Ralph and I took off on an adventure last weekend, and I'm just now getting caught up enough to post pictures!  It's been a busy week.  I had hurt my back the weekend before, and then managed to trip and fall while in Crescent City, which hurt my back again, and my shoulder, and still had all the 'normal' stuff to do for both weekends around the house when we got back.  I did get the lawn mowed and the house cleaned (did I mention that my house-cleaner fell and hurt her elbow the week before, so can't clean for a while???), laundry done, etc.  Just no blogging.  

I won't have enough time today to post all the pictures either.  The RAV is due in to the shop for new brakes this morning at 7:00.  It was actually due there yesterday, but....the battery died, so it had a date with the tow truck instead.  It's been an expensive week as well as a long week.....

Here's Ralph and I taking off last Friday in the new car!!!

The weather was cool and overcast - just a sprinkle or two of rain when we got there.

I love the location of the hotel (right on South Beach) but the color combination in the room was a bit odd.  They are doing a lot of renovating - a little at a time I think.  The bathroom was updated, etc., now they just need to loos the carpeting.

Friday, we just kind of hung out on the beach, ate some lunch at a little Mexican place (and it was little! - but the food was great!).  For dinner, we ate on an outside patio that was protected from the wind and over looked the beach.  The food was great (coconut shrimp for me...)

Ralph, Alli and I made a flying trip to Susanville yesterday.  I had an IEP for Allison at 2:00 in Anderson, and we went up afterwards - leaving around 3:45, and getting back around 9:45.  Fast trip!  Dave found a house, and his realtor was worried that if we didn't look fast, it would get bought out beneath us.  He had tried to look at it before, and it was bought before I could get up there.  Luckily (for him) it fell out of escrow on Tuesday.

It's a cute little house - 2121 River St,  Two bedroom, one bath, two story, with a lot of little details to make it cute....odd, but cute.

The fireplace looks like it take wood about 16 inches long - very short!  It also has a Monitor heater, so you would only need wood when the power was out.  Good thing - it's hard to get wood that short.....

There are two staircases upstairs - one from the laundry room at the back of the house, and one from the front room.

The kitchen is cute - nice tile, but I'm not a fan of the color scheme.  There's no dishwasher or microwave, and the area for the frig is small - he can't use the one from Moms' there.

Both bedrooms are upstairs, and are both a nice size.  One has a 'playroom' in the back of the closet - a small, unfinished room that is reminiscent of the upstairs storage closet at Mom's house....

The bathroom is fine - not exciting or anything, but the tub is PINK....yuck!  Lots of storage, though..... (but pink???)

The house also has a laundry shoot!

The backyard is mainly rocks, and has a storage shed.

And a very nice deck!  I love the deck, and there are lots of mature trees in the neighbor's yards.

The house has the oddest layout I've ever seen.  The rooms flow funny on the ground floor - hard to describe.  The living room is also hard to set up - it feels like two small separate rooms.  I really like the yard - it will easy maintenance, but is still a 'nice' yard.  

All in all - Dave and I liked it, and he's putting an offer in!!!

Today may not be my most productive Sunday......

I got up with Alli as usual about 5:30, and she was already in the bathroom with a dirty diaper....and "someone" had peed on the bathroom floor (not mentioning any names Indy...) which of course Alli had walked through on her way to the toilet.  Somewhere in trying to stop the disaster that was building, I tweaked my back...Ouch!  And ouch again every time I tried to bend over (to clean up Alli, to clean up the floor, to change her bed, to pick up the dog food bowls to feed them (and they were pretty adamant about being fed, too), etc.  Ouch! It got done, but at a much slower pace than usual.

It hurt to even pour a cup of coffer (not to mention reaching up to get said coffee to even start the pot....)  It's going to be a long day!  AJ and I were planning a kayak trip, too - but I'm thinking that it won't be much fun with me saying "ouch" every time I move.  AJ can load and unload the kayaks, but the thought of trying to get in or out???  Ouch!  

On my to-do list today?  Laundry, mow the lawn, clean up the guest house for a soon-arriving guest....I'm in trouble.....Heating pad and Ibuprofen are now on my to-do list.  

Ralph's new car!!!!

We went down to Chico yesterday to pick it up.  I wasn't able to get a sitter for Alli, so she went too, and behaved very well!  (Thursday and Friday were both "good" days at school as well!)  

After signing my life away at the dealers, Alli and I left Ralph to wait for the final after-market add-ons to be finished, and went to visit AJ.  I was hoping to meet Yessica, but she was at work, so I just got to meet the kittens instead (and see Jeff, but him I know already!)  Kittens are so cute - and these are no exception.  Daryl is an all black female, and Jack is a black male with white boots and mustache. They were sleeping when I got there, so they were especially cute! I did get clawed by Daryl before I left - Alli sneezed and scared her.

It's a good thing Alli and I don't visit all the time - they are on the second floor of the apartment complex, and Alli hates heights!  Stairs inside a building don't bother her, but if they are 'outside' and open like these are, she's not a fan.  She tends to "hurry off" at the top and bottom - just to be done, I think.  Scary!

Ralph has a new car...almost.  We decided that since he is going to 2 or 3 AA meetings a day, and driving his truck (MPG 12-14) that it would be cheaper to make car payment on a more fuel efficient car.  So....the new car - a Mazda 3 - silver in color.  this isn't his car - just a photo I swiped from the interweb (it might not even be the right model......).  His is still in Chico.  He bought it Monday, and needs me to go down on Saturday to sign the papers, etc.  I'm sure it is killing him to wait that long.....

What a difference a day makes!  Thursday, this is the note that we got home from school for Allison - she had hit several people on Thursday, including her aide when she showed Allison her swimsuit so she knew they were going swimming.  (Really Allison???) 

And this was Friday's note - no hitting, a great day!  

I wish I knew what was going on with her!  There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason why she hits, or when.  She'll hit out a anyone, everyone, or only specific people at different times of the day, and then - she'll go all day with no hitting.  I don't get it!!!

I finished up the baby present for Sarah (from work) finally and took it in to her.  She was very excited to see everything.  She loves (and appreciates) hand made things and loved everything.  Here's the last set of booties I made:

And to finish up the loose end from a previous post - the Bonsai-like art form that is on display at Turtle Bay Arboretum is Penjing - here's a link to Turtle Bay's site.

I had a great birthday!  I took the day off from work, and took a couple of walks, did lunch, and shopping, read out by the fountain, and went to Scouts.  A very fun and relaxing day!

I took all three dogs for a walk in the morning - due to the fires around, the sunrise was a bit orange. 

Then I met Meredith at Turtle Bay, and went for a walk with her and Koori.  They had a demonstration set up in the Arboretum for a form of Bonsai - but I, of course, forgot what they called it.  It is the art of miniature landscaping, complete with houses and figurines.  Very pretty!

Even in town, there was smoke, giving everything just a tinge of orange.

Ducks on the Turtle Pond.  We saw several turtles as well.....

A very large spider - they were everywhere!

And Meredith!!

My ADD was in full force this morning.  

I'm hand sewing the binding on a quilt (a HUGE quilt - it's going to take me a while....) and I decide that I need to put it aside and work on it later.  I then decide that if I just leave it in a pile on my table, it will become a cat nest in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, so....I need something to put it in that will discourage the cats.  I know!  I'll put it in one of my cloth bags - I should have a nice big one for it!  

I go digging in my stack of bags in the hallway closet, but can't find one big enough, but wait!  The wicker basket that I have the bags in will be perfect!  But, now I need something to put the bags in.  I know!  I'll grab a box from the garage.  I go out the the garage to grab a box.  

But wait, the laundry's done.  I better switch that out before I forget.  I swap the laundry around and bring the dry clothes in to fold before they get wrinkled.  While I'm folding, I notice the light on the grass on the path in the back yard.  I need to take a picture of that!  I grab my phone, go outside take some pictures, and then remember that I need to add some algaecide to the pond.  

I grab the algaecide, add it to the pond, notice that the lights in the pond are covered in algae and need to be cleaned off.  I clean the algae off the lights, go back inside, and see the unfolded laundry on the table.  Oh yeah, the laundry.  I start to finish folding the laundry, but first have to go to the bathroom.  

On my way, I notice that the stack of bags is still in the hallway waiting for the box.  I deal with first things first (my bladder won't let me forget it at least!) and then go back into the garage looking for a box.  The only box I can find (I recently took all the extra boxes to recycling...) has kindling in it, so I go put it out with the firewood in the outside shed (why do I have kindling in a box in the garage???).  

Outside, I notice a container that would hold the kindling, but it's full of old leaves.  I dump the old leaves out of it into my green waste pile, then, put the kindling in the new box, and the now empty box heads in to the hallway to get bags put in it.

The quilt goes in the now empty wicker basket, 

the laundry gets folded, 

and.... I have everything where it is supposed to be, and a nice photo of the light on the grass.  

And then the timer goes off - time to rotate the laundry again......

One more baby gift (almost) ready to go.  I finished up the quilt (easier without the help I was getting from the cats) and crocheted around the edge of a couple of receiving blankets, and made a couple of baby booties.  One set of booties still need buttons, so no picture yet, but I almost forgot to take pictures of these as I was packing them up.

I really like how the quilt turned out....