Snow

No, we are not driving down Deerfoot Trail in Calgary. We are in California driving to Pasadena and those are the San Bernadina Mountains. They have received more snow than usual this year and we are getting record cold temperatures. Global warming, I think not, especially concidering the weather in the eastern U.S. and Canada!

Apparently I was wrong. I haven't written anything for a while because I figured no one was reading this darn thing, and three people have asked why I haven't posted for so long. Scott and Tiffany are visiting this week and they just got out of the hot tub - I'm so glad I paid a fortune for a condo so my kids could soak in a boiling vat of water once or twice a year!
Life is good and I promise to post more often - even if my life is relatively unexciting.
Pictures of snow capped mountains will be featured in my next report.
Thanks for reading. Love you (who ever you are).

Wild, Wacky, Wonderful Women!

You know those "you are a wonderful woman" emails that are forwarded to you from some "Hallmark" site? Confess you feel somehow obligated to pass them on to some unsuspecting friend. Often they are sappy, mushy greetings that promise something good will happen if you pass it on or, if you don't, something bad will happen (like you'll feel guilty). I know the people who send them are sincere, well meaning and caring women, but I admit I never forward them. I feel blessed to know that my girlfriends will always be there, whether or not I forward a rose, a butterfly or some dancing bunnies to them through cyberspace.
Here is a picture of six wonderful women, okay seven if you can count me, who make each other's world a better place by being friends. I hope that is mushy enough.
In case you're curious we are in Elora, a small town in Ontario, Canada, where we spent a weekend at a fabulous bed and breakfast. We were out for a walk and climbed down into the gorge, where a slightly intoxicated woman took this picture.

The Thing Returns

In this world you get what you pay for. Mark didn't want to spend a fortune painting the VW Thing so he brought it to Maaco. It actually looks pretty good even if the colour is not what was ordered. The yellow is too green and the white is beige. Mark said he can live with the yellow but the white has to be white, so he put the steering wheel back on and drove it back to Maaco. They are going to repaint the white and fix some other things - like places on the doors they actually missed. Only my dad will appreciate the fact that the paint guy said, "Well you'll never notice that once the door panels are on.". A Thing doesn't have door panels.

I'll never make it at the Inquirer if you can't read my copy. The top line written on the left side reads "tow truck driver made to wait half an hour" - the car wasn't ready when they got there.

The New Hotel California

We'd like to take this opportunity to inform all visitors that the Hotel California will be relocating, some time in October, to Barefoot Circle. We decided the name of the street was so darn cute we should invest in this property. It is only fair to advise past visitors to the Dolores Street location that they will no longer have a private balcony off their room. However, especially if you have only stayed at the King Street location, you will be pleasantly surprised by our new amenities. We now have a conveniently located laundry room on the main floor and a swimming pool a few short steps from the back door. Our bright new dining room still serves meals when the chef feels like cooking and there is an excellent restaurant within walking distance. Because of our increased expenses ( a honking big mortgage) we will have to raise the cost of a room by 90%. Looking forward to seeing you at the new location!

Almost Heaven, Big Bear

Okay, it isn't West Virgina and it isn't even close to the Canadian Rockies, but it's only a two hour drive and they have rocks, trees and a lake. Mark and I needed a break and we both had a three day weekend last week so we headed for the San Bernardino Mountains. We rented a little cottage right beside the main highway (we'll know better next time). We did some hiking - well some walking up hill for a couple of miles - and while Mark fished I scrapbooked on a picnic table beside the cottage, read my book and walked around the lake to admire the many million dollar "cottages". We ate crackers and cheese and drank wine. It was perfect. Well it would have been perfect if Mark had caught a trout for dinner. So now we have to go back to catch the one that got away. I think we'll aim for October - the crowds should be gone by then.

rocks and trees

Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics

Did you see them? Click my comment line to leave your answer.

Wow! I had three reasons for tuning in on Friday night at 8 o'clock, on the 8th day of the 8th month in the year 2008, and none of them had to due with luck. The first reason is that Mark and I walk to a sports bar for dinner(The House of Brews, for those who have been there) every Friday and then usually head home to watch a movie. We had no movie. That is the least of our reasons.



The second reason is that when we were in Beijing last November the Chinese people were so proud of hosting the games that we knew the show would be spectacular. Please note the blue sky over Tiananmen Square - proof that every day is not smog covered. That is smog, not fog, you see on a gray day.


The third reason is our young friend Marlene, who is a soccer referee at the Olympic games. This photo of her was taken at our place where we cooked a Beijing style meal and ate enough noodles. dumplings and Peking duck to feed a small town. She was a ref at the Brazil/Germany game and then had the unexpected treat of attending the opening ceremonies. Her fellow refs are writing a blog everyday so we can have a first hand peek into what is happening in Beijing.

I am so glad we watched the opening ceremonies, as they were truly spectacular and offer proof that the Chinese can invent anything.

5.4 or ' The Longest 20 Seconds"

In case you haven't heard there was a earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 in Chino Hills on Tuesday at 11:48. This is my personal report of the event.

It was a slow morning at Scrapbooking Heaven and I had just said goodbye to the owners of the store as they were headed inland for a product show. We had one elderly customer working in the back and I was writing a note at the front counter. The room started to move. I yelled 'Helen head for a doorway" (she was close the the back door and I was close to the front). As I'm standing under the front door frame I realize I'm surrounded by glass windows so I step into the parking lot where the good looking guys, who work at the Karate studio next door, are standing. "I've lived here all my life" one guy says, "Don't stand in a doorway, head outside if you can." I'll remember that next time I'm scared spittless.
The whole thing lasted 20 seconds and you could feel the "wave" for, maybe another 15 seconds. It's a very strange, almost a rolling motion, where everything around you sways slightly. The best way I can describe it is if you take a large pot of water and shake it back and forth for 20 seconds and then hold it until it settles back down. Now imagine you're able to stand on the water. Call me a geek but I just tried this and it's a pretty accurate description.
My personal "after shock" was my hands shaking and heart pounding for about half an hour. This was calmed by Helen, a native 80 year resident of this crazy state, telling me it was all fine. She figured the best thing she could do was to stay seated and hold on the the table! If something had fallen on her head I would have felt guilty forever. A few things fell off the shelves and a small paper rack tipped over - nothing dramatic. When my boss called I answerer the phone 'Scrapbooking Heaven, we're still here." She instantly knew everything had returned to normal.

On the Cover of Newsweek

Mark is one happy camper! After many months of sanding and grinding, cursing and swearing, painting and filling, the Thing is on it's way to be painted. I thought it was funny that the flatbed truck took the PCH to the Maco in Newport so I created this magazine cover.

The Lily Pond at Huntington Gardens

This is my photo shop interpretation of the pond - what do you think? This hobby keeps me off the streets of Huntington Beach at night, so be kind.
Wondering around Huntington Gardens is always a treat, but it was extra special last Friday because I was accompanied by my friend Bill, who is a source of interesting information about all things botanical.

You got to love somethings about living close to LA

Like getting to go to the Hollywood Bowl and seeing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Yeah, I realize these guys are older than I am, but you would never know it to see them perform. We headed down to the "Bowl", as it is affectionately called by the locals. Lauren and Seth, our much younger and way cooler friends, drove and we parked in some sleazy parking lot for $20, which is a fantastic deal in that neighbourhood. I brought along sandwiches and beer and we had dinner in the parking lot. If you've never eaten dinner in a parking lot in Hollywood you're missing an experience. We hiked up to the bowl with about 20,000 other fans and squeezed into our park bench style seats to enjoy two hours of fantastic music. For those of you who are interested I copied the play list below.



I’ve come to rock Hollywood!” Tom Petty announced two songs into his sterling performance Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl with the commanding Heartbreakers and a fine opening set from Steve Winwood. “We got a really nice night for a rock ‘n’ roll show here,” he noted. “Only in Southern California.” As for the set list …

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Hollywood Bowl, June 25, 2008

Main set: You Wreck Me / Listen to Her Heart / I Won’t Back Down / Even the Losers / Free Fallin’ / Mary Jane’s Last Dance / Sweet William / End of the Line / Can’t Find My Way Home* / Gimme Some Lovin’* / Saving Grace / Honey Bee / A Face in the Crowd / You Don’t Know How It Feels / Learning to Fly / Don’t Come Around Here No More / Refugee

Encore: Runnin’ Down a Dream / Gloria / American Girl

* = with Steve Winwood

It's all about having fun!

Even though we kept saying "It's all about me" every time we'd buy something, it really was all about having a good time. My dear friends from Sherwood Park, Sharon and Lynn, came for a 10 day visit in the middle of June and we made it our mission to just do what ever, when ever we felt like it. We even took the train to San Diego and went to the zoo - just in case you're wondering where we saw a polar bear in Huntington Beach. Curious about the other pictures in my collage? Some of you will recognize some of the places but you'll have to come visit if you want to see all the sites.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Well actually I didn't, but it sure is a place where you could get lost and enjoy finding your way back to your hotel. The first trick is to make sure you know the bad streets and avoid walking down them. Marian, my dear friend, and I figured that out the first day. If the windows are boarded up, people are passed out on the sidewalk and those that aren't are talking loudly to themselves, you should get a bus through that area. Fortunately the transportation system is excellent and we managed to get on buses, trains, cable cars and boats all going in a direction that supplied us with endless entertainment and good food. You've got to love a place with so many restaurants. We saw as many sights a possible and here are pictures of a few. I will try to label them and put them in a pleasing, artistic order but there are no guarantees.

Marian and I in front of some famous bridge.Our favorite form of transportationOne of the local inhabitants of Pier 39Guess what's in the barrels?Good guess!If you go to San Francisco be sure to wear some good walking shoes!

"The Trashed Condo" for a pile of money

Here are some photos of the condo we looked at last week. As you can see I learned how to arrange photos on this blog from Karen, but I need practice. Sometimes I try to cut and paste and the photo just disappears. But I digress. Oh heck, now I've gone and deleted most of my text!!
At any rate, although the place looks very nice from these photos, the inside is a catastrophe that could only be fixed by throwing large somes of money into an already very expensive unit. Plus it comes with a boat dock that could very well cause a divorce if Mark got it into his head that he needed a boat (not that he doesn't already say that, this would just add fuel to the fire) So we've decided to keep searching.







As you can see I still have photo placement issues.
These pictures do not do the place justice - it looked far worse in person. For some reason they took out the bathroom floor, painted the fireplace grey and the back "yard" hasn't got a living thing in it. Apparently no one has lived in the place for three years and this is the first time it's been on the market. People in California are nuts!

Did you know mortgage interest is tax deductible? Did you know that you can get an interest only loan? Did you know that the housing market will rebound any second? Did you know that a real estate agent will keep telling you this until you finally buy a house? Don't worry Ma, we aren't crazy and will only buy if it's a good deal. I feel like I'm 25 again. By the way, wait til you see the place we're looking at Monday. Talk about resort living - you're all invited.

Family for the "May Long"

Victoria Day has always supplied us with the first long weekend of "summer" and it is a break to which every red blooded Canadian looks forward. Scott and Tiffany decided to spend their weekend in California with us. I'm not sure it's because they love and miss us, or that they had just survived a huge snow storm and needed to get someplace warm fast. I'll go with the first reason, because it makes me feel all fuzzy. It was a darn good thing they were looking for heat because it was fire breathing, fry an egg on the sidewalk hot.
We spent our time together doing our favorite Orange County activities. Even in California we have been able to develop certain traditions. A trip to the ball park, a huge meal of shrimp and fish in San Pedro and shopping downtown Huntington Beach. This visit we added the tradition of walking on the dog beach. Okay, that sounds weird. But there is a beach where dogs are allowed run free and chase sticks thrown into the ocean by their well meaning owners. I haven't seen a dog drown there yet but sometimes the waves come crashing over them and the come out of the surf, well looking like wet dogs! The real advantages to walking on the dog beach are that the owners always pick up after their dogs (not true on the sidewalks around here) and there are no seagulls. I have a strong dislike, one might even say fear, of birds - which I have passed on to Scott.

One day I will learn to put my pictures into my blog as I write (Karen, Louis and Evelyn have mastered this technique) but for now I'll just stick them in and they will decide where they want to be placed. It's like the pictures have a mind of their own! Like right now they just popped in at the top and I can't for the life of me figure out how to move them.

My next post shall be titled "Should Mark and Bonnie sink a whole ton of cash into a condo in California?" Don't even bother reading that one unless you plan on giving sage advice.

April

To those of you who actually read this blog - sorry I haven't written in a while but my life is not all that exciting. I've decided to to blog once a month, so this is my April entry. It will be "The Saga of the VW Thing". Some of you may recall my email story of how the "Thing" arrived in front of our California home, (see picture in the upper left hand corner of your computer screen). Well that was many months ago (it may even be a year??) and it has been out for a few cruises close to home.

Mark's goal is to restore the Thing to some what original condition. In order to achieve this task he considers it necessary to dismantle the entire car, paint it and then glue it back together. Maybe he never got enough of model cars when he was a child. At the present time there are parts all over the garage - neatly placed in plastic bags and labeled for reassembly. It is what I imagine a coroner's lab looks like after an autopsy, only not quite as gory. The coroner, I mean Mark, spends hours in his garage hacking away at this poor automobile coming in occasionally to say things like "I need more plastic bags.", "I swore I'd never do body work again." and "Where the hell is the hand cleaner." I just smile and secretly hope it takes forever to finish, because as long as he's in the garage he doesn't notice the amount of time I spend cutting and pasting in my scrapbooking room. Maybe we are both a little strange?

PS. Notice the little red scissors at the back corner of the car? They are suppose to move around the car so it looks like they are cutting it. It's a trick I learned but for the life of me can't get to work on the blog.

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

Wildflowers in the desert don't appear every year so, when Mark heard that the conditions for blooming were perfect, we decided to take a trip to Borrego Springs, located right in the middle of Anza Borrego State Park. One looks out at the barren landscape and wonders how any life could survive in such a desolate, dry, location. But you only need to walk out into the desert and take a good look at the ground to see the most incredible variety of flowers (and bugs) every where. Mark managed to capture photos of the 17 flowers in my collage in only a few hours of exploring. You can only flower hunt, as far as I'm concerned, before 10:00 am or after 5:00 pm - man is it hot out there! Luckily we stayed over night at a golf resort with a pool, where we spent most of the afternoon lying in the shade.
There's an article our newspaper called "If you go" which offers advice to travelers, so here is my advice if you go to Borrego Springs:
1. bring water, lots of water
2. bring food - there are 5 restaurants in town that don't rely on repeat business
3. check the internet for information on when the flowers are blooming
4. pick up a map at the visitor's center, to avoid crowds go early to the places they suggest ( you can avoid crowds entirely if you don't go to suggested places)
5. be prepared to be amazed!

Restaurant Review??

It is Mushu's fault that I made Mark drive all the way into LA for Ethiopian food today. She mentioned on her blog that she had enjoyed some injera at a restaurant in Edmonton and I could not resist the temptation to visit Little Ethiopia. It's just one block on Fairfax Avenue that has a couple of stores and four or five restaurants. For those of you who have never tasted injera, it is a soft, very flat bread that you use as a utensil to eat yummy meat stew concoctions or vegetarian lentils and greens. I'll never get a job as a food critic will I? Just believe me when I say it was delicious.

In other news it's been very quiet at the Hotel California. Don't forget we are running a special for March, April and May - free accommodations, including breakfast,sorry you can't have it in bed, as we have no room service. June is booked solid by a regular client, a recent visitor and one new customer. Can't wait to see you Marian, Lynn and Sharon!

Hope everyone is in good spirits and enjoying life. Love Bonnie

Fun with Pictures

This is one of Julie's photos taken in China by our tour guide, in the Reed Flute Caves. For some reason we are all pointing in the same direction. Okay, we confess we conspired to all point just to tease Julie, as you can guess because she is the only one not pointing. We are not pointing to the reflection on the wall - I placed that there using photoshop. This picture really makes me smile because it is the only one with people in it that turned out - after all the lighting is a bit strange.
Check out my photo creation on the Great Wall. Of course I learned to do that with an American Flag over some place in the U.S. Now I have to get my hands on a good picture of a Canadian flag. Anyone have one?

First Digital Scrapbook Page

So here it is, my very first digital scrapbook page. I made it in my photoshop class with my most recent photos. It features Reid holding what was left of the fish we ate, Seth and Lauren in the middle picture, and Leanne and Joe (Reid's parents, who used to live in California but moved back to Edmonton - it's a long story). We all consumed our weight in shrimp, scallops and calamri but still had leftovers! We won't even talk about the pitchers of beer. We did way too much partying and eating during the Varkonyi's visit to their "California Home" but it was sure great to see them and meet Cole, the latest addition to their family.

Internet Problems

Haven't posted or emailed due to the "Cable Guy" not being able to bring us a new modem for five days. By the way, are you supose to tip this Cable Guy? I didn't, but he acted like I shoud -for what we pay for cable I sure hope he doesn't live off tips. I will post my Photo Shop story soon. Hope everyone who reads this had a very happy new year. It is the Year of the Rat and I hope it brings everyone happiness and good fortune. Love Bonnie

Never Too Old To Learn

I love my photoshop class! I learn to do stuff, like how to put Scott and Tiffany on the beach on their wedding day. The class is full of seniors so we go very slowly - this is good because I'm a slow learner. But what I like best, besides learning some really cool tricks, is that all the people in the room have this great attitude towards life, even if some of them are loud, disruptive and don't pay attention (sounds like Kindergarten!). They are there to try something new and have fun. Isn't that what life is all about? My ultimate goal is to be able to create scrapbook pages on the computer. I'm totally addicted to my paper and scissors so it will be an add on to my hobby, not a replacement hobby. This way I will be able to enclude scrapbook pages on my blog. Tell me you are really excited about this - I know you aren't but I like to think everyone shares my enthusiasm for photo creations.

Note: spell check won't work so you will have to ignore any errors

Baby it's cold outside!

These pictures were sent to me by my friend, Joe, who works up north in Alberta. (Fort Mac). I did some math and figured out that it is 100 degrees Fahrenheit colder there than it is in Huntington Beach. I am not writing this blog to brag about the weather here, as I've been accused of doing on more than one occasion. The purpose of this blog is to point out to people who live here, that they are big babies. Everyone walks around in their winter coats complaining how cold it is. Get over yourselves! You don't know cold until you can't feel your fingers or toes and every breath feels like you're swallowing a chunk of ice. My heart goes out to everyone who is freezing in the Great White North, but remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Here comes the advertising pitch - The Hotel California is now taking reservations. We can't guarantee you won't get wet, but we do guarantee you won't freeze to death! Oh, Joe we'll see you this weekend!

Little Known Fact

Mark likes to grow orchids - I haven't figured out if he just enjoys a challenge, or if it's the thrill of having one actually bloom that supplies the motivation to keep him purchasing these plants. Let me just say that orchid shopping to him is what shoe shopping is to most women. On our road trip this past weekend to SLO (that's the very fitting nickname for San Louis Obispo) we had to stop in Carpinteria to check out the orchid greenhouse. We had been there before and you can't believe the number and variety of plants. Needless to say he had to look at everyone, and it's a darn good thing the place had a chair for me to sit in while I waited. Of course I shouldn't complain because this was a wine tasting trip and tasting wine to me is like trying on shoes for most women. I really don't understand the "shoe" thing - why buy shoes when you can buy wine?
By the way, the large picture at the top of this post is our front porch with two orchids that are blooming for the second time, and two orchids bought this weekend. Our gardener (well the condo's gardener) looks at me like I'm nuts when ever he sees me. I wish I could speak Spanish so I could explain they are all Mark's plants!

Photo Shop and the Great Wall of China

I got Photo Shop for a Christmas present and have been playing quite a bit. The class I'm taking at Huntington Beach Adult School has taught me to do a lot of interesting things. How do you like the picture I created by placing myself at the Great Wall of China? Hey, wait a minute, that is me at the Great Wall! The picture was taken by my good friend Richard. Standing on that wall was a surreal experience and a huge thrill.

It looks like Europe

but it's the Getty Villa. Mark and I try to do a little exploring in LA once in a while and today we went for dim sum in town, followed by a trip to the newly renovated Getty Villa (not to be confused with the Getty Center). That Getty guy must have made a ton of money! I won't bore you with details, even if our tour guide did. I swear they take lessons here on how to repeat the same information ten times in a half hour tour. Let's just say there once was a town buried by a famous volcanic eruption in A.D. 79. Getty decided to recreate the Villa dei Papiri by replicating the excavation site, so he'd have a museum to house all his Greek and Roman artifacts. Seems so California to build a place like this in Malibu and fill it with art from ancient Rome. Anyway, the place is beautiful and full of neat stuff and we both enjoyed the day. The bonus was it was cloudy so there were no crowds - people here are such wimps when it comes to weather.