A one time event... or the beginning of another revolution?

When I talked to my Mom on Sunday she mentioned that one of the things they are doing this week is participating in a TEA Party... wait, what did you just say?! My mom?! Participating in a TEA Party?! GO MOM! (In this case "TEA" stood for "taxed enough already.) For more info on the BOSTON Tea Party, go here: Wikipedia

So, here are some interesting statistics about paying taxes... this year, 2009, most of us will work until April 23 before we are free of our annual tax burden. Meaning, the money we make between Jan 1 - April 23 all goes to pay off our individual tax bill. After that we're working for ourselves... finally. According to The Tax Foundation we're paying more in taxes this year than we will spend on housing, food and clothing combined. This is amazing to me (AND a little disturbing) ... more details on their website.

And for some humor... see this song on You Tube. Kinda puts it into perspective, doesn't it?!

So around 5 pm yesterday I journeyed out of the house (WHAT?!) to see what was happening about a mile down the road. You can read more about the North San Diego protests here in the North County Times article: article

Or you can see with your own eyes what I saw...

























And this morning's breaking news headline read something like this "Obama talks about revolutionizing America's travel... more to come... "

REALLY?!

Living room makeover... out with the old...

This is a picture of our lil' living room BEFORE the popcorn was scraped off the ceiling, before we got a different couch / chair ensemble, before the re-arranging, before the introduction of new / fresh colors... Stay tuned... work in progress... more to come in a few weeks...

We may get it set up in the new arrangement and want to move it back to this configuration. But, we'll see... so far I've painted two of the walls. See how the wall on the right is darker than the other walls? Well, we're bringing it all back to one color. It's the same color (Olympic's "Camel") that was used in the kitchen and the hallway and the bedroom.

Our plan is to simplify, de-clutter and refresh with an easy paint job. As of yesterday (4-11-09) the back wall (one w/ the art hanging on it) and the darker wall on the right are now painted. This next week we will be rearranging furniture so I can paint the other half of the room. Stay tuned...

Hubby works on the weekends... he's happy he isn't being recruited to paint. But moving that large entertainment center... with all those cords... ick! I'm glad he knows his technical stuff! Phew...

Outside painting done... NEXT!

Well, it's done... actually, it was done a few months ago... I'm just now getting around to blogging it. In the Fall we had some work done on the house... painting the outside was the big job. I'm so happy with the results. What do YOU think?



The tricky part with our house is that the only entrance to the front door is through the alley. Wow - I just LOVE living in the historic district. (Sense the sarcasm?!) While it is intriguing... no one can find us. On the other hand, we never have door-to-door sales people or trick-or-treaters. I guess it does have it's benefits.

So this is the walkway to our front door. Narrow and cozy.



And in the image below I wanted to show how we decided to continue the paint below the clapboard, and onto the cement foundation. We saw this with a neighbor's house and noticed how it just "cleaned up" the look of the house. So, we stole their idea. I don't know if it's technically "right" or "wrong" to do it this way - but we're glad we did. This continues all the way around the house where the foundation is exposed.



This window is next to our dining room table. It looks out onto our front walk ... this picture was taken before the hand-crafted shutters had been re-hung. The shutters sure makes a difference, don't they?!



And this is the back of the house that rises above the garden/yard, since we sit on a hill. All of those windows back there? That's what I get to look out of when I'm in my "den", aka "craft room". I get to look out over the tree tops and house tops of Old Escondido. It's just a beautiful place to abide...



Next project? Getting the back yard in order so I can enjoy the view even more... today we have planter boxes being built. And I might stroll through a nursery or two today and come home with a rose bush. Hmm.... which one should I get first?! The yummy smelling lavendar or one that symbolizes something important?! hmm....

MHC Women's Retreat... the arrival and prep...

On March 13th I packed up my car and headed "up the mountain" to Oakbridge Retreat Center... it's several miles outside of Ramona, on your way to Julian

I had been put "in charge" of decorations and so my car was packed with 13 tablecloths, 1 wine barrel, 1 side table, 8 grape garlands, 1 tool kit, 1 large banner for the stage, 4 changes of clothes, 1 toothbrush and other toiletries, a speaking outline, 2 Trader Joe's dark chocolate bars, my camera and most importantly ear plugs for all my roomies (since apparently I snore at night).

After some hustle and sweat we had all the decorations done. Thanks to Flo and Lyn for helping at crunch time! I couldn't have done it without you girls! We put up stage decorations and got our 15 tables ready before all the participants arrived for registration. Then we went and relaxed a bit...

This 9 foot tall banner was along the back wall of the main stage. Where did we get that banner, you may ask? Well, you may recognize the picture... yours truly was the photographer. And Partner Signs did the printing for us - thanks guys! You rock! What a beautiful banner in real life... this photo does not do it justice.



A huge shout out to Sun Fresh Vineyards - they let us use one of their empty wine barrels for the weekend! It added such ambience to the main stage... it just made me long for a glass of wine during most of the talks! HA! Nice focus, eh?!


More to follow on the beauty of the retreat site - as it continues to recover from one of the recent wildfires. Also more to follow on some of the connecting we did... you know what happens when you get 115 women staying up late at night? Well, I may never tell... what happened at Oakbridge, stays at Oakbridge. But I'll post some pics later! HA!

The First Decade...

Well, I'd have to say I think my parents make cute kids. Yes, yes... they certainly do!

Don't you just love the technology of photo scanners?! I get to share how cute I used to be... I just love this opportunity!

Oldies... but goodies!

Anyone else feel like they jumped out of a time machine?! Oh wow... check out these old pics!!! The black and white image was taken around 1980 or 1981. I can't find any words ... except, look at the handsome family!

The second image, the very colorful picture, was taken about ten years later. I think that was in 1991 or so. And I very clearly remember Mom and I trying to find matching outfits. Oh my...

The last picture is stamped 1997. I believe this picture was taken for Mom and Dad's 25th anniversary. Wow... what a handsome family!

Hmmm.... what other good pics can I find out there?

Master bedroom makeover

It was time... the colors of the red/tan themed bedroom was HOT for our first five years of marriage. But, I've been ready for a change for a while (not the hubby of 5 years - just the colors). So here are some images of the room BEFORE... (a big shot out to Debbie for helping me paint way back then... and specifically for painting red paint on my ceiling... love your personal signature to my project)






And now AFTER...





I love the new colors... this room will get a few more decorative pillows and maybe a throw for the end of the bed. But the theme is running through the house - declutter. That I know how to do... KEEPING it that way over time is the hard part.

So, instead of continuing to surf the internet... I'm going to go put laundry in it's place instead of on the floor at the end of the bed.

Kitchen - progress and ALMOST done...

So this is what we started with. About 8 years ago I painted the kitchen this BEAUTIFUL color... I call the color "Baked Bean Red". Although I'm sure the paint company had a more appealing name for it at the time. This paint was actually leftover "oops" paint that I bought for a church project. And there was just enough paint left to roll a coat on my kitchen walls. I remember this being so drastic at the time... and many people have commented over the years how this color was so ODD for a kitchen color. But it was perfect for me.

Here's two different angles ... I'm sure the first thing you've noticed is how CLUTTERED everything is. (It took just about everything in me not to tidy up before I took these pics.) But I really truly wanted these pics to be good "before and after" pics... so I didn't touch anything...




And then the next step was cleaning out the cabinets, off the counters and removing everything. Our contractor removed the doors and painted them along w/ the cabinets. It's kinda difficult to see in these pics - but the color of the cabinets is very similar to what it was before. In fact, so close that you can't really see a difference between the old color on the ceiling and the new color on the cabinets. Worked out perfectly...

Mr. Contractor then put new handles and drawer pulls on. Among other odds/ends projects in this room, he tweaked on some of the drawers so that they move easier and then he put everything back in place... except for my plates, dishes, pots/pans and pantry food. He, of course, left that for me to do... oh joy! I took the time to take the contact paper off of the shelves... and purged some old items at the same time! I LOVE clean sweeping! What a project! I did get a few nights "off" from cooking that week... and that was rather nice!




Then it was my turn to get my hands dirty... I stripped down the once-lovely and rather trendy border paper. I took the time to take the contact paper off of the shelves... and purged some old items at the same time! I LOVE clean sweeping! What a project! I did get a few nights "off" from cooking that week... and that was rather nice! A few months wen tby... and I finally got to my painting part. The new color is called "Camel". It's two colors darker on the paint chip than the cabinets were. A perfect neutral color... and now a kitchen with a lot less clutter!




Next? I decide what art to put on the walls and where. And then maybe I'll mop the floor... what do you think?!

Days off are a gift from God!

Seriously - I would have slept in if my internal clock would have let me. But I guess getting up at 5:30 am IS sleeping in when I'm usually walking in the door at work around the same time... so, no, I'm not complaining.

I got right to work updating my new wonderful Facebook-ness. (And saying "adios" to the OTHER networking site... sorry Tom - I just wasn't that into you!)

Then I went to get my neck adjusted... and then went to visit my boyfriend, well Michael is actually a craft store... but in my circle of friends we call him our boyfriend since we spend so much time hanging out with him. ;-) I love all the coupons I get to use - it's almost like 'going dutch'.

Made another stop, I think... then came home to multi-task with various projects at home. The hallway has a fresh coat of paint on it... now it's time to make my mini-gallery. I've already got quite a few black/white prints framed... they've just not been loved very much. So today will be dusting off the frames and washing the glass and ... do you think I can talk DH into helping me hang them? Or should I do it myself?! Hmm... cleaned out the craft room and put stuff in 'give away' boxes and 'to sell' boxes. I think there were other miscellaneous houskeeping projects happening simultaneously... all I know was that I must have logged back on to FB every 15 min or so for about 4 hours! HA! Hmm... focus much?!

In just a little bit I'm going to meet a friend from high school for coffee - Sharon... I'm sure we'll laugh and snort and I already warned her that if we get laughing too hard I might spew coffee. (I've also been known to spray fluids through my nostrils from time to time... I'm not ashamed.)

After that? Coming back home to shred last year's filing junk... and maybe stalk some more unsuspecting individuals on Facebook. Who can blame me?! I have a lot friends to catch up with!

So I leave you with this pic today...

From one of my heroes...

Thank you to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice... in this interview she confirms what I've been hoping someone would say.

While President Bush has received some rather low ratings, ok dismal, but anyway - while he was highly criticized Ms. Rice confirms what I suspected. We'll eventually find out all the crap that's been throw his way that we just aren't privy to.There is a place to draw the line on the information you share to justify your decisions. Pres Bush can't share much - and rightfully so.

We don't want to have a President who puts all the details out on the table - just so we can confirm he's making the right decision. To dumb it down - we don't have the same top secret clearance. We want a President who can keep some things in confidence. We want a President who will think about the future of the American people - not just today and what would "feel" better.

I'm happy to hear from Ms. Rice that the leaders she has worked with, first hand, appreciate our President. That they still hold our country in high regard as they trust our President.I'm confident we will read more of these types of interview snippets over the next several years - which will serve the purpose of justifying some of Pres Bush's actions. He shouldn't have to do that himself.

Another crazy "Lori story"...

For those of you who've known me for years this is just another story... but for those who haven't heard these crazy stories... this is just par for the course. I often have rather strange things happen in my world (like a homeless lady who was sleeping in the elevator in the parking garage at work. the door opened and she didn't move - i thought she was dead and i started screaming! she woke up MAD and she started chasing me through the parking garage!) ... well here is today’s crazy story … it has a good ending. But it all seemed very ominous as it was happening.



Yesterday morning driving to work I saw a tow truck parked on the side of the 56 freeway (on the opposite side of the freeway) with its hazard lights on and I could see there was someone sitting inside. But it looked like his head was hanging forward - like he was taking a nap in his truck at 5:30 am or something… I don't know what he was doing - but I noticed he was sitting there.

Then when I left work yesterday afternoon I saw a tow truck, with someone sitting in it, in the exact same place on the freeway - no movement inside the truck... with its hazard lights on, etc. At that point I was slightly concerned, if my phone was working, I would have called CHP and asked someone to check on the truck driver to make sure he was OK. But alas, my cell phone is very dead currently. (And I was hoping the truck driver wasn't dead also.)

So, fast forward to this morning - tow truck AGAIN in the same place on the freeway, with someone sitting in the cab, hazard lights on, etc.... and my heart started racing. Immediately I think to myself - "I HAVE to go check on him to see what's going on here. But I don't have a phone. If he's not responsive I'm going to have to flag someone else down to stop and hope they have a cell phone so we can call for help." In the meantime, I got off the freeway and back on to circle around and park behind him… I stopped with my lights on, lighting up the back of his truck.

My heart was racing.. And I was praying for this individual... and praying that I wouldn't find a dead person in the cab of the truck.

Keep in mind... it's 5:30 am and it's still dark outside. I walk up to the door, looking for any movement inside the truck, and all of a sudden a head pops out!

Thank goodness he was making eye contact with me or I would have freaked out for sure! OK – he's alive! I take a deep sigh and start laughing at him.... he looks confused. I explained to him the whole drama that was unfolding in my creative imagination and we had a good laugh together on the side of the freezing cold freeway at 5:30 am. He thanked me for stopping...



No this wasn't a dream... this is just the world I live in…
As to WHY he was sitting there... looking back on it now, I don't think it was the same tow truck or same guy sitting there the entire time. Maybe it's just a place for tow companies to sit while they wait for service calls?! I don't know... then again, it could have been the same guy... I didn't ask. That's his business...

I love living in San Diego

San Diego = America's Finest City

These pictures should tell the story just fine... I was downtown to take some family pics and took some of these shots as we mosied about town. I just love this place...