Christmas Tree (Continued)

Well I just put up the Christmas Tree in the living room. It looks so good. There were 4 sections and I had to place the bottom in the tree holder and remove the giant red twisty hehe. All the branches are on these metal wires that fall down when you remove the twisty tie, it's really cool. I haven't had a christmas tree for a very long time. It took awhile to fluff it up but I got all 4 sections together and fluffed and it looks awesome. Now all we need to do is put the decorations on it. We got these shiny balls from the dollar store (they were actually $2) green and red and silver that look like little disco balls hehe. They are plastic so they wont break which is really good. I like decorations that I don't have to worry about getting stuck in the arch of my foot. We also have a bunch of Megs decorations that she used on her tree. As I said in my last blog about Christmas tree, were going to put candy canes on it and I'm going to crochet some decorations. It will be so nice.

Christmas Tree

We are supposedly going to go to Sears and buy a pre-lit fake christmas tree. The last time I had a Christmas tree I was 19 years old and my neighbors in the apartment building who were all gang members asked me to give them my tree with all decorations and I said no and they threatened me and so what else could I do? I gave it to them. So this will be my first tree in 18 years. I had no idea when I was 19 years old that I'd have to wait 18 years to get another tree. I can't wait to get it. We have some old decorations from our friend Meg from when she passed away, nobody wanted her Christmas ornaments so we took them. Also Opal has some decorations and ornaments which we can dust off and use. I'm just afraid that they are too fragile. I'm also going to be crocheting some snowflakes for the tree so all is not lost. I want to also make those little mini christmas stockings to hang on the tree branches with little mini candy canes inside them. That should be cute. I will have to put those instructions in my crafts section here.

Julia Lanier

Our dear friend Julia Lanier passed away this morning at around 2am. She was a friend of Chips mom for years and when Opal passed away in 2004 Chip began a friendship with Julia to help fill the void left when Opal passed (void for both of them). Chip and Julia talked just about every day on the telephone. She would call when there was a news story that she thought he would enjoy watching on TV and vice versa.

Chip used to take the bus over to her house and drive her to her doctors appointments with her car. Or he would just go with her and she would drive her own car. About 4 months ago when we got our car he brought a little foldable step ladder because a ford explorer is a bit high for a woman in her late 80's and he was going to bring her to her doctors appointment but ended up taking her to the emergency room instead. She was admitted into the hospital and was there for probably 2 weeks.

He visited her on a daily basis, sometimes 2 or 3 times per day, early in the morning, noon time and dinner time. The doctor released her to go into a nursing facility called Californian Care on Mt. Vernon Ave. She stayed there until she passed away this morning.

Julia didn't want anybody to do anything special for her after she died. No obituary, no headstone, no funeral at all. She will be cremated and put in an urn in the same plot as her husband. Because there is no headstone the only way someone will be able to visit her gravesite is if they go to the office and say hey, where is she? Then of course they will have to escort you there. Anyway, she is in a much better place (as they always say, but it's true).

Nintendo 64

I've been hinting around that I want a new game system preferably a handheld one. I would ideally like to get a Playstation portable (PSP) but those are so expensive right now. Or an x-box or something. Well, I have a N64 but I only have 1 game and its boring to just have 1 game so I went to ebay tonight looking at prices and found 2 n64 games really cheap and bought them along with a PC game for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone which maybe I can install on the laptop and play that in the living room. Maybe some day I will have the money for a cool new gadget but until then I will start buying n64 games.

Our Visit in San Diego

As you know we went to San Diego on Saturday morning / Friday night at around 2:30am November 16/17 2007 and we came home on Wednesday the 21st the day before Thanksgiving. We wanted to go early because Chip had appointments on Tuesday and Friday but he canceled the Tuesday one to stay until wednesday and I wanted to come home on Tuesday because of our cat. I only left her enough food and water to last a few days and when we came home her food dish and water was empty. She has the type of water dish that is like an arrowhead bottle. I don't know how many ounces of water it holds but it's not that much. If we were able to stay longer we would've but we couldn't. It's a shame we weren't there on Thanksgiving day. But while we were there we went to Sea World, San Diego Zoo and we also went to the San Diego natural history museum and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I am going to work on those videos soon today if I can so I can get them on YouTube for all to enjoy. I took lots of pictures while I will have to scale down for the website. I mentioned in my previous blog about the buttons. What a trip that was. Chip also encountered his own wierd moment too. When he was a kid he had this desk in his bedroom, it was a really huge desk too and so anyway I guess when he left the nest he supposedly took it with him and somewhere along the way it got lost. Chip mentioned that his mom asked him about it many times before she passed on and he felt so guilty about losing it. Well while we were there Chips brother was showing him around the property and showed him this shed and inside the shed there was a huge desk and this was the desk that Chip thought he had lost. Apparently his brother had gotten it at some point. So all is well and he doesn't have to feel guilty anymore.

Box of Buttons

When I was 19 years old I asked my mom for a button and she went into her sewing kit and pulled out a little clear box with a pink lid filled with many different types of buttons that she has collected over her lifetime and she handed it to me. I dumped it out onto the table and looked for the button I needed and put it all back and she told me to keep it because you never know when you are going to need a button. So I took it and I had it for many years.

When we lived in Hollywood we had this neighbor named Meg and one day between 1994 and 1999 I don't remember when, Chip gave this box to her without my permission. He didn't realize that this box of buttons, as insignificant as it may seem, meant a lot to me because it was my moms box of buttons. I felt like I couldn't ask for it back because I don't ask for a gift back after it was given. So basically, I lost it forever. Meg passed away in 2000 soon after we moved to Bakersfield and when we went to her house it had been ransacked and I never saw the box again.

Today we left Butch and Junes house (we came to visit early before Thanksgiving and came home today) and just before we left I went upstairs to see their tenants room that they are renting and as I was going down the stairs after looking at it I noticed this little box sitting on a shelf by the door. I went over to Chip and asked him if he gave my box of buttons to June and he said no and I said I just saw my box and so I walked over to the door and opened it and grabbed the box and opened it to find it was filled with buttons. Chip asked June where she got it and she said that she got it from the motel (they own some motels in San Diego as well as all over the United States). What that means to me is that the "friends" of Meg's who ransacked her house when she died took my box of buttons and one day they were in San Diego and just so happened to have stayed at Butch and Junes motel and accidentally left the box and it ended up in the lost and found and June just so happened to take it home.

The box found me! After all these years it found me. I firmly believe it too. What are the chances that I would ever see this box again? Here is a picture of the box. By the way, before Chip gave it to Meg I was bored one day and I had this sticky foil paper that you put over a book, it's book covers in the mid 90's and it is the type that when you look at the silver part it has colors and they printed it black with the silver flower outlines.  The top piece didn't stick so I glued it on and the sides didn't stick so I used clear packing tape and sure enough this has all that on it.  It is in fact my box that Chip gave to Meg.

San Diego

We are still in San Diego. Saturday we visted Sea World and today we went to the San Diego Zoo. We will be home on Wednesday and I will post the videos on YouTube.

Soy Cappuccino

When we got home from running errands I wanted so bad to make a cappuccino and we didn't have any milk. But I had some Soy Milk and I thought hmmmmm, I wonder. So I poured the soy milk in the milk thingy and made it like I always do and viola. It doesn't taste any different. In fact it kinda tastes a little better because the soy milk is vanilla flavored.

Early Thanksgiving

We are going to be in beautiful San Diego this weekend to spend an early Thanksgiving with Chips brother and his family. We have to do it early because Chip has appointments that he cannot break on Tuesday and Friday so it makes spending Thanksgiving on the actual holiday difficult. I think we are going to be able to go visit Sea World and of course Tijuana. What fun!

Reynolds Handi-Vac

Last night I saw a commercial for Reynolds Handi-Vac vacuum sealer. It's a new, cheaper way of storing food in the freezer. You've seen the infomercials for those food vacuums where you put something in the bag, hold the end up to the sealer and it sucks all the air out then it burns the bag so it seals then cuts it. Those things can cost anywhere from $100 - $300 depending on the type you buy. Well, the new Reynolds Handi-Vac is very small. You fill these ziplock bags with your food then zip it closed then put the machine on the air valve and press the button and it sucks the air out. When you need to open the bag to get something out of it you can then seal it again. Their website said that it's best if you just throw them out when done because they are disposible but I have a wierd feeling that they wont last too long so I'm gonna save the bags hehe. I bought the machine plus a box of 9 gallon size bags. I've been filling them up with everything, rice, espresso grounds, baby carrots, ham, spam and steak haha. I'm done for the night lol.

Huge Coffee Cups

About a month ago we were at Albertson's and I saw they had these huge coffee mugs in the coffee section and I can't remember but I think they were cappuccino cups. We've been using them for many things like soup bowls, cereal bowls, huge coffee cups which I can never finish without spilling hehe. So tonight Chip said that he wanted a cappuccino (cause we have a cappuccino maker now) so I thought I wonder, instead of using the regular coffee mugs if I should just use the big ones and do a full pot for him and a full for me. So I did and that was such a good idea. I have so much energy lol. I'm AWAKE!

Back Up And Running

Ok I finally got my website back up and running. I was having problems with the horizontal line (candy cane above and under this entry) but I got it all figured out finally. I had to go into "photo shop" to move the icing in the background so it's wider so I can fit all the text in that space. The christmas bulbs were making it too big. It's all good now hehe.

Disappearing Act

My website disappeared tonight (Monday 11/12/07) because I deleted it all to start fresh so I could remove some unwanted things but it backfired and eventually it all got put back. Except there are some pages, lots of pages in fact that are missing. I haven't converted those yet to the gingerbread theme. I'm still working on that so as soon as I am finished it will be back. Thank you for your patience.

Too much work

I knew I had a lot of work to do on my website when I decided to change the theme but I had no idea I had so many pages to change. And I'm gonna have to go through this again after Christmas when I put in a new theme hehe.

Boring Work

Working on this website is making me fall asleep so I'm going to stop doing it for today. I got a lot done but not all of it. So anyway, the old pages are still in the navigation so there aren't any drastic changes. I will work more on it later or tomorrow.

Gingerbread Theme

I just bought a Christmas theme for my website (As you can see the Gingerbread theme) so this will be my Christmas theme. I will still be looking for a regular theme that I will use after the holidays are over.  I've only made the front page with this theme so far but I will be working on the rest of my website later.  It's going to be a job to get it all done hehe.

Theme-Pak

I am on the search for a new theme for my website. If you would like to help me in my search go to www.theme-pak.com (I use FrontPage) and look through all of their themes (or choose a category) and email me to tell me what you think I should make my theme. Make sure it is one of the themes that are $14.95 because I like the ones that are connected like this one. If I like it I will buy it and tell people that you told me to get it. Use the Email Me button in the menu to let me know what you think. Make sure you tell me who you are otherwise I won't know who to give the credit to.

My SparkPage

I have created a blog for My SparkPage (in the menu) so when I weigh in I can then blog to say what the weight is and/or how I feel and how the week went.

3D Cookie Cutters

I bought these 3D cookie cutters from Publishers Clearing House even though I knew I couldn't bake cookies but now I can WOOHOO! So now I can make some cookies for Christmas. I might even make them as Christmas presents. There are several different shapes like snowman and a christmas tree etc. I'll have to get a picture for the crafts section when I make them.

The Use Of Our Oven

We haven't had the use of a stove since we moved into Opals house after she passed away and so Chip decided that he wanted to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving instead of going out like we always do so he bought a package of cookies to bake. Well, I turned the oven on to 350degrees and it works. It's an electric oven but it seems to work fine. See, we haven't touched it because it's an old oven, it hasn't been turned on in 30 years. But it seems to be ok. Although, perhaps I'm talking too soon... Prepare for an edit to this post haha.