The sky is blue in San Francisco

I just talked to Charlie and told him that I hoped the weather holds out here until he and the girls show up. I said "It would be great for them to see the city like this".

His reply..."Why? They wouldn't be seeing San Francisco the way it really is, then."

Spoken like a true San Franciscan. They're so proud of their fog.

When we lived out here 20 years ago, I would tease Charlie that he was making the whole fog thing up. It seemed that most times we came into the city is was clear and beautiful.

I don't care if it's not real. I love the blue sky and being able to see the GG Bridge from far away. Some of these pics were taken from the room (25th floor) where I had a seminar all morning. Some were taken at lunch hour during a 20 minute stroll I had to Union Square and back.

Yep. The hard life here.







Obligatory hill and cable car shots.




Tree in bloom at Union Square.



Cool colors and Texture.

Luxury Living

It has been raining here in SF. Everything is so green and the ornamental fruit trees are blossoming.

I am living in the Hotel Nikko for 3 nights. Wow. Seven Big pillows on the bed. Large flat screen TV. Shrimp and chocolate covered strawberries for supper. A Starbucks right off the lobby. I'll have to take some pictures of the lobby tomorrow. Cool art and awesome decorating. I guess we are getting the cut rate deal of $155 per night. Definitely not my usual lifestyle.



It is almost 11pm Minnesota time and I can tell. I am beat.

Tomorrow should be a great day. Most of you won't appreciate this, but we get to tour the NUMMI automobile plant in Milpitas. It's a joint venture between Toyota and GM and I am really looking forward to it.

I can't believe that we are going to Dave and Busters for supper tomorrow. I think it's like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. (It's called team building.) We're in the most beautiful city in the world and we're having supper at Dave and Busters in San Jose. sigh. I guess they had to pay for the hotel, eh?


Oh. And here's one of Amelia I found on the camera when downloading pictures. Look at all that snow!!!

Open Up that Golden Gate!

California Here I Come!

On doodling

I used to be a manager at work. I used to go to a lot of meetings. I got used to it. I would actually pay attention and take notes.


I attend a lot fewer meetings now, and have gotten out of shape on the whole meeting routine. Now when I go to meetings this happens:



I still pay attention. However, my notes get embellished. Please note that this is a compilation from five different meetings. A corner here, a margin there, etc.

BTW...we have the greatest pens here at work. Zebra Jimmie Gel Rollerball. Nice writing. Nice smooth doodling.

On whining

A friend posted a blog entry that she characterized as being whiny.

I was just going to post a comment to her, but what I have to say may be kind of long.

You see, I am a whiner. I have a daughter with somewhat significant health issues. I whine and whine about how unfair it is to me as a "full time working outside the home mom" that I also have to deal with the extra time it takes to have a "special" daughter. Extra doctors' appointments. Extra medications that cost extra money. Extra meetings at school. Extra struggles with homework. Struggling with things most parents don't have to deal with. Having to give her a shot every night. I whine about how unfair it is to her that she has to work so hard to so some things that are so simple for most of us.

Those of you who have "normal" kids (as I would call them), might not see my complaints as whining. You might think, "You have a right to be angry!", "You did have bad luck in getting a special child." "I'm glad I'm not in your shoes."



Then I go to Children's Hospital for an appointment. I see kids who have had open heart surgeries. I see kids who will never walk or have control of bodily functions. I see kids who may not live another year. Then I wonder why I was whining. Who gave me the right to whine when so many other parents have tougher issues? I have a job. I have health insurance. I have a spouse who really helps out more than 50-50 in getting issues resolved. I have a car to get to appointments.


It's all relative. To some, our venting will seem like whining, to others it is fully justified. If we heard Paris Hilton complaining about not being able to find the right shade of pink for a purse to match her gazillion dollar outfit, we would call it whining. To those in her social circle, not finding the right color purse seems a valid thing to gripe about.


Oh...I've made my point. As long as you keep your whining in perspective, an occasional vent is ok. And keep in mind who you are whining to. (that should be "to whom you are whining"... but proper English just doesn't seem proper with the word whine.)

And remember to be grateful.

Losing it! (again)

I believe my last post on losing it was talking about weight. That was a good thing.


The last two weeks I have been on a rash of losing THINGS, however. It started with my work badge. Lost it for 3 days. Found it in an unusual place. Can't remember where I put it after that. Now it's lost again. For 4 more days. That's $7.

I also lost my make-up bag. I am not a make-up person, but I have a small bag with foundation, blush, shadow, liner and mascara that I keep with me at all times. I know I was wearing make-up on Saturday. Couldn't find the bag Sunday morning. Still can't find it. That's about $25 (I just use Cover Girl or other cheap makeup...nothing fancy there!)

I lost my nice Land's End fleece gloves. Perfect for this time of year...keeps the hands on the cold steering wheel from freezing. Crud! I really liked those.



This is all a little secret that, heretofore, only my husband knew. I am a scatterbrain. A smart scatterbrain, but scatterbrained to be sure. I blame my children. (ie pregnancy and childbirth) I am usually saved by my organizational and planning skills. Have a place for everything and have a calendar and you can counteract that knack for losing and forgetting things. We all learn to compensate for our weaknesses. Flylady helps a lot with keeping the clutter down, but I'm sure these items have fallen prey to the clutter that creeps in. sigh.

I have had a $5 reward on the table for two of these items (in case the kids had taken them and were playing with them), but they still haven't shown up. It just makes me MAD!!!!

On the other hand, I did find a gift certificate to Clancy's Meat Market that I had lost. That is worth $15. So I guess I'm only down about $17 now.

Yin and Yang

Have I commented on how different my two girls are?


Example from last evening.

Daughter 1: "Aww. Do I have to do homework? Can't I just do it tomorrow? It's not due until Friday." (We had been having this conversation for three days, slowly extracting bits and pieces of work from her.)

Daugther 2: "Can we stay up late and finish my homework tonight so I can hand it in tomorrow? I like to be ahead." (She just got it today and it's not due until next WEDNESDAY!)


One is my artiste/non-conformist daugther. One is my "rules were made to make me look good" daughter.

I know. Labels are not pretty. I see me in both of them. (OK, more one than the other.) It's tough to parent two totally different kids when one of your goals is to make sure they have some level of happiness and success as adults. They will have two very different paths to that place.

Here's hoping that awareness that they are two different kids will help us in guiding them down those different paths. Paths we have not trod ourselves, but are yet vaugely familiar with in spots.

And my favorite layout from the weekend.

Rick Rack (or is that ricrac?) border inspired by Jenni Bowlin site from last month. (Emily Falconbridge layout, I believe)

Cosmo Cricket paper and punch outs (swirls and frame). Sweetwater letters. Creative Imaginations shaped patterned paper. Metal bookplate came in Jenni Bowlin kit last month. Not sure if it is Junkitz, or not. Heidi Swapp Journaling spot under the bookplate.

Love the Scallops. (See them everywhere? I didn't consciously do this, but just noted in this picture that in addition to the scallop feel of the ricrac, there are scallops on the bookplate, paper, frame and the swirls. No wonder it feels like a good layout. Some coherency there.) Love the nekkid baby pictures.



And this is post 200!

Theme one: Circles and curves

Circles and Curves were a big theme this weekend. Here's a few examples.


Here's a two page spread with Rusty Pickle's new "Chocolate Bunnies" line. Used the Cricut for the font on 1st page. Heidi Swapp rub-ons on the second.

A big curve one page layout. The idea came from Ali Edwards "Designing with Patterned Paper". Phoebe paper by BasicGrey. (Love this!!!) American Crafts Letter Rub-Ons.

A circle and lots of rub-ons. American Crafts brackets and swirls with Making Memories alphabets. The blue paper is Everyday Tango (I think) and the paper with dots and words is a Creative Imaginations paper (I think)


A frame from My Mind's Eye and Fancy Pants Rub-Ons. And another Circle. Everyday Tango and KI memories papers. Are you seeing the circle theme?


I think this is also "Everyday Tango" paper by My Mind's Eye. (I used every page from this collection that I had. It really is great to scrap with) With some sticker words from Minda's "leftovers" bin. Putting the circle and swirl together. An idea from a Memory Works catalog.

Seventy!!!

And the magic number is...70. Yes. Somehow I got 70 scrapbook pages done this weekend at a group crop up at CJs. And a lot of them were actually good.

The paper lines available these days are so beautiful they don't need a lot of reinforcement. I did all hand journaling and used stickers, rub-ons, or the Cricut for my titles. I only sewed on one page. I did some stamping and inking, but not a lot. I didn't touch my 3 boxes of ribbon.

So they were simple and went quickly.

And the weekend was perfect. Lots of scrapping. Naps and walks. Meals all planned and only had to "cook" once. Great company. I missed my family a bit, but it is also good to get a break from them. I'm looking forward to next year already. I wonder if I can get 70 more pages done before next year's weekend?

I will get around to posting some pictures of my favorites sometime this week.

She's starting to read my stuff

That would be my eldest daughter I am talking about. Not only has she added several bookmarks to my toolbar (the school website and a cool program called word viper), but now she is reading my blog. She comments on it often (to me...not within the blog) and is always asking when I take a picture "is this going to be on your blog?"

I guess I need to start thinking a little bit more about what I write. The privacy issue will just get more and more sensitive as she gets older. sigh.

I suppose I need to show her how to make comments on my blog. It might be funny if you all could read what she's telling me.

Re-Lamping in progress

Gotta love the English language. Like how you can create words.

I was driving up France Avenue and they are replacing street lights. The light-up warning sign said, "Re-lamping in progress". I found this amusing for some reason.

More Snow...More Snow pictures

In interest of equal air time, here is Margaret sliding down the snowpile.


And can you tell what kind of "wildlife" made these prints? Yes. I found the six year-old outside in her bare feet. What's that about?