We had a fabulous vacation in Hawaii. 2 weeks over there. AWESOME!!! I was not convinced that this was going to be a vacation that I really wanted to go on. But fantastic. Really is paradise. I wouldn't want to live there but it was a dream while we were there. I think we got about 1000 pictures. Went with my sister and her hubby and it was great!!
Life in ND is....well it's my life and I love it. Wish I didn't have to work so many shifts but I survived the layoff at our medical center in June and am grateful for that.
Added a new room onto the house. LOTS of windows and my Star Trek mural. It's a relaxing, comfortable place for me. I can have peace and privacy and a good place to work on my projects and hobbies. I've pretty much used up 2 sketchbooks with sketches. Getting pretty good at portraits...and I thought I couldn't draw people. I'm doing charcoal, pastel chalk and still oils in my work. Mostly I draw or paint because something moves me. It's the most relaxing thing in the world for me.
Reading out there is also relaxing. I have been reading a lot since my migraines settled down again. I had a spring full of auras and migraines. I actually read 5 books on vacation.
Now we're going from summer to fall here and all the work that goes along with that. Cleaned out the veggie garden, got hay in the barn, electric fence up to keep large 4 legged creatures in. Now we need to clean out the chicken coop and I need to get the flowers ready to go to bed but no freeze yet so that'll wait a while.
Hope everyone on my flist is happy and healthy.
Anyway......a month or so ago my oldest friend in the world called me and told me about a weekend that the North Dakota Fish and Game Department puts on called Becoming an Outdoor Woman. I looked up their web page and they have a weekend every year at Metagoshe State Park in the Turtle Mountains of ND just for women. There are four- 4 hours sessions starting on Friday afternoon and ending Sunday afternoon. They offer everything outdoors from Compass and GPS classes to fishing, shotgun, archery, wet lands wandering, calling animals, tracking animals, building fires, shelters and trapping out in the wilderness, bird ID, plant ID, butterflies and dragonflies. 7 choices for each session. You stay in a dorm with 80 other women for the entry fee or can pay to camp or a motel in the area. It sounded like an "adventure" so we decided to do it providing I could get the day off.
- Location:Home
You all probably know that my husband leads a double life. In his work life, he's a Respiratory Therapist that works with people to help stop the tobacco addiction but after hours, he's quite a busy local actor. He works with community theater, a private entertainment company and other groups that need actors. Over the years he's filmed quite a few movies for different producer/directors.
A few weeks ago one of the directors that Hubby has worked with quite a bit announced that he was doing a feature length film and was looking for actors. Since it was open auditions, I went and auditioned. Hubby had already told him a little about me. And the audition was quite non threatening and comfortable. We just read a page of script from an old TV show. And it was over.
I got an email from him telling me that I'd gotten a part with lines even. I knew it would be very small but I was delighted. I'm not sure if I got the part because I have a wee bit of talent or because I am married to an actor that he likes working with. I think probably the latter. Anyway last weekend was my day of shooting.
We arrived at 10:30 but the filming never started until about noon. It is an interesting process. The Director is quite professional. He has a lot of movies in his resume. It takes a while for him to get things set up but when it's time to shoot it, he's quick. He knows what he wants and then goes about getting it. He gives good direction and then off we go.
I had 3 lines in the movie. We'll see if it makes the final cut of the movie. I'm a reporter at 3 press conferences. We did them back to back. I was kind of proud to see that other than the main characters, I was the only other actor that had lines out of about 20 or so people. *still not getting a big ego....I'm still Hubby's wife*
He broke each scene down into small sections. Then he took each section and did reaction shots, wide shots, close ups of the actor who was doing lines and then reaction shots of the actor(s) reacting to the lines. Quite a process.
I never in my life would have thought I'd be in a movie and with actual lines. From what I understand there is some interest in this film out in Hollywood. But time will tell on that. If the movie hits then the actors will get some reimbursement. That matters not to me. If the movie hits.....well how cool would that be.
*off to practice my autograph*
Driving is interesting since we live on gravel and have a gravel driveway. We leave in the morning and it's frozen and get back in the afternoon and it's mud. White trucks become brown and then white and then brown again. *I hate a dirty truck and wash it frequently*
I've actually managed to go for my walk a few times at noon. It's kind of a challenge because sometimes it's just warm enough to make the sidewalks wet but then not warm enough to melt the ice at the bottom of the puddle. It's taking your life into your hands. LOL.
With all that's been going on at work, it's nice to be able to get out for a while. I need it for my sanity. I've been feeling trapped lately. When our part time phone nurse decided to retire, they decided to hire into a couple of days more to cover 2 uncovered days. I thought it would be a good thing to ask if I could go down one days each pay period. I found out later that they were going to hire to a full time person but they refused to allow me to drop a day. Then when I asked for a couple of days off...they refused saying they didn't have anyone to cover the phone room. I felt trapped and a little depressed. I checked for other jobs but all the jobs in the clinic are 80 hr per pay period. I could drop down to part time but I'd have to go back to shift work and not sure that I could do that again. And I DEFINITELY could not and would not do hospital work. And the weird thing is that I do like my job. I just don't want to do it 5 days a week.
I've been doing a lot of sketching and painting lately. I've rediscovered just how much it relaxes me. I'm actually taking some online tutoring especially for drawing people. That's always been a weak point of mine. I actually did a profile last night that I'm pretty proud of.
I made some window coverings for the living room windows, the bay window and the smaller one. I'm quite pleased with the way they came out. The windows don't look quite so bare and they do compliment the new shades.
Today I think I'm going to clean out my mother's file cabinets. A lot of stuff is completed. Checking accounts taken care of, taxes files, CDs disbursed and most of the bills paid. just waiting for the rest of them to come trickling in.
Then I shall reward myself with some sketching. I need to be rewarded. lol.
So many emotions for the last 2 weeks, sadness, guilt, regret, anger and just plain stress. My mother passed away on Feb 11th. It was totally unexpected. But maybe when a parent dies no matter when or what has happened to precede it, that is a normal reaction. My mother has never been particularly healthy. She gets a cold and it hangs on forever. She gets the flu and is sick for weeks. She was in the hospital before Christmas for a couple of weeks with some pneumonia, worsening of her COPD and some CHF *congestive heart failure*. She came home with oxygen and with some conditioning in the transitional care unit and at home, she seemed to bounce back. On the 1st of Feb she was taken to the ER with cold symptoms and difficulty breathing. They didn't keep her much to her distress because there was no signs of any pneumonia or bacterial infection and in the ER her O2 sats were 99 at rest and 93 with activity. They gave her antibiotics for ? secondary infection. She took to her bed and was hardly eating or drinking. That Wednesday one of the nurses called and suggested hospice to help her a bit with the breathing. COPD is an easy diagnosis to get hospice in for. So we did that and they helped her and the breathing got easier and she seemed more comfortable. But 4 days later on Saturday morning, I got a call from the Assisted Living place that she was unresponsive. It was in the middle of a blizzard and we couldn't get to Fargo until late afternoon. By then hospice was in and scheduled 24 hour care. It wasn't a stroke. She had all the signs that you see with end of life.
( Read more... )
We've been lucky this year. The horse waterer is working really good. Usually with the first cold snap we are hauling water but so far this year....it's been great.
I took two days off work on Thursday and Friday . I didn't have any particular to do, I just wanted a couple of days to relax and sleep in. I got to do what I wanted to do. I did a little cleaning and picking up. I got some stuff done that I've been putting off. And I got to read and sketch and watch TV. Can it get much better than this.
And wonder of all wonders....my stomach settled down. I haven't have had any problems this weekend at all with reflux. A lot of times when I get home from work...I have a bad problem with reflux and am unable to get to bed because of the potential for aspiration. I think it's stress.....I think I really should get a job where there is no stress and they just pay me huge amounts of money.
Now it's getting to the time when I'm having to do more and more of my mother's finances because of her eyes. It's not a comfortable thing to do because the money is what she worries about most. And what I do is never right. It's hard to second guess her and I have to redo everything. LOL.....I actually am more patient with her then I was in 2007. Am I improving? Doubt it.....just a phase...I'm more relaxed right now.
Off to clean out my dresser drawers and my closet.
I slept until 9 this morning. Wow...that's unusual. I have not been overly tired this week, just more relaxed. It's always hard for me to sleep when someone in the family is out late so although I went to sleep at 11...I did wake up a couple of times until Hubby came home at 1. He had an out of town play to go to. And he just left for Devil's Lake to do another play and that is a LONG drive. He's going to come home after the play tonight or stay in Carrington or Jamestown if he gets too tired. Always a worry when he's on the road that late.
It's a gorgeous sunny day today. Light snow this morning but not too cold. We're suppose to go down into the deep freeze this week.
Oh wow...you should have see the hoar frost this week. Heavy fog and below freezing temps really paint the landscape. I wanted so bad to take pictures but it was too dark before we left for work. It was a missed opportunity that's for sure. Work gets in the way of all my fun.
Work has been a little stressful this week. Lots of sick calls, too many phone calls. Too many crabby people. But we do our best. I got 4 hours of OT this week. The boss is going to have a cow when she see it. Too bad. But no OT next week. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off. I need a long weekend that doesn't include a holiday.
Today I'm going to do some sketching. I had such a great time this week. I spent all my gift cards except for Best Buy. I got LOTS of neat stuff at Michael's. I found some pastel chalks. I have worked in that medium for a long long time but it was the first thing I ever did so thought I'd try it again. Then I got lots and lots of books at Barnes and Noble. I'm all set for those lazy winter days.
Off to do that now.
He called a couple of places to see if they could give us some tech help. It was too easy to hook it all up so they couldn't figure what he'd done wrong. Finally we called the GeekSquad since we bought it from Best Buy. After talking with us for a while, she explained that since the TV was HD and our satellite receiver was not...that the signal wasn't being picked up. Now why didn't I think of that a couple of weeks ago.
SOOOOO....next step calling DishNetwork to see how much it's going to cost to get an HD receiver. Well aren't we lucky that they are having a special on the HD receivers. So we pay $149 and get the money back when we send in the mail in rebate form. AND we have to extend our contract with them another 18 months. Which is no biggie since we do like them. AND it'll cost us another $6/month for the HD service and if we want the channels that are HD in a package...it'll be $20 a month more .....BUT they'll waive the fee for 6 months.
So I'm on the phone with this very lovely lady who has a bit of a speech problem and she keeps putting me on hold and going away. Finally after 32 minutes and taking my credit card number TWICE, she finds that she has to transfer me to another department who apparently has the knowledge and expertise to handle a situation as complicated as mine. So she transfers me and after a lot of clicks and pauses it finally rings........."I'm sorry the call cannot be completed as dialed." And I have to disconnect.
SOOOOOO....I call back...go through all the prompts again and talk with another lovely lady who informs me that the first lovely lady did not transfer the information that she'd already taken and they required me to give all of it again. I was so annoyed and even more annoyed at the gal for continually apologizing. She also kept putting me on hold. I soothed myself by watching my DVD of Stargate Atlantis. Somehow those adorable pointy ears of Lt Col John Sheppard*Joe Flanigan* did much to calm me down. LOL.
FINALLY we got to the end and actually got a date for the tech to come out. JANUARY 13....not sure if it's 2008 or not but we're hoping.
Sooooooo.....my very efficient Hubby has already removed heavy, bulky TV to the garage. I have to use all my charms to talk him into bringing it back upstairs. I don't watch a LOT of TV upstairs but the news is always one of the things that I watch and if I have to wait 2 weeks or a year and 2 weeks I want the TV back.
Of course now we are BOTH in foul moods. Nice to start the new year off with something that was suppose to be fun!!
My supervisor came by about 4 to tell me to go home so I could get home before it got dark. I was so pleased about that. It's nice to know someone cares if I get home or not.
We spent an hour or so just cleaning out the yard and driveway. So that's good until we have the next snow on Thursday.
We watched the first 2 hours of Tin Man the other night. I was expecting to hate it but decided to try it and see how we liked it. We liked it!! It was quirky and good and I was hooked inside of half an hour. Recorded part 2 last night and even as we speak part 3 is recording but we haven't watched them yet.
Off to bed.
We made a quck trip to Casselton to get milk etc and then back home again.
It's really snowing out there. I always remember my MIL saying. "Little snow....big snow. Big snow....little snow." And that is so right!! Today we have "little snow" and it keeps falling. The wind is from the south so doing a lot of drifting in our yard. Not suppose to stop until tomorrow. I guess we'll have a white Christmas this year. We didn't have one last year.
I suppose you don't want to hear about my mall job. But anyway, I'm going to tell you because I don't have anything else *much* to do on a snowy afternoon.
Hubby does theater for a guy who owns a dinner theater, does Santa photos at the mall and this year also has a kiosk where they put personal pictures on glass crystals. All shapes and sizes of glass. It's quite unique. I don't know how it happened but since he needed help, I said that I would do some hours there. I've done it the last 3 weekends and last night. I enjoy the process and the computer program that he uses is Photoshop so am familiar with that. There are some drawbacks. Not much pay, too many hours after I told him that I only wanted 4 or 5 hour shifts. Today would have been 9 hours. And I've been tired with too much work. But I am going to use the money for a flat screen TV for my bedroom. I have been wanting one of those for a long time. After today we'll see how many hours he schedules me for. Of course last night 2 college gals never showed up and never called. Oh well.
It's been a busy week since Thanksgiving but mostly with working stuff.
Oh oh oh....tooting my own horn time. The other day at a staff meeting, the boss passed around a graph that shows how quickly the phone nurses get to calls. Ideally we should be making "Initial contact" within an hour, but that doesn't always work. The graph showed 1 hour, 2 hours and 8 hours with %s. I noticed when I first glanced at the graph that at the first part of the graph the 1 hour line was way down in the 40% and 50% then all of the sudden the 1 hour graph went up into the 70-80%. When I looked closer it was a graph for a whole year and when the 1 hour line went up higher was right when I got off orientation!! *BG*. Hee.... End of bragging.
I'm still taking my noon walks at work. Yesterday it was a little fresh. It was 22, 17 mph wind and wind chill of 3. I need to bring in my cold weather pants to put on top of my scrubs for days like this. I'm now to the point where if I don't get my walk, I don't feel like I've had a break.
Things are not settling down since we got home from vacation. Almost as soon as I got home, I got an email from my "old" job and they had some shifts that they offered to me. So I took about 4 of them. I work on Saturday or after my "real" work. It's not been bad but I've been tired. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to get in some extra hours. It'll help with Christmas.
Now I'm doing some work at the mall. Hubby's Director does the Santa photo thing at the mall and has another kiosk where he sell Crystal Images. So I'm doing some hours there. It's not much money but it'll be mad money for me. I'm thinking I want a flat screen HD TV for the bedroom wall. So that's what I'm working for.
I told them/him that I didn't want to work on Sunday's because I need at least one day where I have off but first schedule that came out, I was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. I was a little upset. But I did call him and he agreed to change it. Didn't seem upset so that was good. And then I wondered WHY I was nervous that he might be upset. I mean I don't have to work this job. I just don't want it to reflect badly on Hubby.
We are all ready for winter. All the outside stuff is done. We've had a warm November up until now so that's good. Suppose to get some snow tomorrow.
Christmas shopping is almost done. Just some stocking stuffers that I need to get. This weekend, I'm going to get things wrapped...I hope.
Hope everyone is having a nice day.
October 12, 2007
Got up at 6:30 this morning and we were already anchored in the Cabo port. It was barely light and I stepped out onto the balcony and all I could hear was sea lions barking. I couldn’t see them but there must have been a bunch of them.
We got down to meet our group and got on one of the “tender boats”. That was interesting because the sea was so choppy that the boat never was in sync with the ship. We got into shore and got our tour group. It was a tour of Cabo …land and sea. We started with the sea . We got right out to the rock formation and the arch. It is a beautiful group of rock formations and we also got to see the sea lions. They were pretty big and just barking up a storm.
After the tour, we got a bus and toured the area. Always interesting. She gave us a nice history of the area but her English wasn’t the best so didn’t get a whole lot out of it. We got to see a cactus farm of sorts, a glass blowing factory. Ate at place for lunch. Nice food. Always makes you nervous to eat the food. Never did drink the water.
It was a nice tour and as the day went by…it got hotter. We got the tender boat back about 1:30 and the ship pulled up anchor and left about 3:30. The seas are choppy tonight and we are exhausted.
We had another formal night tonight….I didn’t expect that. I thought we only had one.
We have decided that we are not interested in visiting Mexico again. It was a good trip but nothing we care to repeat.
I’m looking forward to getting home. Tomorrow we go to a debarkation talk to find out how to get off the ship. And then we have to hope we at least get to Minneapolis on Sunday. I don’t hold out much hope of getting all the way home. I wish we would but doubt the flights will connect right that late in the day.
Oct 13, 2007
Our last day at sea. We got up about 8 and once again we had to change the clocks. It was our 2nd time of changing clocks. Plus at times ship time and time on land was different. Very confusing. We had ordered breakfast in and were going to sit on our balcony but the wind was blowing about 25mph and it was chilly out there. So we sat in our stateroom and had breakfast. Jay worked on the computer a bit and I read.
The ship was rocking and rolling today. It was a little difficult to walk around. You felt so off balance but it was still fascinating to sit out on the balcony and watch the ship plow through the swells. I was surprised that I never really got sea sick with all this motion.
We tried to go up to the top and sit in the sun but they had the sundeck closed because of the wind and the places that we could sit was filled with smokers…so we didn’t stay long.
I went down to the internet café to print off our boarding passes about 5…before the rush so that was done.
We actually had a very relaxing day. We watched a couple of movies and had a nice time.
We had our last dinner in the dining room with our new friends Frances and Chuck. They were such a nice couple and we exchanged addresses, phone numbers and emails with them and another couple we met on one of the tours. So that was nice.
We went back to the room after supper and packed. We bought a few things and packing was a challenge. But we got everything in the suitcases and had them outside the door by 10.
We were in bed about 10.
October 14,2007
We docked about 6:30 and we were up about 7. We got some breakfast and then at 8:30 we were asked to go to one of the waiting areas and wait until they called our luggage tag. Customs was being very slow and particular today and it was forever to get people off the ship. When the early flight people got off and the people with luggage got off then it was time for us to debark but it took forever to get off. We never got off the ship until after 11 and it took us until noon to get our luggage and get through customs. We found our bus right away and it wasn’t too long before we were on our way to LAX.
My friend Marsha was at LAX to meet us along with a couple of other gals. We sat at Starbucks and chatted for a couple of hours before it was time for us to go through security. We got to our gate about 20 minutes before we boarded. I really didn’t feel that we were going to get home tonight because the connections between flights was only 45 minutes. Not good. At one point we started to board and then they held us. I thought..uh oh …here we go again. But we boarded soon after and actually took off just about on time.
We did get to Minneapolis about 9:40 and it looked like we might actually make our next flight because they told us we were coming in on the same concourse as the Fargo flight. But we got delayed on the ground getting in and then they switched concourses on us. We finally got off the plane at 10 and the Fargo flight was suppose to leave at 10:23. We figured that we wouldn’t make it but we headed out. Jay has longer legs so he went ahead of me. We had to go from F concourse to C and there was a tram to take. We got there and they hadn’t boarded the Fargo flight yet. YAYY. There was 3 groups to Fargo on our LA flight and I have a feeling they were delaying a bit and waiting for us rather than paying for hotels since it’s the last flight to Fargo that night. We boarded about 5 minutes later and got to Fargo about midnight.
Our luggage even made it which made me think they were waiting for us. Randy picked us up, we went back over to his place, gathered up our spoiled rotten dog and headed home. We got home about 1:15 to ecstatic kitties. We brought the suitcases in but didn’t unpack. We were in bed by 2:30.
October 15, 2007
Up at 8:30, good to be home. It was a great vacation but it’s always nice to get home. Spent the day doing laundry, loving kitties and doggie and cleaning up the house a bit.
In the afternoon, I had to run to Fargo for my yearly mammogram, then I stopped at the Assisted living place and gave my mother a shower and went through her mail. So we are home and back in the routine.
October 10, 2007
What a day!!! It was hotter than you know what out there. And humid..not the kind of weather that I’m use to. We woke up at 7 and we were just backing into our dock.
Our tour was at 10 so we didn’t hurry to get off. We kind of hung around the ship. It was so hot, that the air conditioning felt really good.
We had booked a Swim with Dolphins so we got on a NOT airconditioned van and drove out to where the dolphins were. It was a nice clean place. They took us into an area where we all got down to our swim suits. Then we took showers and then got into life jackets. They split us into 4 groups of 10 and we all went to different parts of the pool which was 25 feet deep. After being introduced to the dolphins, we got into the water.
What amazing creatures they are. They seem to take a lot of joy in life and seemed to enjoy their new playmates. They love to be petted and especially on the tummy so they would roll over and swim around on their backs with the tummies up. They are soft, smooth and warm. And very gentle. Those tail fins would hurt if they hit you with them but as they swam around us, they were very careful not to knock into anyone. One by one we got to feed them, take a ride on them and get a “kiss and hug” from them. It was way more than we expected. We were in the water with them for 45 minutes.
Of course there were pictures and video taken. It was hard not to buy them all but we decided to buy the DVD and make screen caps. It was the cheapest thing to do.
We got back to the ship, came in the blessed air conditioning and changed out of our wet swim suits. We then went back out to explore some of the city. We hired a cab for 2 hours and she drove us around the city and into the area that was tourist. We got to go into a tequila “factory” and a few shops. Of course we had lots of tastes of the tequila. Quite nice.
The tourist areas are filled with McD, Burger King, KFC, Holiday Inns etc but the old city area is just as it always was and quite interesting.
We came back to the ship about supper time. The food on the ship is good and we figured we’d eat on the ship rather than spending money to buy a meal outside.
There was a show tonight but we got to talking with our table mates and missed the whole thing.
I got a bad sunburn on my shoulders so came back to the room to take some Advil and get a cool cloth on it.
Tomorrow Mazatlan and a 7 hour tour up in the Sierra Madres.
October 11, 2007
We got up about 7:30 this morning. Got dressed and went up for some breakfast. All the food has really gotten to me and I just couldn’t eat this morning. I just had some fruit sections and that was enough to get me through the morning.
Got off the ship and met the tour bus. We had a 7 hour tour planned up into the Sierra Madres. We left the city and drove up into the mountains.
It was quite eye opening. The villages up there were mostly build by the Spainards when the came in the mid 1500s. We saw some churches and the buildings in the villages were there from the beginnings. It’s amazing how poor the people are up in those villages and when a tour bus comes into town, they all get out their wares and start selling.
We saw them making brick the primitive way. We saw them making tiles which are quite beautiful. And furniture, old churches and town squares. Each of the villages we were in had pigs, chickens and dogs running loose in the street. Quite an eye opener. Very foreign to us.
We had lunch at a restaurant up in one of the villages. The food was typical Mexican and actually very good. I wasn’t too worried about eating it because the tour we were on was sanctioned by the cruise line and I don’t think they wanted any of us to get sick.
Back in Mazatlan we stopped for a margarita before going back to the ship. We were able to do some shopping but I have to say that I have had it with the shopping. I like that when you want something you can haggle with the shop owners but I hate that when you walk in they are all over you about everything. You can’t look at anything without them all over you to buy it. It’s uncomfortable for me because I feel like I’m constantly rude.
We got back on the ship an hour before we were suppose to be. Had a nice supper and we’ll go to a show in a little while but I’m going to do emails before that.
Tomorrow Cabo.
LA Vacation
October 1, 2007
Up at 4 am. Do I really need a vacation bad enough to get up at 4am to catch a plane that likely will be late. Anyway I drag myself out of bed, feeling guilty about leaving the cats alone for 2 weeks. Not exactly alone but no one home to keep them company. The upside is that they don’t have to put up with playful pesky puppy for 2 week.
We were on the road with luggage, dog kennel and dog by 4:45. Got to Randy’s place, unloaded Toby and kennel before getting off to the airport.
Amazingly the flights were both fairly on time and we got into LAX only 10 minutes late. The luggage arrived and quite quickly. Didn’t have any problems getting the rental car and were on the road to try and find our hotel. I was extremely nervous about driving around the LA area but although it’s not easy to drive with all the traffic, so far we’ve done ok. The directions to the hotel were good and easy.
We checked in and went and found some supper. We tried to stay awake for Heroes and Journeyman but we were in bed and asleep by 8 pm pst.
October 2, 2007
We were up pretty early. It’s hard being stuck on Central Time when you are on Pacific Time.
We had breakfast after checking our email and sat outside for a while just enjoying the sun and coffee. We had tickets for the Tonight show and we were trying to decide whether or not to drive over there or if it would be ok to walk. We were leaning toward walking just because of the parking issue.
After getting some directions, we decided to just go ahead and walk. It was 2.6 miles but not a bad walk at all. It took us a little over an hour just because we weren’t in any hurry. We got to NBC about 11.
First thing we did was take a tour of the studio. It was not a bad tour. We took the NY one and I thought this one was better. One of the studios we went into was the Tonight Show studio. The band for that nights show was rehearsing so we stayed for that. We were quite impressed with him. Pat Monahan, who was with the band Train. I’d never heard of him but was impressed.
After the studio tour we went out front and got in line for the Tonight Show. We had tickets but nothing is guaranteed so we wanted to make sure that we got in. It was a pleasant wait. Jay went across the street and got Mexican food take out and we sat outside and ate.
The pages came out about 2:30, checking IDs and tickets and lining us up in groups of 30. We were the first group and we got inside about 3:15 and were seated around 3:30. No one warned us that it was COLD in the studio. We were freezing. Of course they kept it cool because of the hot lights and the people on the stage need to not sweat.
Fifteen minutes before the show started, Jay Leno came out and talked with the audience. He explained that the show was a “live tape” and the feed to the east coast was immediate. And so the shows lasts exactly an hour.
It started right on time and ended right on time. It was fun. I enjoyed being a part of a popular national show even if it was for an hour.
We got out of the studio at 5:45. We were told that a bus would stop in front of the studio that we could get back to the hotel. We were there in line for 2 hours and there were only 2 or 3 buses that came by and none of them was the bus number we were told to take. So when we got out of the show, the option was taxi or walk. We decided to walk. I was a little nervous that we wouldn’t get back to the hotel before it got dark. But we headed out and with one stop at Boston Market for supper, we got back to the hotel just as dusk was turning over into dark.
Supper in the room. Watched Bones and House. Well I watched House, Jay was sound asleep before it even started.
October 3,2007
We got up around 7. We were going to go over to Universal Studios for a while and then head up to Ventura but decided to just wait and do Universal on Thursday. So we had a nice leisurely breakfast and then got in the car and headed for the Pacific Coast Highway. The traffic was heavier than what we are use to but was flowing well and we made our turnoffs without any problems. We drove through Malibu Canyon and then out onto the Pacific Coast Highway.
The traffic is a little less and it’s a 4 lane so I wasn’t too upset about going slower than traffic so we could do some looking. We found a state beach and wandered around there for a while. We saw a “pod” of dolphins off shore. We watched them jumping in and out of the water until they got bored with us and disappeared.
Our next stop was at a “cliff” that went down to the water with only minimal beach. There was a steep set of steps that led down to the tiny beach. I stayed on the steps but Jay decided to get brave and went down onto the tiny beach and started taking pictures. All of the sudden a large wave came crashing into the little beach and Jay got wet up to his knees. He was NOT happy. The area was quite pretty and worth the stop.
We headed north again and got to a town just south of Ventura which is where we were going to meet a bunch of people that I know. Friends that I’ve met in the Enterprise fandom mostly. So was looking forward to that.
We had some time to kill so stopped at a taco shop and had lunch then went and found a theater and were going to see a movie. To kill some time we found an outlet mall and just wandered around there.
After finding out the time for meeting at the restaurant was changed, we cancelled our plans to go to the movie. My friend Marsha met us at the Outlet mall and we sat around and talked for quite a while before going over and meeting the rest of the people.
It was a fun evening and got to catch up with everyone. It’s amazing to think that all these people I’d met online. And it turns out that we are if not close friends then people that enjoy each other’s company and have a lot in common.
We headed back to the hotel at about 9:30 and made pretty good time getting back on the 101 freeway. Bedtime was soon after that.
October 4, 2007
We got up early. We were going to go to Universal Studios and were going to get the shuttle at 8:15. The shuttle was right on time and since Universal is only about a half mile away, we got there quickly. Got off the shuttle and realized that the park doesn’t open until 10. grrrr. Why no one told us that is a mystery.
We got breakfast which featured the world’s WORST grits and then went into the park. The first thing we did was the Studio Tour which turns out isn’t much different then the one we did in the 90s in Florida. Overall it was disappointing. At about 2 we decided that we’d kind of seen enough. I think we just outgrew the thing. By far the WB studio tour that we did 4 years ago was the best. Anyway, it was too early for the shuttle so we decided to walk by to the hotel. It took about 20 minutes with all the street crossings.
Marsha came down after work and we went down to the area where the Farmer’s Market is so we could go to a book signing that Wil Wheaton was doing for a Star Trek Manga.
Jay was walking around the book store and heard Wil talking with someone and recognized his voice. So went up to him and had a conversation with him while we were taking care of things in the Ladies room.
They had a panel for the book with 4 of the artists and authors. It was very interesting. Got to talk each of them as we got our books signed. It was nice meeting Wil as we watched him grow up in Stand by Me and Star Trek, The Next Generation. He’s a very intelligent and funny man.
We had a late supper and then she dropped us off at the hotel. A nice day overall even with the disappointment of the Universal studios.
October 5, 2007
We got up late, had breakfast in the room. We decided that we would do laundry. One of those things that you have to do…….. vacation or not.
While we were doing laundry, we sat out by the pool. I ran lines with Jay and then I read the Star Trek Manga. It was very well done and the stories were quite good.
It was nice just to sit in the sun and do nothing. I just lay there with my eyes closed and dozed. How lazy…but so enjoyable.
At 3 we got ready to go to see Scott Bakula’s new play. We wanted to get a jump on the traffic so figured that we’d go down there early and just wander around.
It took about an hour or so to go the 15 or so miles that we needed to do. The traffic was already heavy at 3 in the afternoon. But we really didn’t have any problems finding the place and we turned down a street one block from the play and we found a parking spot on the street. Absolutely unheard of!! We considered ourselves lucky.
About a year ago I started watching Dexter on Showtime because of Michael C Hall from 6 feet Under. It's very dark and odd but very watchable. Out of curiosity I got the books that the show was based on and I really really enjoyed them. It's quirky and funny and made me LOL. The UCLA campus is there so lots of things around there. We were walking by this Mystery Bookstore when Jay sees a poster in the window that said that Jeff Lindsay the author of Dexter was going to be there that evening at 7. Of course we had to be at the theater at 7:15 or so. So I was disappointed but after we had supper we wandered back over there. When we got in there Jay talked with the owner and he was sure that Jeff would sign my book early and I could stay for some of the reading. So I bought the book and 5 minutes later the author walked in. The owner brought him over to me and we chatted for a few minutes. He's a hoot. He's as funny and quirky as his books. He signed my book, we stayed for 10 minutes of the reading which was hysterical. Jay couldn't understand why I enjoyed the books or the show but after the reading...he gets it. LOL.
The play was wonderful. Intense and emotional. The cast was strong. All great actors. Laurie Metcalf and Jo Beth Williams and Dennis (can't remember his name right now but a very recognized actor) were all wonderful. Scott played the character that was not very likable. He was rigid and unhappy but he did a great job. After the play we were the only ones that were waiting and since the show is in previews, the actors had to do notes. I guess one of the pages went and told Scott we were there cuz he came out quite quickly and talked with us for a little while. Got another picture autographed and a new picture taken. He's a very sweet man and claimed that he remembered me. I doubt it but it was nice of him to say.
Took us much less time to get back to the hotel than to go over there. It was a great day!!
October 6, 2007
Got up fairly early and Marsha arrived at 9. We headed over to Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park. The Saturday traffic was bad but we made pretty good time.
It’s quite a place. Right up my alley. We went to the planetarium show and that was interesting also. Plus its up high on the hills over LA and the view was quite something. We were there a couple of hours and then were off to get some lunch.
Marsha knows a nice restaurant that has southern food. Very nice. We had some very good food and I ate way too much.
Then we were off to see some of the sights. We went down to Hollywood and Vine, the Walk of Fame and Grouman’s Chinese Theater. Walked up the steps of the Kodak theater although they didn’t have the red carpet on there for me. Kind of rude, huh?
We drove by Paramount Studios and the Le Brea Tar Pits. Didn’t see much because it was closed already and too dark to see anything.
We went to have supper at a place called The Stinking Rose. It’s a garlic restaurant and it was wonderful. I have a weakness for garlic although it doesn’t like me as much as I like it. Plus I usually don’t indulge because I don’t want to inflict the people around me. But I felt free the other night. It was wonderful!!
Back to the hotel around 10. It was a great day. It was so nice of Marsha to come down and play tour guide. And not only that but she burned a DVD off her TiVo of the latest episode of Stargate Atlantis that we had missed.
October, 7, 2007
Up early, checked out of the hotel and got on the road to return the car at LAX by 7:30. There was hardly any traffic and we got there quite early. Returned the car, and got the shuttle to Terminal one of LAX.
We discovered that the cruise lines send people out to those areas to be sure that we get to the ships. So we found our cruise person about 45 minutes after we got there or rather she arrived then. We ended up getting the first bus out to Long Beach. Got an early check in and were onboard by 12:30. We couldn’t get into our room for a while so went up and had lunch and explored the ship a bit.
After the mandatory emergency drill, we came back to the room to find that most of the luggage had arrived. We unpacked and then went exploring again. Had dinner which was casual….thank goodness. We share a table with a nice couple but it’s a little odd sitting with people that you don’t know.
I was tired last night so didn’t do much other than go back to the room and watch some TV and go to bed.
October 8, 2007
I wanted to sleep in this morning but my back was hurting and I was up way too early. This morning all I’ve been doing is reading out on the balcony and catching up on my journaling as well as answering emails.
WiFi time is quite expensive here so I want to do most of my stuff off line. Then it won’t take me too long to just send it all once I’m logged on.
Now it’s time to get dressed and head out to get this stuff posted. Then it’s going to be reading and being lazy all day long.
We were invited there by a friend of Hubby's. It belong to his parents who are absolutely delightful people. There were 6 other adults, 5 children and 5 dogs there ....counting our Toby. It was quite a zoo. The kids were good. They spent most of their time in the water near the dock. Coco a chocolate lab spent most of his time in the water or encouraging someone to throw the tennis ball in the water so he could swim out to get it. Holly, an American "something", a white fluffy dog that use to be called Spitz. She is 8 years old and not interested in puppy behavior. Zoe, a schnauzer also 8 and not tolerant at all of puppies. Then there was Max a little peke cross puppy. He and Toby bonded quite well. Max had just been fixed at 4 months and Toby hasn't but they spent a lot of time trying to .............well.....I guess I don't need to go into that. But for about 8 hours those pups ran and played and chased each other.
We figured we had a water dog so we anxious to see what he would do near and in the water. But we were surprised to see that he wouldn't go in beyond just the very near shore shallows. Friend said that Coco was the same way so he took him out to the end of the dock and put him in the water. He swam back to shore but wasn't happy about it. Then Friends 11 year old daughter took him out to the end of the dock where she could stand. She held him and then let him swim and held him again. He did well but wasn't real amused with the whole process. The whole thing fell apart when Hubby put him in the water at the end of the dock and he swam under the dock and got half his body on the ladder there. And would NOT let loose. I was sitting on the dock and couldn't reach him on the ladder but he was shaking. So I pulled off my shoes and got into the water *up to my waist* and freed him of the ladder and headed him back to shore. That was the end of his swimming for the day. Our puppy who is suppose to like the water, is just not interested. Oh well.
We had such a nice time yesterday. It was surprising to me because I'm not very social but these people were quite nice and low key so it was fun. There were a few Gate fans so that was fun. And also Trek fans so that was always something to talk about.
I ate ALL day. And didn't have stomach problems last night. Not sure why but I was happy. It was non stop eating and drinking all day long.
The weather was perfect. About 76 there during the day. The sun was warm but not overwhelming. It got a little chilly towards evening. I was also amazed that the water was not that cold when I jumped in to save Toby.
We were ALL exhausted when we got home at 10.
The stress of the last few months is starting to settle or at least become incorporated into life. There was a week a couple of weeks ago that I thought I was actually losing it. I came very close to talking with my doctor about it. The temptation was to take one of Hubby's valium but I didn't do that either. I was stressing and fretting over everything. Things that made no sense...or made sense but I was stressed way beyond the real situation. I'm feeling much better now.
We quit Puppy School. We didn't like the philosophy of what she was teaching us. Some of it was good and we picked up some good hints. But her attitude toward us and the things that she thought we should do, was just too off of the way we think. So after 6 lessons, we just didn't go back to class 7 and we'll miss graduation which is class 8. BUT I have PSP so I can make Toby a graduation certificate and he'll be so proud. shhhhh don't tell him.
This is a 3 day weekend and I'm enjoying it. I was busy yesterday. We took Toby for a LONG walk yesterday using Cesar Milan's methods and that worked SO much better. But it was a good outing for all of us.
Then I put our new vertical blinds up yesterday with all the hassles that trying to do anything in the house. But I did get them up. Then I got 2 shelves built and put up. We took down the old entertainment center and put these up. Our TV is too big to put on these shelves so just needed something to put DVDs on.
So that is done. Today we take Toby to the lake and see if he goes nuts with the water. That dog seeks out any puddle of water to run through and play in. So we'll see how that goes.
We had some very hot weather again yesterday. But as is normal first part of September, it cooled of nicely by sunset. Today shouldn't be as hot.
This weekend, we are sitting in a bright brand new living room and dining room. We kind of went with different colors and 2 small walls in a solid color.
We think it looks pretty good.
They finished on Wednesday and it was so nice to have it done. They also brought in a couple of pieces of heavy furniture that I couldn't have handled by myself. I spent all Wednesday evening cleaning up a bit and getting some of the other pieces of furniture back into the house.
Hubby's back was bothering him again and we spent a pretty stressful day on Tuesday until we got it under control. His doctor ordered an MRI and he made and appointment to go back to PT and get some traction. He had that done on Wednesday morning and it worked wonders. He's still going to get the MRI though. Funny thing though, he got a call from our Occ Health department saying that he should see the Occ Health doctor. Apparently because it happened at work, they might cover it under Workmen's Comp. Interesting. So he's following the guidelines they are laying down.
The nurse that does Per Diem work offered to work for me Friday afternoon. So I took her up on it. I spent SIX hours cleaning yesterday afternoon. Finally after numerous washings the floors downstairs are clean, the stairs are clean and the house is clean again. It's wonderful to have a nice house again.
We were having some problems with our well this week. Mud totally clogged up the filter and the water pressure was next to nothing. We changed the filter and within a few hours it was all clogged up again. I have always been edgy about that well. We don't have many options if the thing goes dry. So it's always been a source of stress for me.
I think it must have been all the stress in the last 6 months because I totally freaked out about the well thing. I didn't sleep all that night and was just strung as tight as a drum. It was a horrible horrible feeling. I went for a long walk and it helped. I finally calmed down.
Water has been ok for the last couple of days. Not sure what stirred it up but it could happen again...who knows. I hope it's ok.
Lunch with the daughters, then we all went to visit Grandma. Nice afternoon. I bought a new set of verticle blinds for the living room. Those things are pricey. But we needed them. We've hated the ones that were on there before but never changed them. So in a month we'll have new and EXPENSIVE verticles.
I guess I expect too much from people. I expect that when they say something that they will do what they say. Apparently I need to lower my standards quite a bit.
Yes, I'm still talking about this construction in our living and dining room. He said that he'd be done on Friday and he probably could be except that two days he wasn't even here. We came home on Friday to find the couch STILL in the kitchen and what he did looks like he could have done it in an hour. I expected the texturing to be done but that wasn't even started.
So I called him. Oh he didn't get out to our place until late afternoon. Yes, he would come out first thing on Saturday to get the lighter texturing done. Yes, he would come back in the afternoon to finish it up so it would be dried on Monday at which time the painting would be done.
Saturday morning comes....no contractor. We called. Oh, he overslept very sorry about that. No, he couldn't come out because he had family things going on. Yes, he would be done by next Wednesday. Yes, he'll get the texture on come Monday. Yes, he's working a little thin because he took another job.
Met him in Fargo later in the afternoon to give him paint swatches for the color. Now, he will TRY and have the texturing done on Monday. Yes, he understands that we can't live in this mess because our house is quite small. Well, maybe it won't be done quite on Wednesday but it'll be close.
So I'm stewing about this. And after not sleeping well all weekend and having to go back to my very stressful job, I've decided to leave him a note tomorrow morning saying that we do expect the texturing to be done tomorrow and we'll not be home until 9 if he needs to work late. And if he absolutely can't finish it, we expect the ceiling to be done so the couch can be left in the living roo. We can't come home to find the couch in the kitchen again. We have to live here.
Friday night we got home and the stuff was still in front of my garage door. Moved that and parked my truck in the garage. Then we moved the couch out of the kitchen. Which was not easy. After he didn't show up on Saturday. We took up the drop cloths, swept the floor, damped mopped it, brought the TV, end tables and lamps in and we are using the living room. We also took off the plastic from the bay window and the patio so we could get some air circulation in here. I'll put that back up tonight ......just in case.
It's much more comfortable being down here even though our other stuff isn't in here.
We also decided to change the color of the living room. I wanted to change the green that we had in here but after looking at paint chips, we decided on blues. The kitchen is green and we have green upstairs so we're going with blue down here, which means new blinds for the windows and new patio blinds. We needed to get rid of the patio blinds anyway.
I'm hoping that this little entry will help me be less stressed but I'm not counting on it. I'm really having a problem with this. I think that contractors should be docked money for each day over the done date that they quote you when they want the job.
Yesterday they got the tile up in the laundry room and hallway and half done in the living room. Of course the more drywall they put up the more nice white powdery dust got all over the place. Not unexpected but uncomfortable. I have to say they are not being very clean about this whole thing. I expected that they would put plastic over the sheets we'd thrown on stuff like the TV and the couch but that didn't happen. I was a little disappointed.
Today we got home to find pieces of sheet rock in FRONT of our garage doors. So we opened the doors and moved the stuff inside. Then then I realized that inside the garage, in front of MY door. There were 40 lb buckets of texture material plus MANY tools. SOOO my truck is sitting outside tonight.
Then got inside the house and they had finished up the ceiling in the living room/dining room and had done the taping...nicely I might add. They had taped up the windows and patio door as well as outlets and thermostat so I assume they are going to texture tomorrow. However they moved the couch into the kitchen. I mean INTO the kitchen. We can't get near the sink, we can't get into the refrigerator or any of the cabinets. It's a good thing that we ate in Fargo before we came home.
If the couch is still in the kitchen tomorrow when we get home....I WILL be moving it back into the living room. I'm not going to live in that mess all weekend. We need some type of normalcy. I WANT MY HOUSE BACK.
We're sitting/lying on the bed up here watching TV. Not the most comfortable thing to do. I feel like we're living in a hotel and there is no restuarant or vending machines. :-(
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