We had a great flower challenge. Many pretty pictures. I made a page for the winners though so far only one person has done an acceptance speech. And it wasn't me. I need to do one. Joanne won twice. She does such nice work. I was happy with the way it came out. NIK did the voting form and counted up the votes. Also very happy to have won for a pure photo of an apple blossom.
The spammers have caught up with the board again. The board is fixed now so that I have to approve membership before they can post. Hopefully I will continue to recognize the spammers and delete them before they ever post anything. It is lots easier that way...still I have to go to the trouble of zapping them. One spammer rejoined after I deleted him the first time. Just didn't get the message! Even when they know they can't ever post they think that just getting their web page or message in the member list is doing something. If this wasn't my board I would seldom look at the member list. I don't think anyone else does either.
A few more members from Janee's board have joined and I've a few new people too.
The new May challenge starts tomorrow. I've already put up the page for it. It should be a fun challenge too.
I finally got E.R. a computer so that I can have this one to myself. In case anyone doesn't know about my bad temper...last year he was complaining to me about his computer and our grandson Cody using it like it was my fault and that I should do something about it. The computer was hanging up from all the programs and stuff like My Space and too much being open at once. It might have gotten a virus. I reinstalled the operating system and it seemed fine for awhile. Then Cody got back on it and all the problems started over. Finally it just got on my nerves and since I had bought the darn thing to start with I threw it out the door and ruined it. I warned E.R. that I was going to toss out the computer and he said to go ahead. I really don't think he thought I would really do it.
Anyway I need to get the new computer set up so I can put mine somewhere else. I wanted to get the voting and the new challenge started before I move everything. It might take me a day or so to get back online.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday again!
Last evening we went to Barona for the buffet. We took Hailey and her friend Jennifer and Cody too. The prime rib was so good. I love the buffet but never think I can eat enough to get my money's worth. I didn't have seconds and no dessert either. Cody was good company. The only thing I don't like about the place is having to walk through the smoky casino. Now that all the laws prevent smoking in public places it seems strange to be in a place that lets people smoke. I rather love the no smoking laws. I grew up in a home that was often blue with smoke. My having asthma didn't stop my mom from smoking or anyone that came to visit. She kept the house pin neat and clean so that the dust wouldn't make me sick. Yet everyone smoked.
Hailey's Show Choir class is serving dessert tonight at her school. Saturday they are in the Lakeside Rodeo parade. Back in the late 1930s my mother and three other girls led the parade one year. My father tried bull riding but decided he wasn't cut out for rodeo when he landed with his face in the dirt. As far as I know the rodeo wasn't held during the war and only returned in the late 1940s. We plan to go to the rodeo Saturday afternoon. I haven't been to a rodeo in years.
Lakeside used to have a built in rodeo grounds with white wooden fences and a look of permanence. In the early 1960s the freeway was built through there and then the rodeo was gone for a while. The freeway stops not far after the old location and was never built any longer. Wonder why they couldn't have quit building sooner? Now the rodeo grounds is on leased property from the highschool, and it is mostly pipe corral. It never seems the same to me and it has been over forty years. Elizabeth and I went there to see Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson when they toured as the Highwaymen some years ago. It was a really good show.
Hailey's Show Choir class is serving dessert tonight at her school. Saturday they are in the Lakeside Rodeo parade. Back in the late 1930s my mother and three other girls led the parade one year. My father tried bull riding but decided he wasn't cut out for rodeo when he landed with his face in the dirt. As far as I know the rodeo wasn't held during the war and only returned in the late 1940s. We plan to go to the rodeo Saturday afternoon. I haven't been to a rodeo in years.
Lakeside used to have a built in rodeo grounds with white wooden fences and a look of permanence. In the early 1960s the freeway was built through there and then the rodeo was gone for a while. The freeway stops not far after the old location and was never built any longer. Wonder why they couldn't have quit building sooner? Now the rodeo grounds is on leased property from the highschool, and it is mostly pipe corral. It never seems the same to me and it has been over forty years. Elizabeth and I went there to see Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson when they toured as the Highwaymen some years ago. It was a really good show.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday and Friday
Thursday is a day for thinking about all the things I planned to do this week and haven't. It is not the end of the week and still it is too close to the end. Where the freshness of a new week starting has worn off...a sort of nothing day. The sky out is clear and it looks like a bright sunny day about to begin even if it is Thursday. People who live paycheck to paycheck are out of money on Thursdays. Thursday means one more work day to look forward to until the week end. I'm retired but I have a granddaughter in school so I'm up thinking about waking her up and getting breakfast ready. Then it is the off to school morning drive down the hill. I'm one of those parents that crowd the drop off at the school. There is room for three rows of cars to slide through while watching for children threading their way between the cars.
When I went to that school we road the bus when we were with our mother and then later the times we lived with our father and step mother we walked to school. The school is now a middle school. I went to kindergarten there. That little one room building was behind the main school and was taken down years ago when the original school building was flattened. I was in fifth grade when the building came down and our teacher let us go to the windows and watch it fall. We were in the new building then which is now the old building now. Even that was not the original Lakeside school. The one room school my father went to is down the road and still stands. It is where the district offices are. I'm not sure what it is used for. I know I was actually inside the building back in the nineteen fifties.
Took Hailey to school. That was yesterday and she is back to school today. Last evening was the school's open house. The orchestra and the band played in the auditorium and then the show choir performed. Enjoyed the show except when the orchestra was playing a couple two rows behind me kept yapping...mainly the woman. The louder they played the louder she got. I did turn around and give her a dirty look but it didn't faze her.
Hailey was smiling and looking good during the performance. This is probably the last year that I will be at the school ever. It seems strange that I went to school there so many years in the late 1940s and early 1950s and then drove past the school for so many years and never as much as walked on the grounds. My children didn't go there. It has been Hailey's school for the last three years. I got to see the changes made to the school and buildings. My eighth grand graduation ceremony was on that same stage. Now there are too many students for that and graduations are held out side at the back of the school.
The best part of spring seems to be fading fast here. I know it is cold in the north and places could still have snow falling. Here our spring is almost over. The green hills are turning gold and then they will be brown until next year.
When I went to that school we road the bus when we were with our mother and then later the times we lived with our father and step mother we walked to school. The school is now a middle school. I went to kindergarten there. That little one room building was behind the main school and was taken down years ago when the original school building was flattened. I was in fifth grade when the building came down and our teacher let us go to the windows and watch it fall. We were in the new building then which is now the old building now. Even that was not the original Lakeside school. The one room school my father went to is down the road and still stands. It is where the district offices are. I'm not sure what it is used for. I know I was actually inside the building back in the nineteen fifties.
Took Hailey to school. That was yesterday and she is back to school today. Last evening was the school's open house. The orchestra and the band played in the auditorium and then the show choir performed. Enjoyed the show except when the orchestra was playing a couple two rows behind me kept yapping...mainly the woman. The louder they played the louder she got. I did turn around and give her a dirty look but it didn't faze her.
Hailey was smiling and looking good during the performance. This is probably the last year that I will be at the school ever. It seems strange that I went to school there so many years in the late 1940s and early 1950s and then drove past the school for so many years and never as much as walked on the grounds. My children didn't go there. It has been Hailey's school for the last three years. I got to see the changes made to the school and buildings. My eighth grand graduation ceremony was on that same stage. Now there are too many students for that and graduations are held out side at the back of the school.
The best part of spring seems to be fading fast here. I know it is cold in the north and places could still have snow falling. Here our spring is almost over. The green hills are turning gold and then they will be brown until next year.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Cooler Days Ahead?
It was over 90 here yesterday and they said a 100 in El Cajon. Hailey spent Saturday night with her friend Haley T. The family went to a play at the school and invited Hailey to go with them. Sunday morning I picked up Hailey and Haley and her little sister Tyler. They spent the day here and then it was back down to Lakeside to take Haley and Tyler home.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
A Beautiful Day
ER and I had brunch out on the front patio. I never know what to call that area. It was a small front yard that is enclosed with chainlink. My stepmom, Marlise, tried for years to get a lawn to grow there. The small area was dry and dusty and miserable. So a few years ago we paved the area with sandstone. A homemade job...very uneaven but I love it. There was already a drain put in by my Dad years ago that runs under the carport. Otherwise paving that area would be a disaster waiting to happen. The house is in a low spot. So without that drain the patio would turn into a pond when it rains. I bought two table umbrellas at Home Depot for the Walmart plastic furniture that I had bought. It made a lovely place to sit and watch humming birds. I have a feeder hanging from the small porch overhang at the front door. The only downside is that the umbrellas blow over in strong winds...if I don't get out there quickly and roll them down. After three years the umbrellas needed replacing. Was going to do that this summer but happened to see just what I wanted at Wallmart. Love that store.
There was a tree in the corner of the yard that finally just got too old. Branches were falling so now it is a stump. We planted yucca around the stump so it doesn't hurt me so much to see it.
And of course the fire pit that Elizabeth bought for me at Christmas. The area is perfect.
My Dad got this place back in the late 1960's. He had made a loan to a friend...a second mortgage. The friend defaulted on the first and the loan company was forclosing. That meant my Dad would loose the money he had loaned on the second. So he went to the loan company and took over the first. The house is very old and started out as a two room with a large round rock fireplace. Mostly built with redwood. It was added on to in 1940 and then my Dad made some changes too. They used the back bedroom and changed the front room into one larger room. In the late '70s he built a new master bedroom and bath.
The ceilings are low and since my dad was 6'2" wondered how he liked living here. It was planned to be temporary. He owned a hill off Woodside Ave. and always planned to build a big house up there. After he moved here Marlise didn't want the big house. She liked it here. This place has a special feeling that is hard to describe. He died in 1985.
He liked the look of palm trees and palm lined drives. This property has a long driveway to the road and he planted palms along both sides. The neighbor on one side would like them removed. The neighbor's property is higher than our drive and I think it would make a real mess to remove the trees...and it would ruin the look too. I love those trees. The people that owned his place sold out and moved to AZ. He and his wife bought when property values had hit the high mark. They paid a couple of hundred thousand more than the place is now worth.
The previous owner had gotten permission from my Dad to drive from his back yard down into our driveway. Then after my Dad passed away he built a paved drive way down into ours and built some sort of building there. Marlise, was so mad about that, but she never said anything to him. I made it very plain to him that new owners would not be using my drive. That there was no easement to our drive and that it would be closed off. That didn't make me flavor of the month when the new owner asked me to relent on that and I refused. Though when they wanted to put in an above ground pool in the back corner of their property I let the work men drive up the bank on our side of the fence and even take our fence apart so that they could take all the supplies for the pool in.
After my Dad passed my stepmom lived here until she died in the summer of 2000. I bought the place from the trust. I like living here too. Marlise let the little house in back to ER. We separated in 83. Our son Dave was living with him too. Then two years ago my Daughter came with her two children. Now she is living in the little house. Hailey and I were on our own for so long it seems strange to share a place now. I have my own space and spend a lot of time there. Otherwise I would go nutz. Last year Megan went back to live with her father. So mostly it is just Elizabeth and Cody.
Yesterday I visited Jackie and had lunch there. She has new puppies and so had some puppy time. The big girl puppy is so cute. I could fall in love, but since I lost my dog because ER left the gate open don't want to get another. I will stick with our cats. We have five.
Fluffy was the only one that wasn't fixed. He started catting around, yowling, and pissing on everything. So off to the vet. Over $400! He has been very quiet since and now even lets me pet him. To get him to the vet we had to get him into the carrier. He ran under the furniture and finally Dave and I cornered him and got him secured. I think he knew.
There was a tree in the corner of the yard that finally just got too old. Branches were falling so now it is a stump. We planted yucca around the stump so it doesn't hurt me so much to see it.
And of course the fire pit that Elizabeth bought for me at Christmas. The area is perfect.
My Dad got this place back in the late 1960's. He had made a loan to a friend...a second mortgage. The friend defaulted on the first and the loan company was forclosing. That meant my Dad would loose the money he had loaned on the second. So he went to the loan company and took over the first. The house is very old and started out as a two room with a large round rock fireplace. Mostly built with redwood. It was added on to in 1940 and then my Dad made some changes too. They used the back bedroom and changed the front room into one larger room. In the late '70s he built a new master bedroom and bath.
The ceilings are low and since my dad was 6'2" wondered how he liked living here. It was planned to be temporary. He owned a hill off Woodside Ave. and always planned to build a big house up there. After he moved here Marlise didn't want the big house. She liked it here. This place has a special feeling that is hard to describe. He died in 1985.
He liked the look of palm trees and palm lined drives. This property has a long driveway to the road and he planted palms along both sides. The neighbor on one side would like them removed. The neighbor's property is higher than our drive and I think it would make a real mess to remove the trees...and it would ruin the look too. I love those trees. The people that owned his place sold out and moved to AZ. He and his wife bought when property values had hit the high mark. They paid a couple of hundred thousand more than the place is now worth.
The previous owner had gotten permission from my Dad to drive from his back yard down into our driveway. Then after my Dad passed away he built a paved drive way down into ours and built some sort of building there. Marlise, was so mad about that, but she never said anything to him. I made it very plain to him that new owners would not be using my drive. That there was no easement to our drive and that it would be closed off. That didn't make me flavor of the month when the new owner asked me to relent on that and I refused. Though when they wanted to put in an above ground pool in the back corner of their property I let the work men drive up the bank on our side of the fence and even take our fence apart so that they could take all the supplies for the pool in.
After my Dad passed my stepmom lived here until she died in the summer of 2000. I bought the place from the trust. I like living here too. Marlise let the little house in back to ER. We separated in 83. Our son Dave was living with him too. Then two years ago my Daughter came with her two children. Now she is living in the little house. Hailey and I were on our own for so long it seems strange to share a place now. I have my own space and spend a lot of time there. Otherwise I would go nutz. Last year Megan went back to live with her father. So mostly it is just Elizabeth and Cody.
Yesterday I visited Jackie and had lunch there. She has new puppies and so had some puppy time. The big girl puppy is so cute. I could fall in love, but since I lost my dog because ER left the gate open don't want to get another. I will stick with our cats. We have five.
Fluffy was the only one that wasn't fixed. He started catting around, yowling, and pissing on everything. So off to the vet. Over $400! He has been very quiet since and now even lets me pet him. To get him to the vet we had to get him into the carrier. He ran under the furniture and finally Dave and I cornered him and got him secured. I think he knew.
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