Happy New Year! ~~~ Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Well, I had fully intended to keep up the blogging...but I see I've fallen behind! I have a couple of writings "in the works", but they are not completed yet...they are long stories and will take a bit more time before I should post them! ;-p

So, random thoughts: We've had a Happy New Year..had TWO of them, actually: January 1, Twenty-Ten, and then Year of the Tiger began on February 14th. Nice having that "second chance" at a new start! We didn't stay up to midnight in January...but we {I} always do for Chinese New Year, and Michael naps in his recliner chair until I wake him up to do firecrackers.

So, at midnight we toss the firecrackers out the entrances to our home--and this year there are more doors to our house than EVER, so, gee, I'm going to run out of firecrackers more quickly!! A pack out the front, a pack out the back and a pack out the patio door, which will cover both the door from the pool room and the one from the bedroom--they both open to the patio....save firecrackers that way! Haha!

After each pack, we have to calm the dogs down...old Toby is so hard of hearing this year, the noise doesn't bother him; but Garner is really skittish and Penny seems nervous just because Garner is, I think. Once they are more relaxed we can continue with our celebration.

I make Jai every year that I can...and this year I COULD, thanks to a shopping trip to a very nice market in Fremont where I was able to find EVERYthing I needed! [I needed to restock ALL my supplies this year]. Cousin Broderick and his wife Virginia took me shopping there when we stopped by to visit with them during our Christmas travels. So, after firecrackers we sit down to a nice bowl of Jai and sweeten chrysanthemum tea...right after a nice toast to the New Year: we each down a shot of Jack Daniels [mandatory for Michael...it helps the Jai go down! lol] It's a delicious dish but a very different one. I wish we could get the "candy" we used to get when I was a child...Dad used to buy it in Chinatown, SF...usually in a really old shop with rough and worn wooden floors, way in the back...it came in barrels: candied coconut, candied melon pieces and candied kumquats [like tiny oranges]. We'd also get dried lychee nuts, so sweet-- after cracking into the rough textured thin shell, you nibble the sweet dried fruit off of the big smooth seed in the middle.

I'm so happy that Michael indulges me by sharing in my Chinese New Year celebration! We've had many wonderful years and perhaps our good luck IS helped by stacking oranges, putting Li See lucky money in the rice storage container, lighting firecrackers to chase the bad luck away. AND, the house gets a pretty good cleaning beforehand, too! :-) We hope all our friends and family had a great new year...and another great start of a new year: Happy New Year and Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Merry 2009 Christmas!

Hope everyone had a lovely and Merry Christmas! It was a busy time for us, as usual. We had to work the pharmacy alone, just the two of us, as our clerk was on maternity leave, so we were very busy as we prepared for the pharmacy closure between Christmas and New Year's Day.

We had a nice quiet Christmas at home, then the next day we drove off to visit family and friends. Cousin Broderick invited us to dinner for the 26th, so we drove all day to get to Fremont. In addition to Broderick and Virginia, and their kids Stephanie and Eric, we got to visit with cousin Yvonne and her husband Werner. It had been a number of years since we had seen each other, so it was a very enjoyable visit.

Next day we traveled further down the road to see my sister, Elena and her son Joshua. Oh, and also, we got to see Saphire the Great Dane! She really likes Michael!

I didn't take pictures of the two cats, as they were rather shy and I didn't want to blast them with a flash picture! LOL We had a great visit with everyone, but we didn't get to drop by and see the Aunties in King City: they had traveled north!

We got to visit with Michael's brother, Tristan and his daughterKim and all of her kids. Our nieces and nephews are all in college now! I got to get together for a lunch with my childhood girlfriends--always a good thing!

Then off we went to visit with daughter Kris and her family. She and Doug are fine and all the kids are growing up fast! I think we may have interested Elliot in a pharmacy career! He said he'll look into it! [he's just starting high school next fall]. Pictured with us, left to right: Elliot, Madison and Max.

Before our Christmas break, we were able to get up to Medford to see granddaughter Kaydie and her family. Lots of fun seeing the excited little ones! Pictured here with us, Lathrop, Keyari, Carmen, Junior and Kaydie.

We spent a relaxing and quiet New Year's Eve at home and had our friend, Sonny, over for New Year's Day dinner. It was a great Christmas season and a good beginning to the new year, which I have vowed to call "Twenty-Ten".

I hope Twenty Ten brings you good health, good wealth, every happiness, and love and laughs. Happy New Year!

We moved the piano! *whew*

We had been putting this off I think, because we knew it'd be a tough job; the piano is so heavy! "But," I told Michael, "I moved this piano across my bedroom a couple of times when I was a KID!" My parents were so upset with me for doing that! They were afraid I might have hurt myself tackling such a big move.

Well, I was afraid Sunday that we might hurt ourselves tackling such a big move! LOL We had to move it from the carpeted front room, through the kitchen [where the linoleum floor is to be replaced soon], then onto our new hardwood floor in the "pool room" [which has no pool table yet].

We figured we'd use those plastic slider disks under each wheeled leg on the carpet, then switch the disks out to the soft padded disks over the vinyl and hardwood. Things should slide well: we had the different pads for different surfaces. Well, we finally got that huge piano lifted up enough to slide the pads underneath. We gathered our strength up, braced ourselves against the wall for leverage and carefully coaxed the beast forward........and it rolled right off the disks!

We discovered that the wheels were working fine! We were able to push and pull the piano once we got the wheels lined up in the direction we wanted to go. We especially were able to pick up the speed over the kitchen linoleum floor! Once we got to the new hardwood floor, we laid down these huge sheets of cardboard that we have saved from the shipping cartons that our glass patio doors came in. These have been VERY useful for all kinds of work projects over these past several months [even as temporary window shades!].

The moving project proved to be easier that we had anticipated, thank goodness! And, no one was injured in the moving of this instrument. Now I just have to learn how to PLAY it again! ;-)

First Snow

Our first snow of the season came on December 11 this year. It's always so lovely when everything is covered in a layer of white fluffy stuff!

We didn't get much, and it didn't last long, but it sure was nice while it was here! Enough to look great, but not so much to make things difficult [travel was still easy, no power outages].

Toby has always enjoyed snow and this year was no different. Garner and Penny were snuggled in front of the heater in the house while Toby and I went out for a walk.

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

Here in Happy Camp, we'd always look forward to our FIRST snow of the season on Thanksgiving....but, alas, only cold weather here this year, a little rain, and then finally frosty mornings starting Saturday. Our dear friend Bonnie joined us again this year and we had a lovely visit, but we missed her son Talon, who is now old enough to drive to his girlfriend's to have Thanksgiving dinner with her and her family! My how fast they grow! This is the kid who sat on my kitchen counter to dive into the birthday cake I baked for him when he turned ONE! :-) Happy times! Well, his mom and I had a great time fixing dinner --and she filled me in on all his latest doings. I'll see him at Christmastime.

Dinner came out great, as it always does using Mom and Dad's tried and true recipes. I still pull out the notes I wrote down during my phone call to Dad in 1979 for all the instructions and tips on preparing the perfect holiday meal. I pulled out my scrap paper as Dad started: "Write this down first", he said, as I took pen in hand: "DON'T PANIC!". This is the first thing I read each year before I start reviewing the yellowing notes on the original scrap paper that I had on hand that November day so long ago.

I remember Mom gave me her version of her pumpkin pies and how she does the stuffing and turkey (the same way her family has done it for generations, and I saw the same method in a Sunset magazine one year when they covered recipes from the 'Pennsylvania Dutch' area)....and then Dad gave me HIS version of how HE likes to set the temperature, use a different amount of this or that, etc., always just a tad differently than Mom would do it! It was great fun and I am glad I have these bits of paper to help me remember and relive all the fun [and, yes, sometimes stress] of our holidays past at home with them.

I never copied the notes over for that "final draft"...I like using the originals--it's like being on the phone with Dad all over again, every year!

The House is Painted!

Well, here are pictures of the house in it's new exterior color! I was going for something that would go well with our new "rock" walls, and I've always liked the classic pairing of gray tones with reds...so: voila! I hope it looks as good to you as it does to us here "in person". As you can see, I already have my rocking chair out on the front porch! :-)

Wow, reds sure do change in different lighting! I look at these photos and see that some shots look rather bright...like a bright purple! But, in person the color is a richer tone I think. sometimes the red tones take on the BROWN hue and don't even look red at all...and I think that's difficult to imagine from these photos! Luckily, we've gotten great feedback from neighbors and townsfolk...everyone says they really like the colors, so I guess it really looks good from the road across the field. We are happy with it, so that's what matters! :-p

Looking at these photos, I realize that I should have rearranged the back patio before taking the pictures! The BBQ is still out where the painter moved it and the potted peonies are not where they belong, either! LOL AND, with the rains coming, it's about time we pack our bistro table and chairs into the shed for the winter.... We also have some tidying up to do [you can see some things strewn about along the wall in the pic above]...the ladder still needs to be put away, and we still have leftover building materials spread around the property. One day we will be completely done ;-) I just couldn't wait to show you the final color!

So. Lake Tahoe in October

We took a little 'get away' trip to South Lake Tahoe in mid-October. We enjoyed some much needed R & R. The weather was beautiful...but we did get a surprise snow shower the day after we arrived. Other than that, clear sunny days with crisp temperatures.

Some dear friends of ours, Pat and John, were able to join us for a few days and we enjoyed a little tour of some old estates from about 1890 to 1930's. What a lovely setting!

Then we mosied on down the road to the Rainbow Trail at the Taylor Creek Visitors' Center http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/ltbmu/recreation/visitor-center/events/kokanee.shtml
to watch the Kokanee salmon spawn. The park has an easy access walkway to Taylor Creek--you walk right up to the edge of the shallow creek and can see the fish swishing their tails to create the perfect 'hole' to place the eggs...then the male comes along and hovers over them. Afterwards, the female swishes again to cover the now fertalized eggs with some gravel...then they both go off to die. But, the Kokanee continue on in the spring when these little eggs hatch and grow into sizes that can be washed back into Lake Tahoe for the next 3 or 4 years before

they too return to spawn.

Hundreds of fish make it back up the creek, returning to their birthplace in order to spawn.

The male fish turn bright red for spawning.

A nice view from Rainbow Trail

We had a very nice time relaxing for the week, but we were glad to get home; Toby, Garner and Penny were happy to see us even though they had beed pampered all week by our house/dog-sitter friend, Marie.