The mixing of the ocean waters results in a rocky ride at night.
Mazatlan, is just across the mouth of the Sea of Cortez or the Gulf of California as it spills into the Pacific. This mixing of the two waters must result in changes in the water temperature or something. In the four times we have made this crossing at night each night was a rocker. This trip was no exception.
The NCL Star rocked an rolled all the way to Mazatlan. In the morning we entered the harbor with the Isle of Piedra on one side of us and the busy industrial dock of Western Mexico on the other. We pulled right up to the dockside and there was to tendering. The dock is a busy industrial dock with many imported cars and business shiping in and out all of the time. So how do you cross the dock to the city and shops and the tours.. elephant buses (or at least that is what we used to call them after the trailer connected trams that are used in zoos.) We all boarded one of those and we were off.
Just outside the dock is a rather rough part of Mazatlan so you better know where you are going if you are doing it on your own. This year we took a careful evaluation of all the outside excursions that we had done in Mazatlan in the past and decided to do the little shope with mom, drink a great margarita on shore and call it a day. In the past we have done bird watching, colonial tours to the foothills and watched the Indians come down the 75 foot pole. So what more was there left to do? We all had a great time low keying it and Mom made another stop to the shops which pleased her immensely. We even worked some bargins and got some great deals.
Mazatlan was in the low 80's and after all of the rain and close to rain and cold we had experienced in Nor Cal recently.. it was fun just to be outside and in in a different enviornment.
Besides after a couple of top shelf margaritas it didn't much matter anyway.
Ole
Pat
A written expression of a 65year old plus retired Speech and Language Specialist in the Central Valley of California.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Back with Kate
Last night (Wednesday) we started back with Kate Jackson the painting instructor. This was the first night class she has had for awhile.
The classes emphsis will be the new media. Yuppo paper and watercolor canvas. It should be fun. There are a number of new members attending the class. We were introduced as the "groupies" I guess we fit that title.
A mother and son are taking the class. There are many teachers in the group. There is also a graphic artist, and a teacher's aide.
We started out with a progressive name tag. Each name tag got handed to others to embelish and eventually return to the person it is supposed to name. That way we could start to learn each other's names. I started with with Leslie's and she did Trisha's, Sue started off with mine. I ended up with Charlie's. it was a great mixer.
Most people don't have the equipment yet to do the class so it will be interesting to see what it will be like when everyone has a good brush or too and some decent paints. We are fortunate to have many of both. The new paper will be supplied by the teacher via a lab fee.
Sue had a good time and so did I. We got out in the community and had a few laughs with strangers.. can't get much better than that.
: ) Pat
The classes emphsis will be the new media. Yuppo paper and watercolor canvas. It should be fun. There are a number of new members attending the class. We were introduced as the "groupies" I guess we fit that title.
A mother and son are taking the class. There are many teachers in the group. There is also a graphic artist, and a teacher's aide.
We started out with a progressive name tag. Each name tag got handed to others to embelish and eventually return to the person it is supposed to name. That way we could start to learn each other's names. I started with with Leslie's and she did Trisha's, Sue started off with mine. I ended up with Charlie's. it was a great mixer.
Most people don't have the equipment yet to do the class so it will be interesting to see what it will be like when everyone has a good brush or too and some decent paints. We are fortunate to have many of both. The new paper will be supplied by the teacher via a lab fee.
Sue had a good time and so did I. We got out in the community and had a few laughs with strangers.. can't get much better than that.
: ) Pat
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
NCL Star
The NCL Star was made 2001 and refrubished for freestyle dining in 2004.
The 400million dollar vessel can carry as many as 2240 passesngers that are serviced by more than a 1095 support personnel. From the info section:
Cabins aboard the Norwegian Star are finished in rich cherry wood and outfitted with tea and coffee makers and larger bathrooms. Innovative and eye-catching are the ultra-luxurious garden villas -- multi-room accommodations featuring panoramic ocean views, private sun terraces and whirlpools. Dining options are wide and varied with 12 restaurants on board, including Pacific Rim, Japanese, French, Spanish, Hawaiian and Italian restaurants, as well as the main dining room serving the traditional six-course Continental menus. Also available are an indoor/outdoor buffet, grill, food court and other casual eateries. With all these tempting culinary choices -- plus 24-hour room service -- it's nice to have access to a 24-hour fitness center, plus a sports deck with an outdoor jogging track, and sports court. Relax at the Barong Spa, with rejuvenating treatments utilizing both Eastern and Western techniques. The 1,150-seat Stardust Theatre, cinema, karaoke rooms, and 14 different lounges and bars offer an entertaining nightlife. This ship is particularly family-friendly with a recreation center just for younger passengers; a child-sized serving counter, tables and chairs in the buffet restaurant; computer rooms; an arcade; and entertainment with Kid's Crew.
We had a great time once we figured out that not all elevators will get you to all floors. Also we had to remember that our cabin was in the aft or backend of the ship. It was right over the dining area entrance for the main dinning hall, the Versailles and under the floor that had the buffet, the 12th floor. The 12th floor also had the library, game room and the workout area/spa. The best walking track was on the 7 floor and the the best quiet area to sit/lie in the sun or shade was the 13th floor.
You could get lost or have difficulty with getting your room open if you were not familiar with modern hotel like lodging. I came across an elderly lady that was very perplexed. She wanted to get into her room but couldn't figure out how to use her card. Just like many new hotels, the ship had credit card id entry. The passenger puts in the card, waits for the card to register (as indicated by a small green light lighting up and then removes the card, and presses down on the handle to let get into the door. The elderly lady was embarrased to ask anyone to help her. I guess I looked harmless so she asked me. I showed her and she was happy to figure it out.
Such is life. I think that we all think that everyone knows about these things. There are still many who don't.
: ) Pat
The 400million dollar vessel can carry as many as 2240 passesngers that are serviced by more than a 1095 support personnel. From the info section:
Cabins aboard the Norwegian Star are finished in rich cherry wood and outfitted with tea and coffee makers and larger bathrooms. Innovative and eye-catching are the ultra-luxurious garden villas -- multi-room accommodations featuring panoramic ocean views, private sun terraces and whirlpools. Dining options are wide and varied with 12 restaurants on board, including Pacific Rim, Japanese, French, Spanish, Hawaiian and Italian restaurants, as well as the main dining room serving the traditional six-course Continental menus. Also available are an indoor/outdoor buffet, grill, food court and other casual eateries. With all these tempting culinary choices -- plus 24-hour room service -- it's nice to have access to a 24-hour fitness center, plus a sports deck with an outdoor jogging track, and sports court. Relax at the Barong Spa, with rejuvenating treatments utilizing both Eastern and Western techniques. The 1,150-seat Stardust Theatre, cinema, karaoke rooms, and 14 different lounges and bars offer an entertaining nightlife. This ship is particularly family-friendly with a recreation center just for younger passengers; a child-sized serving counter, tables and chairs in the buffet restaurant; computer rooms; an arcade; and entertainment with Kid's Crew.
We had a great time once we figured out that not all elevators will get you to all floors. Also we had to remember that our cabin was in the aft or backend of the ship. It was right over the dining area entrance for the main dinning hall, the Versailles and under the floor that had the buffet, the 12th floor. The 12th floor also had the library, game room and the workout area/spa. The best walking track was on the 7 floor and the the best quiet area to sit/lie in the sun or shade was the 13th floor.
You could get lost or have difficulty with getting your room open if you were not familiar with modern hotel like lodging. I came across an elderly lady that was very perplexed. She wanted to get into her room but couldn't figure out how to use her card. Just like many new hotels, the ship had credit card id entry. The passenger puts in the card, waits for the card to register (as indicated by a small green light lighting up and then removes the card, and presses down on the handle to let get into the door. The elderly lady was embarrased to ask anyone to help her. I guess I looked harmless so she asked me. I showed her and she was happy to figure it out.
Such is life. I think that we all think that everyone knows about these things. There are still many who don't.
: ) Pat
Bob Dylan Quote
Money dosen't talk, it swears. Bob Dylan.
Dear Blogger readers.. what do you think of that one!
I overhead this comment on the way to work via the radio.
The pluot trees (half plum and half apricot) are in total bloom this morning. The peaches are about to blossom. The idea of frost for this year is pretty moot.
Linzi was asking me about the time to plant the citrus trees. This is it. The trees will get a full year of growth. Frost will not knock them down. The smell of citrus flowers are just an amazing occurrence.
Nice to see Acacia back in the blogging sphere. My sister kelly has got some great additions to her Mr. Potato collection that she is proudly showing off on her blog. I have some new additions to add regarding our trip on NCL to Mexico yet to be recounted here.
Today is the first junior high intake. I hope it goes well. Some teachers are getting some pink slips today. CTA is forming a giant promo on the state teacher's day of pink slips March 13.
Have a great day pilgrims
: ) Pat
Dear Blogger readers.. what do you think of that one!
I overhead this comment on the way to work via the radio.
The pluot trees (half plum and half apricot) are in total bloom this morning. The peaches are about to blossom. The idea of frost for this year is pretty moot.
Linzi was asking me about the time to plant the citrus trees. This is it. The trees will get a full year of growth. Frost will not knock them down. The smell of citrus flowers are just an amazing occurrence.
Nice to see Acacia back in the blogging sphere. My sister kelly has got some great additions to her Mr. Potato collection that she is proudly showing off on her blog. I have some new additions to add regarding our trip on NCL to Mexico yet to be recounted here.
Today is the first junior high intake. I hope it goes well. Some teachers are getting some pink slips today. CTA is forming a giant promo on the state teacher's day of pink slips March 13.
Have a great day pilgrims
: ) Pat
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Finally at Cabo an adventure ashore
In the last three times that we had taken this cruise I had always stayed on ship when we arrived at Cabo. My daughters, however, have found places to be the last thee times and enjoyed the idea of having a margarita on shore at Cabo.
So this time Sue and I decided to get off the ship and get on the little boats and buz into Cabo San Lucas. Sue had her non powered chair to go aboard and the tender (the little boats) were patient. There were only 12 steps out of the big ship to get on the tender. Sue did this very easily. We also picked a time when the excursions were through jamming people on shore and the people anxious to get ashore quickly had done their bit to be on the first tender to the shore.
The weather was great. Even though it was a bit cool and breezy on the way down, Cabo in the afternoon was in the mid 70's with just a wisp of cloud in the sky. The tender dock was set up to provide some shade and easy exit. The waves on the way in were a little bouncy (but not worrisome like Mom had experienced on her trip). There is a long walk from the dock area to the city itself. All along the way there were street merchants with there wares and walking merchants with their wares in there hands. There were many many people trying to sell the silver that makes Mexico famous, There were many walking vendors that were trying to sell ocarinas in the form of little birds. These are clay flutes that easily fit in side a hand and have distinctive whistles. There were vendors on the side that were were pitching tee shirts, and dolls and clothing and trinkets. At times they were a little pushy, One grabed Linzi by the elbow and she wheeled around and told him off.
Linzi was looking for a piece of jewlery for Sean her husband. She found a lovely piece. Sue found a lovely green gauze blouse with ribbons tied through it. She was pretty happy about her purchase. She also found a couple of really nice bunches of seed beads strug together. The girls were looking for the place they had gone before and had a marvelous adventure. This place was not longer there. Heather collects crucifix art and nothing was in the realm of what she was looking for.
Sue and I stopped to dicker with a street vendor and Linzi and Heather plowed on a head. They missed us as we got to the tender.. but we reunited when we got on the ship. Overall it was a great adventure.. I am not sure that I would recommend Cabo as a place to do all of your Mexican crafts shopping if you have Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta ahead. The prices were a bit higher than in the other spots and the chances to bargin for a great price seemed limited.
Cabo seemed like a great place to go ashore and enjoy the day. We did a lot of that and it was rewarding.
: ) Pat
So this time Sue and I decided to get off the ship and get on the little boats and buz into Cabo San Lucas. Sue had her non powered chair to go aboard and the tender (the little boats) were patient. There were only 12 steps out of the big ship to get on the tender. Sue did this very easily. We also picked a time when the excursions were through jamming people on shore and the people anxious to get ashore quickly had done their bit to be on the first tender to the shore.
The weather was great. Even though it was a bit cool and breezy on the way down, Cabo in the afternoon was in the mid 70's with just a wisp of cloud in the sky. The tender dock was set up to provide some shade and easy exit. The waves on the way in were a little bouncy (but not worrisome like Mom had experienced on her trip). There is a long walk from the dock area to the city itself. All along the way there were street merchants with there wares and walking merchants with their wares in there hands. There were many many people trying to sell the silver that makes Mexico famous, There were many walking vendors that were trying to sell ocarinas in the form of little birds. These are clay flutes that easily fit in side a hand and have distinctive whistles. There were vendors on the side that were were pitching tee shirts, and dolls and clothing and trinkets. At times they were a little pushy, One grabed Linzi by the elbow and she wheeled around and told him off.
Linzi was looking for a piece of jewlery for Sean her husband. She found a lovely piece. Sue found a lovely green gauze blouse with ribbons tied through it. She was pretty happy about her purchase. She also found a couple of really nice bunches of seed beads strug together. The girls were looking for the place they had gone before and had a marvelous adventure. This place was not longer there. Heather collects crucifix art and nothing was in the realm of what she was looking for.
Sue and I stopped to dicker with a street vendor and Linzi and Heather plowed on a head. They missed us as we got to the tender.. but we reunited when we got on the ship. Overall it was a great adventure.. I am not sure that I would recommend Cabo as a place to do all of your Mexican crafts shopping if you have Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta ahead. The prices were a bit higher than in the other spots and the chances to bargin for a great price seemed limited.
Cabo seemed like a great place to go ashore and enjoy the day. We did a lot of that and it was rewarding.
: ) Pat
Monday, February 23, 2009
Room Size and Handicaps
Linzi was great in getting our first room for the handicapped on the ship. There were a few choices and the choice she made was superb. We were next to the girl's cabin on the nineth floor. We were near the elevator and the room was huge. It was an inside room, but it had plenty of room for the huge powerchair that Sue brought and the push wheelchair that she brought for going off ship. And off ship she went! She got off at each of the docks for a little "shore" shopping. She really has shopping in her blood. The shops of the Mexican Rivera were made just for her.
Our room had a big shower that had a drop down seat. It had a floor drain that encircled the area and plenty of room to maneuver. The only downside to the room was the distance to a 110 plug, I brought a short multi extension cord but I still needed a 25 foot extension cord to reach into the bathroom to connect to the plug. I went down and talked to the reception desk on deck 7. Within minutes a German boy arrived with a hand full of extension cords and a ship's account bill. If I did not return the extension cord by midnight on the last night of the cruise the account would be charged 50 dollars. As I stood in line a 5:30 on the last morning of the cruise, there were others with their extension cords.. many much smaller than mine with the same 50 dollar charge unless they returned the cord. So the mental noted should be made to be sure to take along a 25 foot extension cord so that it will reach the socket and power my breathing machine.
Our room had a big shower that had a drop down seat. It had a floor drain that encircled the area and plenty of room to maneuver. The only downside to the room was the distance to a 110 plug, I brought a short multi extension cord but I still needed a 25 foot extension cord to reach into the bathroom to connect to the plug. I went down and talked to the reception desk on deck 7. Within minutes a German boy arrived with a hand full of extension cords and a ship's account bill. If I did not return the extension cord by midnight on the last night of the cruise the account would be charged 50 dollars. As I stood in line a 5:30 on the last morning of the cruise, there were others with their extension cords.. many much smaller than mine with the same 50 dollar charge unless they returned the cord. So the mental noted should be made to be sure to take along a 25 foot extension cord so that it will reach the socket and power my breathing machine.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Notes from Feb, 14th embarkation day
The day started beautiful in downtown Long Beach. I got out for my walk. I was crisp and clear and there was no sign of the drenching rain that we left in Bakersfield on the way down the Friday night before.
I had a great walk to the beach area. I still remember Long Beach as the Grand Prix site with its race cars creaming down the city streets (well almost). It is now a city of amazaing culture mix in the downtown. Many signs of eithipian and other African conclaves are on the street. We were staying on Atlantic which is a major street connecting the downtown urban areas with the hilly foothill ocean plateau that surrounds the beachfront. Around old churches of the major denominations were the places were store owners had set up storefronts to produce and customize African attire. There were no gangs out on Saturday morning but it was a very decent hike to get a Starbucks.
Our ship had docked in San Pedro which was a decent distance away but reachable via the Terminal Island bridge. before we got on, we had other items to get that we forgot. Heather was interesting in reading War and Peace,since she had finished Crime and Punishment. Sue was after some electrical tape to tape up the arm of her powerchair. So off we went with sometimes dubious help of the Iphone's gps system to find a Barnes and Noble and a Lowes or Home depot. We found them both and Heather and Lizi both learned to use their GPs or the Apple equivalent to track these stores down. It was a little more difficult that I would have thought since we were looking for these stores in an area similar to Carmel or Santa Cruz. Long Beach has a number of stores and tourists feeds that sit just off the beach and offer and ton of fancy restaurants, pizza places and specialty stores. Not exactly what we needed for these items. So we ended up driving up on the next tier of ocean plateau to more residental middle class areas. We found them and even had a go through the local CVS pharamacy.
We eventually worked through the busy part of Long Beach with all the beach traffic and back up through the town and found the proper connector to the Terminal Island bridge. We traveled on the elevated Terminal Island elevated and dropped down to the San Pedro (Port of Los Angeles) where we dropped people off and unloaded the powerchair and parked the car. They are always gracious to get you on board. This cruise lines meets you with a glass of champagne (free) or orange juice. This is a very classy way to take away the anxiety of the embarkation. You may read the previous entry to get a clue about what happened after we got on ship. Sue asked me about the location of my Ipod and the series of events that transpired after that were a bit frenic.
I had a great walk to the beach area. I still remember Long Beach as the Grand Prix site with its race cars creaming down the city streets (well almost). It is now a city of amazaing culture mix in the downtown. Many signs of eithipian and other African conclaves are on the street. We were staying on Atlantic which is a major street connecting the downtown urban areas with the hilly foothill ocean plateau that surrounds the beachfront. Around old churches of the major denominations were the places were store owners had set up storefronts to produce and customize African attire. There were no gangs out on Saturday morning but it was a very decent hike to get a Starbucks.
Our ship had docked in San Pedro which was a decent distance away but reachable via the Terminal Island bridge. before we got on, we had other items to get that we forgot. Heather was interesting in reading War and Peace,since she had finished Crime and Punishment. Sue was after some electrical tape to tape up the arm of her powerchair. So off we went with sometimes dubious help of the Iphone's gps system to find a Barnes and Noble and a Lowes or Home depot. We found them both and Heather and Lizi both learned to use their GPs or the Apple equivalent to track these stores down. It was a little more difficult that I would have thought since we were looking for these stores in an area similar to Carmel or Santa Cruz. Long Beach has a number of stores and tourists feeds that sit just off the beach and offer and ton of fancy restaurants, pizza places and specialty stores. Not exactly what we needed for these items. So we ended up driving up on the next tier of ocean plateau to more residental middle class areas. We found them and even had a go through the local CVS pharamacy.
We eventually worked through the busy part of Long Beach with all the beach traffic and back up through the town and found the proper connector to the Terminal Island bridge. We traveled on the elevated Terminal Island elevated and dropped down to the San Pedro (Port of Los Angeles) where we dropped people off and unloaded the powerchair and parked the car. They are always gracious to get you on board. This cruise lines meets you with a glass of champagne (free) or orange juice. This is a very classy way to take away the anxiety of the embarkation. You may read the previous entry to get a clue about what happened after we got on ship. Sue asked me about the location of my Ipod and the series of events that transpired after that were a bit frenic.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Back from Mexico
We disembarked this morning at 10:30 and were home at 5:15. A wonderful trip to Mexico on the Norwegian Star. This mega shop had just about everything. We opted early for this trip as we had this week off from school. In the past this week was not a big ADA cash cow for the district so between the two President's day's off.. thank you George and Abe we love your days.
Amy came in to watch the cats. The girls took most of their vacation days and we were headed off.
We left Friday night. We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn in Downtown Long Beach. It was a great rate and it got us a comfortable overnight. It was two miles from the beach in a pretty rough part of town. The major draw for this Holiday Inn was the St. Mary's hospital next door. We found it with ease and had a pleasant "get it together to get on a ship morning." We boarded our ship at 1:13. Our room wasn't quite ready but.. it wasn't long before I realized that I left half of my life in the terminal metal detector scanner. My Ipod, my keys, my cell phone, and my camera were all in left, by me in the blue dish. I contacted the reception desk and they sent me back all the way to the the place where they did the scanning with the admonishment that the ship sailed at 3 no matter what. I made it down there and I had identified that I had left my car keys and my ipod there.. I hadn't realized that I had also left my relatively new camera. They quized me about what I had lost and I came up with the cell phone and the keys and the Ipod but I had completely forgotten that I had the camera in the pocket as well. Considering the swirl of activities getting a power wheel chair and a manual wheel chair and five bags and two back packs out and in the the hands of stevedores and family members its really a wonder more of it was left on the dock.
I all turned out okay and we headed out of the dock well before sunset and headed for a two day trip to our first stop.. Cabo San Lucas. More later.. Pat
Amy came in to watch the cats. The girls took most of their vacation days and we were headed off.
We left Friday night. We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn in Downtown Long Beach. It was a great rate and it got us a comfortable overnight. It was two miles from the beach in a pretty rough part of town. The major draw for this Holiday Inn was the St. Mary's hospital next door. We found it with ease and had a pleasant "get it together to get on a ship morning." We boarded our ship at 1:13. Our room wasn't quite ready but.. it wasn't long before I realized that I left half of my life in the terminal metal detector scanner. My Ipod, my keys, my cell phone, and my camera were all in left, by me in the blue dish. I contacted the reception desk and they sent me back all the way to the the place where they did the scanning with the admonishment that the ship sailed at 3 no matter what. I made it down there and I had identified that I had left my car keys and my ipod there.. I hadn't realized that I had also left my relatively new camera. They quized me about what I had lost and I came up with the cell phone and the keys and the Ipod but I had completely forgotten that I had the camera in the pocket as well. Considering the swirl of activities getting a power wheel chair and a manual wheel chair and five bags and two back packs out and in the the hands of stevedores and family members its really a wonder more of it was left on the dock.
I all turned out okay and we headed out of the dock well before sunset and headed for a two day trip to our first stop.. Cabo San Lucas. More later.. Pat
Friday, February 13, 2009
Cotton Candy- New Tissue!
In referrence to the cotton candy lovers of the world.. like Mr. R, Heather, and Linzi..
I read this fascinating article on the medical use of cotton candy. Thought you might enjoy it. The on line referrence is the Boston Globe.
NEW YORK - Cotton candy may have found a new role: helping scientists grow replacement tissue for people.
The flossy stuff may be just right for creating networks of blood vessels within laboratory-grown bone, skin, muscle, or fat for breast reconstruction, researchers suggest. Dr. Jason Spector of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York and Leon Bellan of Cornell University present their preliminary research online this week in the journal Soft Matter.
Here's how their technique would work: First, you pour a thick liquid chemical over a wad of cotton candy. Let the liquid solidify into a chunk, and put that in warm water to dissolve the candy. That leaves tiny channels where the strands of candy used to be. So you have a chunk of material with a network of fine channels within. Next, line these channels with cells to create artificial blood vessels. And seed the solid chunk with immature cells of whatever tissue you're trying to make. The block is biodegradable, and as it disappears, it will be replaced by growing tissue.
AAAAA mazing
: ) Pat
I read this fascinating article on the medical use of cotton candy. Thought you might enjoy it. The on line referrence is the Boston Globe.
NEW YORK - Cotton candy may have found a new role: helping scientists grow replacement tissue for people.
The flossy stuff may be just right for creating networks of blood vessels within laboratory-grown bone, skin, muscle, or fat for breast reconstruction, researchers suggest. Dr. Jason Spector of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York and Leon Bellan of Cornell University present their preliminary research online this week in the journal Soft Matter.
Here's how their technique would work: First, you pour a thick liquid chemical over a wad of cotton candy. Let the liquid solidify into a chunk, and put that in warm water to dissolve the candy. That leaves tiny channels where the strands of candy used to be. So you have a chunk of material with a network of fine channels within. Next, line these channels with cells to create artificial blood vessels. And seed the solid chunk with immature cells of whatever tissue you're trying to make. The block is biodegradable, and as it disappears, it will be replaced by growing tissue.
AAAAA mazing
: ) Pat
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Headed for Mexico
We are getting ready to take the big ship down the Baja coast.
We will drive down to LA.. Long Beach on Friday night, spend the night at the Holiday in in Long Beach, and board the NCL Star on Saturday afternoon.
The girls are going with us. Heather and Linzi have cashed in their holiday days at work and are ready to go with us.
We are doing the 7 day cruise. Ports of call include Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerta Vallarta. It should be a pretty relaxing cruise.. and we certainly need it.
There are some very good rates leaving from LA and San Diego. We have been on this one before. It will be our fourth time taking this trip, the second time on NCL. NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) does a great job going up and down the coast. There are 10 specialty restaurants on this ship.. freestyle dining and no set time that everyone lines up and heads in for dinner. Some of the specialty restaurants have a "co pay" or a premium charged for their menus. It is usually around 10 dollars.. although the fancy steak house was 25. The girls were very impressed by the French bistro the time we were on this cruise.
The ports of call are interesting. Baja is similar to a So Cal beach town, only warmer. It has some pretty impressive rocks, (Los Arcos) in the harbor. It requires a boat service to get you into town (tender).
Mazatlan is a great city with a huge amount of diversity of tour options, They have a gold zone were they bring goods from all over Mexico to sell to the tourista at inflated prices.. still good stuff. Heather and I did the bird watch here.
Puerto Vallarta is a relatively new city. It is on the exact same latitude as Hawaii. So the climate is wonderful all the time. It has a great beach walk (Malacon) and a super ice cream store.
Weather looks like it is sunny and in the 80's for the highs. It will be cool getting down their (two days down and two days back).
We are bound to have a great time.
Wish you all were going with us.. well next time..
Love
Pat
We will drive down to LA.. Long Beach on Friday night, spend the night at the Holiday in in Long Beach, and board the NCL Star on Saturday afternoon.
The girls are going with us. Heather and Linzi have cashed in their holiday days at work and are ready to go with us.
We are doing the 7 day cruise. Ports of call include Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerta Vallarta. It should be a pretty relaxing cruise.. and we certainly need it.
There are some very good rates leaving from LA and San Diego. We have been on this one before. It will be our fourth time taking this trip, the second time on NCL. NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) does a great job going up and down the coast. There are 10 specialty restaurants on this ship.. freestyle dining and no set time that everyone lines up and heads in for dinner. Some of the specialty restaurants have a "co pay" or a premium charged for their menus. It is usually around 10 dollars.. although the fancy steak house was 25. The girls were very impressed by the French bistro the time we were on this cruise.
The ports of call are interesting. Baja is similar to a So Cal beach town, only warmer. It has some pretty impressive rocks, (Los Arcos) in the harbor. It requires a boat service to get you into town (tender).
Mazatlan is a great city with a huge amount of diversity of tour options, They have a gold zone were they bring goods from all over Mexico to sell to the tourista at inflated prices.. still good stuff. Heather and I did the bird watch here.
Puerto Vallarta is a relatively new city. It is on the exact same latitude as Hawaii. So the climate is wonderful all the time. It has a great beach walk (Malacon) and a super ice cream store.
Weather looks like it is sunny and in the 80's for the highs. It will be cool getting down their (two days down and two days back).
We are bound to have a great time.
Wish you all were going with us.. well next time..
Love
Pat
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday Child vs Children
After running through a few tests it seems pretty clear that many of my students need help in irregular plurals. Classic in these is the Child Children probe. Many students will say childs instead of children when confronted with the choice. Soo
Today was child/Children day in class. I also worked in question asking plans.. Who are your children? What are their names? Using my family's name set, we ended up with a lot of questions to be asked. A lot of answers given.. so you all were part of my lesson today. My students were particularly interesting in my children. So they all found out about my children's names and where they were, where they were born. For my students on the spectrum, it gave them a chance to care about another. All in keeping with valentine's day which we all know is really blown out of proportion.
Today Adobe told me that they loved me by providing me with some very valuable serial numbers for my educational editions of CS4 design premium. Now if I can get the new Ilife 9 that I have ordered from Apple the new computer migration will be complete.
Going through the Dreameaver tutorial on Lynda. com shows that it will have a fairly steep curve for learning to be proficient in this program. It seems a shame that there is a trend toward more complex complicated versions of basic things to do that few years ago were easy. It seems that the complications of these new programs are not designed to make things easier, but rather to provide more depth. This is sad because the real reason many people choose to do Macintosh is because of the simple interface and the quick and easy way to do pretty cool computer oriented tasks. Instead we are getting programs that are so complex that the learning curve requires knowledge of complicated concepts and terminology to do what was reasonably easy before.
I am sorry folks but the Mac is looking and acting more like a PC every day... drat
Pat
Today was child/Children day in class. I also worked in question asking plans.. Who are your children? What are their names? Using my family's name set, we ended up with a lot of questions to be asked. A lot of answers given.. so you all were part of my lesson today. My students were particularly interesting in my children. So they all found out about my children's names and where they were, where they were born. For my students on the spectrum, it gave them a chance to care about another. All in keeping with valentine's day which we all know is really blown out of proportion.
Today Adobe told me that they loved me by providing me with some very valuable serial numbers for my educational editions of CS4 design premium. Now if I can get the new Ilife 9 that I have ordered from Apple the new computer migration will be complete.
Going through the Dreameaver tutorial on Lynda. com shows that it will have a fairly steep curve for learning to be proficient in this program. It seems a shame that there is a trend toward more complex complicated versions of basic things to do that few years ago were easy. It seems that the complications of these new programs are not designed to make things easier, but rather to provide more depth. This is sad because the real reason many people choose to do Macintosh is because of the simple interface and the quick and easy way to do pretty cool computer oriented tasks. Instead we are getting programs that are so complex that the learning curve requires knowledge of complicated concepts and terminology to do what was reasonably easy before.
I am sorry folks but the Mac is looking and acting more like a PC every day... drat
Pat
Monday, February 9, 2009
Storm Clouds on the Horizon
It was stormy today in Merced.
But no rain fell upon the pavement.
The clouds were full of precipitation. You can experience that with my latest addition to the flickr stream. Its a B&W photo of the sky at 11:00. At 11:30 a funnel cloud was spotted outside of Merced and the photo sent to the local TV station.
Mostly it was cold. There has been some panic IEPs done as the Freshmen are starting to come up in masses and are in need of goals and direction toward next year. Next year both schools are headed for a BTI model of push in just for the Freshmen.
The students in the classes were anxious to see the DVD that I made of their school's speech kids. As each one took their turn upon the screen they inevidably tried to hide their faces from it and tried to my edit out their portion. They were quick to want to see the others however. There is a severe difference between the schools and the capabilty of the students between them. It is particularly evident in the video clips.
The new computer renders up the footage much faster than the old one. This may be due to a feature in the new IMovie that uses support time to redender.. so it sort of pre-renders on the fly as you put new clips in. Who would ever think that a handheld camera could take the place of a movie camera with film and other little electric motors. The only motor in this digital camera is the the telephoto lens.
Pretty amazing stuff
Pat
But no rain fell upon the pavement.
The clouds were full of precipitation. You can experience that with my latest addition to the flickr stream. Its a B&W photo of the sky at 11:00. At 11:30 a funnel cloud was spotted outside of Merced and the photo sent to the local TV station.
Mostly it was cold. There has been some panic IEPs done as the Freshmen are starting to come up in masses and are in need of goals and direction toward next year. Next year both schools are headed for a BTI model of push in just for the Freshmen.
The students in the classes were anxious to see the DVD that I made of their school's speech kids. As each one took their turn upon the screen they inevidably tried to hide their faces from it and tried to my edit out their portion. They were quick to want to see the others however. There is a severe difference between the schools and the capabilty of the students between them. It is particularly evident in the video clips.
The new computer renders up the footage much faster than the old one. This may be due to a feature in the new IMovie that uses support time to redender.. so it sort of pre-renders on the fly as you put new clips in. Who would ever think that a handheld camera could take the place of a movie camera with film and other little electric motors. The only motor in this digital camera is the the telephoto lens.
Pretty amazing stuff
Pat
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Shrimps or is it Shrimp
My sister was always teasing someone about this...
My contention is that Shrimps are more than one kind of shrimp. Anyway.. we had shrimp for dinner tonight.
I made a roux and added some garlic and some milk to make it creamy.. then some lemon juice. That turned off Sue.. oh well.
I sauteed the shrimp in the sauce with fresh asparagus,and served it over rice, I thought it was great. Sue wanted to scape off the sauce.. she is not much of a sauce person.
At Starbucks I ran into Fred again. He is a counselor at the Elenentary schools. I was telling him about my "Tell me a Little about yourself" project that I taped on my little digital camera. He said that he would mail me a copy of some other openers that he had collected along the line. he said that he would be happy to have Heather job shadow him for a day.. especially if he could do the same over in the city.
I finished the tape project tonight with mulitple DVDs made with each of the classes seperated into their own DVDs. It turned out okay for a "magic DVD" production. I sure miss the older interface.. I don't miss the huge amount of time it took to digitize the final product. There just isn't the ease of control on this one. I am looking forward to getting ILife 09. I have sent away for it with all the coaborating material and my 11 bucks. It would be nice to get it next week. I am also waiting on the serial numbers for all the new abobe products I bought along with the new computer.. thanks dad.
I am sure looking forward to getting on the ship to Mexico next week. We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Long Beach the night before. There are some good rates out there. The Holiday Inn Long Beach was only 59 bucks per room per night.
Sue and I spent some time moving stuff in and out of her closet. She thinks that is helping with the blue room clutter.. i have a different opinion. But moving stuff around is a good thing..
I still have some reports to write this week. I should have done them this weekend.. but it was more fun to watch the Warriors beat Utah, work on video projects with the new computer, and cook in the fabulous kitchen.
I am one load away from all the clothes being washed.
Hope your weekend was fun!
Love Pat
My contention is that Shrimps are more than one kind of shrimp. Anyway.. we had shrimp for dinner tonight.
I made a roux and added some garlic and some milk to make it creamy.. then some lemon juice. That turned off Sue.. oh well.
I sauteed the shrimp in the sauce with fresh asparagus,and served it over rice, I thought it was great. Sue wanted to scape off the sauce.. she is not much of a sauce person.
At Starbucks I ran into Fred again. He is a counselor at the Elenentary schools. I was telling him about my "Tell me a Little about yourself" project that I taped on my little digital camera. He said that he would mail me a copy of some other openers that he had collected along the line. he said that he would be happy to have Heather job shadow him for a day.. especially if he could do the same over in the city.
I finished the tape project tonight with mulitple DVDs made with each of the classes seperated into their own DVDs. It turned out okay for a "magic DVD" production. I sure miss the older interface.. I don't miss the huge amount of time it took to digitize the final product. There just isn't the ease of control on this one. I am looking forward to getting ILife 09. I have sent away for it with all the coaborating material and my 11 bucks. It would be nice to get it next week. I am also waiting on the serial numbers for all the new abobe products I bought along with the new computer.. thanks dad.
I am sure looking forward to getting on the ship to Mexico next week. We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Long Beach the night before. There are some good rates out there. The Holiday Inn Long Beach was only 59 bucks per room per night.
Sue and I spent some time moving stuff in and out of her closet. She thinks that is helping with the blue room clutter.. i have a different opinion. But moving stuff around is a good thing..
I still have some reports to write this week. I should have done them this weekend.. but it was more fun to watch the Warriors beat Utah, work on video projects with the new computer, and cook in the fabulous kitchen.
I am one load away from all the clothes being washed.
Hope your weekend was fun!
Love Pat
Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Collapse of County Bank
Yssterday was the last day for the major bank in the area... County Bank
The state regulators came in and are deep into auditing the books this Saturday. The Sun Star claims that there were 160 suits that arrived at the bank yesterday to close it down. It will reopen on Monday as part of another named bank.
The local investers have lost their perverbal shirts. It is not a small bank. It had grown to branches in 16 different cities in three states. This bank started in Merced and retained its headquarters in Merced. It was established in 1977. It was the keystone to downtown development. It bought up old buildings downtown and made two story new buildings in their place. It even constructed its own two story parking facility.
But who could blame them going under? Merced has been labeled ground zero for the foreclosures of mortgages and the Feds are not really dealing with that level of problem with their financial ballouts.. at least for now. A large share of County Bank's loans were for small business development. That could mean strip malls which have lost their big box tennants or it could be small dairies that are reeling from the drop in the price that is paid for milk.
The recent news was a major topic at the local Starbucks this morning that I encountered on my morning walk. Everyone was talking about the community hit. The investors are the ones that will get it. One guy mentioned that he bought County Bank stocks when they were 4 dollars a share. He thought that it was a good buy then. Now they are worth 26 cents a share and maybe not even that. Someone else at the table mentioned that his 401K had bottomed out to zero. That was pretty incredulous to the others.. how could an investment be worth 0? It has and it is. One of the engineers at the table was talking that last year he had 6 good projects going on at one time. Now he is lucky to have one. Sign of the times.
I saw on the card that the manager of the Starbucks was also a classroom teacher for Starbucks. I asked him how the Starbucks classes are going.. rmembering the book I read that Kelly sent to be via audio about how Starbucks had saved this older guy's life by giving him worth and redefining his objectives and learning some effective people skills.. with benefits. He said that his classes were going well but their were fewer students becuase Starbucks is closing outlets all over.
We should all feel lucky that we have jobs.
: ) Pat
The state regulators came in and are deep into auditing the books this Saturday. The Sun Star claims that there were 160 suits that arrived at the bank yesterday to close it down. It will reopen on Monday as part of another named bank.
The local investers have lost their perverbal shirts. It is not a small bank. It had grown to branches in 16 different cities in three states. This bank started in Merced and retained its headquarters in Merced. It was established in 1977. It was the keystone to downtown development. It bought up old buildings downtown and made two story new buildings in their place. It even constructed its own two story parking facility.
But who could blame them going under? Merced has been labeled ground zero for the foreclosures of mortgages and the Feds are not really dealing with that level of problem with their financial ballouts.. at least for now. A large share of County Bank's loans were for small business development. That could mean strip malls which have lost their big box tennants or it could be small dairies that are reeling from the drop in the price that is paid for milk.
The recent news was a major topic at the local Starbucks this morning that I encountered on my morning walk. Everyone was talking about the community hit. The investors are the ones that will get it. One guy mentioned that he bought County Bank stocks when they were 4 dollars a share. He thought that it was a good buy then. Now they are worth 26 cents a share and maybe not even that. Someone else at the table mentioned that his 401K had bottomed out to zero. That was pretty incredulous to the others.. how could an investment be worth 0? It has and it is. One of the engineers at the table was talking that last year he had 6 good projects going on at one time. Now he is lucky to have one. Sign of the times.
I saw on the card that the manager of the Starbucks was also a classroom teacher for Starbucks. I asked him how the Starbucks classes are going.. rmembering the book I read that Kelly sent to be via audio about how Starbucks had saved this older guy's life by giving him worth and redefining his objectives and learning some effective people skills.. with benefits. He said that his classes were going well but their were fewer students becuase Starbucks is closing outlets all over.
We should all feel lucky that we have jobs.
: ) Pat
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Working the Time Machine
A new feature in leopard on the Mac is "time machine"
If you can devote a hard drive to this function it will back up all of your work and step you back a piece at a time until you fine life was wonderful. You can then restore your Mac back to that Nirvanic stage when you were not swearing at your computer. Unlike my sweet sister who names her computer, I refuse to do so for this very reason. When life gets rough you and you want to unleash an epitaph upon your computer you want want to do it to "precious." Or in my sister's case, Barry Bondi.. well maybe with recent news developing regarding steroid case.
So my new 24 inch gem of a computer has been working all night and most of the day to back up my hardives with my systems and programs so that this Time machine feature will be accessed. I bought a 1 Tb hard drive for this purpose. What really made it possible was the purchase of a 350 external hard drive for data collection. This allow the 1 TB to be erased and repurposed for the time machine. The time machine requires the sum of all the backuped hard drives and then some. When it first came out it looked like a pipe dream. Hard drive memory is so inexpensive now, it makes it possible. The 1Tb I bought at Costco for 135.
Sorry to hear that Linzi is having difficulty with getting her Iphone screen repaired. You just want it done and back to you as soon as possible. My daughters are text junkies so you know how that is devasating her,
Rained today.. some.. Stay out of it
: ) Pat
If you can devote a hard drive to this function it will back up all of your work and step you back a piece at a time until you fine life was wonderful. You can then restore your Mac back to that Nirvanic stage when you were not swearing at your computer. Unlike my sweet sister who names her computer, I refuse to do so for this very reason. When life gets rough you and you want to unleash an epitaph upon your computer you want want to do it to "precious." Or in my sister's case, Barry Bondi.. well maybe with recent news developing regarding steroid case.
So my new 24 inch gem of a computer has been working all night and most of the day to back up my hardives with my systems and programs so that this Time machine feature will be accessed. I bought a 1 Tb hard drive for this purpose. What really made it possible was the purchase of a 350 external hard drive for data collection. This allow the 1 TB to be erased and repurposed for the time machine. The time machine requires the sum of all the backuped hard drives and then some. When it first came out it looked like a pipe dream. Hard drive memory is so inexpensive now, it makes it possible. The 1Tb I bought at Costco for 135.
Sorry to hear that Linzi is having difficulty with getting her Iphone screen repaired. You just want it done and back to you as soon as possible. My daughters are text junkies so you know how that is devasating her,
Rained today.. some.. Stay out of it
: ) Pat
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Speech Students: Tell me a Little about yourself!
A couple of years ago, I did a 6month study of the progress of my high school level speech students.
On one day I took a video of them answering the question so often posed in job interviews.. tell me a little about yourself. Then 6 months later I filmed or rather videoed the same students answering the same question.
I then compiled the before and after video of each student right after the first 6 month. I burned a DVD and it was a good experience.
Some students wanted a DVD of their progress which I provided. It was amazing to me their progress. They were much better orally organized. They more clear in their delivery and overall it showed that every student had some pretty significant growth. It would be easy to take all of the credit for their successs.. but kids get older and get better at doing some of these skills because of their increased maturity.
Today I took the first baseline videos with my Cannon Stylus SD79IS. It shoots 10 mega pixel stills and does a great job with short videos. The current (before ILife 09) iphoto does not allow the videos to switch from vertical to horizontal. Put it into IMovie, however.. and wohla.. The editor needs to crop appropriately and each clip needs to be handled seperately but there it is.. it actually happens.. a vertical video is recropped in horizontal. In terms of digital memory, to took 2.6 gigs. I have an 8gig chip.. so plenty of space left over.. my the digital memory size has gone up and the cost has come down.
Next time I will shoot all movies in horizontal.... : ) Pat
On one day I took a video of them answering the question so often posed in job interviews.. tell me a little about yourself. Then 6 months later I filmed or rather videoed the same students answering the same question.
I then compiled the before and after video of each student right after the first 6 month. I burned a DVD and it was a good experience.
Some students wanted a DVD of their progress which I provided. It was amazing to me their progress. They were much better orally organized. They more clear in their delivery and overall it showed that every student had some pretty significant growth. It would be easy to take all of the credit for their successs.. but kids get older and get better at doing some of these skills because of their increased maturity.
Today I took the first baseline videos with my Cannon Stylus SD79IS. It shoots 10 mega pixel stills and does a great job with short videos. The current (before ILife 09) iphoto does not allow the videos to switch from vertical to horizontal. Put it into IMovie, however.. and wohla.. The editor needs to crop appropriately and each clip needs to be handled seperately but there it is.. it actually happens.. a vertical video is recropped in horizontal. In terms of digital memory, to took 2.6 gigs. I have an 8gig chip.. so plenty of space left over.. my the digital memory size has gone up and the cost has come down.
Next time I will shoot all movies in horizontal.... : ) Pat
Monday, February 2, 2009
Segue or Segway?
Word of the Day!
segue
Writing a report on a kid that has difficulty making transitions from one bit of the conversation to another.. typical spectrum stuff.
I was looking on how to spell this skill. I got a lot on the new trippy two wheeled transport system and nothing on the concept I wanted to write about.. then one small entry on how do you spell..
and then I found that I was really really looking for Segue and not Segway.
Segue:
3 entries found.
1segue (verb imperative)
2segue (intransitive verb)
3segue (noun)
Main Entry:
1se·gue
Pronunciation:
\ˈse-(ˌ)gwā, ˈsā-\
Function:
verb imperative
Etymology:
Italian, there follows, from seguire to follow, from Latin sequi — more at sue
Date:
circa 1740
1 : proceed to what follows without pause —used as a direction in music
2 : perform the music that follows like that which has preceded —used as a direction in music
segue
Writing a report on a kid that has difficulty making transitions from one bit of the conversation to another.. typical spectrum stuff.
I was looking on how to spell this skill. I got a lot on the new trippy two wheeled transport system and nothing on the concept I wanted to write about.. then one small entry on how do you spell..
and then I found that I was really really looking for Segue and not Segway.
Segue:
3 entries found.
1segue (verb imperative)
2segue (intransitive verb)
3segue (noun)
Main Entry:
1se·gue
Pronunciation:
\ˈse-(ˌ)gwā, ˈsā-\
Function:
verb imperative
Etymology:
Italian, there follows, from seguire to follow, from Latin sequi — more at sue
Date:
circa 1740
1 : proceed to what follows without pause —used as a direction in music
2 : perform the music that follows like that which has preceded —used as a direction in music
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Super Bowl OVER!
It was a pretty good game. Lots of drama in it. Lots of great plays.
Also there were some regrettable actions by players caught on camera. John Madden took the right stand and said that he appreciated good hard hitting football but to hit the guy when he was down was totally out of place in the NFL and certainly in the Superbowl. There were too many penalties in this game to be the best of the best.
It was great to see Kurt Warner of grocery bagger days do a really great job as a quarterback for the Cardinals.
The superbowl ads were pretty interesting. I liked the Danica Patrick add for my web host Go Daddy. The budwiser ads are always the best with their Clydesdale horses doing impossible human connected activity.
Overall we had a pretty relaxing day. I got the printer going with the new computer. This was one of the last pieces in the crossover. Heather is just about to get her new computer (my old one). She will be happy to get a computer with a reliable ethernet port.
I made scalloped potatoes again. We had left over cheese from the fancy mac and cheese from last weekend. Its that white cheddar cheese from England called Coastal. I had a ham steak to cut up in it and I chopped about 3 ribs of celery to give use some veggie content and maybe some fiber. I forgot to put in some onions so the overall flavor was a little different from the usual casserole.
I could sympathize with my San Diego U C niece that reported that she had a many loads of laundry to do. This week I was totally out of tee shirts and mom was totally out of nightgowns. This very seldom happens as we have plenty of clothes to go with laudry on a 10 day cruise without doing laundry. It all came crashing down and laundry had to be done. So our washer and dryer were working most of yesterday. It could be worse..just a year ago I was off doing laundry with group of people that didn't have access to machines. We were not quite moved back. Laundry takes on a different dimension when you have to use those public dryers. Some of them work okay, most of them are marginal in heat control and value for your quarter.
So here I am with the Sunday night imperative. What are those kidderos going to get from me to do this week?
The afternoon classes are finishing up "What's Up Doc" The morning clases are at the last scenes of this hilarious, fast moving movie. So something has to be ready for them. I have a couple to test in the morning and some write ups to do in the afternoon. I think that most Speech and Language Specialist are continually behind in what they need to do. I am no exception.
: ) Pat
Also there were some regrettable actions by players caught on camera. John Madden took the right stand and said that he appreciated good hard hitting football but to hit the guy when he was down was totally out of place in the NFL and certainly in the Superbowl. There were too many penalties in this game to be the best of the best.
It was great to see Kurt Warner of grocery bagger days do a really great job as a quarterback for the Cardinals.
The superbowl ads were pretty interesting. I liked the Danica Patrick add for my web host Go Daddy. The budwiser ads are always the best with their Clydesdale horses doing impossible human connected activity.
Overall we had a pretty relaxing day. I got the printer going with the new computer. This was one of the last pieces in the crossover. Heather is just about to get her new computer (my old one). She will be happy to get a computer with a reliable ethernet port.
I made scalloped potatoes again. We had left over cheese from the fancy mac and cheese from last weekend. Its that white cheddar cheese from England called Coastal. I had a ham steak to cut up in it and I chopped about 3 ribs of celery to give use some veggie content and maybe some fiber. I forgot to put in some onions so the overall flavor was a little different from the usual casserole.
I could sympathize with my San Diego U C niece that reported that she had a many loads of laundry to do. This week I was totally out of tee shirts and mom was totally out of nightgowns. This very seldom happens as we have plenty of clothes to go with laudry on a 10 day cruise without doing laundry. It all came crashing down and laundry had to be done. So our washer and dryer were working most of yesterday. It could be worse..just a year ago I was off doing laundry with group of people that didn't have access to machines. We were not quite moved back. Laundry takes on a different dimension when you have to use those public dryers. Some of them work okay, most of them are marginal in heat control and value for your quarter.
So here I am with the Sunday night imperative. What are those kidderos going to get from me to do this week?
The afternoon classes are finishing up "What's Up Doc" The morning clases are at the last scenes of this hilarious, fast moving movie. So something has to be ready for them. I have a couple to test in the morning and some write ups to do in the afternoon. I think that most Speech and Language Specialist are continually behind in what they need to do. I am no exception.
: ) Pat