Judy

Trip Tally

Wed, 18 Aug 10 17:04:00 UT

Days spent: 14
Miles driven: approx. 2925
States visited: 3
Loved ones visited w/overnight stay: 13
Others visited: 6
Others attempted to visit but failed: 2
Pets visited: 6 (2 dogs, 4 cats)
National parks & other outdoor wonders seen: 4
Weddings: 1
LA residents visited elsewhere: 2
Hotels stayed in: 2
Houses stayed in: 6
Longest time in one place: 3 days/nights
Furthest north: Seattle, WA
Furthest south: Home
Hugs given & received: too many to count
Fights witnessed/involved in: 1 (mostly between a dog and a cat)
State capitals driven through: 3 (2 of them twice)
State capitals visited: 1 (but no Arnie sightings)
Train adventures had: 2
Scoops of ice cream eaten: 6 (I think)

More on the trip

Thu, 12 Aug 10 17:40:00 UT

We did indeed head to Crater Lake. Crater Lake is a beautiful deep blue color. We drove the long way around the lake with many stops along the way to see the various sights. Included in the sights were islands in the lake, the highest point along the rim, and even some snow (just a little).

Then onward to Portland to see Eric, Jess, and Berit. Berit apparently doesn't like boys, but she took to LB just fine. While she seemed to get exasperated by him at times, I suspect that was all for show. After we arrived, we headed out for dinner at a southern restaurant. My blue cheese grits were amazing and the shrimp were good too. We chose to spend two nights in Portland so that we could visit longer and so we did, including a trip to the Portland Zoo on the second day.

That was Tuesday and Wednesday, I believe. On Thursday morning we headed north (and east) to visit Mt. St. Helens. As LB will certainly tell you, we didn't actually go to the mountain, but to the Johnston Observatory, which is the closest place you can drive to on the north side of the mountain-where the volcano collapsed in 1980. LB really wanted to see the volcano after he'd seen about it on TV. He enjoyed learning more about it on our visit.

After we left the volcano we headed to Seattle and got to my aunt's house. Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant. My entree was OK, but some of the other stuff that we had was quite good.

Friday we got a late start, but took LB to Pike Place Market to see some fish tossed (we saw just a little) and to have fish for lunch (he had fish and chips, I had chowder, Phil had a French Dip). Then it was back to Auntie M's house for me to do some laundry and Phil and LB to go off to the local park for some soccer and other fun. Eventually Phil and I headed out to a prenuptial dinner leaving LB in Auntie M's care. I was just a little apprehensive about the dinner, seeing friends and family of the groom (my ex boyfriend from college) who I hadn't seen for 17 years. But no need to worry, it was all good and I enjoyed getting to reconnect with them. The dinner was at a pretty cool place too-Fare Start (www.farestart.org).

Saturday was the wedding, but not until 2 pm so we had a slow start-Auntie M made a yummy breakfast and then we hung out at the house until it was time to go. Not surprisingly, it rained on the wedding, which took place at an outdoor garden-beautiful and wet. After the wedding, we headed back to the house, got changed and dried off, then Auntie M and I went off to a wine bar for more socializing with the wedding guests (some of them), while Phil and LB stayed back.

Sunday morning we got up reasonably early, packed the car, said thanks and goodbye to Auntie M and then headed to breakfast with Uncle Steve, Aunt Lorraine, James, and Jessie. It was nice to see them. After breakfast we headed for Portland, to make sure Phil got to his 5:30 flight on time. He did with no problem at all, in fact we had time to go visit Multnomah Falls before the airport. After dropping Phil and the airport, LB and I headed back to visit Jess and Berit (Eric was working out of town). The kids played together mostly nicely again.

Monday was a LONG day of driving-Portland, OR to Redding, CA a bit over 400 miles. Other than a quick bathroom break and then a lunch break, we went continuously. The Travelodge at Redding welcomed us back again.

Tuesday we left Redding and headed to Sacramento, at LB's request. While in Sacramento we visited the CA State Railroad Museum and the Capitol-no Arnie sightings though. From there we headed to Walnut Creek to see my cousin Marlo, her husband Kyle and daughter Maddie. I'd told LB that we would try to have ice cream so we headed to the Old SF Creamery for dinner where dinner and ice cream was had by all. Maddie and LB continue to get along great and enjoy playing together, although it meant that when we tried to sleep them in the same room, they didn't sleep and I had to finally move LB to the guest room with me. This was a really good visit and Marlo and Kyle were wonderful hosts.

Wednesday morning we headed for Fresno (a less than 3 hour drive) and arrived at Jim and Chris' house. Since then we've been hanging out with them, and also got to see TJ. We've played Wii, eaten ice cream (again), taken the dog for a nice long walk, played some soccer, played board games, played a card game, and enjoyed their hospitality.

Tomorrow morning we'll head for home, and plan to be there probably around midday or early afternoon.

All in all this has been a good trip, we've seen interesting stuff, gotten to see many good people, and have had some downtime too. I have mixed feelings about its end. I'll be happy to see Phil again, and to sleep in my own bed, but the vacation has been good.

The trip so far

Mon, 2 Aug 10 21:34:00 UT

We've set off on a family adventure. Mostly for my own recollection, but here's the details so far.

Friday afternoon we left for parts north. Although there was traffic, we headed north on the 101 to the 154 to Santa Ynez, we made decent time.

We spent the evening and night with long time family friends and I enjoyed it thoroughly. David and Linda were gracious hosts, of course. It was good to see them again.

Saturday morning we headed out for Santa Cruz. We made good time getting up there. We met up with Jen and Shelly and headed out to the Roaring Camp railroad. Once there we rode a steam train up into the redwoods. It was pretty, very very pretty. Jen and Shelly are friends with the conductor on the train so LB got some special treatment including getting to help operate the switch on one section of track. They were having a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine that day, but LB didn't seem terribly interested, it did make for more difficult parking and lots of people, but we survived.

After the train ride we headed to Shelly's place for just a little while and then down to the Santa Cruz boardwalk. It was PACKED with people, and I was almost immediately overwhelmed, especially with having to keep track of LB among all the people. LB was allowed to choose two rides to go on, but once we got into one, he decided that he wanted me to ride it with him instead of him going on the second ride. After the ride, we wandered down to the water's edge and he splashed around a bit. He enjoys the beach a lot, too bad I don't, especially not the hot sun's going to burn me immediately ones in So. Cal.

After the beach we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was getting pretty late so we headed to Jen's house to call it a night.

We got up the next day (Monday) and headed out, up the 1 to the 17 to the bay area. Sunday was the day of missed connections. It turns out that Phil's friend was not able to free up time to see us, so we headed towards Lassen National Park. It took us a bit out of our way, but it was beautiful. We tried to meed up with Amy and Jeff in Lassen, but it seemed that we missed them. As I said, the day of missed connections. We hung out near the lake for a while, went for a very short hike, and then headed back to Redding for the night. We hoteled overnight in Redding and then headed out in the morning for Medford, OR. It was a pretty short drive through some gorgeous scenery including Mt. Shasta. We made it to Medford, got checked into our hotel, and then made use of their pool and spa. After that we attempted to find food in Medford, failed, and then went to Jacksonville and almost failed to find food there too. But eat we did, and then we HAD to stop at Coldstone on the way back to the hotel too. Now, LB has FINALLY gone off to sleep.

Tomorrow we head for Portland by way of Crater Lake (America's deepest lake, and a closed ecosystem). I'm looking forward to hopefully cooler temps as we head to the lake and then to the coast.

And that was that.

Our trip in photos

Thu, 1 Apr 10 17:40:00 UT

LB and I recently went on a short spring break trip.

Night 1

Day 1

Night 2

Night 3

and

Day 3

Night 4

Note: I planned to do this and just happened to post on 4-1, but I thought it would be funny to post this as our trip record.

Tea and rain and cops and robbers and rain

Mon, 18 Jan 10 14:18:00 UT

Had a delightful tea yesterday with the tea society and associated guests. We went to the Biltmore in downtown LA and a number of our group wore period dresses. We were asked by no less than two groups about what the occasion for our group was, and they were delighted to hear that we just do this because we enjoy each others company and dressing up. I, given the weather and lack of appropriate clothing for this time period, opted not to get dressed up. I can safely say that I was neither the best nor worst dressed person having tea at the Biltmore that day-we saw everything from jeans to "sunday best" come through the room that day.

It was raining as we headed out for tea and continued to rain the entire time.

I carpooled with Elizabeth and on the way back we got a call from her husband who was home with the two kids (4 months and almost 4 years). Apparently the police had cordoned off their neighborhood. When we got there it was still closed off. We got to hang out and chat in the coffee shop 1 block from their house. An hour and a half later than our intended arrival time, we were able to get back into the neighborhood. It was nice to be able to sit and chat with her, but at the same time, an unintended extended time away from home was not what the baby or dad needed. Turned out that a robbery had occurred a few blocks north of their house and the unarmed suspect had fled into their neighborhood. They had the police dog out looking and so wouldn't let people into or out of the area.

This made me about 1.5 hours late to pick LB up from the house where he was hanging out with dad, but he didn't complain. While he was hungry, there was a Wii there with the Star Wars Lego game for him to play with so he was happy.

Today continues to be full of the wet. I love the rain. And we have found that the new house does not seem to have leak problems at all. YAY! It does have gutters that need some work, but we're surviving the rain just fine.

Purge

Sun, 8 Nov 09 08:19:00 UT

...but in a good way.

Yesterday I went through much teaching stuff and tossed a LOT. We filled up our gray recycle bin. For those of you who've seen it, it's a pretty big one. I decided that I didn't really need all those printouts of student grades and lesson plans going back to the dawn of time. I'm in a place where I'm likely to stay for a long time, so the previous stuff can all go bye bye. Much of it is stuff that I have on my computer anyway.

The added benefit of this is that it freed up a bunch of boxes. I have asked Trader Joe's to save me some boxes as well, and they will, so that should also be quite helpful.

In the purge, I saved a bunch of hanging file folders. If anyone needs hanging file folders, please let me know, I have plenty to give away.

In addition to the teaching stuff purge, I also went through some old boxes of stuff, boxes that I did not unpack from the LAST move in 2001. While there was definitely some stuff that I needed to keep-childhood music box, hand tatted doily, lion puppet that I made in elementary school, there was also a bunch of stuff that I was more than happy to part with, so it was a win there too.

Now I have to continue that purging momentum and get my office dealt with.

Thankfully I have packing help coming in about a week so I can focus on the purging rather than the packing. YAY!!

Right now it looks like we have a move date of Nov. 25. Yes, I do realize that this is the day before Thanksgiving. I have that day off AND it means that we'll be able to settle in during the long weekend. This isn't set in stone, but I'm pretty sure it's doable, as long as all the work gets scheduled in a timely manner.

Any crossed fingers, speedy wishes, etc. are appreciated.

Updatey

Thu, 5 Nov 09 18:09:00 UT

It's been a while.

Quick update-we have the house, we're doing repairs/fixing up. We HOPE to move in this month.

It's hard to do all this in addition to raising a child and working full time.

The following people have been spoken to on the phone in the past 45 minutes:

painter #2 - got estimate
painter #3 - answer clarifying questions and got promise of e-mail estimate tonight
carpet ordering person x 3 (1. get quote, 2. order carpet, 3. get correct credit card # oops)
wiring guy's assistant (trying to reach wiring guy)
wiring guy (check in & answer clarifying questions)

ETA: and my mom and dad too.

Now I'm pooped. I think it's time for dinner.

Well folks...

Sat, 8 Aug 09 09:26:00 UT

...It looks like we're buying a house. There's still a LOT that can go wrong with this sale, but we have opened escrow. Any karma, thoughts, wishes of the positive kind that you can send our direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

More details to come if things progress as we hope they will.

Oh, and BTW, HOLY SHIT is this finally actually going to happen and OMG do I really have to pack all of this crap?!? There needs to be some MAJOR culling of the crap though.

Prokofiev

Fri, 10 Jul 09 11:25:00 UT

Wow, I looked it up, and discovered that I spelled Prokofiev correctly the first time. That's what happens when it's not in English, it's spelled how it sounds!!! How original, what a brilliant idea.

OK, I'm done now, and here's the actual entry...

I received an e-mail on Monday from one of my mom friends, the one who plays oboe for the LA Phil. She said that she could get tickets for the Tuesday night concert at the Hollywood Bowl where they'd be showing a Peter and the Wolf movie and the orchestra would play along with the movie live. He husband and kids were going to attend and that if anyone was interested they had room for 3 more in the car and could get tickets as well.

LB has been up and down with sickness and the concert was scheduled for 8 pm. I e-mailed her and told her that we were interested but that we might have to cancel if LB wasn't feeling so good or whatever.

We were the only ones interested (most said their kids didn't stay up that late) and so she got tickets for us and let me know that they'd even come pick us up at our house, we were pretty much on their way, but it was still awfully nice of them.

On Tuesday, LB went to camp as usual, but I told him that if we were going to the concert he needed a nap. After camp we came home and he took a nap, just fine-he had said that he really wanted to go to the concert.

While he was napping, I made some cookies to bring with; I love that you can have food at the bowl.

He woke up from his nap, we had dinner, I made some hot chocolate (I love my hot chocolate maker too-dump in milk and all the other ingredients, turn it on and it mixes and heats if for you.), packed up the cookies, and got picked up and headed out.

The program was all Prokofiev and started with some selections from Romeo and Juliet, then we got a piano concerto, then intermission, then Peter and the Wolf and then the finale, one piece from Romeo and Juliet accompanied by fireworks.

During the first R&J, LB asked if this was Peter and the Wolf, and as I listened, the main melody line was VERY reminiscent of P&TW, with a few changed notes.

He and Nolan played with toy cars relatively quietly during most of the first half of the concert, but they did sit and watch some. We got to see Marion (the kid's mom) on the big screens which was neat for all the kids.

Peter and the Wolf was an Oscar winning short film from 2006 (won the Oscar in 2008) and I thoroughly enjoyed it and the musical accompaniment. I'm sure if we were sitting right on top of the orchestra the timing would have been perfect, instead if was a bit delayed, but it was still well matched and well done. I didn't realize the movie was an Oscar winner until I looked it up today for this entry.

The finale was the Montague and Capulet movement from R&J with fireworks, as all M&C interactions should have, right?!? The fireworks were so well done with the music. It was wonderful.

LB very much enjoyed the evening and says he wants to go back to the Hollywood Bowl again.

I too enjoyed the evening, which was made even more enjoyable by the free tickets, free and convenient parking, and ride to the bowl. And sharing cookies and cocoa was an added benefit.

Tooting my horn, just a little

Fri, 3 Jul 09 11:36:00 UT

So many negative thoughts from me lately, or so it seems to me. Here's something positive.

Here is an article that made me smile.

Heven was my student this past year in Physics. She is a great kid and I'm thrilled that she got the opportunity to come to B-wood.

Lucky?

Tue, 30 Jun 09 17:21:00 UT

LB and I went on a (minor) outing to the library and for ice cream this afternoon. We also happened into Old Navy and bought him some new PJ's (summer ones) and a new swim shirt.

On the way back to the car, we stopped in front of the library to look at the clover that were growing and getting quite large. I found a four leaf one. I hope that means my luck will turn around. I could use some better luck right about now.

11 years and counting

Sun, 28 Jun 09 17:22:00 UT

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the day that Greg and Aaron "borrowed" a golf cart and went touring around a country club in it. I wonder if that day is as important and meaningful to them as it is to me and MY partner in crime.

(Happy Anniversary Honey!!)

House

Sun, 10 May 09 14:00:00 UT

We're putting in an offer on a house. It's feeling like a long shot that we'll get it. There are multiple offers on it and it's bank owned. All offers are due by noon Monday. And then I have NO idea how long it'll take until we have an answer.

Any good vibes you can spare to send our way would be appreciated.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thu, 27 Nov 08 09:18:00 UT

I'm here to wish all of you a wonderful day with your loved ones. If you cannot be with your loved ones today, I hope that sometime soon you can be.

Now I'm going to go make some cranberry sauce. YUM!!

I can't even think of a good title for this

Wed, 5 Nov 08 08:44:00 UT

I have remained quiet for the most part this election season. To me, my vote is personal and not something that I advertise and generally discuss. So much so that even though I teach at a school that leans very heavily the same way that I lean, when asked who I was voting for for president by students, I declined to state. When LB asked me I had to force myself to tell him, because I think it's important for him to hear it and also to understand why.

Today I find myself alternating between pissed off and extremely upset. How can my fellow Californians actually vote bigotry into our constitution?

I don't know if an amendment to the constitution can be repealed, or how that works, but I have the following idea for a bumper sticker:

I am not a bigot.
Are you?
Repeal Prop. 8 NOW!

My sister, my brother-in-law, my friends, my colleagues, I'm truly sorry that the majority of Californians appear to have voted to put bigotry into the California constitution.