HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Time to say good bye to 2008. I'm definitely ready. It was one stressful year. But I'm looking forward to 2009. Right now I'm trying to stay up until 12:00. I'll probably outlast Lark, but that isn't really a great fete. Normally, I wouldn't be able to sleep without my Tylenol PM. I haven't taken it, but I am already feeling sleepy. go figure. It could be that I'm full of Mexican food and that's what is making me sleepy. Or the Margarita.

It's foggy. It's always foggy on New Year's Eve. 2 things you can always count on. It will rain on Halloween and will be foggy on New Years.

Enjoy...and be safe.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

and so goes my 5 day weekend. It's back to work tomorrow. But luckily I only have to work 3 days, then get another 4 days off. I could really get used to this. Spent today playing with my new toys. I filled the digital frame up with pics and plan to take it into work tomorrow. I loaded names, numbers, songs, pics on my iPhone. Discovered that Lark didn't add text messaging ($5 more) to my plan because thought I'd never use it. Wrong. Now that I know how, I like it. I have a pay as you go text plan. I guess if it gets over $5 per month I can add it in. Lark keeps watching me play. My prediction - he'll have one within 6 months.


It was a good weekend. The 49ers won, the Raiders actually won and Dallas got stomped. Unfortunately, so did the Kings. The Giants signed Randy Johnson. So he's 45 years old. He's still intimidating.

Did everyone read Dave Barry's recap of 2008? Pretty funny. He played no political favorites...he slammed everyone. check it out here: www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/826965.html

Countdowns:

Bush is out of office - 23 days
Cruise - 33 days
Spain/Portugal - 83 days
Lark's Retirement - 92 days

Merry Christmas Part 2

Isn't he cute? This is Pat's grandson Grayson.

I got new toys for Xmas...a digital photo frame so I can always have shuffling kitty pics at work and a iPhone 3G. Yes an, apple product, but actually my 3rd as Lark & I both have an iPod already. I have not problem with Apple, just not going there for a pc. My new little 12" baby is a Dell. I've been having fun so far with my iPhone. I can text! Never been able to do that yet. I have been downloading ringtone songs so all my friends have their own. Lark is Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, Vicki is Margaritaville, Kathy is barking dogs, Pat is Walking on Sunshine and my default is currently Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - I love that sone - by Edison Lighthouse.

Lark got toys as well...a Garmin GPS for his car and "Magic for Dummies". I may disappear one of these days, so you'll know where to look. I also got him a 101 Margaritas recipes book. More for me than him, but he's the one who has the goal of making the perfect scratch Margarita. I'm just helping him along.

had a nice Xmas Dinner - just the 2 of us and Tacos. Kathy joined us on Xmas Eve for Angel Hair Spaghetti. New Year's Day is Chili. The only time of the year I actually like to cook. I even made French Toast for breakfast yesterday.

But now it's time to find out what just crashed in the living room.................

Freebie and oh, yeah, Merry Christmas

I started this at the beginning of the month for the DSO Color Challenge, then reality kicked in and I didn't get a chance to add more. So here is Retro Rocket... a mini mini. And you can get it here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/77588868/6d033973/ld_Retro_Rocket.html

Paper, What Paper?

My attempt to read the Sunday paper on the chaise in the sun......








I was popular.

it turned cold here last week. Drizzly, windy, foggy and cold. I could have done with 70's during the winter, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Vacation Countdown:

Mexico Cruise (1/31/09) - 40 days

Spain/Portugal (3/20/09) - 89 days

Lark's retirement (3/30/09 - you can't be working on the last day of the month) - 99 days

I have two gifts yet to make for Xmas, then I'm done. Made wine glass charms, hors d'oeuvres utensils (olive forks & spreaders), and bottle stoppers for the 3 Admin Managers, my Admin Assistant and a friend at work. I should have taken a picture...they turned out great. I impressed everyone with the fact that I made them. yes, I am crafty. I also made little purse photo albums for the other assistants in Admin. They went over OK. They are just not the fru fru types. Christmas will probably be just Lark & me. Kathy may come over for Xmas eve, but has decided she has to put in an appearance at her brother's on Xmas day. I'm makeing tacos for Xmas eve and brunch Xmas day.

Mostly I'm looking forward to a few days off. I didn't really get to enjoy my time off during Thanksgiving, since I had bronchitis. I've been waffling on taking all day on Dec 24th (we already get half day). I had the 26th and 1/2/09 scheduled as vacation, then the County decided to close and have us all take vacation. Either way I'm off 5 days, work 3, then off 4 more. I love this time of year - only for that.

More later...............
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A Beer Truck in a Milk Factory?

I saw a Corona truck coming out of the Foster Farms milk plant this morning. Does this seem strange to anyone else?

Writing at lunch while I veg before interviewing Budget Manager candidates this afternoon. Here are a couple of shots that Jason took at the AC/DC concert:




Our view from the upper deck. It actually wasn't too bad. With the exception of the blow-up Rosie, we pretty much saw everything.




The rockers - Shaun, Liz, me (with horns) and Jason.



Jason and his horns. I ended up wearing them thru most of the concert because they gave him a headache.

Three good things that have happened today, as of noon, I found my computer glasses buried in my carry-all. I've been suffering at work cuz I got very used to them.

Lark's new PC arrived today. MORE SPEED!!!!!!!

I'm almost done with Xmas Stuff and can relax.

more later...'.
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LAWN RANGERS

I was listening to Bob and Tom on the way to work this morning, which is unusual in and of itself. I can usually handled about 5 minutes of their forced laughter. But this morning they were interviewing the founder of the Lawn Rangers. This group of guys has been together over 20 years. Their thing is pushing lawn mowers and twirling brooms in parades. They've worked their way up to more than just the Corn Parade over the years. In fact, they've been invited to participate in the Inagural Parade after Obama's swearing in. They are from Illinois after all. The interview was pretty funny. They all have nicknames. Chick McGee from Bob and Tom wanted to join their group so the offered to nickname hime the GrassHole. Appropriate.

This is a pic from their website: worldfamouslawnrangers.org.





Love their motto...You're only young once...but you can be immature forever.

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Assisted Listening

Before the AC/DC concert, with signs posted all over the arena, there was an announcement that Assisted Listening Devices were available to those who needed them. It struck me as funny, I know it shouldn't, but it did. Trust me, you could hear the band from anywhere in the arena.

Random Thoughts:

Just spent $5 in parking and 2 hours of time listening to a bunch of developers bitch about how much it costs in Public Facilities Fees to build a 200,000 square foot warehouse in an unincorporated area. Anyone want my life? Only the high points for me. For the record our department gets a whopping $ .04 per square ft everytime a warehouse is built in an unincorporated area. $800 doesn't exactly cover the increase in services that the same warehouse will generate.

Cask & Cream from Gallo, my new favorite liquid refreshment. Nice and mello.

Vicki's mom is not doing well. Has fluid in her lungs. The docs are hoping there's no cancer cells in them. Otherwise she's done with chemo. They should know soon.

What's with the dead guy on Grey's Anatomy. Are we going to find out Izzy has Schiophrenia? Talking and sleeping with some guy who's not really there?

Indiana Jones - good movie. Glad Harrison Ford played his age rather than trying to play some young guy.

New Bond Movie - Good action. Lark says it wasn't bond-enough. No gadgets, no Q (or R or whatever letter they are on). Had one person say it was more like a Bourne movie, which is interesting since during one of the chase scenes across roof tops I leaned over to Lark and asked if we hadn't just seen that in the last Bourne movie.

No Christmas Tree this year. Cabo has yet to mellow out. I'd be picking it up constantly. His new game....hitting the cabinet doors in the kitchen until Lark comes in to run him off, then once Lark is settle he does it all over again. Lark says he's the master. I say he's a cat toy.

Speaking of Lark, he was trying to learn Led Zeppelin's Kashmir when I left for my meeting at 6:20. He's still at it.

Joe Satriani vs Cold Play - don't know the whole story, but Joe is accusing Cold Play of plagerizing/copyright infringement of one of his songs. One of the radio stations played them both this morning, then even overlapped them...same song. Hear for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I


More Cask & Cream...............

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FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK. . .

WE SALUTE YOU (fire!).

What a roller coaster week. Capped off by a fantastic AC/DC Concert in Oakland. Check out a whole lot of Rosie...





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Back at work after being off the preceeding week with Bronchitis. For the most part it went OK. Had a few blips.

Then Thursday came along. When asked "how's your spirit today?" I was able to reply pretty good since I was getting psyched for the concert that evening. Went with my friend Vicki's husband Jason, their son Shaun and Vicki's sister Liz. Vicki & Lark refused to go. Even with the extremely wasted stoners behind us (who would not shut up about general admission seats) it was a great concert. Opening band was a so-so AC/DC wannabe group from Northern Ireland call The Answer. Then AC/DC played a few numbers from Black Ice, but mostly played their old hits...which is what I wanted to hear anyway. Jason commented that there were a lot of old people there. Unfortunately, they were all about our age.

Friday morning I was still on a concert high when I went to a Community Developer training for 4 hours. I even wore Jason's flashing horns (Picture to come). Then we moved into budget and all hell broke loose. I told everyone that our goal was was to be "Back in Black", but the day was more like Hell's Belles. I went home at 3:30 and crashed until about 7:00 that evening. The worse part was that sometime on Monday I hit that "beyond stress" state where you just don't give a bleep. I was feeling pretty good about that....almost a drug-like state without the chemical assist.

Another high for this week is that my Christmas present to myself arrived. My 12" laptop for travel. It is so cool and the perfect size. I couldn't get the wireless to work, so Lark sat on the phone with the lady from NetGear in the Phillipines until it worked. That earned him Lasagna for dinner (which is cooking as I type).

So I don't have a "horn" picture yet (waiting for Jason or Shaun to e-mail), but here's one of Lark trying to do Christmas Cards.

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Seen on a T-shirt

Denial is my Happy Place


I LOVE IT!!!!

Ever see the catalog Femail Creations? It's wonderful. Cool stuff for us girls. You can also check them out at femailcreations.com.

What Happened to Separation of Church and State?

Two articles recently in the local paper.

1. The Superintendent of a smaller school district in the County wants to ban a specific book from the High School. I can't remember the name of it, but the Sup states that it is immoral, indecent and "Anti-Catholic". He probably had a chance until he threw religion into it.

2. A local priest has asked all parishoners who voted for Obama to come to him to confess their sin.

One that didn't make the paper, but was heard by a credible source:

3. A local councilman voted against a homeless shelter in his town, citing that the Bible says "You must shelter the needy, not it doesn't say the City has to".

Aren't They Cute?

Baxter & Cabo in their normal positions...wrapped around each other - either playing or sleeping.



Credits: Kit - Quick page by Rebecca Labbe from the Divine Digital Charity Kit for the ASPCA - "Pawsitively". Font is Linda-Print made by me at www.yourfonts.com

Sorry Santa

I've been talking about getting a smaller laptop for travel and meetings. I love my 17" HP, but it's not the most convenient for travel. So yesterday afternoon I ordered a 12" Dell that weighs under 3 lbs. Apparently that was going to be my Xmas present (or something similar). Lark got kinda upset. Not because I spent the money, but because I blew HIS surprise. It's the thought that counts.

Finally went to the doctor. It's what I thought...a mild case of bronchitis. Got a Rx for an antibiotic and an inhaler, and sent home. No work. Damn, I'm disappointed about that one. So our 4 day weekend has turned into 6 1/2 for me - coughing, hacking, feeling miserable.

Thanksgiving tomorrow. Kathy's buying most of the fixings and I'm cooking. Luckily everything is simple. I was reading a book that mentioned "Coke Ham" so I looked it up. There are tons of recipes for this - I've never heard of it, but it's my kind of recipe. Put the ham on a shallow baking sheet, pour a can of Coke over it, cover and bake. Baste every 15 minutes. It's supposed to be very sweet and tender.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!

Merriment Add On

I was playing around with shapes in PSE and made 3 add-on papers to my Merriment kit (scroll down for 4Shared link) and a QP. Enjoy. Let me know what you think. Here's the link for the add-on. I still don't know how to make the link clickable.

http://www.4shared.com/file/72727818/2f6129ef/ld_Merriment_addon_papers.html

You can't please everyone...

so you've got to please yourself.

Thank you Rick Nelson (from Garden Party). I've adopted this as my new mantra. Just heard the cats wailing...it's feeding frenzy time, which reminded me that I have'nt posted in a few of days.

Let's see, what's happened.

*I had a colonoscopy. I woke up part way through and remember cramping and hollering, then the nurse saying take a deep breath, and then nothing...as it should be. Found nothing, just the "diverticulitis pockets" (doctor's quote) that we knew about.

*I finally did a budget spreadsheet that wasn't picked to bits and got thru a meeting without wanting to bash a toilet (see post below).

*The 49ers won a game. Finally! Unfortunately, the Sac Kings haven't been as lucky. Hubby is currently glued to the set and I'm hiding in the back room trying not to listen to the moans.

*I finished reading Janet Evanovich's Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum). I can't remember the last time I laughed so much through a book. This is one of her best in this series. There's a part with a monkey and a 61-year old lady in stiletto heels that nearly made me pee my pants.

*I have become addicted to Grey's Anatomy (thank you Pat). This from someone who had sworn off primetime TV. I've found myself watching the reruns of the previous seasons (that I didn't see) on USA. I also like the Mentalist. Not necessarily because it's a great show, but because Simon Baker is so darn nice to look at. My friend Kathy is trying to get me to watch NCIS, but I haven't gotten there yet. I tried Lipstick Jungle...I can see why it was cancelled.

*My taste in TV shows apparently isn't the norm. I loved Caterbury's Law. I don't think it lasted the original 7 episodes. I tend to like characters with an edge and Liz Canterbury was definitely edgy.

*I'm fighting a cold. Have heard the wonders of Zicam, so I'm trying. Hint - if you get the spray...DON'T SNIFF! I burns like the devil. Now I no why the q-tip gel thing is so popular.

*Kathy will be joining us for Thanksgiving. We've decided on ham. Baked potato for Lark and green bean casserole for us. We were also thinking stuffing, even though we are having ham. Who says we have to be traditional?

I think that's about it for now. Will post more later.

George Brett Moments

Who is George Brett you might ask? He is a Hall of Fame 3rd baseman who played for the Kansas City Royals. One day he took his frustration out on a toilet with a baseball bat. Sadly, I can fully understand that. I've had several of those moments recently. Trying to tear apart a budget and live in the shadow of a former budget manager who was thought to be the only person in the world who can add 2 & 2 is quite frustrating. I know from experience there is that point beyond stress where you just don't give a %*&@. I'm looking forward to that. However, before that, I have to go in to the office tomorrow (Sunday) to make revisions to a presentation for Monday.

Rockstar wannabe hubby got to sit in for a co-worker at a cowboy/biker bar on Thursday. He played 5 songs before Carlos arrived, which is 3 more than he practiced. But he had a good time and had his fan base of Barry and me there to cheer him on. All in all, it was fun.

Congrats to good friend Eric Sladek for being accepted at a Med School in the Caribbean. There are definitely worse places to go to school :-)

here's a layout I did where the challenge was to do a double page spread with overlapping pictures.

Kit #2

I just finished my second kit for the DSO color challenge. It has a Christmas theme. Hope everyone likes it.



You can get it here:www.4shared.com/file/70632521/23354ad5/Merriment.html

ps - if anyone can tell how to link this url to 4shared in blogger, I'd really appreciate it. Linda

Template Challenge at Snap and Scrap

WHEW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Wow, what a week. YES WE CAN was the catch phrase for most of it. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be part of history. Yes, Barack Obama is the first African American US President. More than that, he’s instilled a needed sense of optimism, at least among Democrats. I’ve been very impressed with how others throughout the world have followed this election. I’ve cruised several digital scrapping sites and have been amazed at the blog comments from those in Canada, the Philippines, South America & France. One blogger in Germany not only was very familiar with the presidential election, but expressed dismay over the outcome of Prop 8 in California.
Prop 8 invalidated gay marriage in California. I know people have strong feelings both ways about this topic and I can respect that. However, I don’t believe anyone has the right to legislate how someone else lives. I was appalled at the outcome as well. The US took a large step forward for equality and supposedly liberal California took 2 back. However, there have already been 3 major lawsuits filed, so I really expect this to be overturned.

Work sucks. What else is new? It is so disheartening to spend 2 full days totally revamping our bleeping budget only to go into a meeting and have the first words out of someone’s mouth be “this isn’t right”. Thank goodness I’m off until Thursday. However, not all of that will be for fun and profit. I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy on Wednesday morning, so Tuesday afternoon will be miserable. Happy Veteran’s Day.

132 days until we leave for Spain and Portugal. YEAH!!!!!!! In between then and now, Lark & I have a Mexico cruise scheduled (1st week of February). Then he retires on March 29th. I won’t even be here. I’ll think of him from Europe.

Lark found out a few days ago that there’s a group of Spring Creek golfers going to Myrtle Beach in September…at the same time we’ll be there. He’s jazzed that he’ll have buddies to play with part of the time.


Celebrated our 26th anniversary on the 6th. Lark gave me a diamond palm tree necklace that he had seen in a catalog on the way to Kona last year. Talk about planning. It’s beautiful. As usual I didn’t get him anything, so that gives him free passage to buy some golf or guitar related gadget. Speaking of guitars, he’s been asked to fill in on bass for a friend the next couple of Thursday nights at this dive biker bar. Lark’s pretty excited. Guess its Groupie time for me.

Yes We Can!!!!!

WOW!

National Digital Scrapbooking Day

I've spent it either downloading freebies or sleeping. Either of which works for me. Our halloween parade picked up after my last post. We went thru both of Lark's big bags of candy and 2 of my smaller ones. It died off around 8:00.

The cat eyes were a hit with the kids and neighbors. My next door neighbor said he couldn't think of anything more appropriate. My new carvable fake pumpkins didn't last long. I carved one with a cat on a broom that looked a lot like Cabo. He must not have appreciated the likeness as he basically destroyed it (but that's what he does).

Ooooh, Cabana Boy just brought me a Margarita. I think I'll keep him around.

Note to Ms. Anonymous - register with google and your e-mail will appear.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Haven't gotten any little goblins yet. Lark & I both bought candy. We may not get any kids...it's supposed to rain, so we'll have candy up the wazoo!

Speaking of rain, I heard some guy on the radio this morning talking about forest fires and said "if we continue to have rain in the near, distant future..." Huh?

Here's our Halloween decorations:

Rasta Jason

Here's another LO I just finished for a challenge.

What A Week!!!!

Budget, analysis, puking, celebrations... It ran the gamut.

Back at work on Monday after 3 days in Roseville and Saturday at a Scrapbook Expo in Sacramento. I spent most of Sunday in bed recouping/sleeping. Bought way too much stuff at the Expo, but then that's point, isn't it? I've been tied to my office doing budget projections. I'm still without a Budget Manager, so lucky me. On Thursday, what's left of the Admin Services Management Team took me to lunch for Bosses Day since I was in Roseville on the actual day. I wasn't feeling 100% before we went to lunch and got ill after. This seems to be getting to be a pattern. However, this time it wasn't the food. Last night the girls celebrated Roni's birthday and Vicki's new job. Can't wait until she's with us on Monday...for both personal and professional reasons. Personally, I want my friends close by. Professionally I want a full Accounting team. We're still short on that, but Vicki will help. Hope everyone is watchin the Saturday Night Live spots on recently. They are hilarious.

ps - Lark will be standing by the mailbox for the next few days. :-)

Here's my latest post for a new site I just found:

FINALLY!

After 2 days I finally got into the internet. Of course it's when I only have 25 minutes to play. We are meeting at the restaurant across the parking lot at 6:30 to celebrate one of our group members 50th birthday with the folks from Los Angeles County. Margaritas here I come. Called Lark while I was signing on and I just cut him off because I need surfing time.

The learning collaborative hasn't been too bad so far. We'll be done by 1:30 tomorrow so I can head home. Vicki and I will be back up here on Saturday for a Scrapbook show. Luckily, she's driving.

Back with more later.

Musings from Roseville

Sacramento and I are becoming very close. I’m on my 3rd trip up in the last month. At the end of September I came up for an Alcohol & Drug fiscal training. Last week I attended the Mental Health Services Act Fiscal Summit #3 and today I was at Medi-Cal Policy Doesn’t this all sound like fun. After Medi-Cal Policy I drove to Roseville (about 20 miles east towards Reno) for a 2 day “Learning Collaborative” that starts on Thursday am.

The Hilton Garden Inn supposedly has wireless internet. My system says it’s connected, but Internet Explorer won’t boot up. I’ve tried back-dooring it through every means I can. One gave me an error message that my firewall was preventing connection. So I turned it off. I still can’t get connected. I’ll start getting the shakes pretty soon if I don’t have internet access.

I’m typing this in Word to be transferred when the system decides to work or I get home, whichever comes first. While I do this, I am waiting for my room service meal from Tahoe Joe’s to be delivered (Sirloin, Caesar salad, baked potato and ice tea). I can’t put a Margarita on my County credit card. The rest of my group will either be up late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

I just got back from the Galleria Mall. I remember the girls and I driving up one time to go to this mall and thinking it was fantastic. I guess my trip to the Mall of America has warped my perception of a cool mall, because the Galleria just didn’t have the same magic it did the first time. However, I did get to hit Harry & David’s and Williams-Sonoma, both of which are not in Modesto…yet.

I also got a 25 minute massage from the Traveling Chinese Massage Group. They come to the Stanislaus County Fair every year and Lark & I always take advantage of it. $25 for 25 minutes. I swear 20 minutes of that was spent with the masseuse’s elbow in my back, one time she had both elbows going. She beat the Hell out of me…and I paid her to do it. And I got to be accosted by all the cart vendors. One enticed me to let her exfoliate my hands, but couldn’t get me to buy anything, even after she told me about the great deal and was for “today only”. I bet I can go back tomorrow and get the same deal.

The Camera Is Charged

so I can take pics of the new window.

the first is from the outside. Unfortunately, it shows the need for a paint job (next on our list). You can really see where the old planter box was. What looks like wings on the sides are the wing-windows. The cats love them. The get a breeze from both sides.





this is from Jack's new 180 degree view.




and without the cat.

I Can See Clearly Now

OK, the cats have gotten used to the new window and have decided, most of them anyway, they like it. Unfortunately when Bill took the old window with him, he took part of the alarm system. We can still arm the system, but have to force feed it every night. Bill is going to check to see if he still has it and bring it when he comes to do the trim. That will save us a $125 for the 1st half hour and $31 for each successive 15 minutes. I'm in the wrong business. Should have been an alarm company service person.

This is from the Stone Accents Studios Color Challenge, which had "mystery" as its theme.

Garden Window Update

the cats are afraid of it. Go figure.................

Bellowing Cats - what an appropriate title!

The Garden window is being installed as I type. I was going to include a picture in this post, but my camera is dead and the charge seems to be missing it's plugs (for the wall). Next time. It really looks good. When Bill showed up this morning he was concerned that he's have to remove part of the tile in my kitchen to get it to fit right. Luckily it slid right in. The kitties now have their own sunroom.

Speaking of kitties, 3 of the cats are locked in the Master bedroom with one of their cat cottages, 2 loungers and several assorted toys and the sliding glass door open for fresh air. Baxter is hiding in the linen closet and I'm not worried that he will scurry out. Since we took down the wall between our den and the MB, the room is pretty good size. Those cats are bellowing like I've locked them in a closet. The funny thing is they would probably been sacked out in there anyway, however, it would be on their terms.

Hubby is in Elk Grove at a two day golf tournament with a college roommate. Day 1 was yesterday so Lark stayed with Dan so they could drink beer in the garage with the neighbors and watch the MLB playoffs. For some reason he didn't like it when I said they were having a slumber party in the Man Cave. One of the local radio stations is having a drawing/contest for a fully equipped ManCave. Lark can sit in the living room to moan & bitch at the 49ers, Raiders and Sac Kings. I have my own escape pod. Especially if the Kings are playing the Lakers. It gets ugly.

Fall has hit in Modesto. Last week it was in the high 80's. Yesterday and today it's in the 70's and windy. However, we're hearing that we'll be back up in the high 80's nest week. It was just enough of a change to stir up allergies and to rain Wednesday night and give drivers an excuse to plow into our building at work. The first rain in awhile and the roads are slick. So let's drive fast around the curve and lose control...right into Linda's office, or in this cast the "decorative" pots in front of it. Hit and run of course, but I bet it did some damage. One of the dirt filled pots was moved back about 2 feet. Someone would have to give it a good shot to move it at all.

Oh, the good news for the week. I've hired a new Accountant...Vicki! So now or will on the 27th, I have both her and Kathy on the same campus as me.

Here are a couple of new LOs:

Damn Rain

I've had a garden window sitting in my garage for 2 months waiting to be installed in my kitchen. We finally found a weekend when Bill (friend and carpenter) didn't have another job or his band wasn't playing. So what happens? IT RAINS. Hubby's in Reno on his annual golf weekend. It was supposed to storm there big time. I haven't checked weather.com.

Scratch Royal India off my places to eat. Took a co-worker to lunch and felt crappy the rest of the day. It even continued into the next couple of days. The Butter Chicken must have been too much for me.

I've been off work since Thursday, taking advantage of Lark being gone. Unfortunately, Thursday was wasted due to the sick thing. Yesterday and today I've actually accomplished a couple of things.

Here's a couple of Layouts I did for challenges. The first one is FOR PAT. It's a little more cluttered than I normally like, but I had to use all of the elements in the "Candy Jar"





This one is from our Labor day weekend trip to deliver my mother's electric wheelchair to her sister in San Bernardino and hit Disneyland since we were so close. It was crowded, but we had a blast.

Wow, It's Been A Week

since I last touched this blog. Let's see, California actually has a budget, such as it is. The Governor has held true to his promise to veto all budgetary bills. It's 9/30/08 and still in the 90's in Northern California. However we are expecting rain this weekend. Love the contrast. I'm sitting here with my air conditioner on before I head back to work. I'm working on a couple of things that I'll post in the next few days. In the meantime, this isn't mine, but I got a chuckle out of it. It was part of an e-mail from a Travel company. Go Obama

Day 84 of the California Budget Hostage Situation

Rumors abound that Arnold will sign the budget today (haven't seen it yet). However, there's no telling how much he will blue pencil out. Apparently the proposed compromise budget only gets California through one year. Then we go through this again next year. It may be time to move out of State. I say we impeach them all and start over. Kind of like when you can't balance your checkbook and you close the account and open a new one.

Momma Mia that's Abba

I just saw Momma Mia! What a cute movie. Actually it was a fun movie. It's a little strange to have main characters break into Abba songs (and I never knew they had so many), especially Pierce Brosnan. I love Pierce Brosnan, but he's not a singer. Points, though, for giving it a shot. So now I'll be going to bed with Dancing Queen stuck in my mind.

And, for those about to Rock...I get home to find an email from one of my best friends husband telling me that he has tix to see AC/DC in Oakland in December. Quite the contrast from Abba. I'm on a highway to Hell............

I MADE A KIT!

I'm so excited. I made a kit for the Digital-Scrapbook.org color challenge. As I was sitting here in my backyard, I was inspired by my patio furniture, which just happened to be the right colors. Here's the Freebie preview:




and here's where you can get it. Enjoy.



http://www.4shared.com/file/63429036/f86a3965/ld_Patio_Furniture.html

Beautiful Weather and the Proctologist

A month or so ago I had to make an appointment to see my doctor since she was holding my meds hostage. I only go to the doctor if I'm bleeding or hurting real bad. So she decided to get even...scheduled me for a mammogram & a colonoscopy and for good measure gave me a tetanus shot. Today was the consult for the colonoscopy. They like to talk to your face before they get to the other end. I'm scheduled for the day after Veteran's Day.

So to make me feel better, I took the rest of the afternoon off. It's beautiful here today...light breeze, mid-80's. I'm currently sitting in my backyard, on the computer with the waterfall and classic rock. I managed to figure out how to turn on the surround sound speaker in the backyard. Actually I think I just hit the right button and got lucky. Cabana Boy is at a meeting, so it's just me and the boys, who should be waking up at any minute to try to convince me its 6:00 and feeding time.

For those that aren't in California, there is a pissing contest going on between the Governator and the legislature over the State Budget. The legislature is going on 3 months late to pass a budget...a very bi-partisan fight. Demos want new taxes, Reps want cuts to social service programs. They finally agreed on something yesterday, but Arnold is threatening to veto it because it isn't what HE wants. So the legislature is threatening to override the veto, prompting Arnie to say he won't sign any bill on his desk. Geez - children! In the meantime, good programs are closing because the State isn't paying on contracts and State workers are technically working for the Federal minimum wage of $6.55. However, last month, the State Controller ignored Arnie's executive order and paid State employees their full wages. Can't we just play nice?

When is Too Many Tributes Enough?

This tribute band thing has gotten out of hand. Good Morning Sacramento
featured a multi person band with a fru fru name (bubble something) I can't
remember that does, are you ready? ... Donovan songs. Come on...Donovan? He
was OK in the 60's, but definitely over now. One of the lead singers had a
voice that more than faintly resembled Yoko Ono. The worst part of this whole
thing? I have "First, you have a mountain, then there is no mountain, then
there is" stuck in my mind in that high pitched Yoko Ono voice.

Enough!

New Virtual Toys

Found a link to this sight on another blog. Let's me keep track of where in the world or US I've been.


visited 33 states (66%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president



visited 24 states (10.6%)
Create your own visited map of The World or determine the next president

Phoenix Airport

Here we sit in the Phoenix airport. Thank goodness for WiFi. Lark thought our flight out was 9:45. Turns out it is 10:45. We've been here since 7:30. The CK Scrapbook Convention was great. Took 6 classes in the 2 days I was here. Lark played golf twice. Found a new scrapping company called Keller's Creations. Great kits...very simple and quick. The SEI class was great as usual. I've made two templates for the Stone Accents Studios template exchange and I'm now working on a kit to go with the Color Challenge. When I get it done, I'll post a link here. My husband sent me the joke at the right. Isn't it great?

Splash Mountain

Three good friends and I took my mother's electric wheelchair to her sister in San Bernardino, then went to Disneyland...on Labor Day weekend! It was packed. We were there from just before 9:00am to 10:30 that night. Saw all the parades, the light show and the fireworks, plus rode everything we wanted to. This was taken just before we got absolutely soaked on Splash Mountain.

Wow! I have a Blog

Today is a day of firsts. I created my first template for the Stone Accents Template Exchange, zipped it, and then established an account on 4Shared to share it. Zipping it was a chore. I bought the real version of WinZip so I could zip files, only I couldn't get it to work. I tried my evaluation version of WinRAR and it worked perfectly! $36+ to find out I could use a trial version. Go figure. So now I've added creating a blog to my list of firsts.

Let me explain the title. I first used this as a password when I was in school working on a project and my older cat was hissing and hollering at the new kitty I'd just brought home. A few years later, my husband made his first batch of home brew beer. He was trying to think of a name as we were testing it. Timing is everything...we were sampling at the 6:00 feeding frenzy time and the cats were wailing. So we called it Bellowing Cat beer. The name has stuck.

I'm going to try to start designing digital scrapbooking items, so I'll try to have freebies to entice people to my blog.