Facebook

I have met many friends, old and new thru Facebook.

I am of course 'friends' with my family, in California, Utah, Spain and Sweden and Germany.

I am 'friends' with many of my old Kindergarten students, some are already married and with children of their own, it is fun to see how they've grown.

I am 'friends' with teachers, principals, secretaries, and aides from Idaho and California.

And I am 'friends' with friends. Some have found me and many I have found after losing touch with them for years.

Today I had a long phone conversation with a friend from Idaho, that I had lost track of for many years. She's from Spain but her family moved to Argentina when she was little, she came to the US as a teenager, a newly converted Mormon. We met in Burley, we both were teachers in the Cassia Couynty School District, and we also attended ISU. After I moved to California, we remained in touch, when she moved to California to teach, she lived with us in La Mirada for almost a year, later she rented a room in Norbert's townhouse in Huntington Beach. After a few years in California she moved  to Las Vegas, then went back to Idaho and we lost track of each other.

The surpise to me is she got married about 10 years ago with a widower from Rupert, 13 years her senior. He had 4 daughters and 2 sons, 26 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. Yes it's a Mormon family.

It was fun getting reacquainted. I am sure a lot more phone calls will follow :)

Finances!

Today our Financial Advisor came to our home to finish up some business. He's a nice person and has helped a lot. In 2011 we made a trust, but we had not really followed up on it, therefore a few things were not really valid till all papers were signed, notarized etc.

He also keeps track of my TSA and IRA etc. I am at the age where I need to start withdrawing some money, he will take care of it too. So all I need to do is sit down and wait for a check :)

He told us a while back that we are doing a good job getting all this stuff done (the living trust, arrangements, power of attorney etc. etc) . So to celebrate we wre keeping things in order, Marvin and I went to El Cholo to have a Margarita and chips and dip and guacamole. Afterwards we stopped at an Italian deli and got a large sandwich to share, and a canoli, to take home.

Tonight I will be watching a movie, it's called "Austenland". I have not read the book but maybe I will afterwards. I hope I like it.

Jennifer came by today to pick up her things, she's going back to her apartment. I honestly don't really understand why she came to spend a few night here :)

I am pleased to say that nothing is biting/eating/chewing our tomatoes anymore. So I guess the mouse is out of the picture. YAY!



Happy Birthday Sandy!

 

 

Love you mucho :)

 



The Grand Budapest Hotel

Last night I watched this movie. Is the latest Wes Anderson movie, I like his movies, especially "The Moonrise Kingdom". This one is quite different, but much in his style, I really enjoyed it. Did any of you have seen it?
The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/

I have been watching a lot of movies lately, old ones and new ones. I watch them at night, with a tall glass of water and a little snack, Marvin  and Lulu sleeping and I turn the lights off and enjoyed the show.

The latest movies I've seen have been "Lucky Them" with Tony Collette and Thomas Haden Church, and a surprise at the end. About a rock journalist is assigned to track down her ex-boyfriend.It was just released May 30.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1885299/

An other one I liked  is "Friended to Death", which is about Facebook and what extremes some people take  to have many friends in FB. Kind of strange. A dark comedy about a social media junkie who fakes his own death via social media just to see which of his "friends" will show up to the funeral.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2298186/

The last one I will comment on is "Daddy's Dying..Who's Got the Will? this is a 1990 movie, but I liked it. It stars your new friend Beau Bridges and a very fine Judge Reinhold, among others. Bickering siblings are reunited at their Texas home as their father lies on his deathbed in this black comedy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099342/

The funny thing to me isd that none of those movies are really my type of movies, however I enjoyed them all, for different reasons.

King Felipe VI

Surprising a lot of Spaniards, King Juan Carlos of Spain abdicated 2 days ago in favor of his son Felipe. He will be crowned June 18th and will be known as King Felipe VI, and his wife Letizia will be the Queen.



It's funny because a lot of newspaper comments are more about Letizia (meet your new favorite royal) and her daughters, they certainly are a photogenic family.

Sofia and Leonor



The monarchy in Spain is not very well liked. Spain is in crisis and he people of Spain want a referendum to choose either the monarchy or a republic. Many wonder what will happen with the Catalans and their referendum for Independence.

Kings and Queens are merely figure heads, some European countries love their King and Queens (England, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands to name a few). Some European countries don't have monarchs anymore (France, Italy, Greece for instance).

In the last couple of years, some Kings have abdicated in favor of their sons, Netherlands and Belgium come to mind, and some like England will take a long time maybe even the death of the Queen before Prince Charles and Camille become King and Queen.

I will be following the saga of the Borbons and what's happening in Spain very carefully.

Back to Jersey

A friend of mine at Jersey School is retiring this year, she's from Bolivia and I was wondering if she'll go there on a vacation or what. So I decided to go to Jersey and visit for a while.

Marvin had a busy day taking the vehicles to be washed and cleaned (aftert all the ashes from the fire they needed it) I didn't leave until 1PM and by the time I got there, she had left. The secretary told me I got there on a good day and told me to go to the Kindergarten area.

Everybody in the school was tyhere,, all the kids, and teachers and some parents, and in the middle was the Principal, covered in green slime.

 

 

 

All the kids had a chance to pour the slime, then it was the teacher's turn. First were the Kindergarten teachers, so of course I was one of them ;) The principal is a very nice person (he's LSD) and everybody seems to like him, very mellow but knows how to get things done.

 

After school, Jennifer and I went out for a late lunch, or early dinner, to The Bird's Nest, a Thai Restaurant in SFS. There was a note in the door saying it closed for good June 7th. It was sad because we really enjoy eating there. They had to close to make room for the building of an extra lane in the freeway :(

 

While we were eating she was telling me the latest about her idiot ex, and asked me if she could spend a couple of nights at my home because she didn't want to be alone in her apartment.

 

 Good night!

 





The tomato saga

We love tomatoes picked fresh from the vine. They taste like no other tomatoes.
This year we planted early and we are now seeing a lovely crop of beefsteak tomatoes, big, juicy, sweet, tasty!

BUT, too many times when I go to pick one, I find half of it missing, or with bites, and  it totally annoys me and frustrates me.

I checked the internet and look for things that might eat my tomatoes. After looking at pictures, I decided it probably was birds and/or some kind of rodent.

I had not seen squirrels around lately, but there's opposums traveling at night over the wires some times. I narrowed my search to mockingbirds.

I hung faked apples, and CD's to scare the birds away, but still the tomatoes had bites on them and had to be thrown to the trash :(  Then I bought bird netting, and Marvin made a frame around the tomato vines, and we spread the netting over it.

 

 

While we were doing it, Marvin saw a mouse coming from behind the AC and getting in the tomatoes. THE CULPRIT!!!! 

 

So yesterday I went to Home Depot and bought some stuff to get rid of it. We had not seen signs of mice before (no droppings etc), but ever since the tomatoes started to ripen, I had noticed Lulu running to the tomato area and sniffing around. 

 

I hope we have taken care of the problem and we will be able to enjoy our wonderful ripe tomatoes.  Will let you know :)