Blog

9/27/07

I'm moving my blog over to http://honeybeerose.blogspot.com/. Check it out!

comments()

9/26/07

Yesterday, after work I went to ceramics in Frazier Park. Carline showed me some of the ceramics she had painted. I especially liked a scene with a woman by a lake with lotus blossoms and irises. I cleaned a greenware cream and sugar set and will fire that to try a similar technique to hers. Tina is painting Italian chef figures that hold spaghetti, Parmesan, salt and pepper as well as a platter. I stayed late and watched House with them while I painted a small baking bowel. I glazed my little bird and that will be fired next time. The bowel I had made on the wheel last week was still too wet to work with so I'm letting that dry out for now.

comments()

9/25/07

Paul and I went clothes shopping on Saturday in Valencia. It was a beautiful day, all clean after the rain we had.

On Sunday I went for a hike with Michelle T. in Ojai. We had so much fun. We started up to punch bowel behind Thomas Aquinas college, but didn't go all the way as it was getting late. It was a three mile hike including walking through the campus. Afterwords we went for a little bike ride around the campgrounds and saw lots of rabbits.

Monday was my Grandma Linda's birthday and I drove out to Apple Valley to see her. I gave her a patchwork / embroidered pillow I made. Grandpa Mike treated us to dinner at a Thai food restaurant and gave me some beautiful white gold hoop earrings for a belated birthday gift (Thanks Grandpa). They got a bracelet for my Grandma, Gold with Onyx.

I brought home a bag of peaches from Linda's and plan on canning some and making a pie. I haven't tried canning yet so it will be an experiment. I also want to make some time this week to make some blackberry jam.

comments()

9/21/07

Our heating is still out so I baked cookies yesterday to warm up the house. At 6pm I went to Frazier Park to do ceramics with two ladies that run a studio and classes out of their house. It's been a long time since I made anything on the wheel, but after a few tries I was finally able to make a bowel. I also painted a tiny greenware bird while we watched "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" on tv. One of the ladies works at the local high school and the other works from home doing database management. Next week I'll go back to put a foot on my bowel and glaze the bird which went in for it's first firing last night. When we get to Missouri I want to have my own wheel and kiln.

comments()

9/19/07

My favorite things
Watching the birds at the feeder outside of my office window
My iPhone
Yarn and Knitting Needles
Picking blackberries
The smell of fresh baked bread
Completing a sewing project
Antique Singer Sewing Machines
Fresh Air
Warm Sunshine
Lemons, Salsa and Guacamole
Kittens
Good friends and time together
The smell of pine trees
Stormy weather
A cozy fire and warm socks
Flying above the clouds
Friendly strangers
Horses
Frogs
Malaysian Leaf Insects

Yesterday Paul had to work late off of the hill and didn't get home until after midnight. After work I watched several episodes of House, picked veggies in the garden, picked up the neighbor's girls from the bus stop, baked bread, went for a walk and finished making two patchwork pillows.

comments()

9/18/07

My perfect day.

My perfect day would start with getting up early and seeing the day's first light. Then I would eat and get dressed and go visit the horses down the street. Some adventure would follow. Perhaps a trip to town with a friend to a crafty yarn store, a movie matinee, books, coffee, and of course sushi for dinner.

comments()

9/17/07

I've been feeling a little under the weather the past few days, nothing major just sinus headaches. It may be allergies. Last night Paul and I drove up to Mt. Pinos and I saw the biggest shooting star I've ever seen in my life. It looked like it landed in Lockwood Valley it was so bright.

I took a break today and went to Coffee Cantina where Bettina is working and had an iced mocha while working on my laptop for a bit. I felt better afterwords and brought a chocolate chip cookie home for Paul. Our heating is broken again and the guy has been out trying to figure it out. It looks like it's something wrong with the computer on it, which hopefully will still be under warranty.

comments()

9/16/07

Paul and I flew out to our cabin for five days on the first of the month. We had a very nice time. Paul fixed the phone, the pipe under the sink, cleaned out the air conditioner, replaced the duct vent in the living room and got the air conditioner recharged. I cleaned windows and did shelf paper in more of the kitchen cabinets. I took my first bath in the jacuzzi tub! We made a few trips to Lowes and Target to pick up more needed things. We shopped at the local grocery store and I cooked most of our meals. It was a cozy but busy time. I was able to take a day to go with April to the flea markets and found some wonderful things for the house. I bought a very nice wooden bread box, a double layer glass vase - blue with red flowers on it, a bird house, glasses and glass bakeware, and an antique electric sewing machine with the original receipt still included. It's an electric singer, the kind that can be attached to a desk, but the desk was not included. It has it's own case and is quite heavy. We had dinner with April and Ron then visited with Calvin and his wife Kay (the people who live up the road from us, and who built our house). We paid them six months of the water bill ($60), since we have a shared well. When we got back it was already late. I put out some of the things I bought, washed dishes and packed. It was around 2am before we finally got to sleep and we just got a couple of hours or less of sleep before having to get up for our early flight back. I didn't even have a chance to inspect my new machine or try it out, but I'll have something to look forward to when we go back.

T. and I have been hiking or walking about once a week. We also made bread and a blackberry pie together. Our blackberry bush is quite big this year and I've made two pies so far. Yesterday, Bela Jr. and I picked some more berries, about 8 cups, but I haven't done anything with them yet. Bettina and I decided to make blended margaritas and sit in the back yard doing nothing but eating chips and salsa and dips. It was very relaxing. Paul was working on fixing the brakes on the falcon and made some progress but still has three more to go.

For my birthday Bettina got me Mrs. Potter (a DVD) and a very ornate book about Beatrix Potter. I had fun this week watching the movie and reading the book.

Paul bought me an iPhone on my birthday and I've been obsessed with it ever since. I just love the thing. I never had a cell phone I actually liked and this one is so beyond any other cell phone. Absolutely amazing! I dedicated plenty of time to find out every trick about it and am throughly impressed. We were also lucky in that fourteen days after we got it we qualified for $200 back since they had lowered the price within that time.

Today I'm going to finish up an apron I started yesterday and prune the roses, which are doing so beautifully this year. I keep trimming them back and they keep having more roses. I forgot to mention that I harvested my corn this month and it was delicious! I also had enough tomatoes to make salsa. Next year I'm planning on planting the entire center planter with corn... I'm not sure how long we'll be here but I'll keep the garden up as long as we are. We still need to get the greenhouse put together and the house painted. I finished painting the inside of the workshop and Paul installed the electrical outlets and put all of his tools in it. Now we have plenty of room in the laundry room. Next, I need to start clearing out our storage and get ready to have a garage sale.

I have lots of photos to load up so I'll try to make some time this evening or next week to get those up.

comments()

8/13/07

Paul and I flew up to Portland, OR for my Cousin Mike's wedding. It was a quick trip. We left on Friday and got back Sunday. The wedding was outdoors at a historic house in Oregon City. The weather was beautiful. We hung out with family and ate. I really enjoyed talking with Una's parents who have lots of experience living off the grid. Wayne and Carmel lived in a house in the woods for about 13 years I think they said. They used solar and a generator for power. Carmel used to make bread with a sourdough starter. I wish I could have talked to them more about their experiences. They now live near San Fransisco and deliver mail by boat part time.

Paul and I had time on Sunday to take a little drive up the Columbia River before our return flight. We saw bald eagles nesting next to the river and beautiful waterfalls. Blackberry bushes were full everywhere we stopped and they were the best I'd ever tasted.

Today I'm feeling a little tired. I think I'm still recovering from the trip. I got some work done, took a nap in the afternoon after watching another part of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947). I like to watch old movies while I eat breakfast and lunch but don't usually watch the whole thing in one sitting. I went to the store while Paul worked on welding another antenna mount for a building in downtown LA.

That Zaca fire is still burning about 30 miles west of us. I'm not worried about it. I'm sure they'll put it out when it gets to the 33. Right now it's burning in very rough terrain and hard to get to. It's making the air a little Smokey up here. comments()

8/6/07

Paul and I have had a very busy month since our trip out to Texas and Missouri just over a month ago. We finished many projects around the house before having it appraised so we could refinance in order to buy the place in Missouri. It was a lot of work but well worth it.

This weekend was our first in a long time that we haven't had to be somewhere or do something. I spend some of it weeding our new grass on the south side of the yard and worked on our family trees. Paul put the walls up on the inside of his work shed and later in the afternoon I helped paint them. We took a little drive yesterday and got ice cream.

The Zaca fire which started in Santa Barbara on July 4th has been growing and causing a lot of smoke in the air here even though it's still about 30 miles away. We're not worried about it coming here because they will likely put it out once it gets closer to houses near Ojai or New Cuyama. Right now it's just burning in the middle of rough terrain in the Los Padres Forest. The smoke is thick today though and I feel tired. It's too bad we don't get rain in the summer like they do in other parts of the country. comments()

8/1/07

Last weekend we closed escrow on our new little house in Missouri! We flew in Thursday night and checked into the Hampton Inn, our favorite hotel. We rented a truck in order to be able to get furniture and appliances but ended up not needing it because Lowe's and Furniture Factory Outlet were both able to deliver on Saturday, which was a great relief. We were on such a tight schedule.

On Friday we went to the house to do a quick final walk through then went to the title company to close escrow. We had lunch at a place behind the escrow company that is famous for their "Fried Pickles". Then we went to the propane company and electric company to get that squared away. We went to Lowe's then to pick out appliances and get some other necessities for the house. We picked up a TV at best buy and Paul set it up. It was the first thing in the house! I cleaned and put shelf paper in (the cork kind) and unpackaged tools and things we'd bought. We got a microwave from Best Buy and set that up (TV and popcorn.... we're set).

On Saturday we went to Lowe's again to pick up a few more things, then did our furniture shopping. The place April recommended (Funiture Factory Outlet) was the best. We bought a bed, dresser, mirror, night stand, two couches, end tables, coffee table, and a TV stand. We had just enough time to do a shopping trip to Wal-mart to pick up bedding and kitchen stuff before the deliveries came. Lowe's brought the Stove, Fridge and Washer and Dryer and the furniture place delivered the rest. They arrived just as the Lowe's truck was getting ready to leave. Paul spent the afternoon setting up the appliances and then later we went to the grocery store. On Sunday we had to go back out to Springfield to pick up some additional parts to make the stove work with the propane. April and Ron came over in the afternoon and brought us an antique table that they bought when they first moved out there from California. Paul worked on getting the stove working and Ron setup our new table. April helped me get up the courage to spray the wasp nest near our back door. I did that and then we got the hose to spray off the deck. I turned on the faucet closed the end and handed it up to april on the deck. When I went back through the front door water was gushing out under the sink. I ran back outside and turned off the water. It turned out that the pipe split, probably due to the record cold they had last year and the pressure from turning it on and closing the valve probably finished the job. It was a very concerning problem but with the valve shut off and the handle outside removed so no one can turn it on it should be fine until we get back out there and can fix it.

Paul and Ron went to meet Calvin, our neighbor and person who built the place. They were gone for over an hour or so and April and I talked for a long time on the front porch until the mosquitoes started coming out.

Paul and Ron finally came back and told us how nice Calvin was and about the house and how he built it and about the pond that used to be off of the deck. They used to fish off of the deck then there was an earthquake and he could never get the pond to fill back up again so he just filled it in with dirt and moved the spring down to the end of the yard.

For dinner I made spaghetti, corn, salad and bread. It was so nice having our friends over for our first dinner in the house. They stayed until around 10pm and then went home. Paul and I stayed up late getting everything ready to leave. Our flight was at 8:20am and we had to return the rental truck first. We ended up staying up until 2am and I woke up at 4am to make breakfast and have coffee. We slept on the planes so it wasn't too bad, but about an hour after we got back home (around 6pm) I slept for about 12 hours straight. comments()

7/19/07

This is my new pet frog (shown below). Everyday I find this little guy in my plastic watering can by the back door. I almost peed in my pants when I first saw him floating in there when I was about to pour some vitamin B solution in the can! He's lucky I didn't. I keep putting him out of the can into the nice planter where the other frogs like to stay but he keeps coming back. Yesterday I opened the back door and he fell on my hat then jumped on my shoe! I tried to put him in the planter but he jumped around and then stuck to the wall. I went inside and watched him through the window as he made it back to the watering can in about 3 giant hops. I didn't see him in the can this morning. I went out to the garden to water a few of the plants that don't have drip lines on yet. I filled up the can a few times to water them then watered around the bird path where the sunflowers are (pictured). He suddenly jumped from somewhere... the watering can or somewhere on me.. to the sunflower. I don't know where he was hiding. I got a few photos of him before he hoped back under the deck.

comments()

6/25/07 8:00pm

Paul & I just got back from a trip to visit family in Texas including a Yoes family reunion and a trip to Missouri to look at property. We actually found a fairly inexpensive place (everything is much less expensive in Missouri than in California) which we put an offer on. We are in escrow now and the inspection will be done on Wednesday. It's a 30 day escrow so we'll fly out to close the deal and get some minimal furniture and appliances for the place. Our plan is to have this as a starting place while we look for the place we're going to build on with more acres. The cabin we found was built in 2006, has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, it's on about 3 acres, mostly wooded, it has a spring, it's timber frame built from oak that came from the property. The person who built it lives just up the road and we share a well with him and one other house that is also on the same little road. It's very well built and should require very little maintenance. We'll need to hire someone to mow the yard once every few weeks and we'll probably try to go out there every couple of months.

We're very excited about this new little place. We're not moving for at least year still, but we'll go back more often now. Click here to see photos!

I'll upload photos of the family reunion and others later after I get them off of my laptop. comments()

6/3/07 10:00pm

Last weekend I uploaded photos for the first time in months. Lisi brought Tasia and her new puppy, Buddhabar up on Tuesday. We fed ducks at the park while Buddha tested the water then went out to eat at Dream Castle which was delicious as always. Tasia sat in a high chair and kept busy playing with sugar packets while Buddha passed out under the table exhausted from car sickness and drinking too much pond water.

After lunch we hung out at our house, visited with Bettina and saw the kittens, Buddha and Freida (Bettina's Great Dane) met and became friends, and we gave Buddha a bath in a tub in the back yard. The weather was so nice and it was just so fun having Lisi up. I really enjoyed holding Tasia and taking her around showing her new things. She's 6 months old now (I think), and she's able to sit up but isn't crawling yet. She likes to stand and walk with help and she loves her new puppy.

After taking Monday and Tuesday off I crammed in as much work as possible the rest of the week, taking occasional breaks to water my garden and pull weeds. Yesterday it was hot out. I decided to scrub the front deck and wash the patio furniture. It cleaned up nicely and is again a welcoming place to sit on these nice summer afternoons. I picked up some more plants in town. Some colorful little fluffy flowers for the front deck planters and a large tomato plant, which I put in next to the other two in the back garden. I also bought a bell pepper plant and a cucumber plant. The corn I planted last week has sprouted but not all of it. I'll probably put in a few more seeds today to fill in the gaps. I installed a motion sensor sprayer over the garden yesterday to keep the cats from digging it up.

Paul came down with a cold bug and though he's really not feeling too well, he finished up some electrical wiring and installed a couple of motion sensor lights on the shed. He also worked on a wiring harness for an airplane radio for Pete, our neighbor. On my way back from the store I went to a yard sale across from Pinon Pines and met a guy named Sonny who is a decedent of the Cuddy's (The family for which our Cuddy Valley is named after). He and his wife were very friendly. I found a set of blue ceramic jars for Bettina and a small porcelain box shaped like one of my old Singers for my sewing room.

Today I'm planning on taking it sort of easy. I really don't want to come down with Paul's cold bug so I'm taking lots of vitamin C. I may try to get some more computer work done, though I usually reserve the weekends for other things, I need to get caught up. We'll also have to get the wood out of Paul's truck for the inside walls of the shed and clear out the driveway for Lee, who's coming tomorrow to level the ground for our concrete slab.

comments()

5/28/07 10:00pm

I've been super busy this week and am just now getting around to updating my photos on this site. I found a java app called Rad Upload that allows drag and drop for multiple files and tried it out this morning. It's a great application and I may use it in the future for client websites. But for personal use it's not worth the price since I can do the same thing via ftp. I also would like to write my own if I get the time some day.

I'm still thinking about switching my blog over to some database type system and can't decide if I want to use WordPress or just develop my own software. I'm tempted to just make my own of course because then I can make it however I want from the start rather than working with code that's already created, but I'm not sure, Wordpress is very quick and easy to setup so it may save me some time there.

It's Monday and I'm taking the day, so far, as a holiday. This weekend Paul and I worked on the workshop. We bought the flooring and wall material, paul installed lights and I sealed the floor. Today I need to paint a sticky primer type material over it and then we'll lay the stick down tiles. It's coming along very nicely as you can see from the photos.

I'm obsessed with old black and white movies and audio books. I watch the movies on my breaks or in the morning with breakfast and the audio books make the work in the garden, painting, etc. go a lot faster. I want to get an iPod shuffle now so that I don't have to carry around the large iPod video which often gets caught on things while I'm crawling around in the garden and working on things outside.

comments()

5/1/07 10:00pm

The Fantastic Angel Food Cake Disaster

I just finished cleaning up the kitchen after attempting an angel food cake recipe I saw on Barefoot Contessa, a cooking show I sometimes watch. The recipes are online on the food network site so I printed one up. After weeks of anticipation I finally got the ingredients I needed. Bettina, my neighbor found an angel food cake pan for me at a garage sale just a few days ago because I was talking to her about needing to get one. So everything seemed perfect. I followed the recipe to the T and used my new fancy blender Paul bought me. Well everything was going good until the cake was in the oven for about 15 minutes. It just kept growing. It grew bigger and bigger and I watched it as I washed the dishes. Then I looked again and poof, it exploded all over the oven! I quickly scraped the shrapnel off of the bottom of the oven and the two racks then took off about 3 inches of marshmellowly liquid and placed the rest with the pan back in the oven. I turned up the heat then went to look up "high altitude angel food cake". We're at 5600 feet here and things tend to rise more quickly. It can making baking very tricky. When we move I'll probably have to learn to bake bread all over again at lower altitude. So anyway, it seems that there are some variations I should have done. One suggestion was to turn up the heat at the end and wait for the cake to fall a bit. So I did that and commenced cleaning up angel food cake blobs from the stove top and counter. It was still growing. I kept a closer eye on it and waited. Then voila! it depressed a little so I took it out. Now the fun part, turning it upside down over a bottle to cool. Well lets just say it didn't work out so well and I had pieces of angel food cake all over the counter, the bottle, and stuck to the bottom of my sock.

Ahh well the experimental kitchen continues. At least the little lumps of fluff taste pretty good. A lot like Nilla Wafers actually.

Today I went down to Bakersfield to take our paint back to Lowe's to be tinted a little darker and to have the cans shaken... since it's been about 6 months since we bought the stuff. On the way back I stopped at a fruit stand and bought some yummy strawberries, avocados and dried fruits. There was also a little antique store in the same building where I picked up a neat book on the basics of sewing garments.

Paul bought a new paint gun yesterday and it works really well. Getting the primer coat on took hours on Sunday but with the gun we got the first coat of paint on in about 10 minutes! The roofing guy came today and finished the roof on the shed... I mean workshop. Paul still has the doors to finish and a window or two to cut out. It's really coming along nice though.

I ordered photos from PhotoWorks and Shutterfly (the two vendors who have links through Google's Picassa photo album program) to see which came out better. They were both pretty good but I preferred Shutterfly since the photos came faster and had brighter colors. I couldn't tell the difference between the ones I uploaded as low resolution from the high resolution ones.

comments()

4/15/07 9:00am

It's snowing today! It's about an inch in some places. Yesterday we finished the roof tar paper on Paul's shed just as it was starting to come down. This is really going to be a nice workshop for him. I checked out the program called Picassa for organizing photos, web photo albums, and ordering photos. I like it over all. I ordered some pics from each of the providers to see how they come out. Here are the albums I created:

comments()

4/6/07 9:00am

Yesterday I went for a massage in Frazier Park by a lady named Pati. I almost forgot it's Easter Weekend. Paul and I are going to work on the shed and possibly go to a car show this weekend, but we'll see. I'm keeping an eye on the neighbor's pets while they went camping. Last night I bar-b-qued steaks on the grill and there was a lightning storm a few miles away. We got a few sprinkles but nothing major.

comments()

4/1/07 6:30pm

Paul is CTO for a company called Aerioconnect. They provide Internet, Satellite TV and VOIP(Phone) via free space optics(nifty non-visual spectrum laser links!) and wireless links throughout downtown LA. On Friday, late afternoon, I went with him to one of the buildings that the company has services setup at. It's the old Federal Reserve building which has been turned into loft apartments. There are several huge old doors to the safes, a turntable where the armored cars used to drive onto and the elevators are still run by the old elevator motors from around 1929. It's really a neat building. I'm hoping he can take me to see the old subway building (also loft apartments now) in the next couple of weeks when he goes there to setup some stuff. Some of the other guys in the company have already done some exploring down in the lower levels of the building and the tunnel below it. There is an old VA hospital down there, probably from WWII that they said was really freaky. The subway tunnel is now blocked off completely on both ends at different points under LA. Below street level of the subway building there are long abandoned offices with papers and furniture and some of the light bulbs still work. The building security person took the guys as far as the locked door they needed to get down into these lower levels and then said that was as far as he went because the place gave him the creeps. One of the guys said there was some Arabic writing above a couple of the doors.

On Saturday Paul and I went to a car show at the Kern County Museum. The museum has an entire town setup with historic buildings and things within each one that you can look in to see what it was like. They had a lot on the history of oil drilling in Bakersfield. They had everything from a hospital to a jail and courthouse all setup just the way it was back in the late 1800's to early 1900's.

Today Paul worked on the shed and got all four walls done. We bought a nailer gun yesterday and it's made the work go really fast for him. I helped him raise the first wall, then we got our neighbor Bela to help with the second one. I weeded and baked bread today. The last loaf is just about out of the oven now. I made two batches: a loaf of artesian wheat bread, 3 rustic baguettes, a white baguette and a loaf of white bread.

comments()

3/29/07 4:30pm

Time flys. I can't believe it's Thursday already. I'm still in PJs and working on the computer. Paul had to go down to LA to work on setting up some stuff. He's had to go down a lot this week.

I started making an apron last night out of the fabric from Paul's Mom's collection. The main part is made with a white cotton with butterflies printed on it and I'm using a dark blue to make the straps and ties. I'm making up the pattern as I go along. I cut out and pin the pieces together first to see how it looks and then I'll sew it.

Since I haven't been able to get out and garden this week, because of the weather, I've been exercising on the eclipse again. I do at least 5 minutes walking briskly on it each day. I know I should probably do more but I'm embarrassed to say that that's enough to get my heart rate up and my legs feeling it. I have a lot more endurance when I'm working outside in the garden. Partly because I have something other than the exercise to focus on.

comments()

3/27/07 11:37am

It's snowing today, sort of a hail or sleet like snow. I got up at 2 am when it started and ran out to rescue my potted flowers and seedlings. I brought the ones on the porch inside also and covered up some poppies I planted around the bird bath. I think they will be ok. I'm a little worried about the fruit trees since they have buds and are starting to flower. This weather is so unpredictable. Just a couple of days ago it was hot and sunny and I was pulling dandelions out of the grass which is green now.

I went back to bed around 3am and slept until 7:30. Then I went out and filled up the bird feeders with seed and defrosted the humming bird feeder after a confused humming bird came by and couldn't find the feeding holes through the snow that had stacked up on top of it. The poor little things just migrated back and are pretty skinny after their long journey.

I was supposed to have my wisdom teeth removed today but last Friday I went down to see if my sinuses were clear enough to do it since I had had a bit of a cold last month. The previous two visits the doctor informed me that the percentage of people having permanent nerve damage from this procedure was very low, but I was still nervous after seeing the 3D scans where the bottom two have roots around the nerve canal. This time I asked him if he had done this surgery in people with as sever a case as mine is and he said, yes. Well out of those people, I asked, how many have had permanent nerve damage? He said 50-60%! Since the impacted teeth are not infected and not bothering me I'm not willing to take that big of a risk. I'm going to have a second opinion though.

The point of removing them is to avoid them possibly causing problems later on. If they do get infected when I'm much older the surgery would likely be harder to recover from because the bones get more brittle. On the other hand, if the risk of permanent nerve damage is that high, I think I'll take my chances. The symptoms of the nerve damage include permant burning, tingling, or numbness or loss of taste. Not a fun prospect! Had I had this taken care of when I was a teenager this wouldn't have been an issue.

comments()

2/14/07 3:10pm

I've had some interesting baking adventures and not all of my attempts to bake a perfect loaf have ended up successfully. We had a good snow yesterday and the birds appreciated one of my not so tasty experiments. A recipe I made with starter came out way too salty in my opinion. I even checked the recipe five times because it seemed like a lot of salt, and I should have listened to my intuition. Oh well. To console myself just in case another starter loaf didn't come out yesterday I baked some bread with the commercial yeast. It rose beautifully and was good except that it's pretty bland. A little butter and salt makes it ok though. I know what my mistake was with that one. The recipe stated that it was for 1 loaf and it turned out to be for two very big loaves. I had cut back the salt and sugar thinking it was for one loaf only. The starter loaf rose quite well but didn't taste very good. The birds seem to think it tastes fine though. I guess this week just isn't my week for baking bread.

For Valentine's Day Paul bought me a Kitchen Aid standing mixer. It's so awesome! I've been having fun making bread and cookies with it.

I made heart shaped cookies for Paul this morning and am planning a lemon meringue pie for this afternoon. I've already made the gram cracker crust.

Amazingly enough with all of this baking I'm still getting work done. I'm working towards getting more billed time during the day because many days I get fewer than 3 hours billed daily. The new clients, phone calls, billing, etc. take up a lot of my time. If I can get 15 billed hours a week I would be satisfied!

comments()

2/9/07 9:20am

We've been up to our eyeballs in work and other events this year and unfortunately had to turn down a trip to Oahu for a Billabong job Paul was offered. We both started the year out with really bad colds that lasted for weeks. I used mine as an excuse to stop smoking. I still havent had a cigarette this year. I've also been exercising regularly and using my Eclipse (- Thanks Mikes!). I've also been cooking a lot! This week I tried a buttermilk brisket recipe from Victoria which came out really well. The recipe called for cooking it in the oven but I used the slow cooker to make it and it came out really tender. Paul called it real Texas food.

I've been on a bread baking adventure for the last month. I've baked at least a dozen loaves of bread, baguettes, rolls and pizza crusts. It took a couple of weeks but I finally got a good sourdough starter going. A sourdough starter is a mixture of flour and water with live wild yeast which can live on for years with regular feeding. It's used to make any sort of bread, sweet or sour and is the key to making good artesian style breads. I made a loaf and two baguettes with it this week.

Paul sold his Mustang and bought a new project car. It's a 1960 Ford Falcon. It actually runs really well, but he's going to completely redo it with a new engine and everything.

New Photos!

comments()

1/12/07 9:30am

Christmas day we still were in town so I bought a small turkey, potatoes, a pie and made dinner. I invited my Mom and Glen up who had just got a new/used car from my Aunt and Uncle. They came and we had a nice dinner. She and Glen are doing well.

Later that evening we hung out with our best friends, Bela, Bettina and their kids.

The next day we left to go visit Paul's dad and Victoria in Texas. We stayed with them for a few days and also visited Paul's Uncle Donnie and wife, Wyleen. I got sick a few days before the New Year and was really not feeling well on the day we drove back which was New Year's eve. We drove straight through (about 22 hours) to get home. We saw some fireworks in New Mexico and Arizona for the New Year and passed through 3 time zones. Paul caught my cold and we've both been getting over it these past couple of weeks.

Last week I baked bread for my first time. I made two french bread baguettes from the recipe on the Quick Rise Yeast package. They came out pretty good. I was surprised at how easy it was. I also made tortillas from scratch which were very good. The hardest part was getting them round and thin enough.

I met with T. for lunch a couple of times down in Bakersfield. The second time with Bettina who came with me to Straberry Patches where Paul bought my Christmas Present, a Bernina Serger!!! They showed me how to use it there since it was a little overwhelming at first. If you don't know, a serger is a type of sewing machine that uses 3 or 4 threads to finish seams like the ones you see on the insides of all clothing. It cuts the fabric and wraps the edge. It's also called an overlock machine. Since then I've made a couple of little bags. One for Paul's welding helmet. I also hemmed a pair of jeans and learned how to use the buttonholer on my featherweight 221K.

On Monday Paul and I wen't up to Fresno to be there for Bettina and Bela's citizenship ceremony and swearing in. Bettina is from Germany and Bela is from Hungary.

I've been so busy since getting back that I haven't had time to write or load up photos. Hopefully things will settle down soon!

comments()

12/23/06 10:53pm

Paul and I went shopping last night in Bakersfield. It wasn't too bad. We stayed away from the malls and places like Target and just went for the specialty stores. We mostly exchange gifts with our best friends next door but also exchange gifts with some family members. Last minute shopping can be a big stress and part of me wishes we didn't do it at all. But finding the right gift feels good. I just keep telling myself that next year I'm going to do this earlier and shop online.

The day before yesterday Bettina and I made an early New Year's goal. To have an outing at least once a month. We used to do that a lot more but this past year has just been so crazy for everyone. It seems that we never have time or motivation anymore. For me it's been work and for her it's been the construction on their house. It's been depressing us both, and being Virgos we like for everything to be done and perfect, but that's not realistic. We need to just take a break once in a while and get creative... whether we feel motivated or not!

comments()

12-21-06 11:11pm
Home

I've been in a whirlwind it seems. Shopping, working, and running around trying to get everything done, all my Christmas shopping done, bills paid, and everything else that has just been trying to bury me. I just fantasize about a day to do nothing but read and knit. I'm tired.

I get so many things done each day but still feel like I'm not doing enough. It's really exhausting and I need to change my attitude and have more of a half full perspective. Complaining gets me nowhere and gets annoying to everyone including me most of all.

Most of this is probably just hormones and I'll be back to normal in a few more days.

comments()

12-15-06 6:45pm
Home

I have a bit of a cold and have heen working like crazy since we got back from Maui. But married life is good so far and I'm very happy. Last night Paul and I went out to a great Sushi resturant in Valencia after we stopped by the mall to get his ring resized. It was a little too tight for him.

We picked up the mail from our PO Box and stopped at the bank and went grocery shopping on the way home. It was a nice little outting and distraction from work.

I've finally uploaded the rest of our Maui photos including the wedding pics and video. We have an HD video of the ceremony that Arthur made but the file we uploaded is one that Paul edited for the web. The quality isn't that great but it's should be a good size for downloading.

I also just updated the video size of Eve Playing Guitar in out kitchen. It was too large for downloading before but now should be managable.

I just bought Paula Fuga's album on Amazon. She's totally awesome!

comments()

12-10-06 10:30pm
Maui

On Friday while Paul was working the contest I went swimming at Napili Kai, a bay within walking distance of our condo. The waves were stirring up things a bit so I didn't snorkle much but had a nice time just swimming around with my fins.

The contest was postponed yesterday so after Paul did some work on the equipment we went for a drive around the North side of Haleakala and then up to the summit that overlooks the crater. The summit is at 10,000 feet and is cold and windy. We stayed up there to watch the sunset and got lots of nice photos which I'll upload later.

The contest is on now and they are down there streaming it. It's going to be a short day since they got most of the contest done on Friday. This is the last day of the contest.

We've made arrangements to get married tomorrow by Pia Aluli down at Kapalua Bay. Arthur will take video and photos. It won't be streamed live but I'll put it online at some point later.

I walked down to the Pineapple Grill for breakfast this morning. It's a beautiful day here today. Once Paul gets back we may go shopping for our wedding attire. I'm going to buy a simple green or blue dress and he'll get a hawaiian shirt.

comments()

12-8-06 9:00pm

Paul's over working on the streaming setup for the Maui Pro Contest. It's up live now at: Maui Pro Live Streaming

Last night I uploaded some photos of our trip (starts at the bottom of the page): Maui Photos

comments()

12-7-06 3:30pm

Paul and I decided to go ahead and get hitched while we are in Maui. So it's almost official, we got our marriage license this afternoon in Lahaina. We haven't set a date yet, we'll just have to see how it goes. Our roommate Richard knows a guy who does the ceremonies so we may contact him or we may just do it at the courthouse. We'll have to see how it goes with Paul's work here.

The contest is supposed to start tomorrow and if the surf is good they may run it Friday and Saturday, in which case we'll loose our room on Monday. There is a 10 day window that they have to run the two day contest. They are actually saying that it may be too large to run on Saturday. Today the surf is big but closing out (meaning that the waves are just breaking on themselves and not good to surf) The wind plays a big part in how the waves behave and today it's pretty windy down there in Honolua Bay where the contest will run. So the length of our stay all depends on the surf and when they run the contest.

The weather here is overcast and rainy today, but still very warm. Paul and I are both not feeling too well. I started coming down with a sore throat this morning. He has to go back up to the club house today and setup the antenna and get the wireless connection down to the cliff. The cliff overlooks Honolua Bay where they will be streaming the video from. The announcers, judges, and crew will be on a platform hung off the side of the cliff.

comments()

12-7-06

There are several restaurants here on the Kapalua Resort. On the night before last we went out to sushi with some of the billabong crew. We sat with Ianick (sp?) with marketing and Pat, a photographer. Like everyone here they were really nice. We went to the Ritz Carlton (also on the Resort) afterwards for drinks at the bar and met some more of the Billabong people. I talked with a girl named Gina who does marketing for the Billabong Women's division. This contest is for the womens team so there are quite a few people from that sect of the company here.

We came back to the condos and John and I played quarters and listened to Limpopo. Later, we ran down the hill in the back down to the sand trap and made sand angles and a giant snail, then jumped in the pool before going to bed. Paul was videotaping us but decided not to join in. It was a good way to end the evening.

Yesterday I did some laundry. We have a washer and dryer in our room. Around noon, Paul and I ran some errands. We had to drive into town to go to Home Depot. There is only one road that goes around the western part of Maui and you can only go one way around it because there is a 20 mile area on the North shore which you can't drive over. It's a two lane highway and yesterday there was a rock slide so it took quite a while to get back. I was able to snap a few nice pictures though while we were waiting for them to clear the rocks.

Our roommate, Richard arrived yesterday. He works with Graphics and actually grew up here on Maui but lives in California now. He has lots of family and friends here including Hawaiian musician, Paula Fuga who I would love to meet. She has a really beautiful voice.

We went to a little barbeque last night hosted by Graham (aka "G"), Billabong's US VP at some apartments nearby. It was just a few of the Billabong crew there, I met a girl named Stacy, G's assistant, and some local Hawaiians who also help out with the Billabong events. Before the party was over a local girl and her uncle Rodney were wrestling to throw each other in the pool and the uncle succeeded but broke his tooth on the side of the pool. It was getting late and someone in the apartment came down to tell us that people were trying to sleep and we had to wrap it up. I was really tired anyway and ready to go home.

comments()

12-5-06
Kapalua Resort

We tried to sleep in a bit but the bed was a little hard. Paul almost got hit with a golf ball this morning while out on the patio smoking a cigarette. John left one of the cases at the airport and has to go pick it up. It has some of the equipment that they need to get setup. Paul is anxious to get their connection up for the event coverage. The Billabong banners are hung up around the resort advertising the upcoming event.

We have a card that we can use for food and stuff on the resort here. There are several restaurants and stores. This morning I sat out on the patio and had some soup and toast. I made friends with some little red headed birds. One of which would come up and eat bread out of my hands. There are also some myna birds. The same type that hung out at the house on Oahu. I also saw some morning doves, and sparrows. The sparrows look the same as the ones in the city in So. Cal but the morning doves have more detailed colors and patches of black and white polka dots on the sides of their necks.

Once Paul gets the connection up and ready we should have some time to play around a bit. The contest doesn't start until the 8th ( I think). I've been reading up on the different things to do here in Maui. I may go for a short walk around the area here and see what is nearby. We are in an area that is just small winding roads with condos, but there are other areas with shops and hotels not too far. I would also like to see how far it is to the beach. There are 5 bays here at Kapalua. I'm sure some of those are good for snorkeling in. The resort is surrounded by a 23,000 acre pineapple plantation. The island isn't as crowded as Oahu and the houses are nicer and more spread out here. There was a lot of traffic in Kahului, the city where the airport that we flew into is, but the city is clean with lots of vegetation everywhere. People here are very friendly too. It was probably about a 45 minute drive from the airport to Kapalua, which is on the north west side of Maui. We can see Molokai, the neighboring island from here and on the drive up we saw the island of Lanai to the south.

There are five bays here at Kapalua. I'm sure some of those are good for snorkeling in. The resort is surrounded by a 23,000 acre pineapple plantation. The island isn't as crowded as Oahu and the houses are nicer and more spread out here. There was a lot of traffic in Kahului, the city where the airport that we flew into is, but the city is clean with lots of vegetation everywhere. People here are very friendly too. It was probably about a 45 minute drive from the airport to Kapalua, which is on the north west side of Maui. We can see Molokai, the neighboring island from here and on the drive up we saw the island of Lanai to the south.

comments()

12-4-2006
Maui

I got up at 4 am and had some coffee and oatmeal. I was supposed to wake up Paul around 4:20 I lost track of what time we were supposed to leave and didn't wake him until 4:45. We rushed to get ready and hit some traffic on the 405 coming into LA. We were worried we wouldn't make the flight. John met us at the terminal and hired a sky cap to help with the loads of bags and video/wireless equipment. We still had to run to make the flight.

We arrived in Oahu around 11:30 local time after a 5 hour flight. Then took another flight to Maui about an hour later. The flight to Maui only took about 20 minutes. We picked up rental cars paid for by Billabong and stopped at the store for food and beer on the way to the resort. We are staying in a two bedroom condo on the golf course, facing the ocean at the Kapalua Resort. Our roommate, Richard, who is from Maui but who lives on the mainland now won't arrive until Wednesday so for now we have the place to ourselves. The other 3 guys have a condo just a couple of doors down.

After we arrived I took a quick dip in the pool which is right next to our condo. The sunset was very pretty and our view here is of the trees around the golf course but from the pool you can see the ocean. The water was cool and refreshing compared to the hot humid Hawaii weather. We have a Jacuzzi tub adjacent to our room which I took advantage of after the pool. It's only 8:30 now but 10:30 our time and we're both really tired so were just spending a quite evening here watching TV. I'm going to turn in soon and catch up on some sleep.

comments()

Previous Blog>>

Blog

Blog Archives