Happy New Year!

We went for Mexican food for the evening while TiVoing a PPV movie. But Ken's cousin, Shelley, sent him "The Movies" video game for Christmas, so we're trying it out. Funny sound effects, kinda like the slam! doink! stuff you hear on America's funniest videos. We signed up on MySpace today just to browse. Lots of stuff in there, but not organized or visually appealing at all. And plenty of garbage to see. But I do like how they let you include music/movies/games/moods, etc., when you post blog messages. Here's a link to my page there.

Robert's birthday pics

Click HERE for the pics...

Christmas and Waveland photos

Click HERE to view the albums from Christmas. One is family and the other is the group returning from the Waveland, Mississippi, trip. You'll have to create a log-in to the CostCo Photo Center, but it's free and easy.

Reindogs — the new Rudolph

Brady's not really interested in the being the family Christmas photo this year. He obliged, but refused to smile. Oh well. :o)

On the road again

My trip to Mississippi Wednesday was excruciating. Left LAX for Houston at 7 a.m.; that should've been a 2-1/2 hour flight, but weather was bad in Houston, so we circled for an extra while, hoping they'd open that airport. They didn't, so we had to divert to San Antonio, where we sat, in the plane, on the tarmac, without food, for nearly five hours. They did finally bring bottled water at the fourth hour, which they served sparingly in plastic cups. Finally, we were cleared for the 45-minute flight back to Houston, arrived, then had to wait an hour for a gate. So, just over NINE hours in that plane. Then I was off thru the chaos to find the last flight of the day from Houston into Gulfport. Made it on, but sat for an hour awaiting our turn to take off for another hour of flying.

Mom picked me up about 9:30 and we headed to TGIFridays to eat. As we pulled into the parking lot, there was a guns-drawn police throw-down with a bad guy about 50 feet in front us. Then while we were eating, the restaurant started to flood because of the rain (we had to hold our pant legs up as we waded out to keep from getting wet. I ran to get the car thru horizontal sheets of torrential rain so strong that I looked like a cartoon character. I hope the trip home today is much less eventful.

Biloxi is much more functional now that it was in the days after Katrina (obviously), but it's still obviously a city in shambles. There are tons of trash and rubble piled along roadsides, tarp-covered homes, and demolished businesses. The beach road is still impassible in most places and looks much like it did after the storm. A couple of the back bay casinos are scheduled to reopen in the coming weeks, but most of the ocean-front ones are moving inland in coming years. From what I understand, the off-shore requirements are no more, so this will likely be a booming mini-Vegas in 10 years. Not sure if that's good or bad.

To Ft. Walton

Mom and I drove over to Ft. Walton Beach (Florida) today to visit the cemetary where dad is buried. We took a plant with us, as you can see. The original date for his birthday was printed incorrectly on the headstone (it should be 1918 rather than 1908), so we're waiting for a new one.

Dad's footstone arrived since the funeral and we were glad to see it in place.

The footstone for Liz, dad's first wife.

Is this not THE most handsome dog in the world? (The correct answer here is YES.) Brady rode around with me on errands all day. Here we are in the drive thru at Presto Pasta. Since he was so patient with all my stops, we finished the afternoon at the dog park. Fun!

Bargains!

Able Shoppers is too cool.

Awful Plastic Surgery

Awful Plastic Surgery is the coolest site I've seen in ages. All those photos really make you realize how false society's idea of beauty is. The thing is, all these people were prettier BEFORE!

Holiday Souper

Last night we went to the Lews for their annual holiday soup supper. Had a great creamy mushroom and wild rice soup, bread, salad and more good stuff. A very enjoyable time, though as non-parents with little tolerance for the mayhem created by a dozen shrieking kids under 7, we'd reached our limit by 8:30. At least we enjoyed the company of our friends for a couple of hours, and Jen sent us home with box of wonderful confections, including chocolate-dipped pretzels, chocolate-covered apricots and more. She's such a productive mommy/housewife person. No idea how she has time and energy for it all. Now I need to go bake something to feel better about my wife skills. Anyway, the photo is Ken with Brendon, our host.

Rains and Pours

Ever notice that when life decides to dump on you, it seems that it's been saving up a while? I had one of those weeks. Raining this morning, and cold. I don't trust the furnace in this house. It's old and probably has dead rats in it somewhere. I'm sure it needs new parts/filters, etc., but we have no idea how to do that. The house is so beat up that the wind blows right through anyway, so the heating bill can get outrageous in the cold months.

Anyway, I just didn't feel right today; lazy and depressed. Had plenty to do, but could NOT make myself get moving. I've been needing to edit all week because the mag deadline is Monday. But the office re-carpeting got changed from the end of next week til end of this week. So instead of editing, I've been packing up my office.

Neurotic dog has been re-infecting his chronic lick granulomas, which makes me so mad I just want to beat him. I don't want to spend another $175 on antibiotics and vet bill just to put off a re-infection another month. Can't we clear this damn thing up already?

And then I had to deal with Adventist Risk Management, which, in my experience, employs some of the rudest, most incompetent people in Southern California. I finally (about three months late) received a reimbursement check for Ken's new hearing aids. They're supposed to pay claims at 80%, up to $3,200 per plan year max on hearing aids. The claim was some $4,700, so we would expect to receive the max check of $3,200. But, no, they sent us a check for 80% of $3,200. What the hell? Clearly, they are smoking crack whilst processing claims. And don't even get me started on the horrible woman I had to talk to there two weeks ago about the status of this claim and another one they messed up. Even the doctors offices hate ARM because they're such a slow pay.

But, on the bright side, these are minor hiccups in the grand scheme of life. Ken is still really digging his work at RKS Guitars and looking foward to the NAMM Show in January. Speaking of which, I really need to buy our plane tickets for Christye's wedding in Dallas in January.

10 p.m. Bedtime.

Christmas

I'm jotting our Christmas wish lists so that those who want specs can find them here.

Ken
iPod accessories that are compatible with the iPod Video, especially the iHome iH5
Gift certificates to Lucky and Buckle. :o)

Alicia
Handheld PC: HP iPAQ hx2495
Aluminum Briefcase
Workout Music
(Country Pop Powermix, Hits of Elton, Bravo Broadway, Ultimate 90s Collection, 80s Radio Rock, Radio Robics 9)
Gloves
Slippers
"Lovely" perfume (not sure about this; this note will remind me to test it)

More later.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!

Happy Thanksgiving! Someone broke into our 4Runner last night after we arrived in Sacramento. They stole Ken's full 300-CD case. Jerks!

Custom RKS for Gwen Stefani

RKS made a custom guitar for Gwen Stefani. It's the Ruby Red like the one below, but it's blue (obviously), the color of Bombay Sapphire Gin, Gwen's favorite.

Pretty, huh?

Apple Hill

Nov. 13 we drove to Apple Hill (north of Placerville) for apple donuts. We like High Hill farms. Here we are by their lake.

Portland

When we visited Portland in October for meetings, we drove to Multnomah Falls. On the way, we stopped at this place, the name of which I've forgotten.

World City Reviews

World City Reviews

Extroversion |||||||||||||||||| 76% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||| 60% Orderliness |||||||||| 36% Accommodation |||||||||||||||| 70% Inquisitiveness |||||||||| 36% #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### #################################################### ####################################################

Your personality type is SCUAN

You are social, calm, unstructured, accommodating, and non-intellectual, and may prefer a city which matches those traits.

The largest representation of your personality type can be found in the these U.S. cities: Memphis, Reno, Orange County, Louisville, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, W. Palm Beach, Providence, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Cincinnati, Nashville, Houston and these international countries/regions China, Netherlands, Croatia, Wales, Denmark, Australia, England, Taiwan, Belgium, Scotland, Turkey, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Spain

What Places In The World Match Your Personality?
City Reviews at CityCulture.org

Firefox Central

I've been hearing lots of buzz about Mozilla's browser, FireFox, so I'm trying it out. So far, it seems just like any other browser, but I've been using it all of 15 minutes. Time and some use will tell.

Baby Got Book

This is so hilarious; Baby Got Book. It's a Christianized version of "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot.

RKS Guitars

Ken recently started working at RKS Guitars. He's digging it, and thinks the guitars are awesome (which they are). Today they were finishing up a custom one for Gwen Stefani, which looks like the pic here except it's blue with custom art. These guitars are the first new technology/redesign on electric guitars in decades. They've won design awards and are catching on fast (obviously). West L.A. Music is the first official retailer.

I've come to Portland, Oregon, for the annual Society of Adventist Communicators meetings. We're staying at the Oxford Suites, which are very nice. This is the view from my balcony. Tranquil, huh?

But what they DON'T tell you is that the 205 freeway is also right there, and Safeway's in the front parking lot. So much for the sounds of a rushing river to put me to sleep.... HONK-HONK!!

Always nice to have a hote with a suite-type room. Free DSL, too. Yay, Oxford Suites in Gladstone!

OkCupid! Politics Test

Interesting. I've never been one to take much interest in politics. I'm registered to vote, but picked my party based on what my parents are, not because of my own leanings. I really don't know (or care) what each party stands for. So, when I encountered this online test, I thought, hey, that might be interesting... So, here's my result:

You are a Social Moderate (50% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Auto Tire Diameter Calculator

We found that the tires on the 4Runner are a bit bigger than the manufacturer recommends, resulting in a slightly off speedometer. This site, Auto Tire Diameter Calculator, tells me how much. Cool.

What a great idea!

This Cards from Africa program is neat, and cards are quite reasonably priced. I've heard stories of these types of simple export businesses radically changing the lives of people.

The Place Bike/Hike

While I was in Mississippi, Ken joined a group from church on a bike/hike. They started at the top of Sycramore Canyon and rode down to the cove on the beach; probably 7 or 8 miles.

Here, he's trying to warm up by the fire after the cold beach breezes have chilled his damp jersey.

Photos from the Barn Painting

In August, I organized a barn painting service project for church members from The Place. We had a great turnout. I'm just getting pics, which is why the photos are with the original post about the event. Ken is on the bucket on the right.

Painting!

Priming!

New (to us) Cars

And, to replace my Santa Fe, we found a 2000 Toyota 4Runner. Drives really nice! Shopping for it was quite an experience. We started on Thursday by driving to a dealer in the San Fernando Valley. They had one at a great price, but the interior smelled like a skanky hotel room; stale smoke, etc. Gross. Then on to another one. And another. The six more on Friday. They were either nice outside and beat up inside or vice versa. Very frustrating. Finally, after driving around the Los Angeles metro area all day yesterday, we settled on this one. As nice inside as a five-year-old car can be. The paint has quite a few little chips from rocks and gravel on the road, but you don't notice unless you're up close. So good deal!

Here's our replacement for the van; a 2000 Civic EX. Now, to get the van ready to sell....

Kelley Blue Book

So we're looking to get rid of Ken's van, which guzzles gas and drives, well, like a van. Considering current gas prices, we're planning on a used Honda Civic. How did anybody ever get a fair price before kbb.com? Buying a car is scary; too many things can go wrong!

Donate to Katrina relief

Click the photo to donate now.

Disaster Response Training

I think Ken and I are going to attend some Adventist Community Services Disaster Response Training Courses. It's just too frustrating to sit around and not be able to help when something like Katrina happens. And we know from Bible prophecy that these events will only grow more frequent and more severe as this earth's history comes to a head.

Made it home!

After rescheduling flights several times, I finally ended up being able to fly out of Mobile last evening and arrived home about 10:30 p.m. We left Biloxi about 1 p.m., hoping we might find gas more available further east. That turned out to be true. We arrived in Mobile about 2:30 and went straight to Sam's Club. The wait for gas was just about an hour; not bad, considering the four+ hour wait in Biloxi. The price was remarkable, too; they'd run out of regular unleaded, and premium was about $2.53/gal. Cheap! Then we went into Sam's and found an ATM working so mom got enough cash to get her by, 40 lbs. of dog food, 6 gallons of water, and lots of other supplies. It was a very productive trip, to say the least. My flight left at 5:45 p.m. I hated to leave, and probably wouldn't have if I didn't have to work. Even though my work is usually very mobile, it does require power and internet connection, neither of which we had. Until... Mom says her power (and internet!) came back on a bit after 8 p.m., too, which was a major blessing.

I have too many photos to post, so if you want to see them, click the link HERE to the CostCo/Snapfish site and create a (free) login (if you don't already have one) to view the Katrina photos. Some of the pics are from my cell phone, thus the poor quality. You'll probably be able to tell which are from my good digital and which are from the phone.

Thank you so much to all who cared and prayed and called and wished the best for us. We were very comfortable inside the hospital (relative to those outside).

Hurricane Katrina: Further Update

Hello, again. I just want to update everyone on the current situation with Alicia and Mary who are in Biloxi, MS in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

As most of you know, the girls were able to ride out the storm in the Biloxi, MS Veteran's Hospital where Mary is a nurse. Fortunately the hospital was able to maintain power due to the huge generators in the complex and they have had running water as well. These are HUGE blessings, especially having access to clean water.

On Thursday, Sept. 1st those whose homes were still habitable were asked to leave the hospital to make room for the medical clinics to reopen. Mary and Alicia returned to their house which fared very well during the storm. After picking up the shingles and debris from the yard they realized that the house had running water. Although the water pressure was low they were able to take cool showers and relax a bit. The power is still out which makes it difficult to cook anything or boil the water for drinking. They have some non-parishables stored away and will live off those as long as possible. However, they are running low on food for Mary's two golden retrievers.

The problem now is that they are running low on cash and gasoline as well. With the power still out in most of the state the ATM's are not working and the banks have not yet reopened. At this point it's a 'cash-only' situation. The hospital is serving 3 meals a day in the cafeteria, but it's been using up most of their available cash to eat. To further complicate the situation, they are running low on gasoline which they need to drive to the hospital or the store, if one should open. Mary is still expected to report to work during her shifts. At this point there really isn't any available fuel anyway.

Luckily they were able to get cellular service for at least part of the day on Thursday, so Alicia kept me updated on their situation. This will work as long as her phone's battery holds up. She can charge it with the car charger until the car's battery dies. If she runs the car while she's charging she uses up the small amount of fuel they have left. And of course they don't have money for gasoline. And round and round we go!!

Alicia is scheduled to fly home on Saturday, Sept. 3rd, provided the Gulfport/Biloxi airport is functional again and Continental Airlines is in service. I will be glad to have her home again, but I know that we will contiue to worry about Mary being in Biloxi alone.

I will continue to keep you posted as information comes available to me. Please keep these poor people in your prayers, especially the ones in New Orleans who have lost everything.

Hurricane Katrina Update

Hello all, Ken here filling in for my wife. I just spoke to Alicia and her mom around 8:30am Wednesday and they are safe and sound. They were in the Veteran's Hospital in Biloxi, MS during the storm and suffered minimal structural damage or flooding. Mary, Alicia's mom, is a shift nurse there and is required to be in 'lockdown' along with the other staff during any kind of adverse conditions that might prevent them from being available to work their shift. Due to the severity of Hurricane Katrina the families of the hospital staff were also allowed to stay.

Currently, the Biloxi VA hospital is one of the only buildings in the state of MS that has full power, due to the huge emergency generators in the complex. Alicia and Mary have been staying in one of the many small clinic offices in the hospital, but they will soon have to leave as the hospital will need to open the clinics again to patients.

Alicia drove by her mother's house in Biloxi yesterday to survey the damage and was glad to see that all was still very much intact, with the exception of some branches and roofing shingles littering the yard. The house, miraculously, didn't flood even though it's only a few blocks from the Back Bay of Biloxi; known to locals as The Bayou. Truly all the prayers that went up spared this little red brick house!

Both girls are preparing to leave the hospital and move back to the house, though they are still without power there. With current temperatures above 95 degrees and 100% humidity, it's going to be difficult. FEMA is supposed to move in and help the local residents pretty soon, providing food, water and other much needed resources.

Communication with Alicia will be sporadic for awhile as the land lines and cell service is still mostly disabled. She was able to locate a cellular signal this morning by driving around town until she had a single bar of service on her phone. I will keep everyone posted as information becomes available to me. Thank you for your many prayers during this difficult time and please continue to pray for the safety and well-being of others still in need. So long for now...

Headed out...

We're headed to the hospital for the night and day tomorrow. Should be OK until the power goes out. Then nothing to do. At least watching a storm is captivating ... and one like this, much more than any TV show! Wish us well...

And so the rain begins. It's about 3:30 here and the rain and wind have started. Hard to tell from this picture, but the sky is pretty gray.

No ice

I just made a run up to get ice, and all the stores are closed already. WalMart and the grocery store are boarded up. Looks like I missed Walgreens by a few minutes, but they probably didn't have anything left anyway. So, we'll do without cold stuff.

I added a pink dot where we are; clearly not a great spot. Mom's hospital requires staff to be on-site during hurricanes to be sure they have enough to cover several shifts, so we'll have to be there by 6 p.m. for lock-down. They're in about the same position as our house relative to the water. Maybe two miles to the beach as the crow flies, but backs up to the bay behind, so flooding could be an issue. Today we've been preparing the house as best we can and getting ready to go. We hauled all the lawn furniture and such into the garage and bathed the dogs since they have to come with us. We put the patio table in the dining room and turned the good dining table upside down on top of it in case of flooding. If there's severe flooding, the table will be the least of concerns, but it made us feel better to do SOMETHING. Now I'm going to run up to the store for ice to pack a cooler. If they have any left. We'll see.

Looks like the neighbors have boarded up, preparing for the storm. Our house is brick, so I'm not sure how we would board up even if we wanted to. Guess we'll take our chances.

Now that the privacy fence is around the entirety of the back yard, the lot seems SO much bigger.

Mom traded in dad's truck for this 2001 Honda Passport.

Mom's re-doing the kitchen. Cabinets are partially installed. Should be nice!

Katrina

I decided to surprise my mom in Biloxi, Mississippi, with a visit this week. A death in the family spoiled the surprise, because she was considering going to the funeral out of state. Such is life. So I arrived Thursday morning. My return trip, scheduled for Monday morning, is uncertain at this point because hurricane Katrina is bearing down on us. I'll miss some important meetings and a retirement dinner for a much beloved co-worker if I don't get back on time, but I really want to be here to make sure mom is OK during the storm. She's scheduled to work, and they make all the staff stay in the hospital during hurricanes to make sure they have enough to cover shifts in case roads aren't open. So, if Katrina heads here, she, the dogs and I will probably end up in the hospital Monday, waiting the storm out. I think I'll run up to WalMart tonight to pick up a card-reader so that I can upload photos to the blog from my camera. It's sunny and HOT right now — about 94 with high humidity means a heat index of 105ish. Ick. Thank goodness for air-conditioning. Wish we had a pool! Or I could go down to the beach and run around in the background of the The Weather Channel's live broadcast with Jim Cantore. Hehehe...

Magazine Cover

Magazine Cover
This it too cool!

We recently went to Sacramento to celebrate Ken's grandma's 90th birthday. She doesn't look a day over 70; it's incredible! Following are a few pics of family during the trip.

Cousin Shelley and Ken.

Niece Lauren and nephew Brendon.

Worn-out

Had a really fun weekend. Friday morning we rode the horses for the first time in at least a month (it's been too hot til now). That evening, we joined Christye and Kevin at Jeremy and Michelle's for supper. Nice to spend some time with busy friends.

Sabbath we went to The Place. Had a two-hour, late-afternoon nap, then went to a farewell party at BJ's. I'd invited Christye and Kevin, and it turns out Kevin knew half the people there from PUC. Small world, especially with such a sanguine guy. We knew we needed to get up early today because we were scheduled to paint the barn at Ventura Farms at 8 a.m. Had lots of Diet Pepsi with supper, so we had a hard time falling asleep. I finally drifted off just after midnight, but Ken was still up playing his guitar until close to 3 a.m. Obviously, he wasn't thrilled when the alarm went off at 6:20.

So the barn painting went really well. I was so pleased that 26 people volunteered (and most showed up!). They worked really hard in the hot sun. We lost a few each hour as the morning progressed, and the final four of us wrapped up the project about 2:30 this afternoon. I'll post photos as soon as I get them.

This is Carson. He was born about a week ago to my dear friend Stacey and her hubby, Kevin. Congratulations! Isn't he handsome?

Glad for Sabbath

I suppose now that the newness of blogging has worn off (and there's nothing terribly exciting going on with us) that I'm less likely to keep up with it. Tuesday night I did a signing in Ojai. First time I've been up there, even though I've lived here for almost three years. It's only 40 miles. Neat little town; very quaint ... and DARK. The signing was at 9 p.m., and it was very clear that there were no street lights. At all. Really felt like a country town. Quite a drive though, because the road is a little crooked. Anyway, I need to go back during the daytime to see more.

Wednesday Ken had a guitar lesson with a working studio musician named Rick. He really enjoyed it. We're going to The Baked Potato tomorrow night to see the guy's band play their last show before they go on tour.

Yesterday and today I worked from home because they've been painting in our building for a couple of weeks and it's really toxic in there. The smell wouldn't be enough to keep me away, but combine it with stuff covered in plastic and workers bustling around and it's not very conducive to productivity.

We discovered a new frozen pizza we like. Freschetta Sauce Stuffed Crust; really good. The sauce is a little too spicy, but has a great flavor. Cheese and herbs are perfect. Crust is a good texture. I'd give it a 9 of 10 stars (-1 only for the overly spicey sauce). That's my tidbit for the day.

Long time, no blog

Figured I better catch up here since I've been neglecting the blog. Sorry to those who follow us here. Let's see; a summary of recent happenings... During the same week as the heinous altercation with the mean notary lady, I got slammed with hate mail and threats from readers of the magazine I edit because I'd chosen a cover photo that included Hillary Clinton. Now all these hateful people have called me names for two weeks, saying what a communist idiot I must be to promote her presidential campaign on the cover of a conservative Christian magazine. Personally, I have little interest in or knowledge about politics. I don't have a clue what Hillary stands for, votes for, etc., much less that she's actually considering running for president. I used it because it was a good shot of our religious liberty associate director interacting with her during an official Adventist event. Frankly, Hillary Clinton probably has a more "Christian" attitude than some of the people who've written and called in about the photo.

Anyway, during that same week (after July 4), a rat died in/on the air conditioner motor of my car, so my ride was FOUL. Had to take it to the dealer for a clean-up, but also because the thing had broken the A/C motor. They had it for almost a week working on it; scrubbing, anti-bacterializing, etc. GROSS. At the same time, we had to buy a new washer/dryer for the same reason (dead rats up inside, stinking up our house). Extra foul now that it's really hot. I'm really mad that the administrators of the school campus where we live won't help with the rodent control. I suspect they're legally liable for it anyway. I'm going to have to press them on the issue, because it's not fair that I'm paying for rodent control for the whole campus.

Last weekend we played hookie from church and Jon/Amy, Tim/Kim (plus their daugter and Kim's mom), Jeremy/Michelle, Ken and I went to the beach. We grilled out, Boogie-boarded, and just hung out. Nice time. Then we gathered for a haystack supper. Yum. They convinced me to play spoons or something like that. Card game where you grab a spoon as you're done; sorta like musical chairs... The one left without a spoon loses. I lost. Not surprising, considering the week I'd had.

It's been really hot here; in the 90s and no breeze. We don't have A/C in our house, so it's almost intolerable. My computer even had a overheating error and shut down one afternoon. Sheesh. Today we went to the school pool, which happens to be at the end of our driveway. What a blessing!

Ken got a new computer game today so he can play against Jeremy online; Medal of Honor, Allied Assault. It's a WWII game, pretty neat; looks real. I probably won't see him again for a week; he'll be in here playing it (our two computers are side by side in our office; he's on mine now because it runs the game better, and I'm on his laptop, which is really hard to type on).

Guess I better go finish the vaccuuming before sundown.

Petty and paranoid

I've just had the most ridiculous encounter with another notary. Out of the blue this afternoon, this woman calls me and says that my website looks too much like hers, that I must've copied it, and that I must change it. Her tone started out pleasant enough, but by the end of the convo, I could tell she was getting herself worked up. I said sure, I'll take a look and make any changes if something's the same.

I'd looked at at least a dozen other mobile notary sites to see what the going rates are since I really didn't know the range. I copy/pasted lots of little phrases from several of them to save myself having to retype, because the basic services are the same. I made changes to fit my own business, etc., so my site didn't end up exactly like anyone's, but similar to all others. (Mine is far more professional-looking that hers anyway.)

We were driving back from Redlands, and by the time I got home and checked my email, this woman had written me a nasty letter saying she would take legal action for copyright infringement if I didn't change my site this very evening, how dare I copy her hard work, etc., etc. Her accusations are so insane; it's like Wendy's calling McDonald's and saying, "Hey! You can't list a hamburger after the cheeseburger on your drive-thru menu, because I thought of it first! And you can't charge 89 cents, because mine is $1.09. You're trying to steal my customers! I'm calling my lawyer!"

I swear, it's like reasoning with a 7-year-old. She kept harping on the issue of cut/paste, but the point is, our sites ended up different, regardless of how the shell of my page started. If an author-A copies a sentence from author-B's online book: "She tried to intimidate the newcomer with threats and sour words;" but author-A changes half those words: "He couldn't intimidate the bear with threats and big sticks;" then clearly, the new work has not infringed the original's copyright, even if author-A copied the original sentence directly from author-B's web book.

Anyway, when I've done something wrong and someone brings it to my attention, I try to do the right thing (which is why I cheerfully agreed to examine my site when she called me this afternoon). But when someone gets nasty with me when I didn't do anything wrong, it's hard not to let it get under my skin. I can feel that my blood pressure and heart rate are up and I'm really having to pray for a better attitude, because right now I really don't like this hateful and threatening woman. Who, by the way, sounds like a chain-smoker on the phone. Perhaps that will work to my benefit in the long run. See? That was a hateful thing to say.

Here's Ken on Balanchine, one of my favorites. Bali's about 12, so he's pretty young compared to most others in the program. I was riding Antares, a 5-year-old mare, but we didn't get a good photo because of the shadow.

Loan doc, anyone?

Well, Ken and I are officially California Notary Publics and National Notary Association Certified Loan Signing Agents. Yee-haw! I got our Adams Notaries site up and running tonight, so as soon as our seals arrive, we're in business. I can't wait!

Michael and MeeRa drove down Wednesday night and we went to dinner at Buca di Beppo and strolled Universal CityWalk. Thursday we did Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure theme parks. Fun!

Photo Books

I highly recommend making printed books with your digital photos. I've used (and been very pleased with) Shutterfly to create photo books, but MyPublisher.com looks pretty neat, too... CostCo members get a 20% discount. Gotta love the flexibility of digital cameras!

And, by the by, went to a movie screening yesterday for "Nana's Boy." Not sure when it comes out, but DO NOT go see it. It glorifies smoking pot and playing video games with some sexual perversions thrown in for good measure. Quite a few funny moments, but 95% trash (including most of those funny moments).

New Do

Well, here's the before and after. I'm loving it so far. The first photo is from this morning. The middle three are outside this evening, and the last one I took inside earlier. The last one is the most accurate of the color. Not sure why the middle three look so light, except that it must've been the light. I'll have to post again when I style it curly.

I have a hair appointment Tuesday for a hair makeover. Mine's gotten too long and the highlights are growing out, so I look unkempt. Having long hair is nice when you take the time do blow it out or whatever, but I rarely have the patience for that. So I need something shorter that will dry quickly. Mine is naturally curly, which makes my choices a little more difficult since I have to be mindful of frizz and puffiness. I also need bangs because of my tall forhead, but most styles can adapt to that. I'm also thinking of going darker and redder rather than blonder. The coloring things is new to me. The highlights I have now are the first I've ever done. I'm a little nervous about making a drastic change, but I'm excited, too. I get nostalgic looking at my long hair now when I actually bother to style it, but if I'm honest, how often do I do that? Anyway, look for photos Tuesday night of my new do. Yikes!

For some Sunday afternoon recreation, we headed down the driveway into the school pool. Here, Brendon does a fancy cannonball for a big splash.

Cooling off.... It's been foggy and June gloomy lately, but the gray usually burns off early afternoon. We were glad that today was no exception.

Ken diving. Woo!

Michele has a friend who works at NBC who was able to get us VIP tickets to a taping of The Tonight Show. However, she forgot to tell us that the taping time had changed from 4 to 3:30, so we were late and didn't get good seats. In fact, when the show aired, you could see people who had regular tickets and we were in a shadow and weren't visible at all! Oh well, it was really fun anyway, and while we were walking around on the backlot of NBC, I walked through "Salem Place," which is the set they use for the outdoor mall area on "Days of Our Lives." That was probably the coolest part of the whole day!

Ken's nephew, Brendon, is visiting from Sacramento this week. We picked him up at the Burbank airport today. Here he is with Brady.

As soon as we got home, we headed for the hills with the dog so we could all stretch our legs.

We recently started volunteering to exercise horses for 15 Hands Rescue, a Hogan Foundation organization. 15 Hands is an organization that gives underpriviledged kids an opportunity to interact with and ride horses. Most of the horses are retired Arabian brood mares donated from Mr. Hogan, Ventura farms and others. I'm really excited to do volunteer work, but frankly, I think we are getting more out of it than anything. In fact, we're just underpriviledged adults being given the opportunity to ride. :o) This is us after returning from a trail ride; Ken, Kalila and Alicia.

By the way...

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I take it back.

Turns out the live scanning lady at the sheriff's office today was very nice afterall. I shouldn't have been thought the worst of her when she didn't help us on Thursday. Bad me.

Flying to Sacramento and driving over to Napa for a meeting tomorrow, then home again tomorrow night. Long day!

Lots of editing to do before I leave, so I'll get back to it now.

Live scanning

I just have to vent for a moment about the process of live scan fingerprinting. At least the process of getting an appointment at the Thousand Oaks sheriff's office. I called the number from the State of California CPS website and inquired about making an appointment. The lady I spoke with said that I needed to wait for my paperwork to come from the State, but that I wouldn't need an appointment (error #1); just come on in. So, when our paperwork arrived, we went on in. The lady at the window said they only do live scanning on Thursdays (error #2) by appointment and to come back at 10:30 and 10:45 Thursday for our appointments. Turned out that our optometry appointment ran very long, so I called to cancel the appointments and rescheduled for 4:30 that same afternoon. So when we arrived at 4:30, the lady who does the live scanning, who had been on vacation until that day, she said, had absolutely no record of our appointments (error #3); not the 10:30/45 a.m. nor the 4:30. As per typical clock-watcher employees, she said she was outta there the minute her current appointment was over, so she couldn't help us (unhelpful #4). We'd have to reschedule... AGAIN. So, we'll go back Monday morning. At least this time the live scanner herself put our appointments in the book, so there shouldn't be anymore errors. We'll see.

New Blog

I just started another blog as a place to jot cool things I want to remember. Check it out.

Tidbits

I don't like to go days or weeks without blogging, but sometimes it seems we go days or week without anything newsworthy happening. Or else I'm lazy or I forget. :o) We had friends over for lunch today. We bought a grill last week, put it together yesterday ("Assembles easily with only a screwdriver!" ... Liars!). But it works (though there was one fireball incident), and we've cooked three straight meals out there. Yes, even breakfast this morning. Who knew that buying a grill would get hubby so excited about cooking that I may well have a personal chef all summer?! Money well spent.

Tomorrow we're planning to see movies; the boys will watch the new "Star Wars" and Amy and I will see something else. Maybe "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" or "Madagascar" or "Monster in Law."

Speaking of movies, we joined the Blockbuster Online DVD rental program. We used Netflix last year and were really happy with the service. The movies came next day, which is the best turn-around one can hope for. However, they jacked up their price about the time that the new TV season was starting last summer, so we cancelled the service. Now that the TV season is over, we're ready to start again, but thought we'd try Blockbuster this time. They're $3/mo cheaper than Netflix ($14.99 rather than $17.99) and you get two in-store rentals each month. Since we have a BB about a mile from us, that's really convenient. HOWEVER, the movies they sent Friday didn't arrive today (Saturday). They'll probably come Monday, which means they have a TWO-day turn-around. That may be a significant issue. We'll see how we feel after the free trial.

I think Amy and I will go for a very early morning horseback ride on Monday. Then Ken and I have to go to the sheriff's office to have our live scan fingerprinting done for our Notary Public commissioning. I'm pretty excited about the Notary thing. We passed the test and are now working on our signing agent certification. Could be a great way to make some extra money. We'll see. Anyway, the process to get commissioned isn't a cakewalk; takes time and hundreds of dollars for seminars, testing, supplies and miscellaneous expenses. But it's pretty exciting to learn something new. I really miss school. I loved buying school supplies and new clothes and learning who would be in my classes and all that excellent stuff that goes with education. Ken thinks I'm crazy when I get all worked up over pencil grips and Trapper Keepers. If it paid well, I'd just be a professional student. *sigh*

We're spending more and more time lately fantasizing about owning property, something that is completely out of reach in Southern California. I can't imagine having a $600,000 mortgage for a 1,200 sq. ft. house built in 1971 on a postage stamp-sized lot. It's just sickening. I keep hoping that my company will go virtual so that we can move somewhere affordable. But right now we're in a good situation with high-cost area incomes and fairly low cost housing here on campus (low cost is relative; our rent is about $1,200/mo, which is more than most of my out-of-state friends pay on their mortgages). But if we have to move off-campus for any reason, we'll probably have to leave the state, because we can't afford to pay $2,500/mo rent for a comparable space off-campus. God-willing, by the time we have kids, we'll have at least five acres for them to play on. Kids need dirt to play in and animals to play with, pools and treehouses and forts. Good stuff. I miss that.

Sunday I drove down to Lakewood for my cousin's daughter's college graduation party. I'm sure I'll slaughter the spelling of these names, but here we go, from left to right: Alicia, Janice, Nasime, Par, Affie, Karl, Blanche, Vern, Tamara, and Laurel.

A crew of us gathered to celebrate Jon's 28th birthday (front, right). Back row are Amity, Danielle, Christye, Kevin and Brent. Front row are Ken, me, Amy and Jon. Hope I spelled everyone's names right!

Brady turned 7 on Mother's Day, May 8. Seems impossible that we've been together 6-1/2 years. Time sure flies. But he's as spry and youthful as ever!