Sundays

Sunday's for the Bishop are harrowing days. He us usually up by 7 am, but sometimes the Stake wants an early morning meeting at which time he gets up at 5 am. Yesderday was just a 7 am day. He has no time to get away from Church until about 5 or 6 pm. So, he takes a lunch which usually consists of some nuts, a granola bar and an apple. No breakfast and then snacks all day. When he get's home he is very exhausted. So, today, I was feeling his pain and decided to surprise him with comfort food, his favorite, Mac and Cheese, salad, and mixed vegetables off the grill. I also decided to let him know how much I appreciate him and set up a nice table with candlelight. Some Sunday's the poor guy comes home to eat and then goes back out for a fireside, seminary graduation, court of honor or some other good activity. I don't know how he does it. 3 hours with my primary class is about all I can take.

CRASH and BURN

Computers! They are like husbands, you can't live without them and you can't live with them.

Many of you know I had trouble seeing the graphics while on the internet with my Explorer 8. It finally became so bad that I unplugged all the cords and took it to my computer guru, Shawn. UGH, he kept it for 3 days and wasn't able to fix the problem, so he wiped out my hard drive (D drive) and reinstalled Windows on that drive. He made that my new C drive. I still have my old C drive and now it is drive E. So, if I need data I can open up the E drive and get what I need.

The only problem is that I kept all my genealogy pictures on that D drive. Yep, they're gone, except we had them backed up on the Maxtor Drive. I think I am going to take Lisa's advice and start storing my photo's on Smug Mug. I will share the cost with her too. THat way anyone in our family can go and get all the old time photo's they want to have. At least that is my plan for right now.

Poor, Bishop, he is in trying to configure outlook for my email again. Let's just say, it's not going well.

How Does my garden grow?

This is my chives on the left and I think this is a red pepper plant.This is our new Lemon Tree with zuccini plants on the left
This is our green onions on the bottom and corn coming up at the top
Here we have a view of our lemon tree, squash, green beans and I'm not sure what else
Our Topsy Turvey Tomatoes, lots of flowers but no tomatoes yet.

A drive down Memory Lane

Today I had a speaking engagement in Torrance. I went in early so I could look around at how things had changed since we moved from there in 1986.

I got off on Artesia and drove past what used to be Gemco, now I don't think it is anything. That parking lot was where our car got broke into and the yellow blanket with deers on it that I have made for Marky got stolen- that's all they took! Then past the Church which looks good.

I went on to Haas Street and the street looks pretty much the same except...our old house seems so small! They have put brick up where the tree used to be and brick work on the column that used to go to the front door. I also noticed that an oriental man was living in Uncle Bob's house now.

I went around the corner to Van Ness and up to see Lincoln Elementary Lions. I was surprised to see the old dairy is still there (totally shut up). Lincoln was the same as I drove into the parking lot, but something looked crowded. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I think they have put building up where you used to walk onto the playground, now you can't see the playground from the parking lot anymore.

Next, I drove Artesia over to Crenshaw. Left on Crenshaw and down the street I got a red light ticket on. I forgot the refinery spanned across Crenshaw. Lot's of new businesses. The Ralph Grocery store is still there at Artesia and Crenshaw.

I turned right on Torrence Blvd and over to the Civic Center and Library. I was surprised at how many 'white' people were there. It was a good group of about 60 and I think they liked my talk. I talked of: Analyze and Organize: They key to further research. They had state of the art equipment and I didn't even have to use my own projector. I was impressed.

On the way home I went over to Hawthorne looking for a gas station to fill up at and found a 76 station. While I pumped gas, they had a live, flat screen TV playing on top of the pump. I was again impressed.

Bottom line: Torrance is still a pretty nice place. Just not nice enough for me to live in.

A Nasty experience

While I was walking yesterday, home from my physical therapy which is just down Lambert from my house, I had a very unpleasant experience and I want to share it so that if it ever happens to you, you might be more prepared than I was.

I was walking along, at a fast pace with a blue shirt on the said VOLUNTEER on the back of it. I got it when I helped with the first Brea 5K run. I was swinging my arms and oblivious to anything happening behind me. All of a sudden, a man, 25-35, longish dirty blond hair, came whizzing by me on the right (your are never supposed to pass on the right and I was walking smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, looking forward) anyway I heard nothing because he was on an old fashioned bike, but he came by pretty fast and hit my right shoulder. It scared me so bad that I exclaimed "Jeeze!" and jumped to the left. As he rode by he yelled "Volunteer, huh, well I have a volunteer for you" then he turned around on this bike smiling at me and raised his hand and have me a very vulger middle finger sign which he kept up for the entire block until he turned the corner at which time he yelled, "bye for now" and disappeared.

To say I was mortified, scared, taken aback, and humiliated, is an understatement. It haunted me all day and gave me a very evil feeling. I was so surprised that all I could do was gape at they moron. I guess that was the best kind of response but it didn't feel like it.

Happy Mothers Day

I'm hijacking my Moms blog to day to say Happy Mothers Day to her.

She is an amazing Mother who works hard and has sacrificed so much to raise her children. She leads by example and has so much faith. No one knows how to work as hard as my Mom does.

Our whole family adores her and we hope she knows that today we celebrate her!

We love you.
Mom - Grandma - Friend.

NGS Conference in SLC

To say I have been having fun is an understatement! I am in my element. With the Family History Library to my North a half a block and the convention right across the street, I am pretty much blessed.

The conference was great. Sadly, I only made it to 1 lecture and about 3 times in the conference hall booths. I did something I haven't done before and I probably won't do it again. I volunteered for working in several booths, volunteered to do 2 consultations with people on their 'dead ends' in genealogy and volunteered to introduce several speakers. Will someone please remind my that I come to these things to learn and have fun!

My time was spent in the Library working on my clients family history. I don't think I have worked on my own or Larry's family history for over 3 years! Good news for my client! I was able to extend most of his lines back several generations, found 1 Revolutionary War ancestory, 3 Civil War ancestors and hit one dead end wall! Luckily I am tenacous and tomorrow, I am going to go back to the Library and spend an entire day on SMITH. No joke, this guy was born in 1884 in Des Moins Iowa, but I can't find him until 1930 with his wife and child in Louisiana!

I know SMITH is a bear to work on because Larry has 1 SMITH line in Toledo, OH. They come straight from England. Someday I will tackle going across the ocean, but for now, I am content to just make some money!