brrrr...

Tons of rain, AND I had to turn the heater on! Bring on fall!

First Heals

The princess got her first pair of heals this month. She's got a pretty black dress that she'll wear for concerts, and these shoes were made to wear with them! She doesn't have tiny, little feet anymore either...I think these are a size 7.

Emelia Update

Try not to be jealous, but Emelia came over to meet me tonight. She loves me! She's a beautiful baby, and I got to hold her for a good 20 minutes. See...you're jealous!

By the way, her parents would like me to quit my job and take care of her and her big brother when Mommy goes back to work. Tempting...

After starting a new diet I altered my drive to work to avoid passing my favorite bakery. I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning, and as I approached, there in the window were a host of goodies. I felt this was no accident, so I prayed ... "Lord, it's up to you, if you want me to have any of those delicious goodies, create a parking place for me directly in front of the bakery." And sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, there it was!

Edwin Update

Edwin's real name is Emelia, and Connor--big bro--doesn't even care to go into the house when she's in there! Yikes, gonna be a long fall for my neighbors!

New Baby Sister

Our neighbors were expecting a baby recently. The baby's big brother, who is 2 1/2, had the perfect named picked out for the baby. His baby sister arrived this week, and he insists on calling her EDWIN!

Poetry

You may have noticed that I haven't posted much about the princess lately. It's not that I don't like her, it's just that the biggest news in her world is the braces she got a couple of weeks ago. I'm not ALLOWED to post anything remotely related to braces so she's not been in our news lately.

However, today she became a published author, and this I will share. Last fall she wrote a poem (all the 5th graders did) in her Language class. The teacher sent their poems into a poetry contest, and she--along with several of her classmates--had her poem chosen to be published in the "Young American Poetry Digest." The book arrived today, and she'll be very excited to see it tomorrow when she gets home from the birthday party she is at; a birthday party that started when they were picked up after school in a LIMO!!!

This is her poem, written in the Diamond Form style.

Summer and Winter

By The Princess, Age 11

Summer,

Fiery, sweaty,

Swimming, playing, biking,

Leaves start to fall and snowflakes call--

Shoveling, sledding, bundling,

Frigid, Freezing,

Winter

And then there were two...

The prince's guy was injured tonight and then had to leave the game. Bummer.

Final California Photos

After our time in San Francisco, we drove along Highway 1 back to San Jose. It's a beautiful route that runs along the ocean. These photos are from that drive.

Survivor Samoa

I know you were probably thinking we must have given up on Survivor since I hadn't mentioned the premier of the new season on Thursday. We were busy, busy, busy. But all three of our people survived the first round of eliminations so PHEW! Here are our "winners" for this season's show, and we know, we know...none of us has a hope of winning. I've got Russel, who could win except that he was already voted team leader, and leaders never last. The prince has got Mike, the "old" guy. And the princess has Monica, "the pretty young thing." Bring it on!

Ships and Alcatraz

The ships are part of a maritime museum at the wharf in San Francisco. We did not go on any of them, just admired them from the outside.

That's the Bay bridge in the distance. We were not able to drive over it (it's a double decker bridge for those of you not familiar with it) because they had found a stress fracture in it earlier in the week so it was closed for repairs.

That's Alcatraz in the distance.

The smaller, white building is an aquatics club. Swimmers start on the sandy beach there and swim to where I was standing. Brrr...

The Agony and Defeat

Remember the old "Wide World of Sports" show with "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat"?

That's kind of how Homecoming went with the Defeat coming when our opponent stomped all over us (though it was a little expected as it became their 25th win in a row).

The Agony came when the Homecoming Dance was cancelled early Friday when the powers that be decided they hadn't sold enough tickets to make it worth their while.

Still, the prince had a good time with his friends enjoying the various festivities that have taken place this week. Go Falcons!

Cable Cars and the Streets of San Francisco

I thought San Francisco was really cool. Tons of atmosphere and cool architecture. It's a big city but to me it had the charm of "neighborhoods" with grocery stores, shops, and restaurants on many of the street corners. Those cool houses were mixed into areas with modern buildings. It was a place I'd like to spend a few days in.

Check out the cool architecture on this building.

Parking looks to be at a premium here.

Hyde Street...think Hyde Park and the "sex, drugs, and rocknroll" era of the 60's.

Taken from a moving car, but I think you get the idea of the hills.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday on Saturday.

Have one on us!

The Golden Gate Bridge

As we drove toward the bridge, it was very foggy.

I didn't think I'd get any good pictures of the it.

Driving over the bridge.

As you can see, it was crystal clear on this
side of the bridge so my photos were fine.

Love this shot of 1/2 the bridge in the fog.

Beautiful me by the beautiful bridge.

It (we) really is a marvel.

How to Properly Use Your Scale

And to think, I've been doing it wrong all this time!

Wayne's World-Excellent-Party On Dude!

Today, during "spirit" week for homecoming, it was 80's day. The prince got up extra early so we could use 1/2 a bottle of gel, hairspray, and hair glue (I LOVE hair glue--it's the coolest thing) to get his hair to do this! Party on, Dude!

Nice Girls Can Finish First!

Congratulations to Jordan, last night's winner of Big Brother 11! She and Jeff proved that you can be "nice" and still win! She won the 1/2 million dollars, and he won $25,000 as America's favorite player. Why? Because he's nice! And cute! Yippee! I loved this season!

Homecoming Madness!

It's suppose to be 87* on Friday for the Homecoming Game! We'll forgo the parade and whatnot, though the prince will be enjoying all the festivities (Today is "western" day, and I'm not sure what he'll be wearing, but he's already talking about how much hairspray it'll take to glam up his hair for 80's day tomorrow. Perfect since he's all into 80's rock!) but plan to take in the game in the evening.

I sound just like a high schooler, don't I? It's like I'm right back there, except I don't have an algebra test tomorrow and I'm not struggling with Spanish I! It's the best of both worlds for me.

The prince did meet with his counselor yesterday and found out that even though he's college-bound he doesn't HAVE to have 2 years of a foreign language. It can be replaced by 2 years of computers or visual/performing arts! Phew! He's already taking a computer class so will probably keep heading in that direction though if I were him, I'd take the easy A in choir for two years. The boy CAN sing!

Faithful readers of my blog--I know there are about 10 of you out there--might also sometimes read blogs (I call it blog-stalking) on my blog list. That's okay. That's why it's there. My friend, MB, posted a story about a run-in while driving that she had with a spider recently. Yikes! I had no similar story to tell, but I provide the link in case you want to be amused (I hope that's okay with her...I didn't ask her first. She's one of those faithful readers so I'm sure I'll hear from her if it isn't.)

http://thefouros.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Now, having read her story, I must tell you about Jeanette--since I'm posting photos from my trip to see her and all. Prior to my coming to see her, she was working in her mom's backyard and came upon a couple of nests of bees who were not happy to share the back yard with her. She worked really hard to get rid of them--several cans of bee spray were required--but she had the back yard all ready when I arrived with nary a bee to be found. Occasionally she would find a bee or two in the general vicinity, and she was pretty sure they were stalking her, but she had no proof.

On the day that I was leaving for the airport, one of those vengeful bees found her, while she was driving me to the airport!! The rest is her story (she's a much better writer than I am, and I did get permission from her before posting it--sorry MB!!)

I just returned from a most traumatic trip to the San Jose airport. Without incident I managed to pick up my friend at her hotel for a quick breakfast before her flight home. Within moments of hitting the road though an evil creature flew into my car!! Yes, it's true! A wasp/hornet sentry finally tracked me down a few miles from the house where I sprayed the nests and wiped out the work crew. I give 'em credit for perseverance....I did not, however, grant an extension on its life! My noble friend whipped out her wallet and started beating me with it in an effort to kill the creature. Now mind you I'm STILL driving during all of this. As each light turned green I'd have to stop her as she was leaned across my lap trying to smack it to death. Once we thought she got it, but it was only playing dead! In fact, it stung me after the first fake death. Thus, my noble friend beat me again with her coin-heavy wallet.... and finally the creature stopped twitching. That is life in CA. Of course, I could have told you that in addition to the 5am wake-up calls on Fri/Sat for the yard sale we also had fun exploring Monterey, San Francisco, Pacifica, and Davenport....but anybody could travel around CA...not everyone gets hunted down at 40mph by a flying sentry and lives to tell the story!

Monteray Bay, CA

Our plan was to go on a whale-watching tour, but as we pulled into the parking lot, Jeanette got a call saying the tour was cancelled due to rough seas. We took a bay tour instead. Not quite as cool, but it served it's purpose to get us out on the water and to see some "sea life".

My partners in crime and good friends

Jeanette and Commando Potter.

(Yes, there's a story there, but I'm not sharing.)

Sea Lions and birds...they cohabitate. All the sea lions and otters you'll see (I can't tell the difference but Jeanette can and will be very disappointed that I couldn't) in these photos are males under the age of 5. The females stay further south where it's warmer as they have less body fat. The adult males are currently down south since it's mating season. What you are seeing are the young males, and from what I could tell, it's like one big frat party. They are loud, stinky, and lay around a lot!

This area used to be cannery row, where sardine canning was the main-stay of the economy here in the early days. Today it's all about the tourist dollars and many of these canneries are being turned into shops, restaurants, and condos.

Otter in the water.

You can also see lots of sea kelp--which we got to hold.

Slimy and rubbery and great for your skin.

The Bay

Skyview beats Senior

What's a mom to do when she and her husband graduated from Senior, but the children go to Skyview? Well, duh...you root for Skyview! It is easy to root for Skyview any other night, but last night they played Senior. Still, I must admit I'm a little giddy at the win! Those boys played some good ball. And the quarterback is only a junior! Go Skyview!!

http://www.billingsgazette.com/app/videos/?id=6115122

Recent Trip To California

I was lucky enough to get to go to CA last week to visit my friend, Jeanette, meet up with our friend, Laura, and pull off a two-day garage sale for Jeanette. Jeanette will tell you she worked us hard, but in truth it was a laughter-filled week that I would repeat in a heartbeat. When not working HARD, Jeanette was a great tour guide. I love northern California. Who knew? The best of everything...beaches and mountains. I'll post more pictures in the coming days, but this will get the anticipation building.

Gilroy, CA is the garlic capitol of the world.

You can smell the garlic as you drive down the interstate.

Garlic Field

Sand dunes near Monteray, CA.


A cool hang-glider taking off.

There he goes!

The pier at Monteray, CA.

Sea lions--they blend in with the pier,

but can you see them on the left side of the pier?

Not to worry, I'll post better photos later.

These guys were very noisy and,

dare I say it, quite stinky!

Cute shops at the pier and a cool clock.

That white blob is a jelly fish.

I've gotta get a better camera!