Catching up

I never thought I would go so long without having to vent here, isnt that what a blog is for? Venting? Lets see, I last blogged about our trip to vegas, dont think I got to the best part of that trip, the drive through death valley and bristle cone, mono lake Bodie and Yosemite. We even spent a night at the ehwahanee.I think Every Californian needs to visit all those places every so often. Bodie is my favorite place to take pictures. I would love to be there for sunset just once. I always seem to be there at the height of sunlight, not the best light for interesting pictures. After we got home, I continued to drive Yoshi to school and hike in the mmwd. I am trying to cover all the trails on mt tam. I have found some beautiful places, some very steep climbs. hasnt done anything to kick my weight loss dream into reality but I do know I can climb hills and it feels good.
I took my daughter to see HIM and the band bleading through opened. they were a very typical headbanging metal ( I guess) screaming band. I did get a kick out of them though because in our game of thinking up wacky band names, One of my favorites it bloody gauze and bleeding through would make a great opening act for them...lol I have a new band name, "wool socks and birkenstocks" lol came to me because I have been knitting wool socks and discovered how freaking awesome they are paired with birkenstocks. I wear my wool socks all day long, makes the wood floor feel warm. Oh seeing Him was fun, My daughters friends are not fans and she figured I like him so I should take her. He is good, the band was tight, he didnt play every song we love but he did sing beautifully. I just wish he would knock off the smoking, he went through a whole pack in his act... makes my lungs hurt!. I had Thanksgiving here at my house this year and I am very proud of how well I did. It went off without a hitch! We had a willie bird which was fantastic, never going to cook anything but willie bird. Scott got it from work, I guess George Lucas knows how to treat his employees. The kids brought over rockband which is so much fun we played it for 8 hours and had a gas. I was a week into a cold and couldn't sing, which sucks still getting over this cold. been sick for almost a month...argh, I have done all my christmas shopping thanks to amazon.com I do not understand people shopping on black friday...what the hey Jim and I are heading to Mexico in a few weeks, I asked my friends if they would like to help us donate some school supplies to a school near where we are staying and only one of them responded. They are all a bunch of raciest a holes who hate "mexicans" they think EVERY spanish speaker in the usa is Mexican, illegal and aiming to take over our country. pisses me off so much.... cant they see that if someone, a business offers spanish for its spanish speaking customers, it isnt because the spanish speakers are too lazy to learn english it is because the business wants to make more money. it reminds me of how the jews were targeted before ww2 in Germany, propaganda made them into the cause of anything bad, we are doing the same thing to mexicans and all other spanish speaking peoples. I used to work doing esl and I never met anyone who spoke spanish who didnt want to learn english, I also have never met a lazy "mexican" I know so many young families who have come here and made businesses for themselves worked their butts off and have been able to buy homes so many of the white trash kids I went to school with are still living in apartments...anyway I dont want to get too pissed today.... just hate stupid people who are paranoid and unkind. We saw Kathy Griffin last week. she was a riot, loved her and her new doo, back to natural curly hair, so much better for her face to have soft hair. ok thats enough cant wait for sweeny todd

Argh vegas… lets just say that I enjoyed myself while Jim was at his conference. I saw a Picasso ceramics exhibit and visited the Guggenheim at the Venetian. I also saw the titanic exhibit. We saw LOVE the cirque de sole based on the Beatles music. It was wonderful, I felt like that flash back I was warned about finally kicked in. Octopus garden was fantastic, We had great seats. It was Jims Birthday and he made reservations for peter and inger to join us for dinner even though they didn’t want to pay the ticket prices to see the show afterwards. The next night we saw momma mia with peter and inger and then we went to the house of blues for a late dinner which was real fun. The third night I had bought tickets to see the producers but the show was canceled justminutes before curtain time…argh!!! Jim and I did have a great dinner ALONE at Paris. One of the major differences between Jim and I is he needs LOTS of attention and I don’t need any. He prefers having lots of people around and I prefer to be alone. I am not anti social or rude, I know how to have fun but there are times when a nice quiet dinner in a good place should be enjoyed by just two. Our last night there we made dinner reservations at areole we decided to do the tasting menu and I regret that I didn’t go for the wine paring. Jim ordered a Riesling. The food was wonderful, the wine, was not my choice. Worst thing that happened in Vegas, I was hit as I made a left turn on a green arrow by a woman coming the other direction who turned right on a red light… my first accident. sigh

Palm Desert

Sept 23
Last night we went out to dinner at moms fav place, black angus, it was alright but the drinks were sweet. Mom and dad crack me up in restaurants. I don’t think Mom reads the menu she justs asks for whatever it was she had the last time and then she asks the waitress if she has a coupon in her pocket they can use, Jim pulled out a 20and said here’s your coupon..lol I ate a salad with beef again…lol it was good but the tomatoes were not real, they were those fake things we are forced to eat in winter. We came home and hit the sack. I was tired

This morning Jim and I had to go meet greg the leasing agent. The meeting went well, he is a nice guy, can see doing work with him for the next few years. We then went on a hunt for jamba juice and finally found a juice place the drink was a bit sweet… but still it was breakfast, Jim dropped me off at the top of the cove in La Quinta and I hiked up and over and then down, I went way too far, past where I was going to meet him so he had to drive around and find me,,lol it was my first time hiking up there but if we ever move here, I plan on hiking up there every day. We came home and I went out shopping with mom, I scored big time, went to steinmart, such fun! I also bought Jim some fricking awesome b day gifts. I have always loved shopping down here. After we got home Jim and I went to the pool and swam, sure felt good to swim and lay in the sun. I fell asleep. Oh last night I drempt that Yoshi met a guy named zach who was fun, cute and piratey…he ended up spending the night with her…too funny

start of road trip

Sat, sept 22
We spent the night at harris ranch last night, When we got back from dinner I had to check and see if there was wi fi, and there was so I quickly got on line and read my email, there were 20 e mails after not getting more than 5 in a day for the last week I managed to get 20 in just 3 hours. So I started reading, Jim climbed into bed and all of a sudden I remembered Ross Mathews was going to be on the tonight show so I quickly grabbed the remote control and turned on the tv that part is easy but then it gave me a menu, so I clicked on guide and was given all kinds of options like video games, movies, tv on demand OMG I just wanted regular tv and NOW damn it! Finally I see in tiny print to acces regular tv press the arrow keys which I did and did and did and then I looked at the remote and found another set of arrow keys…argh!! It was 11:48 and I figured he would be on early in the show, I finally get it on and there he is!!! OMG and the segment is half way done!!! OMG I missed it, Jim grumbled but I just stood right in front of the tv and watched,,, can I just say that Ross Mathews is the funniest, quickest witted guy ever and adorable to boot! I just laughed my head off. After it was over I turned off the tv and tried to sleep, it was hard with the overwhelming smell in the room, we couldn’t quite figure out what the smell was, like the carpets had been cleaned or something, turns out the room is furnished with all new furniture and that’s where the smell is coming from.
We get on the road, and follow my route (you have no idea how happy that makes me) I used the new google map travel thingie which is great. We went down 5 and climbed the grapevine and it started to rain, we took a left at Gorman and drove to yucca city. I love this way and we flew. It was raining pretty hard when we went over the pass matter of fact we could hardly see the road, I was so glad I wasn’t driving. driving through LA that way so we only nicked san Bernardino is the fastest way to get through that mess. I don’t have wi fi here at mom and dads although there are several airports that show up but they all need a password, hate that even though I do it too now. I wouldn’t mind but my neighbor was stealing my bandwidth and there are too many computers in my house to share with some idiot who actually named their computer fuck you, if they had a nicer name maybe I wouldn’t have made my wifi password restricted, Jim has gone to meet the new tenets at both places.

Harris Ranch

evening folks, we just drove for a bit over 3 hours to get to harris ranch. We love staying here, the rooms are big clean and fancy. this time I drove almost all the way from Novato. We had bumper to bumper traffic in San Rafael and once again in Oakland I couldnt fucking believe it, Jim always does all the driving and this time I said no I am going to drive so I drove all the way to the rest stop nearest Harris ranch. The drive was ok except it fucking RAINED what the fuck it is sept and it is raining??? I just cant take it I want summer summer summer not rain, argh! we also saw a few flashes of lightning. We checked into our room and then we went to dinner, Harris ranch has two restaurants, one is the country kitchen and the other has a BAR! we were told the bar/steak house was closed for the night so when we walked by we asked ands they said come on in we are still serving! yeah so we ordered a few beers som cocktails for me and had a fantastic dinner. Harris Ranch is known for its beef it is the best. I had a salad that was beefsteak tomatoes, tri trip, blue cheese onions and lettuce, just fantastic. Jim had mashed potatoes a ten ounce new york strip and veggies. While we were sitting in the restaurant i said the music is a bit loud isnt it? and then I noticed it was live..lol ad there were three couples right out of central casting dancing, the men all were wearing jeans plaid shirts and cowboy hats, they were two stepping. I said I wish we had some europeans with us, they live this stuff...lol
they were hooting and hollering, and dancing, was real fun. Live music no matter what it is always is so much fun. We are back in the room, which smells like carpet cleaner and dust so we have the door to the balcony open trying to air the place out. Anyway we survived the first leg of our trip, rainiy roads, truckers and me driving 80 miles an hour...YIKES!

new york city

We were in New York city 2 weeks ago. Our first trip ever. We stayed at the hilton times square which was probably the most comfortable hotel room I have ever stayed in. the sheets were so soft, the room was large, a corner room with two large windows so we could look down on times square. New york is very warm colored, brick buildings, wooden water tanks on the rooftops, We saw curtains, staring david hyde pierce, what fun! the music was very reminiscent of the music man, very well done, bought the cd. We also saw chicago, the movie was very well done. Chicago wasnt my first choice but Jim bought the tickets and there really wasnt too much we haven't already seen or have tickets to see this season in sf. I love going over the list of shows and saying seen it seen it going to see it...lol We had a wonderful time, I took tons of pics http:www.flickr,com/sarahracha. After three nights in New York city where we were only able to see the Guggenheim, so we need to go back..lol we drove to Philadelphia where we met my sister and saw the king tut exhibit. fantastic, the artistry just blows my mind. Then we drove on to Maryland where we stayed for two nights, We visited Harpers Ferry, and Baltimore where we saw the american visonary museum loved it.We also saw my brother in laws show at the delplane gallery in Fredrick. I really like his work. this is my condenced blog, I am not good at going back over things I did two weeks ago.

New York

Jim and I went to New York Labor day week. This was the first trip to New York for both of us. The reason for the trip began when a friend who lives "upstate" was talking in e mail about her new garden center. Her husband quit his job to help her with her dream and things sounded like they were coming along and she said she wished everyone could visit. Everyone meaning the 25 or so of us in the email group we call echat. we talk to each other every day sharing life stories, gardening woes etc. Jim was pestering me with ideas for a vacation and so I said lets do New York. I was able to get one other couple to come along too.Kath and Jerry from Ohio. We have been in this group for 10 years and some of us have met, some of us havent. Our trip began with a stay in Hyde park in a cute b&b run by students from the CIA. We flew the red eye,slept a bit but it seems to me the flight attendents area bit sadistic, offering beverages when you are just hitting rem. I had a chatty patty sitting in front of me and no matter how deeply I pushed my ear plugs into my skull, I could still hear him yammering away,also he was waving his arms in the spot light he needed on and it created a flickering light show that made me wish I had brought along one of those sets of eye covers. Still I do think I slept, I am getting better at sleeping on planes. We checked in to our b and b sat by the lake enjoyed the sun, freshened up and then headed to Victoria gardens in Rosendale.Vicky is a wonderful relaxed warm comfortable person who is so much more articulate than her communications by email. Some people dont write like they speak. The shop looked beautiful and I took lots of pictures. Jim and I headed off to lunch at this cute funky place called the birds nest. When we came back Kath and Jerry showed up. We hung out at the shop for a bit, did some shopping and then we went to a farm stand for corn and then on to Vickys house where we met her husband Wayne .The men hit it off instantly and there were lots of laughs. We ate a wonderful grilled dinner drank LOTS of wine, had a wonderful night. We drove back to our b and b and fell into bed.The next morning we met at a farmers market where I was shamed by the size of the tomatoes, I thought California grew the largest tomatoes.After the farmers market we went to brunch and then wandered around a flea market. Vicky ahd Wayne had a wedding to go to and Kath Jerry Jim and I went off to the hooley on the hudson where we hung out for the rest of the day and night drinking beer. It was fun to just hang out, hearing bag pipes, watching people. The next day we met for lunch at the birds nest where I discovered sea breezes, wow nummy .then we headed to New York ccity

lazy days of summer

Morning,I am still in bed, drinking an iced coffee and playing on my laptop. I have been in a lazy hazy mood these last few days. I really shouldn't be,my folks are coming for a visit, horizontal surfaces are in need of clearing, dinning room table has a sewing machine and a very large oil painting with all the accouterments. I have been clearing and tilling an area for my rose garden that I will plant in the winter. Been planing this for a while and now have an area, have removed several plants and a layer of bermuda grass, tilling it and raking it up. Apples continue to fall and I dry as many as I can, juiced up a container and I have made a few pies. I haver accepted that I will not use every apple that falls from this tree, although there is a very small ocd part of me that wants to use every single one, I cant keep up. Hundreds drop every day and I may use 12 or so.The weather is nice, I have the windows open and get nice cool breezes every so often. I just feel lazy and when I feel lazy all I want to do is eat junk food like ice cream and cake. I have been hoeing the poppies and weeds that have come up in the last few months..i go out and work in the garden for ten minutees and then come back to my laptop. Jim and I head out to New York in a few weeks, I am excited but also guarded. We have never been to New York before and we have no idea what we are going to do. I think over planning can kill a trip. I am most worried about HUMIDITY living in Northern california where there is no such thing it always takes me a few days to acclimate and I HATE IT....oh well I do want to go to the moma and the Guggenheim, I think my first step in visiting any city is checking out their best art museums. Jim thought it would be fun to rent a paddle boat in central park, I love that idea. we were going to see if we could get tickets to a broadway play, Pissed that grey gardens is ending before we get there. I was all gung hoe to see spring awakening but it will be coming to SF so we dont need to....I guess curtains is my next pick. we were going to go and see about cheep tickets and just take what we can get. We have seen almost everything that is on broadway right now. We figure we have been to many other large cities in the world and loved every one of them that odds are in our favor that we will love new york city too. I ran into a former student the other night and asked her what she has been up to, turns out she is moving to New York city to be a line chef at the hilton times square, hmmmm thats odd that where we will be staying....I will try to hook up maybe have a drink with her...Love seeing my students actually reaching their goals, I guess I did reach my goals, they were easy to get to....waiting for the next stage, the one where we have an empty nest, I think it will be a good stage. ghad this is so boring

ohhh last weekend I saw stardust, beautiful but of course there were a few things that were left out of the movie that I thought would have made it much better. I wish the line about the star giving her heart to tristin so the witch couldnt cut it out was left in, such a beautiful sentiment. We saw Avenue Q , had our usual good seats but had some fucking idiotic people next to us, the man who sat next to Jim couldn't sit still and his wife stuck her stinking foot on the balcony railing......I felt like such a snob but really you dont go to a broadway show and put your feet up...didnt help that I have this gag aversion to feet...lol I mean it makes me sick to my stomach to see people touch their feet and then touch their faces....ewwww and she kept moving them and she wasn't keeping beat she was just cracked out.....blech disgusting....Poor Jim was closest to them....When we went to see stardust I was so happy to be in a crowd of people who know how to be in an audience. It was a screening for Lucas employees and they all stayed for all the credits, Man I just loved that and no one spoke through the whole movie except mandy and Yoshi but they were so quiet sitting next to them I couldn't hear them just knew they were commenting on their favorite book...lazy day today.... tomorrow we go to a winery for a private party, always like those.we still have two more Shakespeare plays to see this summer...I have some odd netflix, sweeny todd and rent...lol how in the heck did that happen? I harvested a shitload of Anaheim peppers and made the best chili rellenos ever...and the extra egg whites I made a soufflé with peppers and jack cheese OMFG it was heaven...some a hole is doing LOUD yard work....fucking leaf blower....i hate weekends when all the other people in the neighborhood come out and disturb my oasis where is my ipod? OHHH john lennon's stuff is on itunes, had to buy a bunch...someday maybe the beatles stuff will be there, I am missing several albums....yawn,,,,,still in bed.....the dogs love it when I stay in bed all day. Jimis on callso he has to stay around the house, makes for a nice relaxing day.

#10 qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq moxie typed that

Friday day at sea slept in until after 10:00missed breakfast, so we headed to the photo gallery and picked up some photos, tossed tons into the bin. Its ok we got some real cutes ones. We then went and had lunch. After lunch we shopped, I bought pashimas and necklaces, we went back to our state room and read and napped until it was time to see the show put on by the crew, it was tons of fun the second in command did the whole joke about the wait staff tying strings to their penises so they don’t have to clean their hands after they pee…lol and he actually had a string going in his zipper..omg and he had the spoons you know the joke the waiters have extra spoons for customers and they use these spoons to put their penises back in their pants after they pee…they also did this real funny thing called fountains sorta like the fountains at the bellagio but this was a bunch of the crew, came out in togas, and were holding canisters of water they all took a sip and then spit onto the next person…lol one at a time, it was really funny they did the Grecian urn thing all spitting water. After that we headed out to the back deck to enjoy some sun, I had a cookie and some tea and then we walked through the buffet and I saw some Indian lentils and some other Indian food that I have been wanting to try, seeing as it was after 5 and dinner is at 9 I stopped and had some spicy vegetarian foods and we ate with the guys from Malaysia Jim met on the fishing trip. It was a nice lunch. Now I am trying to catch up and get this all typed up before I forget.

#9 Davidson glacier

Next morning we woke up in Skagway. We woke up late because our excursion was later in the day. We walked to town and bought some souvenirs for everyone. I am trying to get things that are useful like socks for the girls and boxers for Scott. Jim found some nice hematite necklaces for his co workers. I bought some salt water taffy from this area. We went to a jewelry store and Jim bough me a turquoise necklace and earring set along with a silver chain and a turquoise pendant and a rose quartz pendent. My jewels for this trip. We came back to the cruise ship and off loaded our stuff and then we met the bus for our excursion, it was a funky old school bus, the driver was this young cool fun girl who reminded me of a sebetoski. She said is everyone here who is supposed to be? Alright lets roll and she drove real fast and said you guys are real lucky, this helicopter is going to lift a bunch of stuff right here from the road in front of us, it is stuff they bring up to the top of a glacier for a picnic, or the dog sled ride. It was six 55 gal drum barrels in groups of three and the helicopter lifted it up and flew right over us, our bus driver had let us out to take pics because as she said this is pretty cool and not everyone gets to see it. Off we went to the catamaran which was driven by captain Dan and we were introduced to Boris who was very personable and knowledgeable and we rode for 45 minutes to the Davidson glacier. We got out of the catamaran and met up with Linda who single handedly rolled the gang way down the rocky beach to the catamaran, dumping it over onto its side..lol which she was laughing about. We got off the boat, on a beautiful beach covered with strawberry plants and fireweed and blue berries and wild roses, OMG just beautiful. We got into more school buses drove for a minute or two.We were given rubber boots and life vests. We next hiked a short walk through the woods, the young woods as this area was under a glacier not too long ago, we reached a grey shoreline, the water was grey due to the glacier flour that is in the water. Glacier flour is the result of the weight of the glacier pushing, rubbing on the rock as it slowly moves and crushes the stone into powder. We were told how to get into the canoes and we went and got in and then we paddled out into this river and into a lake at the base of Davidson glacier. It was fantastic to get as close as we did the blues were so beautiful, we saw baby seagulls, and some mountain climber s who looked like tiny ants. We paddled around the lake and got lots of pictures of the glacier. Our canoe had a pair of Canadian’s, a pair of Scotts, a pair of Irish a pair of English and us the pair of Americans. What a great group! We had a wonderful time and it was sunny and warm even when we were being blasted by the winds from the glacier. We rode home, had dinner in the main restaurant hit the casino where Jim was selected by the manager and a winner of a tee shirt that says I am a winner ast the casino in the seas…lol actually I am the one who is the winner.

#8 Juneau

Juneau, well first last night we had sushi for dinner, it was ok and then we went to the casino and played the penny slots so much fun this morning we woke up in Juneau. We had omelets for breakfast and we went off the ship rode a bus to the center of town there is a tram that goes up to the top of the mountains, we bought our first decent cup of coffee this whole trip. We then found our tour group and we rode on a bus around juneau and took bunches of pictures then we went to mendehal glacier took more pictures and then we went to a chapel that had a great view, great place for a wedding. We just made it back on the ship and went to the 7 seas for lunch I had chocolate soufflé for desert and it was yummy. We came back to our room I napped and then we had anniversary cake and champagne for our anniversary. It was fun after cake we booged it up to the front of the ship where we stood for three hours as we rode up a fiord to see saywers glacier, it was really fantastic so beautiful but it was cold. We kept thinking we were going to see the glacier any time and we just kept on going up the fiord, winding left and right. There was somuch ice broke off the glacier that we didnt get right up to it was it still was fascinating to see the end of the fiord and this giant glacier wrapping around this mountain, we could see both ends of the glacier. Now we are getting ready for dinner it is our anniverasy and we are going to the French bistro. I need to get dressed.
We had a wonderful trip to sawyers glacier up tracy arm. For our anniversary dinner we went to the French Bistro, it was the richest food we have had so far. When we first went to sit down I noticed the plates, chargers, OMG they were my favorite china on earth! The verssachi plates we saw in Germany. I said to Jim would it be rude of me to lift this plate up to see if for sure it is the versacci plates that I love? He said no. Dinner was excelant, I had a scallop and shrimp martini, escargot which the waiter said isn’t ordered very often (OMG they were the best I have ever had) my entrée was a shrimp encrusted salmon wth some kind of creamy rich French sauce, It was the first meal I have had that made me feel over full. We had a bottle of champagne and after dinner we were given a free bottle of wine which we still have in our fridge. While we were eating we were still going back down the tracy arm so we were seeing ice bergs and Jim actually saw a whale breach in our wake. We went to the casino and once again we did real well on those penny slots. I just love them! This casino is the best casino I have ever been to on a cruise ship.

#7 Ketchikan

Ketchikan, woke up at about 4:00 am and got out of bed to take a picture of the pink sky and the mountains. Went back to sleep but Jim was up at 5:00 or 5:30. I kept sleeping knowing I had to be out at the dock in Ketchikan at 6:50 Jim had to be out by 6:00 for his fishing trip. I ordered room service the night before and it arrived 25 minutes early! Who hoo, non fat plain yogurt cantaloupe, pineapple and green melon, coffee, just right. Jim left for his excursion and I took pics and cleaned up, I left for my excursion, which was Totem bight, clan house, the totem heritage center and fish hatchery. The weather , sunny and warm. Totem Bight was a bit out of town, beautiful rainforest, and there was a clan house native built out of cedar western red cedar and it smelled so good! The totem poles were interesting and the style of art was so beautiful Hmmm after walking around this beautiful flower surrounded park with the totem poles where we were told many fables of the natives and stories represented in the totems, we went to the fish hatchery where I was able to take some pictures of bald eagles before my camera batteries ran out. My back ups were on the bus. The hatchery is in the woods and just beautiful they care for injured bald eagles and we were able to get up close and personal. There were 30 old totem poles at this museum. The paint had been aged off. And the grain of the wood was more visible. The natives would make the paint by chewing up salmon eggs and mixing it with ground up pigment. It was so sunny and warm, I came back to the ship and had lunch, I found Jim and we met up with one of his fishing partners and we sat in the bar as the ship left Ketchikan. John Butler and his wife and their 17 year old son. We chatted a bunch and I discovered their son is a giant dr who fan. He also just loves harry potter and has read the books over and over. It is beautiful here and it has been warmer than we thought it would. I actually look like I got some sun. Jim caught with his group of three fishermen 14 fish! And he sent five of them home!

#6 hammered time

Today was a day at sea, or really a day of islands. I woke up early to a sunrise that made the sky silver, we were pretty far away from any land but still could see it. Jim and I had breakfast in a nicer restaurant, I had oatmeal yogurt and cantalope trying to be good,,Jim had eggs benedict, omg looked so fricking good. We came back to our rooms and spent the morning on our balcony watching the islands get closer and closer, we saw at least 50 dolphins and didn’t manage to capture a single shot of one, I should have tried a movie. We are traveling up the inside passage and our ship is one of the largest allowed to do it. The nature is amazing, think forrest and rocks and tall granite mts some snow capped and waterfalls everywhere. We have seen several bald eagles, I just love my new binoculars Jim thinks he saw a bear and I know I saw an otter. I was looking at a bald eagle which are easy to spot just look for white balls and I saw beneath one a sleek otter running up over the rocks. It is so desolate, the wilderness just goes on and on. Fantastic! We are off to dinner now and some healthy place tomorrow we are up early. Jim has a fishing trip and I have an excursion I think to see eagles…cant remember
Dinner was a blast we went to the place we had reservations at and he told us that tonight they had lobster at the other restaurants and we would like that so we went lol and we ended up sitting next to a couple from England who were awesome and we talked to them the whole dinner, it was so much fun he said they lived n the town where the woman warrior boddicia burnet down some priests fortress, anyway they were nice and we had fun, after dinner we went to the casino and I won almost 400 dollars whoo hoo Jim is mad but hey cant touch this…I have had hammer time stuck in my head all night bom chick a boom…cant touch this we have two adventures tomorrow Jim goes fishing and I do something Anyway I am off to upload my pics,,, ta ta I must remember to bring my camera and take lots of pics the typos in this are so bad hmmm cant have anything to do with all the cosmos I drank whooo hoooo
Cant touch this…boom bom bom boom
Hammer time

#5 Casino

We went out to dinner at a Japanese place where the guy cooks at your table, there was a group in our party from Turkey, it was fun, food was good although my calamari was a bit salty. After dinner we went back to our cabin and watched the sun set and I took massive amounts of pictures. After the sunset was over we hit the casino and I actually came out of there two hours later with 2 dollars@ I put 40 in and I still have 42…lol the machines pay off… they are slow and the key is and I need to remember pay out and leave! I had a drink in the casino and OMG it was just perfect! Jim was winning too but I think he put more in than he got out…lol as we were leaving they opend up a small buffet in the casino and we grabbed a few sandwiches, hit the spot, so far we have had a blast! Tomorrow is a day at sea, it should be a gas!

#4 Bon voyage

Jim and I just did something we have never done before, we swam at the bon voyage party! There was a band playing all the classic stupid make people dance songs, village peoples ymca, the electric slide, we are family … but Jim and I grabbed some poolside chaise lounges and ordered some drinks (tasted like mai tais real acidic) and then we swam! The water was salt water and of course I was so buoyant…lol I loved it and did at least a dozen laps (it’s a small pool) and sat out with the sun on my face and just enjoyed the moment. We went under a giant bridge and waved at bikers who were waving at us, I didn’t have my camera and wish I did, there are some beautiful kids on this boat, it is such a diverse group, Germans, British, Americans Canadians. French, Asians everything and you know I just LOVE THAT, we had several sea planes fly over us, so cool. Now we are back in our cabin enjoying the view out on the veranda, the sound of the water is so soothing, constant, whishing. I love it, there are tall snow capped mountains and islands with beautiful houses , we have seen tugboats and log drifts. We are headed north and the sun is getting low.

#3 Emergency drill

ok we just finished the emergency drill, the worst part of any cruise, argh it is so humid who knew it would be humid here? We were standing next to a couple who were funny brits, he was short and reminded me of alan paul who we met last year on the cruise in France…my feet are killing me because I was wearing high heels which I never do but heck I cant be bringing a million pairs of shoes with me can I? We made reservations for our anniversary dinner and tonight we are going to the Japanese place where they cook the food at your table.

#2 champagne and strawberries

We are on the ship. We made record time getting off our plane, going through immigration, picking up our luggage, exchanging money and catching a taxi all took us less than 30 minutes. Our taxi drive through Vancouver to the ship was beautiful, our taxi driver was from Bangladesh he was great and got us to the ship in record time. Very smart driver,never got in a slow lane, knew how traffic worked. He said we had the least amount of luggage of anyone he had ever seen…lol Vancouver is a wonderful looking city maybe someday we will get a chance to really explore it. The houses are old and nicely landscaped, I saw moon flowers blooming in hedges. The city is young hip and urban, I could see Yoshi living here. We saw many nationalities represented in the restaurants we drove past. The funniest sight was a man on a motorcycle with a golden retriever in a side car. The dog was so excited, barking the whole way, we all laughed as we drove past them...lol It is humid which we didn’t expect. We got onto the ship after having to show our passports about five times…lol we landed in canada, went through imagration, rode a taxi, had to go back through immigration ...we are just one floor above the lifeboats. We got onto the elevator and we are just around the corner from the elevators and the atrium. We walk into the room and find a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries which we devoured as we hadn’t had any lunch…lol We have a balcony and we are midship sort of close to the bow… so far this is fun!

#1 North to Alaska

July 07 day one
We had a nice last dinner before our vacation, I barbequed some chicken and we sat out in the garden and drank a bottle of wine from Benzinger. Jim packed. We cleaned the house and went to bed. The dogs all slept with us. This morning when I woke up, moxie was still asleep and facing the wrong way. lol she knew we were heading out and she had that scared face like she had done something wrong. Especially when we removed all the pillows and comforters from the bed which we have to do so she won’t destroy them all. We covered the bed with a plastic tarp and that’s when she headed for the living room and sulked on the couch. Yoshis Rat looks like she isn’t going to be around much longer, she keeps having seizers, poor thing, she has such a sweet face. I don’t expect she will last through this week. We loaded up the car, drove to San Francisco airport. Going through TSA is the worst part of flying and this time it was pretty fast, the employees were all young and not disgruntled. I just love my new computer bag it really isn’t a computer bag but it holds my computer and my essentials which is great, it also is beautiful nice light green softest leather and made by liz Clairborn… I just adore it. We had breakfast in the airport. Jim had pizza and coke, SACREY I was good had yogurt with fruit and granola and a iced coffee. We are now on our flight to Vancouver. The flight is a short one. one and a half hours. There is a chance of showers. We will take a taxi to the cruise terminal. I can’t wait to see Vancouver again.

True colors Rosie looking great!

True colors Rosie looking great!
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

Rosie O Donnell at the end of true colors. I love how everyone is blury but she is clear. I loved getting to see her.

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

We had so much fun at the true colors tour in Berkley.

June 29th

Today is a big day for many. June 29th, Sicko comes out, the iphone comes out and Jim and I get to go to a concert! I would love to go see sicko the day of its opening but concerts are better. I have always loved Michael Moores work since roger and me. I hated the back lash after 9/11. I remember my parents started saying all kinds of crap, actually I think it was bowling for columbine that they didnt like. that was before I understood the fox bran washing and dirt slinging on anyone who dares to not follow. So far the reviews on sicko look like pretty much everyone loves it,,,just wait for the twisting and slinging... the iphone...sigh, itis a sexy number, so shinny and smart and hot..but alas I cannot convince myself that I NEED one. sure it is amazing and it can do anything, jay leno joked it can even trim your nose hair, but, I use my cell phone maybe once a day. I have a brand new 30 gb i pod with plenty of room for my need for music, my cute lill ibook is portable enough for me when I am not in my house. Maybe if I needed the convenience of a iphone due to my work (i dont work) I could convince myself to buy one. I do think it would be great for traveling. still there are things I dont know about it. I guess you can upload pics from a camera directly to it, which would be helpful on those vacations where I take a ton of pics... I dont know how much storrage it has, it better be a lot, how large an ipod storage is there, I did try to watch the demo video but halfway through...got up and shut my puter...oops.anyway I am very excited about the iphone not because I want one but because I just love the interface and see that leaking into other areas of tech. Jim and I go to the true colors concert tonight! it should be a blast. I made him a cd of some of the music that we will hear, just so he isnt so green. I remember years ago we tried to see blondie but the tickets were sold out...rumors of Rosie O donnell being there, cant wait to see. I would love it if she was. I have always loved her and just dont get peoples hatred. I think it is all those Christians who turned on her when she came out. Everything she does gets twisted around by these hateful people. It is amazing, you know if she was a hot skinny bombshell straight woman, she wouldnt be getting any of this b.s. Our country hates anyone who stands up and trues to go against the flow. The more hatred I see coming from Christians the more I dont believe in anything they say. It is amazing to me how many people just believe because they are told that if they dont they will burn in hell...the biggest bribe in history.
My migraine is gone, yeah so maybe I will get something done around here today. I have some daylilies to move to the front garden, my onions have been harvested and they are so freaking beautiful! I still havent finished my table, need tobuy somekind of wood sealer for it. It is so nice...oops I used a dead word. Well I am off to be mom the taxi.

Monday

Nice weekend, went to the days of wine and roses at Mantanza creek winery. It was a nice day, the sun was out and the wine was good. The trees were decorated with umbrellas tied with ribbons and bunches of lavenderThey had a wonderful tasty spread, grilled lamb, yogurt cucumber dressing, several salads. I took a bunch of pictures, duh, they are up on my flickr. Today was my favorite day of the week ... I usually get something done on Mondays. I picked up my new glasses, very cool, stopped at Target and bought several more lavender plants. My garden is at its peak right now, If I blink I miss something, the Cherrys and Blueberries all were stolen by the birds. the plums and apricots are just now ripe. I gorged myself on apricots for breakfast. I dont know what to do with the plums, dont want to make more jelly , I never use it. We had fried zucchini tonight, the italian style where you slice it thin and fry it in olive oil drain and salt,,, so fricking good. We are still getting tons of lettuce, and peas and have had a few cukes. I maDE A NICE SALAD AND TOSSED A HAND FULL OF THOSE WONDERFUL OREGON SUGAR POD PEAS ... I noticed the peppers are coming along as are the tomatoes. I love having a garden full of fresh produce. It is so much easier for me to go into the garden to figure out whats for dinner than to go into a grocery store. I planted 12 lavender plants around the garden today. I want every sunny spot with room to have one. The tickets for the true colors concert arrived today. I feel like I am doing a whole retro music thing this last month. The police, Roger waters, and now Debbie Harry and Cindy Lauper...lol and the fair is having pat benitar and kc and the sunshine band along with the whalers and the village people....too much, it is like having all those 8 tracks back....actually I never had any village people....and my kc and the sunshine band was vinyl lol I have some netflix to watch, Jim will get bored though ...good neighbors the old bbc show.... ghad I love that!

laying low

After tuesday nights concert, I kind of just hung out doing nothing all week. Watered the garden, ate popsicles I uploaded all of Yoshis pictures onto my computer, and then she couldnt get them to upload on hers OMG I thought I had done something but turns out it wasnt me. meanwhile I burned all her images onto cds took fricking four cds! just in case she couldnt get her camera to upload onto her computer. Her memory card is HUGE.I uploaded them onto flickr, made sure to title them all with these pics were taken by my daughter. I found the guy who was sitting behind us at the concert on flickr...lol too funny. I have a crush on Dave Kilminster, the guitarist for Roger Waters. Now my fantasy is to see him play with David Gilmore... he copied his playing and singing flawlessly. I am thinking of making a poster of the concert. I do love the mosaic look to these. The pic today is the mock up that I had dpne.Not sure if this is the final product or not. I need to tweek my pics more maybe use less than 500 images..lol Jim and I are heading out to the Mantanza Creek winery today. They are having a wine tasting party, should be some good music there. I am bringing my camera...surprise. I was told by someone this week that I take a lot of pictures....as if that was a bad thing....sigh well life is too short not to document every last beautiful second

Roger Waters

I am exhausted today. I spent the best night of my life last night. We went to see Roger Waters and this time we had real good seats. I tell you it was the best live entertainment I have ever seen. I am exhausted. Yoshi snuck her camera in and took over 1,000 photos (thats my girl) and I have edited them down to 500 so far...lol It takes hours...lol I have a new crush on this guitar player, Dave Kilminster. He is the best guitarist I have ever heard. Yoshi must have liked him too because she took hundreds of pictures of him. We had so much fun. Roger waters is very political and he whipped the crowd into showing their suport. They flew an astronaut in a space suit over the crowd and of course the giant inflatable pig made its trip around. it said "torture shames us all, all religions divide, impeach bush, habeus corpus matters, fear builds walls". same thing it said last year...lol The sound was fantastic, the lights, the film projection, pyrotechnics, confeti, laser through the prism creating a rainbow--just wow. The crowd was once again so happy and friendly. I tell you it feels so great to get out there and see what people really are feeling.Tv has it all wrong folks.There is no church, religion, cult, club, or organization on earth that can even come close to what this music means to me. Sure was awesome to see and hear so many other people who you could tell felt the same way. I think about all the people around the world who will see this tour. Music truly is universal. Peace out...
Sally

POLICE REUNION OAKLAND

Stupid me didnt think I could bring my camera so I spent the whole night making up fake compositions in my head. This is a picture I found on flicker and wow it sure is a pretty one. No way I could have ever taken this one...lol we were as far away from the stage as 50 bucks can get you. It was really a fun concert. Much more fun than watching my youngest child graduate from Highschool..which we and she blew off..lol the old fart in me came out. First of all I dont get why people dont listen to the music... I was totally into the zone digging the colors of the light show and sounds and was interrupted dozens of times by people walking past my seat... whats with that? We also ended up with a group of young women sitting behind us who talked the whole time...I mean they didnt shut up the whole concert. All five of them talked at once on their cell phones and to eachother.Yoshi says they are people who go to concerts just so they can say they went to a concert. Yoshi was pleasantly surprised by the opening bands although it was obvious the sound system didnt do them any favors. One was fictionplane which stings son is in...and you could tell, his voice was just like daddys. the other was something that rhymes with the kellies. I will find out because.. eh hem apparently I downloaded their latest album last night...I have to get that child of mine to create her own itunes account.I want some other old favs to reunite..lol I missed out on a lot of rock and roll during the lean years when I was home changing diapers....OHH I am so excited... Spring awakening is coming to SanFrancisco!!!!!!! It is hot today, need to go jump in the pool, my poor garden is wilted

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

It's freaking Wednesday!

Morning, we are having our perfect weather. Last night was warm enough to eat outdoors. We were the last ones at Las Gutairas, Had a nice night. Drank too many margaritas though and woke up at 4:00 needing WATER. They do make good ones there and you just dont want to stop sucking them down...lol I made yoshi watch all the performances from the tony's I need to see spring awakening. The music is out of this world, so different from the usual broadway formula. I am debating weather or not to go ahead and buy the tickets now or to try and get discount ones the day of... Still havent watched cathy Grifins latest show have it on dvr for later. I finally painted my front door but it needs a second coat. I just cant do it until it cools down though because it makes the house too hot to leave the door open. I bought 6 more lavender plants and plan on eventually edging every path with them. Today is Yoshis Graduation (sort of) she actually graduated in Dec. tonight is her ceremony but we are going to take her to see the police instead...lol the picture I have included today is one of my favorite from the italian street painting festival...loved how this boy was just standing there staring into the drawing...lol have to see if I can add links here. these are the funniest videos EVER involving the great Johnny Depp....http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1947. I am off into the garden to plant some things that have been waiting way too long.....

Downy woodpecker

I found a woodpecker in the garden today. Poor thing was acting all weird, hanging sideways on the plum tree and later he was under the bench pecking away on the leg, I walked towards him and he took off hopping along the ground and Jack tried to grab him, and the bird ran through the lettuce patch. I put jack in the house and went looking for the baby woodpecker but it disappeared. I watered the garden, painted my cement leaves and then I heard it pecking on the table again, poor thing was not going to get any food pecking at the table leg so I grabbed it, put it in my cat carrier, called wild care and Yoshi and I took him down. they said he was a juvenile, and something was wrong with his wing. They also asked if I would want to release him and seeing as my garden is a natural habitat I said yes! I didnt see or hear any of the parents although I did just hear one so I am not sure the nest is in my garden.

Sat Morning

Morning! Siting here in bed with my laptop and my tall iced coffee. Just about to go outside and get watering. I have a whole station that isnt being watered anymore, need to call my brother about that. Beautiful day! Jim is down south clearing out our house so we can try renting it again,,, we have had some bad luck with tenets but we know we will eventually get someone in there who will love the place as much as we do. I am going to re work my shade cloth cover for my lettuce bed which is just pumping out the yummie salads! I will also work on removing the paint from my redwood table and maybe even paint the front door now that our cat who scratched it to shreds has moved in with another family (why cant Nimbus do that too?) There are several art things going on this weekend and I will go to the italiaN STREET PAINTING FESTIVAL IN SAN RAFAEL. I JUT GO NUTS TAKING PICS THERE AND THIS YEAR I HAVE SOME IDEAS TO USE THE PHOTOS FOR SOME ART...HMMMM shit caps...Already read all my e mail, and sent a bunch too. Last night I went to Rosies site and watched her talkie blog with Ross... I just love them both! I realize now that my whole life, the entertainment I love the most is real people just talking about nothing. I am so sick of scripted stuff I just cant listen to it....bad acting ...bad writing... argh!!!! The Alex Bennett show, back in the day, fresh non scripted interesting and funny, even when I loved watching regis filbin when he had a dumb ass show on lifetime, it was because he was real ad-lib....thats why I liked the rosie o donnell show and why I liked her on the view and it is also why I LOVE to watch stupid video blogs...real people talking about real stuff...sigh Time for me to cook breakfast... omelet with avocado, btw I am addicted to lolcats

Friday

morning, Still in bed, drinking my coffee. It is quiet outside, just a few birds tweeting away. No more mockingbirds. We had a pair that decided to build a nest in the arbor that is on the patio. We saw everything, Yoshi took pics of them building their nests. We stood in the kitchen and watched them every day for weeks, they built the nest, and then the male stood guard from the neighbors antenna (still dont know why he has an antenna when he has satellite) We watched until we saw the parents feeding their young, we watched as they dive bombed anything that was a threat, the dogs the cat, me..... and we watched as the young buggers decided the jump out of the nest way too soon, I picked them up from the garden and put them back in their nest, the winds came and the babiescouldnt sit still, they popped out of the nest and were blown off the arbor.The parents became frantic and spent days screaming at anyone who stepped into the garden. The babies couldnt fly and just ran nilly willy across the yard. After putting them back into the nest several times I gave up. I saw one be taken by other birds. Jim found one he thinks maybe the dogs killed. I just dont understand how any birds can survive and I sure wish they had built their nest where I didnt have to see what was going on with them every day. meanwhile I now have a sign for my garden stating that it is a wildlife habitat. We have towhees nesting and a pair of house finches, hopefully these two pairs can raise some babies.

New blog

I have been frustrated by my lack of control over my blog on Yahoo due to my using a cute i book, and Yahoo not having a text tool bar available to me on my cute i book. My pc is ill, and my son is too busy to rebuild it again... So google Please be the one for me. Ahhh I am going through Rosie withdrawal. I have tried to watch the view but I just cant sit there. Yesterday was the last straw, hearing an adult woman say she doesn't believe in evolution... I was gob-smacked. Tried getting my fix from Rosies blog but it looks like she is taking a break, Did my usual dog walk this morning,I took the dogs for the three mile walk on the levees. We saw lots of geese, ducks and even a few pelicans. Moxie has become a bird huntress and a real pesky one at that. she ignored me when I called her, she was at the waters edge thinking about going after some birds, I called her and shse looked at me and continued to go in the opposite direction.,,,,OMG want to piss mommy off? thats exactly how to do it. so I had to put her back on her leash, gave her the evil eye too (I am so mean). We had a nice walk and I collected some geese feathers for my friend. I will send her a box full of bones and feathers and what not for her indian art. it is going to be a beautiful day blue skys sun and NO WIND!!!!! I hate to be a picky princess but I am. I just love beautiful Northern California weather when it is perfect. I become a terrible bitch when it is windy and I cant go sit in the garden and do some reading. which reminds me, I finished the god delusion yesterday, Lots of good stuff in there.... Scott and Mandy moved in together last weekend, well I mean they got a place of their own last weekend. I am so happy and excited for them! but already people are pestering me about them getting married... I just dont get it, they have been together for over 5 years and now because they are not living with us or Mandys parents everyone is asking if they will be married soon... whats with that? and while I am complaining about other people sticking their noses in my business now that my daughter is 18 and is talking about getting a tattoo I am getting all kinds of advice about how I should tell her this and that and try to stop her. She is 18 and is an adult and she also is a very smart person, can easily see repercussions and has decided that this is something that she wants to do... so why is everyone on me? She isnt going to get her face tattooed or a stupid tramp stamp......its 11:30, cant wait for lunch time, I am going to Tommys for some fish tacos, been craving them all morning. alright now let me see what I can do here