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?

Happy (belated) Birthday to my blog

February 27, 2006 was my first blog post.

This is post #193, one year and one day later. (Drats, seven short of 200, but I'm not going to put in 7 quick posts to hit that...sort of like people do when celeb blogs are giving away things.)

Thanks for reading (and commenting)!

Is this funny?

Or sad?



This is the rearview mirror on the passenger side on my mini-van. This is the mini-van that I am driving as penance for crashing my Passat last year.

Well...one morning when I was driving to work down Lyndale, I crashed the rearview mirror into a garbage can. At 25 miles per hour. (the two lanes are kind of close quarters and are really more like one lane).

The mirror broke, but the mechanism that holds the mirror was intact. The bend over feature of that housing did its job!...until I backed up too close the garbage can our driveway.

Now it's broken.

Winter finally arrives

This weekend I stayed in the house all weekend. I enjoyed watching the snow fall, the kids playing, and Charlie shoveling.



I entered the winter wonderland this am with my drive to work. I saw lots of giant piles of snow at corners of driveways and streets that had obviously had kids climbing over/around them. Our kids even sledded down the pile next to our driveway.

And of course I got to see the snowplowing process at work. I really hate how, after the Snow Emergency streets are plowed full width, they come back on the side streets and plow a pile of snow across the street. Same thing with alleys...they plow them first and then the side street plowing seals them back up. Ah well. At least we didn't get snowed in.

Pictures later this week? I don't know. I'm having a long week at work. Long meetings at work and then phone calls for work every evening 7-10 pm. We're finishing up a big project, and it will be good to have it done!

Enjoy the snow, and make a snowman for me!

So Thankful

Amelia had her appointment with the cardiologist today. She has a bicuspid aortic valve (about 2% of boys and 1% of girls do..most of us have tricuspid valves) so we have been watching it. The biggest concern? The aorta can enlarge. If that gets too bad, they have to do things like aorta transplants.

Well...her bicuspid valve is working well...it seals well and no backflow. And the aorta has NOT enlarged at all over the past three years. So odds are, it won't just all of a sudden decide to go and enlarge. It could take a long time. He said maybe when she if 40 or 50 she may need a valve or aorta replacement.





When I momentarily think about what the news COULD have been, I am SOOOo thankful. If she needs a valve replacement at 50, she can come to the nursing home and tell me about it.

Rub it on!

My bookclub book for March is on "Rub-ons". Jennifer McGuire's CK column in the March magazine was also about rub-ons. Between the two I was inspired to pull out my rub-ons and USE THEM.

I found most of the rub-ons in a drawer under my QuicKutz shelf. Mostly BasicGrey flourishes, but also some older rub-ons with words and phrases. Also some of the distressed look rub-ons. Also lots of flowers from various companies.

Then I remember that I had all my KI embellishments with my KI paper. I found some more rub-on flowers and alphabets there.

I likely have some rub-ons in my themed bins (i.e winter/Christmas, travel/summer/beach) and will leave them there.

I'm sure I also have some in my alphabet bins. I think I'll pull those out.

I know I have all my Making Memories and American Crafts alphabet rub-ons together.

Whew! That is a lot of rub-ons. And of course I bought more at the store the other day. Some beautiful Fancy Pants rub-ons with flourishes and hearts. Colored rub-ons... not just white or black.


I was inpsired by the Jenni Bowlin site to use an entire sheet of rub-on letters on a piece of paper and use that on a layout. I had this sheet of Autumn Leaves rub-on letters that was all the letters on one sheet, and they were really small. Like 20 point. I don't want to mess with all that. I did one word on the corner of the layout and then laid the rub-on sheet (with the missing letters) on a sheet of 5x7 patterned paper and covered the paper with letters. The rub-on sheet has plenty of letters left, but I feel like I utilized more than I would have with just rubbing on individual letters. And it turned out really cute. I'll have to get it posted later today.

I mean, if you have 40-50 sheets of rub-ons sitting around, it's a good idea to use them, eh?

Also...rub-ons don't add bulk... so they'll go great in those CM albums, eh?

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Some things have been bugging me lately.

First is the fact that I seem to be having lots of scrapping inspiriation...sans pictures.

Second is the fact that in my row of Creative Memories album on the top shelf, there is a gap between May 2001 and August 2002.

Third is the fact that I have three Creative Memories albums empty. I had bought one for regular chronological stuff and one for each of the girls' baby albums.

Since then, I haven't used CM albums. I like the quality quite a bit, but not the limitation on how thick and bumpy you can make the pages.

So... last night I pulled out the CM albums, the missing pictures, and decided to start filling the gap...


I even used some new paper I bought yesterday (new Paper Loft)! Wow! less than 8 hours on the shelf before being used. I like that.

I have so much beautiful patterned paper, I figure I can whip through these pages with minimal artistic fuss, focus on journaling (probably handwritten like all my CM albums). I have a trip to Albuquerque, New Jersey, and New York City to crop. Lots of pictures for each of these. Also the fact that my girls start this time period as 6 months old and just three.(meaning to say they are as cute as can be and I took LOTS of pictures of them to prove it!)

I will easily fill up three empty albums with these pictures. I'll probably do NYC as a separate mini-book since I went without the family. It seems to merit its own album (and you all know I have tons of smaller albums and ideas for smaller albums so I won't need to buy anything to make this happen).



On the other end, here is a page I did this weekend (sans picture, 'cause I need a good one of my sweetie for in here.) I totally ripped off Jenni Bowlin, but that's ok, that's why I buy her kits and look at the idea pages. I really love how this turned out!



I hope to keep on this scrapping spree that's happening at my house. Lovin' it!

My scrapping

Somehow my scrapping mojo has come back. This is a good thing since I am doing a retreat in a few weekends. I think it started Tuesday night when I got together with some friends and played with paint. It really uncorked the creative juices.

Here's a few I made for the store where I do samples. This is featuring yummy paper by Delish Designs.