More Random Stuff

October 20

We spent the day with Ed, Pat and Kathy. Ed and Pat were nice enough to take us out on Lake Havasu for a couple of hours. When we stopped for lunch, Pat got out her popcorn and fed the ducks. She really loves doing that and she ends up getting a lot of visitors.

October 21

We woke up to howling winds. There were whitecaps on the lake and no one was going out. This is a palm tree outside of our hotel. We got out of town early hoping to beat the traffic home. We made great time even having to drive through some sand storms.

October 22

This is smoke from the Santiago Fire that started the night before at around 6pm. It turned out to be arson and ending up burning almost 30,000 acres. Several homes were destroyed and it took almost three weeks to contain. We got a lot of smoke and ash the first week of the fire, but our home was never in danger.

October 23

I love this desk. I am not sure how old it is, but we got it used when we got married, twenty-eight years ago. It is currently a dumping spot for things that don't have a home or are waiting to be returned to their home.

October 24

This is the sky when I arrived at work. The smoke and ash continued to fill the air. There were many who chose to stay home because the air quality was so bad. We ran our A/C for several days even though it wasn't hot. We couldn't open the windows because of all the junk in the air.

October 25

I love my black cat candle holder!

October 26

Finally, the air is clearing. It was so nice to see blue skies again after almost a week of smoke filled air.

The Home Stretch

I have just about three months left on this project and if it wasn't for our cats, I am not sure I would have gotten this far.

October 13

Dennis had hernia surgery again and he loves to show off his scar. The surgery was the day before this photo was taken. The tapes ended up creating sores along the edges of the scar. Since this was a repeat surgery, the doctor went in through the old scar and removed it. His new scar is much neater than the old one.

October 14

The marquee is being installed on the corner near our house. I hate the colors. The baby poop yellow and burnt orange don't fit the shopping center at all. I keep hoping that these are base coats, but I am posting this twenty-six days after I took the picture and the colors are still the same. I think they are permanent. Yuk!

October 15

Nothing too special about this. It is one of the small trees in the parking lot at work.

October 16

I stopped to pick up dinner on the way home and took this of the ground in the parking lot. Whatever.

October 17

I stole this idea from Marianne. This is the camera I use most often to take my photos for this project. It is compact enough to fit in my purse and it takes pretty nice pictures.

October 18

This night, I stopped at Babies R Us to buy a shower gift and saw this spilled mess next to my car.

October 19

We have two liquid amber trees in our front yard and the leaves are starting to turn color. This is our little bit of 'fall color' in Southern California. There is one stretch of Walnut where all the trees on the median are liquid amber and when they all turn, it is beautiful.

All in Orange County

October 6

This is why I don't want to leave Southern California - the Pacific Ocean. We went to dinner at The Beachcomber restaurant at Crystal Cove State Park on our anniversary. The scenery and weather was outstanding. We had a great dinner on the patio with an awesome view of the sunset.

October 7

I haven't taken very good care of the garden. However, this rose bloomed very nicely even while ignored.

October 8

For the longest time, I always had low blood pressure. Last year, it started creeping up. The doctor put me on a low dose medication and now it is under control. I had him check our monitor and the systolic is about 10-15 points too high. So this reading is very good.

October 9

Another totally random thing. This is in the new Woodbury shopping center near the Wells Fargo bank and the LA Fitness building.

October 10

The best thing about my new work location is that is closer to Dennis' work so it is easier to meet for lunch. We have always loved Zov's in Tustin and when we found another Zov's in Newport Coast, we had to try it. Our salads were tasty, but the service was slow. The fountains nearby were really cool.

October 11

Lucy was bound and determined to get to the ice in my glass. She darn near knocked it over, but she did get to lick the ice. I put a handful of ice into her water bowl. I hope she appreciated it.

October 12

Dennis had a hernia repair today. The nurse put the 'hat' on him, but didn't get his hair covered. And it was lopsided. I thought it looked funny.

37 Down, 15 To Go

September 29

I was looking for a photo for the day and loved how Lucy looked through the screen. She spends a lot of time on the windowsill watching the birds and wishing she could go outside and try to get one.

September 30

Years ago, we tried to keep the vines off of the brick wall. In the past few years, we have let the vines get the better of us. These are from plants on the other side of the wall.

October 1

Instead of throwing away the extra hangers, I keep them to recycle at the cleaners. I am a little behind, we have a box full in our closet.

October 2

The first fall leaf from our liquid amber trees.

October 3

The first step to putting out holiday decorations, is to get them out of the closet. So far the wreath is on the front door, the hanger is hanging next to the oven and the witch is downstairs waiting to be put outside. The cat is still in the same location.

October 4

I was looking over my head at work, and thought the heating and A/C vent looked interesting.

October 5

This was homecoming weekend and the first IHS game we have attended in quite a while. I was too far from the field and the flash doesn't reach that far.

Erin Moves to Her College Apartment

September 22

Erin and Cecilia fell in love with this table and chairs at Ikea. The set was $99 and they thought is was a bargin and it fit in with the color scheme for their kitchen. However, the table was a bitch to put together. Dennis and I together couldn't do it. Cecilia, being much more flexible than either of us was able to do it by herself.

September 23

I had to laugh at the trash pile in Erin's apartment complex - Corona, coffee and Fruit Loops

September 24

I was making Erin's bed and wanted to move her nightstand so there was room to move the bed. The nightstand was very heavy, so I opened it to find out what the heck was in there - thinking it would be a stack of old magazines. Imagine my surprise to find this in my 19 year old's bedroom. When she gets home in November, she will find empty bottles in the place of her full ones. I wonder if she will say anything.

September 25

At the beginning of the baseball season, Steve put this post-it on the Dodgers schedule assuming they would be in the playoffs. The Dodgers season ended on a very dismal note, and Jim quietly moved this post-it to the Angels schedule. They made it to the playoffs but didn't make it past the first round.

September 26

The district had all summer to re-seed the playground. Of course, they waited until after the school year started to do it.

September 27

These are on Jeffrey near IVC, but there is no construction going on in this section of the road.

September 28

I love this sunset. I took this photo from the upstairs bathroom window through the screen. I love the colors and the shadow of the streetlight.

More Random Stuff

September 15

So, for about 10 yards, there is no construction on Jeffrey. Gotta love it. This is the overpass over the I-5. A project to put Jeffrey under the train tracks has begun, and there is new construction going in north of the 5, so there is a lot of
road work going on right now.
September 16

Sunday at the grocery store. Usually, I don't run out of room in the tiny trunk of my Mustang.

September 17


September 18

On our Grand Canyon trip, we heard many stories of the people who have run the river and have interesting stories associated with them. JP told us about the newlyweds whose honeymoon was a trip down the Colorado and they disappeared. This book is the story of that couple and the searches for them.

September 19

Our first, and probably only Ducks game this year. I won a pair of tickets and they were in the second row from the top. The nice thing about these seats is that you get a complete view of the ice. The bad thing is that the rows are so close together, Dennis' knees hang over the seat in front of him. On this night, there was no one sitting in front of him so there was no problem.

September 20

I always dread jury duty. This time, it was call in. I called everyday and each time was told to call the next day, until Thursday. Then I was told my service was done and I did not have to call in again. Yeah - a week of jury duty and I did not have to show up in court.

September 21

Lucy is the queen. There are those in the family who think she needs a cat friend. I guess it is time to start making some phone calls.

Mostly the Grand Canyon

September 8

Even thought the Grand Canyon is in the desert, every once in awhile, we came to some greenery. Here we were walking back to the raft after visiting Phantom Ranch. There is a beautiful, shaded river that runs through this area. It was over 100 degrees here and there was a bar! We each had a beer and wrote postcards.

September 9

Just another beautiful spot on our journey down the canyon.

September 10

We took many hikes to waterfalls. Some were easy and short, some were long and arduous. At the bottom of each was cool, clear water for playing.

September 11

Deep canyons, colorful walls, interesting shadows


September 12

Dennis and I were among the last to get back to the raft after this hike.

September 13

It was our last day and I hadn't taken a photo of our bathroom. It was always is a spot with privacy and often with a beautiful view. We used the river to pee and this for everything else.

September 14

Erin went shopping for fall decor while Dennis and I were gone. She is so sweet. She did not take it to school with her, so we get to enjoy it for a while.