Decorate Your Soul

Some random thoughts this morning:

*Andy packed the coffee filters… thank you, Crick, for the paper towel trick. Paper towels also work as a filter when placed in the filter-thingie properly.

*Katrina is hitting the Big Easy pretty badly. My heart goes out to those folks in that area and a tiny bit of me is so grateful that it didn’t hit Florida two weeks ago. (I’m a lucky dog, I say.)

*I did not abide by the early to bed rule last night and forgot that even though I’m a night owl, the girls were up by 7AM. I’m paying for it this morning.

*God gave me a two kinds of kids: Ashleigh, the-delightful-in-the-morning-kind, and Sarah, the cranky-needy-whiny-until-I get-my-juice-and cheerios-kind.

*I’m in need of a pedicure. Pretty badly by CA standards.

*I only have three more morning walk days here in L.A.

*There are only 7 boxes left from those 2 huge moving boxes we bought at Costco. I’m too lazy to look up the site right now and link you. If you are interested, copy and paste: www.costco.com I’m a little worried that there won’t be enough boxes to hold all the random things left in the house to pack. We have filled the dumpster out there more times than I care to admit. I told Andy we are not buying one more thing. Ever.

*Three new babies have arrived in the past month: Ava Lauren, Hannah Grace, and Sarah Faith. Each little girl is beautiful. Congratulations to my new mommy friends (I will send a card once my cards are unpacked).

*I just thought of this after typing out that last one- we dropped by Target the other day and I bought 2 thank-you cards- I couldn’t believe how expensive tiny little thank-you cards are going for now. I am considering selling mine and turning a profit.

*My brother is taking the bus to school his year- my mom had to buy him a bus pass for $220. That is insane to me. Doesn’t he know that our dad had to walk to school in hurricanes when he was a kid?

*Some goofy weatherman on FOX had a roof (yes, a roof to a building!) land about three feet from where he was reporting. He decided to wrap up his fighting the Katrina winds at 145-MPH and go back into shelter.

It’s 7:56AM and the Bean is still sleeping… what on earth did Andy drug her up on last night?

On my morning walks along the Strand, I stay to the right. But not everyone knows about this unsaid, but courteous rule, that has been in place since the beginning of strolling on the Strand. The slower people stay to the right- just like when you’re driving (except for the occasional elderly driver that is oblivious to the fact that they are going 55MPH in the fast lane). The runners know about the stay-to-the-right-rule and they stay there until they come up on someone walking or jogging slower than themselves and strategically pass on the left.

There are bicyclists, rollerbladers, skateboarders, surfers on bicycles (they don’t count in the first bicyclist category since they aren’t hardcore), kids on trikes, mommy’s strollin, joggin’ and the serious-mommy-runners. Let’s not forget the dog walker and other pups not on leashes (most are, the do a good job here with that rule). We all have to share the twenty-feet of space on the beach that is paved for our enjoyment… so if you are slow, that is, going slower, please join in on the-stay-to-the-right-rule so those of us wanting to pass on the left don’t get in harms way with oncoming traffic of cyclists, bladers and runners and risk head on collisions just for a short morning workout.

This now concludes my public announcement. Excuse me as I climb down off my soapbox.

Photograph by Daniel Sofer for Hermosawave Picture of the Day

Have you heard about Winter, a computer programmer from Silver Spring, MD, that is making a trek across the world to visit all of the licensed Starbucks coffee houses? In 1997, he thought it might be a cool idea to visit all 5,715 stores in the world and so off he went. Born, Rafael Antonio Lozano, Winter considers himself an obsessed maniac, er, a Starbucks enthusiast whose main motive was to set out to do something different. And so he has.

I read that when he visited Southern California, he visited 29 Starbucks in one day… he wasn’t feeling so good at the end of the day. It sounds like he stops in and purchases a cup o’ joe at each one. While perusing his site, Winter also linked a plethora of photos of various Starbucks. Two things caught my interest (aside from the whole idea of it!):

1) San Diego Starbucks

and

2) The prettiest Starbucks he has come across… I must visit… but I have absolutely no reason to go to South Carolina!

By the state of our home, you wouldn’t know that I have extra time on my hands to "play" on the computer… but since enacting the late nights rule for half the week, I have time to play. I had taken some photos of Ashleigh (or Ash, Ashy, Ashee- which one?) and was trying to get a similar shot that I had taken of Sarah a couple of years ago. So here they are after having been "goosed" up in Photoshop (this is a word that I have used numerous times that Andy used the other night to indicate decorating, sharpening, cropping, whatever to make something more elaborate! Since he used it in a sentence, it now counts as a Scrabble word, too). I was very excited to learn how to use the flower stamp tool- I may have gone a little crazy with it. Ah well, it’s my blog ;^)

I am stuck in a hotel room with no reruns of Survivor: Season I to watch on TiVO, so I will fill you on on Sarah’s most favorite place in Florida: Paradise Cove at CB Smith Park in the sub-tropical region of the U.S.

We first heard of this water park from my Aunt Jerry as she searched the web for fun places to take the Bean with teenagers also in mind. My folks and siblings were visiting the Sunshine State as well. Paradise Cove seemed ideal since it had a kiddie pool/ slide area as well as deeper and quicker slides for the big kids. I should add in here that Andy and I still count as the "big kids" where this category is concerned.

There are two main water friendly playgrounds that we could get wet, no, soaked in. The larger of the two is where the big kiddos went in to slip, slide, shoot water guns and acquire relief from the blazing sun and clammy, humid air. The other colorful play equipment section was 5 and younger friendly, but most of the kiddos there were about 2 or 3. 

Sarah did not immediately take to the slides- the most she would do was wade in the pool that surrounded the equipment. Bec, Ty, Andy, Grammy, Peeps and I all took our turns encouraging the Bean to dip under and go up the stairs that led to the descent of the slides. I think each one of us got warned by the lifeguards at least once that there was a one at a time down the shoot rule. By the end of the day, Sarah had found her courage and was a confident and happy 2-year-old slide goer. Unfortunately, it was time to pack up and head out for Tyler’s 14th birthday bash.

Sarah enjoyed Paradise Cove so much that we decided to take her back on Monday after the Benfield crew left. She may as well have been five since she was out and about on her own, climbing the stairs, heading for the slides and shoots and dodging falling water from the covering above. At one point, she left the kiddie section and headed over for the older kids area. Luckily,she has parents that weren’t too far behind.

Even Ashleigh had a dip in the pool with Mama.