Hodgepodge

I just finished reading a book, that makes 5 for February. I like "chick lit" it's fun, enjoyable and easy to read, I also like thrillers :)
Here's the ones I read, and my ratings *good, **very good ***great
Liza Palmer: Seeing Me Naked. **
James Patterson: Step on a Crack **
Lisa Norato: I only want to be with you
Julie Buxbaum: The Opposite of Love ** (I cried lol)
Carole Matthews: The Chocolate Lovers' Club *

Old time favorites I want to reread: We, the Living by Ayn Rand
Battle Cry by Leon Uris (no lit chick these ones)!

TV shows I am watching~~~I am into reality shows, I find it hard to sit still for a 1 hour drama show where i have to follow the plot! Reality shows are fun because you can miss some of it and it doesn't really matter.
My favorites playing at the time are...American Idol, of course. There's a young man from Murray Utah that sings great. Operation Runway, love it!!!!
Color Splash with David Bromstard, I totally love him! Make Me a Super Model it's quite fun, and still a favorite..Saturday Night Live.

MUSIC...(Berkley Hart and HEAT excepted)
Landon Pigg: Coffee Shop
Yael Naim: New Soul
I'm from Barcelona: We are from Barcelona (Swedish group lol)

O Berkley, Where Hart Thou?

This past weekend, M and I trekked down to Encinitas. L had called a few days ago asking if we'd like to go see the above titled show. We saw it once 2 years ago and throughly enjoyed it, so we were looking forward to seeing it again.

It was a gorgeous California day. We stayed at the Howard Johnson Inn in Encinitas which was very pleasant. M and I enjoyed a nice lunch at "Las Olas" a little Mexican shack next to the beach with yummy Margaritas and a great ocean view http://www.lasolasmex.com/

The show started at 8:00 PM, but people started lining up by 7:00. As usual, L reserved prime seats for us.

The show started promptly at 8:00. Berkley Hart were the stars of the show, as were the 7th Day Buskers. Other performers were Gregory Page, Lisa Sanders, Barbara Nesbitt, Eve Selis, Cathryn Beeks, and Han's daughter DK singing a duet with her father (Hart's daughter sang a duet with her father as well)

It was a fantastic show, with great music and a great turnout. The audience was really into it and everybody was having a wonderful time. The whole event was organized by L. She did an extraordinary job, and was rightfully recognized by Berkley Hart with a lovely bouquet of flowers and some very nice words of thanks and appreciation. I know it meant a lot to her and she was very surprised by it.

The next day Sunday, we drove down to San Diego to go see the new house L & Han were going to rent. It is a very nice house, with lots of possibilities. Afterwards, we had a nice chat with them at their gazebo.

It was a lovely weekend!

Back to winter

It has been raining for a few days now, we needed it! just now we had a tornado warning!!! it's supposed to be in Long Beach started as a water spout and is coming north, hopefully it will not touch down.
It's been snowing heavily in the mountains around Los Angeles, even the Grapevine is closed, the wind is pretty cold, for Southern California.
All this rain means no recess time in kindergarten, which makes the kids go crazy with no place to vent their energy. It's funny, some of my kindergarten kids don't even remember having seen this much rain.
I think I also need a vacation :)

Summer in Winter

Today was a gorgeous day! I went to Huntington Beach and met my friend N. The surf was high, 8-10 feet waves, and the weather was great, 28C, 86F, really summer weather. I got my feet wet! We could see the snowy mountains on our back and the waves and Catalina Island ahead of us. We walked on the beach, went to Seal Beach, Sunset Beach, Long Beach and Newport Beach. Had lunch at a great little fish restaurant called Jimmy's and had tasty clam chowder and yummy fish. Later on, as the sun was setting over the ocean in a state park close to Laguna beach, we ate some delicious pastries and called it a day.

Such a beautiful day ended in a crappy note :(

As I was driving home in Beach Boulevard, a policeman behind me put the lights on and I had to stop. I wondered if maybe my tail light were off. But when he came to my window and I asked him why he made me stop. He said it was because I WAS DRIVING WITHOUT A SEAT BELT!!!!! now that was an outright lie as i always have my seat belt on. Regardless of my claims that I had it on -he said, yes you put it on after you saw me- and he wrote me a ticket which I am planning on contesting!!!!

New Year's Resolutions

This is my first post of 2008. So I will write about some resolutions.

How long will my resolutions last? time will tell. I guess the first resolution should be to stop procrastinating, but knowing me, I think it will be a short lived one. But let's go on...

Get more organized, both at home and at school. Which means getting rid of a lot of non essential stuff. I started by cleaning my closets at home, and giving away a ton of clothes that don't fit anymore. I also put away some stuff in "space bags" a great invention!!!

Monday is back to school time, and I will dedicate some time everyday to streamline my classroom.

I liked Red's "Be good to myself" resolution, so I will adopt it too. I started by having my hair trimmed today, and tomorrow I will have a manicure :)

Oh...and learn to make a website, and exercise, and...

San Diego

We had a great time in San Diego. The weather was perfect, blue skies, temperature in the high 60's...

We stayed at the Holiday Inn, we thought it was the one across the Star of Inida, but it was the one in Bayside, a little farther north, in Point Loma. Our room was in the 4th floor overlooking the harbor, beautiful.

We drove to the Star of India, and Grey showed us where the show would take place, everybody was super friendly and nice, we got the best seats in the house in my opinion! as we were early, M and I went to have a quick dinner at Anthony's, clam chowder and calamari, yum!

The show started at 7:30, it was great, lots of people, lots of fun and great music. Grey introduced us to the musicians, including Steve Poltz, and Barbara Nesbitt. I really enjoy the way Han plays djembe - I think that's the name- he is one of the best players around, I love the sound of it and the way he plays them, hard on the hands~! Flannery sang and told stories about his life and about baseball, he's funny. His brother flew from Kentucky to play and sing with him. Grey read an awesome poem she wrote about the Star if India.

It was a fun night, before playing the last song, Flannery wished me a happy birthday!

The night ended about 11:30. M and I went back to the hotel and had a good night sleep.

Next day we went to Julian, it was about an hour drive inland from San Diego, once we got to the mountains it cooled off a little and there was snow on the ground. After driving on a twisty road, we arrived in Julian, which is a quaint historic gold mining town well known for its apple orchards and scrumptious apple pie. We drove around and around and couldn't find any parking! luckily in our last drive thru we found a parking place right in front of the Apple Pie Co. we went in and had a wonderful slice of warm apple pie. Shortly after walking around a few shops, we made our way back to San Diego. In the evening we went to Grey's house and took her out to dinner, she gave me a box of excellent English soaps that I really enjoyed during my visit to the Morongo Casino, she called the Casino and found out the name of the soaps and ordered them online, very thoughtful! Han couldn't go as he had band practice. We went to Ponce's Mexican restaurant, just a few blocks down from her house. The food was great, flautas for Grey and me, enchiladas for M. We had flans for dessert, when I got mine, M presented me with a gorgeous square cut diamond ring!!!!!! :)

After dinner we stayed in the house for a while, watching Han's band rehearse, it was very cool and we enjoyed it.

On Sunday, M and I drove around Point Loma and went up to the light house. Has a wonderful view of San Diego, The Pacific and the mountains. Then we left back home, stopping at Chevy's in Del Mar for lunch.

All in all it was a very nice, long weekend. I enjoyed it very much.

It's coming...

My birthday. I refuse to get older. My mother used to say.."I am the same person with the same thoughts and dreams as when I was 20, is only the body that tends to get older, but if you are lucky, the mind stays as young as you want it." I happen to agree with it.
I think working with young children keeps me feeling younger, it takes some energy coping with 20 5 year old kids day after day! I also keep a younger mind by keeping up with music and news on the Internet (what a great invention)!
Most people in my school think I don't act my age. I am pretty goofy and -they say- I liven up stuffy staff meetings .
This weekend we are going to San Diego to see a show with Flan and friends, of course Han is playing, and he graciously invited us to the Star of India where the show takes place. We are staying in a hotel right across from it. It should be fun.