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".