California Dreamin'

What a great week! I love San Diego. Lots of nice peeps, great eats, fabulous freeways, oh, the outlet malls! We shopped, we ate, we slept, all the things a good vacation is made of. California is wonderful.


I had a reunion with my friend Linda from Hawaii days who lives in San Diego. We hadn't seen each other in 27 years but picked right up where we left off. How cool is that!


The resort we stayed at more than lived up to any expectations we might have had. It was bee-yoo-tee-full! Clean, quiet and a lush green tropical setting across the street from the ocean.



We love the Outlet Malls and we've been to the best. We tried a new one a little further north than last year's trip and it was even better! Across the street was a casino and you know what that means! Buffet! Cheap! All you can eat!



Breakfast at the beach..........the concierage at the hotel recommended a place along the beach to go for breaky and he was right, best food around. Loved it so much we went there 3 out of 5 mornings. Great coffee too.


We went back to Mission Beach and found John's bench again. Isn't it amazing? The only bench along the beach that's named for anyone in big letters. Every other bench has a small plaque in memory of whomever donated the bench but John's? Big bold letters. I think it's a gift from God for my brother because nobody loved the beach more than him.

Home again.......back to the strike looming over our heads. It sucks. I'm afraid for all of us. I don't think a strike favours anyone and it just breaks down relationships between everyone.

California Here We Come

We're off to Seattle today and spending the weekend. On Monday we're going to California! We're so ready for a get-away. It's been a stressful month or so.......everyday is so uncertain at work, not knowing if 'today's the day' we walk out on strike, lots of stuff up in the air, clients are uneasy, office is tense and drivers are stressed.



We were in San Diego last April for a few days before our cruise and decided we'd like to go back and just spend a week because it's so nice. Friendly people, lots of beach, fun stuff to go and check out and lots of shopping. We love shopping. Shopping good. Good.



Chris and I love to go away together and just hang out. It gives us a chance to reconnect and reflect on life together. As it's Thanksgiving weekend we're reminded and grateful of all that God has given us.




Happy Thanksgiving!

The Many Smiles of Baby Easton

The World’s Funniest Real Ads

Believe it or not, these ads actually found their way into newspapers all over the world:

Braille dictionary for sale. Must see to appreciate.

FOR SALE BY OWNER: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. 45 volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000.00 or best offer. No longer needed. Got married last weekend. Wife knows everything.

Help wanted, singer for rock band. Must be female or male.

For sale, Hope Chest, brand new, half off, long story.

Lost: small brown poodle. Reward. Neutered. Like one of the family.

For sale: a quilted high chair that can be made into a table, potty chair, rocking horse, refrigerator, spring coat, size 8 and fur collar.

Four-posted bed, 101 years old. Perfect for antique lover.

Man wanted to work in dynamite factory. Must be willing to travel.

Christmas sale. Handmade gifts for the hard-to- find person.

Three-year old teacher needed for pre-school. Experience preferred.

Wanted. Widower with school-age children requires person to assume general housekeeping duties. Must be capable of contributing to growth of family.

Tired of working for only $9.75 per hour? We offer profit sharing and flexible hours. Starting pay: $7 -- $9 per hour.

Our sofa seats the whole mob and it’s made of 100% Italian leather.

Full sized mattress. 20 year warranty. Like New. Slight urine smell.

Nordic Track $300 hardly used, call Chubby.

Joining nudist colony! Must sell washer and dryer $300.

Open house body shapers toning salon free coffee and donuts.

Found: dirty white dog. Looks like a rat... been out while. Better be reward.

Exercise equipment: Queen Size Mattress & Box Springs - $175.

ALZHEIMER'S CENTER PREPARES FOR AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER.

Free Yorkshire Terrier: 8 years old. Hateful little dog.

Free puppies: ½ cocker spaniel, ½ sneaky neighbor’s dog.

Free puppies: part German Shepherd, part stupid dog.

German Shepherd, 85 lbs. Neutered. Speaks German. Free.

Snow Blower for sale…only used on snowy days.

Bill’s Septic Cleaning: “We Haul American-Made Products."

Cows, calves never bred…also 1 gay bull for sale.

Nice Parachute – Never opened. Used once.

1 man, 7 women hot tub. $850/offer.

Shakespeare’s Pizza. Free chopsticks.

New Digs

Weekend at Harrison

Some pics of our weekend away with BB. We stayed at the Resort and had a fabulous time as always. Weather was great and we laughed a lot and came home and said, "I can't wait to do that again next year!"

Funny story. Years ago I attended a large Pentecostal church pastored by 2 lady Pastors. One of them was always trying to play match maker. She loved nothing more than to see young people she had nurtured in the faith get together, marry and produce children for the Sunday School.

One girl, Kathy comes to mind. Kathy walked with a limp and was a little self-conscious about her disability but Pastor V kept on telling her she was praying that God would send just the right man into her life. Kathy had a bit of an attitude and said, "well, just so you know if God wants me to get married He knows my address and He better just send someone to me because I'm not going out there looking."

Sometime later Kathy was living in a basement suite in a house owned by a lady who attended the church and liked to have girls she knew from church rent the suite. Before Kathy came Virginia. Before Virginia there was me.

Anyways.......Virginia had moved out but not all of her friends knew that. One Saturday night when Kathy was home, there was a knock at the door and a young guy was standing there who knew Virginia and was hoping to visit with her. He had caught a ride into town and gotten dropped off so he was there for the evening. Not knowing what else to do Kathy invited him in.

Yup, God knew her address and knew who to send her way. It wasn't long before Kathy and the guy who dropped in to see an old friend got married.

Saturday I was in Harrison Hot Springs and I saw them together. They've been married 20 years.

Poops and Poodles

A very proper man started going into the neighborhood drug store every week and buying 2 dozen boxes of condoms. Week after week, he would come in with the same order. One day, the druggist felt he had to say something to the man.

"Wow! You must have the stamina of a bull. Talk about getting lucky! How on earth do you use that many condoms a week?"

The man looked at him in disgust and said, "I beg your pardon, but I find the whole idea of sex repulsive!"

So, the druggist asked, "Then what do you do with all those condoms?"

The gentleman answered, "I feed them to my poodle and now she poops in little plastic bags."

DIVORCE VS. MURDER

A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the Pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, "I would like to buy some Cyanide."

The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"

The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, "Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail!

All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied,

"Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

Pastor's wife has surgery to ensure permanent smile

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Debbie Randolph, wife of Don Randolph, pastor of Eagle Creek Presbyterian Church, says she used to spend all week exercising her cheek muscles to prepare for Sunday's smiling marathon.
That changed Monday when Debbie became the first woman in the country to undergo surgery that puts a fixed smile on her face. The novel procedure means she will never have to worry about "whether or not I'm smiling for the duration of Sunday morning."
"It's my duty to smile," she says. "When I'm not projecting that joy of the Lord, I'm letting people down, no matter how crappy I feel."
Before, when sheer willpower kept the smile on her face, her cheeks would be too tender to touch by Monday.
At other times, people have come to the door during the week and caught her not smiling, to her horror.
Now, with a smile firmly in place, Debbie can think about other things. Asked how she conveys other emotions, she said she signals to her husband with hand movements if she's sad or angry.
"But that isn't often," she says, smiling. •

Chris got a new car! Actually its an SUV but it's really really pretty and she let me drive it! Did I say how pretty it is? It has all the bells and whistles. She's going away this weekend, maybe I'll take it for a drive while she's gone. Sounds like fun to me.





Chris is really good at making things fun around here. Kinda like the time she tried to fix the plumbing up at the cottage.









Or was it the time she tried to rig up a hot tub just for fun?









Actually she did get a brand spanking new car, it's a VW Tiguan (It Tiguan to know one) and it is really really pretty and a lot of fun to drive especially when you play with the sun roof at the same time. And she IS going away this weekend and leaving it behind. But I'm going to Victoria with BB to see Paul so I think it's safe. But you never know.

Sleepless in Seattle

We went to Seattle on Saturday for the Seahawks game. Well I didn't go for the game, I went for the shopping and hanging out in Seattle. Not going to waste my time at a football game. Are you nuts? Leave it to the nutty ones for that (not mentioning any names).

It was a great weekend. We booked into a hotel downtown and after a quick bite to eat, C and D headed to the game and I headed straight to the mall. Everything was in walking distance which made it perfect for all of us. I love downtown Seattle. It's like Vancouver but nicer. Or maybe because Vancouver's home it doesn't seem as nice to me as it does to tourists.

I shopped a little, ate great Mexican food, drank a fabulous Margarita on the rocks, and went outside and listened to music and watched people. After it started getting a little dark I walked to the hotel and watched a movie.

Seahawks won the game and in walked C and D all happy! yeah hawks!

We stayed in a room that was 'Victorian' in style but it really was like the inside of a circus tent. Everything was striped. Even the bathroom. It was like being in the inside of hat box. Or a popcorn box.

And then the fun began. We turned off the lights to go to sleep and just at the point where everyone's drifting off........the TV came on and then went off. What the ??? And a few minutes later just after the heart rate's gone down......it does it again! How weird is that!

Things that make you go mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............had to go shopping at the Outlet mall Sunday to get it off my mind.

Now that we've sold the cottage we're thinking of different things to do with the money. Cruising comes to mind. This one is a great deal. I don't know, what do you think?

SOLD!

And just like that (with a snap of the fingers) we sold the cottage! My mom and I drove up to the cottage on Saturday morning. xChris and Diana had driven up Friday night. Early Sat morning someone knocked on the door and there was a realtor with a couple wanting to see the place. They came in, walked around and were very enthusiastic.





Sunday afternoon we decided to take a drive to Green lake and find a place to sit and enjoy the lake.





We packed up chairs, beach umbrella, floaties, cold drinks, the dog and away we went.




We had the most perfect 4 hours at the lake. We decided rather than eating out at a restaurant on the way back we'd just drive to the cottage.




When we got back there was a note on the door from our realtor telling us there was an offer written up and to call her ASAP. It was a good offer but not quite what we were wanting to get. BUT we have a whole cottage full of furnishings we need to dispose of and so with the counter offer we offered the goods.



It was accepted and they were pleased to get the furnishings as well. The deal closes on Aug 17 and they take possession on the 28th. On one hand it's a little sad but on the other a big relief. My mom was happy she could be there for the event and get to see the place one more time. It just felt like God's hand was on us and the timing couldn't have been better.

A chapter of our lives closes and a new chapter begins.

Time For An Update

We're off to the cottage this weekend along with Bad Betty and Diana. Chris is spending the week (lucky her) and the 3 of us are driving home after the long weekend.






It's been hotter than hot this past week and a real struggle to keep cool while driving a sauna on wheels.

Just enjoying settling into our new home and meeting new people in our building and trying new places to eat and stay cool seems to keep us busy. We are loving it here and the accessibility to everything. An easy walk to go and get produce for example, farm fresh, good stuff. We walk everywhere and because I'm still on an 830/430 shift we get home around the same time and have the whole evening together. Lots of fun.


The boys have settled in well although the heat this week hasn't made them happy. We did keep them enclosed in the bedroom with the A/C on to keep them cool but they don't like being penned in.

Bad Betty celebrated her 83rd birthday on Wednesday so we took her out for schnitzel and white wine. It's her fave so why not? Works for us too.

OK, I'm outta here. Seeya next week!

About the Emails............

I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past years. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.

I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel or have them put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking ones nose (although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot).

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of Trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's Novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with four thighs and no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

THANKS TO YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans.

I no longer use Saran Wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face.... Disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore, and Uzbekistan .

THANKS TO YOU I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can't ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can't do any gardening because I'm afraid I'll get bitten by the brown recluse and my hand will fall off.

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. Tomorrow afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbour's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician . . .

Oh, by the way.....

A German scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late.

________________________________

Night Out With The Dog

What a great night! Barb and I went to see Dog the Bounty Hunter. He was truly inspirational and I felt very blessed to have been a part of his night here in Vancouver. What I heard was a testimony of God's grace and forgiveness in someone's life. Listening to God's still small voice speaking to you and knowing that what you're doing is exactly what God wants you to be doing, where you are is exactly where God wants you, who you're with is who God designed for you.