extreme, nearly CRIMINAL incompetence

libby got caught. dick cheney now has a huge cloud over his own head. and our dear president who has been seen "praying" in public and speaking outwardly about being a follower of God looks even worse. how can this administration claim to be "faith-based?"

EVERYTHING in this administration's wake helps the public to see clearly that our "leaders" are unable to lead. and most everything is based around LIES. all i have to say is this: if "W" decides to go ahead and pardon libby in about a year-and-a-half, his term in office has been nothing but a joke. that will just seal it. nobody's held accountable. and what's worse: christians get yet another bad rap because of his complete and undeniable hypocrisy. i believe he's doing more harm than he could ever imagine. once you start (START?) thinking you're above the law and have to answer to no one, you're screwed.

big red truck

went to crown point last nite with tony & deb to try to move a stage set for a play my roommate is putting on at our church in august. we had wanted to store the set in the barn at church but apparently it needs a bit of housekeeping first. so we got this guy rick to let us borrow some of his barn in hebron.

we were told 3 pickup-trucks would do the trick. i showed up with mark's truck and deb & tony showed up with theirs. okay. so that's TWO pickup trucks. once we got there at 6pm, we were immediately told to not return till 7:30. once we did, it was laughable. there was no way EIGHT pickup trucks would haul all this stuff.

so thankfully rick is a very cool guy and was willing to drag out his semi and flatbed out on a sunday night to haul all this stuff to his barn. AND we got lucky. he said the stuff can just stay on the flatbed till about may. then hopefully we can store it in the church barn till august.

whew. thanks to deb & tony & rick.

leaving...on a jet plane

i'm back. back in freezinger indiana. (freezinger than san diego, anyway.) according to the weather channel it's freezing raining right now. that must be what's banging against my window. hmm. the bright lights and loud sounds must be thunder and lightning already! they said tomorrow we're supposed to have "strong" thunderstorms. sigh. i love violent weather but i'm still sad about freezing and drippy san diego. and no sailing too. snif. oh well.

left today from the san diego airport around one-ish p.m. it was chilly again today. i'm not sure why but i wanted to sit by the window on the plane. glad i did. took some mighty cool pics...the only way they'd be better is if there were less/no clouds. there's point loma, the north part of the island (with the naval base), and facing east off the coast of coronado island. you can even see where we stayed. see? i'm pointing to it. see? see?

okay. back to work tomorrow. back to the old grind. my mom and pop are leaving for africa on friday. wow. bizzy bizzy bizzy.

last day

weather is awful. it's been ridiculous. i couldn't even go sailing today on my AMERICA'S CUP boat due to excessive wind. something crazy like 24 knots. the coast guard was going nuts and didn't want anyone to go out. BUMMER. as i got to the dock--mind you it was cold and rainy anyway and i was soaked by the time i got there--this guy chad told me about the wind issues and told me to call his cell around one to see what may be going on later today. nothing happened. the wind was too insane. they did take out the "abracadabra" which is the america's cup boat painted by WYLAND. dolphins all over the sides of it. but it was for the OLN channel/network because they were doing a documentary for the upcoming america's cup. i sadly SADLY watched it go. i was supposed to go out on the "stars & stripes" but i wached this dude chad put on this MASSIVE sail cover and walked back to seaport village where i had parked my car. he had told me to come down and hang out on the dock for as long as i wanted though, so that was cool.

i moved up my appt. at the salon (called "roses") and went and got a new foil. here are two pics. like it? after that i showed my mom around the del and we hung out a bit. but there was no awesome sailing for me today. very sad. i might get over it. maybe with lots of therapy.

we're coming home tomorrow. it's been freezing here and rainy. QUITE windy as well. too windy. what luck.

sunny & a little warmer

hung out poolside today. worked on my book. did a little shopping. going sailing tomorrow.

glorietta bay inn

like i said, i'm staying at the glorietta bay inn--which as you can see above--is right across the street from hotel del coronado. i went to the beach today. brought a little picnic lunch. a hummus bagel sandwich with tomato, cucmber, lettuce, and onion. i almost had to wrestle down two seagulls in order to eat it. dumb birds. anyway, the wind was quite strong so i didn't spend too much more time there. the weather here is the biggest bummer ever. at least the wind might help for sailing on tuesday.

i wanna meerkat

after a while of being on the fone with some guy in st. louis and a guy here at this hotel, i'm finally online. these rooms don't have wireless and the ethernet connection was screwed up. the guy here in ca had to go to the basement of the hotel to fix it. i don't care how he did it but he did. crazy all the stuff i had to go through this afternoon. the fone stopped working too. (i called the 24/7 tech support guy in st. louis on my cell fone while i waited for the dude here to reset stuff and get new cables. what the heck?) anyway, we're at the Glorietta Bay Inn. it's on coronado island right across from hotel del. tell ya more about that later.

me and mom went to the san diego zoo yesterday. we had lunch at albert's--which we had trouble finding. but it was worth it. i had baked chicken with rosemary and lemon with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies. mom had a crabcake thing with fries. (we switched veggies & fries.)

the polar bear was my favorite because he was so cute. (or she?) anyway, all it did was eat carrots and sweet potatoes. it liked its audience too. you could tell.

we saw the elephants and giraffes have lunch too. the meerkats were my second favorite. i want one. hope you liked the pics!

ford stinks

literally. i'm not sure what they masked the odor with for four days but yesterday our little ford fusion was FOUL. smelled like something crawled up in there and died. i bought some febreeze this morning and sprayed down the car completely but that didn't help much. so after i dropped my mom off at the conference, i showered, packed the car, and checked out. i headed west on el cajon blvd. where i knew i saw an enterprise earlier. the lady directed me all the way back to the airport locaiton where i ran into a dude named judd who apologized and switched me into a jeep liberty. yeah, a little upgrade at no extra charge. better not be an extra charge! they're handing out funky fords! P.U. anyway, i'm waiting for my mom to call to let me know she needs to be picked up. she prolly won't know it's me in a different car. she'll figure it out. anyway, since there's still a chance of showers today, we're shopping at fashion valley mall. (where there's a nordstrom, saks, etc.) no jcpenney or sears. ew. tomorrow we're planning on heading for the zoo.

something else...out here they have to give FOUR seperate forecasts for the san diego area! there's a coastal forecast, inland, mountain, and desert. after watching the mountain forecast i feel like i'm back at home. rats. anyway, it's supposed to be mid-60's and sunny for the next ~3 days. later!

got rained out

went to old town today but only stayed till about lunch. started sprinkling just enuf that you don't wanna be out in it. here are a few pics. oh yeah-and 2 years ago when i was here with 3 of my friends, we went to the old town surf shop. i went again today. got reefs. later.

brrrr in san diego which is NOT sunny

i'm in san diego with my mom who has two conferences to go to. anyway, she's at one right now and i don't need to pick her up till about 5pm tonite for dinner. anyway, when we got here it was POURING like i haven't seen in a long time. san diego had a major cold front come thru on monday. well guess what. it's cloudy out right now and they're slated to have a DILLY come in later today. even with thunderstorms. they're talking on the news about the flood control problems and how they're likely to get several FEET of snow in the mountains. ANOTHER cold front. can i just say that after leaving valpo which was at about 5 degrees upon departure that we're in not-so-sunny san diego at 55 degrees? it TOTALLY sucks. i just got off mapquest cuz i was trying to get directions to old town from here. i'm a bit northeast of old town. i guess i'll go hang out there till the weather gets really crappy. i guess i'll go back to the hotel then. everything i wanna do is outside!!! i gotta say, i brought 2 hoodies and a fleece jacket cuz i knew it was supposed to be cold. but good grief! i've gotten both of my hoodies dirty AND my fleece! one of my hoodies got soaked in the first rainstorm and once it couldn't take in any more water, (and i was more than wet) i took it off and tied to my suitcase during the whole "looking for a rental car" thing. now i'm looking for a new and clean hoodie. (what's new?)

anyway, just thought i'd say hello from not sunny san diego.

brrrrr!

wagon wheel ranch

finally have the internet. we're on the north side of san diego sort of. very close to san diego state university. anyway, i got to hold puppies! too bad they're still too little to play. just under 2 weeks old. this place we stayed at--my mom's friend of 40+ years (who also sorta got me my first teaching job in chicago) is called "wagon wheel ranch." it is in perris, california. it was a lookout in the spanish-american war and was used as a telegraph office after that. it has a tower and everything!

bleah

sicker than a sick pup. fever is around 102 when i don't remember to take my advil in regular increments. or if i finally fall asleep and can rest--but again--don't take the advil. my THROAT is KILLING me. my ears are not my friends either. i have whatever this is because i was being a punk. my boss' kid was playing on my computer one day and left her nestle crunch bar sitting next to my keyboard. i knew she had been out of school sick and she had even lost her voice--for nearly a week. but i wasn't thinking of that when i tried to be a smart aleck took a bite of it. (and made fun of her for not being more protective of her chocolate. usually she's insanely protective of the cocoa bean and food that it provides...)

anyway, i think i'll survive. my dad picked up some theraflu yesterday and fox brought me some orange joos today. tris came by tonight with some of those cepacol throat lozenges. anyway, i have got to get better before monday. (when me and mom head out to san diego for her conferences. problem is that for the first two days we're staying with some of our old friends from our chicago days who are a bit elderly. they CANNOT get sick with this.) not only that, but i'm missing the high school retreat that i'm supposed to be on RIGHT NOW. my kids are seniors this year and it's their last retreat! ugh. but with my head throbbing as it has been, i would be of no use there. prolly couldn't even sleep cuz of all the noise, too. i guess it's better i stayed home. but it was not NOT the plan. ish. today i'm feeling well enuf to watch a little t.v. and check my email. (my laptop had a full charge so it's here in bed with me.) my floor is a littered mess of dirty kleenexes and empty water and gatorade bottles.

my old teachers!!!

tonite at the courts we had a dodgeball tournament to benefit PATH. it was a fun charity dodgeball thing and the whole town came out. it was GREAT. tons of people--including my 3rd grade math teacher mrs. wolf! she was the coolest. and my 7th grade p.e. teacher was there too. (her identical twin sister is the PATH director.) here are pics of me and my old teachers. it was SOOOOOOO good to see them! oh yeah...and in a blog yet to come...i will be in southern california in about ONE WEEK from right now. WITH TWENTY 2-week-old puppies! long story, check upcoming posts for more. puppies are my favorite.

astronut

yeah, i spelled it like that on purpose. astronauts are just people. so are senators. and presidents. and nuclear physicists. JUST people. and they're all gonna screw up too. there is no longer a higher standard for astronauts. or senators. or nuclear physicists. or ESPECIALLY presidents.

our country is SUNK

boston thought we were all gonna die because a space invader was flipping us all off. on a lite brite. from the cartoon network. are you serious? we can't tell the difference between a space invader and a terrorist? we're all SCREWED. maybe our law enforcement should watch a little more t.v. and lighten up a bit.

speculative musings

apparently us peons were just enlightened today with what george bush is doing about our environment--besides nothing. he's trying to edit all the briefings brought to himself and congress about global warming. actually, he's not editing it but his cronies are. (can you imagine if he tried to EDIT something? he likely doesn't even know what that means.) anyway, one of his puppets called global warming "speculative musings." george bush is A-musing as president. too bad he's president of my country. and too bad that comes at a cost for the rest of us. i would rather have stephen colbert as president. STEPHEN COLBERT FOR PRESIDENT!

anyone would be better than dear old W. i'd even be okay with miss piggy as president. or mr. salt or mrs. pepper from blues clues. at least they've developed reasoning skills!

p.s. if you want to see the article i'm referring to, please email me or leave a message here. i'll gladly send it along.

waiting for the championship game to end....

hey! i'm sitting here as "hostess of birthday parties" waiting for the 7:00 party to show up. and for the two 5:30 championship games to end. i hear mass cheering and i believe hank just left to pass out trophies.

last night as i was hanging out with big red on the tennis courts (big red is our massive vacuum-cleaner type thing) and i saw a puddle. initially, i thought this puddle was made by someone who spilled their water. as i continued around with big red, i heard a tiny "ker-splash" and continued on. as i got closer to the east wall, i heard louder "ker-splashes." finally heard a HUGE "KER-SPLASH" and i realized that our brand new building not even 4 months old yet has a leaky roof. i'm sure the melting snow atop this place isn't helping. the whole inch-and-a-half of snow that we've got this season. funny how when the temp. gets cold it doesn't leak anymore. that can't be good.

the freezing and thawing of a leaky roof. ugh.

great lakes frieghters

wow...i pretty much suck at keeping this current. at least i am posting something now! (i have tuesdays off.) maybe i can do this somewhat regularly? i dunno.

anyway, great lakes freighters pretty much have to slow down a BUNCH in the way northern great lakes in the wintertime but this year due to el nino or whatever global warming crap is going on, there were a ton of ships on lakes huron and superior. wow. in the soo locks and everything. i was amazed. my friend sue vaal and i drove out to the dunes (northern lake huron) to watch the sun set and to talk. there was a freighter going by then, too. i even saw one go by while hanging out one afternoon in the lodge at cedar campus. anyway, here's a sunset pic (my lighthouse is in the pic too) and the freighter shot too. i've been back from cedar now for more than a week and have JUST unpacked and did all my laundry. it was pretty crazy. oh well. oh, while we were there we had TWO inches of snow. yeah. and it lasted all of eight hours. then it was all gone. but there were puddles EVERYWHERE. cuz of all the RAIN. you know, if it had been 30 degrees or lower, we would have gotten between 2 and 3 feet of snow JUST while we were there. ugh. so sad, so sad. SERIOUSLY SAD.

blueberry hill

went up it. and down it. (HUGE sand dune behind me.) without 4-wheel drive too. just rear-wheel. the 4-wheel was seizing up. DANG, WAS IT COLD! but more fun than i've had in quite a while. saw some hunters back on the trails. they were cool. lots of puddles. frozen puddles. now they're smashed up piles of ice chunks. vroom.

leaving tomorrow...uh...later today

i'm going up to the u.p. like i always do this time of year but usually i've packed by now. it's just after midnight and i haven't even started. oh well. at least my laundry is done. i just gotta try to remember to throw everything important in a bag and i'll be good. right? anyway, we're going to cedar campus--intervarsity's main conference grounds in the midwest. it's about a 45-minute drive northeast of mackinac island. (like...a 7-8 hour drive.) yeah, it's sweet up there. few people and lots of coastline. plenty of little fuzzy critters too. but some are stinky. anyway, we're going with some chinese people--we do that often--but this time, they know no english. the baby in this picture is their granddaughter. and the parents of the baby went to cedar last year. anyway, without knowing english, it will be fun playing charades to try to communicate. i can't wait to SLEEP in the car. oh, and we rented a suburban like we usually do. so we'll have plenty of space for luggage and to stretch out. woohoo. and SHOULD IT DECIDE TO SNOW, like, EVER, we'll have the 4-wheel-drive to handle it. okay. ta ta for now. hopefully i'll have some sort of wireless up there so i can post some more. i should be banished from my blog since i update it so INfrequently. yeah, i know. sorry.