Dryer is coming

So I went to Lowes on Thursday to get a Dryer. So much for their advertisement that they have free next day delivery. The next delivery they could do was three days later. Of course I wouldn't have them come on Sunday, so they will deliver it here on Monday. In the mean time, I have a bunch of things I want to wash. I have a hard time taking towels out of a cardboard boxe and using them without washing them. So I now have a bunch of kitchen towels and bath towels, plus the regular laundry that needs to get done. Thankfully I just need to hookup my washer and that will work. This way I can just wash and hang dry until the dryer gets here. I can't say that I have ever wished for a Monday, but I wish for one now.

New TV

I need a new TV. I have had a small 13 inch TV since 1996. It has worked well for me until right now. Since it was created before DVD players it doesn't have the correct plug in spots for the DVD cables. I had a VCR until I moved, but since it stopped recording or playing VHS tapes I decided to get rid of it when I moved. I didn't realize it was the only thing that was connecting my DVD player to the TV. So I went to hook up my DVD player so I could watch a movie tonight when I ate dinner. Then I realized it wouldn't work. Rrrrr!

Out in the middle of nowhere...no TV and can't watch movies. I would have to say that really motivated me to find my cables for my computer.

Walnut Orchards

It is really pretty here. Last night I went exploring in my car after work. I didn't know where my trash can was and so started driving around. Then I found a road and wanted to see where that could take me. Then I knew the river was near, but didn't see it, so I saw another road and thought what the heck, why not. The next thing I realized I had gone about a 1/2 hour and wasn't really sure where I was. I was still in Walnuts, and I could see the river. I knew that if I drove north I would eventually hit a main road. However, I wasn't sure if I would recognize the main road when I hit it. I pulled out my GPS and since I already programmed home in, I found it on the map. However, GPS couldn't tell me which farm road to take to get back, so I wound myself around and around trying to get to the elusive home dot on the GPS. I swear I passed the same worker driving the water truck a couple of times. Mom called me as I finally found myself on a familiar road and so I stopped on the side of the road and was talking to her when the water truck saw me again and stopped. Since I knew where I was I smiled and waved him on.

My next project is to find my camera battery charger so I can take pictures. Right now I am a bit stuck on picture taking until I can find the battery charger.

Hello!

I know it's been forever since I have updated. I have now moved to Chico, CA. I live out in the boondocks now. I really mean it, the GPS unit can't even help me get home. There are three ways to get home and all of them involve at least 2 miles of gravel road if not more. I am about a 1/2 mile from the Sacramento River. I have a neighbor across the drive, but other than that, the nearest neighbor is about 1 1/2 miles down a gravel road. I live in the prestigious "gated" community on the Deseret Farms of Chico. I say "gated" because if you leave too early or come home to late the gates aren't open. I have now had to open the gates twice.

I moved out of my house on September 29 and arrived at my new place that night around 11. There are deer where I live and so I kept my eyes out for them and spotted two as I was coming in that night. Luckily since it was a gravel road I couldn't be going fast enough to worry about them. The only way I would hit them is if they decided to commit suicide and run into my car.

The next night I needed to go to town to pick up some groceries. The missionary couple that lives next door made me a map on how to get to town. However, they forgot to write down the names of the streets I need to turn on. So on the way back home, I had my GPS unit on to see if I could at least get close to home and then try to nose my way around. All of a sudden I saw a sign for a street I thought I needed, so I slammed on my brakes and turned quickly....so sorry to the car tailgating me. My GPS unit freaked out and wanted me to make a u-turn. Then Mom called and I was talking to her and it was pitch black and I missed the road I was to turn on. Luckily I made it to work and then could make it home. So in the two miles of gravel road, I saw about 10 deer that night. I spotted three, then about another 1/2 mile, I saw another two, and so on. By my house there were another three.

Apparently we have wild turkeys and boar as well. Allegedly there are also coyotes, but no one has seen them. They only know little pets disappear. Sam and Phil will not be venturing out of the house.

As for Sam and Phil, they made the trip okay. They are a bit traumatized, but that is to be expected. I thought the road trip was going to be torturous with 6 hours of two meowing cats. But as soon as I got up to speed, they settled in and only meowed when I yelled at the stupid drivers around me. Finally when we got in that night I put them in the bathroom and left them there since the movers were coming in the next day. I didn't want to have to try to hunt them down. So when the movers left I opened the bathroom to let them out. However, they wouldn't come out. They stayed in their crate all day Wednesday and when I came home from work on Thursday they were still there. They are still mad at me and Phil wouldn't come out from under the bed until about 8 tonight.

On a sad and disturbing note, I have a rodent in the house. I am a bit scared it may be a rat. I am not sure if it is a mouse or a rat. I found fresh droppings on the carpet in the living room. Yuck. I guess I will just have to get some Decon and put it in places Sam and Phil can't get to it.

I am halfway unpacked and just found out I might be able to move to another (smaller) house in December. Yeah!!! One of the other workers has bought a house and will be able to move in December so I will be able to get that house. It is significantly smaller. I am in the 4000 sq ft home, and it is only 1200 + it has a garage. Boo Hoo. But I think I can handle that. I don't need 4000, and I had been in 1600 so going to 1200 wouldn't be bad. It is right across the street from work and the company pool is only a couple hundred feet away. That will be good in the summer.

As for the weather here, it has been great. It is chilly for me. I know all you northerners will make fun of me, but is only getting up into the 70's and the lows are in the 40's. I can't find my sweaters and I don't even have a jacket. I have had to dig trough my boxes until I found a blanket since I have been cold. However, the people are scaring me a bit with the El Nino stuff. I have heard several times that the floods are coming. Floods are coming??? They also state that I need to be ready to be without power for several days. What? No power!!! No power means the well pump will not work, which means no water for the toilets, showers, or cooking. That would be why my walk in freezer is currently full of bottles of water. That makes sense now.

Oh the joys of living in the middle of nowhere. I am having my moments of thinking "WHAT THE HECK DID YOU JUST DO???"

:-( Air Conditioner

So my air conditioner decided to die today. I guess today is a better day than a week ago. Last week the temps were 108. Today the high was only 97. So now it is 93 outside and inside it is 87. Since there is a breeze, I have opened all the windows and it feels cooler outside than it is inside. I will have to get an appointment with my home warranty company to come out. It will probably be a couple of days. :-( Thankfully we are going into a cooling trend over the next couple of days. Tomorrow and Tuesday it is only supposed to be in the low 90's and on Wednesday it is is to be in the high 80's. I don't think I would really call this a cooling trend, but since it is much better than over 100, I guess I will take it. I will count my blessings that the air conditioner didn't break last Sunday. It was really, really hot.

Even then the air conditioner was put in in 1978, so I am not sure if it is fixable. :-( I will see what they have to say when the come out. I was planning on having a BBQ at my house on Saturday. I guess I will have to see if I have air conditioning or not. I wouldn't want to have 30 people over if my house is going to be 90.

July 3rd

So yesterday I decided I wanted to make cookies. I wanted chocolate chip cookies. However, I didn't want to turn on our oven. It was going to be 104 and a hot oven??? I don't think so. So I went and got my propane tank refilled. However, when I went and plugged it back it and turned on the grill it made a strange high pitched humming noise. I looked up online what that might mean and the tank was probably over filled. So then I decided if I was to turn on all the burners on high, and then let it run for 10 mins then the tank might be okay. So I did that. However the humming didn't stop so I let it go another 10 mins. When I went back to look at it, there were flames shooting up out of it, out from the bottom and the sides.

I kind of looked at it not really sure what I wanted to do. I turned off all the burners, but the stuff in the drip pan was still on fire. I knew I could bring over the hose and douse it all, but since I had cooked a bunch of hamburgers in it the last time, I figured it was more of a grease fire then anything else. Water on this wouldn't be smart. I knew I have about three fire extinguishers in the house (yes, I have three...I accidentally start fires occasionally). I didn't want to use a fire extinguisher because I knew the mess that would be involved and I wanted to use my grill again.

As I was watching it, pondering what to do, my roommate comes out and mentions I probably should do something since the fire was near the propane tank. That prompted some action. I hadn't wanted to open the lid because I didn't want to feed the fire, but decided it was easier to blow the fire out from above. I opened the top and started huffing and puffing and blowing out the fire. Eventually it was all gone.

Later that night I had a friend come over and decided to put my BBQ pizza stone on the grill and cook some chocolate chip cookies. Boy, were they good. Yum!!! The best part was the house didn't get hot.

Thursday Night

So on Thursday, we went down to the Temple for the Singles night. Yes, they have Singles night at the temple. It is mainly for the baptisms. So when we got there, I realized there were a lot of people and not a lot of people helping out. So I was able to help out and direct people. That was cool and a little funny. Since I was wearing a dress people thought I knew what I was doing and so would ask me questions. Most of the time I had no idea what they were asking for. Since there is currently a big push for the singles to do temple work, there were a lot there. There were 42 people that came from our branch. This was a big turnout. In total there were 146 people that showed up that night to do baptisms. We didn't get out of the temple until after 10 pm.

On the way home we witnessed an accident. It was right behind us and we were stopped, and the stupid big truck decided to muscle itself out of where it was and ended up getting hit...Should have been more patient. On the way back into Bakersfield it was about 12:30 am and we saw a car in front of us that was weaving a bit. We all decided it was probably a drunk driver. So I decided to call it in. I couldn't make out much of the license plate or the make or model, so I am not really sure why I bothered to call it in. However, I reported a small silver colored 4-door car with a license plate starting with a 5. After I got dropped off at my car, I got back on the same highway and started down the road. This was about 10 mins after I called in the drunk driver. Then it dawned on me.....I am driving a silver 4-door car that the license plate starts with a 5. Great. I decided I better drive the speed limit and make sure not to weave any even though I was really tired. :-)

Sequoia National Park

So yesterday Paulette, Janelle and I went up to see the sequoias. Those trees are huge. We also went to see the Crystal Caves in the national park.



This weekend was fee-free weekend. The national parks are going to have two more weekends this summer. For more info go to to http://www.nps.gov/ . So the trail to the Crystal Cave was about a 1/2 mile long. We were warned that the trail went down about 30 stories. So we knew what we were getting into...or so I thought. :-) It was actually fun.



This was the first time that I was able to go hiking and be the leader of the pack. I had been exercising...kind of getting ready for this weekend, and well kind of just trying to get back into shape. It felt good to be the leader of the pack and still ready to go on the next trail. That morning I had, had my run on my ellipitical so I had already gone about 2 1/2 miles before we headed to the park. At the park I went another 2 miles and was ready for more. However time was limited. We were able to see waterfalls, really tall trees, deer, a tunnel log (you can drive through it), wildflowers, and pretty mountainsides. I will have to post pictures when I get them downloaded onto something. My USB ports still aren't working.

Zebra Butts!

I don't know why, but I think Zebra Butts are funny to look at. Apparently zebras can be a bit mean, so you don't want to try to feed them cookies. They think that fingers are cookies too.

Giraffe Tongue!!! Yuck!!

So on Memorial Day Weekend, I went over to Phoenix to see my friends, Lynn and Jason and their two kids. It was a blast. I thought the drive over would be crazy since it was a holiday weekend. The LA traffic in and out on a holiday traffic is horrible. I have sworn off traveling by car on the holiday weekends because a normal 2 hour drive can turn into a five hour drive. However, this time it wasn't too bad. On the way back I hit traffic. It was stop and go for about 30 miles. I thought I would never make it home, but finally traffic lightened up when we got to the five lane freeway. It was funny, I drove from Phoenix to Indio, CA on a two lane and traffic was fine. In Indio, we picked up a third lane, traffic slowed slightly. Then in Palm Springs we picked up a fourth lane and traffic ground to a halt. It was stop and go for the next 30 miles until we picked up a fifth lane. I guess people just don't know how to drive on 4 lanes.

Anyway, when I was in Phoenix I went to an Out of Africa park. It was fun. There was a tiger splash (more pictures later), and we saw lions, tigers, and bears...oh my. Plus we saw zebra's, giraffes, one hippo, emu, ostrich, camel, and I am sure there were other things. One of the things we did was take a "safari." This was a school bus where the windows had been taken out and we were driven around in and enclosed area that had a giraffe, ostrich, zebras, and antelope. We were each given a giraffe cookie so we could feed the giraffe. The guide told us that if we wanted a giraffe kiss, we should hold the cookie in our mouth. If we wanted a picture, we would need to hold it between our teeth so the giraffe would have to work for it. Giraffe do not have top teeth, so they are not able to bite.

I thought about getting a giraffe kiss, but I wasn't sitting next to the window. Lynn told me that giraffes have really long tongues. I don't know if I believed her until I saw, and took pictures, for myself. Below are some of the giraffe pictures.


This is me trying to feed the giraffe my cookie. He had to come back a second time because I dropped it. I didn't want to get slimed by the giraffe tongue and so I accidentally dropped it the first time.

I don't know this kid. However, he was sitting in front of me. I could tell he was getting ready for a giraffe kiss, and so I thought it would be a funny picture. Hope his girlfriend doesn't see this.

Crazy Grocery Store

So last Friday I received a flier from Winco Foods. This grocery store is huge!! It is about the size of Costco. I go there every week because it is cheap. I won't buy my frozen food there because I bought broccoli from there once and got food poisoning. Every time I contemplate on buying something in the frozen food isle, I squeeze the package, and the stuff is thawed out. So no frozen for me. Anyway, everything else is great and they have low prices.

In their flier it mentioned $2.98 for four pounds of fresh strawberries and $.98/lb (yes, I really meant .98/lb) for boneless, skinless chicken breast. There were a couple of other of good deals and so I decided I needed to go. Since I was in town on Saturday, I decided that I would stop there as my last errand. Once I got into the parking lot, I knew I was crazy. There were only spots at the back. Their store is huge, and their lot is even bigger. At that point I should have turned back. They have 20 checkout stands and 19 of them were running. Even after I got all my groceries, I waited 25 minutes to check out. This time I actually picked a fast line. It's because I elbowed my way to one of the middle lines instead of waiting for lines closest to the two isles the traffic comes down towards the cashiers.

I stocked up on the chicken and so I know I saved $20-$30 plus all the other savings. I just munched on some of my lovely fresh and very tasty strawberries. Yum!!

Doggies!

I went shopping around town on Saturday....I got a bit sun burnt. That was a mistake, and if I knew I was going to get a bit of sun, I would have put sunscreen on. I wasn't even out that long. I went back and forth to my car about 6 times, so I wasn't out that long....

Anyway, I needed to stop by PetSmart to pick up some cat food. I just happened to go on Cat and Dog Adoption day. That was a bit of a mistake. I saw the two cats in the metal crates. They had signs on them that it wasn't a petting zoo and if we weren't seriously interested in adopting we couldn't hold the cat. No problem. It wasn't like they were cute kittens, they were adult cats. I then moved on to the dog people. The dogs were out of their crates and were being held. There were two chihuahuas. I started talking to the volunteers and at some point they asked if I wanted to hold Red. So I got to hold the cute little dog. I had to tell them I couldn't take a dog because I have mean cats. They are de-clawed, yet they managed to beat up and terrorize a golden retriever. That was a sight to see.

No dogs for Laura...yet. Not until the cats are gone. Since no dogs, I decided to sign up to volunteer. This way I could hold the dogs on the adoption days. This could be fun.

Yikes!

So I think I got someone in trouble at work today. I didn't mean to, but it's not my fault.

Our PR/HR lady knows that she needs to call into her supervisor when she is sick. However, for the past 5-6 years she has called someone else. She says that is because she knows he is up when she calls. Also, there have been a few occasions she has called me on my cell phone to let me know she won't be in. I am not her supervisor, but I relay the message and for the most part it is fine.

However, there have been a couple of occasions where she has forgotten to call in. We knew she wasn't feeling well the day before, but there isn't an excuse to not calling in anyway. In March she took a sick day and apparently called the other guy. He just wasn't in town. He was in AZ and told her that she needed to call someone else. So she called another person (not her supervisor) and left a message on his cell phone that she was sick. He wasn't going to be in that day, so the message wasn't conveyed to us. So her supervisor called her that afternoon to find out where she was. She was mad that we called. We had no right to call because she called in. Her supervisor straightened her out and told her the expectations of calling him, no one else.

Today she wasn't in. I figured she called the one guys she calls all the time, but he said she didn't. Her supervisor called her and she told him that she had left me a message. There was no message on my machine and so I played the "no messages" tape for her supervisor. Tomorrow isn't going to be a good day. She is going to be mad that we called her. Then it's going to be my fault she got in trouble, even though she knew she needed to call her supervisor. Oh well!!

New Roommate

So last week Paulette moved back in with me. She lived with me about three years ago. The last time she lived with me, I had invited her because she hated her job and wanted to quit, but didn't have anything lined up. So I offered for her to come live with me so she could quit and look for a job.

This time around, there were job cuts at her place of employment. She was laid off in February and knows she wants to move to Las Vegas. However, she is having a tough time getting a job there. So her lease was up and I told her to move back in until she had another job.

Hopefully she is successful and will be able to get her dream job.

Sam and Phil are still a bit skittish around her. They remember her and it didn't take long for them to come out of hiding for her, but any sudden noise, they go running. I have such sissy cats.

USB Ports

Still working on getting them to work. I am trying to backup my files, and that is a bit frustrating. I have to back them up on CD's since I can't use a flashdrive, or an external hard drive. So I have been putting disks in since Monday night. Only this morning when I put in the 9th disk, it told me the backup failed. I was about 2/3 through. I was upset. So know I have rethought how I want to do this. It seems I want my pictures, some of my word documents and a couple of songs I have downloaded. The rest of the stuff can disappear.

So now I am in the process of backing up the files I want and then I will try to restore my computer to the original software. The Geek Squad said that this may work. If it didn't I needed to take this as a sign my motherboard is dying. I find this hard to believe because at the same time the four ports failed I gained another software issue. A tiny issue, but another sympton all the same. So now I will be backing stuff up. The rate I am going, I hope to have my computer back up and running and healthy before the weekend is over. yeah.

Darn USB Ports

So a couple of months ago one of my USB ports failed. Not really sure what happened, but it just stopped working. No big deal I have six others.

Then last week another failed. Again, not that big of a deal since I have 5 left. Tonight three more failed. What??? Now the only things that work are my keyboard and mouse. I had to figure out another way to plug in the internet. I guess I am going to have to figure out how to fix this. It looks like I should be able to uninstall the drivers and then cross my fingers and hope the computer realizes that there are uninstalled USB ports and tries to reinstall them.

Well....I guess we shall see.

Admin Professionals Day

So today was Admin Professionals Day. We have about 6 people that we do things for on this day. They have come to expect something big and grand. The last two years I have been in charge of this and last year we were able to go into Bakersfield (1/2 hour away) and go to the Elephant Bar for lunch. The Elephant Bar is a nice restaurant. It ranks up there with the Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs. When we go out, we seem to take the whole office, not just the Admin Professionals.

Anyway, this year I was told that we wouldn't be able to close the office to go to lunch and that if I wanted to take them out, I would have to leave a couple of people behind. I didn't feel that was right, so it was decided we would bring in lunch. I was still a bit bummed, and then I was speaking with a co-workers wife and she mentioned the missionary trailer was empty. The trailer is just across the parking lot from the office. She said that we could have it in there. It is not necessarily away from the office, but at the same time we can get out. I then thought about it and decided there was 20 people that would be invited, and a mobile home...even a double wide...isn't big enough for that many people. Then I remembered they had a nice grassy backyard with a really large tree. So we had a picnic outside. We were close enough to the office so we could take care of the trucks as they came in and then get back to the picnic.

The weather turned out to be really nice. It was probably in the high 80's at lunch, but under a tree with a nice breeze, it was beautiful. I know that some of the ladies were disappointed we didn't go out to a nice restaurant and one mentioned something like that to me. Whatever....you can't please everyone. I went out and got the true Admin Professionals small gift cards, and this year instead of picking Chili's or another place, I got AMEX gift cards. This way they could go where ever they wanted. I don't think she realized I picked them because she came up to me and complained that there were restrictions on the cards. I couldn't believe it. The only restrictions was she couldn't use them on a cruise line, in a casino, at a car rental, or an ATM. Other than that she could use the card where ever AMEX was accepted. What restrictions was she talking about??? She can go to Wal-Mart, Target, Chili's, the gas station...anywhere she really wanted. Gripers!!!

I made shredded BBQ beef, funeral potatoes, a veggie tray, and cookies. All in all, I think it went well. Everyone stayed and talked until I started to give them the hint by putting chairs away.

Pressure Canner

Finally I bought a pressure canner. I have been thinking of getting one for a couple of years. About three years ago, a lady from AZ came to our stake and went over food storage and what we could do. I had never heard about canning meat, but she explained how to do this safely and how to get things that tasted good.
I borrowed a pressure canner from a neighbor and processed some chicken to see how it came out. I was pleased with the results and have been looking into getting an All American Pressure Canner. I finally did it. So it will be here by the end of this week. I guess it will be time to look for chicken on sale and start canning it.
The canned chicken was perfect for chicken helper, BBQ'd shredded chicken, chicken soup, and other things. It was flaky and juicy and good, so I can't wait to can some more to have in my food storage.

Today I brought my stained glass panel to church (I left it in my trunk...I didn't take it inside). I had told a few of my friends I was done and they wanted to see it. So after church was over I told them if they wanted to see it, they could come out to my car. Well, one of them announced to the whole RS that if they wanted to see my stained glass then they need to follow us outside. So the branch presidents wife came out as well as the first counselor's wife came out. Of course they loved it, and then it seemed that the first counselor wanted to commission me to do a one for her. I kind of joked it off, but she wanted a window of when Mary saw Jesus on the morning of the Resurrection. She brought me back into the RS room and showed me the picture she was talking about and explained the colors and things. It told her I am not that good yet. Plus I wouldn't be able to do the details on the face, hands, feet, and hair. She kept going on. In the end, I told her that I am not saying I won't do it, but rather, I wasn't sure if I could. I would have to make a pattern up to see if I would be able to do this or not. Scary...
I can't draw, so to come up with the pattern for this.....Yikes.

I know that there are ways to get details painted onto glass, but I since I can't draw or paint, I can't imagine that I would be able to get a good depiction of Christ or of Mary.

Good Neighbors

I have good neighbors. They look out for me. I bought the house from them back in '04 and they call me every once in a while about different things.

This past week we had a horrible wind storm. Down here in the dirty south, we have these things we call Dust Devils. It really reminds me of the Tazmanian Devil. Everything looks great, but then you see it. Close to the road you are driving on, a bunch of dirt gets picked up in a small whirlwind and comes towards you. It looks like a tornado coming from the ground up, not from the clounds above. The Dust Devils are so bad that if you drive through one it makes your paint job look like you were sandblasted. However, that is exactly what it is.

So our dust storm was so bad last week they had to shut the interstate down because there was a 12 car pile up. I actually had to drive home from work through it. Luckily it was a Dust Devil, it was just blowing dirt. I know can imagine what people went through when they talk about the dust bowl. The sky was dark and brown, not much of a change for around here. :-) I could taste the dirt and I had to turn off the vents in my car because it was coming in. I got to the road where I needed to get out on, but visibility was down to about 100 feet and I couldn't tell if I would have enough room. Eventually I made it.

My poor wood fence at home didn't make it through the storm. One of the panels fell off and laid in the alley. The next morning I looked out and saw the panel and realized I would need to come home from work that evening and try to prop it up until I could find a post hole digger. Then my next door neighbors called me and asked/volunteered to put that panel back up until I could get to it later. That was so nice of them. He actually put the post into the ground and everything. Now my fence is strudy enough to make it through the next dust storm that is scheduled for tomorrow. :-)

Tulip Windows

When I went home for Christmas, I brought a whole bunch of glass with me so I could put together some things to put in Mom and Dad's store. I wanted to see if they would actually sell. Well, so far nothing has sold.
I had cut out 10 tulip windows to do. I had also brought parts of the ladybugs to put together. I think I had 6 of those. I also made a couple of beach boxes for them while I was there. I have to say that I grossly underestimated the time it takes to solder glass together. I guess I am just not quick enough. So in the end, I brought back three tulip panels to complete once I got back home. My favorite is the pink one.

Cool Piece of Glass

So I went to the glass store to pick up clear textures. I needed some of the taffeta glass below. Plus I really like using this in my tulip panels. She didn't have any on the shelves, but had a giant sheet below that I had her cut up and I took half, which is about 3.5 square feet of glass. I really like the swirls in the glass. I think it is more elegant to use than just plain glue chip which looks like snow crystals on the glass.


Anyway, since I was there for a while looking for the perfect piece of glass, I also found Krinkle and Crinkle glass. I really didn't see much of a difference and so I wanted to take them home and look at them a bit more. As I checked out, she told me that the Crinkle had more harsh lines, while the Krinkle was more circle lines. I can almost see now.


Then I spotted the clear with leaves imprinted (left) and clear with squiggles. I am not sure what I am going to so with all this clear, but I thought they looked pretty.

After I bought all the glass and told the owner I needed to leave before I bought all of the glass. She told me that she had a specials piece I might like. In the back of my mind I was groaning a bit. I didn't need anymore glass. However, she told me she would give me a special deal on this piece of glass. So I went over to look at it. It had a rose imprint all over the frosted glass. She said that since she could tell I liked clear textures she thought I might like this piece. I smiled. I was a bit worried. The glass was huge. It was about 7.5 square feet and hadn't been cut yet. Plus she was pulling it out of the place where I bought my most expensive piece of glass a couple of months ago.

Then she told me it was free to a good home. Heck, I was like, my home is good. I'll take it. now I have a huge piece of glass I am not sure what to do with. But then again, I have a lot of glass that do not have projects lined up.

Now some of you know of the big dresser that Mom has full of fabric. That fabric moved around with us every time we moved. However, the fabric didn't seem to get used. Mom has now said that she has gone through it and donated some of the fabric and that some of the fabric was no longer usable. I am now like mom. I have a huge cabinet with glass in it. Glass that doesn't have specific projects in mind. I can't help myself. I go to the glass store looking for a particular color or texture and see a piece I can't leave behind. I must have it. Now I have a lot of glass and need to line up projects for them. However, the catch 22 is that once I have a project in mind, there will be one color I don't have, so I will need to back to the store.....and so my collection grows. :-)

Here is fat Sam next to the free piece of glass I got.

New Stained Glass

Here is the newest stained glass panel I finished. I just finished this on Friday. I put the cement in it on Friday and so now it is just drying. I designed the window around a Moonlight Blue Cambridge butter dish. Apparently Moonlight Blue Cambridge glass is from the Depression era and is a bit harder to get a hold of. I didn't know that and had bought two of these butter dishes off of eBay last year with an idea of making a panel. I just never realized what pattern until a couple of weeks ago. I had been thinking of what to do with them, but I am not really creative. I follow patterns, and if there aren't patterns then I don't really know where to start. I laughed when I read Korryn's post the other day about the pink walls. Korryn described herself as not creative or crafty. That is also the way I feel about myself. As long as someone else has designed it, I am great at copying, but to create something myself.....yeah, that doesn't work so well.

So (Kara's favorite word), when I got the plates last year, I knew I wanted to use the crystals. I had taken down a chandelier from the dining room a couple of years ago and saved the crystals for a later stained glass use. Other than that, I had no idea. Then I was sitting waiting for a meeting at church and the idea hit me for the border. It's variations of blue getting darker from until it gets to the purple and red. It was fun to build as well as frustrating. I didn't really do a good job building it. I did it backwards. I knew what the middle should look like, and so I didn't make a pattern for the glass. This was the stupid part. When I tried to cut the clear glass to fit around it, there were several times I had to walk away or I was going to throw the glass across the room. I wasn't getting the curves right or the angles. It would have helped if I had, had made a pattern. Patterns are much easier to follow than winging it.

Anyway, I think it turned out nice.

Co-Workers 40th!!

So a couple of weeks ago my co-worker turned 40. He had the unfortunate luck to have a brother that also worked for the company, however, the brother lives in Washington. The brother was "nice" enough to let Lorin, my boss, know that Lynn was turning 40. Lorin asked if we wanted to do something to Lynn for his 40th. Lynn is a good sport and is a bit of a jokester, so he was the perfect "victim."

I enlisted help from almost everyone in the office. We were all to wear black shirts on that Friday. One of the girls made extra large business cards, another made an instruction book for living past 40. This included coupons for denture cleaners and where to buy a scooter.

After Lynn left work on Thursday, I had a co-worker bring in some dirt. This may not have been the smartest idea. It sounded good. We put a tarp down on the carpet and we were going to mound the dirt to and put a Halloween tombstone on it. One thing I forgot was that the dirt here isn't really dirt as much as it is powder. So once I dumped a 50 lb box, it just poofed up and I was chewing dirt. Since I was a bit committed at this point, I dumped another box. That is when the bugs started to come out. Yuck!!! Well, he just got an extra special treat. Then I told one of the guys that we were going to need to fumigate the office that weekend.

Just then, a couple of guys looked into the office and said something about a reference to the show The Office and something about Dwight's furniture moved. Then they had an idea to move Lynn's office to the men's restroom. That was a bit funny.


Once the furniture was moved I blew up about 300 balloons. The idea was to fill his office up with balloons. However, I didn't realize how many balloons would be needed to fill up the office. Anyway, there were no more black or white balloons left in Wasco and I was tired, so I left it at that.

I also made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing of a graveyard. And for all of those who can't tell, those are palm trees. :-)

He was a good sport and thought it was funny. Now I guess I am just waiting for the "what-goes-around-comes-around."

By the way, this was only a few days before Tami's 40th, and so I was really doing it for her. Happy Birthday Tami.

You can see how much fun we have at work. He is trying to catch butterflies in the office. :-)

Happy Easter!!

New Years Goals

So I should probably come up with a few goals for this coming year. I read somewhere that I should also write them down. This way I commit to them and have a better chance of completing them.

First, I should read the Ensign cover to cover when it comes in. Sometimes they pile up and I don't take the time to read them cover to cover. I really like the stories in the back.

Second, I have decided that I should put together two stained glass panels with the plates that I have already purchased. Now, I just have to decide which two to work with, then create the pattern for the window.

Third, perhaps be a bit more diligent about writing in the blogs. :-)

Fourth, dust more frequently. It seems that the Bakersfield air has so much dirt in it. When I dust a couple of times a month, I end up having to use several paper towels because the dust is so thick. Great, now everyone knows what type of housekeeper I am.

Fifth, I really should water my grass. This way it would be green and actually grow when it is 100 degrees outside.

Sixth, recaulk the bathtub, then paint one of the kitchen cabinets and around a electric box in the hallway.

Six goals are good for now. Maybe a seventh goal would be to think about more goals. :-)

I am alive!

Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't writing because I am boring, not because I have a secret fling going on. :-)

Not that I wouldn't mind a winter fling to happen, but sorry nothing of note on that. I do have a "special" guy at church who is interested. He was just made my home teacher and during our first visit he found I was about his age. The next thing I knew he was emailing me and sitting by me at church and hunting me down to ask me things. I am not interested and am having to figure out how to nicely say no.

During that same home teaching visit, I found myself trying not to laugh. The other home teacher proceeded to tell me why he couldn't date the girl he was just talking to in the hallway. Also, he then told me that he thought the branch presidency was trying to put us together. Then he proceeded to tell me that he liked older women, but also gave me reasons why he wouldn't date me. Whatever! In my mind, I was thinking that even if he asked, I don't think I would make it through the evening with him. I would probably end up clobbering him over the head. Maybe I am a bit difficult. :-o

Happy New Year!!!