Miss Puddin' Tater

Seriously, Our cat "Puddin" loves to lay upside down and last night she had two of her favorite things. A nice hot fire and Evan to lay next to. For some reason she migrates toward Evan, probably because he's allergic to her!
A cabinet update: I went to the shop today and took some pictures of the work in progress. I'm so excited they look great. Wayne is doing an awesome job! I can't wait to show the before and after!

Way to go!!

Evan was for nominated for Student of the week by his 6th grade social studies teacher Mr. Rippberger who wrote, " Evan is nice to his class mates and participates well in discussions. His work shows attention to detail and organization." I was so happy for him and he was as proud as can be! In addition to getting the "Award", he also had it announced over the load speaker at school and wait for the best part...........he gets a front of the line pass for a week! How cool is that? This morning he said, "Mom, Can I have a dollar to buy something at school"? I mean why not take advantage of an advantage right? Good job Evan!

Before and After

A while ago Wayne decided that the back door and porch of our house needed a cover. We use it as our main entry into the house and It's a south-west facing door so it gets wet when it rains. Putting a cover over it was a great idea and it looks beautiful. I'm so happy that he choose to do this while he was in between jobs! He's currently working on some built-in bookshelves and TV stand for our family room. I'll post before and after shots when he's done. And yes, that does mean he's in between jobs!

A rockin' night for us

That's right, no big surprise from us right? We do go to our share of concerts but this one was a little different. It was a benefit concert to raise money for the family of guy named Buffalo Norton, a blues harmonica player who had cancer and died, he was a friend to all the people that played and his wife was there too. They had a silent auction and Wavy Gravy was the MC for the night. It was a brilliant idea, held in the newly renovated Fox Theater in Oakland CA a gorgeous site and not a bad seat in the house. The concert was 5 hours long and included sets by The Doobie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, and The Steve Miller Band. Special guests included, George Thorogood, Charlie Musselwhite, Roy Rodgers and Elvin Bishop. I'd never seen any of these bands/people so it was a real treat and they all rocked their a**'s off. Before the concert, Wayne and I and Rae and Mike met up with our friend Randy, then drove to one of his favorite restaurants in Emeryville called "Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. One of the guys from Greenday is part owner and It's going to be on Food Network tonight at 10:00 (Jan. 25th)! Wayne's brother Keith and his wife Holly met up with us there, Keith was excited to see the concert because he and Randy did the concert poster which turned out great and we had a surprise when we got there and saw they had used the art to make t-shirts with too. Wayne bought one :)
You probably noticed I changed my page graphics again. I'm thinking I might try to post about "Things I love" during February. There are so many things after all! Until then.........

Stormy Weather

The storm they have been promising has finally arrived, at 3:00AM to be exact. I know this because the lighting and thunder not only shook the house but completely freaked out my cat! She was actually crying. I had to pick her up and hold her finally bringing her into bed with us. Her little heart was pounding so hard I though she would have a heart attack! The boys on the other hand didn't hear a thing. Nada-nothing! At least they'll be rested for school.
I managed to make it to the gym today, I have new motivation as I've put on a couple of pounds. Probably due to my new addiction to a game my sister bought us for Christmas, it's called Bananagrams. Now I have the application for my Iphone and once I start playing It's hard to stop. It's fun if you crossword puzzles or Scrabble. The other motivation I have is that Wayne's cholesterol test came back a bit high. 231 I think. Not good for someone who has heart disease in his family. So I'm counting fat calories and adjusting our food a bit. The problem is we eat pretty good at home and his "good" cholesterol is high, but so is his bad. Anyway, it leads me to think his diet isn't all that bad and he can probably lower it by just a few changes. We'll see what happens.

Happy Two Thousand Ten

I was informed that the proper way to say "2010" is not twenty ten, but rather two thousand ten. Why is this important? It's not, just thought I''d mention it. It's a distraction from the more pressing matters in my life. Like putting the Christmas boxes up in the attic and cleaning the kitchen floor. Every year about this time I swear I'm just going to go to Hawaii for Christmas. A girl can dream right? We were gone during Thanksgiving two years ago on a cruise and I have to say it was great not having a traditional Thanksgiving. You already know how I feel about cruising! Not for me please. But the whole being gone for the holiday thing I could get used to.
I was going to send out Happy New Year cards this year, I did send out some Christmas cards, but now I'm starting to think there's a statue of limitations for New Years Cards. Would you agree? If this is true, it officially gets me off the hook. Maybe I'll do the cards next year, or not.
This year one of the things I'm going to try and find out is if you have to pay more for quality? Have you noticed that some of the household items you use just don't hold up? Recently, a gift I got for Christmas last year broke, I use it every morning and actually it started to fall apart little by little. First the little rubber feet came off the bottom causing it to slid all over while in use. I have to set it onto a kitchen towel to keep it from vibrating off the counter (which is what happened this morning because I forgot the towel) and it says in the instruction manual that the motor will not run unless the attachment is inserted. That's bull, It continues to run until you unplug it. So I know that this thing is mass produced and sold at every Costco and Bed, bath and beyond in America. And I'm sure there is one in every household in America (American's are so gullible)I for one like the product in the limited capacity that I use it. And it wasn't inexpensive. But really, can't it last longer than a year? Is this part of the manufacturers plan, to get you hooked on their product then when it breaks you run out and buy another one? Or are they too dumb for that. Maybe they just sell as many as they can and make as much money as they can and walk away. I think that's more like it. I just want things that are quality and that last. Is that too much to ask for? We'll see? For now, I need to put a Bullet in this product, A Magic Bullet.