17 is a Prime Number

Here are the next seven in 119 days worth of photos so far, not quite one third of the way through.

May 12

Steve went back to Tokyo for summer semester. We look happy and he is, but I was a little sad. He is having a great time, doing well in school and enjoying the city. I am very happy that he has this opportunity, but it is a little weird without him around the house. He will be back at the beginning of August.

May 13

My Mothers Day flowers! Aren't they pretty. My understanding is the Jim was sent out to buy them. Very nice taste. Some girl will be lucky.

May 14

It has been so dry this winter and spring, our hills are brown. Most years at this time they are green. It will be an awful fire season. This hill is behind one of the buildings at work on the UCI campus.

May 15

My very favorite brownie mix. Why in the world would I want to make brownies from scratch when these are so tasty. Jim needed to bring something for a bake sale at work, and these are so easy. He did not make them, Erin did.

May 16

It is very rare when the cats will sit together anywhere, so when I saw this, I had to take a picture. They sat like this for several minutes without fighting before Lucy got bored and ran away.

May 17

We celebrated Mothers Day on Saturday because Steve was leaving. The kids and Dennis did what they always do - breakfast in bed, the morning papers, flowers and cards.

May 18

I used the macro setting on the camera to take this. I like that the background is blurry.

It's May

More photos of home and family. I really need to go on some adventures to find more interesting things to photograph.

May 5

Lucy is a climber. The back of Dennis' chair isn't that high, but she likes it. We have had her for about 8 months now and she and Goofy don't fight as much as they used to. I think she is too energetic for him.

In the background is a photo of Kirk Gibson rounding the bases after his home run that won Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against Oakland. Dennis and I were at that game and one year Jim gave us that photo for Christmas.

May 6

I don't make many cards, but I did this one for a challenge on the Two Peas message board. It was so easy, but it is not very complicated, so it should have been. The hardest part was putting sticky stuff on the back of some of the beads to make 'Happy Birthday' sort of curvy. I strung the beads first, so only had to stick down a few beads.

May 7

My honey. We went to Lucille's BBQ to celebrate my birthday and Steve's birthday. We usually don't celebrate two together, but this year Steve was going back to Tokyo before his and this was the only day during the week that we were all available. I wanted to get a shot of all five of us, but didn't get around to it.

May 8

This was the birthday greeting from my department. I kept it at my desk all day and returned it to the birthday fairy the next day. It is nice that they remember us on our special day. I don't often remember to sign the card for others and that makes me sad. I need to do better.

May 9

My birthday flowers - the card was signed by Jim and Erin, but I think Erin bought them.

May 10

This ficus used to be pretty decent looking. Lucy has changed that. She plays with it a lot and rips leaves off of it. It is pretty scrawny looking now and I am not sure how much longer it will survive.

May 11

We have flown the flag daily for quite some time. When we had the exterior painted, they took down the flag holder and we have not had an opportunity to put it back up. So the flag waits.

Caught up, For Now

This week was not very productive. I had to ask Steve and Jim to pose for me so that I could get a photo on two of the days. I don't get out much, so I don't find too many new things to photograph.

April 28

The family was over to visit with Steve before he returns to Japan. Emily decided to play with her uncle's hair and this was the result. He is such a good sport.

April 29

My kids leave their stuff all over the place. These CDs were left on the coffee table which is so not where they belong. I like the way the light was reflected.

April 30

I love taking the day off to play golf. We were playing in the annual Friendly Center Golf Tournament at Alta Vista Country Club. I was very intriqued by the way this tree had grown horizontally.

May 1

I was in bed, it was almost midnight and I realized that I had not taken my photo of the day. It is a good thing Steve was home and that he enjoys hamming it up for the camera. He obliged by being goofy for me.

May 2

Erin decided that she will go to UC Davis in the fall. We are very excited for her. She likes the college feel of the campus and the town. It is not a commuter school like SDSU. She will live off campus, but the entire town is built around the university and students. Dennis and I were very impressed with the presentation and I think she was, too.

May 3

The sun was shining brightly on Thursday at work and created this cool shadow in the hallway near the stairs at work. I am beginning to understand that I like a linear look. It probably comes from my math background.

May 4

My boys are such good sports. I hadn't taken a photo on Friday yet, and Jim was good enough to give me his scary stare. He really is a nice person and very rarely had to do the look.

The Photos Keep Coming

April 21

I loved being in San Francisco in the rain. We spent time walking around Pier 39 and while the girls were shopping I wandered outside to take some photos. The sea lions didn't have a care in the world. They had space to rest, they could go for a swim whenever they wanted and they weren't being disturbed at all. What a life.

April 22

We woke up to a beautiful morning. After all the rain the night before, the sky was crystal clear. It is the second time Dennis and I have stayed at this Courtyard. This weekend our room was $89 per night with free parking. The Courtyard in the city was over $200 per night and parking was an additional $45. No brainer decision.


April 23

One more tool of the exterior project. They had a lot of stucco to replace and repair, it took several days to get it all done. But it looks so much nicer now!

April 24

Our balcony had been is such terrible shape, we hadn't walked on it in years. It was full of dry rot, the termites had done a lot of damage, it was totally useless and dangerous. Without it, the backyard looks a lot bigger. We are trying to decide what to do next. Dennis really wants a new balcony. I don't see it getting a lot of use, I would be happy with a patio cover.

April 25

The Anaheim Ducks are doing great! I never thought I would be a hockey fan, but with the half price and free tickets I have been able to get through work, I have enjoyed watching the Ducks. I don't know anything about other teams, though, not even the teams we saw play the Ducks this year. The Stanley Cup is within their reach.

April 26

I love Jet Blue. I wish they flew out of John Wayne. If they did, they would probably be more expensive than flying out of Long Beach. Long Beach airport is really cool - old, small and quaint. If we don't have to drive up there during rush hour, I will always choose it over John Wayne if we can save $90 per ticket like we did on this trip to Sacramento. The flight was not full and I did not have anyone in the center seat next to me. I loved it!

April 27

I have seen poppies on the side of the road driving to and from work for several weeks now, but have not stopped to take a photo. I saw these while walking around the UC Davis campus. I still want to get a shot of the ones near home because I think they are a more vibrant color. I had to be careful not to get my shadow in the photo.

Lucky 13

I am a little bit surprised that I have kept up with this project.

April 14

Lucy is such a cutie. She needs to be with people and is generally in my way, especially when I am trying to work on a scrapbook page. She plops herself right in the middle of my work. She rests pretty much wherever she feels like resting even if she is in the main walking path in a room. She doesn't care, she wants to be in the middle of things. She is about 10 months old now.

April 15

Dennis and I played in couples 9 hole golf tournament at Tustin Ranch. On our first hole, our drives ended up this close together. Of course, I hit from the ladies tees. It is a lot easier to reach Dennis' drive when I do that. It is the only time that day that our shots ended up this close to each other.

April 16

Now that my company is so close to UCI, it is also a lot closer to Dennis' work. It will be a lot easier to meet for lunch now, at least until he moves to Aliso Niquel. This fountain is outside the Baja Fresh where we met for lunch.

April 17

The landscaping at the new campus has not grown in yet, and the rat traps are very much in evidence. I certainly hope they are working. There is a lot of open space surrounding the campus and I am sure that mice and rats are not the only critters roaming the hills nearby. So far, I haven't seen anything that would give me the creeps.

April 18

We had such a hard time deciding on a color for the outside of the house. I went to Ace Hardware and bought five sample colors. I put each of them on the front of the house and the side of the house. The colors that I thought I would like based on how they appeared on the paint chips turned out to be my least favorites when they were applied. We ulitmately chose the second from the left.

April 19

Steve came home from Japan! He could not find Monster energy drinks anywhere so I brought one to the airport when we picked him up. It was great to see him again and he was very excited to be home. I don't have a clue why he chose a University of Arizona hat to wear.

April 20

Yeah, it does rain in Southern California once in awhile. It has been a very dry winter and spring this year and I was so excited to see the rain. This is the hood of my pretty red Mustang. It was parked under a tree so there are shadows on the hood, too.

Here we go again...

I don't know that I will ever get caught up posting these photos, but I have lots of time tonight, so I will give it a try.

April 7

Erin was a great help with getting the stain on the new window frames. She also helped paint the walls, too. It is so nice to have the new windows in. I think they make a huge difference in the bedrooms.

April 8

Easter dinner at Uncle Henry's. As usual it was crowded but very tasty. Even though he has a small condo, we still manage to find a place for everyone to sit. There is always way too much food! He tried to do dinner without a pasta course, but it was vetoed.

April 9

After many, many years as a Dodgers fan, I finally got to go to opening day! It was so exciting - the stands were full of Dodger blue, the Dodger dogs were yummy, but the Dodgers lost. :( The parking lot after the game was just awful! It took about 90 minutes to get out of the lot.

April 10

We don't have a wine cellar, but we do have a small wine rack. It does always have great wine in it and often doesn't have much wine in it either. I liked the lines of the rack, that's why I took this photo.

April 11

This is a reflection on the ceiling at work. It was in the hallway outside my office and probably came from a crystal award sitting on the windowsill of one of the guys across the hall. I don't think I have seen a rainbow on the ceiling since this one.

April 12

As part of our home exterior improvement is texcote on the entire house. To do it right, the old stucco had to be power washed. In doing so, the old paint came off in several places. When we moved in, the back of the house was sort of a baby poop yellow. We did not like it and had it painted white a few years later. Many years after that, the paint was looking ratty and there were some cracks in the stucco. It took several days to get the job done, but it looks great now.

April 13

The view from the parking lot at work can be very pretty. This was one of those days. The hills across the way are in a very exclusive neighborhood.