Plastic "Garbage Island" in the Pacific

Ewww, yuck! I've never heard of this...it's terrifying.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/30/MNT5T1NER.DTL

Things to ponder...

From email...these were my favorite...

Isn't making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?

I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks, so I wondered what do Chinese mothers use? toothpicks?

Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office?What are we supposed to do, write to them?Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen can look for them while they deliver the mail?

If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?

Fleet Week 2007

The only Fleet Week activity I went to was the airshow. By chance, I ended up in a great spot at the base of the Golden Gate bridge. I thought the harbour would be a great backdrop for the airshow. However, It turns out that the planes fly right over my spot on their way down to the bay. When you looked up the hill it looked like the planes were coming directly at you. That was really cool! Especially when the plane flying at 700 miles per hour flew over!

In addition to the airshow we had an aquatic wildlife show. In between planes I noticed two dolphins swimming right below us. For the next 30minutes, while some boring plane performed, everyone was taking pictures of the dolphins ; )

Check out all the sets: FleetWeek Airshow, ...Blue Angles, ...Dolphins

Slacking Off

I know I haven't been updating the blog much at all. I'm finally over my sickness but I have been catering a lot and pretty busy, for a change, at work.

I will endeavor to do better. However all my catering will pay for my plane ticket to KY for Monica's wedding reception and to see all my friends ; ) November 3rd and surrounding days are my target dates for KY.

Anyone get the name of the horse that hit me ??? ; )

Sunday was the first day I “really” rode Vikki. We are talking trot & canter. I am SOoooooo sore today!! Riding is similar to swimming & skiing…it’s a whole body activity and you end up with sore muscles everywhere. Catering immediately after probably didn’t help any either…

However Vikki did very well. Her trot was nice and bouncy and I was able to keep her at that instead of a stung out trot. And her canter take-offs were nice and controlled with no bucking!! We do have a lot of bending work to do at the canter once she is in shape.

Vikki is also out of her subdued mood. She wanted to be all fruity yesterday. Plus there was a lot of activity going on and it was slightly windy. More pictures… here.

Probiotics

I raided Whole Foods today for Probiotics...anything to keep me healthy instead of contently sick like the last few months. I'm still a little sick from the virus/sinus infection I got 3 weeks ago.

Last year I was under complete stress from June-March and only got sick once for 4 days. Since March I've been sick almost once a month. Even my Add Doc mentioned it. I do have a very sensitive immune system that freaks out a lot. I get cold symptoms for a day or two after a sunburn?? And after an activity that gives me sore muscles?? My sinus flip out after I inhale particles in the air, even though I'm not allergic to any airborne items. And to temperature/humidity changes overnight...which is why I don't camp out.

I do think there is a possibility I'm getting another food allergy and that completely destroys my immune system! I'm looking for an allergist that will do a more comprehensive food test.

Your Money or Your Life

"Your Money or Your Life: Transforming your relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence."

I've just started reading this book with the objective of being smarter about money. The first exercise it has you do is very interesting:

1)Total your gross earnings from the time you started working...I've made almost $500,000!!
2)Total your money, ie 401k, savings, life insurance, home equity, etc
3)Total your debts
4)Record and total the cash value of everything you have if you were to sell it. List possessions as prices you could get at a garage sale or consignment. This makes you realize how much stuff you have when you have to itemize everything! It helps you get over the "I need" or "I don't have" when you look at a spreadsheet of thousands of items you own.

Sleepy Ari

Ari was wiped out by the swimming. Poor thing. She is actually sound alseep with her mouth & eyes open. She didn't move/flink/flinch when the flash went off = )

Yosemite on the way home

Yosemite was pretty. I like the Eastern side better. More white rock & desert like. The main Yosemite attractions are in Yosemite Valley which is in the Southwest of the park. There are the sites: Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Falls, & lots of other Large Edifices. We drove around and took pictures but didn’t get out and hike. We were on our way back with the girls & dogs are not allowed on Yosemite trails.

Half Dome on right ---->

El Capitan \/ Yosemite Valley \/ To Yosemite Valley \/

Panum Crater

Panum Crater was more fun then Mono Lake in my opinion. Although it is just from a Volcano not an Asteroid or UFO…that would have made it really cool! The crater is water drop shaped. There is an outer rim and then an inner splash/plug if you will. On the inside is a lot of Black Obsidian rock.

Ancient Bristlecone Pines

So the Bristlecone pines are very cool. I would like to go back and do more hiking there and in surrounding areas. It was very quite and peaceful. The trees are neat looking because they are so gnarled. The video was quite fascinating at the visitor’s center. The living trees are up to 4000+ years old. The oldest trees are called Methuselahs. The dead trees on the ground date back 7000-10,000 yrs old because there is so little decay in the high dry elevation. The Bristlecone pines mostly live in the White Mountains because they seem to like the Dolomite mineral which makes the rock white.

Apparently the trees actually verified & corrected the carbon dating technique. They took core samples of many trees, marked the rings, then lined the marks up. This way they were able to line up marks for up to 7000 years. Then there is a gap from 7000-10,000 then the marks start up again for another couple thousand years. From this they compared wood from archeological sites and were able to date that wood which dated the artifacts in turn. Even though the wood from the archeological site may have been from the another continent, the average environmental conditions for earth were comparable which affects tree growth & the tree rings. That is how the comparison was made. Pretty cool from an anthropological standpoint.

On a side note…I always like anthropology: how man evolved and the first ancient civilizations.

Pictures here!

Bishop, CA

We stayed in Bishop and it was a cute little town. North of Death Valley & East of Yosemite. It sits along Route 395 which is a main drag through the Eastern Sierras…from Las Vegas to Reno essentially. They did have a really neat Dutch bakery there...Erick Schat's Bakkery.

It was neat to see such different scenery. I’m so used to East Coast/Midwest that the California/Desert/Sierras just seems so exciting. Funny though I’m just not fond of the Oregon/Washington/Southern Alaska “rainforests” with all the Coniferous trees. Hiking Mt Rainier was fun & pretty but I don’t want to see that all the time. I’m not sure why but it bugs me??

I was also surprised I didn’t have more of a problem hiking in the heat/dryness. The first day I had a few issues but once I did some serious hiking & used up that adrenaline I was fine.

I hope Nam had a good time being dragged through half of CA ; ) He drove the whole time and has a ton of Dalmatian hair in his car to prove it. He also has this really cool GPS hookup from his laptop which came in handy in Yosemite @ 11pm at night where there are very few useful road signs… We were actually going the correct way though!

Mono Lake

Mono Lake was neat but I wouldn’t make the 5hr trip just for it. The Tufas were okay but nothing too special. . I did prefer the sand Tufas to the Calcium Tufas in the water.

The Lake is 10% salt solution so you do float which was neat. The natives cultivated the Alkali flies as their main protein source…eewww.

Here is video of a Seagull scooping up flies from the shore...





We did go back a second day to take the dogs swimming on the way home. By going in the water I did get both girls to swim. It did seem a little easier for them too because of the buoyancy. And they managed to find a jackrabbit around the sand Tufas = ) The whole adventure wore the girls out!

Here is a video of Ari still doggie paddling even when I hold her out of the water!

Busy Busy Busy

This has been a busy month…First I was stressed with Vikki…Then I took the trip to Bishop…then more Vikki stress…Catering 5 days in one week…Then being totally ill STILL! And Vikki should appear this coming week and I’ll probably be somewhat sick for another week. Whew!

So now, on to the vacation diary (with YOUtube videos!)

Google Street view...my front door

This is cool...Nathan did this on his blog, http://www.nathanvalentine.org/, and it has taken me three tries to figure out how to do it.

My front door my car is not there : (

Nathan's car at his work

I'll be a famous photographer.....

I received an email stating that one of my Reno, NV photos on my Flickr page was selected to be in the 3rd edition of the Schmap Worldwide Travel Guides - Reno edition.

I'm so surprised and proud, "tickled pink" if you will = ) Either my picture is great...OR they can't find many pictures of Reno. I'm betting on the latter... Anyway here is the photo they like.

3.0 Earthquake - Was 3 miles from center

Latest Earthquake centered in Berkeley. It felt like a car ran into the building. A hard Jerk. A few things rattled and a picture frame fell in the HR loft upstairs. It lasted all of 3 seconds. Then everyone turned around and said "Did that really happen? Was that an earthquake?"

Real Time Shake Maps - I entered my info = )
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/STORE/X40200915/ciim_display.html

Info
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40200915.htm

Baker Beach Pictures - AKA Nuddie Beach

No nuddies on the beach yesterday ; ( The waves were pretty big and had a nice crashing sound. I'll try to post the video file later...

More pics here.

Amazing Dalmatian Rescue Footage

Great Video of a Dalmatian rescue
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/08/21/wsaz.dog.dug.out.affl

Freecycle is great!

I picked up 2 huge Star Aloe plants & 4 spider plants from Freecycle. The rest of the plants followed me home from Home Depot when I went to get some huge pots for the huge Aloe plants ; )

I'm so excited... plants are going outside on my stoop & next to the building. To try and prevent stealing I'm going to tie the pots together loosely with fishing line. I'm on a visible corner and the previous people had some plants taken occasionally. My neighbor said she saw one little old lady running down the street with a plant. That's okay though ; ) they are cheap or free and they must really need/want them if they have to steal from me ; p

Freecycle is great...you can offer Items for free or post a message for Wanted Items...

http://www.freecycle.org/

Metal Chain Closet Storage Solutions

Real Simple Article& Pic

This is exactly what I'm doing for scarves & shoes...and I never read this issue. I also hung a metal grid on my closet ceiling to hang "S" hooks from to store stuff above my head (since I'm short) ; )

Car Fire

Yes, it is 3am Monday morning and my camera chose this day to have battery connection issues...there goes another $150...

Anyway, It was 2am and I was awake and watching TV due to the dogs freaking out over the smoke detector's low battery alarm. All of a sudden I realize there is a background noise that sounds like a continous car horn. I stop the dvd and realize it's outside but it was faint...like it was a block away. I looked out the window and see an SUV on fire two doors down. So I throw on some clothes, grabbed the cell phone, and ran out the door. The dogs were laying on the bed and just looked up at me through all of this ; )

The story was a neighbor was at a bar and was too drunk to drive home. So she asked this women she met to drive her in her SUV. This other woman hit something and kept driving. When they pulled up to my neighbor's house the car just caught on fire. The other woman took off.

I'm so mad I didn't get pictures! I even tried my remote batteries that work and the camera wouldn't turn on. I did get a hell of a lot of use out of it though but I'm dissapointed if it doesn't even last a year. I'll try new batteries at work tomorrow.

Some new pictures

I'll continually add interesting miscellaneous photos to this Flickr Folder
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600988361326/

New photos of the Planet of the Apes trail in Pacifica, CA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600484329848/

This strikes me as funny & cute...

From the BBC, "A keeper at Berlin Zoo feeds a bunch of bananas to hungry hippopotamus Gregor."

I did not know hippos ate bananas...

Losing Steam

Not as many posts lately. I'm feeling stretched thin. I think a lot of is was 2 weeks of intense cleaning every day due to the pet issues. Plus I actually have work to do now and I'm on a learning curve which sucks. After work I don't really want to do anything. I've thought about not catering for a weekend or two but I don't think that will help.

Pets < Stress (for now.....)

Pet update...
All the peeing is under control! The daily cranberry juice stopped Ari's peeing the very next day. Since it was so successful I decided to try it on the kitten before I kicked her out. I haven't found cat pee all this week. So maybe that was successfully too! and SuzyQ will still have her happy home ; )

I still flea brush the cats daily and I only find 3-4 fleas per cat. The dogs usually have 2-3 on them as well. I still have one more month of Frontline for all pets so I'll probably treat them and see if that gets rid of the remaining fleas.

Horse News...!
I am considering two barns with large pastures right now. And I have a Sept 8th ship date booked! Should make a decision this weekend on which farm. The one barn doesn't have direct trail access, is across the bridge (toll) on the sunny side of the Bay, and doesn't allow dogs on farm trails. The 2nd barn allows dogs on trails, no bridge toll, but is in the foggy side of the Peninsula. Which may be a problem for my horse allergies like two of the other farms I had to rule out.

This time it's Politicians...

Tonight I served Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House. She seemed nice and short in stature : ) All the Politicians I've catered to are short. I almost bowled over Gov. Ernie Fletcher at the 2004 Rolex and he wasn't much taller then me!

Battle of Kruger (lions vs buffalo vs gator)

This is just amazing! It is a little long 8.+ minutes but worth it. Lions attach a buffalo calf, then a gator tries to get the calf, then the whole heard of buffalo come back to attack the lions and free the calf. I have a whole new respect for buffalo!

Yummm

Awesome dinner last night.... Veggie Burrito from Taquiero Cancun in the Mission then Peanut Butter Indulgence ice cream at Mitchell's. Mitchell's is the same place that makes the Filipino Ube (purple yam) ice cream. I haven't found a great ice cream place like this since Storhimes in Green Bay, WI.

Pets = Stress

The researchers are wrong!!! Pets cause stress! And lots of it!

Fleas, for the past few years frontline hasn't seemed to work much at all. The start coincided with Vikki's move to a new barn....Anyway, I had treated the cats once this summer but not the dogs. Cats were scratching and it almost time for another treatment. Out of curiosity, to see how many fleas the dogs had, I bought a flea comb. The dogs had 2-3 fleas per dog which has been standard the last 3 years in KY *with* frontline. The cats had 30+ fleas per CAT...OMG!! I freaked out! That night I put together a homemade flea catcher and relaxed some when it didn't catch a single one : ) Then I proceeded to do a lot of natural treatments some of which are listed on the Barefoot Lass's site. Why should I pay $$ for frontline if it's not working!!!!!! Now I'm wiping the dogs down with lemon water, flea combing the cats daily, rubbing borax & salt into my wood floor once a week, and moping for flea eggs. I know I don't have an *infestation* but the cats really freaked me out!

Next Ari has been peeing during the day and it had a strong smell. No infection, however, struvite crystals were seen. Which is unusual since Dalmatians are prone to Urate crystals and her PH was 7. We'll see if 1/2 cup of cranberry juice mixed in with some yogurt daily helps. I'm still not *unconvinced* that it's not a product of anxiety or old age pissiness.

So pretty much daily, I have to clean the kitchen floor. I do put down a towel which she pees on but it soaks though. So I thought puppy pads! Unfortunately I forgot Ari likes to tear up paper products left on the floor....so after two days of confetti I have abandoned that idea. Next is a loner crate from the dog-sitter......


Then the kitten........SuzyQ has been peeing again. And I'm certain she's voicing her displeasure which will ultimately result in her being without a home!! To calm her down, I started doping her with Rescue Remedy, a natural herbal calming serum. Which does calm her down but I still found another violation during these days. I'm trying one last verification test...I am shoving pureed steamed beets down her throat daily. The idea is that the beets will color her urine so I can be 100% sure it's her and not Dolly. Then I put down her favs...plastic bags and towels.


The one good bit of news is the dog-sitter volunteered to take SuzyQ if I get rid of her. And she knows about the peeing. Yeah!

Love the BBC

"A car rests upside down against a wall and a handrail as pedestrians look on in central Moscow. Witnesses say the driver walked away from the accident unharmed." BBC

Abu Grab

I never heard anything about this side of the story....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6930197.stm

Work & the Brain

I'm now being trained in Firmware...we'll see how it goes!

At least I'm busy and my brain has seemed to turn back on. However, my organization, memory, and control of daily life has taken a downturn...What the Heck!!! So is my theory right, that my brain can only so much at once or similar tasks. So I can either **think/learn** OR **be organized and remember daily life sh%t**?? What a choice! I'm going to question the ADD Doc about this. I'm still on the same dose of Ritalin but maybe the "genius" drug did reset or modify my brain somehow....

Cat vs Puppies (Yes I need to stay away from YouTube)

Tortoise chases cat video

Dansko Shoes **Love**Love**Love**

I broke down and bought really nice catering shoes. Danskos! They were expensive but I can tell already that they are worth it. Made for people who are on their feet all day especially on hard flooring. They were originally a barn shoe designed by a husband & wife horse trainers.

Just a little too weird

www.MyDeathSpace.com

Read an article about this website...have not visited it myself. It archives MySpace pages of people who have died. Started by a guy in the Bay Area...

Catering Carpool

My day job has a great little email distribution list for people to carpool. It's mostly a spontaneous day to day thing but it works great! So since getting carpool names from the Catering company staff was very difficult...I created a yahoo groups for an email distribution list. At each event I've polled for email addresses of interested people. It's slow right now but I've heard some people have had success through it. Yeah!

Grrrrr.....Got Towed

Saturday eve (Sunday morning) 2am after catering...walk out and find that my car was towed. With 3 carpoolers stranded as well. Luckily it was in the City only 20 blocks from my house but still..... SFPD put up poorly placed signs for "Special Event" parking. So $$350 later I have my car back. I'm going to contest it just to make them work for my money!!

Seattle

Seattle was fun. My cousin Kirstyn and I saw the tourist sites of Downtown. Olena and I hiked Mt Rainier and went to the Microsoft company picnic. More info later....

Here are the pics:

Downtown

http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600988022568/

Mt Rainier

http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600990326089/

Microsoft

http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157600990350063/

**Stars*&*Celebrities**

Saturday I catered the 50th birthday party for Pixar’s CEO John Lasiter with a concert performance by Brad Paisley. My section had the two VIP tables which included the celebrities:
Robin Williams
Billy Crystal
Brad Paisley (country signer – great voice)
& wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Father of the Bride)
Bonnie Hunt (Cheaper by Dozen, Beethoven, Green Mile)

The woman I carpooled with said Tim Allen was at her table and she saw Daryl Hannah and Nicole Kidman.

Now I would have loved to see Tim Allen and Nicole Kidman. Billy Crystal was cool and he had two pieces of cake : )

The weird thing is just looking and serving them I did not think much of it…but when they spoke and I heard their voice….I was like “Oh my God, that’s a celebrity”! Not sure why audio meant so much but I guess when you see them, you recognize them, but since you don’t really know them, it just seems like someone you have seen “around”. The voice combined with the face recognition cements the fact that they are the actor(ress) you know.

I'm totally going to continue catering just to see the celebrity & wealthy parties = ) Besides I like the luxury cash.

Master Plan

Through the years I've listened to my frugal & money-wise friends when they talk about their finances. I'm now caught up to the point where I can start acting like them!

1)I intend to put all my regular monthly finances on a cash back credit card and pay it off each month. (no interest if you pay off monthly) Things like: Student loan payments, Gas&Elect, Cable Internet, Cell phone, Car Gas, Groceries, Car Ins, Netflicks, Gym fees, etc. All the regular bills amount to $$$ that I will receive cash back on.

2)The money that will pay off the credit card can sit in the ING high yield savings account for a full 30 days to earn interest. Instead of being taken out at various times and lowering my daily balance which the interest is calculated on.

3) The next question is: Do I pay off the student loans quickly or save the money to buy my next car mostly in Cash??? Interest Rate vs Tax Savings. Banking math is not my math degree!

Everyone say Awwwwww....

"Askai, a 10-week-old Snow Leopard, hisses at photographers during his first public appearance at Berlin Zoo, Germany." (from BBC)

Orphaned squirrel raised with

puppies by Papillon mother.