cabin and we enjoyed panini's and sitting by the fire....I called before we left to ask her if they have dogs and she literally says "No, we had one but he died two months ago, we're gonna have a memorial service for him later tonight." to which I am SHOCKED and SPEACHLESS, I have no idea how to respond, I of course bumble and mumble about how devastating and sorry I am, I didn't know what to say, I am GLARING at Dennis because its his dog we wanted to bring to her cabin but he made me call, so she finally asks why I am asking, so I tell her we have a black lab and she goes into her story about their yellow lab and as long as Charlie isn't named Ben, we can bring him....Well needless to say, we get off the phone and debate about whether to bring Charlie...we decide he can go and head out...I call Dana who decides that Mary is just teasing and messing with me, that noone would say that...of course we get there and sure enough she was NOT teasing, their dog had died and her kids and husband start joking with her about awkward introductions...which was funny, we all laughed and told stories...I think I won with my mom is living in jerusalem, so that was good :D
anyway...we leave there and go sleep at our disgusting cottage but I figure if I am going to fish, I may have to stay in some questionable places, its part of the experience....so I actually sleep really well, Dennis doesn't and gets up before me, we head out to a great little breakfast place that does sandwiches as well and get our grub for the day...
We head out and punch in the coordinates from my handy map into his GPS, which takes us on what is marked as a county road, we finally get to a gate with a very old man who drives his truck up to us....he is very scary looking, anyone remember the movie Deliverance ?? well this guy looks like he had a brillo pad to his face, lots of wrinkles, he smelled, etc...etc...and he asks us how we ended up on this road, to which we reply, this stupid computer and obviously we were in the wrong place.....he ends up being very nice and gives us directions for where we need to go, we finally after about another hour find the place and park....
its just spectacular, per usual, worth the many hours of driving and now we know where to go next time, there is NOONE around...noone fishing, noone hiking, nothing....ours is the only car (Clue #1)...so we get down to the river and have at it, Dennis hooks about 5 en total and I hook 2 and almost land one but he got away....so we break a couple of hours later, its so beautiful and tons of great fishing....just couldnt have asked for better fishing conditions !! lots of fish and they were biting...so after the break we go back down, I am not having much luck with my midge, so I pull out the big guns, some prince nymphs and as I am tying my midge onto my prince, I hear someone yelling at me, so I look up and there is a big white truck with Park Ranger written on the side and some woman yelling at me...
I step out and can't barely hear her becuase I am down in the canyon, so she yells at me..."Its not trout season" to which I reply in all my first year of fishing "I know its not trout season !!" Obviously ,I am a fierce warrior fisherwoman ,I know when trout season is, it ends in November....and for most places in California that means you can't keep any trout, but as long as you catch and release- fish all you want....so she says some other stuff but I can't hear and she tells me she's gonna come around to the other side....
She comes around and I debate about going all the way up the side, its several hundred feet and steep elevation but I decide it must be something...I try to get Dennis's attention but he's messing with his line and can't hear me (we forgot to charge our walkie-talkies)...so I head up and finally get to the top and she says again as she is getting out of her truck, "its not trout season" and I again say "I know" ?? So then she thinks I am being a smart-a$$ and gets mad, she starts going into all the laws that I am breaking and how its considered "poaching" and really isn't being very nice...she asks if we read the sign posted on the road, to which I reply, "of course we read the sign, trout season April through Nov, but we catch and release" and even when its not in season you can fish, just not keep any...I read all the regulations and my buddy read them before we left and we were pretty sure she was wrong...at which point she admits that she isn't Fish and Game but can put a call into verify but she thinks we are wrong but realizes that we weren't intentionally breaking the law...so we stand there for a few minutes and I admit I am new to fly fishing and California and so I really don't know what to do, so she puts in the call to them and takes my name and number...meanwhile, to play it safe, she suggests we not fish...so I said to her, "Well its expensive enough without a big fine," to which she replies, "its not just a fine, it includes mandatory jail time at the time of arrest for poaching...." at which point I grasp the gravity of the situation...so I ask her if she can try and yell at Dennis for me because he won't hear me and won't understand how serious this is, so we go down to where he is and try to get his attention....
As I am walking over, I see he has hooked a fish and is working on landing the big guy....so right away I realize he isn't going to listen to either of us...we try to yell down to no avail....after some time, he finally lands the fish and looks up at us, the entire time we are yelling for him to stop, since she called Fish and Game to ask, we suspect they are on their way...as he is done and I am explaining to her that we always catch and release, she is getting nervous too and I realize he isn't just taking the hook out of the fish and I mumble to her, "he's gonna show us the fish" in a very quiet, humiliated voice...she chuckles, thank goodness and sure enough Dennis proudly holds up the fish, not realizing how much trouble we are in...he is SO PROUD of landing that wild trout, and I have to say it was a beauty !! He thinks she's just wanting to watch someone catch a fish. So finally I yell down to him "illegal" at which point he realizes somewhat the situation and heads back up, thinking no big deal...
When he gets to the road, I run up and tell him the 411, at which point we run to the car, throw all our stuff in and change as fast as we can and high-tail it out of there before Fish and Game show up...sure enough about 5 minutes on the road we pass Calveros County Fish and Game and that dude did not look happy or nice, so thankfully we lived to tell the tale and didn't get caught...
Turns out we read the regulations for the part of the river we were supposed to fish (that was up north and covered in snow) and there are special regulations for the part we ended up on and there is no fishing from November through April at all...
We vaguely remembered that part once we got back home. We now have a hand signal for "illegal" for which we leave the water at once...we were musing about how long it would take Dana or Mary to come get us and how the next day being MLK how many days we were gonna be in jail- probably at least Sunday and Monday...and although his boss was also up at his cabin in Arnold, we would need a sympathetic person to come get us...

Today was a work day for me, no kids to teach. We worked until lunch and then were notified that if our grades were posted we were free to go. I'm sure most were keeping up with the innauguration, but I really wasnt. We couldn't get the streaming video to work on our computers. So Lisha and I went to Jason's Deli for lunch and then went back to school and finished up a few things and I was home by 1:30. Meg came home feeling bad, her head and stomach and throat were really hurting so I gave her some medicine and we both rested on the couch and recliner for a couple of hours. She worked on her project for a little bit and then got dressed for dance. She says her stomach and throat feel better and that several of her friends were sick with similiar ailments so I'm hoping they are not passing around a virus. My aunt sent me these beautiful flowers today and they were so pretty I decided to include them in my blog. I got to talk to Mom for a few minutes today which was a treat as well. Hope everyone had a good day. Love to you all.....

MAYAN TEMPLE DAY 1

Still trying to play catch up. Today we started the Mayan Temple project and I took this pic of Maegan beginning to cut out all the little pieces to make the base temple structure. Of course Max was trying to be involved and help and had to be shooed off the workspace several times. I took Maegan to the dentist at one, nothing to report there her teeth are perfect. We went to Wal Mart to get some more styrofoam but of course they don't have anything big enough and we'll have to make another trip out to Hobby Lobby in Beaumont. Maegan and a group of friends went to the movies and to eat at Casa Ole and I am about to pick her up and run her home to change and take her to dance. So that's all I have to report for the day. I hope everyone had a great weekend and spent time smiling. Love to you all....

Hello all. Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. Dealing with some other things going on and I haven't really felt up for it. So this is Maegan's report card for the third six weeks and for the semester. You can see her third six weeks grades, her semester exam grades and then her semester averages. I know it's small, but I think if you click on it the picture should show up seperately in a different window. She's obviously still doing very well even with four AP classes and everyone is so proud of her!

Thank goodness it's Friday. What a very long hard week. Maegan got her report card today which I will have to post another day because she took it to her dad's for the weekend to show them. Paisley and Jansen came to pick up Meg with their new one pound baby puppy. It's a Shitzu Chihuahua mix and his name is Rocco. It's the tiniest thing I've ever seen. Meg and I went to Hobby Lobby last night and bought $65 worth of materials to make her Tiklan Temple. Let's hope it turns out looking as perfect as we think it will. We also went to James Avery and exchanged her ring. I also started Mom a blog today to share her journey with family and friends. The websight is: http://bethsjourneytoisrael.blogspot.com/ So that's all the news I have for the day. Hope everyone has a wonderful relaxing weekend. Love to you all....

Holly's Blog Jan. 15

So it started out right on the January the 8th 2009- a meeting, some red beans and rice and watching OU get beat…those were good tidings for the weekend to come…we took Friday off from work, woke up late, packed up the rental car (which we got because we carted the entire house except the kitchen sink- some highlights are the Penzy spices, our new pajamas, 4 fishing books and maps, two iPods and four phones, the Batali pot, a skillet, knife roll, clothing for three days, fishing gear for two, Bose iPod speaker system, blankets, pillows, etc…) and headed up the Mendocino coast…What a beautiful drive, no traffic, Claude slept/watched the scenery….in about 3 hours we pulled up to the most beautiful place Mar Vista which is right between the Gualala and Garcia rivers…Dana had gotten me, which I opened Thursday morning, a Northern Rivers map for California with GPS, a new 2009 annual fishing license, a 2009 Salmon Steelhead license for fishing on rivers (requires a separate license) and a waterproof bag for my pack since I tend to fall a lot….and of course she picked a place with cottages that are right by the beach, so I could go surf fishing or steelhead Salmon fishing. Turned out the rivers were closed because of Los Angeles (long story but essentially all our water is diverted to LA for them to have a million golf courses and 8 million people live in a desert, we’re not bitter though) so I ended up surf fishing which I used my new fishing books for advice on how best to do that…but let me describe the Mar Vista cottages…it sits on several acres- there are chickens for fresh eggs delivered in little baskets to your cottage every day, pygmy goats and a garden which we used each night for fresh salads…the place is right off Hwy 1, so its got amazing views of the ocean, sunrise and sunset as well as beach access…of course Claude goes bounding out of the car and runs around, scoping out the rabbits which are right by the office..here is a map of the place- we were in cottage 8 which has the best views of sunrise and sunset, sun all day and of course a very warm fireplace...I didn't get to really take many pictures because the camera was not charged :( so here is their web link to see the cottages...www.marvistamendocino.com

and within the first 20 minutes we had broken just about every rule they had…let me explain...
First, after inspection of the rabbits Claude finds the chickens and proceeds to bark at them (there is a rule about not terrorizing/barking at the animals), then we are in and out of the cabin and the owners dog comes into the cottage (unbeknownst to me, their dogs are not allowed in the cabins), then we go and pick some fresh salad for our dinner (and instead of clipping the leaves, I pulled them up from the roots) and finally, Claude ran off and I started screaming like a banshee (forgetting of course that I was disturbing the owners and other guests)….so surprisingly enough, we didn’t get kicked out…I apologized to the Gardner the next day but she did not let me off the hook…After breaking all the rules, we headed down to the beach and took some sunset pictures…


It was a full moon and amazingly warm for this time of year, ended up we were having record high temperatures…so we took a walk, Claude explored the beach and we headed back to cook dinner which was a standard for us with a little flair...pork chops, fresh salad from the garden and Romanesco… …

which is a Dana favorite, it’s a cross between cauliflower and who knows what.. we do it with some garlic in a cast iron skillet, sauté an then throw into the oven to crisp it all up and roast the garlic, its de-lish !! a picture of Romanesco…Anyway, the next morning we got up and had a delicious breakfast of fresh eggs from the resident chickens…this is a Chilean something and a Rhode island red in the background…they have about 75 chickens in total...


now Dana is totally obsessed with having chickens although the HOA doesn’t allow them…she even picked out names for them- Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria (apparently you have to have more than one or two because they are social)..anyway…for breakfast we had the eggs and the best hand-made sausage from the local grocery store with homemade pH preserves and Tartine Bread !! Truly delicious, I had two helpings of everything knowing we were heading out to fish….which brings me to the sausage which I had just pierced on my fork while I ate the bread with the over easy egg with my hands and accidentally while trying to get a piece of sausage I bit down on the fork and there went my tooth, or half my tooth which was already fake from 2^nd grade when I broke my nose…so I now look like a total red-neck ready to fish. The proprietor lady brought us lunar and tide maps, apparently there is a beach called bowling ball beach which at low tide has rocks that look like gargantuan bowling balls but we missed that…anyway, we packed it up and drove about an hour north to a pretty secluded beach where Claude and Dana could hang and I could fish…which Claude didn’t really do well leaving me in the surf, so Dana had a full time job and I had a blissful about 5 hours of surf fishing which is very different than river fishing, for one you have to keep moving because the sand caves in and two because the tides were the highest they have been all year (which of course I didn’t know beforehand) and so I didn’t catch much but I only lost one fly and only used one leader/tippet, so it was much improvement as I usually lose about 3-4 flies and go through about 3 leaders per trip…I think I only fell into the artic water three times, maybe four and we had fun relaxing in the warm weather….so after about 6 hours we headed back to Mar Vista to get dinner ready and I had to wash all my gear….which I then proceeded to wash my fly line and get my line into the worst knot you’ve ever seen….Dennis said, he looked at it twice and said “Unfreaking believable” …I think that meant it was pretty bad but Dana of course was able to get it out the next day…amazing truly !!

so after much frustration we go ahead with dinner which was steaks, sautéed mushrooms and baked potato with fresh salad and poached eggs….the whole thing was so amazing the proprietor woman came over and asked what we were cooking it smelled so good and we were all famished…so after our big meal, Claude got a big ole bath and we slept very soundly.

The next day we slept in, had another big breakfast and started packing up…we ended up going to the Stornetta Farms Public Lands which is about 200 acres right on the coast that no one apparently knows about, we saw some people off in a distance but otherwise were alone the whole time, there were sea caves, a stream that ran into the ocean, an island, a huge sink hole and just amazing right on the San Andreas fault beauty…Claude kept edging to the cliffs so he had to be on his leash most of the time but he was happy nevertheless….so we were there about 4 hours running around and enjoying the fresh air before heading back to the city at sunset along Hwy 1, not a bad view which makes the drive bearable…so Monday afternoon at 2pm the tooth was fixed and all was well…sure did have a great time, already picked out everyone’s cottages for the Rodriguez family reunion !!

These pictures are of Maegan's True Love Waits ring from James Avery. Which we were supposed to have had on Sunday but...at any rate we had it on Tuesday night. Of course, it doesn't fit and we'll have to go back to Beaumont to exchange it. Maegan went to her first meeting about the Mission Trip at church and quickly decided that she was not going to be part of the drama or singing teams. I think she signed up to load and unload and check mikes or something. :) I went to Mom's after school to gather her sweats and sweaters, etc. to mail to her so she can hopefully be a little warmer. Got to pet Honey for a little bit. She's still got her bows in from the groomer, which was a little shocking. She was very happy to see me. I'm so glad Mom's laptop issues were resolved and she's not having to type lengthy emails on her Blackberry. I have my big meeting with my principal in the morning and I'm definitely not looking forward to it, everyone else has said it's been a little lengthy and stressful. We'll see what happens. Hope everyone has had a good day, Aunt I'm so glad Helen is there with you. Holly, thanks for the offer today. Love to you all......