Things I Will Miss #3

When I was a kid, all the other kids and I would go to Saturday matinees at the State Theater. The moms would just drop their kids off with some money and go across Alvarado Street to do some shopping at JC Penney or Woolworth's. The State had a big balcony and we would always sit in it and throw Hot Tamales or Good and Plenty candies at our friends in the main floor seats. Boy those were fun days. Probably not for the theater owners, though. When I was a teenager they closed off the balcony and made two tiny theaters out of it. That was awful. Anyway, a few years ago the multiplex came to town and the old State Theater fell on hard times. Too bad, too. It was a grand old theater in it's day.
THEN... about two years ago they closed it and began restoration on it. This restoration involved re-opening the balcony, hooray! About a year ago they opened back up and started showing old movies in it. I wasn't sure that our town was big enough to support this kind of theater, but it is and it's great! I have seen the Beatles in "Help", "The Haunting", "The Maltese Falcon", and my favorite "The Wizard of Oz"--Sing Along! I tell you , you have not lived until you have sung "We Represent the Lollypop Guild" with about 350 people. I have sat in the balcony every time I have gone, and yes, my kids and I have launched candy off of it. Don't worry, we made sure not to hit anyone!
Anyway, the next, and perhaps last, movie I will be seeing there is also a sing along:


This will be fun! I have already been practicing singing "Just a Spoonful of Sugar".

If there is a theater like this in Spokane, I have yet to find it.

State Theater, I will miss you!

Hello Hello

My son Max has Ver-ti-go!! (Apologies to U2). But really, Max has vertigo. He was hospitalized overnight on Sunday so they could run a bunch of very expensive tests, and they determined he has vestibular neuritis, and inner ear condition probably caused by a virus. POOR MAX!! His world is spinning like nobody's business, and will probably continue to do so for two weeks or more. This means he can't drive, so I am back to driving him everywhere AND it is the last three weeks before graduation, so everything has become more complicated and crazy. But that's okay, it takes my mind off of my house not selling! Anyway, we are getting through this one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time. They gave Max pills to stop the spinning but they make him sleepy, he's not sure which is worse at this point. So please put Max in your thoughts and prayers that he gets through this thing while still getting everything he needs to done. Did I mention he has to present his Senior art project at a gala tomorrow night?

Where Dreams Can Come True!

I subscribe to two magazines, Cottage Living, and my all time favorite magazine ever, Country Living. I peruse it's pages and dream of someday having a little country home of my own, decorated with fresh flowers, weathered wood furniture and overstuffed chairs and couches slipcovered with faded floral prints. Alas, for now it is just a dream. My new house is less than 10 years old, a sign of practicality and the reality that at this point in my life I do not want to do the repairs and upkeep on an older house. But maybe someday.
So I keep on reading Country Living magazine. Recently there have been some new contributors to the mag, and they are Teri Edwards and Serena Thompson, better known as The Farm Chicks. They have a huge country antique sale twice a year in Fairfield, WA, not far from Spokane. I will miss their upcoming show this month, but I'll be at the September one for sure. Anyway, I have been aware of the Farm Chicks for quite a while, so I was very happy to see their design ideas gracing the pages of my favorite mag.
Yesterday I received the June issue, and as I'm looking through it my attention is drawn to a sweet picture of a country rose floral arrangement set in a vintage wicker purse. Isn't that darling, I say to myself. Then I read the caption, which I am going to quote and hope I don't violate any copyright laws!

"Buds for a buddy look especially appealing presented in an out-of-the-ordinary container. Here, Serena Thompson proffers fresh picked roses in a vintage wicker purse lined with a bread pan containing water-soaked floral foam. "Imagine giving this to a friend who's just moved," says Serena, who developed the idea with fellow Farm Chick Teri Edwards. "It instantly brightens a room."

Dear Farm Chicks--What a coincidence! In July, I will be "a friend who's just moved"--to Spokane! Can you imagine giving me an appealing floral arrangement? I can! I'm sure it will instantly brighten any room in my house!! Thanks! Love your new friend Karla
PS- Or I will take a cake like the ones you made in the May issue, it's totally up to you!

Hey, a little creative grovelling never hurt anyone!

What's in a Name?

The other day Leo was watching baseball and he came out to where I was and said "mom, I think it would really suck to have a last name like Pujols". He seemed like he had been giving the matter some thought. He didn't say anything else, just turned and went back to watch the game.
For those of you who don't watch baseball, Albert Pujols is a baseball player. His last name is pronounced "POO-holes". I know Leo is amused by this because whenever Pujols is at bat he yells "POOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOLES!" at the TV. It makes sense that Leo would find this funny, after all he is 11 years old. He also loves to get right next to me and fart, preferably a silent but deadly, and stand there until I get a big nasty whiff of it and make a face, at which time he collapses into fits of laughter.
Anyway.
I told Leo that the only thing that would suck more than having the last name of Poo-Holes would be having to correct all the people that mispronounce it.
"Uh, Mr. Pujoles?"
"It's Poo-Holes"
Leo agreed that would definitely suck even more. He really felt for the guy. But then we decided that he had the name for so long he was probably over it. Also the guy is a great baseball player, he gets respect for that I'm sure.
I have really enjoyed talking with and listening to my kids as they have gotten older. I never know quite what the subject will be, but it is always interesting and often funny. I hope they remember to call me when they are grown up!

Can't Wait to Taste Everything Once (or Twice)

My new future Spokane friend and fellow Supper Club-ite Jennifer Olsen has launched the new version of her website called Taste Everything Once. While the old version of the site was mostly a blog, this new version is a terrific resource for restaurant reviews, upcoming food-related events and discussions about food in general, whether prepared in a restaurant or in your own kitchen.
Visiting her website and participating in the forums have really got me looking forward to moving and settling into life in Spokane. I have met Jennifer at the Sunday Night Supper Club, she is a great gal, and won't it be fun to ring her up and grab a bite somewhere!
Thanks Jennifer for all your (and Remi's) hard work on your website. Getting to know you and the Spokane virtual food community has really helped put a positive spin on what could be a very difficult transition for me. I look forward to meeting more of the Spokane foodbloggers in person in the coming months.

Things I Will Miss (not really) #2

Today's post is about Cannery Row. John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. John Steinbeck the writer who wrote a book called Cannery Row. He also wrote books called The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, and The Pearl, among others. He was a very famous writer. He also happened to live in Salinas, about 15 miles from here, and I have had the interesting experience of growing up alongside the actual Cannery Row. I also used to work at a bank that was in the building in which Steinbeck wrote The Pearl, but I digress.
When I was a kid in the 60's, Cannery Row was just that, a section of town full of sardine canneries. By the time I came along the sardines had dried up and most of the canneries had closed and lay in various stages of disrepair and ruin. As a teen we used to go down to the water and crawl up under the canneries and party. We had friends that ran away from home and actually lived under the canneries. Those were fun times. I'm serious. There was never anyone down there, just a few shops, a really cool record store called Odyssey Records, and a movie theater called The 812 Cinema which had no seats, only giant pillows. I saw The Song Remains The Same there about 15 times, well at least I saw the first part, I was always really stoned and would fall asleep during the movie all the time. It was a fun and scenic place to party and hang out.
During the 70's many of the canneries burned down under suspicious circumstances, arson was always suspected but never proven. I always figured that was a good way for the cannery owners to get rid of their worthless crumbling buildings that were on prime waterfront property, so that they could build new, more profitable structures there. And that is what happened. And this was the thing that really kickstarted the touristy ruination of my beloved old Cannery Row:

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium. Now don't get me wrong, I love the aquarium, it is the best, we go at least once a year, it's awesome and I have always felt fortunate to live so close to something so cool. But let me tell you, John Steinbeck's Cannery Row is gone, replaced by Bubba Gump's and TGIFriday's. It makes me sick. Yes, they have tried to maintain the visual integrity of the old Row, but inside the old looking buildings are Starbucks and tons of gift shops full of tacky stuff you hope nobody brings back to you from a visit. Here are some pictures I took just the other day, I felt dirty after taking them, too much like a tourist.



Oh, they look like the old canneries from the street, here is what they actually are.



Three Hundred Dollar A Night Hotels! Let's go further down the Row.


This is probably one of the more unchanged views on Cannery Row, but don't be fooled--



The tour buses are coming! Let's proceed. As we go further into the sick touristy heart of the beast, we start to see the shops, how can we not, for they are everywhere! Here are some interesting ones-





I have never been into After The Quake but I would like to imagine it is a store full of broken stuff, after all, it is AFTER the quake! Here is a shot of the old Monterey Canning Company building, it's original, on the outside anyway.



That's where the Starbucks is, have yourself a Grande Iced Half Caf Non Fat Caramel Macchiatto! Then go across the street and pay homage to the bust of the great author himself, John Steinbeck:



Somehow I don't recall reading about a Sunglass Hut in his book!

OK I think you get the picture. The Thing I Will Miss is the Thing I Have Already Been Missing For 20 Years.

I'm exhausted.

Things I Will Miss #1

Today I took a ride around town and took some pictures of the things that I will miss on the Monterey Peninsula. The first thing is one of my very favorite places to eat, Turtle Bay Taqueria.



They serve "Mexican Coastal Cuisine", which means a lot of seafood in a tropical setting. I always get the same thing, a grilled shrimp bowl. I realize I am in a rut, but I did try something else one time and did not like it as well, and we don't go often enough for me to get tired of it. It's great! Black beans, wild rice and this stuff which I LOVE called caribbean salad, all in a bowl topped with grilled shrimp and their fantastic salsa. I took a picture but it seems kind of blurry.



I know there are a lot of good restaurants up in Spokane, I hope at least one is as delicious and inexpensive as Turtle Bay.

Heartbreak In The School Lunchroom

Every other Wednesday I volunteer my time in Leo's school selling Ice Cream during lunch. My table is set up in the back corner of the lunchroom. (I would call it a cafeteria, but they don't cook the food there.) Today at the back table sitting about five feet from me was a boy, about 3rd grade I'd guess. He had gotten in trouble during P.E. and so he was sitting all by himself. And he was crying. At first I didn't know why he was crying, but I figured it out. He was crying because he couldn't have any ice cream. And every time I sold one to the other kids, he cried harder. I sold 117 ice creams today, let me tell you, that kid was a wreck. He just kept staring at me all red faced and teary, I felt awful! Note to Principal Nelson: If you're going to punish a kid by taking away his ice cream privilege, DON'T SIT HIM RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ICE CREAM!! I can't take it!

A Sweep!

I am in a Bunco group, and April is my month to host the game. Since I didn't want to mess up my house between real estate showings, I hosted it at another player's house. As host, it is up to me to find substitute players if any of the regulars can't make it, since there always needs to be 12 players for Bunco. Well, 2 of the regulars couldn't make it, so I had my boys substitute for them. And guess what, we all won! I won First Prize of $30, Leo won Third Prize and Pass Around for a total of $25, and Max won the Booby Prize of $10. So between the 3 of us we walked away with half the prize money. My kids earned every bit of that money, because about half the players are over 80, and it was like my kids had a bunch of inquisitive grandmas asking them the same questions over and over about school and moving. They were very good about it though, and I think they actually may have had a little fun. I just asked Max if he had fun and he said "I won ten dollars." So there you go. Next month will be my last time playing with the group I have been in for eight years. I am hoping to find a Bunco group in Spokane. If anyone has any leads let me know.

Just Another Sunday Dinner With Family

Leo and I went over to my niece's house for dinner this evening, she was barbequeing steaks and had made macaroni and cheese, greens and green bean casserole. Out of the blue my brother (her dad) shows up. With him as always is his rottweiler Freida. Freida is a good dog but she is big and playful and doesn't know her own strength. And my niece Nichole has a toy poodle named Presley but we call him Parsley and my brother calls him Pepito or Pee Pee, I do not know why. Freida and Parsley get along famously and it's fun to watch them interact because of the massive size difference. Anyway. It's a barbecue and there are people all inside and out eating, and people kept giving Freida pieces of meat and other food, and then my grand niece Eraya who is 5 fed Freida some leftover fish from a restaurant they went to yesterday. I was right there and saw the whole thing. I didn't think Freida would eat the fish but she did, it had some kind of sauce on it and I bet it was pretty good at the restaurant yesterday. So I go into the kitchen to wash my hands and I come out into the living room to find it in total pandemonium. Freida had come in the house and barfed a pile of barf like I had never seen, it was huge! My grand niece Kristina chimes in with "God Frieda, what did you eat, a sock?" Nichole starts swearing because her nice clean carpet now has a giant pile of barf on it, and I head for the door. Outside I encounter my brother and say "You better get a shovel, Frieda just barfed", then, don't ask me why, I turned around and looked back, only to see little Parsley chowing down on the Giant Pile O Barf. Now Nichole is freaking out because not only does she have giant barf in her house but her little dog is making a meal out of it. Now I am practically running out to the side of the house so that I can crack up and not piss off any of my family. So Leo and I are sitting outside laughing and my brother comes around the corner with the area rug of barf and gets rid of it and after burying the huge barf pile he comes and sits down next to us. I cannot stop laughing at this point. Then Eraya, who is quite the entertainer in her own right, comes outside and says "I have a song for you", so she stands on a chair, and using a My Little Pony coloring book as a megaphone starts singing this at the top of her lungs:

"WHYYYYYYY DID FRIEDA BAAAAAAARF?
WHYYYYYYY DID SHE THROW UUUUUUUP?
SHE ATE SOME STINKY FIIIIIIISH
AND A POOPY DIIIIIIAPERRRRRR!
OH YEAH BABYYYYYYYY!

Apparently I was laughing so hard that I could not breathe and my brother had to tell Eraya, "Stop singing, you'll kill your aunt!"

Oh God I Will Miss Them.

Cramming 44 years of memories into a blog

It has been suggested to me by more than one of my friends (that used to live here but now don't) that I should be taking lots of pictures of here because it is so beautiful, etc. I think that is a good idea and so I will be starting a sporadic series of not just pictures of the Monterey Peninsula but pictures that either have relevance to my life today, or that can be connected with a story or memory I have. To start things off, here is a picture that is neither relevant or has a story, but it is a very famous touristy place that I never go to.



The Lone Cypress is in Pebble Beach, a gated community that if I, a lifetime resident of here, want to get in to, I have to pay $8.50 like the rest of the tourists or on a Saturday I could lie and say I'm going to a yard sale so the guard will wave me through. I never go to Pebble Beach. It's for tourists, rich people and golfers, and I am none of those things. I never go to Carmel either. Not even to the beach.


Look for future posts with pictures of stuff that I am actually going to miss. One thing I will really miss is the Feast of Lanterns. It's hard to explain what it is, it's a hokey little pageant that takes place in Pacific Grove in July, but I love it.
P.S. I just went to the Feast of Lanterns website, they have a photo album, and Leo and I are in the background of one of the pictures, how funny!

Linking Makes The World Go 'Round

Every day I read the blogs of people in Spokane. The topics range from food to restaurant reviews to city development updates to nothing. Today on a couple of the blogs the buzz is about a high rise that is trying to get approval to build in downtown Spokane. People seem to be excited about the direction the city is going in, a direction of growth and change. This makes me excited too! I am looking forward to seeing the development and renewal of the downtown area firsthand.
So this morning I tried to figure out how to get links to the Spokane bloggers on my blog and I think I actually figured it out! Try the links if you want, hope they work for you. Maybe soon I will put links to other websites and blogs that I like.

Springtime Fresh Leftovers

Last week I came back from Grocery Outlet at 1:45 pm only to discover that people were coming over for a house showing at 2pm! So I had a ton of groceries to put away and be out in 15 minutes. Leo helped me by putting some of the stuff away for me. Here is how he helped me--He put the box of dryer sheets in the ziplock/foil/saran wrap drawer. Bless his heart. I found them in there 2 or 3 days later, and by that time they had imparted their Springtime Freshness to everything else in the drawer. So now when I put leftovers in a ziplock, I know I will not be eating them later because the taint of Springtime is upon them. My kids have not noticed the taint, I think it's because they wolf the food down in teenage boy fashion, hardly tasting it. But I know. And I'm not telling them!

The Cousins are Grown!

My ex is one of 6 kids. Therefore, there are a lot of nieces and nephews, whom I have always affectionately referred to as The Cousins. My 2 boys are in the younger end of the age range, and Leo at age 11 is the youngest Cousin. I was able to get a picture of several of the Cousins at Easter, but only 5 out of 13 total. The 2 on the left are Joe and Erin. When Joe was 5 and Erin was 3 their mom left their dad and they all lived with us for about 6 months. Dana and I were newlyweds with no kids yet, so having 2 little ones around was a fun, eye opening experience. We all look back on that time with great fondness. Well, that was 20 years ago, Joe and Erin are 25 and 23 and it Blows My Mind! I still can't get over seeing them drinking beer, how can they be old enough? So back to the picture, Max is in the middle and Leo is in front, and behind Leo is Patrick. I remember babysitting him and when you would ask him what his name was he would say "Pakick". We called him that for years. Memories are good and bad at the same time, a huge reminder of how time passes. I'm really glad I got this picture.
So I went into the photo archives and found the picture of how I will always remember The Cousins:



They have all grown into such cool people. Patrick and Joe are in front, Erin is on the right, and the toddler on the left is Max, Leo wasn't around yet. And here is another picture I found and just had to post, of my boys when they were little. It's such a goofy picture, and I am sure they will be mad if they see it on here, but so what!

They are sporting pipe cleaner hats, glasses and necklaces. Tres chic!

Overheard on Easter Morning

"Hey, get out of my basket!"

"Why, you made me eat a dog biscuit yesterday."

"Yeah, well, you videotaped me on the toilet!"

I will let you figure out who said what.

Happy Easter!

Coffee At Home Again

I have not been making coffee at home lately. It started when I went to Spokane last month and got hooked on the White Chocolate Mocha from the Rocket Bakery on 14th that tasted like cake. When I got back to Monterey I was totally jaded about my little Black and Decker one cup Brew N Go coffemaker in which I brewed Yuban or Maxwell House. So I quit making coffee and instead started frequenting Starbucks which is not that great compared to my Spokane Nirvana Cake Coffee and also expensive. I needed to find a balance somehow while still filling my daily caffeine requirement. What to do, what to do...
So last week I was at Shannon's house and she served me a cup of coffee which was pretty good tasting and had foam on top. Yes, she has a Senseo machine. I thought, this is do-able. So I started looking for deals in stores and on the internet. I ended up finding a blue one at Target, the blue ones were $15 cheaper than the black or white ones, which Max thinks is racial appliance discrimination but I think is good for my wallet. I brought it home yesterday and have had 3 cups of coffee so far and while it will never be the cake-coffee they serve in Heaven, it is certainly good enough for someone like me who creams and sugars the crap out of coffee anyway.
The only drawback so far is that everytime I look into my kitchen from where I sit at my desk, I see my little blue Senseo and it just looks depressed to me. It reminds me of those old Tex Avery cartoons from the 40's and 50's where inanimate objects are animated. It looks like it's tired and just gave up, all hunched over and sighing. See if you agree with me:



So I better cheer it up and make it feel useful by giving me another cup! Tune in for my next post, which will be titled, "Coffee Jitters"!

What The Hell?

Tonight Leo and I went to the open house at his school. During the open house week they also have the Scholastic Book Fair going on in the library. Seeing as this is my last elementary school open house (between my 2 kids I have gone to 11 open houses at that school-wow!) we go down to the Book Fair where I purchased a cookbook called Fast, Cheap and Good. But that's not what made me say What The Hell in the school library, it was this book:

I am horrified to realize that the generation of kids growing up today have no idea who the Beatles are. I was a little kid in the 60's but my sister and brother were much older so I knew all the Beatles songs back then. And I have made sure that my kids know who The Beatles are from a young age. Max could barely talk, but I would hold him in my arms and we would name the Beatles from the poster I had put up in his room, he would say "Don, Pol, Doe and Wingo, the Beetos". When both my kids were babies one of my favorite things to do with them was hold them close and sing "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" to them. Believe me, they know who the Beatles are. And Led Zeppelin, Kool and the Gang, James Brown, The Temptations, Devo, I could go on and on. I believe as parents we have a responsibility to give a sense of not just music history but pop culture and family history, as well as history book history. They need to know that their generation is not the be all and end all. Mine is. Just kidding!

Coming back from the open house this evening listening to Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothing", I commented that when I get old, the retirement communities are going to be bumping, and he said "Yeah, it'll be all, wave your cane in the air like you don't care!" He understands. My job is done.

An Embarrassing House Selling Story

Everyone who has ever sold a home has one. My friend Shannon told me about the time when her house was on the market and she came home one morning after being gone for 20 minutes to take the kids to school. When she got home there was a realtor and a couple in her kitchen full of not only the previous night's dinner dishes but also crawling with ants. She wanted to die!

Here is my story.

I was putting away laundry and all of a sudden my cat Dolly decided to attack my cat Grace, just randomly out of nowhere, and quite visciously at that. Grace ran towards the front door with Dolly hot on her tail. I ran to the front door, flung it open, and in my loudest motherly voice said "One of you had better get out!" Both cats froze so I upped it a notch and started yelling "GO ON GET OUT!!!".

Then I looked up.

In the street right out in front of my house was a woman standing by her car, frozen in fear from my yelling. Immediately I think, Oh God, she thinks I am yelling at my kids and she is going to call CPS on me. She very quietly says Hello, and I smile and say Hello to her. I didn't say anything else but I grabbed Grace and put her out the door, hoping the woman would see that I was yelling at cats not kids. Then I shut the door and it occurs to me, this woman is in a business suit and driving a Mercedes, I'll bet she is a realtor. Then I get a phone call. It is my realtor saying, "there is a realtor with a couple driving in your neighborhood and they want to know if you can show the house on short notice." I said ok, but they never came back, probably because they thought they were walking in on a case of domestic abuse, when in reality I was just breaking up a cat fight. I can't believe I scared away people from my house. I am so embarrassed. Please come back people, come back and buy my house, I promise not to yell at you!

Just waiting now...

So my house has been on the market for a week. We have had 2 open houses and several showings, all of which require us to be gone from the house, often with very little notice. So for a week I have been on a heightened state of alert, making sure the house stays clean and buyer-ready. I am totally worn out from this. Not that it's that much work, but the mental toll is huge. What I have to figure out is how to keep the house clean without getting all stressed out. I know! Would anybody like 2 children to live at their house for a while? They're good kids, they're just MESSY!!!
Actually, they are getting better at keeping things picked up. So am I. I am fervently hoping that this is a habit that will carry over to the new house. OK, off to do laundry now!

Thank You Susan Lynn

Here is a picture of me with my brother Rick and my sister Sue in the middle. I would like to take a moment and publicly and heartfelt-ly thank my sister for helping me clean my house and make it ready for the broker's open house we had today. She came down from San Jose with her cleaning supplies and cleaned one of my bathrooms and vacuumed and dusted everywhere else while I put things away so it looks like nobody lives here. She was also here over the weekend for the Max room painting extravaganza. After we were done cleaning we went to Target and bought some new bathroom stuff like towels and shower curtains and candles to make the house more inviting. She is very domestic and knows how to decorate well, that part of the gene pool was totally watered down by the time I came along twelve years after she did. She has been totally supportive and unselfish in her help and I can honestly say that I could not have made it to today without her. Thank you Susan Lynn, I love you!

PS Also I have to give a shout-out to my grandniece Kristina, she was a big help yesterday too.

Putting the Pain in Painting!

Today we painted Max's room. Well, got about 2/3 of the way done painting it. The reason we had to paint it at all is that Max is an artist and lately his medium has been spray paint. He knows he cannot spray graffiti all over town so he decided to "give his room an urban feel" as he put it. Oh Brother. Now, I have always supported Max in his art, I still have the drawing of Jonny the Smoking Baby that he did when he was five years old, and I do have great appreciation for his talent in all it's forms. However, he knew that we were getting ready to sell the house when he urbaned it up! Grrrrrr...oh well, more painting is in store for tomorrow.



Here is a stencil he created recently, pretty cool I think!

Spokane Shots

Here is a picture taken early one morning of my backyard after it snowed the previous night. My backyard ends at the block wall right there. I love having a small yard!



And if you go out my driveway, turn the corner and walk about half a block, here is the view. It is quite impressive in person, let me tell you! Those are railroad tracks down there, I love the sound of the trains, much better than the sound of the airport I currently live with.



You are all invited to come visit any time!

What Are They Trying To Tell Me??

OK so I'm looking at my mail from yesterday and there is a big packet, obviously from a magazine since the tagline was 2 YEARS FREE!! I figured it was from Better Homes and Gardens or Sunset, or maybe some new decorating mag. NO. I take off the cover sheet and there in full color is the cover of FAMILY CIRCLE magazine. Now, I know that not everyone has the same associations with that mag as I do, but here are mine:
--old ladies read it
--boring housewives read it
--my sister reads it, and even though she is neither old or boring, it's her type of magazine
--when I was young, everybody's mom read it, along with Woman's Day magazine. Those two are like Awake and The Watchtower, can't have one without the other!

I am afraid I have entered a demographic unknowlingly and against my will. What's next, Readers Digest? Although I must admit, I have always liked Readers Digest and I particularly enjoyed the large print edition I read in the ER the other day. But that's because I don't have my bifocals yet. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!



I don't think there is even one possibility for my life just waiting to happen in the Family Circle. Wait a minute, is that a Red Velvet Cake recipe? AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

Go Zags!

This is so not like me. I am not a sports person. I only watch the Olympics, the Super Bowl (just for the commercials) and the occasional Giants game. But since I was in Spokane last week just as Gonzaga was entering the NCAA Basketball finals, something has come over me. Maybe I was just brainwashed by seeing "GO ZAGS" on every billboard, window and sign in front of just about every business in town. Leo and I had fun with that too, saying to total strangers "Go Zags!" wherever we went. But I watched the first two games from Spokane, and now I am back in CA watching the Zags play UCLA. And I have to admit I'm hooked!

GO ZAGS!!!!

YUCK

I am sick!! On Tuesday night it felt like my lungs were being held in a death grip. Yesterday was spent in bed where I got to experience the joy of chills, body aches and a 102 fever. Today I am up barely. I have a rotten headache that no amount of tylenol seems to fix. And I'm hungry but don't have the energy to make anything for myself, so I am relying on Max to help me. Which is fine, he just has priorities and feeding his sick mom is a low one. Unless of course he is hungry too! So there is hope. Going back to bed now.

Greek Blogger Summit

On Sunday night I had the great privilege of attending the Sunday Night Supper Club at the home of a gal named Sara who lives in a little town outside of Spokane. The theme was Greek food, and it was all very delicious. However, I must say that I enjoyed the company even more. There were four of us, Faythe, who also happens to be my neighbor, Jennifer, Sara and myself. We drank a nice bottle of red wine that I bought on the recommendation of the wine guy at Huckleberry's. This guy really knew his wine, so since I told him we were having Greek food, he also recommended a white wine, also Greek, by the name of Retsina, which apparently is Greek for watered down Pine Sol, because that's what it tasted like. We all drank some and made faces and laughed at each other, so I guess that's what the wine guy meant when he said Retsina was a fun little wine.
Anyway, I "met" these gals through reading their blogs, leaving comments on them, and them reading my blog and leaving comments on it. It is very interesting striking up an aquaintance with someone over the internet and then meeting them later. I felt like I had an idea of what these gals were going to be like, and I hoped that when I actually met them that they would match up with those ideas. All I can say is that the experience was like comparing a still frame to a movie, you get so much more out of a movie than out of a single frame. These gals were funny, smart and talented, and even though I brought a bottle of wine that nearly did us in, they are graciously allowing me to come back to the Supper Club upon my return to Spokane in July. I can't wait. I wonder what will happen when they find out I can't cook?

Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

So Leo and I are back at home, no, at my house in California, it really doesn't feel too much like home anymore. Needless to say, the trip to Spokane was a huge success and I am now highly motivated to clean up and sell my house ASAP even though I can't leave until June. Since my computer time was extremely limited for the past nine days, I actually wrote down on paper about one of my days in Spokane, and now I would like to reprint it here for you the faithful reader, so that you may know just how much enjoyment I get out of the mundane and why this blog is aptly named Awful Lot of Nothing. Here Goes---


KARLA MELLINGER'S DAY OFF 3/16/06

The title of this post is obviously a take off on Ferris Bueller's Day Off, because I feel like I had a big adventure in a new city today. Granted, I did not play hooky from school and sing "Twist and Shout" in a parade, but I had a great day nonetheless. It started with a trip to the Rocket Bakery in my neighborhood, where I had a white chocolate mocha that tasted like cake. It was by far better than that big coffee chain's version. I'm so glad I can get there in like 2 minutes from my house!
Armed with my delicious coffee, we drove out north to Lilac Lanes to go bowling. Leo persuaded me to bowl with him, which is something I haven't done in a long time because of my bad foot that I had surgery on a year ago. Well, my foot is better now! I was able to use my normal approach and bowled a 118, which used to be my average when I bowled on league. So I was happy with that!
Then we started back down Division and stopped at Grocery Outlet, bought a few little things, and wished that there was one closer to my new house.
On down Division we went, we were hungry so we stopped at Taco Time, which I had never been to before. I ordered a combo that came with two tacos, some crunchy Mexican fries and a drink. Imagine my surprise when my mexican fries turned out to be TOTS!! I LOVE TOTS!!! Here I was eating Tots right next door to Idaho, I was practically Napoleon Dynamite, except for the red hair and moon boots. And the dancing.
Then we went down Division some more until we came to Burgan's Furniture Store. I will be getting some new couches and chairs in June so I thought I'd browse. So we get in the store, and the inside of it looks EXACTLY like Holman's Department Store in Pacific Grove where I spent my weekends going shopping with my mom and grandma when I was a kid. These buildings were practically identical; same mezzanine, same glass block windows, same stairways in the same places, it was SO COOL!! I had as much fun looking at the building as I did looking at the furniture.
We came home for a little break, then we went to Susie's Laundromat, which is right next door to Huckleberry's at 9th and Monroe. It was the nicest laundromat I have ever been to. Clean, friendly, uncrowded and with good machines, it was a great laundry experience!
Then we went over to Grand and up up up to the Rocket Market. If you have been there I don't need to tell you what a cool cool store that is! I almost ordered another white chocolate mocha, but I refrained. After all, I will be having one again tomorrow!
By this time we were hungry again, Leo wanted Jack in the Box, so I decided to go east down Sprague Ave. to se what was down there. We found a Jack's, and lo and behold, there was a Big K Mart AND another Grocery Outlet! We ate dinner and then went over to the Grocery Outlet, and it was huge! Way better that the one we have in CA and closer to home as well.
We got home this evening where I proceeded to write all this down so I wouldn't forget about my great day!


So there you have it, my day in Spokane. And that was just one day of seven. Every day there were nice people we met, fun places we went, and by the time we left yesterday I wished I didn't have to go. But that's okay, we will be back in June!

We Made It!

We are in our new house in Spokane, staying in the downstairs apartment. It already feels like home, except that there is nowhere to sit but on a loveseat that I brought in the back of the truck. We have been to Fred Meyers three times in two days, I guess he really is my boyfriend! If by boyfriend you mean store that has swallowed $300.00 of mine in 36 hours. I'm sure we have a couple of dates left in us before Monday when we leave.
So far I have only found one thing not to like about Spokane. It is that the lines on the roads are very hard to see or just not there. Many a driver has been irritated with me because I thought I was going down a one lane road, when really I was straddling two lanes! I really need to get with the program on that one.
Today Leo went ice skating and we went to the Target down past the Y. I hope there is a closer one than that to us. Tomorrow we are venturing down Sprague to see what we can see.
Later this week I am meeting up with my new Spokane blog friends, which I think is the coolest thing about this trip, I love meeting new people.
So that's it so far. Gotta go, Fred is calling!

Trepidation Abounds

OK so it's Thursday night and in 32 hours Leo and I are going to drive *a truck that is unfamiliar to me, *with manual transmission and *no four wheel drive, *loaded down with stuff, *over the mountains *in the snow, to Spokane.

* = everything I am worried about.

It's like having a baby. I just want the baby, not all the pain and stuff that goes along with giving birth.
I just want to get to Spokane and not slide off a mountain trying to get there.

It should be noted that I have never driven in the snow. Yes, NEVER. Hey, I live in Monterey. That's why our houses are so darn expensive, it's temperate all year round, rarely too hot or too cold. Our 4 seasons are sun, clouds, fog, and rain. And sometimes we have them all in the same day. But never snow. Except once when I was in sixth grade, and then it melted as soon as it hit the ground. But it was nice watching it fall.
So I am moving to a four-season climate. Four actual seasons. I can handle summer, and I would like to think I can handle winter. I guess I'm about to find out. Say a prayer...

Goodbye Sanfords

Today we are going to a going away party for our friends the Sanfords. I worked with Nicole for four years and our sons Leo and Maurice have been best friends since Kindergarten. Now they are moving to Texas, as tired of California as we are, with an opportunity to live a better life somewhere else. Nicole and Charlie are my friends, and I'm sure we'll keep in touch via the phone and internet, but for kids it's different. I remember when I was a kid and other kids would move just across town but I never saw them again. And while we are a more electronically connected society now, 11 year old boys don't want to email, they want to sit on the floor together playing video games, or shoot each other with nerf darts. Leo and Maurice's best chance of seeing each other ever again is if Leo comes back here in the summer to visit his dad while Maurice is back here visiting his grandparents. As the parents, we have to really try and make that happen. Until then we all will have the memories of movies and parties and classroom field trips and sleepovers.



Goodbye Maurice!

HOLY COW!!

I just Googled the drug that the doctor prescribed me for my newly acquired high blood pressure--read these side effects!

More common side effects may include:
Abnormally slow heartbeat (more common with Cardizem SR and Cardizem CD), dizziness, fluid retention, flushing (more common with Cardizem SR and Cardizem CD), headache, nausea, rash, weakness

Less common or rare side effects may include:
Abnormal dreams, allergic reaction, altered way of walking, amnesia, anemia, angina (severe chest pain), blood disorders, congestive heart failure, constipation, cough, depression, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, drowsiness, dry mouth, excessive urination at night, eye irritation, fainting, flu symptoms, hair loss, hallucinations, heart attack, high blood sugar, hives, impotence, increased output of pale urine, indigestion, infection, irregular heartbeat, itching, joint pain, labored breathing, loss of appetite, low blood pressure, low blood sugar, muscle cramps, nasal congestion or inflammation, nervousness, nosebleed, pain, personality change, pounding heartbeat, rapid heartbeat, reddish or purplish spots on skin, ringing in ears, sexual difficulties, skin inflammation/flaking or peeling, sensitivity to light, sleepiness, sore throat, taste alteration, thirst, tingling or pins and needles, tremor, vision changes, vomiting, welts, weight increase

You have to read the less common ones--Is there anything this drug DOESN'T cause??
Abnormal dreams? I already have those!
Altered way of walking? Will it be a silly walk, I wonder?
Increased output of pale urine??
Personality change--can't wait for that one!
Loss of appetite AND weight increase?
Low blood sugar AND high blood sugar!
Difficulty sleeping AND Sleepiness!
Won't I look great with purple spots, welts and a nosebleed?
And let's not forget my personal favorite--Amnesia! If I don't get this one I'm going to pretend I have it anyway. I'm going to act just like Lucy Ricardo when she had the gobloots! "Who am I? Where am I? What am I?"

How many years did the scientists have to labor to cram all that into one little pill? Amazing! I'm going to run not walk to the pharmacy right now!

An Addendum to Last Night's Post

I believe it was Random Blathering #2 that touched on the fact that I have high blood pressure. It should also be noted that three days prior to this diagnosis I was given a prescription for bifocals. Ok, I understand that these are 2 common things that show up in people my age, but THE SAME WEEK??? Come on!



See these 2 men? On the left is my Grandpa, on the right is my Uncle Otto. The drinks they are drinking are screwdrivers, I know this because my mom called these glasses The Screwdriver Glasses. This picture is one of the slides, taken pre-1965 because my grandpa was still alive. They are both dead now. This morning I drank a glass of milk out of the one remaining Screwdriver Glass. And I have been reminded by this week's diagnosis-es that I will one day be dead too. Maybe I should go make myself a Screwdriver!

Random Blatherings

Random Blathering #1
On Tuesday I was at Costco eating a cheap lunch with Leo and there were these 2 old ladies sitting next to me talking about banks. Now, those of you who have known me a long time know that my career was banking, first at Crocker Bank then at Wells Fargo, which bought out Crocker in 1986. So these old ladies are talking and one of them mentions Crocker Bank, which has been gone for 20 years now. So I say, I couldn't help but overhear you mention Crocker Bank, I used to work there way back when. And she says, I was born in 1918 in San Francisco, and I always banked at Crocker Bank. Then she proceeds to show me her keys, and there is a Crocker Bank keyring! So I pull out my keys, and there is the same keyring! What a trip, what are the odds of that happening?? We both sort of went whoa, then wow, then they left. It was totally cool! I would have loved to sit down with that lady, born in SF 12 years after the great earthquake, I'll bet she has some great stories.



Random Blathering #2
I went to the doctor today and found out that I now have high blood pressure and I have to go on medication for it. Thanks Mom for passing that Hypertension Gene on to me, my sister has it too.

Random Blathering #3
Leo and I are driving to Spokane in 9 days. I am getting excited about staying in my new house and being able to sort of do a test drive of living in it. I can't wait to go grocery shopping and actually cook up there. I also can't wait to go to Fred Meyer. The first time we visited the Northwest, I became so enamored of Fred Meyer stores that my kids were saying Fred Meyer is Mom's new boyfriend.

ok that's it I'll go to bed now.

Bermuda Kitty Triangle

okay, they NEVER do this. This is the closest I have ever seen them sleeping to each other. Maybe it's the unmade bed, maybe it's the rainstorms we had earlier today, maybe it's the way my purple sheer curtains cast a lilac glow in my room. Whatever it is, I'd like to see it more often, it's cute, to me anyway.

Bragging About Bowling

This week was a good week for my kids at the bowling alley. Although Max no longer bowls in the youth league on Saturday morning, he usually gets in a couple of games after his shift. The other night he came home from work saying he just bowled his personal best--a 191--terrific!
Well today Leo was in the Nor Cal youth tournament which was being held at our local Monterey Lanes. I was a little concerned that he would be disappointed in his scores since due to poison oak he had not bowled in 3 weeks and was out of practice. I emphasized to him that he should not be so concerned about his scores, just to relax and enjoy his first tournament experience. So we get there and the place is jam packed with young bowlers and lots of parents and family. Kids were bowling from all over Northern California, and we were beginning to understand that this was a pretty big event. So Leo starts bowling and the kids from out of town that are bowling with him are pretty good. Their averages were in the mid 100's and Leo's average is 105. They seem like nice kids and everyone is having a good time. One of the kids bowled a 200, the other a 180, and Leo a 102 for the first game.
The second game starts and in the first frame Leo gets a 9. Then he proceeds to bowl SIX STRIKES IN A ROW. He has never bowled more than 3 strikes in a row before that. With every strike people are getting more and more excited, other parents are starting to cheer for him now. After the strike streak he bowled mostly spares and ended the game with a 211--a 211! That's 106 pins over his average, 110 pins over his previous game, and about 50 pins over his previous personal best. His high game got announced over the PA system and the whole packed bowling alley cheered for him. Leo was so excited and happy, and even Max, who was there working, went over and congratulated him, saying to everyone "that's my little brother!" It was a really great moment. Buoyed by his bowling glory, he went on to bowl a whopping 101 in the third game. Apparently he lost his mojo. But that's ok, a 211! So now Leo holds the high score in the house, bumping Max and his 191 in just 3 days.


This picture was actually taken last summer at Lilac Lanes in Spokane, but it is the only picture I have of Leo in a bowling alley. I called Max today and asked him to bring the camera to the tournament when he came but he said no, fearing I might put the pictues on my blog. He was right!

Ralphs is Closing!

The last day is March 27th, but I don't think there will be anything left on the shelves by that time. All their refrigerated stuff is gone already, and I got some great prices on wrapping paper and those foil packs of spices that have names like Swedish Meatballs or Pot Roast.
Anyway...Ralphs has only been in that building for about 7 years. Before that, it was Alberstons; before that, Grocery Warehouse (I used to think I was funny calling it Grocery Whorehouse), and before that it was MONTE MART!!!
Beautiful Glorious Monte Mart--How I loved that store! It was way ahead of it's time back in the 60's, very much like a Super Wal-Mart or Super Target is today. It was a department store that had a full-on grocery section. It had a record section, jewelry, clothing, shoes, appliances, toys, and automotive as well. It was also the only thing within walking distance from my house, so as a kid walking to Monte Mart was a fun adventure, a place to buy Fruit Stripe Gum, Chinese Jumpropes, and 45's of the Ohio Players and Elton John.
One time when I was a teenager, my mom and my 7 year old niece Nichole and I were in the ladies clothing section looking through a big bin of panties. My mom held up this pair of crotchless panties way up in the air and practically yelled "What ARE these things? How do you put them on?" because she did not know that crotchless panties even existed, much less what they were used for. Nichole, world-wise at age 7, knew what they were and started howling with laughter and said, "Grandma, don't you know, they're crotchless panties! Ladies wear them!", to which my mother replied "What for? They don't have a crotch!". Nichole answered, "Grandma, they use them for sex!", after which I can't remember what happened because I had died of embarrassment by then.
Those were good times. Long Live Monte Mart!

Slide Show

When I was little, my dad was into making slides of all his photos. Consequently, I have very few photographs of me when I was small because they are all in slide form. My sister came down on Friday with a surprise--she had all the slides transferred to disk and so now I have them all loaded on my computer--hooray! Even though I was too young to remember all this stuff, these pictures have given me valuable insight into family history and why my family is the way they are now. Insight #1:

Why we are all fat. Food was everywhere, and judging from the pictures, treated just like family. Insight #2:

Why it is so important to me to be a stay at home mom no matter what. This was our grocery store. After my dad left, my mom worked from 8am to 10pm six days a week until she got rid of it when I was nine years old. I was raised by my grandma, great aunt, and a German lady named Margaret. Insight #3 (a biggie):

Why I fell in love with an alcoholic. That's my dad two-fisted drinking there. Enough said, except I believe I have learned from my experience and hopefully won't be making that mistake again.
Sorry if this post is a little dark. I should note that most of these slides were of get-togethers of family, baseball games, family vacations, etc. and there were a lot of fun and happy times. I was 2 or 3 years old and don't really remember:

I can say that the reason I grew into a compassionate, loving, optimistic and happy person is because of this gal here, my mom:

I sure miss her!

All New Cells For Cross Stitch!

I heard or read somewhere at some time that in seven years time all of our cells die and regenerate, meaning that seven years from now I will be a completely different person, cell-wise, than I am right now. If this is true then today I am a completely different person than I was seven years ago. Well this theory makes sense to me because--
I picked up my cross stitch today for the first time in eight years. I was a daily cross stitcher for probably fifteen years, from my early 20's until my divorce when I was 36. I enjoyed it and I was good at it, but cross stitch came to have a negative connotation to it right at the time of my divorce. I realized that most of the times I spent cross stitching were times when I was waiting for Dana to come in from the garage, or come home from work, or come to bed. I realized that cross stitch was a means of killing time and putting my life on hold while I was waiting for my husband to show up so I could resume my life. Once I made that realization I put the cross stitch down, vowing that I would have a life and not let it go by while I stitched.
Well now it's eight years later and my life now is very different. I don't wait around to live anymore, that's for sure! So I have been packing to move and I realized I don't have any books or other crafts in the house now, they are all in storage! And I have been watching the Olympics and I really need something else for my hands to do besides eat chocolate. So I went into the garage and found my cross stitch, just like I had left it 8 years ago. I was a little apprehensive about dredging up a bunch of old feelings or issues, but I started to stitch and there were no issues except that my vision is worse and that I probably need bifocals now! Then I remembered the thing about the cells in seven years, so my theory is that's why I could cross stitch now, just for fun when I have some free time in the evenings, not obsessively all the time because I had no life. I am not only a different person spiritually, but physically as well. Praise the Lord and Pass the Bifocals!

I Love Me Some Olympics!

I have since I was a kid watching Olga Korbut and Dorothy Hamill. So last night I watched the opening ceremony which I thought was great except what was with the 70's and 80's pop and disco during the parade of athletes? I enjoyed it since I liked most of the songs that were played, but it just seemed out of place somehow.
So today I find myself with a cleared calendar since Leo still has poison oak all over and does not want to bowl. Hooray! (Not for Leo) This means I can pack all morning until 2pm and then watch the olympics. I wonder who will capture the hearts of the crowd this year. Will there be another Eddie the Eagle or Jamaican bobsled team? Tune in and find out!
Oh yeah, and what's with Pavarotti's eyebrows, they look like they are alive and about to crawl off his face.
PS Sophia Loren looked fabulous! And can anyone tell me why Susan Sarandon was helping carry the olympic flag?

Blossom is Annoying

Whenever she wants to be fed or to go outside she comes over to wherever I am sitting and digs her claws into my knee. Once she has my attention she will start walking over to either her food bowl or the door. I am expected to follow her and if I don't, I get another claw in the knee. Yesterday she reached up real high and clawed me in my stomach, now I have 4 little scratches on my stomach in the shape of her paw. She can't just sit by the door and meow like normal cats, oh no, she has to personally escort me. And then when I open the door she just sits there and looks out and doesn't even go! But that's ok with her because in the middle of the night she sits in my bedroom windowsill and meows until I get up out of a sound sleep to let her out of the window (which proves she understands about the meowing thing). And I had better not get back to sleep too soon, because in 20 minutes she will be hanging off the outside of the window making all kinds of racket until I let her back in. WHY DO I LOVE HER SO MUCH????

EVIL.

Things I need to find in Spokane

(in no particular order)
Doctors for me and the boys
Dentists for us too
A Church
Good coffee
A good grocery store
A job with benefits
A bunco group
People to hang with
Places to walk
Some new furniture
Good cheap places to eat (sandwiches, pizza, mongolian BBQ, mexican)
Good Sunday drives
A Bible study
Good book and record stores
A really good hairdresser
Good concerts and entertainment venues
A movie theater that shows independent films
A bowling alley
Other things that I forgot.

I feel like I can find all these things sooner or later.

One thing I need to find in Monterey:
Someone to buy my house!

Well, there's no going back now

Today I packed up my photo albums and my crochet hooks and yarn. This is really happening, wow. I have a well-meaning acquaintance who is trying to talk me not out of moving, but out of selling my house. He says if I could just hold on to it for another 10 years I will make lots more money. Ten years! I have barely been able to hold onto it for the past 8 years, and have dug myself into a financial hole doing so. I am not willing to dig myself deeper toward financial ruin, I am getting out while I can. Sure it will be hard leaving my entire family and many of my friends, but it is what I feel led to do and I am convinced it will be a good thing in the long run. So tomorrow I will start packing up my music. There really is no going back now!

I will miss the Boardwalk

I only go about once a year, but still. As a reward to Leo for being so helpful in getting the house ready to show yesterday, we went to Santa Cruz Boardwalk today. I cut church even. We played mini golf at Neptunes Kingdom, then had some lunch and finally went to the giant arcade with all the old pinball machines and Skee Ball. We had fun, just me and him, no Max. What a sweet child Leo is when his brother is not there to bug him, and vice versa.

Showing My House

I was talking to Leo's teacher the other day and he said he heard I was selling my house. He asked me how much and I told him. I thought he was just being politely curious and thought nothing of it. Well the next day he calls and says, I talked it over with my wife, and we want your house. Just like that. They haven't even seen it yet! So I, non-salesperson that I am, try to talk him out of it, but it didn't work. The whole family is coming over this afternoon to look at it. Now, we have been sorting, packing, tossing, etc and so have the roommates, so the house basically looks like every room has been ransacked. Also there is stuff in the yard, on the driveway, everywhere. And a potential buyer is coming in 4 hours. I do not even know where to begin. If I came and looked at this house right now I would run away screaming. Oh well. Bring it on!

Dream Come True on Elm Street

This is a long story.
With all this house and moving hoopla, I realized that I have never documented how I came to own the house on Elm Street in Spokane. I want to write it down so that people can know how God works in my life and so that I can remember too when I feel like God has lost my file. So here goes.
We made the tentative decision to move to Spokane sometime in early 2005. In July we went up there on a fact finding mission for a week. We made the final decision while we were up there after visiting colleges, bowling alleys, and looking at real estate. By the time we left Spokane, I had put a deposit down on a lot in a newer subdivision, having decided to have our house built for us. I wasn't having any luck finding everything I desired in a house that was already built. Here was my wishlist:
1) Location. I wanted to be in a specific school district on the South Hill, I loved the beautiful old neighborhoods but the houses were old too, and I didn't want to be constantly fixing old stuff. So what I wanted was
2)a new house in an old neighborhood, those just don't really exist. Plus, the lots in the older neighborhoods are large and I didn't want all the yardwork that goes along with them. I wanted
3) a small yard. Those didn't seem to exist either. Now, about the house itself. My dream home would have
4) A 3 car garage
5) A basement with a kitchenette so my college age son could live in it (oh yeah, egress windows please.)
6) A gas stove. It seems that most stoves in Spokane are electric, I'm not sure why.
7) Four bedrooms so I could have a office/hobby room for myself!
8) An inside laundry room.
9) In my price range. It became apparent that the only way to get all these things was to have a house built. Hence the deposit on the lot. All was well until I called the developer in October to get the building started. They told me that the builder refused to build on my lot because of it's proximity to neighbors that he had run-in's with. There was another builder who was willing, but he was out of my price range. I told the developer to return my deposit and started looking at real estate websites again. The more I looked, the more I realized that in order to get everything I now required in a house, I would have to go over my budget by almost 50K. This was very distressing to me, and caused me to reconsider staying in California, even though to do so would be financial suicide. So I started to pray. I prayed for God to show me one way or the other what I should do, stay or go. Not only did I pray for a direction, I prayed for the path to be so clear that I would have no doubt that it was the right path. I believe my exact words were, "God, light up my path like a runway. Open the door so wide and shove me through it so hard that I will have no doubt that You are the one doing the shoving."
On Veteran's day I was on the internet looking for something entirely unrelated to real estate and I was scrolling down my favorites and I guess I just clicked on the wrong thing and I ended up on the Spokane for sale by owner website. I said out loud "Oh, this is not where I wanted to be" and I heard a voice inside of me that was NOT my voice say "Look at it" Now mind you, I had just been to this site 2 days prior and there was nothing good on it. But I heard this voice and decided to be obedient so I scrolled down. and there it was. The house that was in my price range, a newer house in the old neighborhood, with the right number of bedrooms, etc. I looked at the pictures of it on the website, it has a full kitchen in the walkout downstairs and oh by the way both kitchens have gas stoves. It had a 3 car garage and an inside laundry room upstairs AND downstairs. So I called the guy who was selling it. He tells me he can't talk now and could he call me back. When I give him my number he says You're calling from Seaside, CA, and I said how did you know that and he says Because that's where I grew up. Whoa. I chewed on that for an hour while I waited for him to call me back. So he called back and we found out we both went to the same Jr high and High school but several years apart. I asked him why he was selling his house and he said "Well, this might sound strange to you, but God has been putting it on my heart to sell my house, I don't know why, but I decided to be obedient so I put my house on the market yesterday." So I told him "Well, this might sound strange to YOU, but I have been praying for a house just like yours!" Anyway, to make a long story less long, 4 days later I went up and signed the papers. My path was lit up like a runway! I know that this story loses something between the telling of it and the writing of it, but there is NO DOUBT that God provided this house for me. I don't know what He has in store for me once I get there, and whatever it is won't always be easy, but God knows what I need and he will provide it in His time and in His way. I am totally okay with that.
Oh yeah, and by the way, the yard is tiny.

Thoughts on American Idol

I love American Idol. It is the slickest reality show on TV, and I use the word reality loosely. The only thing resembling real on that show is when America votes and people are eliminated. But all the stuff leading up to it, I don't think there's much reality to it. Which is fine! I love the way the auditions are presented, but you know that when that tan makeup chick and her mother came along, some producer told Simon to ask to see the mother, because it was funnier that way. And it was! It's not often we as TV viewers get to see multi-generational humiliation (not counting Jerry Springer). And you know that the producers had a bunch of bad singers do Lady Marmalade, just so they could have a montage of it at the end of the show. That was a riot, I sure hope Patti LaBelle was watching, I'll bet she got a kick out of that. My personal highlights of last night's show were:
1) The deputy sheriff who sang "I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot the deputy" over and over like 10 times while dressed in his deputy uniform. Someone should have shot that deputy!
2) The 2 chicks who were debating whether or not singing ability was what got you to Hollywood. This theory was proven when the spazz who couldn't sing got pushed on to Hollywood simply because he couldn't stand still.
Can't wait for tonight. American Idol AND Lost, woo hoo! Maybe I can get Steve to tivo Skating with Celebrities, then my night would be complete!

We are a part of the XM Nation!

I have had XM for over a year in my car. I will never ever ever infinity ever go back to regular radio. Tonight I was going back and forth between the 80's and the 70's stations. Here is the playlist: Wiiiiiiildfire PS you can't die in a killing frost unless you are a tomato. The Candy Man by Sammy Davis Jr. The Candy Man can cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good! Then it was You Belong to the City by Glenn Frey, everytime I hear that song I want to go watch Miami Vice. After that came What I Like About You by the Romantics. Hey! Most of the time I listen to the Classic Alternative station, lots of Cure, Smiths and Depeche Mode, but sometimes when I'm in the car by myself I take a wild ride down memory lane, woo hoo! I feel like watching the Wedding Singer now, but I can't because American Idol comes on in 25 minutes yay, it's my favorite episode, the one with all the crappy singers. After what just transpired in the car with me and the XM, I will feel right at home among them!

WIIIIIILDFIRE!!

Fun with Sudoku

I have recently discovered the worldwide craze that is Sudoku. For the three people left who don't know what that is, Sudoku is a number puzzle, you fill in the numbers where they should go. If you google sudoku you will find lots of websites. Anyway, I have the hang of it to the point where I can do the easy puzzles in pen not pencil. There is one website called www.websudoku.com where you play online and it times you and will also tell you how fast you are compared to everyone else who plays on that site. Well, I have never gotten higher than BELOW AVERAGE. Today I was quick, only 73% of players were faster than me, usually it's 80-90%. I don't have much hopes of getting faster, I'm just grateful I can get through the easy puzzles. I am currently working up the courage to do a medium one. Maybe today will be the day!

I'm on a roll now!

This is the aforementioned Blossom. Max took the picture in black and white which seems kind of redundant since the cat is black and white anyway. She is the best, the cutest and the softest, but I will let you judge for yourself.

This is Grace. She was skinny when we got her from a shelter, but I think that she thinks that every meal could be her last. Also she has a neighborhood route where she gets food from 2 other houses. Grace is not the smartest or most agile cat, but we love her very much.

And this is Dolly. She is a diva. She will only drink running water from the bathroom sink faucet and will not let you pet her below her head. She is very pretty and smart too.

This picture thing is cool. Knowledge is power!

Getting the hang of this Picture thing

OK I'm trying to post a picture.  This one is of Leo taken June 2004 at
Slide Rock State Park just outside of Sedona AZ.  We were on a road trip that went from Monterey to Texas and Oklahoma and back. It was 6000 miles long and took a month to do.  Boy was it fun!

Right after this picture was taken, the guy behind Leo yelled "Cannonball!!" and did indeed do a cannonball into the river, totally soaking some Japanese tourists.

Moving Suckiness

this post is going to be all over the place because I just woke up and my head hurts.
The logistics of planning an across 3 states move is daunting to say the least. Not only am I trying to plan my move, but I also have to coordinate with the roommates, one of which has tentative plans to move to Spokane also. Every day I try to fill at least 3 boxes with stuff. Yesterday was particularly crazy. The kitchen floor finally went in on Wednesday after over 3 months of chaos, it looks very nice. This meant that we could now move all the pantry cupboards back in there. For some strange reason I thought that moving the kitchen stuff out of the living room would make the living room roomier, but instead it looks like an explosion at the junk factory. So my goal for today, in between volunteering at Leo's school and going to Bible Study tonight, is to unplug the dam of crap that is my living room and get the river of crap flowing freely again out my front door. At least the coffee is kicking in and my head doesn't hurt so bad now. Oh yeah, I forgot that somehow the dishes and laundry need doing today too. Calgon, take me away!
OK I'm done. thanks for letting me whine, you're the best.
In other news, last night I read my new future neighbor Faythe's blog. I went back into the archives and read practically the whole thing. No I am not some crazy stalker who is trying to get inside her head. I was looking for information on Spokane, and I found some great nuggets, like now I know where to get my hair cut & colored. (I fell off the silver wagon and caved, I am now auburn again) Also I have a line on a great Italian deli where they sell fresh pasta, cheese, bread, etc. AND Max was very happy to learn that the local KFC has an all you can eat deal. I found out that there is an awesome hiking trail just a few blocks from my house, and I am very excited about actually experiencing all these things myself.
I also talked to a real estate broker yesterday. It became very apparent that I really don't know squat about real estate and that it would be good to let this broker gal handle everything. She is extremely helpful and informative and I am confident that I will be able to sell my house with her help.
OK, gotta go, busy busy!

Don't Tell Dolly or Grace

But I love our cat Blossom the best. Actually she is Leo's cat, and even though she loves Leo, she loves me too. When I was sick with the flu for 2 days last month she never left my side, she put her little paw on my hand and comforted me in her sweet kitty way. Once I felt better she made herself scarce, not sleeping on my bed, not coming when I call her, and only sitting with Leo or Max. I blame it on the catnip toy we got her, she just wasn't in her right mind. But yesterday and today she has been very needy and cuddly, following me around the house and sitting wherever I happen to be. As I type this she is laying right in front of me next to the monitor. I am going to try this html thing that Max tried to teach me the other night and get a picture from my computer of her, hold on:

Well I was informed by Max that all the pictures I had on my computer of Blossom are too big and that I would have to resize them, yeah, like I know how to do that! So instead I give you a picture of my new house in Spokane. Which is almost as cute as Blossom and a lot bigger but not as soft.

Thank You Max!

Now it is my turn.


Isn't he cute!



ok hope this turns out. If I can figure this out then my blog will have personality.

my son is a the genus.

haha, hes typing this. hello. im max. i dont use propper grammer. sorry. im teaching my lovely mommy html. here it goes.

b is for bold!
u is for underline!
i is for italics!
this is a link!
and here is a random photo!

heres some different font sizes! yeah boyyyyy!


font size 5!


above is a break!
here is a lil sum sum centered for yall
and you can mix it up too!


MAX IS


AWESOME!!!


there ya go. basic html for blogging nonsense.

Communication Quandry

May I just start by saying that I love the internet. I have met (virtually anyway) lots of really cool people from all over. Not to mention being able to buy stuff while in my nightgown! That being said...
I have been communicating recently with a couple of gals (girls? ladies? I like gal because to me it a hybrid of girl and pal. ok back on track Karla) from Spokane. I found one of them (Faythe) on a blog. I left a comment on her blog and she was nice enough to send a comment back to me. Now today one of her friends has left a comment but I'm not sure how to get a message back to her (Michele). So I am going to put my email on Faythe's blog and hope that she reads it or maybe Faythe will be nice enough to pass on the message. I bet she will because everyone I have met from Spokane is super nice, even if they are from somewhere else. Which is good because I am not only super nice but funny too. And I'm from somewhere else (my kids think it's another planet, but they're only part right, it's California). So I hope to fit right in when I get up there in June. Which is right aroung the corner, I better go pack some more boxes!

I Cannot Believe

that it has been 2 and a half months since I have graced my blog with a post. I figure that nobody reads it anyway, but still I think it is good writing practice for me and helps me to remember my life because my short term memory is shot from all the years of pot smoking. My long term memory is better but still selective. The problem is that I am not the one selecting the memories. If I was, the lyrics from all the crappy 70's songs would be erased, but no, and now my 11 year old son can tell you what the song "Wildfire" is about. He can also tell you about Afternoon Delight and Muskrat Love.
I am a bad mom.
Anyway, I was going to talk about how I bought a house in Spokane in November, and how now it is official and how we are so excited, etc, but I got off track. But you know what I always say, where would I be if I wasn't off track? I know--I'd be on track, but what is the fun of that?
I am already packing up stuff for the move, it is a huge task so I figured if I did some everyday that I'd be done by June. So far so good.
OK I'm tired now and ready for bed. Lately I have to get completely exhausted before I go to bed, otherwise I will lay there with my brain on overdrive. Well it was fun to post again, hopefully I won't wait so long, or maybe time just won't go by so fast, yeah right!

Misuse of Toothpaste

My friend Elizabeth called from Oklahoma today. We have been great friends since November 21, 1973 when we got in trouble for playing poker during lunchtime at Fremont Jr High. Out of all of my friends she is the one that I laugh with the most. She lived in the Bay Area for years and she used to come down several times a year to stay the weekend. We bring out the silliness in each other, and we know that when we are visiting that there will be at least one episode of laughter in which tears are streaming down our faces and we cant breathe. Well, now she lives in rural Oklahoma, so the laughs have to come mostly over the phone. Just not the same.
Anyway, she called to tell me about this toothpaste she bought, Crest Vivid White Night in the flavor of Moonlight Mint. They had several other flavors of mint like Invigorating Mint, Refreshing Mint, etc. When I asked her what Moonlight Mint tastes like, she said Mint. Well duh! But since neither of us knows exactly what moonlight tastes like, I got on the Crest website to find out if they knew. Well, apparently this Crest Vivid White Night is a toothpaste that is meant for brushing at night before you go to bed, because it coats your teeth and whitens them while you sleep. I guess that explains the Moonlight Mint title.
So I told Elizabeth that she has been using nighttime toothpaste in the daytime, she had no idea! I mean, since when is there Night Toothpaste? Anyway, it loses something in the translation, but by the end of the conversation we were howling with laughter as usual. I really miss her.
Moral of the story--Read your toothpaste label carefully, who knows what kind of consequences there are for toothpaste misuse?

I forget I have this thing

Therefore, I forget to post to it. Currently Max is at work, Leo is out with his dad, and I am listening to a cd I picked up in Berkeley yesterday, it's an old one, Computer World by Kraftwerk. I have the song Computer Love on repeat. I cannot stop listening to it, it's so great. The kids have been on break for the last almost 2 weeks, it has been very nice not having to get up so early and having some unstructured days for a change. They go back to school on Monday, hopefully they had as much fun as I did. I will try to be better with my posting, since nothing happens all the time and after all, that's what this blog is about.
PS I'm the operator with my pocket calculator....

Good News, Bad News

Here is the good news--Tomorrow we are flying to Seattle because Max entered the Stockstock film festival and his short film was one of 25 selected to be shown at the Seattle Art Museum tomorrow night. We had gotten vouchers for a free flight from Alaska Airlines bacause of a flight delay back in July, so we decided to go. I used to really enjoy being spontaneous, but those were the days when I didn't have every day booked with something, I had to cancel church, a picnic, and physical therapy just to be gone overnight! Yikes. Anyway, I have never been to Seattle so we are going to try to cram a bunch of touristy stuff into our one day. You just never know where life is going to lead you I guess.
Which brings me to the bad news--On Tuesday a pipe burst underneath my sink and ruined the floor in my kitchen, family room and bathroom. The disaster cleanup people came and currently there are 5 industrial strength fans running 24 hrs a day in my house to dry out the walls. The noise is awful, we are mostly staying in the bedrooms with the door closed because we can't stand it. They will be running until Tuesday, which goes back to the good news because now we will be gone for 2 days while the fans are running.
It's all quite an adventure.
P.S. thank God for homeowner's insurance.

Church Chat

This morning I went to my church's membership class, which is the class you attend when you are fairly new there and you want to become a member. Well, I have been going to my church for almost 5 years. It is really not a big deal whether or not you are a member, nobody pressures you or anything. I have always volunteered, been a part of things and felt totally at home there. And because we are moving in less than a year it would have been easy to just not ever become a member. But I felt I owed it to the church which has been so faithful to me, to be faithful to it. I equate it to living together without the benefit of marriage, it's time to make it official.

Hooked on Fake Knitting

I do not know how to knit. My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was a girl, and that makes me a crocheter. I have tried to learn how to knit on a few occasions, but I just can't get the hang of it. Recently though, I found this thing called a hat loom. This loom enables you to "knit" a hat without actually learning how to knit. Well, this has opened up a whole new world to me, I am not only a crocheter anymore, I can "knit"! This is the equivalent of heating up a Mrs. Smith's pie and proclaiming to be a baker. But I don't care! Armed with my new "skill", I am making beanies left and right, equipping my family to withstand the ravages of the harsh Monterey winter! Really, that's not true for two reasons: a) Monterey's winters are anything but harsh, and b) my boys refuse to wear the butt-ugly hats I am churning out. But I remain undaunted! Next year, when we move to Spokane, and I get stuck in a snowdrift, I will be easily spotted in my lifesaving neon rainbow beanie!

The Past Week

I have been very sad all week, I'm sure you all know why. I have been praying like crazy, I hope my prayers helped. The enormity of this thing is unfathomable to me. I will keep watching CNN and FOX until this story ends. But this is a story that will never really end, certainly not happily. I feel guilty for having petty problems, I pray I will never know what real problems are. I love you all.