San Francisco

The end of May we flew to San Francisco and stayed 2 nights on Fisherman's Wharf then boarded the Star Princess and sailed for 5 days to Hawaii.  Stopped in 4 ports then sailed to Ensenada, Mexico, San Francisco then on to Vancouver.  Didn't think I'd enjoy SF because we'd been there a couple of times before, but it was really neat to stay in a hotel on Fishermen's Wharf and go out exploring.

The hotel had an area map on the wall and up on the ceiling.  It was handy to watch the news and look up where the places were.  It also had a really neat magnetic dart board....no holes in the walls!!!


It was also really neat watching the bakers make all the neat shapes of bread loaves...the teddy bears and alligator were the best!

                                                                                                                                                                                            

Spare Room

While we were putting in the new bathroom we decided to re-vamp the room next to it.  The previous owner had used it for a candle making room so we took down all the shelves and counters and made it into a spare bedroom.  There were 2 fluorescent lights in there that hummed and drove me crazy so one day we were at Costco and found an LED light fixture that could be hooked up to a dimmer switch so we got 2 of them, then went to Home Depot and got the dimmer switch and hubby installed them.  On full power they are soooo bright, but really nice when dimmed.  Since I also want to put my knitting machine in this room, the very bright lights will be wonderful for that!  We also put in a new wood floor...now we just have to move the rest of the bedroom suite in there!

On the right hand side of the first picture you can see the end of the hallway and B's workshop, which used to be the fellow's "train room".  It's working out really good as a work shop and there's a door on it and a really good dust collection system so the dust doesn't come into the other rooms!

New Bathroom

When we moved into this house there wasn't a bathroom downstairs.  It was a pain to be downstairs watching TV or playing pool and have to come upstairs when nature called....so we hired a contractor and got a bathroom put in.  We were going to have a full bathroom but couldn't justify the cost so opted for a "powder room" instead.  It turned out really good and it is so handy!!

 

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter doing what you love the best whether it's going to church, having family dinners or going on Easter Egg hunts.

We went to our home church for Good Friday and Easter Sunday but also took in a couple of other happenings.  The one at the Anglican church was a re-enactment of "The Last Supper", complete with feet washing, soup and bun supper and communion...it was different from anything I'd ever been to! 

Because B was raised in the Catholic faith, it still is very much a part of him, so even though we go to a different church now, we decided to go to the Catholic church near here and take in the "Stations of the Cross" ceremony.  B found it to be nostalgic and I even found it quite interesting.

Sunday was the only day #1 daughter was free so I decided to cook Easter dinner for the whole family.  I cooked for two days, so I wouldn't have too much to do on Sunday, but it was soooo worth it!!!....the whole family came and we had a wonderful time!!!! The new house is great for entertaining!

Tonight #2 daughter and son-in-law invited us to join their family for a ham dinner.

Camping in the Rain

We had such beautiful sunny weather then last week after I got home from my Ladies' bible study, B had the trailer all hooked up and we headed up to Cultus Lake.  The plan was for our friends D&G to meet us their in their motorhome and the kids and grandkids to bring their trailer up on Sat and we'd spend time playing games and roasting things over the campfire, but.....it rained, and rained and poured rain!!!

Needless to say there wasn't any campfire time, but we did manage to read, work on a really challenging jigsaw puzzle, and spend some quality time together. I also got a chance to go visit my cousin and as a bonus her sister was there as well, so I got to see two of my cousins and we had a very lovely lunch together!

With all the rain I was so very thankful that we had the trailer and not a tent!!!

Boo Hoo...Disappointed

I've always been impressed that our son gives blood on a regular basis.  I wanted to, but for some reason I never got around to it.  When we moved out here I noticed they had mobile clinics so I phoned, found out when the next clinic was, downloaded and printed the form and took it to my Dr. to have it signed...apparently if you are 61 or over and never given blood, you have to have this form.  If you're over 71 and never given blood you aren't allowed to (B was celebrating...he didn't want to give blood...doesn't like needles)  Today was my appointment and I could hardly wait to get there.
 
Station 1...check
Station 2...check...my iron levels were good...yea!
Station 3...FAILED!!!...my blood pressure was too high.
She told me to relax for awhile and she re-checked...still too high
She said I could try again at the next clinic....
Got home and checked my blood pressure on my machine...I would have passed...maybe I should bring my own machine next time????....they probably won't allow that though!!!!

New Babies

B went to the Men's Breakfast at our church this morning and talked to one of the guys who invited us over to see his "new babies".   He has a 5 acre parcel of land with greenhouses on it and he grows cucumbers.  This week he got the baby cucumber plants and they've already grown a couple of inches.  The greenhouses are equipped with systems for heating, watering, fertilizer, ventilation, and air quality, some of which is controlled by a computer.  The PVC water pipe even doubles as a track for the carts they use for picking the cucumbers!  Soon he'll be getting the bugs (insects) which will prevent unwanted infestations.  We even had to walk over a bio-hazard mat before entering the greenhouses.  It's unbelievable how much goes into growing the long English cucumbers we take so for granted when we're shopping!

It was such a beautiful sunny day we also went for a walk on the trails of the local park, so it was a very pleasant day as well as very informative!!!