Saturday

Happy Birthday Mom and Diann. It was a little cool outside today, so no garage sales. My neighbor was having her gardner change out some plantings out front, so she gave me a few plants that I replanted - some out front and some in the back. I made a little boquet of fresh freesias and lavendar and it smelled devine. Good little centerpiece for my table.

Last night was the debut of The Nileistics at Mission Coffee.

There was a big crowd! Everyone had a good time!
We got there really early because it took Will a long time to figure out stage logistics and to set up his drums. While we were there, it rained while the sun was out, and there was an accident down the street (pedestrian hit by car). People really need to be careful and look out for pedestrians. I'm often a ped, and I see how people don't even look for pedestrians. This is the police cars lined up while they were out directing traffic and checking out the accident. The hills were bright green, the sky was dark, but the sun was out. The brown spot above the roof of the building on the hill is the slide on Mission Peak that happened in 1998. (http://www.ci.fremont.ca.us/Environment/MissionPeakLandslide/Default.htm).

Friday - Pictures, Band Gigs, Cats, Etc.

Today is Friday, March 14th, 2008. Tomorrow is my Mom's birthday. The card is in the mail - Happy Birthday, Mom! I have something for you, but I'm a little late, but late is fun because when your birthday celebrating is over, there's still something else.

Tomorrow is also Diann's birthday. Happy Birthday, Diann. I used to be great at remembering birthdays but while I do write them down, I always forget to transfer them from one calendar to the next, so it's like not writing it down. Will and I have an ongoing battle - he keeps his calendar and address book on his computer, and mine is on paper. I think mine works best because I don't have to turn on my copmputer to get the information, but this is where it breaks down. Maybe he won't read my blog today! Ha Ha! Well, it's easy to remember Diann's birthday since it's the same day as my Mom's!

Yesterday's weather was much cooler than it's been here, but it was still a nice day.

Look at the lighting on the hills, with the sun on parts and shade on others. The dark clouds didn't produce much more than sprinkles. I love that we can see the second story of that red barn-looking house from our house.

Next week is officially spring. As I've said before, Will thinks March 1 is Spring, but he's wrong. Especially in other parts of our beautiful country. Georgetown, CO got new snow and is 7 degrees, and that's fahrenheit.

Jackson Hole is gorgeous with new snow. Yesterday it looked slushy and rainy, but at one point I could actually see the snow falling in town.

Eisenhower tunnel seems to get the most snow of the places I check. It's high elevation.

And now onto another topic. You've seen the pictures of the huge cat on the internet that everyone thinks is fake. Well this one is real. I know because I took it. It's Will (incognito) and Alex. Alex prefers to get his human love while on a human's lap, but sometimes a cat has to pose for pictures, and in this house, that occurs often. Sorry, Al.
Here is a picture of Will's feet with the socks Diann knitted for her husband, but he didn't like them, so she put them away for a long time intending to someday rip them and make something else, but when we were at her house she asked if Will would like them. He tried them on, and they have become his favorite socks! At least in winter when he wears socks. Maybe spring, too! That's Will's feet, Mowry on my lap, and a Warriors/Suns game that sadly, the Warriors lost. I like the Suns, but Warriors first.
Here are the socks without the other "distractions".
I got a new haircut. I tried to take my own picture, and while you can't really see the haircut (a little longer in front and shorter in back), I thought it was a kick, and slightly incognito.

Imagine what I could do if I had long, monkey arms.

Look at the weeds on our driveway. I don't do poison. Period. End of story. No discussion. But I did get out there with tools and I got rid of much of this. I don't have an "after" picture, but trust me!

And I almost forgot...tonight is the debut of Will's band, the Nileistics!!!! Good luck and have fun! I'll be there with my camera!

Pictures: Good, Bad & Ugly, or Beauty & the Beast

It's another beautiful day in Fremont, but our city planning commission has approved things that are anything but pretty. They've bugged me for awhile, and now there's somewhere I can whine about it - HERE!

First, THE GOOD:

Alex to the left, Mowry on the windowsill and Cinders in front - closer than I've seen them and ever been able to photograph.

Cinders is scared of Mowry, so this is a special few minutes of them together and long enough to be captured in a picture!

Our favorite farm at Walnut and Guardino is not yet open for the season, but Mr. Ramirez was spotted by me the other day on his antique tractor, so it won't be long before he plants.

Street sign down our block.

Daffodils in our yard planted by the former owner.

Busy Mission Boulevard in an unusual moment between lights when there were no cars besides us (taken from the car window - not to worry, I wasn't driving).

The buildings for the Schools for the Blind and Deaf by Walnut and Cherry are set back with grass so they aren't intrusive and are actually pretty.

Three cats eating together.

Cows surrounding the Niles sign.

And now, THE BAD and THE UGLY:Hideous building on Walnut and Civic Center that is right up to the sidewalk. Unlike the Schools for the Blind and Deaf that have setback, this is both bad and ugly. The PG&E truck just happened to be there when I was about to snap the picture, so I didn't wait for it to turn, but left it in the picture for Diann, who contracts for PG&E.

What was the city thinking when they approved a change from a funky house (used to be white but has been painted orange and can be seen in the picture below) where someone lived, to a hideous used car lot on the corner of Mowry Avenue and Mission Boulevard?

Saturday

I love this picture of Alex and Mowry. Cinders was also at the window sill, but on the other side, so she didn't get into the picture. (The other side of the window sill, not outside on the other side of the window!).

It's another beautiful spring-like day. Will thinks March 1 IS spring in California, but I know it's around March 20th, so we have a few days left, not to mention that sometimes it's cold in spring. In fact, on March 11, 2006, it snowed in the hills above Fremont. I have pictures, but our server is down, so no pictures this post unless they are from the internet. I may add pictures once the server is back up. OK, server back up.

Today we went to some garage sales and the flea market at the local college and met Ken and Diann there and had a burger at the burger place across the street. Will then proceeded to don a painter's suit thing to crawl under the house to check to see if our foundation is bolted or not. It's not. I have pictures.

Erin helped my Dad upgrade his dial-up service to one that is five times faster. We'll see if that works, and if not, it may be time for DSL. THANK YOU, Erin, for helping your grandpa. She called to tell me it seems to be working, and she showed him how to save something as a favorite and to click on favorites, so hopefully he'll be reading this blog soon!

My neighbor gave me seeds and little cuttings of the Hardenbergia, also known as the Purple Coral Pea. I see it growing all around Fremont, and it looks hardy and doesn't seem to need too much care. It grows near the freeway on Mission Blvd! It has green leaves all year long, and pretty little purple flowers when it blooms in late winter. We'll see if it grows.

She also gave me a few purple daisy plants that are taking over her lovely yard. She thinks her yard needs work, but I think it's beautiful. I think this is the flower she gave me. I put two in a pot, and one along the fence.
Our next door neighbor's lemon tree is growing into our pineapple guava tree. I just noticed this the other day, so we may have some trimming to do. Or not! Maybe they will produce pineapple guava lemons??? Ha!

Friday

It's Friday. No ranting today. Today is a beautiful day! The sun is out (well amidst some clouds and haze), the cats are in their places, and it's Friday!

Our city recently had contractors do work on trees invading sidewalks and when they were done, at least with ours, it was dirt and a few rocks. I don't remember what was there before, but this was ugly. Yesterday I moved one of my lavendar bushes that didn't seem like it was getting enough sun or water or both, and I planted a succulent that faces the street so you can't really see it. Hopefully these will grow. Myneighbor who is 91 and works in her beautiful front and back yards whenever she can, called over to me when she saw me planting - "don't plant too much". I know what she meant - if it grows, it will fill in!

The succulent was growing at my townhouse when I bought it in 1992, and I took some of it to Will's house when I moved there, and then I took a few back when we moved back to the townhouse, and now I took a few with us when we moved from the townhouse to this house.
This is what it looks like, but I don't know its name.
The sunset last night was gorgeous. You can barely see the guy over our back fence's weathervane, trees and some ugly telephone poles that look pretty with the sunset as a backdrop!

And yet another picture of Niles Blvd. The clock reminds me of Disneyland, and the buildings remind me of a model train town. When we took Amtrak to and from Sacramento, that's exactly what Niles Blvd. looked like from the train - a toy town.

Wednesday Rant and Pictures When I'm Done!

What is it with people? Why are they so weird? Why can't people simply hit "reply" to an email message and respond? (I'm not counting my father, who is just learning how to use a laptop and is having connection issues). It's rude. Unfortunately, the people to whom I am referring don't read this blog, but it feels good to rant anyway.

People send me stupid jokes and long, boring stories usually about how bad men are (and I know they aren't just sending this to me, even if they are clever enough to put it in a "bcc" so I don't see the other 50 people it was sent to, but usually they aren't that clever), and if I hit "reply" and send a message saying "hey, how are you, it's been awhile since we've corresponded...blah blah blah" I get nothing. Sometimes I do it as a test, and each one passes my test. Or fails it, depending on how you look at it.

Then there are the people who don't send me stuff, but who just don't respond to my messages. Maybe you're thinking, "Joan, maybe they just don't like you", but these are the same people who are so happy to see me and usually make a point of saying "I only read my email about once a week." So either you have 100 or more messages when you do finally read your email, and mine isn't as important as the rest, or you think reading it and not responding is keeping in touch. WHATEVER!

Is it that hard to keep in touch with people? I think these people either have a list that they created a long time ago of "friends" they think will love the same crap they love, or maybe they create the list each time. Sometimes the stuff they send is interesting, funny, amusing, etc., but sometimes not. AND, I'm guessing they think they are keeping in touch when they send this stuff, even if there isn't even a message with it that says something like "hi, hope you enjoy this" to fool us into thinking they are sending this just to us. Sometimes there is a short (two words or so) message with the stuff, but if someone (me) decides to take this opportunity to reply to say hello, how rude are you to not respond? Are you really that busy, important, or whatever? I think not! Especially since it's not that hard, and does not take that long to hit "reply" - yes, there's a button for you - you don't even have to create your own message, which would take at least 5 seconds longer - and type in a few words such as "hey, good to hear from you. Not much going on. Keep in touch. Your name." You do know how to type your name, right?

It's really tempting to list names here (first only!) since they don't read this, but you know who you are, so I won't waste any more of my precious time on any of you! Yes, I'm busy, important, whatever, too!!!!

Thank you for "listening". And now for the fun part - PICTURES!

Places everyone.............

Cinders on our bed

Alex in "his" room

Mowry on the loveseat recliner in the TV room (looking sleepy)

And a surprise ... Cinders went behind my monitor last night because Mow wasn't in "his" spot! I don't think I've ever seen her here!

One more picture of pink (from the previous post) - a tree down the block from us with beautiful pink blossoms that I drive by often, but forget to photograph. It's far prettier live.

And a beatiful scene from I Street facing the Niles sign after going to the library (that is only open on Tuesdays!) after a nasty visit to a new dentist - don't get me started on our old one, but suffice it to say that I've never had a dentist yell at his assistant while their hands were working in my mouth, and why didn't he catch these old fillings that needed to be replaced by bigger fillings or caps - I saw the pictures with a cool camera they put in my mouth to photograph, so it's not a scam.

Friday Colors in Nature

It's February 29th - a leap year! We're having nice weather, although it was very overcast this morning and only in the mid afternoon did the sun show up. There are so many beautiful colors in nature. It's almost spring.

In our yard - which is your favorite?

Purple/blue hyacinth and white alyssum (with green leaves):

Yellow Lemon Tree (with green leaves): Orange Orchids (with green leaves):
Yellow Freesias (with green leaves):
White blossoms on the plum tree:
White camelias (with green leaves):

Pink Camelias (with green leaves):
White daisies with yellow centers (and green leaves):Pink variegated geraniums (with green leaves):
I never remember the names of these, but they come in many colors:

Purple lavender (and not part of nature, but a pink flamingo!):I also don't know the name of this plant, but I love this picture with the pink flowers in the foreground, and the green hills with the Niles sign in the background.Not in our yard, but pink blossoms, green hills, and green trees.

And of course, more orange: