Jackieinpdx's Blog

My new blog home

2008-11-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

I have moved my blog. Come visit me at my new site http://jackieinpdx.com/
I purchased my domain name for a $15 annual fee. WordPress is a much more versatile than Blogger. I liked Blogger as it was easy to get me started blogging but I wanted to include multiple pages and have more options.
My Blog is and will be for a while a work in progress. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Breakfast at Casa de Tamales in Milwaukie, OR

2008-11-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Saturday after my hair appointment I decided to go out and have a late breakfast. I wasn’t sure which of my two favorite breakfast restaurants in downtown Milwaukie I wanted to eat at. They are both very good but totally different styles. I found a parking place in the same block as Casa de Tamales so that was where I ate breakfast. If there hadn’t been a close parking spot I would have driven a few blocks away to eat at Sully’s. Sully’s is red potatoes, fancy omelets with a special every weekend of fresh crab or shrimp, great corned beef hash, homemade strawberry jam, and really good bacon. Compare that to Casa de Tamales menu with a large variety of tamales, burritos, huevos rancheros, Spanish Omelet, chiliquil and other good Mexican foods. At Casa de Tamales I can order my meal using my poquito Spanish speaking skills.
Casa de Tamales has only been open about one year. I used to occasionally eat at their Canby Asparagus Farm booth at the Sunday farmer’s market. For many years they only sold their asparagus which is some kind of hybrid that has a hint of a pea taste to it. I once saw an episode on the Food Network that featured the farm and their deep fried asparagus recipe. Then they branched out and included all kinds of produce grown on their farm. A few years ago they began making food and every year the food menu grew until they finally realized that there were enough repeat customers that opening a restaurant would be a good idea. Casa de Tamales is just a block north of where the Milwaukie Farmer’s Market is help May – October.

These senoritas are having fun while they work. I think they were proud that I asked to take their photo. That is my Spanish Omelet being plated.

I don't know how much this omelet weighed but it was humungous. It was filled with onions, red and green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and cheese. The veggie option is $8.00. You can add pork, chicken or beef for an addtional $2.00. I added pork.

Just in case you couldn't tell how big the omelet was here is a close up. More than half of it was lunch the next day.

A couple of weeks after the restaurant opened there was a review in the Portland Tribune newspaper. The author wrote “The new restaurant’s décor is amusingly weird. A wall of closely hung art ranges from a signed Robert Pack poster to landscape paintings.”

A Saturday in my neighborhood

2008-11-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Or more precisely seen in downtown Milwaukie which is a little less than two miles from my home. I love the doors on this old building.

This is the park next to the library

Darkhorse Comics has grown since it's start back in the mid 80's. They own the rights to the Star Wars merchandise. Darkhorse has several other companies such as an entertainment company that produces movies. Another one of their companies is M Press a more mainstream book publisher. One of my niece's best friends is an editor for M Press. My niece has done some freelance editing work for them and would love to be able to edit for them full time. But there is no position available at this time unless her friend quits which is unlikely because she loves her job. I have read two books published by M Press, Shanghai Diaries and it pre-quel Eternal Strangers. The author of these books lives about 20 miles south of Portland. My niece was the editor for Eternal Strangers.

Darkhorse owns 7 buildings in downtown Milwaukie. The owner was interviewed a couple of years ago in one of the local papers. He said that he has often been asked why he doesn’t move his businesses to a campus environment. His answer was that he is giving back to the community where he grew up. The downtown area has just recently started to undergo some revitalization. There is a condo complex and three new restaurants on Main Street. More on one of the new restaurants in a post tomorrow.

Trust me that there are life sized Star Wars figures on display in that window.

Isla Mujeres - seen around the island, part 2

2008-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Cocktail anyone?

Or maybe ice cream?

Barbie moto

Yikes, is Tony's hair on fire?

This was his 5th trip carrying full cases of cerveza.

A great full moon

2008-11-13T19:15:00.001-08:00

After three days of intensive rain and horrible evening commute driving conditions I was pleased to have a clear and sunny day here in PDX. As I was approaching my driveway this evening I saw the full moon framed by a tree and had to go back out with my camera to take a photo.

Omelet in a bag

2008-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

This is another interesting email I got recently. I made an omelet Saturday morning following these directions. I used Egg Beaters instead of real eggs though. I added smoked cheddar, asparagus and sliced roast beef. My bag tended to want to float some so I turned it over every few minutes. It was pretty good and no pan to clean up.

Subject: Ziploc Omelet

No muss no fuss no cleanup.

YES!!!!!!!

ONLY QUESTION I HAVE IS THE ZIPLOC BAG IS IT A SPECIAL BAG OR ANY ZIPLOC???? The answer is YES – Use the Freezer Bags – ANY Freezer bag.
ZIPLOC OMELET

Crack 2 eggs into the bag (not more than 2) shake to combine them.
Put out a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc.
Add prepared ingredients of choice to bag and shake. Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up.
Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot.

For more, make another pot of boiling water.
Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily.
Nice to serve with fresh fruit and coffee cake.
Imagine having these ready the night before, and putting the bag in boiling water while you get ready.
And in 13 minutes, you got a nice omelet for a quick breakfast!!!

(these are not photosof the omelet I made)

Isla Mujeres - seen around the island, part 1

2008-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

The motos are the same color scheme as the Three Kings

I have never figured out just exactly who they think they are keeping out with this locked door.

Yes, the horn mooed!

I am building a new home and moving

2008-11-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned. I have started to build my new blog on my own domain. Open house to come soon.
http://jackieinpdx.com/

Left brain or right brain?

2008-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

I received this in an email a couple of days ago.

Find the man in the coffee beans:
This is bizarre -- after you find the guy -- it's so obvious. Once you find him -- it's embarrassing, and you think, why didn't I see him immediately?

Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the man between 3 seconds and 1 minute, the right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the man between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the man after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!!!
And yes, the man is really there!!!

Do you want to see which side of your brain is dominant? Here is animated image to check out.

Here is an online test. The questions are answered from Very Innaccurate to Very Accurate.

Brain Lateralization Test Results
Right Brain

34%
Left Brain

62%
*results won't usually add up to 100% as this test measures each side seperately
Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.
Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.
Overall you appear to be Left Brain Dominant

Then I took this second online test where the questions are aswered with Yes or No and got the opposite result.

The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendancy will help you interact with and to understand others.

Left Brain Dominance: (7)
Right Brain Dominance: (9)

Easy no hassle baked pasta dish

2008-11-09T10:27:00.001-08:00

I am really a pretty good cook. I am innovative; I love to try new combinations of herbs and seasonings. I grill all kinds of food almost year round. However because I live alone sometimes I get just plain lazy. Yesterday I was looking in my freezer to see what I could thaw out for dinner. I came across a bag of pasta that I had purchased online and had delivered with a bunch of other stuff from Safeway. A couple of weeks after I tore the ligaments in my knee I was so frustrated with how difficult it was to shop for groceries and carry multiple bags into the house that I shopped online at Safeway.com. I bought a lot of stuff that I may not have otherwise bought because it was so convenient. One of those items was Safeway’s Select brand Stuffed Rigatoni with Spinach, Feta Cheese & Artichoke. I was just going to toss some of the pasta in boiling water and heat up some sauce until I noticed on the back that there were oven cooking directions. They referred to baking the “casserole”. So that got me thinking about what else I could toss into make a baked pasta dish. I looked in my veggie crisper and found zucchini and broccoli. I had some Asiago cheese and basil and garlic pasta sauce. Then I thought about adding some meat. I had a slice of meatloaf in the freezer which I thawed out and crumbled. I tossed all of these items together and baked covered for about 50 minutes. This easy to fix casserole turned out to be quite tasty.

Found in my backyard

2008-11-08T13:18:00.001-08:00

This is my backyard on the north side of my house. During the summer my backyard gets enough sun for me if I want to sit out there and tan. However, it has enough shade that I do not have to water the grass at all. Moving into fall and winter when there are sunny days very little sun shines in the back of the house.
The yard guys mowed and blew the leaves just over a week ago. Those toadstools grew pretty darn fast in just a week. When the sun came out for a bit today I could see that the shadow of the house ends right after the farthest out toadstool.

Book Review, Eat Pray Love

2008-11-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

I do not usually write a book review before I am through reading the book but I have to on this one. I am reading Eat, Pray , Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Once I start a book I read it to the end no matter how much I may dislike it. I have over 1/3rd to finish yet of this book. I am hoping to finish it this weekend.

This memoir got great reviews. At this point I am not sure why.

So far the Eat story was good. She was in Rome and traveled around Italy. Lots of good food descriptions and sites she visited. I am having a tough time getting through the Pray part where she is at an ashram in remote India. She is a real whiner in my opinion. She is having a hard time with the meditation. Get over yourself is what I keep thinking.
If I had read this blog before I bought the book I would have never bought it. I am hoping that the Love part gets better when she is in Bali.

The ever changing beach at Playa Sol, Isla Mujeres

2008-11-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

May 2002 the beach at Sergio's Playa Sol was huge!

Two weeks before Hurricane Wilma October 2005

December 2005 just two months after Wilma

October 2007

April 2008

Nabalam Beach October 2005. Compare these recent photos posted by Isla Gringo

Geeze, all I wanted to do was buy a new phone and switch my wireless service provider

2008-11-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Update: I do not have my Qwest 20% discount. I have to go back in and have them upload my photo id yet again. Also I found out today that the word is that Verizon will be selling the new RIM Storm Blackberry beginning in 11/14. So my plan is to return my MOTO Q and get the new crackberry. VZW has a 30 day customer guarantee, no questions asked return policy. I however will let them know that I am returning the phone because I think that had I known the Storm release date was less than two weeks away I would have waited.

The Storm has a touch screen and looks like it will be very easy and cool to use. Much better than the tiny little keys I have on the MOTO.I spent over an hour in the Verizon Wireless store on Saturday. My only mistake was that I did not bring a copy of my current provider’s bill. How would I know that was needed? I did not need my bill when I ported my wireless # from AT&T to Qwest. That transaction was done over the phone. The sales person helping me could not get my order to go through. I must have given him the same information over and over at least 4 times. I really do not like to have to verbally give out my SSN. I mean there were people within two feet of me on both sides. I also ran into huge problems because as a Qwest employee I get a 20% discount off of the monthly Verizon plan charges. The rep had to scan my Qwest id photo to upload to my account information. He tried many times from two different computers and couldn’t get it to upload. He was asking for help from two other sales reps. Finally one of the other guys got my photo id to upload from his computer. Because I did not have my full account # with me the rep could not fully activate my account. He told me that I had to call the customer service department and give them my full account # so they could complete the activation. I was standing in the Verizon store for over an hour. I was so ready to sit down and put some ice on my knee but decided I deserved a late lunch out first. When I got home I called Verizon Wireless customer service and after three transfers got someone who could help me, well sort of. He had to take all of my information over again. Then he transferred me to someone in their credit department who needed to set up some security questions regarding my credit history. I was so ticked off by this time that I almost told them to F it and cancel my service request. Meanwhile I got a call from the sales rep at the store who wanted to know why my service wasn’t activated yet. Well, duh it was your problem to begin with. I told him I was on another phone with Verizon customer service. He, I am sure was worried that his sale had not completed (sales compensation) and he asked me to come back into the store so he could try to finish the transaction. Sorry, I said that is not going to happen!
Finally a couple of hours later my service was initiated and I now have Verizon Wireless service. I still am doubtful if I have the 20% Qwest employee discount on my account. That will be a follow up question with the sales rep when I go back in later in the week to have them synch my Bluetooth headset to the phone.
I already do really like the smart phone that I bought. Believe me I have spent much time already programming it and still have more to do. I have unlimited text messaging and can synch to up to 6 email accounts. I have only two email accounts but it will be nice to have both my work and personal email available to me on my phone. My next to do is to get some cool ringtones so I can differentiate callers. I already found that I can buy Gone With the Wind’s Tara’s song for my daughter Tara’s in coming calls.

Whoo hoo! I hit the gas pump jackpot!

2008-11-01T19:22:00.001-07:00

Why do I feel like I hit the jackpot on a slot machine when I filled up with gas today? I buy my groceries at Safeway because the store is so convenient for me. It may be one of the more expensive grocery chains but this store is new, clean, airy and the employees are very friendly. They have a gas station on the premise and a program to earn money off at the pumps. Their program is somewhat complex but basically for every $50 spent in the store you get $.10 off a gallon. The discount accumulates for three months then ends at the end of the quarter. I had to get gas today as my gas empty light was on. Premium was $2.68 a gallon which considering how high the prices were earlier this summer this was relatively cheap. Boy was I pleased when the attendant told me I had the big ticket item and would be getting $.70 off per gallon. That brought the price down to $.198 a gallon for premium. Wow! When was gas that cheap in recent years?

Halloween in the office 2008

2008-10-31T19:47:00.003-07:00

Fall is definately here in PDX

2008-10-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

It really turned to fall weather here today. Some light rain, cloudy all day and boy are the leaves falling. I have only been home from Palm Springs for four days but I am ready to go somewhere warm and sunny again. I think next month I will schedule a quick trip somewhere. I am not sure where yet. Whatever I can find using my timeshare points and decent airfare will work for me. That’s my to do for this weekend.

Where I would rather be right now is viewing these sites on Isla Mujeres. I doesn’t help that I am getting emails daily from a few friends who are on Isla right now.

Trip home from Palm Springs gets an A

2008-10-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

This morning I packed and left the condo in time to stop at Sherman’s Deli for breakfast on the way to the airport. I remembered how large the breakfast servings were from previous trips. I really wanted the homemade corn beef hash but knew that I would regret eating something so heavy later. So I ordered the scrambled eggs with onions served with potatoes/onions and lox. I only ate about half of the eggs and potatoes but did finish off the lox and as the menu said “it was a slice of heaven”.

Since opening their first location in 1953, Sherman’s has become a landmark in the desert. This Kosher- style family restaurant, still owned and operated by Sherman Harris and his son, Sam Harris, offers an extensive menu for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner reminiscent of a New York style deli.

If you ever get to Palm Springs I highly recommend eating breakfast there at least once.
Then I got to the airport to return the Avis rental car. I ended up barely driving anywhere this trip so I did not fill up with gas. The Avis man wanted to charge me $13.99 since I didn’t have a receipt for the fill up. I did tell him that I didn’t fill it up because I had barely driven anywhere. So he waived the $13.99.
Then I went to US Airways to check in. I asked for a wheelchair. The Palm Springs airport is not a really big airport but it is really spread out. The new United and US Airway terminal is almost to Indio (22 miles from PS) as the man who pushed the wheelchair told me. I got to security and there were only two people behind me to get screened. The TSA man asked me if that was my wine picnic bag. Yes. “Oh crap!” I said “there is a cork screw in there which I totally forgot.” He said yes but he was more concerned about the cheese knife. Rather than confiscating the little cheese knife and the cork screw they asked me if I wanted to check the little bag. So the man pushing the wheelchair took it back to check in. Meanwhile one of the other TSA guys was teasing me about having a knife. I kept apologizing saying I was sorry and totally forgot about it or I would have removed the items and put them in my check in bag. All of the TSA agents were friendly and enjoying the slow morning. What a difference from many of my most recent experiences. Palm Springs is a great little airport where everyone knows each other. The wheel chair man came back and told me he talked the US Airways agent into not charging me for a 2nd check in bag. Another pleasant surprise with the airline employee being friendly and accommodating.
My change of planes in Phoenix was smooth and uneventful. What a relief after my day from Hell last Sunday getting to Palm Springs.
The wine picnic basket was the “gift” I choose to listen to the timeshare owner’s update. My selections were a white terry cloth bathrobe that had Wyndham /Worldmark embossed on it, a cheap suitcase or the picnic/wine basket. I choose the wine basket and gave it to Tara so she and Kelly could use it when they go to the Oregon coast or take drives for picnicking with their dogs. I was told that this meeting would take 60 – 90 minutes. I was out of there in 30. I had no plans on spending any more money ($8,800 as it turned out) to increase my timeshare points or to upgrade to their new travelshare program. I am perfectly happy with the plan and points I have.

It looks something like the wine tote on the right.

So what does $37.70 buy at a grocery store in Palm Springs?

2008-10-24T18:51:00.001-07:00

Jensen's is a locally owned family chain here in the Coachilla Valley. Yesterday I went there to buy some groceries for the last few days of my stay in Palm Springs.

Here is what I purchased for $37.70. I don't have each item itemized because I threw away the receipt.

New York steak @ $19.99 lbs = $9.00. I would have preferred the rib eye but it was $22.99 per lbs. Then there was the aged dry beef. That Rib eye was $33 per lbs.

Special Jensen's burger pattie, ground sirloin, pork, apple bacon and seasoning @5.85 lbs = $3.05

4 spears of asparagus

One vine ripened tomato

Diet Coke

One small serving of broccoli slaw from the deli

Gallon of water = $1.69

One ear of corn

½ cantaloupe

One bottle of Chardonnay = $9.99

For dinner tonight I grilled the NY steak, the asparagus with a little melted butter and the leftover roasted red potatoes from dinner a few nights ago. Everything was wonderful! This dinner in a restaurant in PS would probably have been somewhere around $32 just for the steak and the sides $6 or more each. So over all my grocery shopping was less than one dinner out would have been. Plus I have dinner for tomorrow night on top of it. A glass of Chardonnay in a restaurant would be at least $8.00. So I did OK. Right?

I am certainly not on a budget but why go out to eat by myself when I can prepare a great meal in and sit and watch HGTV or read while I eat?

Vacations are great!

2008-10-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

I forgot how little there is to see in Palm Springs proper. I have been up the tram to the top of the San Jacinto Mountains three times. I have visited several of the real glitzy hotels, been to the water park and shopped for days on El Paseo Drive which is the Rodeo Drive of Palm Springs. I have been to the huge outlet mall north of the city several times. I don’t care to visit the Indian casino. One might think that there are some really gorgeous homes to see in the residential neighborhoods. While that is true most of the really big buck homes are either in gated communities or behinds walls or gates. So you might wonder what exactly am I doing here? The answer is not much of anything. I am half way through my third book. My days are spent out by the pool or in the pool on my floaty. It’s HOT. It has been in the high 90s every day. But keep in mind “it’s a dry heat”.

I splurged today and had a 90 minute massage. It was fabulous. This was the first massage I have had since I tore the ligaments in my knee back in June. My massage therapist that I have been going to on a regular basis since 1991 is up a steep flight of stairs. This massage therapist came to my condo which was what I Googled for. I searched for “massage palm springs” and the first one I found that said that they go to the client was Longevity Massage.

This is the view from out front of my condo door. These are the San Jacinto Mountains. Mountians and lots of palm trees are about the only view you get from PS proper.

These are some of the couple of dozen palm trees around the pool which makes it necessary to move every hour or so to get out of the shade.

One trip my daughter asked me how I knew my way around so well without a map. I told her that the PS area is really easy even for the directionally challenged. If you see the San Jacinto Mountains you are heading west. If those mountains are in your rearview mirror you are heading east. Other than the residential neighborhoods everything is pretty much laid out in an east west and north south grid.

Sony Bono's widow running for re-election for the congressional district that Sonny once represented.

Follow up from Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

2008-10-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

Looks like many bloggers helped to make this day the huge sucess it was!

Hello Bloggers!
Blog Action Day 2008 has now come and gone, and was a HUGE success! Congratulations to all of you for making the day so fantastic. We've compiled a wrap up page with just some of the amazing highlights of the day, so take a moment and head over to:http://blogactionday.orgThe page also includes links to sites where you can keep the action going, a video compiled by the good folks at Causecast and much more! It really was a super day and the posts have just blown us all away. We'll be back in 2009 for another Blog Action Day, and we are looking forward to making it even bigger and better! Until then, on behalf of the Blog Action Day team, Thank you again, keep blogging and see you in '09!

Collis Ta'eed

Update to “I am off to Palm Springs”

2008-10-19T19:00:00.001-07:00

UPDATE:

I can’t believe I forgot to write this lovely statement made by the United Airlines agent at the Portland gate. “If you people would stop coming up here and bothering me I could do my job”. Then she realized what she said and tried to back pedal. “I mean do my job which is to make sure you all taken care of.”

Let me tell you how my day went…

I set my alarm yesterday evening for 6:30 AM. I wanted time to shower, get ready and catch up on some email before heading to the airport.

I woke up a few times and looked at the clock, the last time it was about 5:00 AM. The next thing I knew I woke up and it was light out. I looked at the clock, it said 6:07. Now I know it doesn't get light until close to 7:00. I got out of bed and went to look at the clock on the microwave. It was 7:28 AM. Shit! My taxi was coming at 8:00 AM to take me to the airport. I didn't have time to shower or put any makeup on. I was already packed except for throwing in a few last minute things. I turned off my laptop and put in it my backpack. The taxi showed up at 7:50. Had I not been ready he would have had to wait in the driveway for me. I got to the airport to check in on United. The counter staff was not the same friendly United employees that helped me last Monday when I was flew to Denver. They were downright rude. I paid $15 to check my one bag as I had my laptop in my backpack as a carry on.

My flight to San Francisco where I was to change planes was first delayed by two hours due to weather (fog) in both Portland and SF. The flight ended up leaving about an hour late. I got to San Francisco where I had asked to have a wheelchair waiting for me. Good thing I did as I arrived at one end of the concourse and the next flight left from about as far away as possible without leaving the terminal. I wanted to stay in a wheelchair to get to the plane since it was a small plane that wasn't at the jet way. It was out on the tarmac quite a ways. The elevator to get down to the ground level was not working. Or as it turned out the United employee who was trying to open it didn't know which way to turn the key. She was swearing up a storm with shit and f'bombs flying like crazy. At this point I just laughed and told her she sounded like me. I finally got to the plane and had to climb the stairs to get on. Stairs are still not easy for me to maneuver with my injured knee. Again in PS I had a wheelchair because I remembered how far some of the gates are from the baggage claim. I waited for my bag and it never showed up. I was the only person still standing at the carousel when it stopped moving. Turns out my bag was not taken off of the plane in SF and was on its way to Honolulu. Again the United employee was a jerk. I practically had to beg him to give me a "complimentary" overnight kit. Then I went to get my rental car from Avis. I was told all they had available was a SUV. I told the woman that I didn't think that I could get in an out easily from a SUV. Then I was told I could have a minivan. I do not drive a big car so I did not want a minivan. She sent a guy out to the lot to find something else for me. I ended up with a cute little Pontiac Vibe or something like that.

I got to the condo and was supposed to have free internet access. Funny how the authentication website for free use was not found. I will make sure my credit card is credited back the $15.95 that I had to charge to get internet access.

I have not had a travel day from Hell for a long time so I guess I was overdue. But don't think that United won't be hearing from me about their poor customer service and the fact that I had to pay to check my bag that they sent to Honolulu instead of PS.

Got to go since my laptop power cord along with all of my clothes and everything else is in my bag that is not here with me. My pizza is here and I am ready for a vodka and tonic. It has been along day!

Off to Palm Springs

2008-10-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

I am off to Palm Springs where it will be about 35 degrees warmer than it was in Portland today. I can’t wait for some warm sunshine while lying by the pool reading.

Palm Springs is such a great place to people watch. In fact it was in PS that I first saw a dog in diapers being pushed in a baby stroller. So you can only imagine the dog’s owner. As I recall she was dripping in jewelry and had obviously had a face lift. One visit to PS my daughter commented on the number of plastic surgeons advertising in the Palm Springs visitor’s book in our hotel room. Plastic surgery is a big reason why a lot of people visit PS. There are some really great restaurants right on Palm Canyon Road about a mile from where I will be staying. In the evenings after dinner it is always interesting to go into the art galleries and many shops of every sort. I haven’t been to PS in about 5 years so I am sure there will be some new places to check out.

My first of many trips to PS was back in 1996. My sister and I stayed at a friend of mine’s condo in Palm Desert over my birthday weekend 9/7. Val told me all I had to pay her was for the electric bill that month. My sister is a real cheapskate. Every time I turned the AC colder she would walk by and turn it up. We stayed at the condo for 4 days and I think that the electric bill turned out to be something like $20. By 11:00 AM it was too hot to even go to the pool. Most days it was over 110 degrees. Oh, yes sure it is a dry heat. WTF? It was still over 100 degrees. We spent a lot of time driving in the car with AC on. One afternoon we drove to Joshua Tree National Park and stayed to view a fabulous sunset. Three times I have taken the tram to Mount San Jacinto State Park. The first time was with my sister. The second time was the first time I took Tara to PS in January 1997 with me. The next month Tara suffered her first cardiac arrest and because she had been in a coma and had lost her short term memory she did not remember even going to PS. When I took Tara to PS 9 months later she had absolutely no memory of the previous trip. So when we took the tram up the mountain it was like her first time to experience the trip.
I think that I must have made at least 12 trips to PS between 1996 and my last visit in 2003. PS used to be a real cheap flight from Portland via Alaska Airlines. This trip I paid more than about $150 more for my airfare than ever before even flying into PS rather than Ontario. Oh well, the condo is a timeshare so basically it is free. The car rental using a corporate discount is very reasonable.

TnK have a houseguest - a Bulldog puppy

2008-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tara and Kelly have “the girls” aka Whippets. But do not even think about referring to them as the “D” word. No, they are not dogs they are their girls. They took part in Tara and Kelly's wedding a couple of months ago. Emmy and Bella are long legged, lean, do not smell like dogs and are very well behaved. Emmie and Bella are pedigreed show dogs that have never been shown.

For 10 days TnK are babysitting their friends Kim and Rob’s Bulldog while they are vacationing on Isla Mujeres. Tara said that the Bulldog, Remmie is so cute but she is everything the girls are not. Remmie is loud, hyper, burps like a person, short and chubby and smells like a dog. Remmie is in constant motion unlike Emmy and Bella. Bella does not like being in the same room as Remmie. Emmie gets a bit stressed by the constant noise and motion of Remmie even when Kelly is not playing with her.

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

2008-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

While reading about Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty I was viewing some of their resources I found a website that I really can relate to – The Girl Effect. There are some very interesting statistics on this website. A couple of the stats are:

· That an extra year in primary school raises the girl’s lifetime wages by 10% - 20%.
· An extra year of secondary school raises a girl’s lifetime wages by 15% - 25%

Why I can relate to The Girl Effect is because the charities that I tend to support locally are organizations that work to better a woman’s and her children’s life. Whether that is by finding safe shelter or assisting with a job search the need is so much larger than many people would imagine, I mean right here in my own backyard.

The other reason I can relate to the Girl Effect stats is that I along with two other women (thanks Wanda & Lisa) are currently sponsoring a young woman from Isla Mujeres who is attending university in Merida. Alejandra’s goal is to become a kindergarten teacher because “everyone has to start school”.

Why no one person can eliminate poverty on thier own we each can contribute in our own way. Do your part today to help. It can something as simple as:

Visit a local homeless shelter.

Talk to your children about poverty.

Don’t go shopping; give the money you would have spent to charity.

Talk to a local government leader about poverty where you live.

Start a new blog or website about poverty.

On Sunday when I wrote this post there were registered to participate: 7,730 Sites with an audience in excess of 9,339,871 Readers

Spreading the word - Project Warm Hands (Gringo in Paradise)

2008-10-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

This post’s intention is to spread the word about a group of bloggers getting together (virtually via the web) to help out some of the children in Xico, Veracruz.

Wayne of Isla Gringo in Paradise proposed that all knitters “Get out your needles, grab some yarn from your stash (which I know you all have!) and start clacking those needles as fast as you can for the people of Ursulo Galvan.”

Nancy of Countdown to Mexico wrote “Xico is where blogger John and his wife Anita live. It’s a small community, and most people work hard to take care of the necessities of life with little left over for gifts for the children. And it gets cold there!”

Steve of same life - new location wrote “The need is great. And we can only touch a small number of people. But that is how the world is changed. One person at a time.”

Theresa of ¿What do I do all day? Had this to say about the plan “I know that I have crafty readers too, I am not much of a knitter but I can crochet with the best of them! I am going to take some time off my own projects to make a few things to mail to the poor people of Ursulo Galvan.”

Now those of us NOB need to figure out what the best way for us to participate is. I personally plan on going to a thrift store to buy gently used warm clothing and will throw in some new toys as well.

Update from John of Viva Veracruz: “If you are so inclined to help you can easily donate via Paypal. Over to the left of here is a donation link – simply state your giving in kindness to the people of Ursulo Galvan. We will see that ALL the money is spent on things for them. I realize there are a lot of places to give these days – so any of you that are helping out here – well, thank you. Believe me this is a needy crowd amongst so very many needy folks around the planet.”

I see that Wayne has an update and has posted a mailing address to send items of need to Xico.

Watch the video. I loved this movie but not just as entertainment because it was so much more than that. The message this movie sent was about social responsibility and how we can all truly make a difference in this world.

Niños en la playa

2008-10-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Kids having fun playing in the water and on the beach on Isla Mujeres.

This is the same little girl 6 months later. Dontcha just love the look on her face. "I am not letting a little sand get in my way of eating this cookie!"

They may speak (or not yet speak) different languages but they had fun playing together

A nude beach on Isla?

Then we have this little thing already selling to tourist on the beach. I was approached once by an even younger girl who tried to sell me the paper drink umbrella that she found on the beach.

Some good books that I have read in past year

2008-10-08T05:00:00.001-07:00

I am a serious bookaholic. These are just a few of the books that I have read in the past year. Rather than give you a full rundown of the stories I am linking to Barnes and Noble for a synopsis of the book. I mentioned several of these in an earlier posting but this time you can read the synopsis to determine if it is a book you would enjoy. Of course I have read some real stinkers too but I am only sharing the good reads with you.

What I just finished reading: The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng
I can tell you that this is a wonderfully written story. It was educational and at the same time it was a very moving story. I cried many times while reading this book. The characters had such a place in my heart and seemed so real to life. This is a book that I will loan out but ask to be returned so I can loan it to more friends to read.
It is interesting that two of the best books I have read in the past few months have both been sent during the 2nd World War but continents apart. The other best one being Skeleton at the Feast. The stories both had to do with war but more to do with the hardships, perseverance and the courage of the characters involved.

T is For Trespass by Sue Grafton Over the past 25 years, Sue Grafton’s #1 bestselling alphabetical mystery series starring Kinsey Millhone have become a culture phenomenon. They are all set in the 1980s but that does not mean that they are out of touch. It just brings back memories of those years. T is For Trespass may be the best of the series. I have read them all beginning with A.

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich
The latest in the Stepahnie Plum series. Stephanie is a New Jersey bond enforcement agent. This series has had its good books and bad books. They all are silly, goofy and sexy. Even the bad ones made me laugh.

Water For Elephants – Sara Gruen
Excellant read. The characters seemed so real. Both a touching and funny story.

Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult
This was a very interesting book. As with most of this author's stories it was somewhat disturbing and very thought provoking. Murder, sexual abuse of a young girl, prison, aids, death sentence, heart transplant, Jesus returning to earth…

Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, & Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living . This was a very funny book and a bargain online at Barnes and Noble for only $5.98. It made me laugh! It might even be funnier to someone who does not cook.

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian This was a very well written book. The story was not your normal storyline by this author. I highly recommend it. The characters were so well defined I felt like I really knew them.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
A most excellent book. I loved it as much as her previous book Garden Spells
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Southern women authors always seem to have three names. A wonderful enjoyable chick book.

James Patterson - Women's Murder Club series
OK, so I am doing this backwards. I read 7th Heaven first then I bought 1 – 6. I have read 1 – 4 so far. 7th Heaven was easy beach reading material. I love women detectives, police and murder mystery solvers.

Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald I really liked this story even though it was pretty predictable. It was while reading chapter 5 I knew what the outcome of the book would be. However, I enjoyed reading the rest of the book. The other students in Tami's ESL class were interesting as well. I like stories that educate me about other cultures and Veil of Roses certainly did that.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
I recently read this book. I enjoyed it as it had very interesting politics and scheming. I couldn't help but think that this book was written with the intent to have it made into a movie. At least 3 or 4 times a man referred to a woman as 'hot". Did they really use that term back in the 1500s?

Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
A very good read. I love to read about woman who survive hardships and overcome oppression.

Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner.
This was the first time I read anything by this author. I really enjoyed this book.

Peony in Love - Lisa See
I read Lisa See's book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. Not only is Lisa great story teller but she researches the area and I have learned about Chinese history from both of these books.

Tender Bar: A Memoir by J. R. Moehringer.
Another great read. The description of some of the characters made me laugh out loud. This was one of those books that I just had to read some of the great lines out loud to my friends. A woman that I work with recommended the book since she knows the author otherwise I may have never come across it.

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
I read this author's first book Amagansett. It was very good. Both books have a lot twists and turns, secrets and murders. Both books are excellent.

Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende
An excellent read! I loved it. Another brilliantly written book by Isabel Allende. She has taken a true story of the conquest and founding of Chili and made it into a wonderful story. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/books/allende_interview.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InÃ©s_de_SuÃ¡rez

Run - Ann Patchett
Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children. The story takes place over a period of only 24 hours. However, you learn about the history of all involved in the story. There were some funny lines and there were some very sad ones. I loved it!

Saving the World – Julia Alvarez
Another really good book by Julia Alvarez. This novel within a novel presents the radiant stories of two women swept up in campaigns against the scourges of their day.

Becoming Finola, Vol. 2 bySuzanne Strempek Shea
Great characters and an overall good story about overcoming a tragedy in one's life.

Selling the Lite of Heaven by Suzanne Strempek Shea
A hysterical but somewhat sad story about a jilted bride to be. How about almost being left at the altar by the groom who decided to become a priest?

PhotoBucket Pro slideshow of Isla Mujeres

2008-10-06T05:00:00.001-07:00

Update: I am not sure why the slideshow wouldn't load. It worked fine on Saturday.

I really like PhotoBucket. You can make slideshows like this one, Remixes, scrapbooks and avatars. If you choose to link photos to your blog or a message board it is simple to copy and paste the HTML tag.

The Pro version has an annual fee of $26 (I think). PhotoBucket has great customer service/support. Twice when I was experiencing some type of technical problem with their site I not only got an automated email in response to my reporting issues but a personal email from one of the PB technical staff. Both times the issue was resolved in a very timely manner.

Try the free version then I think you will quickly find that you will want the full functionality of the Pro version.

These are the current stats for my account:

Total Pictures and Videos 954
Monthly Hits 15570 102 MB (1%) of 10 GB (Geeze that is a lot of bandwidth!)
Monthly Bandwidth 1.2 GB

Explore Oregon with me, facts and photos

2008-10-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Oregon was the 33rd state in the USA; it became a state on February 14, 1859.
State Abbreviation - ORState Capital - Salem
Largest City - PortlandArea - 98,386 square miles
Oregon is the 9th biggest state in the USA
Population - 3,421,399 (as of 2000)
Oregon is the 28th most populous state in the USA
Name for Residents - Oregonians
Major Industries - timber, paper products, farming (wheat, cattle), mining (coal), computer equipment, electronics
Major Rivers - Columbia River, Deschutes, Willamette River, John Day River, Snake River
Major Lakes - Upper Klamath Lake, Crater Lake
Highest Point - Mount Hood - 11,239 feet (3,426 m) above sea level
Bordering States - California, Idaho, Nevada, Washington
Bordering Body of Water - Pacific Ocean
Origin of the Name Oregon - The origin is unknown. It may have come from the French word Ouragan (which means Hurricane) and was a former name of the Columbia River.
State Nickname - Beaver State
State Motto - "She Flies With Her Own Wings" and "The Union"
State Song - Oregon, My Oregon

I live in Oregon which is a beautiful state with diverse terrain ranging from the Cascade Mountain Range to the Pacific Coast. I want to share some of the highlights of my home state with you.

Portland -
Big city excitement and small town charm make Portland, Oregon, known as "the City of Roses", one of the favorite destinations in the West. Portland is situated approximately 70 miles from the Pacific in a magnificent setting between the sparkling waters of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. Portland's historic old town, galleries and museums, Saturday Market, and theatre companies will keep visitors busy for weeks! Its lush green parks are perfect for a picnic or an afternoon stroll. Also, Portland is just a short distance from Willamette valley wineries, skiing at Timberline Lodge and all of the excitement and beauty of Oregon's spectacular ocean beaches.

Salem, the capital city of Oregon and its second largest city, lies in the center of the lush Willamette River valley, 47 miles from Portland. Salem is a city of over 47 square miles, located an hour from the Cascade mountains to the east and an hour from the ocean beaches to the west.

The State Fair in Salem

Multnomah Falls -The water of Multnomah Falls rushes just twenty minutes east of Troutdale. The Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area extends from the Sandy River, all the way to the Deschutes River, nearly 80 miles east

The Columbia River Gorge as seen from Vista House

Fall in the Cascades

Mt Hood

Historical Timberline Lodge

Seaside has been the Northwest’s most popular ocean resort for over a century. Visitors from around the world have been coming to Seaside since the 1800s.

Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach
Nine miles of wide, walkable beach invite visitors to Cannon Beach. The scenic beauty of the seastacks offshore and headlands onshore make your stroll down the sand particularly memorable. Fly a kite, watch the sea creatures in the tidepools, or take pictures of famous Haystack Rock. Relaxing on the beach is part of the Cannon Beach experience.

Eugene - home of the University of Oregon

Oregon's second largest city, is known for its mix of arts and culture, education, scenic attractions, and passion for recreation.

Bend located in central Oregon high desert country

A warm inviting mountain getaway with a cosmopolitan appeal is what you’ll find when you arrive in the friendly town of Bend, Oregon. Majestic snow-capped peaks permeate the high-desert skyline making for some of the best weather in Oregon—think sun-drenched days and cool nights—along with endless options for plenty of play time.

Ashland - known for it's annual Shakespeare Festival

Ashland is is a short drive from Crater Lake National Park, located at the headwaters of the Rogue River. Ashland is also close to the southern Oregon coast. Everywhere you look, there are reminders of the past, from pioneer vintage buildings to Victorian houses.

Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake National Park is located in southern Oregon on the crest of the Cascade Range, 100 miles from the Pacific coast

Wildlife Safari in Winston

Wildlife Safari is a fun-filled family destination where you can view over 500 animals in their natural habitat, roaming freely as they do in the wild! Visitors to the park drive through a 4.5 mile trek to see animals from Africa, Asia and the America’s. This unique setting offers many opportunities to get up close and personal with animals large and small.

Books, books and even more books

2008-10-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have been on a book buying binge again lately. The following books I received a few days ago in the mail.

Sawtelle David Wroblewski
Other Queen Philippa Gregory
The Shack William P. Young
Nights in Rodanthe Nicholas Sparks
Goldengrove Francine Prose
Woman of a Thousand Secrets Barbara Wood
Sweet Life Mia King
The Smart One and the Pretty One Claire LaZebnik

Then Saturday I ordered these which won’t be shipped until 10/14/08 as a couple of the books have not yet been released:

Off Season Anne Rivers Siddons
I See You Everywhere Julia Glass
The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks
The Sum of Our Days Isabel Allende

Did I say that I have a bunch of books already waiting to be read? Well, I do.

Isla Mujeres - Photos that make you want to go HUH?

2008-10-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Garage floor

Photo taken in April

Leaving Isla behind

Blogs I read

2008-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Over on the right you can see some of the blogs that I read. I have many more bookmarked and read them almost daily. You may have noticed that most of the blogs I read are written by ex-pats living in Mexico. I am interested in reading about their experiences because when I retire I plan on spending several months a year in Mexico. I may just travel or I may find a spot to settle more or less permanently. Most likely that place will be Isla Mujeres. In a year or two I will seriously start searching for a place to rent if I decide to retire part time on Isla.

Here's a rundown of some of my favorite blogs I read and why:

A Canuck in Cancun To quote Kelly "This blog catalogs the ups and downs of life in Cancun, a bi-cultural relationship and a bilingual crazy kid, a beach and beach picture addiction and some random ex-pat thoughts." I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog since I discovered it about 9 months ago. I find the daily life of a Canadian ex-pat living in Cancun interesting to read about as well as her posts about local and other news stories related to Mexico.

Babsblog – San Miguel Allende "An intrepid traveler who loves living in the "Moment". I've retired to Mexico to experience the unexpected, the tranquility and the color of this surreal country." Babs writes about her life in San Miguel, her travels around Mexico and other adventures. This blog can be educational, witty and cultural sometimes in the same post.

Big Sweet Tooth "Misty solo travels the world in search of her next food/adventure project, writes about adventure travel for MSNBC and the Chicago Sun Times and is a food critic and writer for Time Out Chicago magazine." Misty writes about her travels through Mexico in her vintage trailer, Central America, Bali and other worldwide destinations. She recently purchased a sailboat and I am sure she will be writing a lot about her travels in the boat. Misty also is a foodie. She takes great photos of her meals and describes them so well that you can almost taste the flavors.

Blah Blah Blah Ginger! "Travel Notes from Mimi and Jonna." This couple has a condo in Akumal and is restoring a historical home in Merida. The house restoration is a huge project and it has been interesting to read about as the project progresses. Other posts are about their daily life in Mexico, hurricane preparation, their pets and a recent post about clouds that was just poetic.

Dreaming of Isla Brenda and her husband rent an apartment on Isla and own land that they will be building a home on. Brenda writes Isla stories and other stories about her life, her family and special events. I know Brenda and I can hear her "talking" when I read her posts.

Countdown to Mexico "We started our blog a few years ago when we first started thinking about moving to Mexico. We love our new life in Mazatlan!" Nancy writes about her and her husband's daily activities, house projects and observations as an ex-pat living in Mazatlan. Nancy is another writer who has written some very poetic posts. I loved this one about a magical evening in Maz. I have added may blogs to my bookmarks from Nancy's list of blogs she reads.

Gangs of San Miguel de Allende –"This blog is an explanation of what happens to certain people who move or visit San Miguel de Allende in Mexico." I just started reading this blog a few weeks ago. It can be hysterically funny. Try it for a different perspective on living in Mexico.

Heather in Paradise Heather lives in Playa del Carmen hence the title of her blog. Heather writes about her daily life and activities in PDC. She also has written a few posts about the Peanut Pet Shelter and raised money via her blog to support the shelter. Heather's posts can be sarcastic, humorous or informative. This is one of the blogs I discovered early in my blog reading and I have never been disappointed by it.

Isla Mujeres Gringo in Paradise – This is the first blog that I started to read. I briefly met Wayne in December on Isla but didn't know this was his blog until he finally posted a photo with him in it. I love Wayne's blog. He writes about the ups and downs of living on Isla. He takes great photos of the island and his recent trip back to Minnesota. Wayne has a 2^nd blog of his travels throughout Mexico with great photos. He organized a bloggers meet up earlier this year on Isla. Wayne is a funny guy, sarcastic and an all around great blogger. Thanks Wayne for getting me started blogging and introducing me to some other really good blogs.

JamQueen – Camera Junkie While I have never met JamQueen I have "known" her through Isla Mujeres message boards for years. JQ takes great photos and shares them on her new blog. JQ and her husband sponsor an Isla Mujeres student as do Brenda and I as part of a small group of Isla lovers who are helping local students further their education.

Same Life -- New Location –
"Meanderings of a boy from Powers, Oregon who decides to retire in Mexico." Steve lives about 45 miles from me. He writes not only about his plans to retire to Mexico but some of his local Oregon adventures and his family member Professor Jiggs aka his dog. This was a comment regarding Steve's blog post today that I totally agree with "Sometimes your references go over my head, not having the education that you do, but that's ok. I still love your blog, your way of writing and your well thought out messages."

Dentro Del Jardin About Sue and her blog – "I share this beautiful space with my Mexican marido Miguel, our dogs Loco and Negra, and our cats Luna and Minina. And all the other creatures that choose to make our garden their home or dining room." I met Sue on Isla in 2002 and have visited her at her Isla home. Sue is great blogger writing about her life on Isla and other interesting musings. This blog post about a broom was just fantastic.

What do I do all day? – "One Woman's Life in Merida, Mexico. This blog is in response to the first thing people invariably ask me when I tell them that we have retired to Mèrida. We had originally planned to rent for a year while we traveled throughout South and Central America. But as Husband says "No plan survives contact with the enemy". Now that our house is in the long-term maintence phase we plan to travel as much as we can. Welcome to my world and daily life." Theresa writes about living in Merida, her crafts, her cooking, her dog and other important information for anyone thinking of moving to Mexico.

Over abundance of product in the chip aisle

2008-09-28T17:54:00.001-07:00

I just came home from Safeway where I went to pick up something to make for dinner. This is a newer store only having been open since last December. It is clean, open and light and way larger than most of the other Safeway stores around.

I am just amazed by the length of the "chip aisle". Do we really need to have every variety of potato chip, pretzels, tortilla chips, popcorn and veggie chips known to mankind in one store? Apparently the store buyers think so.

I did find these "healthy" chips that I had to open upon returning home. They are pretty good, just a bit spicy and lower in cholesterol and fat than the average tortilla chip.

I was curious about what other products this company by the name of Corazonas makes so I went to their website to check it out. They not only have several other flavors of chips but some decent recipes.

A beautiful fall day in Milwaukie, Oregon

2008-09-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Small town charm, life on the waterfront, easy access to big city amenities - all of these describe the "City of Dogwoods". Located between historical Oregon City and Portland, on Highways 99E and 224 in Clackamas County, Milwaukie offers all that and more to visitors and residents. Named as one of the 50 best places to raise a family, Milwaukie provides a clean environment, good transportation, schools and health care, and many cultural opportunities.

Maui Sunsets

2008-09-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

I love to take photos of sunsets. No two sunsets are ever the same no matter where they are viewed. I have photos of sunsets on Maui, Kauai, Puerto Vallarta, La Paz, the Oregon coast and a ton of Isla Mujeres sunsets. My daughter and niece told me I never need to take another photo of a sunset. I just can’t pass up a good sunset photo.

View from the lanai at the condo we stayed at which was the last condos on the north end of Kihei.

Taken from the summit at Haleakala National Park

South Kihei

View from the Feast of LeLe in Lahaina - a sit down multi course dinner not your average luau

Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon Like a magician extended his golden want o'er the landscape; Trinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together. Author: Henry Wadsworth LongfellowSource: Evangeline (pt. II, sec. II)

After a day of cloud and wind and rain Sometimes the setting sun breaks out again, And touching all the darksome woods with light, Smiles on the fields until they laugh and sing, Then like a ruby from the horizon's ring, Drops down into the night. Author: Henry Wadsworth LongfellowSource: Hanging of the Crane (pt. VII)

Race for the Cure, Portland, OR

2008-09-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Portland. An estimated 45,000 people turned out for Sunday's Race for the Cure in downtown Portland. I don't know how many participants there are in other cities but I have heard the Portland race is one of the larger ones. Local radio stations not only have teams they ask local businesses to sponsor their teams. In return the sponsors get exposure on the air, on the radio stations web stream, in the radio emails, and on team T-shirts. I like this additional way to raise money - Can't make it to the Race? You can Sleep In for the Cure!

I went to Safeway to buy groceries on Sunday and they were playing Melissa Etheridge's song "I Run". When the CD was first released Safeway sold it with some of the money going to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Thankfully my family has no history of cancer of any kind but I do have friends and co-workers who have had breast cancer. Some have won the battle and others have lost the battle.

This is my tribute to those brave women who have fought the battle and WON! You go girlfriends!!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

2008-09-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Tara’s 35th birthday. 9 months ago I didn’t know if she was going to live to have another birthday. Today is about celebrating Tara’s life.

We had some rough years when Tara was in her teens. It was a struggle at times to just be in the same house. Now that Tara is a grown woman we are great friends. Having nearly lost Tara twice has made me appreciate what a wonderful daughter she is.

So Happy Birthday baby girl! I hope you and Kelly are having a fantastic time at the Oregon coast on you belated honeymoon.

I have been trying out the Microsoft Office Word 2007 Blog function

2008-09-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Maybe you all know this but I decided a few weeks ago to try the blog function with Word 2007. I really like it. I can write my blog posts, spell check, change font colors and insert photos all from my Word doc. You can insert photos anywhere you want not just at the top like on Blogger. When finished I can publish to my blog right from my document. I used to always write my blog posts in Word and then copy and paste to Blogger. I then would have to change font colors and add hyperlinks, etc. to complete my posts.

Oops! Update:

For some reason the photos I inserted do not show up in the published blog posts. I will have to figure out if there is something else I need to do. If I highlight the area where the photo should be it appears that something is there to delete but no photo displays. Do any of you know how to get photos from the Word doc to publish?

My cubicle

2008-09-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

I work for a large nationwide corporation. Like with many large corporations we worker bees live in cubicles. I used to have a fabulous unobstructed view of Mt. Hood from the 7th story of the building. The company sold the building and we were moved to the 4th floor as tenants without the higher priced view. I have a cube one over from the window so I have no view. If I did have a view it would just be of the parking structure across the street.

A close up of Mt. Hood

The former CEO once said something on an all employee conference call that I remember to this day. He had recently taken over the CEO position and was talking about why he chose to accept the job and move from Chicago to Denver. He talked about attitude and how it comes through to our customers when we talk to them on the phone. He said "You should always have something in your office or on your desk that makes you smile. I have photos of my grandsons".

Many of my co-workers have bland, boring cubes like this one minus his laptop.

But not this woman! This is her cube. When Miss M came to the company last year and started to haul all of this stuff in a couple of people seriously asked if she was having a garage or pottery sale.

Then we have this woman's cube. Several years ago when she moved to a new cube when we were on the 7th floor she had a cube warming party complete with an invitation, gifts and food. The photo of the water fountain on the window ledge didn't come out so well due to the glare. But Miss D's cube is tastefully decorated in her own style.

Now we come to my cube. I love to take photos and travel to sunny tropical destinations. As you can see that is the theme of my cube. I also have always had many photos of family and recently added the two from Tara and Kelly's wedding. All of the framed beachy photos were taken on Kauai and the unframed photos and calendar photo were taken on Isla Mujeres. What I didn't get a photo of is the beach mermaid mobile with her book, sunscreen beach bag and other beach paraphernalia.

There is a great story about the voodoo doll but if you do not know the people involved you wouldn't understand. I have had the Peacock feather since 1990. Peacock feathers are supposed to be good luck. While that has not always been the case since I found it I hang on to is just because. This feather has survived moving twice to different buildings and multiple cubes in the building I am in now.

If you look closely you can see the bobble head turtles in the sandbox.

"My Cubicle"
Lyrics by: Morning Sidekick
Performed by: Jym Britton
Parody on "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt

My job is stupid my day's a bore,
Inside this office from eight to four
Nothin' ever happens my life is pretty bland,
Pretending that I'm working, pray I don't get canned.

My Cubicle, My cubicle
It's One of Sixty two
It's my small space in a crowded place
Just a six-by-six foot booth
And I hate it that's the truth

Well, I give a sigh as the boss walks by,
no one ever talks to me or looks me in the eye.
And I really should work but instead I just sit here and surf the Internet.

In My Cubicle, My cubicle
It doesn't have a view.
It's my small space in a crowded place
I sit in solitude.
And sometimes I sit here nude.

Placas Mexicanas

2008-09-16T05:00:00.001-07:00

I love all of the beautifully colored plates and bowls displayed on Hidalgo on Isla Mujeres. However they wouldn't necessarily fit in with my kitchen décor. About 8 years ago when Tara and I were in Playa del Carmen I found a serving bowl in shop on the north end of 5th Avenue. I wanted to buy another smaller bowl with the same colors. The owner of the shop said "no problemo, come with me". He practically ran all the way down to the far south end of 5th Avenue near the ferry stand to the other shop he owned. I was a few weeks away from having knee surgery so I made Tara run after him so we wouldn't lose him. He sold the two bowls to me for a real bargain price. They are very pretty blue and white bowls that look really nice with my cobalt blue Fiesta Ware and my Mexican glasses.

These plates are all from just one shop's display on Hidalgo next to Suites Los Arcos

Fall has arrived in PDX

2008-09-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

Fall has definitely arrived. The mornings for the past week or so have been cool with temps in the high 40s or low 50s. The days though have been beautiful with temps in the mid to high 80s.It has been a bit breezy which has caused the fire danger to rise significantly.

A friend of mine and her husband moved from Portland to Kauai in 1995. During one visit with them Karen told me how much she missed the seasons changing. That fall I found three very colorful redish maple leaves and glued them to gold foil paper and framed it. I sent it to Karen as a Christmas gift. She loved it. Then they moved back to the mainland for a few years and have since moved to Roatan. Last fall I sent Karen a photo of the autumn leaves and her response was: "Thanks for the picture. One of my most treasured things is the leaves in the frame that you gave Jack and me in Kauai. I look at it every day, as it is prominently displayed in my living room."

My fuchsia is slowly thinning out and not producing many new blooms.

The leaves on the trees are turning yellow and brown and dropping like crazy.

The telephone – friend or foe?

2008-09-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

I was reading CancunCanuck’s blog this morning about the phone call she received from her brother announcing that he and his long time partner are getting married. This made me think about the telephone and what it means to me.

The telephone can be a friend bringing good news – “Hi Mom, we set the date for our wedding”. I was so happy to hear this news since Tara and Kelly had been talking about getting married for years.

The telephone can be a foe delivering really bad news. - “Jackie, Tara has had a cardiac arrest and is in ICU at OHSU”. True story. I got that call on 12/28/07 the day after I arrived in Mexico for a two week vacation.

I do work for one of the major telecommunications companies which happens to not only be a tier one service provider but also the local telephone company in 14 states in the USA. So I am very familiar with the rules and regulations regarding caller id, solicitation, etc.

Lately I have been getting really irritated with the number of solicitors who call my home telephone # even though I have registered on the DO NOT CALL REGISTRY. I do have a security screen feature on my line that forces a caller without caller id to identify themselves. Without this feature I am sure I would get even a ton more solicitor calls. I can get home from work and have 15 new callers with 6 or more voice mails from telemarketers/solicitors.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY
The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free.
There have been many laws passed by various state public Utility commissions and the FCC that regulates companies that use either live telephone solicitors or automatic dial announcing devices (ADADs) must provide on Caller ID machines their company’s name and a telephone number. These telemarketers can no longer use per-call blocking or per-line blocking to prevent customers from identifying the caller. The number which appears must also accept incoming calls.

How a lot of the telemarketing companies get around the different rules and regulations can be by number spoofing (caller id might show 999-999-9999) or they pass caller id like Ohio, Florida, Maine with 8XX telephone #. You name the state and it has probably shown up on my phone on caller id.

Once in awhile out of curiosity I will answer a telemarketer’s call if the caller id number and name is one that I see multiple times a day for weeks showing on my phone. First off they can never pronounce my last name (it’s not that difficult), they ask to speak to Jacqueline or they ask if Mr. is at home.

I personally have nothing against the individual telemarketers making the calls as I know to them it is just a job. But do they really like what they do? How many times a day must people receiving their calls treat them rudely or hang up on them? I am sure glad that is one job I have never had.

Top telemarketing voice mails I receive:

“Your automobile extended warranty had expired. This is your last chance…” If this is my last chance why do you freaking keep calling me?

“This call is important to you, please press 1 to speak to an agent now”. If it were an important call to me wouldn’t I be calling them?

“I can lower your home mortgage rate by blah, blah blah”. I doubt it since I am locked in at one of the lowest rates offered several years ago.

“You have won…. You recently entered a contest”. No I did not; I think I would remember doing that.

OK, you get my drift, irritating huh?

Now remember I did say I work for a telecommunication company so “if you want to lower your long distance rate……”

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUTTHE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY
The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free.

Beach Vendors - Isla Mujeres

2008-09-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

On the beaches on Isla Muejres you can buy a variety of items from the vendors. You can buy tablecloths, handmade beaded necklaces, bracelets and ankle bracelets, silver jewelry. Food items are also very common, pepitas, nuts, fruit, and pastries but to me the oddest edible item for sale is cotton candy. Sticky cotton candy and sand do not make a good combination.

September 11th remembered

2008-09-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Uniquely Isla - starring photos from Isla Mujeres

2008-09-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last night's birthday dinner at Pambiche

2008-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dinner last night at Pambiche was fantastic!
To start with we had the Croquetas de camarones

Croquetas ~
Camarón ~ Pink Shrimp aromatic with fresh Mediterranean herbs.

Sorry, no photo of the croquetas but they were delicious!

I thought I ordered the Plato Cubano but I messed up and ordered the Comunista. So they brought me the meat on another dish.

Plato Cubano ~The typical Cuban plate. Adobo marinated roast pork, served with your choice of Cuban beans & rice. Dinner served with yuca con mojo.
Plato Comunista ~
The contemporary Cuban plate. Your choice of Cuban beans & rice served
with yuca con mojo and your choice of ensalada caribeña or ensalada de remolacha

Rabo Encendido ~
"Oxtail On Fire". Tender oxtail braised in a spicy red wine sauce. Served with
arroz blanco; dinner served with frituras de maíz.

Maíz con Pollo ~
Corn and chicken stewed in a garlicky salsa roja.

Alemán ~ Coconut chocolate cake laced with saoco syrup and sandwiched with a
caramel peanut filling. Glazed with Oaxacan chocolate ganache and topped off with
typical Cuban peanut candy. Served with crema chantilly.

Birthday dinner at Pambiche - authentic Cuban food

2008-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

My daughter and her husband are taking me out to dinner tonight for my birthday. I always try to pick a restaurant that is within Tara’s budget. So for this birthday dinner I decided I wanted authentic Cuban food. We are going to Pambiche which is located in an eclectic neighborhood in NE Portland. The area has recently become more upscale with many newer ethnic restaurants on 28th Ave. between Glisan St. and Sandy Blvd.

Pambiche serves authentic Cuban food based on the chef’s traditional family recipes. The chef is a Cuban American, John Connel-Maribona. He says that he learned to love food and cooking from his mother and grandmother. He has been working in the Portland market for over 20 years as a chef and pastry chef.

I will take my camera with me so I can take some photos of the vibrant Caribbean colors of the funky turn of the century Victorian building the restaurant is located in. I will also try to get some good photos of our dinner.

Wikipedia - Pambiche is a Latin American Dance derived from the Merengue , the national dance of the Dominican Republic. The Merengue was once called the "Palm Beach One Step" and it is said that "Pambiche" is a derrivation of "Palm Beach." The Pambiche is slower and less syncopated than the Merengue.

Talk about poor timing! An Isla Mujeres story

2008-09-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

While eating breakfast early one morning at Bucaneros on Hidalgo last April we watched a worker across the street getting Rolandi’s cleaned up and ready to start the day. The man had a broom and a bucket of soapy water. He worked very hard scrubbing the sidewalk, the steps and the back door. He worked for about 20 minutes and seemed very proud of how clean everything looked.

Not ten minutes after he completed his morning task along came this truck. So much for the hard work, time and effort that man put into making this very spot clean and shiny!

Wierd foods

2008-09-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I read these comments on a blog about the Butter Princesses at the Minnesota state fair which lead me to thinking about a Portland landmark Voodoo Donuts.
Whenever we have some kind of potluck in the office one of the men always brings in a couple of dozen of donuts from Voodoo. Most of them are certainly not the variety you would get at Krispe Kreme.

please tell me you tried the walleye fries, the chocolate-covered bacon, the peanut-butter hotdogs and the macncheese on a stick!(I'm listening to Prairie Home Companion live from the Minnesota State Fair and Garrison just did a tasting on stage)

I'm not really big on trying the weird stuff offered at the state fair. I did have alligator on a stick once. Yuk. The weirdest thing I ate this year was deep fried dill pickly chips (very good!) and the chocolate covered bacon. About grossed me out. Floppy underdone bacon dipped in chocolate at one end. Served cold too! I had to have another 32 oz bucket of french fries to get the taste out of my mouth!

The Elvis Maple Bar with bacon

The Voodoo Doll

The Nasty, a hit for the bachelorette parties can be seen on the menu page. It is actually called something else on Voodoo’s website.

Anthony Bourdain visits VooDoo Donuts

The end of summer? I hope not.

2008-09-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

As I am writing this on Sunday 8/31/08 at 7:00 AM it is only 50 degrees. This is the last weekend before most kids go back to school and of course the weather is crap! Friday it was in the mid 80s but yesterday it only got in the high 60s. Summer is not over though as the temps are supposed to warm back up later in the week.

The other day I realized that my whole summer was spent mostly in the house with the knee brace on and hobbling around on crutches. I never went to the Oregon coast or even to the beach on the Columbia River at Sauvie Island.

My friend Denise wanted me to go to Isla Mujeres in September when she and another friend will be there. I had to decline that invite as I didn’t think I would be up to all of the walking required to get around on the island. I wanted to book a trip to Isla in late October when other friends will be there but originally I was banned by my daughter from the island during most of that timeframe because she and her husband were going to be there on their belated honeymoon. Tara and Kelly have since changed their plans since Mexicana will no longer be flying out of Portland and any other flight they could book was many hundreds of dollars more.
Before Tara changed their plans I booked to go to Palm Springs the end of October. I will be staying at Worldmark’s condos so there is no cost for my room. My airfare cost about $100 more than I have ever paid to fly into Palm Springs.I probably won’t even rent a car since there are tons of great restaurants within a mile or so of the condos. There is a grocery store right on the way from the airport so I can have the taxi driver stop and let me go into buy groceries. All I have to do is walk out the back door of the condo and I am at the pool. How great is that? I will get my sun fix and look like my usual tan self again.

Sunset on the Oregon coast

Sauvie Island on the Columbia River

Palm Springs, I love the palms against the blue sky

Don’t you just love a good sunset?

2008-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Every sunset no matter where you view it is not the same as the next. All of these photos were taken on Isla Mujeres. I have many more that I have taken on Maui and Kauai. By blogger standards I probably have too many photos posted here but it makes my point. My daughter and niece told me I never need to take another sunset photo. I have to though because sunsets can be so awesome and make great photos.

Labor Day weekend – what it means to me

2008-08-29T19:30:00.001-07:00

My mother always said that she labored on Labor Day as I was almost born in a taxi on the way to the hospital the next day. Three years later on Labor Day my mother almost went in to labor again with my youngest sister Dee-Dee. Dee- Dee was born the day after Labor Day.

Labor Day to me used to always mean the end of summer and Tara’s return to school. For many years I took Labor Day week off as vacation so I could take Tara to her first day of school. As she got older I would still take the week off so I could be home when she returned from her first days in her new grade. When Tara was old enough to stay at home by herself I would take the week as vacation and go to central Oregon to stay with my sister and her husband. We would take their boat and go to a lake and have the picnic area and lake pretty much to ourselves.

Today Labor Day means that summer is coming to an end. Here in Oregon we usually have very nice weather through September. My daughter will be 35 on 9/22 and it has only rained once on her birthday. Indian summer sticks around sometimes into the middle of October. After that I expect gray skies and rain until the late spring.

Qwest and DNC at the Pepsi Center, then and now

2008-08-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Qwest, the corporation that I work for had the honor of being selected as the official communications provider for both the DNC and RNC. My director was a handful of few Qwest employees who got a VIP tour of the DNC at the Pepsi Center in Denver last Friday.

While you can see the DNC at the Pepsi Center on TV it looks more impressive with only a few people in it. It is a huge venue. Here a few photos that my director took last Friday. I will probably get some preview photos of the RNC center later this week.

Here is an interesting article that Qwest released regarding the first DNC in Denver and the current event.

Release Date: August 21, 2008
1908-2008: Wiring Denver's Democratic National Conventions Then and Now Qwest and the Telecommunications History Group Look Back at the 1908 DNC as Denver Gears Up for the Most Digitally-Connected Political Convention in History One Hundred Years Later

DENVER, Aug. 21, 2008 — With the centennial of the first convention in Denver as the backdrop, Qwest Communications, the Official Telecommunications Provider of the event, teamed up with the Telecommunications History Group to compare the 1908 and 2008 Democratic National Conventions (DNC).

"The Qwest network will facilitate an unprecedented digital experience for the delegates and the media at this year's convention. Such technology was unheard of in 1908, which only highlights the need to stay connected with the people and the events that matter most in our lives," said Qwest’s president in Colorado, Chuck Ward.

From a technology perspective, the upcoming convention in the Mile High City bears little resemblance to the 1908 convention – when only 12 special telephone lines were installed to accommodate the event and enable national news bulletins.

By contrast, this year’s convention sites – the Pepsi Center and INVESCO Field at Mile High – are expected to have unparalleled digital connectivity, with 6,000 voice and data lines carrying real-time news, videos, blogs, phone calls, e-mail and other digital data to a global audience.

"As you would expect, times have changed in the communications world since the last convention in Denver," said Herb Hackenburg, a founding member of the Telecommunications History Group. “The level of data and voice connectivity provided by Qwest will enable the world to watch, listen and read about the DNC as it happens and that’s exciting!”

In 1908, when Denver was tapped to host the DNC, the Colorado Telephone Company relied on its new state-of-the-art technology to keep the public informed about the convention proceedings within minutes of when they happened.

Using a PBX (private branch exchange) telephone system, six special service telephones, six telephone booths, six specially trained telephone operators, two long distance lines, telegraphs and Morse code, the phone company was able to transmit news bulletins to pre-selected customers like local newspaper editors and political leaders from the 1908 convention.

Pages at the convention were trained to recognize delegates and distinguished guests by sight. When delegates and guests received calls, the attendants would immediately find them on the floor and escort them to the phones.

Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan didn’t even attend the convention in 1908. Using a megaphone rigged with a telephone transmitter so that the megaphone would work “in reverse”, Bryan listened to the crowd signal its approval of his nomination from his home library in Lincoln, Nebraska, via a special long-distance telephone connection to the convention floor. *

Today, it is Qwest that will facilitate much of the information flow that will keep the eyes of the world on Denver from August 25th-28th. Qwest’s fiber-optic network for the 2008 DNC has an aggregate data capacity of 50 billion bits per second, which could transmit an HD movie in two seconds or the entire collection of print holdings at the Library of Congress in less than one hour.

Qwest has implemented infrastructure upgrades that required about 3,344 miles of single strands of fiber and 140 miles of single strands of copper and coaxial cable, installed video equipment with capacity to handle 130 simultaneous video feeds at both the Pepsi Center and INVESCO Field at Mile High, and added approximately 2,600 additional data lines and 3,400 voice grade circuits to serve both venues.

During next week’s convention, Qwest’s network will be used to transmit the Democratic presidential nomination and convention proceedings for the world to watch in real-time at home or on the go, from the opening gavel to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at INVESCO Field on Thursday, August 28th.

THEN & NOW AT THE DENVER DNC

Better viewed here
No matter how I save it, jpg, bitmap, Excel it doesn't keep good formatting

Dinner out and Melissa Etheridge concert

2008-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Last night dinner at Kincaid’s formerly the Portland Steak and Chophouse was great. We each had something very different. I had ahi prepared with chili sauce; Erika had Seafood Louie with grilled salmon, Dungeness crab, bay shrimp, deviled egg, and Tara had the petite filet mignon. Everything was perfect including the service.

The concert was at the Schnitzer Concert Hall which is a pretty small venue. Although I purchased tickets the second they were available online we were in the 17th row off to the far right. I took my binoculars with me but we were close enough that they were not needed.
Melissa was fantastic! She has so much energy and her personality shows that she really appreciates her fans. About an hour and forty-five minutes into the show she talked about being told that she had cancer. She said that at 43 she thought she had experienced most everything in life but then she was told she had cancer. She said that rock stars don’t have time for cancer.

It's been years since they told her about it

The darkness her body possessed

And the scars are still there in the mirror

Everyday that she gets herself dressed

Though the pain is miles and miles behind her

And the fear is now a docile beast

If you ask her why she is still running

She'll tell you it makes her complete

[Chorus:]I run for hopeI run to feel

I run for the truth

For all that is real

I run for your mother, your sister, your wife

I run for you and me, my friend

I run for life

It's a blur since they told me about it

How the darkness had taken its toll

And they cut into my skin and they cut into my body

But they will never get a piece of my soul

And now I'm still learning the lesson

To awake when I hear the call

And if you ask me why I am still running
I'll tell you I run for us all

[Chorus:]I run for hope

I run to feelI run for the truth

For all that is real

I run for your mother your sister your wife

I run for you and me my friend

I run for life

And someday if they tell you about it

If the darkness knocks on your door

Remember her remember me

We will be running as we have before

Running for answers

Running for more

I run for hope

I run to feel

I run for the truth

For all that is real

I run for your mother, your sister, your wife

I run for you and me my friend

I run for hope
I run to feel

I run for the truth

For all that is real

I run for your mother your sister, your daughter, your wife

For you and me my friend

I run for life

Ohohohoh

I run for your mother your sister your wife

I run for you and me my friend
I run for life

Best Life – Light Out Flat wraps

2008-08-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Best Life – Light Out Flat wraps

These are really good wraps. I have used them for cold or hot sandwiches. I have bought the Italian and the sun dried tomato wraps. They do great on the George Foreman grill. This morning I made scramble egg beaters in a frying pan on the stove top and then put them with a little cheese on the wrap and grilled it to perfection,
Yum O

Saturday night dinner out and a concert

2008-08-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tara, my nice Erika and I are going out to dinner tonight then to the Melissa Etheridge concert. The three of saw her last time she was in Portland maybe 5 years ago and the concert was awesome. This concert hall is even a smaller venue so it should be even better yet.
Melissa is a fantastic musician, writer and vocalist and a cancer survivor. On November 15, 2005, Etheridge appeared on the Tonight Show to perform her song "I Run For Life", which references her own fight with breast cancer and her determination to overcome it, as well as encourages other breast cancer survivors and their families. After her performance, Jay Leno told her, "Thanks for being a fighter, kiddo."

Oregon - Where I live, the weather

2008-08-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is the weather forecast for the next couple of days.

For the past couple of weeks or so the weather has been a bit unusual for the part of Oregon I live in. Most days have been in the high 90s and a few over 100 degrees. This weekend my Weather Bug program showed it to be 102 on Saturday and 104 on Sunday. I would get up in the middle of the night a few times to check the temperature to see if it was cool enough to open up some windows. Most nights/morning it was not cool enough until somewhere around 6:00 AM. Yesterday morning at 7:30 AM it was 74 degrees with 74% humidity. It is not often that the humidity is that high.My AC was running all day on Sunday. This morning around 3:00 AM I thought that I heard rain and I definitely did hear thunder. The rain came down hard for awhile and the thunder and lightning lasted until about 10:00 AM. Right now though it may only be 68 degrees it is 77% humidity.

Yesterday evening on the 6:30 PM local news they reported on the record number of people visiting the Oregon coast. On a normal weekend during the summer the drive from Portland to the coast can take up to 2 hours or more. Sunday they reported it was about a 3 - 4 hour drive depending on which route was taken.

Tara told me that a co-worker of hers just got back from Alabama and said that despite the HIGH humidity she loved the hot weather. You can have it is what I say!

There has been a record number of days this summer around 100 degrees or over. For an Oregonian to say this you know it has to be bad but we really needed the rain. There was a little rain the day before Tara and Kelly’s wedding but not enough to impact the high fire danger.

Satellite images from the Space Shuttle Endeavour

2008-08-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Enjoy! It is an awesome presentation.
http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm

My friking knee injury and the Ortho doc follow up

2008-08-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

I saw the Ortho doc today. So he still looks like he is 16 but I guess since he graduated from medical school he must be older and qualified to assess my injury. I asked him about surgery and he said he still does not recommend surgery. An injury like mine can take 2 – 3 months to recover. It has not been two months yet. I told him that two weeks ago or even one week ago I would have begged him to do surgery to make me feel better but today I felt like I could say that my knee was getting better. He gave me an injection of cortisone laced with a pain med to numb the area. He wants me to be able to determine how much pain was relieved from the cortisone that is caused by the arthritis and bone bruise vs. the sprained ligaments. I do not think that much of the pain is from the arthritis since I only had to occasionally ice my knee to relieve the discomfort prior to the sprained/torn ligaments. Next ortho appointment is in 6 weeks. This is getting so old and tiring. I hate it!

Portland, the city of roses or in my case the house of one rose

2008-08-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just like the last rose that bloomed on my one rose bush I waited too long to take a photo. Portland is known as the City of Roses. My yard is known by me as the house with one rose.

Portland has its annual event the Rose Festival that takes place in June and has events running through this weekend with the air show. What many people do not realize is that Portland although it does have a lot of rain does not have more than the City of Seattle. We get the bad rap though. The rain in Portland does contribute toward the great roses, rhododendrons and overall greenery of the area.

So one of my main concerns about where to retire to for at least part of the year is where can I live where there is limited rainfall yet an abundance of greenery and plants. Oh and having a beach near by is a big plus for me. My research over the next two years will help me decide where that ideal place is.

This post is as a result of a friend in NYC recently asking me where other than Oregon I would live in the USA.

Rene's fabulous photos from Tara and Kelly wedding

2008-08-09T09:40:00.001-07:00

I thought that I was finished blogging about Tara and Kelly's wedding last Saturday but I had to share these photos. These are just a few of the proof photos taken by Rene at the wedding. Rene did an absolutely amazing job! Tara is Rene's supervisor at the credit union. Rene is building her portfolio so that she can take on some professional photo jobs. She would not let Tara pay her so we slipped some money into her purse.

I just learned how to post photos from Flickr to my blog. There must be away to post multiple photos to the same blog post but I did them individually then saved the photos to my computer an uploaded them to one blog post. All photos originally uploaded by Just Plain Ne' http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluemoods/

Tara said she thanked Rene for taking the most beautiful photo ever of her best friend Cindy.

Happy Friday photos. Enjoy!

2008-08-08T06:50:00.001-07:00

One more wedding post - the ceremony

2008-08-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Introduction
Address – commitment address
Prayer
Declaration of concent
Vows
Exchange of rings
Pronouncement of marriage
Final words

Tara & Kelly’s Wedding

Please, everyone can take a seat.

I am highly honored today to marry two of the most important people in the world to me and my best friends, Kelly and Tara.

Welcome family and friends in gathering today for this wonderful day to celebrate the marriage of Kelly and Tara.

Marriage is the promise of hope between two people who love each other. Who trust in that love, and honor one another as individuals in their togetherness and who wish to share their future together.

Marriage enables two separate people to share their desires, longings, dreams, memories, their joy and laughter, and help each other through their uncertainties. It provides the encouragement to risk more and thus to gain more. In marriage, husband and wife belong together, to provide mutual support and stability in which they will grow their love.
We have come together to witness the promise of Kelly and Tara in marriage, to share with them in their happiness and hope for the future.

Please join me in a prayer for Kelly and Tara:
Bless this marriage, as Kelly and Tara begin their journey down the road of life together. We don't know what lies ahead for the road turns and bends. But help them to make the best of whatever comes their way.

Help them to hug each other often, talk and laugh a lot.Help them to continue to enjoy each other as they did when they first met.Help them to realize that nothing nor no one is perfect and to look for the good in all things and all people including themselves.Help them to respect each other's likes and dislikes, opinion and beliefs, hopes and dreams and fears.Help them to learn from each other and to help each other grow together emotionally, and spiritually.

Help them to realize that there is design and purpose in their lives as in the world, and if they will hold onto each other, they will know that things have a way of working out for the best.Help them to create a stable home of love as a foundation on which they can build their lives.But most of all, dear God, help them to keep lit the torch of love' that they now share in their hearts so that it will continue day by day and year by year. Amen
Ok, now on with the getting married stuff!!

Kelly and Tara please take hands and face each other.
Kelly do you take Tara to be your wife, to honor and cherish her, to help and support her, to understand and comfort her for this day forth, please say I do.
Kelly repeat after me – Before the presence of family and friends, I Kelly, choose to be your husband. Day by Day, I promise to love you and to honor you, to treasure you and to respect you, to walk with you side by side, in joy and in sorrow. Day by day, I promise to hold you in my arms, to laugh with you, to cry with you and to just be with you. This I promise you Tara - I will love you with all that I am and all I can ever be, today and for all the days of my life.

Tara do you take Kelly to be your husband, to honor and cherish him, to help and support him, to understand and comfort him, for this day forth, please say I do.
Tara repeat after me – Before the presense of family and friends, I Tara, choose to be your wife. Day by Day, I promise to love you and to honor you, to treasure and and to respect you, to walk with you side by side, in joy and in sorrow. Day by day, I promise to hold you in my arms, to laugh with you and to just be with you. This I promise you Kelly – I will love you with all that I am and all I can ever be, today and for all the days of my life.

The bride and groom will share three cups of sake in a gestur called San San Kudo or the way of three, three, nine times. Since three is an indivisible number it is concidered a sacred number in Buddhism. Three sips from three cups equals nine and means triple happiness for the future. This symbolized not only the uniting of two people but also the uniting of two families. The graduated size of the cup from small to large shows the love and wisdom and happiness in the marriage to grow and deepen over time.

Exchanging of rings have served as a reminder that the circle of love has no end. So with these rings that they have picked for each other, let’s finally get them on their fingers, so I can get my friends married.

Ok, Kelly please give me the rings. PANIC!!! Kelly is one of my best friends and I know him to well and I am not trusting him with the rings. Sorry Kelly, just kidding. WINK WINK

Kelly to Tara, Kelly repeat after me – with this ring, I give you my undying love and commitment, and pledge you my heart and my life. This ring is a promise to you and remind you I am honored to be your husband. Please look at this ring daily and remember that I could love know one more than you.

Tara to Kelly – Tara repeat after me – with this ring, I give you my undying love and commitment, and pledge you my heart and my life. This ring s a promise to you and remind you I am honored to be your wife. Please look at this ring daily and remember that I could love know one more than you.

Kelly and Tara are very proud and honored that their friends and family are here today and are willing to support them, and to be apart of their daily growth in love and marriage. They thank you all for our committement to them now and in the future.
OK, the moment we all have been waiting for, or at least Kelly has, the Kiss. Kelly you may kiss your beautiful bride.

I am so very proud to annouce Kelly and Tara, husband and wife.

Just reading this makes me cry.

Practicing the "sake ceremony".

The sake ceremony during the wedding

Taking photos afterwards

The rings and sake bowls

The sake bottle,well kind of

Rob showing TnK how he wants them to pose for the next photo

Friends and family made the wedding perfect for Tara and Kelly

2008-08-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tara is Rene's supervisor at the credit union. Rene is building her portfolio so that she can take on some professional photo jobs. She would not let Tara pay her so we slipped some money into her purse. Rene took a ton of photos and I can't wait to see them.

Cindy, Tara and Kim. Cindy and Tara have been best friends for twenty-two years. Cindy gave a toast and that made many of us cry.

Cousin Erika, Cindy, Tara and Kim. Erika was pretty much in charge of creating all of the crafty stuff. She and her mother sewed fifty chair covers. Erika and her husband Alan made the arch that the ceremony took place under.

Tara with my sister Debi whose yard the wedding took place in. Debi loves to entertain and be in charge so she was in her element that day.

Kim and Rob are very good friends of Tara and Kelly's. Two years ago when they got married TnK were their witnesses. Kim wrote the vows and did an excellent job even though a couple of times she started to cry while reading them. Rob was in charge of the music and video camera.

I would be a really bad mother or grandmother if I didn’t post a photo of TnK’s gurlz. Cindy walked down the aisle with them and then they had to give love to TnK when the ceremony was over.

The wedding - part 2

2008-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Cindy, Tara and I did an excellent job designing the cake. OK, the cake lady helped too. A very simple yet elegant cake. Top layer strawberry champagne, 2nd layer chocolate with chocolate cream filling, 3rd layer yellow cake with a cream cheese filling.

The bride and groom were having an excellant time at their wedding. I love this photo of Tara. She is having so much fun!

And here you can see why! Kathy and Jack causing Tara to laugh hysterically.

I really do not know what was making Tara laugh so hard here. The photographer was a woman who works for her. Rene said it was the only time she could boss her supervisor around.

The toast

Oh, oh, I see mischief brewing here.

Yep! I told you!

Tara said she had to go inside to wash her face because she had frosting up her nose.

Kelly with his man boobs,the form from Tara's dress.

Whose are bigger?

Tara, her aunt Dee-Dee and cousin Allie who both helped so much getting ready the day of the wedding.

The wedding day was perfect. Pretty much my entire family attended and everyone got along. That’s not always the case with a big family like mine. Tara has a special place in all of my family member’s hearts after not one but two cardiac arrest and near death incidents.

The only screeching that happened was when I saw my 21 nephew Max taking a bottle of champagne to their table. It was opened and I yelled across the entire yard at him about not drinking the champagne because it was for the toast. He said ‘it was opened and it was a wedding so what the hell?” I sent one of my sisters over to take the champagne out of the ice tubs until we were ready for the toasts. I had to talk Tara into buying champagne to start with because she doesn’t like it. I told her we needed to buy a few bottles for the toast so she agreed. The only other incident was when my sister Pam who was quite toasted tried to cut through the heavy cardboard separating the cake layers. I guess she destroyed the cake and bent the heck out of my niece’s wedding cake knife. Tara’s friend Cindy told Pam to let her cut the cake. Cindy tried to cut one slice and the blade broke off from the handle. Pam blamed Cindy for breaking the knife. But we survived Tara and Kelly's day with no major issues.

Tara told me again today how much she loved the wedding and that she had so much fun. A bride should enjoy the special day and laugh a lot.

In an email from one of my friends after she viewed the wedding photos "a couple of my favorites are 57 and 71...even though Elva was in the family photo it is great of all of you. and the other one with Tara laughing is wonderful. What shines through to me is that Tara was having a hoot at her own wedding and that doesn't happen all the time. I'm happy for them."

Yes, they are married!

2008-08-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

Plenty of family members to help set up the tables and decorations

Nieces Erika and Allie working on Tara's bouquet

Praticing the sake ceremony

The girls getting ready

Here comes the bride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TnK's girls watching over the wedding ceremony

This is where Kim stars to cry as she is reading the vows for TnK to repeat

Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham

Tara and her girlfriends that made the day so great for her

Yes, of course I cried. Who wouldn’t when the groom is crying before he even sees his bride coming down the aisle? The waterproof mascara worked and I had plenty of Kleenex.
It was a great celebration and good times were had by all. Tara texted her cousin at midnight and told her she was so happy they got married the way they did and not as originally planned in Las Vegas.

More photos

OMG! The wedding is tomorrow.

2008-08-01T06:56:00.001-07:00

If you have been following my blog you know that my daughter Tara is getting married tomorrow. I can’t believe that her special day is almost here. Everything has been ready for some time. Tomorrow morning Tara, her friend Cindy, my niece and I will go pick up the flowers. Then we will head out to St. Helens where the wedding will take place. Tara has an appointment for a pedicure and massage which was a bridal shower gift from some family members. She is having a hard time letting it go. She wants to make sure everything is ready for her wedding. My niece has reassured her that she can go have her massage and when she gets back to her aunt’s house everything will be done and ready for the wedding.

Kelly’s mother arrived yesterday. She lives in Colorado and is here for 10 days. I asked Tara if we could go out to dinner before the wedding so I do not meet Elva for the first time at the wedding. So tonight we are going out to dinner.

The weather today is forecasted 70 degrees with rain likely. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 75 degrees and partly cloudy. I am crossing my fingers that there will be no rain. There is no backup plan for the outdoor wedding if it should rain. The wedding date was originally in June but Tara was too stressed out by everything following her recovery from her near death incident and work stuff that they moved the date to August 2nd. The chance of rain is usually less likely in August compared to June also. Photos and wedding stories will be my next post.

Tara trying to be creative designing her wedding cake.

Isla Mujeres Student Sponsorship Update

2008-07-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago I joined a group of Isla Mujeres lovers in a program sponsoring high school students on Isla Mujeres. The program is to help offset the costs of going to high school; things like uniforms, books, internet access for homework, etc. The students have to maintain their grades or they are dropped from the program. The girl I got assigned is named Dennise. I received a brief email from her with some information about her and her family. Dennise’s hobby was watching TV. I knew that did not bode well.

I had planned to meet Denisse during my December Christmas trip to Isla. However due to my daughter’s medical emergency that trip was cut short after only two days. Upon returning home I emailed with the woman who was going to arrange the meeting between Dennise and I. Dennise decided to drop out of school after Christmas break because “vacation was fun”.

I received this email yesterday and now understand a bit more about why Dennise dropped out of school.

Jackie,
I don't know if I ever got back to you with more information about Denisse, the student you sponsored who dropped out in January. I think she was actually in her 2nd month of pregnancy when she said she 'preferred to watch tv'. It now makes sense to me! In any case, she has moved in with her boyfriend, who also had to quit school, so a double sadness there. He seems like a great young man, and wants to maintain the relationship and support the baby. This is the way things go - the girl moves in with the young man's family when she gets pregnant, and they live as a married couple, and then several years later they actually get married - sometimes! In any case, Denisse should be having her baby in the next couple of months! You probably never met her, but she is a beautiful, friendly girl. Of course it is really sad that the cycle of poverty continues, but it is what they know, and girls that stay in school and get an education are the exception. We are trying to pick them for the scholarships, but of course it is hit and miss! Well, I thought you might like to know, in case you want to bring baby clothing the next time you go down! LOL

I still felt that sponsoring an Isla student was a worthwhile cause so I continued to deposit my monthly payments. A few months ago I was asked if I would be interested in sponsoring a young woman who was going to university in Merida. The cost to sponsor Alejandra would be $200 a month. I agreed to pick up half the cost and found two friends to join me in sponsoring Alejandra. Yeah! Thank you Wanda and Lisa! Alejandra’s mother makes a living and supports her family by selling pareos along the street to Playa Sol and Nautibeach Condos. $100 a month to me is no big deal to give to help Alejandra better her life. But I can only imagine how difficult it was for her mother to scrape together $200 a month on top of living expenses for herself and her other children. Alejandra wants to be a kindergarten teacher because she says “everyone needs to start school”.

If you would like to find out how sponsor an Isla student please email me.

Signs, signs, signs, everywhere there are signs, Isla Mujeres

2008-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken late April. Note the New Year message

Shopping on Isla Mujeres

2008-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have been traveling to Isla Mujeres since 1993. I have been to many other Mexican cities and probably have been in total to Mexico around 30 times. I am not a shopper but enjoy taking photos of what there is available to the average tourist. More than once I have been questioned by US Customs when they see that I say I purchased $0 while in Mexico.

They start at a very young age to sell to the tourist

These are the shops just below Suites Los Arcos

Even beach vendors need to take a break

Pedro's wife at M&J's Cazuelas makes this jewerly

At one point the little vendor had 20 turtles on my table. She counted them and kept pulling out more until she finally found the purple one I wanted

Charlie is one of my favorite beach vendors. He is one of the few vendors I buy from. He always compares my tan to his skin color. He knows that by the end of my visit I will be darker than him.

Can you ever get enough bobble heads? I have bought many for nieces, nephews and friend’s little one. I do admit I have a few turtles that I have in a beach and sand box in my office.

These are definitely tourist daytripper shopping spots.

Ta da! THE RING!

2008-07-27T06:00:00.001-07:00

Kelly drove them to Olallie Lake today and he actually proposed and gave Tara the engagement ring. One week exactly before the wedding. Kelly had the wedding band sodered to the engagement ring so Tara is wearing both. Tara said that Kelly had tears in his eyes but that might have been from the sun.

Tara called me to tell me she got the ring. I told her that I knew she was getting it today as both her friend Cindy and her cousin Erika knew a little about the plan. Tara was pissed that none of us told her this was going to happen today. I told her that none of us wanted to ruin the most important day in her life.

OMG! Finally my daughter is actually engaged one week before the wedding.

One week from today Tara is getting married, a mother's perspective

2008-07-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

OMG! One week from today my daughter Tara will be getting married. I have blogged about this before but to recap Tara and Kelly have been together for over 5 ½ years. They have always talked about getting married and having babies. They are almost there. Just a few more steps until they (Tara) fulfill that dream.

Kelly has been a typical male procrastinator and has not yet given Tara her engagement ring or officially proposed. He bought the ring a couple of weeks ago but the guy who they send the rings to size has been on vacation for the last two weeks. Kelly wanted to give Tara the ring last Saturday before her bridal shower so she could show it off to her friends.

My niece and Tara’s best friend have been hounding Kelly about when he is going to give her the ring and actually propose. So the plan is that today Kelly will suggest that they go on a long drive and somewhere along the way Kelly will stop and propose and give Tara the ring.

Tara 32? years ago

Tara and me 30 years ago

Tara and Kelly on Isla 4 years ago

Wandering around Isla Mujeres with my camera

2008-07-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

4 lettuce, shrimp, martini olive salad at Casa O's

Truck at El Veradero

Cazuela at M&J's

Elements of the Islands Americano breakfast. Some of the best bacon on the island.

Bridal shower vs. wedding shower

2008-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Bridal shower vs. wedding shower, yes two very different things. At a bridal shower the bride to be may get gifts such as a penis lollipop, sensual massage oil and lingerie. At a wedding shower the bride to be is more likely to get gifts that the couple is registered for such as pot and pans, lamps, etc.
Well, Tara’s last night was a bridal shower. She received several raunchy gifts but also got a few very nice wedding shower like gifts. We played a couple of games, No surprise that I the mom won the “How well do you know Tara” game. Even still I only got 7 out of 15 questions correct. I argued with Tara about her answers on a couple of them though.
Here are some photos fromTara's bridal shower yesterday evening.

Daytripping on Isla Mujeres - my dos pesos

2008-07-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you Google “day trip from Cancun” or “day trip to Isla Mujeres” you find a ton of sites that have reviews or sites to book a day trip to Isla Mujeres. Depending on the trip an adult might pay anywhere from $25 - $60+. Some trips are “all inclusive” providing booze and a meal. Others might just be a boat trip with free but warm beer.

Over the years I have talked to many day trippers about their experience coming over to Isla for a day. Many of them say things like “I wish we had known we could take a ferry over for $3.00 and rented a gold cart on our own to tour the island”. Or “you mean you really stay here?” Shocked or in awe, sometimes it is hard to tell which.

One of my favorite beach hangouts is at Sergio’s Playa Sol. I usually sit on a chair in between the two boat docks. On the right is the dock where Sergio’s day tripper boats dock and to the left is Playa Caribe where the BIG boats from Cancun shuttle 100s of people over a day. A lot of people do not like the crowds, the music or the boats but to me I find it to be fascinating for people watching. The big boats that dock at Playa Caribe used to be mostly party people but I have observed over the last couple of years that the clients more often include families and as many if not more Mexican Nationals than Americans or Canadians. That is not to say that every once in awhile you don’t see someone falling down drunk trying to get back on the boat.

During the Christmas season there might be 4 or 5 boats a day. In October, November, April or May there is usually just one or two boats and you could set your watch to their arrival and departure. The first boat arrives at 10:00 AM and the second at 11:00 AM. The boats depart at 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM.

These day tripper boats and their clients are big business for Isla especially during the slower months. The good thing about most of the day trippers is they are all gone by 4:00 PM or 5:00 PM leaving the streets less crowded at night. I may not always like the behavior of these day trippers but I am happy that they do contribute in their own way to the economy of Isla.

Boat docked at Playa Caribe, day trippers already on the beach

Catamaran coming in to Sergio's Playa Sol

Sergio walking out on the dock to greet his guests

The beach vendors line up near the dock to get the last sale of the day from the day trippers

And they are off on the cattle call back to the boat and their hotels in the hotel zone in Cancun

Hasta manana day trippers

Doors, entryways and gates on Isla Mujeres

2008-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago while on Isla Mujeres I took a series of photos featuring interesting doors, entryways and gates. Here a few of those photos.

Let me begin this journey by welcoming you with a beautifully tiled stairway leading to an upstairs apartment in colonial La Gloria.

This little humble casa is on Juarez in el centro. No matter how small and humble the owners took the time to paint and try to make the exterior a cheerful place. I also like the wood work on the bar/house on the right.

I just like the colors and the framing of the doors and windows on this el centro house.

Intricate screen door on an otherwise simple tienda Great color too.

This is part of Osario in el centro. Again I like the color combination and the stone planters.

This house has always intrigued me. It is very plain with some modern sleek stainless touches.

I like that inisde the front doors of this building is a courtyard with a fountain.

This is the gate to the new all inclusive hotel at the circle near Sac Bajo and Playa Lancheros. If you aren't staying here you are not allowed on the property. Just how do they think that they can attract new potential customers if they can't see the rooms or grounds? Off the top of my head I can't remember the name of it but the entry way is not very welcoming.

*Updated - Isla Mujeres Palace

Big sturdy gates near Casa Ixchel on the Caribe side of the island.

I love all of the arches on these next two houses.

This house has always reminded me of a ship

The orange is a farily new paint job. I guess you paint the exterior of the room you rent. It makes a statement anyway.

Also a newer paint job. It looks like the colors for a baby boy and girl baby shower.

I welcomed you by leading you through my photos starting with the stairway and end with these great gates. They can be found on a house near Suites Cha Chi.

Email from The Travel Channel

2008-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

I received this email yesterday afternoon. I love The Travel Channel and Samantha Brown. I am sure that it is an email that went out to multiple people and that I was not singled out. I recently had two blog posts about trips to Cabo that had labels including Cabo.

Hi Jackie,
I'm working with Travel Channel's online community team and wanted to let you know that Samantha Brown visits Cabo San Lucas on her upcoming episode of Passport To Great Weekends.

The Cabo San Lucas show airs at 10:30pm EST on Thursday, July 17th. I thought you and your readers might be interested in the show, and that you might want to post something on your blog about it.

You can actually get a quick take on what "Sam" is about by her newly uploaded YouTube videos at: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8BCDB20B66FF99F0 or get more of the packaged e-kit at: http://www.media.travelchannel.com/ekit/greatweekends/HTML/press.html

As we are putting more online community platforms in place we would love your feedback. You can post to Sam's blog, or join in the conversation on Twitter, or send us an email.

On a more personal note, I hope this email is not offensive to you. I maintain my own personal blog, and am familiar with the annoyance of spammy messaging. If you have ideas on how Travel Channel or Samantha Brown might be able to promote your site or better contribute to your interests – please be sure to let me know.

With Appreciation,

A side trip from Isla to Tankah Bay and Puerto Morales May 2004

2008-07-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Denise who I had met two years earlier on Isla Mujeres and I decided that during this May trip to Isla we would go to the mainland for a few nights. I ordered a Can-Do Map and began researching where we would go. Denise and I spent a week on Isla then took our suitcases to a friend’s apartment to store for the time we were off island. Since we were only going to spend four nights somewhere else we just needed backpacks. We took the ferry to Puerto Juarez and then a taxi to the bus station. I had already looked at the bus schedule on line so we knew about when we needed to be there. I think our tickets on the first class bus cost somewhere around $6.00. We took the bus to Tulum and then got a taxi to go to Tankah Bay. There were three hotels that we wanted to check out. The first one had no AC and was on the ground floor making it unsafe to leave a window open to get air at night. The second hotel was very nice but more than we wanted to pay and one of us would have had to sleep on a sofa bed. So we went to the third hotel, Casa Cenote. It had a restaurant, AC and was right on the beach. The hotel owner was not there and the man who was watching the place could not bargain for the price of the room. We ended paying the requested rate and made sure we got one of the few rooms that had AC. The price of a room included a full breakfast. The restaurant had a fairly simple menu of burgers, chicken, fish, beer, and margaritas. On Sundays they serve an all you can eat Texas barbecue for $12. I noticed on a website that there is now a pool on the property. A pool would have been nice since there was limestone making it difficult to walk in or out of the water. There is supposed to great snorkeling in the area but the water was pretty murky from a few days of rain and there was a very strong current so we didn’t try to snorkel more than once.

Casa Cenote was a nice, quiet get away for two nights. The day we were leaving to head back north to find another place to stay the man watching the hotel was driving to Xpu-Ha to try to find a woman he met at Casa Cenote’s bar. He only had her first name and that she lived in Xpu-Ha. We asked him if we could hitch a ride to check out a couple of hotels there. The first one was very rundown and just didn’t have a good feel about it. The second hotel was very high priced for the few amenities it had. Next the man had to go to Akumal for something so we got a ride that far with him. We then got a taxi to go to Puerto Morales. The first hotel that we wanted to check out Hotel Casita del Mar was fine for a two night stay. It had internet access; breakfast included in the room rate and was right on the beach. The beach was nice but there was a lot of sea grass in the water. The first night we walked into el centro and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was very good and was recommended by Perry of Perry and Laura (aka MapChick). On our walk back to the hotel we decided that we wanted to only stay one night in Puerto Morales and wanted to go home to Isla Mujeres the next day. The next morning we packed and got a taxi that we had planned on taking just to the highway to catch the bus. I decided I was treating and we took the taxi all the way back to the ferry. At the ferry dock I saw Nibardo the owner of Maria Leticia where we were staying on Isla. I hugged him and told him we missed him and were coming back a day earlier than planned. He said no problem that our rooms were waiting for us. We had another full week on Isla to wrap up our vacation and enjoyed every minute of it.

The beach in back of Casita del Mar. This hotel was damaged very badly from Hurricane Wilma and has not re-opened.

Wedding cake and decorations checked off the to do list

2008-07-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Tara, her friend Cindy and I had an appointment with the cake lady on Sunday. The cake lady, Amy has been making cakes for celebrations for thirty years. After quite a bit of discussion and looking at photos the decision was made to have a three layer cake. The bottom and top layers look like packages and the center layer looks like a box with a lid. It is going to pretty simple with dots on one layer, lace on another and kind swirls on the third. There will be thin ribbons around the bottom of the lower two layers and a bow on the top layer. The smallest top layer will be strawberry something, middle layer chocolate and the third will be a yellow cake. All layers will be iced with a butter cream frosting.

Tara looking at photos of cakes

Really Cindy, it's nothing to cry about

After finishing up at Amy’s we went to my sisters where the wedding and reception will be held. We spent about four hours working on decorations, place setting cards, wrapping the silverware in the napkins and tying with ribbon. Tara kept saying “we can do that the day of the wedding” and we all kept saying “no, let’s get it done now”. Tara was relieved that we got so much done so she can relax some now.

The sample chair cover Tara's cousin Erika made for the plastic rental chairs

Place setting cards for the tables

The plastic champagne glasses will be filled with jelly beans

Saturday Tara’s friend Kim is hosting the bridal shower at her house. After the shower the girls are taking Tara out for her bachelorette party. Tara is thirty fours years old. She and Kelly have been together for over 5 ½ years. Ever since Tara met Kelly they talked about getting married and having children. This is just one step closer for her to fullfill those dreams. I am so happy for Tara and proud to see her moving into this next phase of her life.

Now the big question is “how will I not cry at the wedding if I get teary eyed just writing this?”