Spring Break in Huntington Beach, March 2019

Well, MY Spring Break was spent in Huntington Beach with Mike at Aunt Tuny's house. Mike had spent the previous week down there on his own, doing some renovation on Christi's water damaged condo there in Huntington Beach.  Only he wasn't working on any of the water-damaged areas, just the upstairs.  That's what I went to help with.  I painted. And prepped for painting, did more painting, did some clean-up, painted some more. Touched up paint. Helped hand out and find tools and equipment here and there. Painted some more. Cleaned more.  Cleaned up painting equipment (although Mike did most of it for me the first two days) again and again because there were many colors and many breaks. Well, just one break for lunch, but still required cleaning up paint stuff before leaving for lunch.  A lot of cleaning and straightening and vacuuming up sawdust, cleaning floors after we finished laying down the wood.

New things that I did:
Chiseled up an old bathroom floor vinyl (2 layers)
Took up carpet, pad and carpet tack strip. I've never done tack strip removal before.
Used a "multi tool" to cut something

And I used the chop saw and cut wood for floors.  Fun, fun.  And very noisy.  I needed ear plugs, but didn't have any so stuffed tissue in my ears. It was "The Shrek Look," ha. But, it did the trick.  That many saws and vacuums would have left me more than deaf. That does explain a lot about Mike's hearing ;-)

The two bedrooms upstairs are now painted, complete with baseboards and all trim. The bathroom is painted, but the toilet is out and the sink and vanity are not installed. Those are new and in boxes in the living room.

There is much left to do. I feel bad, sending Mike back to work again on his own as I'd love to help him some more, but I have to get back to MY work now.

Aunt Tuny took such good care of us.  She cooked some good food and left us with good lunch fixin's, washed the dishes, provided a lovely room and bathroom for us with clean linens and towels.  Sandi and Shawn left us keys to get in to their complex to use the Jacuzzi (and we did - twice). THAT part was pleasant for us, even though we did have aches. But no serious injuries, thankfully. No illnesses, even though I'd been exposed to colds by two co-workers and Berenice before leaving for California. I'm sure it's because I packed all the meds "just in case." And didn't use any. Yay.

Mike and I attended Church on Sunday, packed and left. We listened to an audio book on the drive home. It's always satisfying to have a drive home in the good flow of traffic.  Ours flowed.  The traffic TO California did not. We ate junk food, picked up Eric in St. George at Matt's house and were home by 9:15 or so.

Some photos for perspective.

Mike reading instructions on some adhesive product he's never used before.

Below: Duct tape can cure anything. Under it are bandaids, Neosporin, and a nasty flesh wound from laying around on the floors while installing stuff. This was to keep from bleeding on the hardwood flooring.

A very green bathroom. Obviously, I wore the right colored paint shirt for that day.

Yeah. Mike doesn't keep a neat work area.

Below:  Everyone should have a toilet sitting at the top of their stairs.

The hole in the ceiling and walls.

New paint, but without the baseboards. Yet.

February freezes

Mike went to the church this morning to help clean. (I was going to join him but am taking a sick day -- flu bug of some sort). There was a little repair job to do with some sheetrock so he ran home to get tools and stuff. All his sheetrock mud in the garage is frozen solid.

That's cold.

I left work on Friday after only being there for about an hour.  So sick. Slept all day. I figured of the past 24 hours, 21 were in bed. Yes, my back is killing me. But the fever is gone. ☺ And I did not throw up, though my body really wanted to. I hate doing that. Ugh. Would rather be miserable for hours than do that.

A fun face feom work I found on my phone camera.

And another fun face I found on my phone camera. That's Ella with her icicle creation in our front yard.

Post Superbowl, and now it's February!

I don't know what I've been up to lately, other than just watching an entire 4 seasons of one little show on BYU-TV called Hetty Feather. I liked it. It's like Anne of Green Gables, only in England in the late 1800's.

Wasted time. Oh well.  I didn't blog or write letters, but I did keep caught up on Donna's blog and adventures in Germany. 

I cooked on one Saturday that I was home all day. Cheese Enchiladas. Homemade Bread (just a loaf in the bread maker). Italian Sausage Soup. Cornbread muffins.

We went to Music Arts last night (AND "Bread and Soup Night" before that!) and listened to some very talented Scottish musicians. It was a string Quartet and some of their sounds were AMAZING. I could hear a hint of bagpipes in some of their folk music, and horns in some others.  They were very good. I only dozed off once. ha.

At work, I tend to have a lot of meetings to attend. Two newer committees. One will be over soon, but one other will be ongoing and hard work. I think I'll try and bow out of some of the other committees I'm on. Maybe. I like knowing what's going on in the Staff Association, but I think I'll bow out of that one. I don't get to do any Legislative stuff as any sort of liaison, and I don't do much of anything else with the Tobacco Free initiative stuff. Maybe I'll update the SA website for legislative representatives and stuff first, then retire from that responsibility.  And I'm about ready to be done with ULA stuff, too. I can do that till I retire for real, I suppose, and train someone to take my place perhaps.  I know I have to be on the ILS RFP one till it's over.  So many abbreviations. Ick.

Today, I took the morning off because I have way too much leave accrued and have to use it or lose it.  I was going to just kind of loaf...sad, but true. Maybe read a book.  But, I ended up shoveling snow, working on Rental lease/scans and stuff,

and this!  Catching up.

When we went to bed last night, Mike said, "I hope we get two feet of snow!"  And we just about did. It snowed over a foot during the night and was still snowing off and on during the morning. That's about an inch or more of water for our little desert. :-)   We need water around here, and this is how we get it.  One fluffy foot at a time.

It a bit hard to see just what light is lit, eh?  It was red. I drove Eric to work, as Mike was off trying to get his snow blower running at his Mom's house. But she didn't have power, and it's an electric start blower that you have to plug in to start. Oh well.  Eric and I shoveled off our driveway so we could get the car out. I hope power is back on at Berenice's house.  The north end of town was out, and some of the south end, but ours was fine. And there was power at the University.  Good thing I had power. My wood for the wood-burning stove is under a foot of snow outside.  I hope Mike goes and checks on his Mom again before long. 

Snow, Jan 21, 2019

My poor backyard with the UN-winterized garden :-/

Dead tomato vines and their cages, un-trimmed rasberries...there are even carrots buried out there still that i never quite got in.

WOW!!!

FINALLY

 

Some measurable snow.  It started this morning. As of 3 pm we have close to 10 inches. Needless to say, we are staying home today.

It's a holiday. Thanks for being a peace-loving man , Dr. King. Our snow reminds me of you. Peaceful. Good, necesary, looking to the future-- us for water, you for civil rights.  But truly Living Water is the common denominator here.

The Blog Book that wasn't 12/20/2019

I print out my blog book periodically. I've been doing it annually for about 10 years. Yes, yes, I know. My life is too well-documented.  But Mike and I like looking through these periodically. Sometimes I refer to them for backup and confirmation of events from the past because we all know that MommaLinda has NO memory. So I write.

My printed blog books nestled in binders of correspondence. One filing cabinet drawer.

I ordered my Blog Book from "Blog to Print" website as I have in the past when they have their best coupon deals to get money off.  I was so excited to see it when it came in the mail.

I open the package with much anticipation....

And it's not my blog book. Some strangers'.  Dang!

I emailed "Blog-to-Print" and they will send me another.  But what about the poor OTHER person who didn't get theirs?  I feel so bad. I didn't open up the shrink wrap for a while, but tonight I did and did some sleuthing.  From the outside, even before opening up the plastic shrink wrap, I could search for the title, but it didn't turn up anything. HER blog book is called, "So, That's Why!"  Maybe I don't know how to search for blogs.  When I search for "MommaLinda Blog," on Google, mine comes right up.  But my computer knows me, so that kind of figures.  My computer knows WAY too much! haha.

Today I thumbed through the stranger's blog, found a name, a city name, her kids' names. But no state. And it's OLD!  She printed her blog entries from 2009 to 2011.  She's a single Mom, a scrap booker- gone digital scrapper. Has a dog and cat. I figure her kids are 19 and 21 by now, but can't even find them on Facebook, either. It's hard without a state to go by. "Plainfield." There's three and all three are green like in their photos. They have California cousins...so many clues.  I feel like I know her. ha.  I wish I could return it to her.  But I'm sure she did the same thing I did after spending so much time and money and contacted the company to say she didn't receive the right book.



Can you imagine what they would have to do if the entire day's worth of printed blog books ALL were off by one box and EVERY ONE they mailed was the wrong one!  Sheesh!  That's a LOT of re-prints and I'm guessing some heads will roll.

I'm still waiting for my re-print to arrive. It won't come tomorrow since it's a federal holiday.  I guess it's ALWAYS a federal holiday, what with the government shutdown and all, right?  So grateful I still have a job.

And our Lunar eclipse is partially covered by high, thin clouds. I saw a spectacular one some years ago while the moon was low in the sky, full and large. THAT was a good one. This one, up high in the sky, not so spectacular. Though it is kind of fun to see it be phased out.  It does make you wonder what common folks thought when they observed things like that with no scientific knowledge of those kinds of things.