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Monday 11/27/2006 8:30AM
We got our first snow of the season this morning. It started just after midnight and now is already starting to melt away.

Yesterday Paul worked on putting his track in the trailer. I painted the wood rack and cleaned house. Bettina came over for a bit and we had tea and worked on our knitting/sewing projects.

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Saturday 11/25/2006 9:15AM
A four day vacation starting with Thanksgiving... what a luxury! For Turkey day I cooked an 18lb turkey in our new oven. I also made stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, candied yams with pecans, and apple pie. Susie, Pete and Dan came also so it was just the five of us. Bela and Bettina decided to have their own this year. Susie brought some h'orderves, bread, a green bean casserole, a pumpkin pie (from Dream Castle... very good), and helped me make the gravy. Everything came out very good, except the rolls which got a little overly toasted on the bottom from me warming them in the oven. We had wine and talked for a couple of hours before we were all ready for bed. Paul and I stayed up a bit longer to watch an episode of Dexter.

Yesterday I decided to try my luck at a little trip to the mall. I'd gone once before on the day after Thanksgiving and it wasn't bad at all. This was in Oxnard when we lived at Hollywood Beach. The mall wasn't even crowded. So this year I really wanted to get out and walk around, do a little Christmas shopping, etc. Well it was very crowded. Every spot was taken at the Town Center Mall. I had to drive all around for about 20 minutes to find a space. It was nice to walk around and look at the shops. I only ended up buying two gifts and had a iced mocha and a walnut chocolate chip cookie. I bought a chocolate chip cookie to bring home to Paul who stayed home and worked on welding and painting our new wood rack.

I'm starting to get the itch to start sewing again. I have some great linen which I want to make a dress out of but I'm not sure what to use for a pattern. I will probably just try making my own. I should do a muslin test first though and not let myself get impatient. I'm still a novice at this but would love to whip out a dress easily. I know that will take time and some more experience though. I'm still using my singer 221 sewing machine which was Paul's Mom's. It's the one I'm most comfortable with and sews best. I would love to get a serger though because it makes nice thin seams and is very quick.

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Sunday 11/19/2006 11:15AM
A day of rest.

I was going to go down and bring my Great Aunt Geri up for a visit today but Paul's coming down with the flu. Everybody in his office has it. I've been sneezing a bit more that usual but other than that feel fine. He's doing ok too but we don't want to take any chances getting my Aunt sick as she's 86 or 87 now.

I cleaned the kitchen yesterday and made a stew with wine and mushrooms. It came out really good and Paul even commented on how much he liked it.

It's been so long since I've written here again. Mostly it's just the same old story, busy with work and projects around the house. I went down for a meeting in Camarillo the week before last and had Sushi with my Aunt Una.

Last weekend Eve and Brandy came up for a visit and stayed over night. We had a barbque with them and the neighbors here. Eve sang a couple of songs for us and we had a great time with them.

I've been working on my family tree with a new program I found and it's been a lot of fun to match photos with faces and names and get the pieces all together.

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Monday 11/1/2006 8:45AM
I love having a day where I can get everything on my to-do list done. I keep a list in Outlook's calendar which lets me schedule out blocks of time for things in the day. It's the only way I can get things done and feel like I actually accomplished something. I am a very productive person but I tend to feel like I don't do enough. I've been changing my work habits though to give me more time for the important things like taking care of the house, Paul, and my relationships with friends and family. I still don't have enough time to do it all (there's never enough time), but I feel much more satisfied and relaxed lately that I've been consiously lightening my daily load.

I'm lucky now I had someone to share the work load with. I don't have to feel guilty about saying no to clients because I just send the work over to Randy, who is really good at working with people and getting jobs done. I can feel confident that he will take care of them so I don't have to worry about it.

So now as I'm settling into getting a life here's what's been going on.
Last weekend Paul and I were out working on yard projects. I hired the neighborhood kids to help pull weeds so that we can finally just get that mess in the back cleared. Paul was moving rocks and crushed his pinky between a 200 lb rock and another rock. He was wearing thick leather gloves that didn't break but the pressure completely crushed the end of his pinky to where it swelled up to about twice the size and broke the skin. It looked black and horrible and Paul was in such pain, I could tell because he has an incredible tolerance to pain and this was really hurting him for ten minutes. He took a couple of advil. He didn't want to go to the ER but after Bettina, our best friend and neighbor, saw it and then Scott, his business partner stopped by, we all convinced him to go. He took a shower then we headed down to Henry Mayo in Valencia. The wait wasn't too long and the pain for him had started to subside. They looked at it and gave him x-rays. The bone wasn't broken or fractured so that was good so they just cleaned it out and put a bandage on it. We've been keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected now.

On Sunday I went to visit my Great Aunt Geri, who I haven't seen since I was about 7? years old. She recently moved to Santa Clarita which is only about an hour from my house. I don't remember too much from it but it was at my Grandfather Joe's funeral that we met. Ever since she's been sending me birthday and Christmas cards with money or sees candy gift certificates in them. She would always write letters letting me know about herself and the family on that side and I had spoken to her a few times on the phone, so I felt like I already knew her when we finally met in person. She bought me lunch and then we went back to her place and looked at photos for hours and she explained to me who everyone was. I took notes so I could remember and work on a family tree.

This weekend Paul and I painted the floor of his car trailer with some good no slip deck paint. One coat of primer and two of the deck paint got the job done. I also finished up with the weeds in the back with some more help from Leda and got some other things around the house done. For Halloween I hung up some pumpkin spider lights and carved a quick pumpkin. Bettina came over while her kids were out trick-o-treating. We took turns passing out candy at the door and talked in the kitchen while snacking on stuffed clams, cheese crackers, chips etc. The girls stopped by to warm up for a few minutes and I got pictures of their costumes. Bela Jr. was down in Lake of the Woods staying the night with a friend so I didn't get a chance to see his. Leslie, her husband John and two kids stopped by for a bit and we chatted with them for a while. The tricker treaters finally stopped coming at about 9:30 and we turned out the lights.

Oh almost forgot... I guess it was a few weeks ago now. I went down to Lisi's baby shower and had a great time with all of their friends and family. Lisi and Kevin had a baby girl, Tasia Skye Gemme that was 5 weeks premature but is home now happy and healthy!

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Saturday 10/14/2006 7:00PM
I'm too tired right now to write more that a quick synopsis of the last couple of weeks...

My Uncle Bob came out for a visit from New York last week and stayed with us for a few days. We had a barbque, went out to eat in Pine Mountian Club at Sage and Cinnimon and went to the Getty Center. We also took a drive around the burned area out Lockwood Valley Road. On Monday we drove up to Santa Barbara with my Aunt and had lunch up there and did some shopping.

This yesterday I made baklava and corned beef and cabbage and had the neighbor kids over.

Today I went to the After the Day Fire barbque in Frazier Park and helped Karen sell t-shirts and served ice cream to the firefighters and neighbors who were brave enough to eat ice cream in the cold weather. It was really cold there and when I got home I had to take a bath to thaw out. I finished knitting Lisi's baby booties this evening and tomorrow I'm going to her baby shower.

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Monday 10/2/2006 9:00AM
We had a nice dinner with the neighbors on Friday. Bela made jerk chicken and I bar-b-qued a GIANT London broil. We were all pretty tired and turned in early. I finally got the 222 featherweight from London. It was in customs for a week then with the fires I didn't pick it up for another couple of days. It's in nice condition and I'm happy with it but still like the original one that was Paul's Mom's best.

On Saturday Paul and I went to an indoor range in Bakersfield and rented some handguns to try out. I really liked the sig saur .45. We went shopping at Lowes after that and got a new microwave/vent hood and oven and some other stuff for the house. We had a late lunch at In and Out then came home and installed the Microwave. Yesterday I made an apple pie (my 6th pie this season) and some brownies and started sewing a skirt. I wanted to get more done this weekend as always there is never enough time.

On Sunday we had a welcomed rain storm which cleared the air of the smoke and put our minds at ease about the fire which is now 95% contained. I unpacked my car last week but still have to put photo albums back on the shelves. Last week was a bit hectic and I wasn't able to get much work done. We had fire fighters on our street and were providing them with wireless internet and print outs of what was going on with the fire since they didn't have a whole lot of info themselves. I got pictures of our fire fighters before they left.

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