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Sunday, January 6, 2013

living 20th century style in the 21st century

....well sort of.....

just before New Year's Eve rolled around again. we made a trip down to the cable store (one we had planned to make at the BEGINNING of 2012) and turned in all of the cable tv boxes we had in our house..

no longer are we slaves to the eternal boob-tube....our time is now our own and we will watch entertainment that WE CHOOSE when WE CHOOSE to watch it...

yes we no longer have access to cable tv with its millions of channels featuring the same old shows for ever increasing monthly fees.

no we did not go cold turkey and give up all venues of small screen entertainment......now we pay a fraction of the cable bill to Hulu Plus and Netflix to stream what we want into our tvs, computers, liPads and iPhones.

i admit that i was, at first, lost without my nightly line-up of comedies and dramas......i'd walk in the door after the long hellish commute and find that my 'friends' were not queued up on TiVo waiting for me.....but it only took a few day to discover and accept this new found freedom. now i can call up my new friends and ask them to stream something that i WANT to watch not something that cable scheduled for me to watch at its leisure.

i've also found i have more time to spend doing chores - my house might ACTUALLY be clean one day!
i have more time to catch up on various 'hobbies' like reading, photography, genealogy
and i have discovered that PERHAPS i will have time to attack my correspondence pile and write some VERY LONG overdue letters. you remember letters pen to paper alphabet strung together to form words. enclose & seal inside other paper types known as envelopes and then place a sticky equivalent to currency in the upper right corner......a person known as a mail carrier then transports this document to a distant (or not so distant) destination whereupon the receiver opens it and enjoys my witty commentary .....yea. don't hold your breath. BUT don't die of shock should you find one of these articles from me in your possession!!! i'm jest sayin' ;)

today, i was lucky to find i had a whole afternoon to myself and i used it to my advantage as i have been dying to do some research on ancestry.com.....i meandered through files attaching reports and data to various relatives.....but my biggest accomplishment was finally unraveling the puzzle of why one couple had two sets of children that were born WAY LESS than the customary nine month interval necessary for proper gestation. the first pair turned out to true siblings only somehow or another one of them had been logged in as being born a full year prior to his actual birthdate. (thanks to US PASSPORT APPLICATIONS that has now been resolved) .....the second pair of mismatched siblings was a little trickier......in this pairing it turned out they were NOT brother and sister but rather HUSBAND & WIFE!!!! the wife it seems was born to different parents than the ones i am tracing BUT she had the same last name!! ...found her AND her correct parents on an 1880 US Census and untangled this silly little knot :)

......and what did YOU do this fine freezing funday?





first weekend of the year

and it is COOOOOOOLD WET and RAINY

we went to eat at SHIRASONI ... every bit as good as benihaha!!!
very tasty and we all have leftovers for tomorrow :)

.....came home to find a fb discussion about dating.......one person is thinking about jumping back in the pond......but is thinking to go for 'seniors'........idk i am glad that i am NOT in the market....BUT i think i am ALSO not ready to face the 'senior' stigma!!!!! i do not want to be getting offers from AARP.....i am not ready to start taking Geritol! i am just getting started on this ride called 'life'


what about you? if you were going to jump into the dating scene (or maybe you are single and mixin it) what would you do? are you looking for an older man/woman? or are you looking for the younger crowd?

....now i am reminiscing......so many good times.....out til dawn....kickin it with MOVIN or down on the wharf ....or in the valley (noe)........i don't know how my liver survived....but i do really miss those dancing shoes!!!

nite nite




Friday, January 4, 2013

here's the pitch

......tonight's movie was PITCH PERFECT. some of my all-time favorite chick flicks involve guys & girls and love & angst and singing and MUSIC.......and a sappy love story with a great...not just a good....but a REALLY GREAT soundtrack is THE BEST!!!

which brings me to tonights topic. singing.....can you do it? are you a shower singer? do you participate full-on in music making choirs and cover bands and karaoke fetes?

me? oh i am a DEFINITE soloist in the automobile........put me in a car all by myself and crank on the music and i am oh so happy to be singing away for hours on end......ok i admit i will sing snippets when others are in the car too.....but i think it's more torturous on them than anything else.

i remember in fourth grade mrs macdonald told me and elly that we had the best voices in the class --- ultimately, at least for me, i do not think that that was a complement....it just meant that i was really really loud. this theory was reinforced by my brothers whenever we went on a family road trip and they spent half the time moaning in pain and the other half begging my mom to put duck tape on my mouth to keep me quiet.....

fast forward to a week ago. we went to val's after the vigil service......and it was karaoke night (actually i am beginning to think that EVERY NIGHT is karaoke night in there - since they always seem to be having karaoke every night we have stopped by) .......but it's all good -- 'stine has a wonderful voice and enjoys getting up in front of everyone......ricky has gotten up there a couple times now and we have ALMOST convinced tommy that livin' on a prayer NEEDS his voice ;) ....but this time in, my mom's friend carol was there with a few of her karaoke singing buddies. they were all really good and i enjoyed listening to them......the problem arose when aubrey (one of carol's friends) decided that i needed to get up in front of everyone and belt one out....and i said NO WAY!!! he said yes way..i said NO...he said yes....NO ..yes....NO ...yes he said he could hear the music in my voice ....that i needed to let it out..... i said NO WAY.....he said if i went up there and sang a song he would drop his drawers to draw everyone's eyes off me......and just then my fellow eagles saved the day (night) saying it was time to go......WHEW!!!!

aubrey said NEXT TIME.....i said no way.....he said YOU WILL LOVE IT......i said maybe

now comes the true test of fate......do i dare darken val's doors ever again? or do i keep my off-key percussions inside my car all cozy?







Thursday, January 3, 2013

02 January 2013

i am just a LITTLE BIT late......technically it is already 03 Jan, but it's still 'the night of 02 Jan' so i will pretend.....

watched a movie on NETFLIX -- yes this is my new nighttime entertainment since we said BUH-BY to nasty ol' Comcast!!. grrrrr. but i digress --- movie was called PLAY THE GAME and it may have been one of the last (if not the very last) movies starring Andy Griffith. Was a cute sappy girlie chick flick.....right up my alley! then i was gonna get up and go to bed but it was so darned cold that i pulled a blanket up over me and crashed.......UNTIL pk came home and suggested i should GO TO BED very loudly thus interrupting my freezing slumber!

but this was not what i was planing to write on 02 Jan 2013......

i was planning to write about situations in life in which persons are clueless (or maybe it is just plain self-centered rudeness?!) i'd like to say that this one in particular situation has really gotten me all tangled up in a knot of frustration - but it really hasn't. instead it's almost comical because it's so predictable.... well maybe i will discuss this further tomorrow - if i don't freeze in this arctic wasteland.

i mean SERIOUSLY!!!! if i wanted to live in the frozen tundra i would move to alaska....or iowa.....sunny california is misleading......sunny implies warm.....and it is NO WAY warm here in the boondocks during the winter!

....well i am gonna take my frozen li'l tootsies to my icecube bed and wander off to dream about fudgecicles and igloos and frosty the snow man.... (maybe i would not be so cynical if we actually got snow - then the temps would be worthwhile --- altho' who's gonna shovel my snow for me? maybe i better be careful what i wish for!!)
nite nite

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

goodbye 2012....hello 2013

i am going to start out this new year on the right foot......picking up my keyboard and attempt to speak out in the hopes that you will hear me.....

.....for now i just want to say HAPPY NEW YEAR....

and take a moment to reflect on all the things that happened in the past 365 days

...we all aged another year
...the SF Giants won their second WORLD SERIES (as SAN FRANCISCO Giants)
...the SF 49ers ended the regular season as NFC WEST Division Champions
...Cintia & I took a tamale class and found out the 'it' that we were missing from our own tamale experiences
...i ran out of time and never got Christmas Cards in the mail (those that sent them to me, I truly enjoyed hearing from you!!) nor Christmas Cookies in the oven --- well there's always NEXT year!
...got together with my EAGLES classmates on several occasions
...said 'until we meet again' to one of our EAGLES
...went to YOSEMITE with the 'family'
...discovered i did not have the photo card for my camera and ended up taking all my pics with my iPhone
....traded in the DROIDS for iPHONES and never been happier with a communication decision
...said BYE BYE to COMCAST (yes still adjusting to this choice)
...FINALLY went to the doctors --- got poked & prodded and learned a lot of things that I am going to have to work on (more on this soon!)
...sadly did not get to very many concerts......did enjoy GOLF & GUITARS in Sacramento with Kristie and JASON MICHAEL CARROLL in San Jose with Lisa and The FARM in San Jose with Linda.........hoping for KEITH URBAN and GARY ALLAN in 2013
...made contact with cousins near and far learning more and more about my ever expanding family tree
....spent a week at the National Archives in San Bruno scanning documents detailing the lives of my ancestors dating back to the Gold Rush era

all-in-all it was a fairly good year ... 2012
I have high expectations for what 2013 will bring......