VolunteerMatch: Where Volunteering Begins

VolunteerMatch: Where Volunteering Begins is a site where anybody (individuals, groups, young, old) can look up opportunities for helping others. Ever feel like your life just revolves around yourself? Wonder where the people who sometimes appear on Oprah get the ideas for their service projects? VolunteerMatch is a good starting place.

Nescafe Rain

The morning started off right. It's sunny and the birds are singing. It's cool out, so I thought I'd make my sissy coffee drink, half hot chocolate, half instant coffee. Ken is a coffee snob, so the instant stuff is just for guests and me. Anyway, you know how granulated stuff seems to settle and needs stirred or shaken to make sure you're getting an even spoonful? Yes, well, I decided shaking it would be easy, but didn't think to secure the flip top. I shook with a burst of gusto that only a bright, sunny morning inspires, and now the counters, sink, and floor, my hair, sweatshirt, the water filtering pitcher that I had filling in the sink — all covered in mounds of Taster's Choice crystals. Fortunately for me, Ken had left for work moments before. This is the sort of incident where he would half-heartedly try not to be obvious about wondering how on earth I got to be such an idiot, especially when I burst out in hysterical laughter. :o) Anyway, wish I had taken a photo before I cleaned it up.

Fred's 40th Birthday Party

Fred and Andrea, friends of ours from church, invited us along on their celebration of Fred's 40th birthday. They rented a couple of limos to transport everybody to Tra di Noi in Malibu. It was a lovely evening; 24 or so of us, I think. The food was good, but no better than, say, Buca di Beppo. BUT, I had a raspberry tart for dessert that was to die for. Anyway, a delightful evening with lovely people.

Ken and I, looking sleepy after enjoying some good eats!

Taylor T5

Ken got a new toy Friday — a Taylor T5 acoustic electric guitar. He's been lusting after it since it came out and finally decided it was time to get one. He likes it except for the off-balance neck (which is very heavy, so it ends up pointing at your toes if you don't support it). He says that might be a deal-breaker, and he's got 30 days to return it. Today he bought an amp to go with it; they'll either both stay or both go. Now we have to get all his other gear listed on eBay to pay for these lovlies. :o)

A Summit on Identity Theft Solutions

Thursday I attended A Summit on Identity Theft Solutions presented by the state. The draw was a meeting for notaries, but it ended up being presented by the NNA and was much a repeat of my notary training class. But I also attended two other seminars ("Identity Theft Protection Tips for Consumers" and "Protecting Your Privacy Online") which both contained useful info. For consumers, Mari Frank recommended using credit cards rather than the Debit Mastercard/Visa cards as they offer better protection. She also recommended checking your credit report annually from each of the three bureaus. You can do it online at AnnualCreditReport.com. To protect your privacy online, panelists said that you MUST run both a firewall and antivirus software — and keep them up-to-date. They recommended the Zone Alarm Suite. It just really boggles my mind how people can be such snakes as to steal identity.

Fresh air

It's sunny out today, albiet windy and cold. But we decided to get a bit of fresh air anyway.

and a little song....

We decided to do a little singing whilst enjoying the sunshine.

Martha and Jim's 40th

At the end of January I flew to Baton Rouge for my sister's 40th anniversary surprise party. It was delightful; her kids put a TON of work into it, and the whole thing was a roaring success. Here Martha and Jim cut their cake (which was almond, and so very good).

Cheesecake Bistro

Ned, Merilyn, mom and I ate lunch Monday before I headed out. As you see, we'd parked the car under a tree that was apparently very popular with the birds.

New Orleans

Ned drove me back to the New Orleans airport for my flight out. We had some extra time, so we drove through some of the flood-damaged parts of the city. Here you can see the FEMA markings and the waterline just under the rooftop.

Taylor Guitars

During the annual North American Music Merchants show in January, Ken enjoying touring the Taylor Guitars booth (if you can call a 2,000-sq. ft. room a "booth"). These are a few of their artsy pieces...

RKS at NAMM

The RKS team spent many hours finishing about 50 custom pieces for the show, and the booth was a huge success.

Open Source Office Suite

These are two recommended software packages: the first, OpenOffice, is much like Microsoft's Office Suite. Except it's free. I haven't used it myself, but hear it gets excellent reviews. The second, CutePDF, has a free PDF writer. Save yourself the Adobe Acrobat purchase of $250 or so bucks if all you need is to create PDFs.

This has been one of those days that I feel like I've had a metaphorical dump truck of manure unloaded on my head. But, this, too, shall pass.

Podfitness :: Your Music. Your Workout. Your Way.

Podfitness. How high tech are we? This site is set to launch EOM and I'm really interested to see what it's like. I assume it'll be much like a workout version of iTunes, and I would hope the cost wouldn't be much more than that, either. I applied to Beta test it; waiting to hear if I qualify. Guess I'll have to borrow hubby's iPod (or get my own!).

The Land of Louisiana

Saturday morning I flew from LAX to New Orleans, where my mom and aunt picked me up just in time to drive straight to my sister's anniversary surprise party in Baton Rouge. The shin-dig was a complete success with scores of attendees from near an far. Martha and Jim were definitely surprised; Martha ended up mad that our siblings had been in town for a whole day without her knowing. Ha! She hates not knowing anything and can't bear that there was conversation she wasn't a part of. Oh well; it was worth it. My nephew, Ned, drove me back to New Orleans yesterday. We had enough time to drive through some of the Lakeview neighborhoods that had flooded so badly, and I took a few photos, but managed to leave my camera in the floor of Ned's car, so those will have to wait for posting. Mom and Merilyn are headed up north for a Louisiana/Mississippi tour; lots of historic places mom's been wanting to see for years. I think she's also scoping retirement locations.

Christye and Kevin's wedding

I flew to Dallas this weekend for Christye's wedding. That's the groom on the right there, Kevin, and her parents (dad on the left and mom on the platform). Mom is not really three feet tall (she's sitting on a stool). The ceremony was a little different from the traditional wedding; it was a ceremony of blessings. Christye and Kevin took turns explaining to their parents why they had chosen the other as a life partner and asking for their blessing. In this photo, dad is giving his blessing for the union.

The candle-lighting was one traditional element.

Customs for the NAMM Show

RKS Guitars, where Ken works, is building a bunch of beautiful custom pieces for the NAMM show this week. Ken borrowed this one to play at church, but didn't get a full run out of it because his shoulder started hurting terribly Friday night. The ER docs says it's probably tendonitis from repetitive stress (filing necks at work). So he's in a sling til an orthopedist says otherwise (took if off briefly for the photo). Anyway, he's now in love with this guitar. Too bad it'll retail for about 8 grand.

Pretty, huh? Nice rug, too. Hehehe...

Have mercy...

I cannot believe it, but THIS is as addictive as the real thing!

New furniture!

We bought a beautiful set of Italian leather sofas from one of my clients and couldn't be happier with the change in the room. Having nice stuff makes such a difference in our attitude about "home." Thanks, Mom! Now we're going to get the end table that matches the entertainment center from Ikea, a couple of storage ottomans for our feet, and that's it for the living room. Next, dining set and bedroom ... in time. :o)

Another angle...

After-Christmas Cookies

Ken's nephew, Brendon, and I decided to bake after-Christmas cookies one day while we were in Sacramento. Here are our creations. Not too pretty, but very tasty!

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.