Merry Christmas -- and what a Christmas it's going to be with all this beautiful white snow making everything look fresh. The snow floating in the air is all sparkly and gorgeous. Even in the ice fog, you can see the ice crystals glistening all around you. Makes everything appear magical. NO, I haven't finished my shopping. I've barely started. I didn't make it over the Sierra Nevadas because of the first smaller snowstorm that hit that first weekend in December. After 3 hours I had only made it 31 miles from home and that 31-mile trip back took another hour because when I left it was just snow flurries blowing around, but 3 hours later they had started to accumulate on the roadways. Oh well, I had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon, right? ha! I got to be alone with my thoughts which isn't always a good thing. The only bad part was wanting to just be able to nap and the 18-wheeler behind me that almost bumped me a few times. So I have to be gone 2 days Christmas week which is bad for me since I typically do my shopping between the 20th and 25th and that takes away 2 of those days. I don't panic though cuz really the hardest part of shopping for me is deciding what to buy not actually going out and getting it. Plus Santa comes so we never wrap and put under the tree until Christmas Eve. I probably should since I have moved back outside to the office so that I work out there again full-time. It gives me privacy, no distraction from TV or others and I can concentrate on my projects entirely -- unless my craft supplies call my name, that is. I painted my dining area and we left some of the masking tape up over Thanksgiving. But it's okay cuz no one noticed the new color or the tape either... maybe they thought I intended that dark blue strip along the top of the sky blue color. It's so nice to have clean walls that are calming. We have put 2 long tables together and can fit around 12 people if we needed to (we only needed 9 for Thanksgiving). But we decided to leave them there for the holidays. I finally decided it's time to do in the old Dell Dimension 8100. Managed to get my hands on a new Dell Zino for under $200 and can hardly wait to set it up. That's my Merry Christmas to myself so I'll wait until New Year's or so to actually unpack it and install everything. Trying to find all the old software first and then I'll be transferring the 80 GB from my second hard drive over to the new PC. Then I will probably put that second drive and buy a case to turn it into a portable external drive. Any advice on that endeavor? Can't be too difficult. Oh and Dell is the bomb! I got a laptop in May and the DVD drive went out. They did remote connection to install drivers, etc. and determine that I was correct that the drive wasn't working. Then they shipped out a box with FedEx label to send it in. They told me it would be 7-10 day turnaround from when they got it. It got shipped on Monday via FedEx Ground and the next Monday I got a phone message saying that they had received it. Tuesday morning I got a phone message that it had shipped and Tuesday afternoon I missed the FedEx guy trying to deliver it! Whoa, guess they were a bit behind in getting their calls made. So I tromped over to FedEx early Wed (day before Thanksgiving) to nab it off the truck. But Dell also determined that my battery needed replaced (it holds a 2-hr charge) but they ordered it and it arrived by FedEx about a week later. Now this battery cost $162.58 and I got it for free - and as far as I can tell, my other battery is working fine. But nice to have a spare -- how's that for customer service???? Had to move work email folder off the system to avoid confidentiality issues. Got my work emails all loaded back on there and everything is working just as it should.

With the change of season, I found that I am in quite a mood.... I didn't realize it until the other day but I'm in a bit of a snit and I can't figure out why. I just know that sometimes there is some music I like to hear and sometimes I don't like it. It's not really characterized by genre either. Because the variety of music I listen to spans from way over here to way beyond the horizon. Not much (c)rap or hiphop and only a little country but just about everything else -- pop. rock - hard, soft, metal (but not death metal), grunge, classical, instrumental, show tunes, easy listening, band music like Herb Alpert or Glenn Miller Band, 70s, 80s, 90s... I think you get the picture. But lately what I can't seem to stand listening to is women's voices. My ear and my head just doesn't seem to tolerate it right now -- and I've been wanting to hear stuff like Pablo Cruise, 10 cc, Little River Band, George Michael, Michael Bolton -- soft, romantic stuff sung to me not stuff blared at my ears until they want to bleed. If a woman is singing on the radio, I'll flip to one of the other 9 channels. (Although I do let the little one listen to her Miley Cyrus CD while we're running errands.) What is up with that?

Yes, I have shamefully neglected to update my blog this summer. But it just seems that work has been super busy and then my off time is go-go-go. Let's see, I took off 2 days to go to attend classes in Elk Grove being taught by Tim Holtz. He is a wealth of craft information and very creative. I learned a ton and spent less than I thought I would. It has been my only time to sit and create anything in months. Then we had scholarship award night at the high school. Son didn't get any $ but got recognized as part of the group having earned an Honors diploma. Then about 10 days later, we went thru the senior commencement exercise. Then it's on to the mad dash to complete FAFSA, pick a college, figure out what's being taken and start seeing what funding we can come up with. We didn't order grad announcements as we had few people to send them to but I finally got him to write thank you's for the gifts he did get. Father's Day weekend was another whirlwind. Drive to Sacramento for nieces' graduation (they both finished college in May/June). Left in morning for 2 pm commencement and then went out to dinner afterwards at Japanese restaurant. Stayed there visiting with family until sometime around 8 p.m. and then decided we'd drive home. Hubby came along -- was one of those yes I'm going, no I'm not going trips so we didn't really plan anything. He wouldn't have been willing to stay at either my mom's or sister's sooooo I just decided it'd be 1-day trip and we'd go HOME. Which was fine but then Saturday, he still had the traveling bug so we drove out to Pyramid Lake and found places we want to camp as family and fish. Then got rained out as we were hit with another thunderstorm - this was in the 2nd week of storms we had. Seen more rain in those 2 weeks than in the prior 4 years living here. And yet again, that wasn't enough driving as he woke up Father's Day morning and decided we'd take another road trip. We gave him a new cellphone to replace the one he'd had for 3+ years. He wouldn't switch right away (no big surprise) and so I introduced the idea of using it for his trip to Vegas (that was coming up Monday & Tuesday). So off to Lake Tahoe we went, the little one brought her suit and could hardly wait for it to warm up. It's a bit cooler in the mountains than in the city in the valley. First though we went bowling but I found out the kids had emptied my bowling stuff when they put the bench back in the van. (Said bench having become the choice of seating for the garage hangout that has workout equipment, air hockey table, TV with PS2 and XBox as well as a Dell with flat screen out there.) So bowling was first on the agenda, then to the restaurant we used to know as the Shoreline Cafe which was now something else (and even more expensive). Drove around a bit and recognized places we stayed when we went from Sacto to Tahoe to play in the snow and also to come play in the springtime a few years back. Finally made it to the beach and found a nice area that also had a playground. Then it was back home so hubby could prepare for a drive to Vegas on Monday and a drive back on Tuesday. The oldest teen went along to help drive and for company. This, of course, after $400 repair to the car's radiator to prep it for trip. He did take his new phone to Vegas and has been using it ever since -- it was technically an upgrade since he'd been using Nokia E62 and this was unlocked Nokia E63, the sexy red one. Last weekend we went to 6 Flags in Vallejo. I used to be a season pass holder to 6 Flags of Mid-America and I realized it's been about 29 years since I've been to a 6 Flags park to go on a ride! And we started off with a doozy -- the Tony Hawk Big Spin roller coaster -- a family thrill ride that led the 4-year old to yell "oh my GOSH" just as the ride was almost over. She then proclaimed "I like Tony Hawk but I do NOT like his ride." It was a bit much for her and if I had realized how fast and how much it whips you around, I wouldn't have taken her on it. She met the height requirements but the ride tipped her head to the left and it stayed there the whole time. So after that we hung out for a while at the Looney Toons Seaport so she could take in the kiddie rides. We went to see the animals since this particular park used to be a MarineWorld and then they added rides to it. Tried to get through the Tiger show but that only kept her attention for a brief time. The last ride we went on got us soaking wet so on the drive away, I had to cover my lower half with a blanket as I was only partially dressed as I let the rest of my clothes dry as I was driving. Of course, the drive there (as well as the drive back) was only 3 hours and it wouldn't have been so bad except that I had already driven from Reno to Sacramento Tuesday evening so I could fly out of Sacramento to San Diego on Wednesday. I slept less than 4 hours, just couldn't crash out. Hubby was angry with kids before we left and so I had planned to go alone but decided to bring the girls for company. So then when I landed on Wed, instead of heading right for the freeway, I had to go stop by my mom's house to retrieve the girls. And we couldn't just leave 6 Flags and go home, had to go by Elk Grove to pick up a kid, the 15-year old's best friend from California, that he hasn't seen for 2 years who was going to spend a week at our house. So, you know what that meant? After the week was over, another drive back to California. I think I'm done driving for a while! Good thing I like to drive. Too bad his bladder is like an old man's. The 4-year old could control her bladder but we had to stop for the 16-year old to pee twice. I'll have a ton of photos to post after they are edited. But no room for them on this blog so they'll have to go to my photobucket.

I made it 30 minutes straight on the treadmill, walking 2.0 miles per hour on the fat burning mode and wooo burned off a whole 55 calories it said. So only about 64 more workouts before I lose a pound! Is this even worth it? There has got to be something better than this to work off the excess weight. My thing is that my metabolism keeps me at an almost constant weight. Even following South Beach, Nutrisystem or controlled diets, I don't lose weight. I burn what I eat and nothing more, luckily nothing less but it's frustrating to step on the scale and not see it waiver up or down a bit. I have cut the soda out and am back on water or tea alone with a couple of cups of coffee in the morning. I also am congested so my chest is burning and I feel like I'm on the brink of allergy/asthma attack, but so far I've been able to keep from wheezing. Ended up with 3 new laptops in the house although I only intended to order 2 -- one for my personal use to replace a dying Windows ME desktop and for a graduation gift for the soon-to-be college student. But due to a glitch in the Dell shopping cart, it asked me to sign onto paypal and make a combined payment because the items I selected exceeded my available credit line by $47. So then I decided I'd just go ahead and take off the non-essentials like fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, maxed RAM and when I did that it brought down the total. So I submitted the order and it charged the whole freaking thing to paypal. By the time I could call customer service in the a.m., they could only cancel 2 of 3 items, one 17" laptop was already "in production". I told them that they were NOT going to be paid, that there wasn't $700 nor $1400 sitting in cash to be paid from my bank. He told me that it wouldn't ship without the payment and I was safe to reorder the items on my credit line. So I did and 3 days later, I got a notice that the item that had been "in production" was shipped. I disputed it with Paypal but they said that it wasn't an unauthorized claim. I immediately called Dell when I got the shipping notice but they couldn't cancel it. She told me all I could do was accept the item and return it. So I submitted a return request, do you think I've had a response? NOPE!!!! I hate talking to customer svc centers in India! They just don't get it but I'm not paying to return it or for a restocking fee for the one I didn't want especially when they told me to go ahead and order it again and I did. If they want it back then they can pay for the shipping back and make the arrangements to come get it, I'm done trying to get through to them that they sent me a free laptop. I might suck it up and just pay for it and then use one for my personal stuff and one for my business laptop because the one I bought for myself 3 years ago for $399 at Best Buy (a Compaq 551NR) is being used mainly by the munchkins and we are in need of key repairs on it. Plus the keyboard is too small for me to type on so I always have a USB keyboard hooked up to it. This Studio 1737 has a large enough keyboard even for me (I use ergonomic wave keyboards on my desktops) and it also has the 10-key on it which is super nice for when I'm crunching numbers or entering stuff. And ugh, it comes with a built-in 2.0 megapixel webcam and I am too visible on it so don't expect me to use it anytime soon! It was also upgrade time for 2 cell phones on our plan so we got a Pantech Slate for free (after rebate, of course) for the 14-year old and a Nokia E71x for $0.99 -- sweet! I initially ordered it from AT&T for $150 but then it was backordered and ultimately cancelled so saving $149 was good with me. Now, I swapped my Samsung Epix for the Nokia E71x because I don't like the "n" key being in the wrong spot. The Epix had a touchscreen, the E71x doesn't, but it'll suffice. It's just for use as a phone not a PDA anyway and it's an upgrade over the Nokia E62 I had before (which had no camera). This has a camera with a blinding flash even. Of course, this is only until September when I can upgrade and I'm torn between an iPhone and the HTC Fuze. Anything else? Oh yes, tomorrow is spring cleaning. Well actually move mom's crap back to the office so she can work there since the kids only have 7 days of school left and mom can't work on accountings and complex pleadings with the television blaring, music playing and them roaming the house. Maybe once and for all I can organize all my craft stuff and office stuff so I have storage and access to what I need. I moved the drafting table/desk onto the patio to use for picnicking and that made a bit of room and I've got some shelves that should fit perfectly against the wall there. That should be a major solution as I have a better idea of what is going to end up where and will have room enough for all my books and magazines. Kinda boring weekend for the kids but it'll make the house look nicer to get mom's office moved out of the family room, too. And of course, we have to bbq for Memorial Day weekend -- but that's nothing new. I'm on my 4th bag of charcoal since mid-March. (It's my barrel/smoker grill and I discovered that Kingsford has this charwood that flames like wood and burns long like charcoal that is wonderful for cooking steaks.) And tried to register the munchkin for kindergarten today only to find out that in my file folder of medical cards, records, SSNs, etc. that I never ordered birth certificates for either of my girls. If I did, they didn't get put back in there and I wouldn't have needed Sara's for any reason, Rachel's might have gotten misplaced when we moved here and could be with her school registration papers but not Sara's. All I know is that I have everything for the boys, everyone's shot records, everyone's SSN cards and the info about ordering death certificates but only certified ones for the boys and not the girls. Poor neglected girls!

I'm not sure that's even a word, but here's the story that goes with that word. . . When you have a 4-year old, you have a constant companion, especially if you're a woman and the child is a daughter. So I was doing a Body by Jake workout last Monday and she had to do it too. Which is fine since she's chubby and I'm tired of being a lardass. We used our snow scrapers for broomsticks and canned veggies for weights. The VHS tape we were using was bought long ago so no cost on that end. But then I made the mistake of taking her in the garage and we used the treadmill. My mom took photos on Mother's Day and I just looked grossly large. So I have to do something drastic. I hate the treadmill. I can't quit eating, am already watching what I eat and making smarter choices but at a certain age, dieting alone doesn't do much. [I have mostly cut out soda (sometimes I have 2 glasses on weekend) and I have been using Aveeno Positively Radiant pads and my skin looks great! I signed up for Skinny Switch Secret but shopping and buying all those foods, just for me, we'd all be losing weight, cuz there'd be no money left in the bank.] I can't use my Total Gym with her additional 50 lbs plunked on it, it just makes it too difficult. Plus it's in the garage where we have a DVD player but not a VCR and the workouts are on VHS, of course. Same with the other workout piece I have, there's only one and it has VHS tapes to go with it. So the treadmill it was -- she walks up front or to the right and I walk behind or to the left. We did about 30 minutes the first day. I did kick her off for about 10 min. so I could take it at a brisker pace. Then I let her do 3 min. on her own closely supervised. The reason it was a mistake is that the very next day, she hounded me about going out and doing it again. Our normal routine is that I will usually go to bed with hubby for about a half hour or hour and get 40 winks while her siblings are finishing homework and she's playing or watching the boob tube. Well that wasn't good enough, every 5 minutes she kept coming to get me to tell me it was time to "go treadmilling" So the 3rd time I gave in, she's right, we do need to do this and without her prodding, I'd probably put it off. So in that sense, it's not a "mistake", but I never knew how good she was at nagging before. LOL But I never intended for it to become a daily thing, I'd much rather do elliptical machines, but I don't own one yet and my #1 thing would be to go swimming, but I have to join a gym or just do like my kids and sneak into the casino pools. (They said the secret is "don't make eye contact and no one will ask if you should be there.") I wouldn't rule out horseback riding either, but that is also cost prohibitive

So I'm in control of the remote or the clicker, whatever you call it, for once -- tonight. So I'm checking out the On Demand stuff in the music category. They have U2 in there so I go and watch their videos from the Joshua Tree album. Gosh, that music just floods back tons of memories and looking at the info and seeing that it was made in 1987, it hits me hard and I realize that was the last year that we had all of our extended family members still here on Earth. And Bono, he looks so baby-faced, not the stubbily, gruff look that he's adopted in these last few years. Yeah, there's part of me going "well you've got a kid heading to college next year" so of course 20 years have passed by but there's another part of me going, you have a toddler, you can't be THAT old! And it seems like 1987 was just yesterday although sooo much has to have happened. I still feel like a kid inside (although admittedly I'm not as quick/good at Algebra stuff as I was 25 yrs ago). So then I go okay, 20+ years have passed and what have you accomplished? What have you saved? Are you still in the same rut from 20 years ago financially (yes!) How annoying is that!??!! About the only thing that has been consistent is that I'm still in a house full of people and lonely. My kids even ask what it's like to not have any friends. Nice, huh? But I just don't have the time or energy to devote to other people, I barely have time for my own thoughts. Albeit I am happy and content with my life. Back in 1987 seems now like it was a much simpler time. So much hadn't happened yet, if I had known what was coming, would I have done anything differently? Probably. I was still practically a newlywed then, driving my 1981 Nissan 200 SX still. Heck if I just list cars since then I know it's been a long time, let's see 1985 Dodge Ram, 1986 Buick Century, some old Ford we didn't keep long, then a borrowed 1979 Ford Fairmont, a station wagon that smoked that we donated to charity after I got a ticket 2 weeks after we scraped together money to buy it, 1991 Pontiac Bonneville, 1995 Olds 88, 2001 Saturn SL2, 1998 Ford Contour, 1987 Plymouth Voyager, 1997 Olds 88 and 2000 Plymouth Voyager. That's lot and lots of car payments. The one thing that is pretty similar is 1987 is about the time I first recall the American economy going in the toilet and having to see homeless people living outside and begging on street corners. I never saw anything like that growing up in the midwest or upon first arriving in California. Heck, I never even saw food stamps until I'd moved to California -- I'd never lived in an apartment before then either. Had been in houses my whole life up until my senior year in high school. Well I'm not sure if I feel better or am depressed after this post. It looks like all I've actually accumulated in this time is 40 pounds and probably an assortment of scars and wrinkles. I'm determined to take much better care of myself these next 20 years, that's for darned sure! I just wish I had continued to write in my journals every night so I'd have something to go back to review all the events in my life that I'm sure I've forgotten.

So this month I added another candle on my cake.  Can't really say that I'm happy with that # either.

Oh, and now there is another licensed driver in the family.  Somehow my happy baby that used to have as many rolls on his arms and legs as the Michelin man is a thin young man with well-defined muscles asking to borrow my vehicle.  It was a mistake to make my Buick his favorite place to play when he was 1!  I don't think I can get used to this concept -- the whole old enough to drive, turning over responsibility for the family vehicle (and sometimes the lives of other family members) to a young kid.  He loves mirrors almost as much as I abhor them.  He grew up way too fast, I want my baby back.  *pouts*  He says now I don't have to be taxi, but he doesn't realize I treasure those moments in the car with my knuckleheads.  We sing, we talk, we actually take time to listen to each other then.

So the mirror thing, besides being obsessed with how he looks, he is all obsessed with his weight because of wrestling.  Was hoping to make it to state championships but only made it to semi-final round at regionals.  I finally got him a digital scale and this one measures body fat and hydration.  On darn, 6 people in the family and it can only track 2 people.  What a shame.  But there is good news!  I lost 7 lbs between when I bought it last week and when I weighed myself this a.m.   (We have been trying to make better food choices, but it's not overeating that is my problem, but the need to get some exercise.)

And I got some time to make some cards this week for a swap.  They turned out lovely, I'll have to upload them to photobucket.  I've been lax about that lately. Been doing algebra each night (man am I RUSTY!!!) and reading library books about digital editng and Photoshop Elements this week, too.  So I shut down all the computers at night.  With all that churning upstairs, it's hard to turn off the brain at bedtime.  My body is tired, but I just lay there awake mulling over stuff.

Now that California is doing refund checks, guess I'll get busy doing my non-resident return so I can get a bit of spending money.

Well I am finally getting around to writing about my November adventure.  Ever since Aloha Airlines shut down, flying from Reno to San Diego has become a hassle.  Yes, Southwest added Reno-San Diego service again last year (they had stopped in 2004 shortly after I moved to Reno).  At first it was 6:30 flight that got there that got there at 8.  Then the return flight was around 7 so I got a decent amount of time at the office.  Then they started shifting the flights so they were 20 min later in the morning but moving the evening flight 20 min earlier.  Well we had tried alternate routes thru Orange on Aloha so we checked that out too.  Not great luck with that as their a.m. flight was better but the p.m. flight would leave us fighting traffic to the airport for only 30-min difference in flight times.  So I gave in and scheduled the trip there and back on flights with 1 stop.  The morning one went thru Vegas, had about 45 minutes there.  This meant that instead of 1 hour early at airport, 1 hr, 20 min flight and 45 min drive to the office, that my flying time was extended by 2 or 2 1/2 hours.  Bummer !

So the return flight was San Diego to San Jose.  It was a late flight and the office usually drops me off about 2 hours early.  So then the flight is delayed and I sit at the gate waiting to see the plane.  I ask the gate agent about the delay and if it wll affect my connecting flight, he assures me I will have plenty of time.    Then I notice them putting up flight # and it isn't my flight.  My flight is 3 gates away and is already boarding and the C group is getting on.  I was supposed to board with the A group.  The flight is full and I get a seat in the next to last row of the plane.  I think you can see where this is going.  I usually take advantage of flight times to nap or do puzzles, read, but mostly sleep.   Which is what I do on this flight.  This was a completely fu flight where if the baby doesn't have a ticket, they have to sit on your lap fullness.  So I nap with my shoes off.  They say it is 9:10 when we land, I already have shoes off and boarding pass in hand.  So when I exit, I look for the gate I nee and I run.  It is 7 gates away with 2 hallways to get thru.  I arrive at 9:35 when the flight is scheduled to leave and they are already closed, locked and I can't get on.  They tell me that they paged me and I explain that I was running and was at the back of the plane.  So they go look and see that it was a completely full plane.  She tried to say well they had 1 other person from that flight who made it but admits they didn't check to see that flight was full.  Well duh they should've and should've also seen I was on it.  She says she can get me on the next flight but it won't be until the morning.  I am mad, tears are running down my face, getting home tomorrow won't cut it.  My cellphone is dead and I didn't bring my charger so I have to use payphone to let hubby know what is going on.  He chuckles but says there is nothing he can do.  Men just don't get that we don't need them to solve stuff, but just to listen sometimes.  So it takes about an hour for the gate agent to do her thing which is basically just apologize, blame the San Diego agent for not notfying them I was on a delayed full flight, give me a full refund and a $50 voucher.  Cuz it turns out that the flight the next day wasn't an early flight but would leave at 8:35 an arrive at 9:35 -- heh I'm due at my desk at 8:30 so that doesn't work any way, any how.

So I am wandering San Jose Airport in my stocking feet all puffy-eyed I'm sure.  I find my way to the car rental shuttle and get out at the first one.  It is Avis and Hertz.  Had a bad time with Hertz in 1999, arrived in Vegas with reservation but they refused to give us car because hubby had mailed in his license extension but didn't have new license yet.  He was paying for car but they wouldn't rent car to me and let him pay.  That was the year we discovered Thrifty Car Rental and developed a bad taste for Hertz.  I swallowed my pride and approached Hertz about if they had a car that could go 1-way to Reno.  She said she didn't think so but she would check.  She said she had 1 that could go and it was $85 for a Ford Escape.  So I took it, asked directions to freeway from lot attendant but from there wasn't sure where to go.  I had driven dozens of times between Sacramento and San Diego over I-5 and Highway 99 but not really the Bay Area.  When I was first in Sacramento, they had the I-80 freeway that lead to Reno or south thru Sacramento and the 880 that connected Sacramento to San Francisco but sometime in the mid-1980s, they took away the 880 designation and just called both freeways "80".  Quite confusing and I was on the 880 heading from San Jose to San Francisco.  So how far did I stay on there, where did I veer off, I just followed my nose.  I might have been able to take a shorter route but knew that if I went thru Modesto/Stockton, I'd get to Sacramento and I could get home from there.  Luckily the Escape had Sirius radio and I explored its 200 stations and sang my way home.  Normally I have trouble staying awake on long drives, even the 2.5 hours from Sac to Reno can drain me.  But I took this 5.5 hour drive and arrived home at 3:30 a.m.  Needless to say, I just hung onto the rental and left my van at the airport and then exchanged them in the afternoon.  The boss took pity on me and let me leave early to do that.

Hubby never said so but I heard from the kids later that he was going to drive to San Jose and rescue me  But with the dead cell phone, no way to reconnect and I never called to say I was on my way.  I had already hinted that I would get a car and come back but he thought I was joking, that I'd go get a hotel room and stay overnight.  Like what was I supposed to do alone in San Jose from 9:30 to 8:30 a.m.?  Especially knowing a little someone doesn't sleep unless I am there and she was up at 3:30 when I arrived, too!  So I knew I had done the right thing in making my way home any way possible.

And to top it off, Southwest has now added 2 additional nonstops between Reno and San Diego but completely revamped the schedule.  So that means the nonstop morning one leaves at 11-something and the return nonstop in evening is at 6-something.  Add driving time between San Diego and Carlsbad and early flight arrival time and it isn't worth it.  Staying overnight in San Diego doesn't appeal either.  Looks like I might be doing it thru Sacramento again or have to give in and select flight with 1 stop again. 

Wow, can't believe it's been so long since I have posted **anything**.  I started writing an entry yesterday and then a little person wanted to climb in my lap and the whole thing blipped away.

Had great holidays -- haven't been having much snow out west here though.  Well except the 2 times that I had to drive somewhere.  I even caused it to snow in Vegas, more snow than they had in 30 years so they even shut down all the roads in and out.  All because I had to get to San Diego -- had a rental car, pulled the kids out of school and was debating what routes to take -- thru California or just down 395 thru Nevada and then over into Southern California.  We hadn't had ANY snow at all, not even our early October snow so I hoped I was in the clear but I had to leave on Thursday and they started predicting snow storms coming thru starting Monday.  Well we didn't get the snow but Southern California did.  So the grapevine was closed so that pretty much helped me decide on the 395 route.  So then I had a brainstorm and suggested to my husband that I might just drive around the snow by going to Vegas and then from Vegas to San Diego -- ha, ha,  Boy did that backfire.  When I was heading out all 3 routes had travel restrictions but the 395 one was supposed to lift after 12 noon.  So I figured we'd be in the clear cuz we'd be to that area waaaay past noon.  We had almost no snow visible the first 4 hours, a scattering here and there and you could see it on the mountains as we passed the entry to Yosemite but nothing on the roads at all.  Then we made our first (and only) stop for gas, potty break and food.  So I decided we'd push on thru since mapquest said it was 9-hour drive.  Little did I know we'd get stuck where 395 merges into I-15.  Because of ice and spinouts, they aren't used to snow down there and they plowed the lanes of the 2-lane road but not the middle of the road.  So when the sun went down all of that had melted and the roads were just sheets of ice.  It took us 3 hours to travel 10 miles.  I was between 2 18-wheelers and all I could see was a street sign.  Used the GPS on my phone to figure out where the heck we were.  Couldn't turn around for fear of ending up in a ditch, moving slowly was preferable to being ditched in a rental car I wasn't familiar with.  Luckily the baby slept cuz if she had to "go", I was at a loss at what to do.  Didn't want to go along side of road, there were houses there but nowhere with a potty but you couldn't really pull off the shoulder to knock on a door to even ask for that favor or you'd get stuck in the snow piled there from off the road.  So by the time we hit 15, we decided we'd just keep on pushing thru.  We were in the car for 9 hours straight by the time we finally made it to our hotel room.  Me and 3 kids -- a toddler and 2 teenagers.  I tell ya what, they all earned brownie points from mom for tolerance that day.   The ride home was totally uneventful because of course, we had 3 days to get home and all the snow had melted by then.  We checked into our hotel and then hit up a fast food place for stuff to eat, drove by the beach because we wanted to and then went back to our room.  I was too tired to eat and too wound up to sleep but just laid down until I did finally fall asleep.

The next trip was to go back to the office in January.  But I needed some time and the Reno nonstop flights only give me about 6-8 hours to be there.  So I figured I'd drive to Sacramento, leave the little one with my mom for the day because Sac has about 10 nonstops each day.  Well I got a rental car on Saturday afternoon but instead of driving at night, I thought I'd leave in the a.m. right after Sunday school (since I assist the teacher).  They said there was a snowstorm coming but it wouldn't hit until the afternoon.  Might not even make it the valley floor (i.e., the City of Reno).  So when it started snowing in Reno hard and steady at 10:10 a.m., I knew I was in trouble.  Sure enough, I had to buy chains and pay someone to install them, I figured out how to remove them myself after the chain controls ended.  So out of 135 miles, half of it needed chains.  NOT because the snow was building up on the roads, there were snow plows out but not needed.  It was 26 degrees in the mountains but the snow was melting on the roads.  I theorize they did chain controls to make money for the official installers ($30 to install, $15 to remove).  Luckily I did think to hit the ATM to get $20 cash before hitting the road which is what I used to pay the guy at Chevron to put on my chains.

So my life came be summed up in driving adventures and I have one more tale but since this is getting a bit long, I'll just end it for tonight.

Oh by the way, I have rented 3 different cars so far.  The first time they gave me a Ford Escape.  It had stiff, uncomfortable ride.  The next was a Dodge Avenger, that car was pretty incredible.  Smooth ride, huge trunk, enough power to climb the mountains.  The last was a PT Cruiser and it was okay.  I felt like I was in a hearse (black PT Cruiser), no cruise control which stunk and the chains made the steering wheel totally wobble and the whole car vibrate.  I was able to fit a 2-drawer file cabinet in the "trunk" and I liked how you could hide things in the back.  But I definitely wouldn't ever buy a Ford Escape or PT Cruiser.  Maybe the Dodge Avenger but I liked the Chrysler 300 my hubby rented much better than it.  (Oh and seems the trick with the Thrifty Car Rental here is to go ahead and reserve the compact car because they give you whatever is on the lot anyway so might as well get it at the cheapest rate.)

 

Okay when I find something that is hotter, better and even more delicious than me, I have to give it up.  And give em props.  LOL.  Anyway, we decided to try Wing Stop the other night.  Haven't ever been there before so I wasn't sure what to order.  So I ordered the cajun flavor and the original hot flavor.  We've had a variety of hot wings from the grocery stores and restaurants and even some of the not-so-hot wings like the Chipotle ones.  Sometimes we add Mongolian Fire Oil to ours to ensure they have a nice burn.  Sometimes I even slop on some Frank's Original Red Hot (after they've baked awhile and about 5 min. before coming out of the oven.).  We thought we could handle the heat.

Needless to say, we were blown away.  Just carrying them home, you could just smell these babies were gonna be sizzling.  The hot wings were good, nice burn, great flavor.  But just a whiff of the cajun and we knew they were gonna be trouble.  I drank plenty of water with mine, at least 3 tall glasses.  But I couldn't help myself, I had to get some more.  Now they also had a hotter flavor called "atomic".  These were so fiery, I am sure I couldn't handle their hottest flavor.

They were good but a bit pricey too.  So we headed back to the grocery store the next day for hot wings.  Because we also like them a certain way, not wet anymore and just starting to be crispy and we can only seem to achieve that in our own oven.

So did I make you hungry yet?