California Adventure/Santa Monica

The above slide show is from California Adventure Park...  It's an amusement park belonging to Disney, right across from Disneyland.  If you get a hopper ticket, you can go to both all day long..  The park is modeled entirely on places of interest in California.  There is the farm part, the Hollywood part, the rocky mountains part..etc..etc...  The rides include Bugs Life (which Nicholas really had fun, and wet in), and the old fashioned rollercoaster boardwalk part, which looks a lot like the rollercoaster of my hometown, of Santa Cruz...  There aren't many rides, but it's a fun place. 

Above is a small slide show of Santa Monica, California.  A beautiful place near Venice..  I would definitely like to go back there again! 

Okay, that's the last entry I will do today... I have catch up work to do at work, and a lot of entries to read from my Jland friends.  Sorry I wasn't able to read them all this weekend.  I've been as busy as a bee lately! 

Venice Beach/Hollywood

The slide show above are made up from pictures from our stay in Venice Beach and Hollywood, California, at my sister-inlaw, Janet's house.. 

It was so nice to finally visit Janet..  She is a world travelor, a antique collector (she owns her own antique shop in Santa Monica), and she has been elbow to elbow with the stars..  She actually was asked by Tupac to hold his chains while he played pool one night...  She also gave me the low down on Travolta, Cruise and Will Smith... Things that make you go "hmmm" for sure.  No, I'm not telling, so don't ask...  HA HA HA... 

She and Ellen share this beautiful home with Hannah-a beautiful black Lab.  "Mouchie" was visiting while we were there while his parents were in Paris. 

Venice Beach is a lot like Santa Cruz, California---except there were far too many men seen in bikini, Speedo swimsuits that should have no business doing so...  Muscle beach...not many muscles..  The stretch of Venice strip, near the ocean were full of quite a few characters, some of them questionable.  On our way back to the car, Nicholas was trying to finish eating his ice cream cone, when a woman, wearing her towel down to her pelvic bone, walks by and says the following:

"Hmm...ice cream, just can't get enough of it!  Just like crack!" 

Lovely. 

Adventureland!!  My most favorite rides are in here...  They include the Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain Rollercoaster (best done at night), and Raiders.  Of course, after the stupid earthquake, they closed down Raiders all day, and I wasn't able to go in.  Damn.  Oh well, at least I got to go on Space Mountain...after a hour wait.  Next time, we'll have to do Disneyland for 3 days, not two.  The boys announced they went on Raiders 3 times, and Space Mountain 4.  Not fair, I tell you!!!  Not fair!!! 

 

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Phewww.....Disneyland, finally...

Will this work?

Okay, it does... HURRAH!!  These are pictures taken in the Fantasyland section of Disneyland.  Lots of them were taken by my daughter, Lizzy..  There are more pictures to come.  As you can see, Nicholas loved the carousels.  Ironically, when we first put him on that ride, a few years ago, he shook with fear, and first muttered the words, "I'm scared."  He then immediately peed all over himself, and had to sit in his stroller naked with a blanket with his daddy, while I hunted for a new outfit for him to wear.  Not this year though.  He absolutely LOVED the carousel.  Between the carousel and the Winnie The Pooh Ride, the kid was in heaven.  I don't have many pictures of the boys, Matt & Andrew, because they only came around when they were hungry.  Typical, huh?  They had a blast, and went on many, many rides, but I don't have many pictures of them.  The other girl (with the Minnie Mouse ears) is my daughter's good friend, Julia. 

You won't believe how long it took me to do the above slide show.  I have videos I wanted to download, but they are TOO BIG.  It's a real bummer.  I don't know how to "compress it" or if it is even possible.  If anyone of you have any ideas let me know. 

August has proven to be a VERY BUSY month for me, and school is starting again in afew weeks...  I'm not ready for the summer to end just yet. 

I finally saw Mamma Mia yesterday with the girls, Lizzy and Tania.  If I hadn't seen the musical on stage a few months earlier, I think I would have liked the film better.  It was good, but a little cheesy.  Who on Earth told Pierce Bronson he could sing?!  OMG.  It was hard to sit through when he sang.  Colin Firth, on the other hand, has a very sweet voice. Why oh why, didn't they give him the lead role, I will never know.  Meryl sang alright, I was a little surprised.  All in all, it was fun.  Hope to get the DVD as a Christmas gift...  Hint..hint.. 

 

My First Video...whoohooo

Well, after what seemed to be over an hour, I finally got this following video downloaded.  Hopefully, it will work?!  Let me know. 

It was late at night and I didn't bother to see which video it was..  I was hoping it was one that my daughter took at Disneyland, but it was one I took before we left on our trip.  It's a video of Nicholas in his room.  No, I'm not in it, but you can hear my voice... :)

Here goes: 

I'm downloading another on Photobucket, but it's been in "Encoding Mode" for a long time, and I don't know if it's going to happen.  We shall see.  I have a lot of pictures that I wanted to do a slide show on, but who knows if I will have time tonight to do it.

I have a lot of things to conquer today.  I took the day off from work--lots of errands, and stuff to do before my cousin Tania arrives.  I do love it when she comes down here-it's like having a piece of my family from the Azores at home (well, technically she is a "piece" of them...lol), and it's like having another daughter, and a sister for Liz.  The smart girl already has an internship job waiting for her at some law office for Monday morning!  Damn. 

Okay, I have a trip to the grocery store, the hardware store..and a lot of cleaning to do...(yes, still from the aftermath of Hurricane Carl.) 

Have a good Thursday, good people of Jland!

Thanks Lisa Jo!

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Back To Routine

Well, it's Monday, and it's back to the ole' routine.  Vacation mode has been turned off for awhile.  Things are back to the normal summer schedule at work, and I have conquered a piles and piles that were surrounding my desk this morning.  Whew....  It's nice to be away from work, but it's a chore to come back and do catch up.  I'm taking a good earned break now. 

I can't believe summer is almost over!  Some things I would like to accomplish before summer ends: 

More walks

Cleaning out closets

Days at the beach

After the short visit to Venice, and Santa Monica, I realized how much I missed walking in the sand, and playing in the waves.  I really don't have to drive so far to enjoy that.  I live and work close to the ocean.  I must do a few more visits to the beach this summer before the kids are in school. 

I was told by a good Jlander friend, that I may have come across a little too "bitchy" about Carl.  Sorry, folks..  I am just irritated because I resented all that time Rich and I have had to spend cleaning after the man.  I will do say, that our bathroom is looking rather beautiful about now; thanks to my husband.  I think this remodeling has inspired him to do a lot more stuff on his own.  Yay!  I'm all for it.  If I had my way my whole house would be tiled and wooded..  Carpet is a pain to clean-especially when you have 4 kids.  This week hopefully we will have the bathroom completed, and I can put in a dent in all the extra cleaning of dust from the tile work.

Good news: My cousin (the graduate from Lisbon University) Tania will be arriving in a few days.  She'll be staying for awhile to get a feel of American life here in California.  She absolutely loves being here, and we enjoy her company.  It's like having another daughter around the house, and of course she is in love with the guy who lives just around the block, so you can't hinder young love, ya' know.. 

The end of the month Rich and I will be flying to Vegas to see  his brother.  I'm looking forward to spending some alone time with hubby guy.  He really DESERVES some time away from work and everything else.  I really missed him during the Disneyland trip! 

Okay, back to work! 

P.S.  Thanks Lisa Jo for the above tag...  My alerts are up again!  Yay!! 

Aftermath of Carl

Carl is gone, and I am glad.

He was here to "finish up" Friday.  He was supposed to call by 10, and of course he didn't.  Then he called at 2:00 pm, after husband called him, and said he would be there in a few minutes.  Well, he didn't show until a quarter to 3pm.  I left before he got here, because after being away on vacation for a week, I had grocery shopping to do, and errands to make.  When I get back, he sees me put away my groceries and says to me:

"Did you leave early so you didn't have to see me?" 

He said it jokingly, but, I'm so sure.  What a stupid thing to say!  I told him that I had too many things to do, and I didn't mention how late he was, and how I have the scrub the stains out of the carpet after he leaves..  Well, the idiot, (Carl) got paid, and although he left some stuff quite undone, for example:  the "forgot" to screw in the toilet in.  Gee, and you should have seen the little screws he attempted to use, and oh--forgot to put grout in around some tiles, and oh, he put in the bathroom door in wrong.  Now id does not close.  Lovely.  Oh well, at least he is gone...

Oh and he said something to my husband while we were away.  He said he saw a mouse in our garage.  This I find very unbelievable.  There is no evidence of any mouse life in the garage, but Rich put a trap in and put poison in just in case. Lizzy thinks he has a friend in the rodent extermination business, and he is trying to get his a friend a piece of the action at our place.  I wouldn't be surprised. 

It's really a shame this idiot did such a "Mickey Mouse" (no offense, Mickey)  job with us.  I mean, the tile is in, and it looks decent enough, but he was recommended by our real estate agent, Bill, whom we have grown to trust for years now.  Next time I hear from Bill, I'm going to let him know to NEVER recommend this guy to anyone. 

I am going to leave now and clean all the dust in my room...  It's unreal!! 

My alerts are not working...  Are yours? 

 

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We Have Returned

We're back...

The drive: - good--we made record time, with the help of my six pack of Starbucks, chilled, Mocha Lite Frappos...  It's amazing how smooth traffic is at after the midnight hour.  I didn't yawn once, and my sister-in-law, Becky kept me awake with a lot of conversation.  I did have to use the bathroom at a nasty looking toilet at a gas station.  They had a unisex bathroom--I hate those--especially when you wait there for someone to get out, and there walking out the door was a very large, beer bellied man, with a weird look on his face.  He smiled and held the door for me.  It was a little freaky, and it was nasty inside, and I tried not to think of that guy's butt sitting on the toilet seat.  Eeek..  But, when you got to go, you got to go.  Thank God for toilet seat covers.  When we left the station, I saw the beer belly guy again, he was outside of his car, smiling at me.  Eeek... 

The Greyhound - not so good-- We got to the bus depot about a hour before the trip, but the station ticket station was closed.  Having never taken a Greyhound, we were unaware that our e-ticket (the one we got online when we purchased them) had to be verified with a teller a hour before.  Only thing was, the station closed at 11 pm, their bus left at 12:40, and according to the ticket it had to be verified a hour before the trip.  Well, they were there, but the ticket people weren't..  Anyway, after much some convincing, and a call from hubby to the bus driver, the driver decided NOT to abandon, Liz, her friend Julia, and another younger girl at the station at midnight.  They got on the bus, but, since the bus was packed already, they had to sit away from each other, near some strange looking, smelly people.  Oh well.  I got the call on the road that Liz and her friend was on the bus.  Thank God. It was very HARD leaving them on the depot.  The people waiting there were a little sketchy.  It's a good thing I wasn't around when her bus driver said he wasn't going to honor her ticket.  There would be some major drama at my part--I'm afraid I would have caused a scene.  I didn't leave until I spoke to another driver who reassured me that they would be on the bus--all they had to do is show their ID with their e-tickets.  Thankfully, they arrived in Hollywood with no problems. 

 

Venice Beach:  Beautiful & expensive place to live, with hootie tooty restaurants, and a lot of older people in exercise clothes, running around.  The sand was warm, the water was cool, and the sky was blue.  Saw muscle beach, but saw more flab than muscles, and unfortunately a lot of men (men that shouldn't) wearing speedos.  There was a guy sunning himself about 10 feet away with a pair of what must have been "stuffed" apricot colored speedos.  Oh, and lets not forget the dark guy in the tight leopard ones...  All and all Venice Beach/Santa Monica was beautiful.  We had the best hosts--my sister-in-law Janet, and her girlfriend, Ellen.  What a beautiful home, pool, and doggies...  Saw a few celebrities in Santa Monica, and saw the original Golds Gym where our governor Arnold used to work out.  Loved the canals....  SIGH

 (We saw the grey haired guy walking down a street in Santa Monica talking on his cell phone..)

Disneyland/California Adventure:  Nicholas is exactly 42 inches tall, which means he was able to go on all the rides!!  YAY!  Fun, fun, fun...  Thunder Mountain Rollercoaster, is the BEST.  Went on the Pooh ride 4 times, got on a lot of the rides, but of course we had that earthquake, 6.5 that shook the place for awhile.  It happened when we got off the Pinocchio ride.  It was a little scary, but didn't phase Nicholas a bit.  Lots of out of state people were a little frazzled, and I must admit I was a little freaked thinking about the possibility of another aftershock while being lifted up to a giant screen when riding Flying Over California with Nicholas...  Imagine Disneyland, on a summer day, with no rides open for 1 hour, and people just walking around aimlessly.  Of course, I was with Nick and my sister-in-law and all the kids were in various places.  The cell phones weren't working--lines too busy.  Called my mom and hubby to make sure we were all okay.  Unfortunately, my favorite ride (Raiders) remained closed for the entire day.  I didn't get to go on that one, and it bummed me out, but, with all considered,  Disneyland was good-all the kids got along, and they got on a lot of rides.  I got a few water blisters on my feet, and my baby toe, but the Venice beach sand, and salty ocean water, cured all of that. 

Drive Home:  We were ready to go home---traffic wasn't as bad as expected-even though we left well after 3 pm.  We got Liz and Julia early at the Greyhound, and they had time to walk down Hollywood Blvd and see the stars on the sidewalks.  Unfortunately, they didn't recognize the names of most of them though.  I got my sister-in-law back home and it was still daylight, and it was only a few more hours until I got to the Greyhound to meet the girls.  The bus trip for them was better than the trip over.  They met a guy from England who was leaving Hollywood from an audition, and heading for Oakland for another interview for a film.  The bus stopped at a Burger King, and Liz and Julia shared their onion rings with him.  Julia wrote her phone number with eyeliner on the onion ring bag.  We don't know if he has called yet.  Romantic, huh? 

Pictures coming later--I haven't downloaded them yet.. 

Thanks to Lisa Jo for all those fantastic tags you sent me while I was gone!