We survived our first visit to Comic Con and the girl’s first real “geek” convention. They both enjoyed it, collected all sorts of cool freebies and posters and bought all sorta of manga and anime type of goodies.

From my own perspective, the sheer number of people amazed me, despite having done some really big sci fi/fantasy conventions in the past, such as World Con and DragonCon. This was also much more main stream in some ways, with the heavy presence of movie and TV studios as well as toy and computer game manufactures. I think it loses fun when it takes ages and ages to accomplish simple thing, such as walking from one booth to another, due to the mobs of people.

At one point we were sort of trapped in the triangle of hell. One corner had the cast of Big Bang Theory signing autographs, with hordes of people trying to get close, take pictures or just breath in that general direction. Corner two had the folks from the TV series 24 doing autographs, and another mob of insane folks. Finally, corner 3 was G4, a cable game station, doing a live feed of the convention from a two story booth with live cameras on the top floor and TV people encouraging the crowd to flock around to be on TV and cheer for the cameras.

We couldn’t go any direction and the press of people got to a point where I was frightened and trying to protect Becca from being crushed. (Joe and Megan were back in the hotel at this time.) I now totally understand how people can be crushed to death in a frenzied crowd. Not fun.

On happier notes, I did enjoy a lot and especially enjoyed how much fun Becca and Megan were having. I learned the 1960′s British TV show “The Prisoner” is being re-done as a mini series by BBC. That should be very cool. They were making photo ID cards for people and assigning them their numbers, then welcoming them to the village. I am not sure how many people “got it”, since even the people promoting the show were far too young to have ever seen the show.

We also learned they will be re-making the show V, about the “visitors” from outer space, from the 1980s. Again though, I felt very old, as the people promoting it, had not been alive when it was first shown on TV! LOL!

Steam punk has become very popular and I saw a lot more than I had seen in the past, which I thought was fun.

Oh and I saw a comic book publisher trying to do the Robert Jordan “Wheel of Time” series in comic book form. That should only take about a million issues to fully illustrate!

And then there was the scary long-haired guy who was naked except for a strategically placed soda can on a rope. What the heck was up with that? He was certainly getting attention. Becca declared him “wrong on so many levels!” I had to agree and was glad she was not there alone!

We only went the one day, so I can’t really report on panels or movie or TV premiers. To even see things like the pimping of Iron Man 2, or Avatar, you had to wait in lines for hours and hours, just to get a seat. I just don’t care enough anymore to get into doing that outdoors in 85+ heat with mega humidity. I can wait and read about it in the paper the next day!

Over all, it was a fun trip and we all had a good time. And both girls would like to attend again next year, but for the full 4 days! Can you buy energy drinks by the case? *grin*

So, I quit my job. Yeah, I am nuts, but it was just getting too insane and stressful and I realized I have the time and ability to retrain so I might make more than $30K a year, which is so low, we qualify for low income school lunches for the kids! I am hoping to focus on certification in database administration in Oracle as well as learning to properly program in Java, not just do hacks to existing code.

In sorta related news, Legoland California had a job opening for Master Builders. You know, the people that build all the cool buildings and stuff you see at the amusement parks? So I just had to apply. I knew 5 zillion people would apply, they even advertised the job opening on the San Diego nightly news. So I applied, never expecting to hear another word. Joe gave me his blessing to apply (well before he learned what the wages would be..).

Then what do you know, they called me to come in for the job!!! You have to understand, that of all the applicants, they only picked 25 to come in, and participate in group challenges, to be held at the park, in front of visitors: building a copy of a pre-made Lego creation, working as a team to build something, and then an individual challenge. Unfortunately, by the time they called me, we had learned the job would only pay a maximum of $15 an hour, so I had to turn down the offer, but hey, my application must have been pretty cool to make it to the final 25! I did include a link to my webpage of scale miniatures, maybe that helped make the difference.

This week, both of the girls decided they wanted their ears pierced. Becca was first. She has an upcoming medical physical which requires some immunizations. And like mom, she is not real fond of needles. So she decided if she could do the pain of piercing her ears, getting the immunizations would be a piece of cake. Plus, I think, she really wants to have that fashion options. She reminds me so much of my sister Sarah sometimes and her desire to be so in-fashion, but in a sort of rebel way. She like that artistic, bohemian, goth sorta look. Which should be interesting at her new school which requires students to wear tops with collars, such as polo shirts. (So not goth! OMG!) So after Becca successfully got her ears pierced, Megan decided she had to do it too. Megan also spent a lot longer going on about how it hurt, but I sorta expected that. She is at age where she moans and complains about EVERYTHING. Ugh!! Can’t wait till she is past that.

The other big news, is we have decided to go on a trip to Hawaii this summer; something everyone in the family has wanted to do for several years. Since I am not working, I can take more than two days off..woohoo. So come this August, we will be spending 10 beautiful nights in paradise, on the Big Island. We are all excited and looking forward to it and I plan on helping the girls make memory journals to put thoughts and pictures in. We hope to go visit the volcanic national park, snorkel, see sea turtles, go to a luau, visit a candy factory and maybe even visit a cool seahorse farm!

So in the meantime, I am doing proper cleaning of the house, getting the kids ready for charter schools next year, working on goodies I plan to make and sell on Etsy and figure out what computer training I will take to retrain.

This last week, Megan graduated from elementary school! Wow! I was so proud of her. She has made so much progress just in the last year and matured so much!

Receiving her certificate: her teacher, Mrs. Bentley is at the podium and the school principal, Mrs. Armstrong, is closest to Megan.

With her certificate!

Megan and her friend Annie, celebrating! After the graduation they went for pizza and bowling!

School’s out for the summer!

Here are some pictures from recent events…

A couple weeks ago, I went with Becca’s Advanced Art class on a field trip to downtown San Diego and the Museum of Contemporary Art. This was a week after Becca broke her collarbone in PE, playing field hockey with a mixed team of boys and girls. Boys are a bit rough in a game like that!

Here is Becca (with the Coke can) and her art posse.

And this is Becca and her friend Tara next to a dragon sculpture online the board walk.

Then this week, Megan’s class did a play and Megan had a speaking part as a Native American Indian.

Which was then followed by the annual school picnic.

They grilled hotdogs and hamburgers

And live music. The guitar player with the blue guitar was with the Steve Miller band for many years and has 3 Platinum records. The woman in the white to the right, is the lead singer and a school noon duty helper. You get great tunes with the noon duty lady is in a cool band!

My sweet Megan

And this coming week is the last week of school with Megan graduating from Elementary school on Wed. morning! I won’t miss packing lunches though. Becca is doing a week at a high tech camp down at UC San Diego to learn 2D and 3D computer game creation. Megan will be taking two day camps: one to learn to make websites and the other in creative writing. And we are going to ComicCon for a few days near the end of July, which probably has the girls the most excited.

Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer!

 As usual, life continues to zoom along! Joe and I spent a week in England, the first week of May for the wedding of his son Jerome to his long time girlfriend Beth. Due to my limited vacation time, we only managed a bit over a week to visit, but it was nice to see his family and relax.

Upon our return, we had visits from two of our out-of-state friends. The first was Robin, who was in the area for a conference his work had him attending. So despite it being just after getting home, we really wanted to spend some  time having dinner with him, while he was in town. Then, a week after we were home, our friend Daryl stopped by for the weekend, on his way home from a trip to Vegas.

Since it was the last weekend of Ren Faire and Daryl had never been, we went out for the day. It was not insanely crowded but it was warm and on the humid side for Southern California. We did have a fun time, but it was nice to get back into an air conditioned car! I didn’t do many pictures this time, not sure why. But here is what I did take:

I really thought the crown suited Joe, but he said he looked embarrassing in it. I still disagree! I think he looks very handsome in it!

I was able to talk Daryl into trying on a crown as well. Now I have a great blackmail photo!! (evil laugh)

Becca in her costume. Her crown has two dragons in the center and leaves on the sides. She sure has grown up into a lovely young lady!

Megan didn’t feel like dressing up, so I didn’t do a faire photo of her. She did get a crown with a kitty in the middle (gosh, what a surprise). I will try to get a picture of her in it, she really looks cute! Queen on the kitties!

However, Megan was recently honored by being picked as one of four students to represent her school in an award the school won for participation in the Governor’s Challenge. The Governor’s Challenge was trying to encourage all students to exercise at least three days a week, for at least 20 minutes each time, outside of school. Students then recorded their time and turned it in. Schools who were finalists, won $1000.

It has been very hard to get Megan to participate. She much prefers to read a book or play on her computer. Not all being lazy. Part of it is her Aspergers, which makes her more clumsy than many kids. But with a lot of encouragement, she actually got into the challenge and religiously came home and did aerobics and jogging using the Wii, treating it like part of her homework. Her classmates, teachers and principal were so impressed with her devotion, they gave her this honor and her ‘success’ story has been posted on the Governor’s Challenge website! How cool is that?!

Megan, holding the left sid of the check. Her principal, Mrs. Armstrong, who has really encouraged Megan, is the woman with the dark hair. The tall man to the left is the representative for the program.

Closeup of Megan

By the time this weekend came, I was running on empty. Work has been VERY busy and I am doing 10 hours of work daily, in the span of about 8. I am skipping breaks and often working mostly through lunch. We have a hiring freeze but that does not stop regulations going into effect that the company has to comply with. The first big one kicks in June 1, 2009, so time is ticking. My big project is designing and building a database to keep and report the spending the company does which is tied to medical professionals. States like Vermont and Mass. now wish this all to be public knowledge. So if we spend an hour training a surgeon how to implant our hip replacement, we have to record it and report it.

Needless to say, I was exhausted by Friday night. So on tap this weekend is sleeping in, catching up on house keeping, and a little bit of fun. I went to a class on Saturday afternoon for three hours and made a fun nature-themed album. I am not done yet, but this is what the instructor’s sample looked like:

Sample Cover

Sample page inside

And that is me on the left, hard at work. I stole this photo off the instructor’s website.

Anyhow, that is about it for now. I hope everyone has a lovely, long weekend! Be well and stay safe!

To learn more about Milo, she my art blog at http://wyldhare.typepad.com/

Our friend Daryl, has pointed out that it has been a month since I blogged, *AND* I have not told the world that I am reading a book he let me borrow. So Daryl, this blog is for you, happy now?

Time does seem to slip through the fingers like sand at times! We have all been busy, but primarily in good ways. Work is very busy as we prepare for a lot new compliance laws the state of Massachusetts is requiring from the medical device industry. Starting July 1st, any time a sales person provides a meal, to a medical professional, while explaining our products or training in the use of them, we have to public disclose the information about the value and the medical professionals who received the meals. There are also all sorts of rules about how we can train, when we can train and where we can train people to properly use the products. So in preparation, I am building a database which will record each event, the name of each person attending, the credentials of the person as well as where they work, etc. It is a ton of work and will require many additional hours to do, but it is essential we have it in place, so we don’t get fined. Yes folks, while it sounds good on paper, this is the kind of stuff that increases the cost of medical related things. And unfortunately, it was a few unethical companies or sales reps, that made legislators put this in place.

Both girls are on Spring break this next week and are very happy about that. Joe is happy too, he can sleep in since he won’t have to take them into school. I am happy because I don’t have to run around like mad each morning making lunches and breakfasts for the whole crew.

In other news, we learned that Becca has been accepted into a charter school next year, that we really wanted her to go to. It is a group of schools in San Diego county called High Tech and has a focus on approaching learning on a project and teamwork basis to better prepare them for the work world. Textbooks are carried on laptops, etc. The got a big grant from the Bill Gates Foundation and it has a 100% graduation rate so far and I think it is around 90% who go onto college. Much higher and better than traditional public school.

We hope Megan will be able to attend, but there was the highest application for her grade, since it the first year of middle school. So at this time, she was not accepted. However, Joe called the school and the Principal said she was almost positive Megan would very near the top of the waiting list, since she had a sibling in the school and even offered to talk to Megan on the phone to cheer her up and tell her that everything would be okay. She also promised to call Joe back in a week and let him now the status of her getting in! How nice is that? They ran a high school here last year, and next school year will be the first year they also offer middle school. There are several other campuses in San Diego county, with the oldest being about 10 years old. If you are curious to learn more, here is a link to the schools:

http://www.hightechhigh.org/dc/index.php

Meanwhile, Joe and I are getting ready to go off to England at the beginning of May, for the wedding of his son. We will only be there a bit more than a week, but with work, I am not in a position to be gone longer than that. Either way, it should be lovely to visit in spring. Most of my visits in the past have been in the fall or winter.

Today I am trying to do some crafty things, having not had the time for several weeks now. I bought a little needle felting kit, and I am trying my hand at making some Easter bunnies. I also have decided I would like to make a small wooden doll wearing the traditional Swabian costume of the area of the Black Forest that Joe is from. We will see how much time I actually manage to get to do these things! Actually I can’t say I haven’t done ANY crafting lately. About 2 weeks ago I did make a couple more cubicle signs for friends at the office. They seem to be getting very popular. The first one is for a lady who gave me the star stickers and told me her favorite color was purple. So this is what I did for her:

The second one is for a co-worker how has her whole cubicle done in a beach theme. So of course, I had to do something beach-like for her! The “break” side is my favorite!

Have a great week and a fantastic Easter!

Another weekend half done, and I am busy taking care of all those chores that come up during a week. I seem to have finally shaken my cold and cough and feel good, yeah! And the weather is just wonderful this weekend, sun and cool ocean breezes, very spring-like. Flowers are starting to bloom all over, hills are green and trees are budding.

Both the bathrooms are done now, with nice new tubs and tiles. Then Thurs and Friday this week, all new windows were installed throughout the house! They look wonderful and we can already tell the heating and cooling difference they make, as well as how much quieter it is with double panes over the old single. My favorite part is the old sliding glass door to the backyard is now pretty white french doors. I will try to get some before and after pictures posted of them. The cats love the new doors, because there all tall narrow windows on either side of the doors, that open to screens and they can each take one and pretend to be wild, out-door kitties!

Becca did her first solo trip to the mall with friends yesterday. I was no so sure about it, since a girl just about her age went missing 3 weeks ago in a nearby town and still has not been found. In the end, the father of one girl went to the mall too, but stayed sperate from the girls. The girls had to call every 30 minutes on their cell phones and check in. If they missed a call, it was time to go home. It all went well and they had a great, teenage time. She is SO grown up now, and is now towering at 5’4″ and won’t be 13 years old for 6 more months!

I did a fun day with Megan. We went out in my Smart car and got some ice cream at Cold Stone and then went shopping together. Megan bought a cute little kitty statue of a “fairy” kitty with wings. It is very cute. We also stopped at the book store and she got a big fat book in a series called NightWorld she is reading.

Meanwhile, I am busy cleaning dust and dirt off of EVERY surface in the house, from all the remodeling. And of course there is laundry, groceries and putting back furniture that had to be moved so the windows could go in. I got my craft area in the laundry room all organized while doing the furniture in there and hope to hang up the cool cannisters today (the ones I found at the antique store last week). I so love those! The question now is, what will I store in them?

Anyhow, as I promised in my last blog, here are some pictures of the Mission San Juan Capistrano.

The ruins, behind a very overgrown fountain. There are 7 or 8 huge koi living very happily in this fountain and about a zillion guppies.

The bells, which I believe are still used

The old church, which is now in ruins. The rest of the buildings are intact, but this is all that is left of the grandest building.

I loved this funky chimney, there were several of them in various places.

A shady rest near the Children’s garden

Hope you all have a great week! Happy Spring!

 It was a lovely weekend. The weather was just perfect, sunny and in the 70s. The wild flowers are starting to bloom, hills which are dry and brown most of the year are lovely shades of greens. The girls were with their father this weekend, so I suggested to Joe that we do a day trip to San Juan Capistrano on Saturday. I have driven by the town a million times, but never actually visited.

We took the Porcshe, with the top down. A perfect drive along the coast with traffic not too heavy to enjoy. We arrived in time for lunch and got directions from the information booth on how to get to Mozart’s Cafe, a place I had found on the web that does German and Austrian food. Joe was very keen to get some real German food, since it is not exactly easy to find in Southern California. Unfortunately, the dish he wanted was not ready. It was a type of beef marinated in vinegar and the slow roasted and the cook had forgotten to start the cooking the night before. So instead, he had the Black Forest Platter with traditional German meat, cheeses, and bread. He was happy about it all, except the Black Forest ham. It looked like the real thing (which is NOT what you get at a deli in America), it was very thin cut, smoked, etc. But when he tasted it, the seasoning were wrong, it was a smoked Spanish ham instead. Bummer! Oh well! We both enjoyed the rest of the meal, sitting out doors in the lovely weather.

We then walked down the main street and found a wonderful antique shop with lots and lots of goodies to look at. I could  have spent hours there! Joe was really sweet and let me buy a treasure I found: 1940′s era spice rack. It is just so cool and cute!

The decal is an art deco woman, tending a little herb garden. I have seen larger canisters around, with this design, but I don’t know who made them. I just loved the graphics!

Then we went down to the mission and walked around. It was so pretty. Some of the flowers were already blooming, but I suspect it will really be amazing in a few weeks, at the peak of bloom. I can see why the mission San Juan Capistrano is called the gem of the California missions. I took lots of pictures and Joe was very patient while I stopped over and over to get photos. He is such a good guy! I will try to post some of the best pictures in my next blog.

So today has been catching up on chores. I cleaned the tub up, after the new installation and tiles. The guys were really messy with the grout and silicone seal, so there was a long session with a razor blade. But in the end, it was great, and I scrubbed it down and made it into a working bathroom again. They are about 2/3 done with Becca’s bathroom and then I can clean that room and all the dust both jobs made all over the house!

I also made a nice batch of stew beef for dinner tonight (and leftovers later in the week) and a batch of brownies for the girl’s lunches.

I mixed them in an antique mixing bowl that I found at a garage sale in the early 90s for only $1.75! Somehow, anything baked using something with so much love and history, has to yield the most delicious results, don’t you think? I am probably freaking out all the purists that thing antiques should only be seen and not used!

Anyhow, that is all the news for now. Thank you to all the folks who said the are going to get a copy of my brother-in-law’s new book. I hope you will not be disappointed. I look forward to reading it, myself!

I have been fighting a flu thingie that finally moved into a walking pneumonia thingie. *sigh* So have been home the last two days, sleeping and sleeping and sleeping and trying to get myself back to a functioning state. Joe has had it as well, so we take turns being totally useless!

But in other news, we are busy having the bathtubs replaced in two bathrooms. When we re-did the house, we were trying to save money, so we re-coated the tubs, rather than replace them. The old ones are badly chipped and the drain plumbing has frozen and was not removable without replacing the tub. So all in all, it was time.We also learned that recoating is a waste of money and just peeled off over and over. While the coating was under warranty, after the third ‘fix’ it was obvious it was never going to work.

So Megan’s bathroom was done first and is just about complete and looks great with new plumbing, tiles, tub and fixtures. They are now in the middle of doing Becca’s and there is dust all over her room at the moment. We are also going to replace all the windows in March, to hopefully improve the insulation of the house, which seems to leak hot and cold now.

Megan is busy taking an after school class in creative writing. They are writing a short chapter book and she is doing a story about a mystery at a haunted house – very Nancy Drew-ish. She is really enjoying it and has had a lot of fun.

Becca just finished making a DNA model for her science class out of beads, pipecleaners and colored straws that looks pretty darn good. The teacher didn’t want any ‘food’ items or ‘toys’ used to build it, just ‘household’ items, which made it challenging to figure out what to use, but we managed it in the end.

I just realized it has now been 10 years since I had a gastric bypass to loose weight. Wow! While I have gained some of the weight back, I am still 100 lbs lighter than I was before surgery. I am busy doing a diet with Joe to get down even more, but I certainly have never regretted doing the surgery and getting my weight down.

Anyhow, hope everyone is well and that each of you have a great week!

Oh, one last thing! My brother-in-law, Ian, has published his first book. I urge you to go over to Amazon and consider buying a copy. It has really good reviews (4 out of 5 stars on average) and looks good. I have my own copy on order. The link is here and it is called The Rainbow Connection.