Happy New Year!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Christmas Greetings!

Make a Smilebox greeting

The Royal Oak

Dave's mom treated us to dinner tonight at the same restaurant where Dave and I got engaged 18 1/2 years ago! It's family-owned by the same people who were there on my birthday in February 1990. They brought us a free sundae for dessert. Sweet!

Jane, you ignorant s*&%!!

Jane is my GPS receiver. She is named Jane because she has been known to take me on the occasional goose chase, and then I can say to her, "Jane, you ignorant s*&%!!" (Remember SNL's Weekend Update with Jane Curtain and Dan Aykroyd? They did a parody of 60 Minutes' Point/Counter-point. She would give the liberal view, and he would give the conservative counter-point, often starting off with, "Jane, you ignorant s*&%!!")

Dave and I took Jane with us on a hike today. She has not only the motor vehicle navigation mode, but a topographical mode for hiking. She can track where we go, and then we can put her on "backtrack," and she'll get us back to our base camp. I like that, because then I'm sure we won't get lost. For the most part, she performed as expected today, and we didn't have to call her any nasty names. :) We hiked through an area that burned up in the fires last October, and it was good to see how well it was recovering. There's a lot of new growth.

Now where's the gizmo that keeps us cool and refreshed as we hike? Whew, was it hot! We had to settle for a Klondike drumstick on the way home. Nice.

Hot!!

Wes and I made it to Lake Arrowhead yesterday, but not without mishap. We were on our way to join Dave, his mom (Grace) and Connor, who left the day before to check in at the timeshare where we're staying. We had to wait a day because I needed to pick up high school registration stuff for Wes, as well as to turn in a first-come-first-served application for a locker for him (there's a limited supply, and not everyone will even get one!). I figured we'd hit the road after Wes got home from Jr. Lifeguards, and we could avoid traffic.

Now I really do like my Mercury Villager minivan. It has served me well for something like 15 years. But last month the AC went out. Okay, it's an old car. But ya gotta have AC, so we got it fixed. So Wes and I had set out yesterday, and I noticed that the AC was intermittently not working. GRRR! We just got it fixed!! I wasn't excited about driving to Arrowhead without AC. It was HOT! Oh, well, c'est la vie.

There we were, flying along the 55, almost to the 91, with the windows open, and it was HOT! As I wiped sweat out of my eyes, I glanced down at the temperature gage. YIKES! It was above the very top line, above the "H!" As the adrenaline kicked in, I cranked the heater to full blast, turned on the hazard lights, and tried to coast to the next exit. I got off the freeway with my heart in my throat, fully expecting the engine to burst into flames. It was the Lakeview exit, and I turned right, only to find a long road with nowhere to turn off! We coasted along close to the shoulder, praying for a gas station to appear. About a mile later, we came to an intersection, and praise God, a gas station! I pulled in, and stopped right in front of the air/water machine.

I'm embarrassed to say I know nothing about cars. I opened the hood and called Dave, who was already in Arrowhead, on his cell to ask what the radiator looked like. Okay, yes, I'm embarrassed. Are you happy? It felt like a blonde joke in the making as I walked into the mini-mart to ask the cashier if he would mind showing me the radiator. He rolled his eyes and came out to help. He was very nice as he poured most of the Inland Empire's water supply into my radiator, which he said was "empty." No kidding.

Everything seemed like it was going to be fine until it was time to put the cap back on the coolant container. I had taken it off before the guy came out because Dave said I should put water in there, as well as in the radiator (which I definitely "should not touch until it was cooled off." I remember setting the cap on top of the coolant container, thinking I would be able to see it there since the cap was black and the plastic container was white. Well, when the guy put three wet towels on top of the radiator to unscrew the radiator cap, I believe the towels dragged the coolant cap from where it was sitting, down into the engine somewhere. We searched everywhere. It was gone. Poof. So the nice guy went back in the store and found a makeshift cap from some bottle. It was too big, but he wedged it on with some plastic to hold it in place.

I tried to give him some money, but he just smiled and wouldn't take it. I'm sure he was thinking, "dumb blonde!" If he only knew it wasn't really blonde! Ha.

I found out later that one of the freeze plugs in the radiator has been leaking for some time, which is why the radiator loses water, albeit slowly. They would probably have to drag the whole engine out and charge a fortune to fix it. I won't ever go on a long trip again without checking the radiator first! Hey, I'm learning.

By this time, needless to say, we were no longer able to avoid the traffic. On the bright side, the AC worked like a charm.

Boy Scout Summer Camp

Scoutmaster Dave, Wes and Connor just got home from a week of Boy Scout Summer Camp at Emerald Bay on Catalina. It sounds like they had a fabulous time!! Since Wes is already scuba certified, he and Dave got to go on a night dive, where they came face to face with leopard sharks, lobsters, stingrays, bat rays, and much more. Connor went scuba diving in the ocean for the first time. They all completed the mile swim after getting up at 5:30 every morning to prepare for it (wow!). Dave got up at 3 a.m. on the last morning to go with one of the scouts on a hike he needed for a requirement (it had to increase in elevation by at least 1000 feet). Now that is dedication. They were actually in a cloud at the top. Dave says it was the best week of summer camp they have ever had, with a great group of kids and fantastic adult leaders. Here are some pictures to give you a flavor of the experience.


At the campsite


Cool tent setup!


Wes hangin' out


Connor working on the Rifle Merit Badge


Connor working on the Pottery Merit Badge


Getting ready for a dive!


Practicing for a flag ceremony


Wes on a snorkel outing


Wes in the surf


Dutch Oven cooking


Wes in his cool outback hat


More pottery


Ready for the mile swim!


Beautiful sunrise for the mile swim


Wes


Yummy nachos!


Out kayaking


Wes coming back from his mile swim


All the guys!


Wes, Dave and Connor

JoJo

We've had our cat, JoJo, ever since I was home on maternity leave to have Wes. She was a stray, and so sweet! I'm allergic to cats, so we weren't going to keep her until we realized that she was pregnant. Poor thing! Next thing we knew, we had a new pet. She had to stay outside, but she's always been a homebody, never going far from the backyard.

JoJo is about 16 years old now. She's been losing weight, and is just way too skinny, so I took her to the vet. It turns out that she has a high white blood count, indicating some kind of infection. She is also anemic, and has protein and kidney imbalances. First we’re taking care of the infection and anemia with daily antibiotics and iron for two weeks. Then they want to re-check the blood so make sure it’s better. At that point, they we can decide what (if anything) to address. The doc said it could be inflammatory bowel disease, which seems consistent with her symptoms. She has had diarrhea and vomiting off and on for quite a long time, but just sporadically, and not often. We thought it was from hairballs. But the only way to diagnose that is with a biopsy (expensive), and it’s a chronic condition that is expensive to treat. It can be somewhat controlled, but not cured.

They said if I had trouble getting the pill in her, I could take her to the office and they would do it. I tried and failed, so I took her in. The girl there made it look so easy. Okay, I can do that, now that I know how (I think). She’s supposed to have the pill once a day, and the liquid iron twice a day. Ugh.

All of this reminded me of something I read a long time ago (I have no idea who authored this):

How to Give a Pill to a Cat and Dog:

CAT:
1) Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As the cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2) Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3) Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.

4) Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5) Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.

6) Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and vigorously rub cat's throat.

7) Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make a note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

8) Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

9) Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10) Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11) Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of your last tetanus jab. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw tee-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12) Ring fire brigade to retrieve the friggin' cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

13) Tie the little @#!*#^~!'s front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining room table, find heavy-duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14) Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.

15) Arrange for SPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and ring local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

DOG:
1) Wrap pill in bacon, cheese or peanut butter. Make him beg.

Brilliant.

Stealth footage...

I was sitting here at my computer, and looked up to see an amazing sight outside the sliding glass door. In case you don't believe that teenagers ever actually work hard, I am here to attest that they sometimes do! I had no choice but to record the moment for posterity. See it. Believe it.

A feel for how it was...

If you love choral music, just close your eyes and imagine listening to the Troubadours in one of these amazing French cathedrals...

Gonna Sing 'Til the Spirt Moves in My Soul



It Is Well With My Soul



Salve Regina



...After the Flowing Streams...

The women in my family...

My sister Patti is so creative with pictures! Here's something she shared with us today, depicting three generations of women.

9 to 5, a working woman once again...

Well, after being fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom for the last 13 years, I'm once again a working stiff! Luckily, though, I'm a stay-at-home working stiff. My good friend Pari brought me on as a medical transcriptionist for a psychologist. Thanks to her (training me on her own time!), now I am actually contributing some to the family income! I'm grateful for this opportunity because it's work I enjoy, and I can still be home to chauffeur the kids around and referee their scuffles (not really, they're angels who get along perfectly all the time -- NOT!). It's flexible enough that I can still homeschool Connor for his last year before high school. Hopefully, I'll make enough money to pay for gas! Ha ha!

Here's Pari, my 9-to-5 buddy, who is also my 24/7 friend!

Chant à Paris...

I can hardly wait until tomorrow!! Cory has been in France with the Troubadours for the past 10 days, chant à Paris (singing in Paris)!! It's the trip of a lifetime, and I wish I could have chaperoned this one!! They've been performing in many of the famous cathedrals, not the least of which is Notre Dame Cathedral!! I'm hoping he'll come home with some great pictures to share...


Last month the Troubadours departed from their usual choral format, and put on a production of the new "Grease!" Actually, it was just selections from the full show, but it was the entire second half of the finale concert of the FVHS Vocal Music Program. They switched around roles, but Cory's main character was Eugene (the smart nerdy guy in Grease). Here's their opening number (you can't see much because of the lighting, but you can hear the song). Love it!

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...

Wow. Is school really out already? These are exciting times for Wes, who has just finished eighth grade and graduated from our home school! After seven years of learning at home, he's getting ready to enter Huntington Beach High School in the fall!! He's nervous, but excited. He has a built-in group of friends on the water polo team, and they're really nice kids. We're encouraging him to join the Christian Athletes' Club on campus, as well. Congratulations, Graduate!!

Things we take for granted...

I love to sing. I've always loved to sing. To be able to open my mouth and sing is something I've pretty much taken for granted. Now I can't sing, and I don't think I'll ever take it for granted again!

Almost four months ago, I caught a cold, which, as it usually does for me, turned into asthmatic bronchitis. This time it was particularly nasty. I've learned from experience to go to the doctor for meds immediately at the onset of symptoms; otherwise, the cough continues for months on end! So I coughed for only three weeks, but the cough was especially violent. My throat was raw and very painful.

At the end of the three weeks, the cough let up, but my voice was GONE! It remained gone for about four weeks, and then slowly started coming back enough to talk. I guess it's starting to come back, though, because for a long time I could only sing up to a middle C; now I can get one step higher, to a D.




My mom says I should get a whistle to call the boys when they're in the video game room with the door closed and the volume up. Yeah. That'd go over big! I could be like Captain Von Trapp!

Food for thought...

Here is an excerpt from a recent column by former New York Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat:

"Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a proud American… It has become fashionable for Americans … to hold President George W. Bush up to derision. …I crossed party lines in 2004 to support the President’s reelection, saying at the time that … I did believe he was the only one running who appreciated the threat of Islamic terrorism to American values and Western civilization… I have no regrets for having made that decision...

"Today, according to the most recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, ‘71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as President, an all-time high in polling.’ His position can be compared with that of Harry Truman who left Washington unpopular and alone in 1953. Today, with the passage of time, most historians and certainly the American people, see Truman in a different light, primarily for his willingness to stand firm against Soviet aggression… Like Truman, George W. Bush, in my view, will be seen as one of the few world leaders who recognized the danger of Islamic terrorism and was willing with Tony Blair to stand up to it and not capitulate. …

"Recently, President Bush went to Israel to celebrate its 60th birthday as a nation and addressed its parliament, the Knesset. He said, “Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

"Bush’s remarks were heavily criticized by leading Democrats, particularly Barack Obama, who said, 'Now that’s exactly the kind of appalling attack that’s divided our country and that alienates us from the world.' Really? Is it wrong to call the philosophy supporting negotiating at the highest levels – President to President without pre-conditions -- with the terrorists and radicals by its rightful name - appeasement?

"The President was accurate in my opinion in recalling the specter of Neville Chamberlain’s pre-World War II efforts to satisfy Adolf Hitler. Those efforts responded to Hitler’s siren call that all he wanted was the Sudetenland, with Chamberlain responding, “yes,” and returning to Britain waving a paper and announcing, “peace in our time.” Must we really learn the terrible lesson of Munich all over again seventy years later? …

"The reason I believe history will redeem President George W. Bush is that he is one of the few leaders on the planet today who understands the larger picture. …He knows what calamities await the world if it engages in appeasement and deserts an ally in order to buy an illusory peace. We will recognize his worth long after he is gone.”

Check it out, Dawg!

"You're in the ZONE, baby! You're HOT tonight!!!"

See this post from Feb. 17th!

What's gonna happen?? Cook is definitely talented, and I LOVED his rendition of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Love that song! But the hair has got to go. And what is it about him...ego? Simon called it "arrogance," I think. You can tell he's trying to hide it, but I don't think he's completely successful. Anyway, in vocal technique and quality, he doesn't hold a candle to either of the other two.

So what's gonna happen?

Happy conclusion to laptop saga...

I guess I take after my dad. He always wanted the very latest gadget with the most up-to-date technology. Okay, I admit it. Me, too. I'm a geek.

When my laptop died last week (see May 4th post), I perused the Internet trying to find a solution to my problem. In the process, I realized how wimpy and behind the times my laptop was. I also realized that I'd better stop looking at the new ones that come standard with 3G of memory, faster processors, better video cards and bigger hard drives. No chance of an upgrade anytime soon.

When I left my laptop with the Geek Squad a week ago, I also left the printout of a forum thread that Dave found that sounded like my exact issue. There was a defect in the motherboard. One poster said that some people were having trouble getting the issue resolved with HP, and that they were putting together a class-action suit.

Yesterday the Geek Squad called. They said approval had been granted for me to get a brand new laptop!!! I couldn't believe it!! I jumped online to see what models they had available at Best Buy, and found a beautiful special edition HP with a white finish, with much better technology than my old one, and a bigger screen. I didn't have much hope that I'd get that one since it wasn't really comparable.

When we got to Best Buy, the tech guy said they would find whichever model they had that had a minimum of what my machine had technologically. They first tried to show me a Compaq, but I said I wanted an HP brand machine, which is what I had before. Then they found one, but it didn't have a webcam, which mine had. Uh uh.

The guy disappeared and then came back and said they would give me $550 toward any model I wanted. I didn't like that, either. I showed him my original receipt that proved I paid $899, and that the other guy said I could have whatever machine they had in the store that was at LEAST as good as mine. So he disappeared again, and miraculously came back and said I could get anything up to $899!!!

Guess what the sale price was on that special edition white HP?? $899!!!! Yipeee! Unfortunately, they didn't have it at that store, but they are shuttling it from another store. I can't wait until Thursday!!!

I'm so glad I backed everything up because the old hard drive will be destroyed and returned to HP. I don't really get that, since there's nothing wrong with the drive. But I'm not complaining since that one is 120G and the new one is 320G!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I've always loved this picture of my mom with her mom. It's such a sweet depiction of motherhood.



One of my favorite memories of my mom as I was growing up was how she would get dressed up in her flapper costume and do the Charleston. She was really good at it!



Happy Mother's Day, Mom!


I love you!

My niece Loren

I dropped my mom off at the airport this afternoon. She's headed to Texas for a momentous occasion. She has 14 grandchildren, and the oldest of those is graduating from college on Saturday! My sister Patti was the first one to get married and the first one to have kids. She has paved the way for the rest of us, and now her daughter Loren, after an illustrious volleyball career at Texas Christian University, will have paved the way to a college degree for all of her cousins. Congratulations, Loren! The whole family is so proud of you!!

Weekend results...

So, to sum up an eventful weekend:

Cory placed 5th in the league finals for the JV 1600 meter run!! A great accomplishment for him, and I'm a proud ma! And he's very happy to be finished with the SAT.

Wes's water polo team placed 4th at the San Diego Cup!!! A very respectable finish, even though they hoped for that bronze medal at the end of the day.

The relaxing peace and quiet that I looked forward to didn't really materialize, since four or five of Cory's friends came over for a video gaming marathon. It was kind of fun watching them play "Rock Band," though.

I have actually spent most of the last two days dealing with a malfunctioning laptop. For some reason, the wireless adaptor device stopped working. I reinstalled the factory driver. Didn't work. I downloaded the driver from HP and installed that. Didn't work. Tried restoring to an earlier restore point. Didn't work. I ran updates, scans, defragged, checked disks. Nothing made it work! I ended up taking it to the Geek Squad. First they ran a scan and found an AdWare infection and a bunch of tracking cookies! What's up with that? Why does Norton not catch this stuff?

So Geek Squad said that the problem won't be covered by my warranty as long as there's any kind of infection on my machine. Can you believe they wanted $199 to remove the AdWare and cookies??? So I downloaded AdWatch and removed the bad stuff myself. So guess what? My wireless adaptor device still doesn't work. Sigh.

I guess it's back to the Geek Squad tomorrow. Of course they'll take away the computer for two to three weeks. Aughhhh!!! Torture!!

Bliss and Miss

BLISS!! No one is here! It's peaceful and quiet! No one is fighting, no one is wanting a ride, no one is leaving a mess in the sink or in the toilet!

I MISS them already!! Am I nuts?


Dave, Wes and Connor just left for San Diego for Wes's last big weekend water polo tournament as a member of his 14U team. I would have gone with them, but Cory is running in the Track & Field Sunset League finals tonight (seeded 5th in the league out of 24 in the event for the 1-mile). Then he is taking the SAT tomorrow morning. Boy, it will be nice when he gets his license--only three more months!

I may join them in San Diego after picking up Cory from his test, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy this solitude.