Cars n things

Having a little fun with my camera thought I would share ...

What's that mean?

Old skool

Gas! And, This is actually reasonable!

An elderly guy was driving this car.

This was just plain odd so I had to get a picture. A farm in the middle of residential and commercial alley. It is a stone throw from Ikea!

Alaska Airlines

Friday at Oakland airport is always hectic and this week was no exception. Lots of folks in a hurry going places.

I get to the counter to check in for my flight to Orange County and Hit #1 the flight is delayed (6:10p to 7:30p). Hit #2 I am in a middle seat (7E). No worries I can fix number 2 I asked the desk if I could purchase a first class upgrade for the flight. No seats were available but I was wait listed -- all good.

Security was a little slow but still good because I am not in a hurry. I am chilling at gate 6 reading Power Play by Joseph Finder and as we neared the time the gate agent called my name to come up to purchase the first class upgrade. Sweet! (oh, Shut up! It is still my birthday month and I can still treat myself) Also, the mere thought of not bumping elbows with my usually cranky seat mate was enough for me to put down my c-r-e-d-i-t c-a-r-d.

We boarded the flight, no elbow bumping except for this curmudgeon elderly gentleman who was intent on putting his bags up and did not care that I had been putting my stuff up first. I think he was not cool that I was in first class but that's a whole other thing that I don't want to get into. He did the same thing later but I digress.


We are all comfortable, the flight attendant is getting our drink orders, and I have promptly forgotten the grump across the aisle. Disaster strikes. The pilot comes out and announces we are waiting for a standby altimeter. They called ahead to get the part and when the flight got to Oakland the part had not yet arrived and they would wait for either it to come from San Francisco or another plane already at the airport.


Well, neither option happened and the pilot soon came on the horn and said we should get off the plane because the part was not available. Humph! No matter a flight was coming in and we could use that plane. Folks were getting grumpy. The gate agent handed out food vouchers to a rather long line. I was not up there getting a voucher! I don't want food I want to go home.

Guess what I was eating a pizza slice about 15 minutes later. Just after I settled down we got moved to gate 8. We are now close to 8:40p and the later flight to OC is about to take off. I check and there is no room on that flight. Very grumpy people in the waiting area. I also asked if our flight will a make it into John Wayne Airport not LA like they sometimes do and was assured that it will. John said I should invoke rule 240 which gets the airline to put you on another flight that may not be theirs if they are having issues. Very tempting.

The plane came in and the gate agent made the announcement that the flight was going to fly into LAX. Awww flipping sticks! Now I had to tell my honey to drive to LA to pick me up. There was more drama though. There was a whole gang of folk at the gate desk all irate and there was even some yelling. Next thing I know two security show up and not long after two more show up. That is a first for me. I have pictures in my phone of all the commotion but have not figured out how to get them out of my phone! Need to step it up on the technology front. I'm not represetin'.

We boarded the flight and it took a while for us to take off. The attendants were all in the doorway have a fine chat possibly waiting for paperwork but I was itching to go. Another 10 minutes later, which felt like an eternity, we rolled back from the gate. First class was jovial, I got my drink order after we were in the air all was good. One of the ladies in first class must have had too much to drink because she was getting louder and louder. Considering all the drama I did not blame her. Or she must have been winding down from all the commercial real estate stress (she was some sort of commercial real estate agent).

The guys in the aisle across from her were into gin one had gin and tonic (yeah, you guessed it, he is English and a consultant), the other had a gin and soda water (he was web zine business guy). Both were loud as well. The guy sitting with me was keeping it real with a simple beer. The girls behind me were a little giggly who knows when they started. The grumpy old man and his wife well, they were a little stiff. I had orange juice (I know, bo-o-oring!)

Even the flight attendant for first class was a little giggly. Maybe she was just happy that this was coming to an end. The best part is we landed, albeit a little roughly, and I was getting giddy myself on the the thought that I would not be seeing any of them anytime soon. Even better is not too long after a got out my hubby showed up in the stretch with a plate of food and drink. Now, that is what I call servicio! Eating steak sandwiches and drinking propel my flight ordeal was almost a distant memory.

I still plan to write a note to Alaska Airlines.

Last week in SF

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

(my favorite view walking out of the park)

I worked in SF last week and as always it is a long time away from home but SF is my city. It is pretty cool going up every other week for work because I get to "live" in San Francisco without really living in the city. Pretty cool huh? I thank God that it has gone pretty smoothly for the past few years and I get to put two lifestyle into one.

Anyway, I usually stay around Union Square and every chance I get I try to walk through Yerba Buena gardens in the Metreon by the Moscone centers. There is nothing like walking there in the morning and hearing the waterfall and watching folks do Tai Chi and practice the waltz in the morning. The bad thing is I always forget to bring my camera up so I never get to take a picture. Well, this week you are in luck because I did.

The waterfall

The Stone Garden

Tai Chi in YB Gardens

Waltzing in the gardens

Water Elements

Theatre

Easter!

Easter was quiet. We went to church. Gosh I have never seen it so packed! The best part was everyone behaved leaving the parking lot. You know how sometimes people forget what they just heard in church and act crazy because they can't wait to leave like someone chasing them off the lot.

Anyway, we went to Lulu's Creperie Cafe, this little unassuming creperie place in Laguna Hills. A very nice drive. The french brunch food was even better. I had the seafood crepe (La Mer) hmmm! The light creamy sauce was so good. I was so close to licking the plate but I restrained myself and used a piece of bread instead. John had the "La Cajun".

After that wonderful brunch we headed to the mall to do some serious shopping only to find that it was closed! Can you believe it closed! It is bad enough that we always forget this at Thanksgiving but to mess up on Easter too is just rich! The only shop that was open was Borders and I seriously do not need to buy another book. My house is full of them and I have not finished what I bought last weekend!

Not a single car in the South Coast Plaza Parking lot and valet is cordoned off!

So we go for a drive which is always good. Later on in the evening I go for a 10 mile walk to help manage the calories I ate at brunch. I can't get over that we live here and I can walk to the Ocean and watch the sunset. John ran to the Huntington Beach pier to meet me and we had dinner at Savannah. I am so bummed that my favorite restaurant on the water, Chimayo, got replaced by Savannah. The food is pretty much the same (probably did not want to lose loyal customers). I am sooo bummed!!

Picture Taking in the neighborhood

A couple of weekends ago we were driving to the South Coast Plaza Mall and I was enjoying the ride so I took pictures.

It is after all Orange County:

"The weak shall inherit nothing!"

Just cruising in my unbelievable cool car.
The Irvine Hills

Highway 1

What the hell are those?

The jerk who pulled out in front of us without signaling.

My favorite favorite breakfast brunch place: Side Street Cafe in Costa Mesa.

If you have ever tried parking at South Coast Plaza you will understand why I had to take a picture of this incredible parking spot mere yards from the door of the mall!

Sunglasses shopping in the Macy's men's store.

Uh.... No!

My husbands euro cool shoes that I sometimes like.

Termites!!!

Stark evidence of our little friends

Today is my Dad's birthday and I am spending my time waiting for the termite guy. This whole sordid story started with the whole complex getting a termite inspection. We were told to wait at home on a Saturday for the guy to show up and inspect. I waited and waited and waited.

Later we gave the association a call everyone was not in so we finally broke down and called the association's emergency number. The lady who answered the phone said we might be the house that did not have any termite damage. Well, how can that be since they never inspected?

We arranged for them to come again and look. Lo an behold we weren't that lucky it is termite season in Huntington Beach and our house is fodder! Ugh! The guy even crawled up into the attic. Don't get too excited when we say attic we mean a place you get to through our bedroom closet with a crawl space of about 2-3 feet high.

The good news is we have plenty of company in the complex. He is coming back today to drill holes in the garage and atrium and pour some termite annihilation chemical into the holes.

One of our to-dos apart from wait for the door bell to ring is move all the boxes we have in the garage 2 feet away from the wall. So, after having dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant last night (MiMi Sushi) we started moving.

The last folks who owned our condo left a stack of 4 jeep tires in the garage. Never moved them because they are a good way to stop from hitting the garage wall. I found out how heavy those suckers can be!
Now we look like everyone else with their cars in the outside parking spaces and their garages full of crap! My personal pet peeve.

All of our little possessions. The garage has never been so clean!

The highlight of the event was we were moving one of the old book boxes from London and the bottom came way to reveal a termite mess. The little boogers had been eating away at the bottom of the box so we had to repackage. John, my darling husband, spent most of his time reminiscing about stuff in the box. Get on with it buddy we gots work to do!

Anyway, we are all done and now we wait wait wait for the termite man.

Daddy's Birthday

My Daddy's birthday is today! I realize I am blessed that he made it this far and we still have a very good relationship. So I called him this morning to sing happy birthday. It is a sappy thing we still do in our family but it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

There is something about hearing someone else belt happy birthday not having done any voice exercises that warms the heart.

Well, here's to my Daddy. The most loving, caring, generous man in the world.

My Crazy Class week (3/8)

Remember I took off Monday for my birthday? Well, because of that, I was seriously backed up on all my homework so I had to get it just right.

Since I was in SF last week I arranged with the teacher to take the Critical Thinking test on Monday evening with another of her classes. So, Monday afternoon I crammed for about 2 hours. I forgot how difficult it is to memorize sometimes! What a drag. But it paid off! I made an A.

There were some crazy questions on the test one of them which took me a while to figure out was which constellation is made up of a ferocious animal ...? How am I supposed to know? I did not grow up here and we learned nothing of constellations! The only way I figured it out was the next question asked which animal has a lot of hair around its neck and lives in prides? I vaguely remembered that lions live in prides and the previous question's answer must be Leo! How is that for deductive reasoning -- I am sure Ms. Sutherland would be proud!

It was a little comic though because there was this guy in the class. Kind of made you want to take him under your wing. Anyway he had no idea what a constellation was. The teacher tried to explain with no luck and she asked 2 other girls to try and I don't think they had much luck either. Since each question was worth 4 points it was little worrying that missing two back to back would put an a in jeopardy even though they were supposed to be throw aways!

That ordeal over I moved on to Design class homework. Had to come up with a fantasy piece. this is what I came up with: Dragon.

I also did Betty Boop and a series of masks which he liked but I forgot to take a picture of. This was a silhouette art piece that I did not submit.

Below are previous submissions and these are cutouts of black paper on white background. Lots of cutting and gluing. My fingers were cramped when I was done.

Century City LA

We stayed at the Hyatt at Century Plaza. Very very nice hotel. It turned out there was a demonstration against Scientology Saturday evening. Very interesting. There were slogan like "Scientology Destroys Families!"

When we asked some of the hotel staff what was going on they were quite mum about it. There were a lot of gatherings going on so it was hard to say which was the Scientology one -- would have loved to crash it. Hmmmm!

View from room balcony

Could not resist taking a picture of the mormon temple

We are afterall in LA so the gas prices are HIGH! $3.59 a gallon for regular!

Did you know there were UFOs in LA?

Dukes at Malibu (Birthday Dinner #2)

My darling husband did his best to make my birthday special. On Sunday we went to Dukes in Malibu. The drive was stunning. It was hard to take good pictures from a moving car though.






We sat the window and enjoyed the waves rolling in.

Dinner was good. I think our server was from Mali. It was interesting because John had a hard time understanding what he was saying because he spoke so fast.

It is hard to remember the food though when the location was so great. One big huge score for John!