Oprah

Who watched today???? I loved it. Oprah had "Grammar Girl" Mignon Fogarty on the show which proves that thankfully I am not the only person bugged by people using the wrong grammar and punctuation. It was a brief segment but funny and definitely interesting. The women in the audience knew the correct grammar when asked questions by her and Oprah which was refreshing. She has a website - Google grammar girl and look instantly smart!

Putt, Chip and I spent all of last week at the beach. It was cool and wonderful. We ate out and slept late. Truly not the life of Riley but of Sandy as Riley was at work. The smell of beach fires was really strong this time. We could smell it before we got to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway)driving in and we can smell it at the house too. I am so glad that I live where the beach and it's smells are so accessible. I read another book but I haven't posted it here yet as I left it there and I can't remember the name or the author. I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up three new hardbacks . I'll read another one this week. We went to the Rocky Mountain candy store on Main St. and bought candy apples. They cut them so they were easy to eat. It was a place to get out of quickly as they had a zillion things I would have loved to have sampled. I bought a big square of fudge to take as a gift to Pat who was fixing what turned out to be a fabulous dinner for us that night. I had already found the bulk candy at Ralph's that afternoon and brought home licorice rounds, good and plenty and baby gummy bears so I thought we were pretty well taken care of.

Yes, we (Putt, Chip and I) are heading back tomorrow morning for the rest of the week. No sense staying where it is hot when we have options. It is only 104 today so I can't complain too much as it's hotter in many "non-desert" locations around the country. To all of you out there, have a cool and fun week!

Lazy Summer Day

It's a beautiful day here. The temperature just crept up to 103 degrees. Not bad at all for 4:42 PM at the end of July. We had a wild weather day yesterday. We woke up to pounding rain. Riley grabbed Putt and I grabbed Chip and we headed out to the patio to watch. We had about an inch in less than an hour which is a lot for us and which creates havoc and flash floods. We had water backing up on our pool deck so Riley had to go find the drains in the front yard that the gardener let grass grow over and unplug them. The roof drains on the house and casita tie into those drains so it pretty important to keep them open. Jose (the gardener) is lucky as I'm heading to the beach for the rest of the week or he'd get a tongue lashing on Thursday when he comes to do the yards however I'm planning on saving it for him until next week when I will be here to give him a talking to.

Oodles of art

I am so happy this morning. I went to Aaron Bros and bought 14 canvas' (hope that is punctuated correctly as you all know how much I hate, hate, hate spelling, punctuation and grammar errors) at their buy 1, get one for 1 cent sale. They range in size from the largest ones being 48x60 to 24x24, 24x30 and 18x24. My dear friend who I call my personal artist now will be busy this fall and winter with this stockpile. She has already painted nine paintings for me to date. For those of you that haven't seen them, here is a sampling:
She is well known in the Orange County area and donates many pieces to charitable events where they are auctioned off for thousands of dollars. There was even a tiff at one event where two people wanted the same painting so she ended up painting a second one and the charity was the recipient of the sale of both paintings. I am very fortunate to be her personal charity case and unless you see them all hung throughout the house and the casita, you can't appreciate how great they really are. Now I have to get busy and paint the accent walls she is suggesting I do. Ralph Lauren just came out with the most beautiful metallic paints and I bought a gallon of gold so I am excited to get started. I just have to wait for Riley to be home. Since the ceiling height is 14' at least, I don't want to be that high on a ladder with nobody around in case there's a problem :)

More good news as well. I had a call this morning and I think my Jazz tickets have sold. Yeah!!!!! I'll know for sure when I have the check in my hot little hand next week. The great Jazz news of the day was that they have signed D. Will to a four year contract extension. That should mean the Jazz will be contenders for the next few years. They'll have to get Booze and Mehmo resigned next year but hopefully that won't be an issue.

Now we just need to get our other house sold or rented and the week will end on high note. We did have a call yesterday from our Realtor relative to both issues. There may be one of each of those interested. The people on the sale side have contacted us on two previous occasions in the last six months and we know they love the place but we're not interested in bottom feeders. We'll just have to see where it goes but I'm not holding my breath.

Robinson Family History

I just emptied out a bag that I brought back from Utah and found a couple of things I stuck in there to bring home.

This is an original picture that Clara had of Robinson family members. I'm not into genealogy so I really haven't a clue as to who all these people are. I think one person is Vera who was Riley's father's sister. I am going to scan and e-mail to a cousin - Deborah in Las Vegas who has been asking for a copy of it. She knows who everyone is. When I find out, I'll certainly write it on the photo so it will no longer be a mystery. If anyone has an interest in a copy, let me know and I'll e-mail to you as well.

Here's the coolest thing. An old dip pen set. Its all made of glass except for the stoppers which are Bakelite(I think) on the top and has spare nibs. I am amazed that it is in the good condition it is in. I'm going to see if I can find it online and learn more about it as well as the value. I suspect very little so I'll probably just keep it.

If there are any Robinson family people reading this, most who attended the reunion purchased a CD of Robinson family history and pictures put together by a distant family member. If you would like a copy, let me know and I will tell you where you can purchase one.

INSIDE THE "LITTLE DUMP"

More pictures of the inside of the house in Utah. If you see anything you like and want, speak up as anything that I haven't packed up (beds, books, leather couch/chair and kitchen table/chairs, misc.) will be given to whoever wants it. Arthur's wife wants my oak wall unit and says I promised it to her so it's already taken. I think it will be a hoot to just open it up to the town and see what goes. I betting that someone will scoop up the cases of unused canning jars and even those ugly mini blinds ( yes, there's at least one sorry home that still has them on their windows) . Anyway....we're planning ahead and don't plan to use any of this stuff in the house that we'll build. Just a note - I believe the bedroom furniture may have been one of the first sets of furniture Clara owned that was new to her. Maybe I can sell it at an antique store. There was an old iron headboard that was in there too but was way to small for my queen size bed so it's in the garage. Riley wants to keep the lamp on the vanity but honestly, I think it's as ugly as it gets. Whatever though....it was his Mom's and there must be some sentimental value there. I just am not feeling it :)

Good news on the basketball scene. I was able to upgrade my Utah Jazz season tickets. I'm down to Row 23 , seats 5 & 6. The lower row is obviously better but I like the seat change as they are closer to the aisle now. If you or if you know of anybody in Utah that is looking for tickets, they are in the lower bowl I will sell the whole season as a package for face value (43 games at $77.00 per ticket). I did this the past season and it worked out great. Call me if interested.

The "Trip" 6/26/08 - 7/6/08

To the right is the picture of the little "dump". Million dollar views all around but the house is only one step above camping and not even that when we left this time. The trip was eventful in many not to good ways. We lost our fuel pump just south of Cedar City. Had to be towed, stay at a Motel 6 and missed hanging out with Gary and Jen on Thursday night as a result. Note: We only stayed at the Motel 6 as they were the only hotel/motel that took pets. I am thankful they were there however we will never stay there again or at any other motel that isn't at a minimum a Hampton Inn or Marriott of some sort again unless it is an extreme emergency as this was. It was pretty new however I still didn't remove my flip flops or use their pillows. Need I saw more. When we got to the house, we had water leaks in the kitchen and bathroom as the pipes froze and split over the winter. We had no water for two days until Riley could get it fixed. Then on Thursday, July 3rd when Gary and Jen were to come out, the toilet plugged up. To make a long story short, after having dug up a clean out in the driveway to get the snake through, the underground utility guy who was doing this discovered that the plug was in the City's main. It was 6:30 pm, no city help in sight so we decided to schedule the demo of the house for next July with the guy and then go eat. Next year we will go up early for the reunion, pack up our stuff from the house for storage in the garage and then open the place up to whoever wants to come in and take what they want like the stove, refrigerator, dishes pots and pans, etc. I won't mess with having a garage sale as you don't make enough money for the work it takes to prepare so this should be interesting.

We left the next morning for Gary and Jen's and had a nice 4Th with them. Here's a couple more pictures from the game:










The reunion was nice and very well attended. Only one of Riley's kids (Michael and his family) ever shows up and Gary usually does but this year, there was a conflict with the reunion date and his job. It was supposed to be Jazz upgrade day that day so that's why they were coming on Thursday night instead. Both Riley and Gary missed out on the fishing. Hopefully next year! I took my camera with me but really didn't take any pictures to speak of.


We had thunder and lightening here last night. Started around 10:00 and was quite the show. Chipper loved it. We stood in the dark of the house and watched it over the pool. It lit the yard up and was quite the show.


My thought of gratitude today is for spell check. I almost posted without checking and it caught a couple of errors. One of my biggest pet peeves is spelling/grammar errors where spell check is available and only takes mere seconds to run. Sometime I get lazy and don't do it and I think it makes me look exactly that which then is apparent to everyone that may read what I wrote. So....thank you spell/grammar check for saving me from looking really dumb!

4th of July - 2008

Here we are, walking into the Salt Lake Bees stadium. It was a very hot night and a full house. Gary got us really good seats on the first row, just down the 1st base line. We could have reached out and touched the Bees' relievers as their bullpen was right there in front of us (you can see the rubber in the picture). The game was exciting as there were five home runs hit but sadly, the Bees went down to defeat. In fact, they got swept in the series. They play in a really great stadium. I was surprised that the facilities for a AAA team were as good as they were. We stayed and watched a terrific fire works show after the game.

This is the next day at Gary and Jen's place. We spent the night there as they allowed us to have pets and most hotels are not so accommodating. That's Chip with them in the picture to the left and Putt on the right.

I've been trying to think more about what I am grateful for than want I want lately. Today's specific gratitude is for air conditioning. It is relatively hot here (103 degrees) but the humidity is at about 60% and makes for a nasty day. I am very thankful that where I live only has to endure this torture very infrequently and that our A/C is keeping us very cool.

WE'RE HOME!

Just a quick note as I am pooped and I'm headed to bed. Vacation was both lots of fun and some not so fun. More to follow on that later. Putt and Chip were awesome. They just rolled with the punches of which there were quite a few. Fireworks at the Bees game were really good (pictures to follow later). Dinner with Nan and Sam at Carrabas was great as usual last night and the drive in from Vegas was uneventful.