TGIF - and not the restaurant!

It's been a slow work week (by choice) but I've got one new contract for next week, and a possible second depending on what comes up after they review their project. So that is why I've taken it slow this week. That is a favorite saying of my 84 year old father - "Take it slow".

This allowed us to walk into town yesterday afternoon after I spent a miserable hour at the dentist's office getting my new crown - I'm royalty now with a crown, but I digress. There is going to be a new plaza n our town and yesterday at 4 pm was a groundbreaking ceremony and party. The speeches were the predictable boring speeches by city officials, but we had good food supplied by local restaurants, a cake and entertainment. There was our usual performance by Michael McNevin http://www.michaelmcnevin.com/, or as I call him "Mr. Niles" who is a talented guitarist and songwriter who writes songs about our town, and a performance by the California Repercussions - a fabulous marching band http://www.repercussions.com/.

The old bus used for the Niles Canyon Railway shuttle, the Niles Canyon Railway train and the Niles sign were all captured in this picture.

They even had a cake with the plan for the plaza on it.

The birds are busy with their nest in our backyard noted in a previous post - it's quite a masterpiece and fun to watch. Our cats are curious, and are all kept indoors, so the birds are not in any danger from our cats.

This morning was busy - we had a small cat fight in the office. Mowry was going up the "cat stairs" and Cinders was on the desk and if you look closely, you'll see she's got her ears pinned back and you can almost hear the hissing eminating from her little mouth. She hisses without much provocation, but an approaching cat, even one she knows, or maybe especially one she knows, is a sure catalyst. Sometimes they share space and there are no fights - notice Alex sitting upright, Cinders relaxed on a cat bed on top of the stereo, and Mowry peeking over the computer monitor.

Pictures of things around the house...

I usually take a book with me when I take BART to SF, but today I took my knitting. I'm working on the sock again, but I also had to do some ripping, so maybe I need to be at home concentrating more when I work on it!

Look at how the tomato plant has grown. The picture on the left (the tomato plant is the big one to the right of the small pot with the flowers) was taken today, and the one on the right was taken in April 2007. I'm yet to get an edible tomato, but some look good on there now. Hopefully more watering has solved the cracking bottom problem. You can see a tomato on the left toward the bottom on the left above the brick.

This is the cat next door. He LOVES us. He has brought us dead birds, which we discourage. Mice and other rodents are okay, but we like the birds, especially the songbirds. He is gray, adorable and greets us daily by first a meow and then his presence, sometimes running from wherever he hangs out across the street. He blends with the driveway, which is also gray, and he's yawning in the picture, not growling like it appears. Not a great picture, but the only one I have of him. His name is KandyMan - they named him Kandy when they thought he was a female, but then found out he was a male. Mom, Dad, the kid and animals all have names with K, so to keep with the tradition, we call him "Killer". The woman who owned our house before us did not like cats, so even though we don't feed him (he's the ideal pet - we don't feed him, have a litter box or take him to the vet because he's not ours!), he must be so happy we like him.

The birds have decided to build a nest outside our TV/family room out back above a bamboo shade we never pull down. The wire in the picture is the TV cable. I hope the birds are safe from Killer/KandyMan (see above).

Back to knitting. I have a few projects I need to finish! More about them soon.

Baseball, Opera and other things

We got invited by our neighbor to use two tickets that were going unused for a local production of Miss Saigon, and for a potluck dinner beforehand with friends from her church. She promised they weren't "real churchy". We met new people, and Will even met one of the founders of his fraternity there, ate good food, and the play was excellent! It was at an outside theater, but we didn't know that beforehand. Will keeps a big heavy denim blanket in his van that I keep asking why it's there, and that big blanket in the van kept three of us warm enough to stay through the whole production. I won't be asking why it's in the van any moer! We also found out how fast we could get ready including shower and dressing with so little warning since she called at 5 pm and we left here at 5:45 pm!

Today we went to an A's game (Oakland Athletics vs. Seattle Mariners). It was the 60th birthday of someone we know from when I get to take the train to Silicon Valley. A group has become friends and I am their honorary member since I only get to take the train when I have a client down there and the time is right. It's kind of like aligning the moon and stars, but I try to take the train whenever possible. We had a tailgate party with tons of food, all of it good. We were able to take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and let our friends who drove schlepp our chairs. It's too easy to take BART to drive, and if the A's do move to Fremont, our city would be STUPID to do it without direct BART access, but somehow I don't know that that will happen. There's some talk of a shuttle to/from the stadium to/from BART, but now we get off BART, walk down a special overpass and like magic, we're in the stadium. You've already got an example of what works, why wouldn't you do it and do it even better? But I digress.

The A's lost. There was a fight with both benches unloading, the A's pitcher getting ejected, but no information for the crowd, so we'll have to watch the news tonight to find out what we saw. The umpires couldn't decide on how to call the controversial play but in the end, it was in the Seattle Mariners' favor and while they umps were deciding, a few Seattle Mariners started fighting amongst themselves. Security was quick on the draw to line up along the field in case the crowd misbehaved, but it was the players misbehaving. Silly overpaid little boys setting bad examples for the children in the crowd and watching the game on TV. This picture was from my camera phone that I emailed to myself and it's the fight. It's small and I can't make it bigger, but this is the first time I've emailed myself a picture from my camera phone, so that's cool. I just hope Cingular (who sucks by the way) doesn't charge me body parts (as in an arm and a leg) to do this! I brought my knitting (the sock a few posts ago that I got to the heal but had to rip it, so I'm back to just the cuff part) but I didn't open my knitting either at the potluck tailgate or at the game).

The plum tree drops MANY plums daily. I picked up over 100 one day. I brought some to the game today! As I was standing to take this picture, several fell down. Standing under the plum tree this time of year is not a good idea.

We responded to an ad for a two-person swing set that someone nearby was giving away because they got new patio furniture and their homeowners' association was giving them grief about this swing (I remember those days, but I was usually the board member giving the person grief for not conforming to simple association rules, but I digress again). Will called and they said it was still available so we went and got it. It's disassembled, as you can see, but we're hoping Will can put it together, possibly with the help of this picture from http://www.lowes.com/ and maybe a friend's help.


Before (large picture with parts standing on its side)
and After (Small picture from the lowes website)

Fourth of July - Independence Day

It's the 4th of July. This year it takes on new meaning with a war in Iraq and my niece having served there. This year it was our town's turn to host our city's parade. I'm not sure if I've ever been to a July 4th parade, but we were able to walk to this one, so it was a must. We got there early and staked out a spot in the shade two blocks away - the parade actually started on our street, but two blocks down. The streets were soon packed. We found out later that some of the balloons couldn't go down the street we were on because of power lines, so they caught up later and we missed them, including the balloons our friend helped carry.

There were floats and balloons and old cars like this one that the Mayor rode in. I'm told it's a 1956 Oldsmobile! Will has taught me to appreciate 1950s cars. What incredible colors!

Our town used to have many biker bars and antique stores,

but they are down to only a few bars, and few antique stores, but still quite a few. The Harley riders gathered and started the parade.

Watching the older vets were particularly touching.

I am an editor at heart - I can find a typo ANYWHERE, except, of course, in my own work. Someone actually made a typo writing their sign. Can you see the typo? It's a little blurry, but "Your Healh Matters" is probably supposed to be "Your Health Matters". SHEESH!

The pooper scoopers who followed the horses got a big applause from the crowd!

The mini-bus from AC Transit was one of my favorites, even if it
is an advertisement! Look at the people peering over the top to
see the size!

This was a fun parade! It got hot later in the day, but it was perfect in the shade! All the colors, enthusiasm, etc. was wonderful!

Sunday - Trains and Knitting and Cleaning

This Sunday is cleaning day. Yuck, but it's gotta be done. I'm stalling. I gave my neighbor plums from our tree and she returned the dish with cookies! What a gem! She lives by herself and tomorrow is her 91st birthday! She broke her hip dancing last year and she's done so well recovering! What an inspiration!

We volunteered for the Niles Canyon Railway and it was sunny, but even with a hat, the sun wipes me out! Adorable kids all excited about the train! We even got to see one long Amtrak with a special dome car, and two freight trains go by. This is why people can't cross the tracks, though some that aren't very smart, try. We don't know when the other trains are coming by.

Yesterday I took some cat pics - look how BIG Alex is! He takes up much of the treadmill! And Mowry blends with the carpet. The carpet used to be throughout the house, but we took it out and had the wood floors below the carpet refinished. The carpet is now in the sunroom. Mowry is hiding under the green cart left by the former owner - it's retro and holds the stereo in the sunroom.

My heirloom tomato plant is out of control. We're watering it more now so hopefully we'll get tomatoes we can eat. The earlier tomatoes were cracking and weren't edible. The first picture of the tomato plant was taken on June 9th, and the one with me in it was taken today, July 1st - much bigger in just under one month!

Nature Woman Not so Much?

I love my yard. Can you tell from my pictures? You know we have some critters eating our avocadoes, and we thought they were cute (relatively cute) raccoons, but today when I was picking up leaves from our neighbor's HUGE magnolia tree I came across something furry under one of the plants and I ran screaming. Of course the door was locked (I came thru the door on the other side of the sunroom and was too scared to go back that way and go by the creature) and of course Will, who had been in the sunroom only moments earlier, was gone. Probably where all good men go, to the bathroom. He came back an hour later (OK, it was probably under a minute, but seemed like an hour) and looked closer (men ARE braver) and said it was not only a possum (or is it oppossum) , but it was clearly dead. While raccoons can be cute, possums are disgusting, and dead possums are the most disgusting. Luckily it is only 4 pm so I called the city and got the shelter and they transferred me to Animal Control and they are sending someone out. So if I ever said anything about our city being incompetant, I take it back. They rock! Euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Sure makes the cats look EVEN cuter. (Had to sneak in a cat picture for contrast). Mowry is hiding and sleeping under the bedroom curtains!

Money doesn't grow on trees.....

... but fruit does! A close up of the plums on our tree!









This rose bush is out of control! I trim it so it isn't above the party fence separating us from our neighbors and it grows back an hour later (or so it seems).

Sometimes this blog can be so difficult. Posting pictures can be a pain, unless you don't care where the pictures go! I even deleted verbage and it still appeared. I've deleted all and now I've started over.

The tree in the picture is an avocado tree. We have two, but this is the only one that produces avocadoes. Notice the two avocadoes that have been chewed on by critters that we think are raccoons. We find at least two on the ground each day. I can't tell if they remain on the tree until the wind blows them down, or if they fall down as soon as the critters chew them. Probably both.


When we first moved here we had around 5 grocery bags full of avocadoes to share with friends and neighbors. Come to think of it, no one told us how good (or bad) the avocadoes were, so we don't know their fate, but we pick a few each week, put them in a brown paper bag until the ripen and eat them! They aren't the dark skinned Haas avocadoes, but they come from our tree and are good with other things!









I got some knitting done on my third pair of socks - they are looking to be the nicest! I love the color and texture.