Beautiful Oregon Coast

I am out in Oregon visiting my step-sister, and we all decided to go out to the coast to enjoy a day at the beach, and what a perfect day it was. I had a better camera, but don't have the cables to pull the pictures off if it, so the phone will have to do for now. =0)

The kids all had a good time making castles, playing in the water, while we enjoyed the sun and the sand. It was a great day at the beach, which is usually the case. =0)

New York 2009 - AWESOME!

I just got back from a week in Manhattan New York, probably one of the best trips that I have been on in a long time. Here is a list of the shows that we went to see while we were there:

Billy Elliot
Absolutely INCREDIBLE!
I don't know that there is another way to describe this show
except that we couldn't even believe the talent, the fun, the
energy It was so much fun, everyone should see it!


In The Heights
This was a good show, and a lot of it was in spanish, so
not everyone was able to even follow it.


Hair
What a FUN Show! The cast members came out into the audience
several times to interact with us. When they were singing "Hair"
the girl in the canter of this picture came up to our row
(clear in the top) and played with my hair. Did I say FUN!


West Side Story
The talent was incredible! Great voices, dancing, and
spanish (they sang several songs in spanish with the revival)


Shrek the Musical
This show was hilarious, and I loved Lord Farquaad
the best (he did the entire show on his knees!)



Blithe Spirit
Staring Angela Lansbury, Seriously! She is so dang Funny!
She did a little dance around the state the reminded me of my
Grandma. We got her autograph on a playbill, Awesome! =0)

Well besides the shows we had a great time in New York. We were able to go to the Top of the Rock observatory (Top of the Rockefeller Center in the middle of Manhattan). We also ate at some great restaurants, and saw several other fun things that you could only see in New York.

We stayed in a great hotel too, right outside of Times Square. It was an awesome trip and I am sure glad that I was able to go with great fun people. We had a blast and loved every minute of it!

MMMmmm.... Fresh from the Garden!

This is what I picked out of my garden today. Nothing better than a freshly picked strawberry.

I was eating these in fact while I went through all of the pictures that I have taken on my camera in the last little while (New Your and Las Vegas).

Now if only the sun would come out so that the tomatoes and petters could grow... =0)

The end of the Year!

Well only if you go to or work at a school that takes summer off, LOL.

So it is that time again, when our local schools are left vacant in the heat of the summer. So we have 2 days left before school is out, but you wouldn't guess that by walking the halls of a lot of the schools around. ;)

I spent 8 hours today at a local high school working on the school network, 4 hours of which were over-time. The days are getting longer, but the time is rushing by quicker, I swear it!

And so starts another summer...

Oh, and I get to go to New York in a couple days! =0) I cannot wait!

Beautiful headstone

Well we made it to see my dad's newly laid headstone this weekend, doesn't it look good!


We are pleased with the way that it turned out, he would have been proud.

I'm getting good at this home owner thing,

I just fixed my kitchen sink!

I can hardly wait to see what I get to fix next. =0)

I just found myself a second career

Sprinklers!

I just had pressurized irrigation installed in my yard, and while they were installing it they broke my main sprinkler line, yeah this is the same one that I fixed over the weekend when I dug out the entire sprinkler box, replaced all of the valves, connections, wires, all that fun stuff.

So after working on this all day Saturday, I decided that it would be good to test the new pieces to make sure that I installed them correctly. As I went through the stations I quickly realized that the main line to the first station, as there was a huge geyser in the front of my yard with water, dirk, and rocks everywhere, great!

So I decided to fix that. Then on top of it since I have re-landscaped my yard, the original sprinklers don't work very well, so I decided to look into changing all of the heads to the correct model, no big deal right?

Well the correct heads only spray about half as far, which is good and bad. This means that I have to install twice as many heads as are currently installed in my front yard. So I started digging, went to Lowe's to get more parts, went back to get the correct parts, and I just finished installing them. I haven't tested them, but they better work or else!

So up to this point I have dug two huge holes in my front yard, followed by 6 smaller (but still good sized) holes that I had to do in order to replace the heads. Along with the holes, I swear that I have been to Lowe's, and the Sprinkler shop about 50 times, NO JOKE. I keep waiting tof my credit card company to call me in order to notify me that my card has been stolen by some Lowe's freak that won't leave the store.

So I have worked in my yard all day saturday, sunday morning and evening, Monday after work till after 10, and today after work till about 10. All I can say is these sprinklers better sprinkle good water for that stupid lawn f mine, otherwise I don't know what I will do...

I think that I could get my degree in sprinkler maintenance and installation at this point.