Showing posts with label neighborhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neighborhood. Show all posts

Friday, October 15, 2010

Keep My Head High

I really wasn't planning a blog hiatus, but the past couple of weeks have been crazy busy.  Most of the crazy had to do with our rental house.  I'll go into details about the rental house later.  Right now I just need to catch up.

I'm still dealing with shin splints, however the soreness isn't as bad as it was just a couple of weeks ago.  I've only run once in the past two weeks, twice if we count the Run Fit class at RU last night, but that was not continuous running -- We did circuit training.  I've also  made a discovery that the custom orthotic for my left shoe is most likely a contributor to making my shins splints worse than they needed to be.  I took the orthotic out of my left shoe and replaced it with the original insole that the shoe came with.  Guess what?  I had little to no discomfort in my shin.   At the Run Fit class I was able to SPRINT for the first time since about August, and there's no next day overwhelming soreness or pain. *WHEW* I must add that I still can't do a lot of side to side movements, but when I run it's not side to side -- it's forward.  I like moving forward, and not just with running.

My dad left for for a Mediterranean cruise last week.  I'm not sure of all the ports, but Morocco and the Egyptian Pyramids are on the itinerary.  It's the perfect trip for him.  He's traveling with a group from his church.

The same day my dad left for his cruise was the same day my cousin came up from Ensenada, Baja California - Mexico.  The plan was for her to stay at my dad's house while he was away, but he forgot to leave the keys with us.  My cousin had a lot of business to take care of while she was here and she ended up staying with us until we could have a set of keys sent down from Fremont, CA where my brother lives. It was great catching up with my cousin, but she needed a lot of assistance with looking for particular businesses and agencies.  It's a long story, but her purse was stolen with all of her identifications in it, including her Military ID, California Driver's License, her Mexican residence ID, and so on.  She was planning to stay with us only one or two days until the keys arrived, but it turned into four since a couple of agencies required long waits in line, such as the DMV.  The advantage to my cousin's stay with us is that we were able to catch up on all of the relatives happenings and  incidental gossip in addition to a lot of thought provoking conversations about spirituality.

My cousin is a veterinarian.  It was funny that my cats and dog seemed to know she was an animal person.  My cat, Lumpy, would not leave hear alone at all. 

Computer companion

Since just before the end of September we were dealing with our rental house.  A friend of ours had lived there for over three years, but work was about an hour drive one way.  He decided to move closer to work.  He kept telling us that he was working on cleaning the house and getting it ready for the next renter.  Hubs and I figured all we needed to do was  paint and shampoo the carpets, plus some small repairs and a little yard work.  We were wrong.  So many things were broken or dirty beyond cleaning.  We were shocked.  Our friend hired a cleaning company to help him out, but it was so dirty that even the cleaning company charged him extra... and it was still not up to par when the cleaning company left.  Trash and rotten food were left behind in the driveway.  Some personal items were left behind, even though our friend said he took everything and that other stuff was ours.  In all fairness, we did keep a few things in the garage, but mostly Hubs' drafting equipment, a desk, a dresser, rolled up blueprints, and a few toys from when the kids were little, but that's all. These items were all off to the side and out of the way.   Our friend's kid's photo album, some of his furniture, bird care supplies and clothing items were definitely not ours.  We have a long list of things that were broken and needed to be replaced such as entire closet doors.  We really did not expect this since he rented another house from Hubs folks a few years back and everything was fine.  Our friend was expecting his security deposit back, but the cost of getting everything fixed and cleaned exceeded that dollar amount.  Needless to say, our friend is a bit miffed with us, but mostly with Hubs since they handled the agreement together. I'm not sure what will happen with this relationship, and I hope we can get past this mess.    

Hubs and my son worked at the house every singe day for the past two weeks painting and doing repairs.  My cousin even helped us a few hours hauling trash and cleaning cupboards.  I sanded and varnished the kitchen floor and part of the living room floor.  I also spent time scrubbing various things like greasy drawer pulls in the kitchen, the mold off of the ice and water dispenser on the refrigerator door, and the fireplace that was left full of soot, ashes, and wood.*  Since we didn't rent a dumpster, we put trash in receptacles where ever we could, which meant hauling bags of garbage to our house, my inlaw's house,  my sister-in-law's house, a neighbors house (she offered) and  my dad's house.  New carpet has been installed and everything is beyond ready for the renter, who should have moved in when our friend moved out.

*SIGH* 

 If that weren't enough, someone rear ended the back bumper of Hubs' car while he was idling at a stoplight after a trip to Home Depot, buying items to finish fixing up the rental.  No one was hurt, just the bumper.  Hubs had to laugh because it has been a draining past couple of weeks -- then the car gets bumped.  At some point you just have to laugh because it's so ridiculous.

If there's an upside, sanding and varnishing floors is a really good workout.

Now that we have some momentum going, we need to get back to caring for the house we live in.  I need to sand and refinish parts of the dining room floor where the dog likes to hang out.

My boss turned 60 last week.  She looks amazing for 60.  If you met her you would never guess that she's even close to 60.  There's something to be said about healthy living. Her family arranged a surprise party and had a small gathering.  I was quite touched to be included since I haven't been summoned to the office in several months due to a very stable staff. One of my former co-workers flew in from Texas to be here for the occasion.  It was so good to see her again.  This birthday event was somewhat like a family reunion, even though it was people I have worked with.  I guess it's a good thing when you can consider people you work with as family.   I thought Hubs brought a camera, but he didn't use it.  My boss was given a toga, crown and gold tone asps to wear at her party.  It was great.  I must explain that my boss is notorious for pranks, and you know what they say about payback.  It was awesome.

Good news.  My daughter finally got into San Diego State University.  SDSU was being a bit stingy with admissions, but recently let more students in. SDSU is only a 15 minute drive down the interstate, but it will take much longer just to find parking.

Saturday, October 16, is my daughter's 27th birthday.  Since she has a gig working behind the scenes at a college play on Saturday evening, we'll be taking her out for lunch.  She has plans to spend next  weekend  in Las Vegas to celebrate.
 
1983

2010

There's plenty of blog fodder ruminating in my head, but there's so much that it would quality as the longest blog post ever if I were to write it all down.  Two extremely busy and emotional weeks will fill a head.  I'll spare you all.  Besides, there's too much fodder to even process.  I'm exhausted.

Song from 9/29/2010:
It Happens - Sugarland


PEACE


*My cousin kept calling me "Cinderella."

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Activity: Walk
Date: 12/23/08 10:44 AM
Distance: 1.51 miles
Time: 0:42:28
Speed: 2.1 mph
Pace: 28' 34 min/mile
Calories: 147

I haven't really run, walked, worked out, or whatever in several days. It was time I did something. I decided the kid had too much TV time and needed to get out, so I took him with me. As we were walking through our rather hilly neighborhood, I realized that he never complains about going for walks. He did say he was thirsty once, but we were almost home by then. I'm hoping that, at some point, he'll want to run. Wouldn't that be something?

Here's a couple of pictures from the walk:


Looking towards Mission Bay Park



The kid all bundled up!


Back at home, the kid was satisfied with a cup of juice to quench his thirst, and I finished up decorating a batch of Christmas cookies. It's amazing what you can do with powdered sugar, water, food coloring and some Ziplock bags.



Yesterday's song:
Baby, It's Cold Outside - Vanessa Williams, Dean Martin, Lady Antebellum, Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan, James Taylor, etc... - Katiefeldmom, Run-DMZ, Barbie2be, Heffer Blog

PEACE

Saturday, September 20, 2008

No Complaints

My husband's uncle and second cousin have been here for the past few weeks and return to Brazil tomorrow. I do have pictures of them, but every time I think to upload the photos, my husband has his camera and is not home.

We took my husband's relatives and parents out to dinner last night. I sat next to his second cousin. I was admiring a beautiful ring she had on. It's a cabochon, royal blue faux sapphire stone in a silver setting. It's very pretty. I had mentioned that the ring was lovely and she just smiled and nodded with an "obrigado," which means thank you in Portuguese. We went on about our dinner, conversation was lively. I managed to pick up bits and pieces of the stories being told. I know about 10 words in Portuguese and can understand tons more, but enough to get the gist of a conversation. After dessert, Michael's second cousin wanted me to hold out my hand. She put the ring I had admired on my index finger and said the ring was a gift for me. *GASP* I was floored. She said the stone symbolized peace, strength and foresight. I was rendered speechless. At first I thought she was just showing me the ring, but she insisted that it was for me. Of course I thanked her and kept saying "wow." I'm still saying "wow." What a sweet gesture!

Today was also the annual thunder boat races on Mission Bay. The sounds of the race boats resonated through out the neighborhood. It's sort of like NASCAR on the water. We could see a few of the boats in the distance as they raced by. This made for an exciting day for my grandson because "those boats go really, really, fast!" The loud roars of the thunder boats, uh, races resume tomorrow morning.

My son turns 21 on Monday. For his birthday he wanted a 2 day pass to Street Scene, September 19 & 20. For a few years it really wasn't held on the streets, but in stadium parking lots. This year it's back Downtown, on the streets. There's several stages with several bands scheduled to perform. My son was interested in seeing Beck, pictured here, but there's plenty to see and hear. My son mentioned that after one of the bands finished playing, the lead singer came up to him, shook his hand and said "thank you for rocking out!" Sorry, I can't remember which band it was, but my son thought that was pretty cool. Since my son turns 21 on a Monday, he has no plans to go out drinking. He has classes that day and I'm sure he has plenty of studying to attend to. Don't worry, I won't let his birthday go unnoticed. You know there's a cake to set a blaze, a song to be sung, and cake to eat. I just love celebrating birthdays.

Yesterday's song:
Atomic Dog - George Clinton and the Funkadelicks - Run-DMZ

PEACE