IT'S SNOWING!

We woke up to snow flurries this morning! Two days ago it was tank top and shorts weather.

I'm running through the house shouting, "It's snowing, It's snowing!" DD says to me, "You get more excited about the snow than a 2 year old." Hey, what can I say? As long as I don't have to go drive in it, bring it on!

However, it is a major distraction. I have to look out the window every 23 seconds to see if it's still coming down, and I should be concentrating on getting all of this work done by Friday so I don't have to do it over Spring Break.

Monterey/Carmel Day Trip

We went to Monterey and Carmel on Saturday. It was a gorgeous, sunny and warm day, kind of unusual for that area. Love it, beach, sand, and sun. Love the smell of the ocean, the crashing of the waves. Great day! But.........a true "Carol" trip would never be complete without some kind of mishap. Luckily, this one happend BEFORE we got on the road.

We went to the casino for dinner Friday night (yummy omelettes!), and when we came out to the car, there was a flat tire. Looking on the bright side.....it didn't happen on the road, at night with no lights, in the middle of a rainstorm. It happened in the parking garage with bright lights and a roof over our heads. After 20 minues, we were on the road with this stylin' spare tire.


So...our first stop on the trip to Monterey on Saturday morning was to the tire shop.

And, of course, I get questioned, "Why are you taking a picture of the tire shop?" My answer, "I'm writing a book." That usually stops the questions......

Next stop on our adventure......the side of the road to set the GPS system. I don't know why one needs a GPS system to get to a place they've driven to at least 500 times before, but hey, it was another great photo opportunity for me.


Next stop...I think it was Jack in the Box. Not for me....I ate a wholesome oatmeal breakfast at home before leaving, and packed good snacks for munching in the car. I'm no novice when it comes to road trips. I come prepared. (But, no bananas allowed in the car. Don't want a repeat of that Reno incident. - Joke for those who were there and know what I'm talking about.)

We drove into Carmel the backway (known only to locals) to avoid the traffic jams on the main highway. We past so many quaint little beach cottages. So cute! Oh, and we drove past Clint Eastwood's house as well. I couldn't see the house because of the gate and the trees, but I did see he has a nice car. We walked through the Plaza (I think that's what it's called). A bunch of little shops. The best (for me at least) was the toy shop because I found a gross kid's book about bodily functions that apparently only I could appreciate. I have no idea what else the store had because I read the book while others browsed. We did not spend enough time browsing through the shops because one of our entourage was having an "I need to eat" meltdown. On the way to eat lunch, we did however drive along the ocean looking at some not-so-quaint oceanfront homes with spectacular views of the water.

On to lunch at El Torrito's in Monterey. The portion sizes were tiny. I mean REALLY tiny. But, it's right on the water and the view is spectacular. Here's the view form our table.

After our late lunch, we were off to do some antique shopping. Shopping, that's all we ever do at antique stores. Never buying. We save the buying for the thrift stores were we usually find lots of treasures. No thrift stores today though.

After antiquing, we went to a BBQ. And, then a late night drive home. Sounds like we did a lot of eating, but really we didn't considering that we were gone from early morning until nearly midnight. All in all, a very nice trip.

Can't wait to see what our next adventure holds for us as we head off to Utah sometime during Spring Break.

Yes, It's True!

I finally fixed my photo editing software. YIPPEE!!!! I'm back in business.

Last month, we took a brief trip to Orange County. On the way home, we stopped by the Queen Mary and DD was in H.E.A.V.E.N. She is in love with all things European right now (well, not all things....she would probably pass on pureed parsnips and the like.) The phone booth from yesterday's post is located outside before you enter the Queen Mary.

Here we are lounging on the deck:

Very unflattering picture of me. I should have worn black instead of white. But, oh well. It is what it is. At least my hair looks good. Thanks to DNephew for the best haircut I ever had!

DD also bought a Russian soda (which was fabulous), and she picked up a British newspaper to bring home.

The only bad thing about the adventure that day was the escalator to the main deck was broken and we had to climb about 10,000 STEEP stairs to get up there. What a hike that was!

Wordless Wednesday

MIA

Gone again, gone again, jiggitty jig.......

Yes, I've been MIA AGAIN! I do have another REALLY good reason though.

My photo editing program (or whatever it's called) won't load pictures from my camera to the dumputer, and I don't like blog posts without pictures so I haven't done any blog posts since the thing went kaput.

I need to uninstall the software and reinstall it to see if that will solve the problem. BUT....before I do that, I need to save all of the some-odd thousand pictures that are on the program and put them on CD's so that just in case everything disappears, I will still have access to my pictures. Therein lies another problem........It takes FOREVER! Well, not really forever, but it just seems like it.

My goal is to have this whole thing taken care of by the end of January. However, it is face to face meeting time, and the end of the 1st semester, and report card time........so I'm not saying January of which year. teeheehee

Here's Another One

Can you BEEEE-LIEVE this? A miniature gingerbread house on the side of a cup of cocoa? Oh My! Where do these people find the time? Maybe in a previous life I might have done something like this or maybe in a lifetime after this one.....But, right now, it AIN't happenin'. If you come to my house for hot cocoa, you will be lucky first of all, if I even have any hot cocoa and second, I might (and that'a big might) give you some miniature marshmallows to go on top.

However, I do have the next two weeks off so who knows. Maybe I'll make a couple dozen of these little treats. LOL They are AWFULLY cute!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

DD and I just, and I mean JUST, finished up Algebra for the 1st semester. YIPPEE!!! Did you hear the shouting?!?! What a relief to be done with that! It's been a struggle all the way through, but she's finally getting it. Maybe now I can have a life (at least until January) LOL.

It is not my custom to allow TV viewing during Algebra time because DD is VERY EASILY DISTRACTED, especially when she's having to do something she doesn't want to be doing in the first place. However, tonight I made the one-time exception so that we could watch Susan Boyle on TV Guide Network. We watched her video on YouTube several months ago as she auditioned for Britain's Got Talent so we knew she was a wonderful singer. During the show tonight, they didn't actually ever show her singing the song, but I kept hearing clips of "Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones. Don't throw rotten tomatoes at me, but I'm not a real big fan of the Rolling Stones. However, I am familiar with this song and I knew it wasn't the Rolling Stones singing it on the show...I could at least tell that much. So I went to my trusty dumbputer and looked it up on YouTube. WOW! Susan Boyles version of "Wild Horses" BLOWS the Stone version outta the water! You HAVE to listen to it. Click here and turn up the volume: WILD HORSES.