in the bin

We get a great deal of junk mail and flyers everyday and mostly I just toss them straight into the recycling. Today I noticed a flyer that amused me. I guess to save money or perhaps they really are owned by the same person one of the flyers had two adverts on the same side as opposed to others that had a whole page to themselves. The two advertisers were for pizza on one side and dry cleaners on the other, you could hardly tell that it was different businesses as the colour schemes were the same. Anyway, for a fleeting moment I imagined going to get a pizza and spilling tomato on my clothes and then going next door to get the clothes cleaned and using both coupons, well it was funny at the time. the flyer then joined the rest in the bin.

snow geese

We went bird watching at the Salton Sea today. Saw thousands of snow geese. Went for a walk from the Sonny Bono wildlife refuge along to Red Hill to see how many different ducks and other birds we could see. Then just before sunset we made our way to Unit 1 where there is a viewing platform overlooking marshy ponds and saw some sandhill cranes flying into the area. The geese seemed to have settled down to the east of where we were but just as we decided to go back down to the car, something must have unsettled them and thousands took off again honking and calling and they flew over our heads to the west of the ponds. Magnificent and awe inspiring sight.

turkey is cooked

S spent the day putting new brake pads on the van.

I cooked the turkey, at last, the old fashioned way in the oven as per my fav tv cook Delia Smith. I have had her original cookbook since I got married and if I'm ever stuck for a recipe or idea I turn to her! I have lots of cook books Another of my favs is a Betty Crocker one I bought from a neighbour for 40c at her garage sale, when I first moved to CA.
All Amerikan recipes use cups instead of ounces, 1/2 a cup of this, 1 cup of that etc So I had to buy a set of measuring cups as well and I used BC to get a grip on this method instead of weighing everything!
The turkey was very tasty and we had it with boiled potaoes, stuffing, sweetcorn and gravy.

I've started to write my Christmas cards as we recieved our first in the mail today from S's uncle in New Zealand.

I just tried to spellcheck this and some new pop up guard blocked the spelling checker pop up so if I've spelt gravy wrong don't blame me!!

unusual

Black Friday, supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the year so we went caching!! Another of our hobbies is bird watching so we decided where to go birding before we looked to see if there were any caches near by. There was a new cache right near the information centre of the reserve, so that was to be our first destination. It was well camoflaged and we had to use the clue but we were delighted to see that we were First to Find!! Only our second FTF in 3 years!! We have some very competitve cachers in our area and so many caches to choose from that to be in the first 10 or so is unusual!!

in the kitchen

Thanksgiving day.We were going to deepfry a turkey but in the end we thought we'd have lamb instead. As this is a completely American holiday and relativly new to us, we have not really got any family traditions or hang ups about what should or should not be done on this day. J is away having dinner with the bf's parents so that meands only 3 of us for dinner so we had it in the kitchen as usual!!

no housework done

In readyness for the holiday tomorrow, S thought he might have today off too so I arranged to have the day off too although I have no more holiday pay so it will be unpaid! At the last minute he changed his mind as it seemed a waste of a paid day as everyone would skive off early or after lunch. But I was in the mindset of a day off and did not want to cancel. I was full of good intentions of all the housework that I would get done but first I thought I would go to Walmart. While out I might as well get my hair cut, it really needed it as I cut my fringe myself when it starts to get in my eyes but I can't do the back so it gets all uneven as the hairdresser noted!
Then I had a bit of a wander around, getting my Christmas cards and doing a bit of shopping. When I got home A had a friend round and they were using the downstairs telly for the gamecube so as I did not want to spoil their fun, I couldn't do my vacuum cleaning or my ironing!! So I went upstairs and switched on my pc and that was that no housework done again!!

dryer working again

Yay, the belt for my tumble dryer arrived today. The whole thing had to be taken apart to get the new belt on. The drum alone is huge but the belt is only a skinny little strip of rubber and it took forever to work out how the belt, drum, tentioner and driveshaft all worked together! Eventually after much wringing of hands and thought processes the obvious way became apparent and then the dryer had to be reassembled. S showed me how the gas burner is an open flame under the drum, very scarey looking arrangement with all the dryer lint flying around, it looks like a recipe for disaster, no wonder S spent about an hour cleaning all the hoses and the fan and making sure it was all throughly clean underneath before starting the dryer up again. It worked first time and I was able to dry a load of laundry before I came to bed. Hope it lasts another 15 years now!!

Exhibitionist

Last weekend we took a trip to Point Loma in San Diego and my daughter who is 19 was driving. She chose to take the I8 (12-14 lane highway) which I hate to use. While doing so we were overtaken by a car in which the front passenger was sitting on the open window ledge(?)facing backwards with a video camera pointing back at a motor cyclist doing stunts, wheelies and the like, all this while cars all around were going between 65-75mph!
Truely a scarey and thoughtless exhibitionist. One slip and who knows how many would have been killed.

I mention this because I was just reading about a young man doing 100mph and wheelies etc was killed after hitting another car and injuring the 82year old driver. I have pasted a clip from the report below:
After popping wheelies and blowing through a school crosswalk at more than 100 mph, the 21-year-old motorcyclist crashed Friday morning on Ivey Lane in west Orlando.

The Winter Garden man hurtled, then bounced and skidded 190 feet.

His high-performance machine exploded in flames behind him, as did the car he struck -- driven by an elderly motorist, who remained in critical condition late Friday.

"At impact, he probably flew 100 feet in the air," said Orlando Master Police Officer Ernie Payne, as brooms and shovels cleaned away the last fragments of the hopped-up Suzuki motorcycle. "That's how fast he was going."

Such fatal displays are becoming all too common, according to riders as well as police throughout Central Florida. END

At the time of our Californian Exhibitionist it was as if we were viewing it rather than participating in an odd sort of way, but as they rushed on out of sight I was shaking.

weather report

Woke up to a tremendous thunderstorm this morning. A real treat although it did rather spoil our plans for an early morning walk. There is snow up in the mountains and flash flood warnings for the coast.

small world

Further proof of my homesickness. If any is needed. Another news group that I belong to to one that follows the daily doings of nesting pereguin falcons on the Kodak building in Rochester. After the young family has left the nest there is not much to talk about except general bird watching and gossiping. One member linked to her walk in the woods photos that she had posted, I had not read the letter too closely and had not at first realised that the woods were in England but as soon as I saw the pics I was interested. I emailed her to thank her for sending the link and mentioned that I was born in Kent near her woods and where I had lived in Chelmsford and she emailed me back to say 'what a coincedence as she had been born in Chelmsford!!' From her second note I know she is a year older than me although I had thought her younger, she had moved away when she was 12. I doubt that we ever met but we did both go to the same main library!! The internet certainly makes it seem like a small world.

homesick?

I mentioned in a chat room that I go to that tonight's TV included The Saint, The Avengers and The Prisoner, (an unholy trinity?) but I was wrong, tonights offering from BBC America was The Persuders!! I must have awful taste as this was another of my favourites that seems in hindsight just too bad to be true! I still got to see my old favourite Roger Moore, with dreadful long hair which he kept brushing back out of his eyes and Tony Curtis trying to look young and hip (?) in a long sheepskin coat, v. tight trousers and knee high boots, what were they thinking?
The main highlight was looking in the background at all the 'old' cars, several minis, a moggy thou, a nice 'Morse' type jag and a ford capri to name but a few.
The scenery was interesting too, I couldn't place it exactly but it didn't look to far from south London, lovely old farm house with interesting outbuildings and a barn that had a dovecote at the end. I must be very homesick to watch an old prog like that.

wishy washy

Had lunch with J, we went to a new (to me) restaurant and I went straight to the dessert, Tiramasu and a cup of tea. It's hard to get a decent cuppa over here, they just can't seem to bring themselves to boil water!! By the time you get a mug of hot water and a teapot for one also filled with luke warm water and chosen* your teabag, the water is just not warm enough to get the best out of the teabag! I also forgot to ask for milk so had to wait for the waitress to get that. She brought it to me in a plastic drinking cup. Don't even think about a second cup unless you like wishy washy pale tea!
*Yes I did have to choose my teabag. The waitress presented me with this wooden chest filled with various packages of what passes for tea over here, mostly fruity peach flavoured or spicy cinnemon flavour but luckily I spotted a stray packet of Earl Grey and snagged that.

U.N.C.L.E

I had a huge pile of ironing to do this evening and as it had not been tumble dried it was really crispy and crinkley I can tell you. So I was looking for something to watch on the telly while I worked. I don't need to say that we have cable TV, which means 800+ stations to watch and nothing on worth seeing! but tonight I had a real treat I turned on Time Team but it was one I've seen at least twice before so I was skimming through the channels and bingo a title that immediatly caught my eye. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I've no idea what channel it was on and that means I'll probably never find it again. It was black and white but I nearly swooned on seeing Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo once again! I missed about 20 minutes of the show as I had to take A to karate but I really enjoyed seeing the show again. Girl from U.N.C.L.E and I Spy were also on but they were never as popular as The Man from U.N.C.L.E to me.

game room

We really spoil our kids. A has just had a birthday and got 2 or 3 games for his XBox and today Halflife 2 came out so A did not have to try too hard to get his father, also a game addict, to buy it. J moaned about loving A more than her, a usual ploy to wind daddy around her little finger and persuded him to take her to the game shop too and buy the Sims.
A only got Halo 2 last week and he has already 'finished' the game although he does say he has multiplay and capture the flag to play on it. I am torn between' what a waste of money' and 'at least it keeps them off the streets'. I am quite a bit worried that A will spend the rest of his life in front of his pc or game boxes but he frequently reassures me that this is not the case and that he does 'have a life' outside the game room!

intimidated

Very quiet day in the office, not much going on work wise. Little boss not in today as she is sorting out her kids new schools. So I was sitting quietly surfing the net when I heard a rustling noise behind me, just as I peered down behind the filing cabinate a little mouse ran along the edge, made me exclaim out loud, just as B came into the office and he laughed at me!! Anyway he went and got a trap, so I was sitting on the edge of my seat the rest of the afternoon waiting for the SNAP! Which did not happen I'm glad to say, really.

The phone repair is going to cost closer to $2000 but they are now all working fine.

Listening to Wogan doing a charity auction on the radio, I wonder if the people offering thousands of pounds for a day out with a famous person or behind the scenes at a theatre really enjoy their prize? I'm sure I would be far too intimidated to enjoy myself!

family afternoon

Went in search of a belt for my dryer. A very rude assistant in Sears, as he knew he wasn't going to get any commision by helping us to find a repair shop, told us where the shop was but not that it was closed on Sundays! Ha! But we had the last laugh as next door to the repair depot was a micro brew pub and restaurant and we had a very nice lunch!
J had come with us, which she rarely does nowadays and offered to drive home, on the way she asked if we could go to Pt Loma, as it was a beautiful day, I thought that was a great idea and so we went.
The views from PL are absolutely fantastic with all the yachts going up and down the channel. We saw a couple of America's Cup boats and some Tall Ships coming in to the harbour. We soon realised that one of the tall ships was the Star of India which is a ship that is normally moored in SD harbour and open to the public to walk around her. Sadly she was being towed in by a tugboat. I think that nowadays it is too crowded for a ship her size to tack up and down the narrow harbour mouth under sail, but it was a beautiful sight to see her, under full sail out at sea, although the crew were taking down the topsails for the tow. We continued our walk to the farthest point and J was looking out to sea for a glimpse of the aircraft carrier that her beloved is on but I expect it was just over the horizon!! We didn't see any whales either but it is a bit early in the season for their migration, I never have seen any but S did last time we were here!
We had a lovely family afternoon.

time for a brew

This morning I went with S to get the ingredients for his winter brew, ESB, from the Ballast Point Brewery. This evening S has mashed his brew and the whole house smells of hops and malt, hope it's a good brew.

Then we went looking for a cache which we could'nt find along by the SD river but it looked as if the area had recently flooded so perhaps it had been washed away.

Then we went to F I to see if we could find a couple of caches there. We have'nt been to FI for ages. We made our way to the waypoint but could not find any sign of a cache and thought we were going to be disappointed again, I read the clue and we realised that although it's against GC regs the cache was probably buried! ( the site was a sandy man-made island) S suddenly spotted something out of place and poked the ground with his hiking pole and it made a dull thump and he had found the cache. Spoiler ahead.....
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We started to scrabble away the sand and found a coffin!! It was only about 2ft long, so we opened it and inside was the ammo can with the cache, very cool indeed, made up for our previous let down!

new belt

I have just discovered that my tumble dryer is not tumblerling any more. After the third look in the drum and find wet laundry still festering in there I decided to take a closer look. My first reaction to finding damp stuff still in the drum is to check the lint bin but I had emptied that the last time I found the clothes were not dry so I reasoned there must be another problem. I switched it on again to listen if there was any grinding noise but instead it just burbled at me and when I opened the door the clothes had not moved and I realised the drum was not rotating. I called S and he soon had the bottom panel off the machine and was holding the broken belt aloft! So that's our weekend organized, we shall start the search for a new belt!

two more

Ok so this is really disgusting or gross as they say over here!! The telephone person came to look at our system today and found that the rats had been using our phone room, which is actually not much more than a cupboard, as a bathroom!! The poop and pee had rotted and rusted the circuit boards and conections and the whole thing is pretty foul!! She managed to re connect a couple of the phones, so I can at least answer the phone from my desk but I still can't page the people on the shop floor. Luckily we're not busy and the main callee's phone is one of the few that is still working!! B has caught two more rats but not in the office, one on the shop floor and one in the men's restroom! The trap in the phone room was empty too as I was relieved to see when I showed the phone engineer where the boards are kept! The replacement equipment is going to cost over $1000!

phones

The phones are not working at work today. The main line in works but we can't pick up when the overhead line rings. This meant I had to sit in the icy cold lobby for the morning answering the phone but as I could not forward the calls to anyone in the front office I had to keep running back and forth to tell whoever that the call was for them, then they had to go out on the shop floor to pick up the call there!!. Luckily the lobby office pc has internet connection so I was able to read my mail but the screen resolution is all off so that gave me a headache. We called out the sbc but when they came, he took one look at the system and said he wasn't allowed to touch it!! But out of the kindness of his heart he had a look in our phone room and showed B how to temporialy move the lines around so at least we could dial out and pick up calls. He said we have to call the folks who set up our phone system. This we did and they are coming tomorrow!

I went out for lunch with J but she was a bit quiet. Things wer'nt helped by the noisy group of young mothers and their many young children that we sat next to. One child kept screaming and nothing her mother did would pacify her, what faces she made!! Secretly it made me laugh as J & A were not the best behaved kiddies in the world although they never screamed in public they would fidget and wonder off around the restaurant!

put it all away

Back to work today, the rats are still about as my bamboo plant was all chewed up and pebbles scattered around!!
B had trapped another over the w/e. How many more are there??

S and I were talking about crisps, as you do, and I remember back in the old days (quavery voice) that there used to be a little blue bag of salt in the packet so you could add salt as much or as little as needed. I think Smiths was the brand, they tried to bring back the idea but the salt was in a little blue flat sachet and not a old fashioned twist of paper and I don't think it had quite the same appeal.

I have a pile of laundry to do and I still have to unpack all my scrapping supplies and put it all away!!

proper goodbye

Went to bed about 2:30 HP came in about 3:30! I was a little groggy and somehow thought she was my daughter garbled something and went back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning I felt dreadful!! I had promised to take a couple of people to the airport so I had to get going. Had a shower but it made no difference so I thought I'd have a little lay down but twenty minutes later I thought it might be better to go for a walk and get some fresh air. I didn't get any further than the lobby restrooms when I was sick, yuck. Sat for a while in the lobby and then went back to the room. HP told me that JB had called. She needed to know if I could take 3 people to the airport I said yes even though I still felt very bad. You have to know that I have only been sick less than, oh, 6 or 7 times in my life to know how bad I felt!! I decided to call S to the rescue and although he was still in bed my hero came through!! I went for the group photo by the pool and everyone was very kind. I told JB of the change of plan and we told my passengers!! S got to the hotel in plenty of time and we took all my stuff and put it into the Tempo and then I went to the lobby to get Amanda, Dianne and Deb. I was a bit sad that I didn't get to say a proper good bye to anyone but at least I didn't cry as I heard others had!!

pizza

Friday night we stayed up to 2:30 scrapping and revealing our secret sisters. I had no idea who my ss was and it turned out that I was sitting next to her!! Sarah26 had made me an altered paint can and in it were lots of Bazzill Blue embellishments and after she also gave me a 12x12 mono pack of blue Bazzil paper. My ss had guessed who I was as my English expression to 'tidy up' my desk prior to the crop had given me away. I did not know that 'tidy up' was such a give away but everyone agreed that Amerikans would not say that!!
My roomie is Hawaiian Punch and she is very sweet!! She gave me a Survival Kit and coincedently I had made her one too!!
Had a great day scrapping, I even won a Bingo prize of a huge pack of Scenic Route paper which will be perfect for my holiday pics. In the late afternoon went with Sarah and Arlyn to the LM shop and while we were there the hotel had a power cut and everyone was in a bit of a panic but they had just decided to go out for dinner when the power came back on. So JB said she would bring in Pizza for everyone. I was a bit disappointed as I was looking forward to going out for dinner but never mind.

room full of friends

Now the first day of the LM super scrapin' weekend is here, suddenly I feel a bit anxious. I have only chatted to most of the people going through the wonders of the internet!! Am I going to meet a roomful of ax murders(that's what S asked when I told him of my plans to meet a Girl scout friend off the internetseveral years ago!) Can't get myself going, I slowly pack the van with all my stuff and then J suggests we go to the English shop to get our Christmas supplies, as it's on the way, I agree. As soon as we set off I realise I've forgotten the phone and as I'd promised S that I would keep in touch I try to flash J to get her attention but she's so fast that I can't. Well, I continue on to the shop, perhaps I could go back for the phone after, timewise it shouldn't be a problem. Sadly there are no Christmas crackers in yet, the shipment is not due until later in the month, so we console ourselves with choccy bics, hula hoops and tea and the thought that another trip will be needed.
Now I'm really on my way to the crop but as I turned the corner and the view of the sea and coastline appeared I thought to myself 'What a view and Damn I've forgotten the camera!!'
So I decided to go back and get both the camera and the phone!
Anyways I get to the hotel and find the meeting room and it's like walking into a room full of friends!!

boxes and bags

Packing up all my scrapbooking supplies to take with me to Carlsbad for the LM Super Scrapin' Crop weekend was hard work. I am driving, so could in theory take everything I have, so I did!!
I offered to take my Sizzix machine and all my dies which was well accepted as J had packed hers and other scrappers were flying or coming further so could not bring theirs. All this stuff weighes a ton and I have it in different boxes and bags. I have 11 containers of various sizes to pack in the van. I hope I can park near the crop room!!

leftovers

I have leftovers for lunch today. Yummy!. I made a simply splendid lamb casserole for dinner last night with carrots, swede, onions and potatos. Although we ate all the lamb there was a lot of the vegetables left so I have a good portion for my lunch so which I added a handful of cheese. I often have leftovers as my kids seem to think that every meal has to be made from scratch and leftovers consigned to the bin and won't eat them. I have done my best to persude them that leftovers are good and sometimes I manage to change something so they don't suspect that they are eating leftovers, but not often!! I changed beef burritos into meatballs last week and almost got away with it but my son suspected a switcheroo and questioned me closely on the ingredients!! He ate them anyway, yea success!

yuck again

Sitting here quietly at my desk. I think I just heard the trap go off!! I'm not going to look though.
I'll wait for B to come back from his delivery. It was all quiet and I was surfing the web reading the posts at my favourite message board and suddenly there was this loud click and the sound of something falling off a desk in the next office. As I'm here alone it suddenly registered with me what the noise could be, shudder. Will report more later.
ttfn

cheesy cracker

Yuck! I have to keep washing my hands today. We have rats in the office! My coworker set a trap in the other room and caught one. He used a cookie. Now there is another skulking around but this time he set the trap with a cheeto and somehow it managed to eat the chip without the trap going off!! The rat is drinking the water out of my lucky bamboo pot plant. I know this because the little pebbles in the pot were dislodged and on the desk around the pot. I have cleaned my keyboard, mouse pad and mouse a dozen times but still everything feels unclean.
Oh double yuck! I just looked at my tea mug and it's got old tea in it going mouldy! I will have to take it home and sterilize it. I don't think I want to drink out of my water cup either, a rat could have put his face in it or worse. Next to my envelopes was a suspicous looking stain which I've now cleaned. Let's hope that the trap works this time. I think B said he was going to load it with a cheesy cracker. Off to wash my hands again!!