I just saw the third Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy movie, "Before Midnight." If you haven't seen the first two movies [I'm sure they're available on Netflix or DVD], I'd suggest 'catching up' on the background before heading in to this one.
I loved loved loved "Before Sunrise," which came out in 1995 and takes place primarily in Vienna. Wow, how time flies! And then I enjoyed "Before Sunset," which takes place in Paris and was filmed in 2004. Now this newest addition takes place in Greece 2013. So they've continued the story of this couple with an installment every nine years and it's really quite interesting to follow the progression / changes in their relationship and lives.
Essentially, they are movies of dialogue and more dialogue. The screenplays were written, in part, by Ethan and Julie; so they're delivering their own lines. As I watched this afternoon, it was easy to forget I was watching a film; it really put me in a "Oh yes, I've been there and done that" kind of mood. I'm still digesting it; I'd be interested in others' comments.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Happy Father's Day!
Hope all the fathers out there are / have had a wonderful Father's Day. I spent a wonderful day with my son-in-law, David, and my daughter's family; well, almost all of the family. Addison, who you might remember as the Loyola Marymount grad of a month ago is at Arizona State University in a whirlwind course to acquire a teacher's credential - in 5 weeks - usually a 1 year course! She'll be heading for a two year contract with Teach For America in Colorado Springs as soon as she finishes this grueling summer course - that is if she lives through it!
Anyway the group today was David, Kari, Quinn (25) and her honey, Landon (25), Holland (who just graduated from high school), Tate, Avery and Spencer (the 13 year old triplets) and me. We all piled in their car for a great day in San Francisco - where we went to see "Beach Blanket Babylon," the long-running magical fun-filed theater treat in North Beach. I've seen it several times over the last four decades - the story hasn't changed. Snow White is searching for her "prince" all over the World - and then finds him back home in San Francisco. But, although the story remains that which Steve Silver dreamed up in the 60s, the characterizations are timely and politically incorrect. It's still a riot and it's so San Francisco.
After the show we had Father's Day dinner at Caffe Sport on Green Street in the heart of North Beach - great food and atmosphere - San Francisco Italian, of course, and delicious. Then we spent some time at the North Beach Festival - a street fair with cordoned off streets and lots of arts, crafts, jewelry, clothes, entertainment and so many great people-watching opportunities. The weather was San Francisco-style gorgeous .... in the 70s, no fog, no wind - perfection. Of course we did have to drive back to the Sacramento area - still about 92 at 10PM!
It was a great day and I wish all you Fathers well.....
PS: Here's a photo of Daphne Dolphin taken in April in Valle de Juarez, Mexico. I'm going to be taking Daphne in for second opinions on all the things she needs in order to be the perfect home on wheels for me! I'm heading up to Cottonwood later this week to try to get all her foibles worked out so we can start planning our next adventure .....
Anyway the group today was David, Kari, Quinn (25) and her honey, Landon (25), Holland (who just graduated from high school), Tate, Avery and Spencer (the 13 year old triplets) and me. We all piled in their car for a great day in San Francisco - where we went to see "Beach Blanket Babylon," the long-running magical fun-filed theater treat in North Beach. I've seen it several times over the last four decades - the story hasn't changed. Snow White is searching for her "prince" all over the World - and then finds him back home in San Francisco. But, although the story remains that which Steve Silver dreamed up in the 60s, the characterizations are timely and politically incorrect. It's still a riot and it's so San Francisco.
After the show we had Father's Day dinner at Caffe Sport on Green Street in the heart of North Beach - great food and atmosphere - San Francisco Italian, of course, and delicious. Then we spent some time at the North Beach Festival - a street fair with cordoned off streets and lots of arts, crafts, jewelry, clothes, entertainment and so many great people-watching opportunities. The weather was San Francisco-style gorgeous .... in the 70s, no fog, no wind - perfection. Of course we did have to drive back to the Sacramento area - still about 92 at 10PM!
It was a great day and I wish all you Fathers well.....
PS: Here's a photo of Daphne Dolphin taken in April in Valle de Juarez, Mexico. I'm going to be taking Daphne in for second opinions on all the things she needs in order to be the perfect home on wheels for me! I'm heading up to Cottonwood later this week to try to get all her foibles worked out so we can start planning our next adventure .....
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Old and New Photos
Read Desert Diva's blog today - it was actually written by Cali. So Lacy commented on it and here are a couple of photos of Lacy's family, past and present:
This photo was taken in our living room in the house we rented in Antigua, Guatemala. It would have been absolutely perfect except shortly after this photo was taken Bella, the little black and white fluff ball was hit by a car and died. We are still devastated by the loss.
But, life goes on - Eleanor, a steel gray British Shorthair and Lincoln, a shorthair cat cat, joined Lacy and Mom in December 2012, just in time to take off for Mexico in our Toyota Dolphin
Here's Eleanor in her two favorite places in the RV - on the stove and next to the refrigerator
And here's the photo again of RV travel - kitty style. The minute the motor revs, both cats climb onto Mom's lap for the whole trip!
In between trips Lincoln gets into things, like yarn, and loves to explore inside and out - and has never been lost - YET!
Mom often keeps a leash on Lincoln so she can encourage him to return inside sometimes when he doesn't 'hear her call.' When he's inside he also likes to just lounge around
Oh, these are just a few photos of a nice young man in Valle de Juarez. He's quite popular with the RV ladies! Actually they just like to look at him and take pictures. He's 'famous' because every year he plays the role of Jesus of Nazareth during Semana Santa
Here he is on his horse just before the beginning of the Children's Spring Parade. Oh, yeah, the kids were adorable - too!
And here he is on Palm Sunday in Jesus' triumphant entrance to Jerusalem - just five days before Good Friday
These kitty and puppy photos are especially for Cali. The Jesus actor photos are for all the ladies!
Friday, June 14, 2013
Friday fun mentioned earlier...
Went out to lunch with Kari and the triplet girls, Avery and Tate. We ate at Panera - corn chowder and a half of a roast beef sandwich. Then the four of us "chick-flick lovers" went to see "Man of Steel!" Another Superman movie - okay so now I've completed the Summer blockbuster action flick for the year. It's starring a gorgeous Superman, played by Henry Cavil - wow, he's beautiful! And, actually a 'star-studded' cast: Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, etc. But, it's a movie for the sci-fi fans who love 95% special effects and 5% story. Enough said.
Friday Fun .... and Work
I haven't been writing much the last week or so. It's not that nothing's happening, but it's mostly getting the house ready to maybe rent it. My girlfriend, Judy's, daughter has recently returned to the Sacramento area from Southern California and Judy says she's very interested in the possibility of renting my little two bedroom house. That would be a great help for me to be able to head out for a year or so of RV living.
Before I went to Mexico I would have been a little nervous about being without a home for any length of time; but now I really have no misgivings. I know I'm happy in the RV and without the stress of maintaining the total responsibility for the house, I could be very comfortable heading out for a really extended time. This trip will probably be practice for the possibility of selling the house and going to full-time RV life.
I still haven't come to any final conclusion about whether to keep or sell Daphne Dolphin. I have been surfing the web and certainly taking in all comments I've received. As you may know I took Daphne in for a 'physical exam' - mainly to find out about installing an awning and some kind of rack on the rear for carrying my electric bike (which cannot be supported by my current bike rack) or possibly a scooter or ???? Well, I only visited one RV sales and service place outside of Redding [near Cottonwood where Daphne is resting at my son's house since I can't keep her here at my house]. The service manager there told me I could not install an awning and there's no way to anchor a shelf support on the rear of the rig.
That's when I started surfing the Net for something a little newer, bigger and with awning, towing ability, more storage space, generator, etc. Now that I've received several suggestions from readers, I'm thinking maybe I should take Daphne to another RV service place. The one I went to never mentioned anything about, for instance, mounting something on the front of the vehicle for an electric bike. And, there've been suggestions about freestanding awning / sun shades, etc. So, I'm going to head up that way, I think, next week and kind of start over with investigating the possibilities with Daphne.
And, I've been looking at lots of other possibilities - especially Lazy Daze used rigs. They're not quite as easy to find - I think folks keep them - but I've found a couple that are possibilities if I decide to buy.
Like almost everything in life. Each decision depends on something else; like:
*If I refinance the house my payments will be lower - so I'd have more for travel
*If I rent the house and refinance that's even better
*If I buy a newer RV I could maybe buy a used car (smaller than my Toyota Camry) that I could tow
*If I keep Daphne can I update lots of things that I'd like to have in her?
........The list goes on...... Comments appreciated! Have a great weekend every body!
Before I went to Mexico I would have been a little nervous about being without a home for any length of time; but now I really have no misgivings. I know I'm happy in the RV and without the stress of maintaining the total responsibility for the house, I could be very comfortable heading out for a really extended time. This trip will probably be practice for the possibility of selling the house and going to full-time RV life.
I still haven't come to any final conclusion about whether to keep or sell Daphne Dolphin. I have been surfing the web and certainly taking in all comments I've received. As you may know I took Daphne in for a 'physical exam' - mainly to find out about installing an awning and some kind of rack on the rear for carrying my electric bike (which cannot be supported by my current bike rack) or possibly a scooter or ???? Well, I only visited one RV sales and service place outside of Redding [near Cottonwood where Daphne is resting at my son's house since I can't keep her here at my house]. The service manager there told me I could not install an awning and there's no way to anchor a shelf support on the rear of the rig.
That's when I started surfing the Net for something a little newer, bigger and with awning, towing ability, more storage space, generator, etc. Now that I've received several suggestions from readers, I'm thinking maybe I should take Daphne to another RV service place. The one I went to never mentioned anything about, for instance, mounting something on the front of the vehicle for an electric bike. And, there've been suggestions about freestanding awning / sun shades, etc. So, I'm going to head up that way, I think, next week and kind of start over with investigating the possibilities with Daphne.
And, I've been looking at lots of other possibilities - especially Lazy Daze used rigs. They're not quite as easy to find - I think folks keep them - but I've found a couple that are possibilities if I decide to buy.
Like almost everything in life. Each decision depends on something else; like:
*If I refinance the house my payments will be lower - so I'd have more for travel
*If I rent the house and refinance that's even better
*If I buy a newer RV I could maybe buy a used car (smaller than my Toyota Camry) that I could tow
*If I keep Daphne can I update lots of things that I'd like to have in her?
........The list goes on...... Comments appreciated! Have a great weekend every body!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Money, Investing, Saving, Earning, Using.......
For lots of the time while 'babysitting' the last several days, I wasn't actually needed for the moment to moment activities of the triplets and their friends. I spent some productive time with my computer and Excel, etc. bringing together all my budget components into one document with lots of worksheets.
I had talked with many people, while on the Mexico adventure this Winter, about all the topics listed in the heading of today's title. Of course, 20 people have 20 different ideas about how, what, why, where, etc. to accomplish "financial happiness," so I'm in process of integrating all the wisdom into a platform of my own!
After having been married for a long long time and not taking very much responsibility for financial futures, I entered the "OMG, I'm on my own!" at 50, instead of 21. I think some of my laissez faire about financial matters stems from the fact that I was raised in a family of accountants - mom, dad and brother, so I never took on the role of knowledgeable person. Then, I was married at 17(!) to a much older man (22) and he managed the money. When I was divorced at 50 I tried to get a whole lot of saving into a shortened period of time. Fortunately, I'm fairly pleased with how I did - I do have enough income to live .... I, like lots of people, would just like more!
So, what to do? I thought a lot about it during my Mexico adventure. First of all I'll give 'thanks' to my friends, Kevin and Ruth www.travelwithkevinandruth.com, who, among other things, impressed me about the importance of simply KEEPING TRACK of expenses on a day to day basis. I have always used that axiom when it's been time to reduce weight .... just keeping track of foods passing my lips seems to turn into weight loss when necessary. Kevin and Ruth, if you don't know them, have been living a wonderfully full and adventurous life for several years and managing it on a budget that could be considered 'tight.' I applaud them and their way of life.
Secondly, when I voiced an interest in attempting to try on-my-own investing, it was suggested that I look for stocks that pay dividends; so, I've started researching this idea too, even though I haven't actually done anything - yet.
I collected thoughts, ideas, plans, successes, failures from all sorts of people - from all over the World - mostly the US and Canada. These have been roaming around in my head for a few months now and it's time to get started with organization of information for study, planning and doing support.
During the last several days, I've embarked on an aggressive (for me) computer project. The goal for this computer project is to be able to access accurate personal financial information any time I want. So far, my Excel workbook has worksheets called:
Happy Tuesday everybody!
I had talked with many people, while on the Mexico adventure this Winter, about all the topics listed in the heading of today's title. Of course, 20 people have 20 different ideas about how, what, why, where, etc. to accomplish "financial happiness," so I'm in process of integrating all the wisdom into a platform of my own!
After having been married for a long long time and not taking very much responsibility for financial futures, I entered the "OMG, I'm on my own!" at 50, instead of 21. I think some of my laissez faire about financial matters stems from the fact that I was raised in a family of accountants - mom, dad and brother, so I never took on the role of knowledgeable person. Then, I was married at 17(!) to a much older man (22) and he managed the money. When I was divorced at 50 I tried to get a whole lot of saving into a shortened period of time. Fortunately, I'm fairly pleased with how I did - I do have enough income to live .... I, like lots of people, would just like more!
So, what to do? I thought a lot about it during my Mexico adventure. First of all I'll give 'thanks' to my friends, Kevin and Ruth www.travelwithkevinandruth.com, who, among other things, impressed me about the importance of simply KEEPING TRACK of expenses on a day to day basis. I have always used that axiom when it's been time to reduce weight .... just keeping track of foods passing my lips seems to turn into weight loss when necessary. Kevin and Ruth, if you don't know them, have been living a wonderfully full and adventurous life for several years and managing it on a budget that could be considered 'tight.' I applaud them and their way of life.
Secondly, when I voiced an interest in attempting to try on-my-own investing, it was suggested that I look for stocks that pay dividends; so, I've started researching this idea too, even though I haven't actually done anything - yet.
I collected thoughts, ideas, plans, successes, failures from all sorts of people - from all over the World - mostly the US and Canada. These have been roaming around in my head for a few months now and it's time to get started with organization of information for study, planning and doing support.
During the last several days, I've embarked on an aggressive (for me) computer project. The goal for this computer project is to be able to access accurate personal financial information any time I want. So far, my Excel workbook has worksheets called:
- Monthly Budget - all income and expenses recorded. I've broken down the month into increments of time so I can coordinate income and assign plans to expenses in a timely fashion.
- Cumulative Data - re: income and expenses throughout the year(s) - recorded in monthly increments.
- MPS Bible - This is the name of a spreadsheet I've kept for years - account numbers, login info, notes re: communication with companies, banks, subscriptions, etc. [Just managing login IDs and passwords is an almost full time job]! Each time I add / alter info on this document I save it to the current date. From time to time when housekeeping files and folders, I delete old and redundant info.
- Investment Info - this is what I've been working on mostly the last week. I'm bringing together all investment info on one spreadsheet - because I have several different investment firm accounts. My personal financial advisor is with one of these firms. I'm wondering, if I become really savvy, if it might be better to manage it all myself?
- Expense Form - an Excel form I print so I can carry a paper copy in my purse to record expenses as they occur so I don't chance forgetting them!
Happy Tuesday everybody!
Monday, June 10, 2013
Home Sweet Home - Roseville and El Dorado Hills
Just arrived home after 5 days of triplet entertainment, movies, sleepovers, food fairs and lots of driving. It's always fun to spend time with them although I have to admit there's not much time without activities and friends - so how much time do I actually 'spend' with them.
El Dorado Hills, where they live, is an unincorporated "census designated place" [according to wikipedia] in El Dorado County, CA about 22 miles (35km) east of Sacramento on Highway 50. It is a booming area of about 48,000 people as of 2010. There are probably at least 15,000 more people now if building is an indication. There are shopping centers, housing areas, apartments, etc. going up all over the place. But, it's a very large land area too, about 49,000 square miles of rolling hills that are actually the beginning of the foothills of the great Sierra Nevada mountain range. It's not new as it's located only 13 miles from where gold was first discovered in California (remember the California Gold Rush?) so there have been residents for ages. But when the Gold Rush was in full swing it was Sacramento that became the center of activity so EDH is relatively new in ramping up. Here's a website if you'd like further information.....
http://www.eldoradohillschamber.com/community_information_overview.html
My daughter, Kari and her family had lived in the Mid-West for years, when David had a opportunity to work in California; Kari was thrilled to be returning to California but wanted to choose where they'd settle. She did lots of research and they decided it was to be El Dorado Hills: good schools, healthy atmosphere for their six children, lots of outdoor activities, access to mountains and cities and beaches. I'd not really known much about it but fell in love as soon as I visited them. I was at that time living in the San Francisco Bay Area, working for Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. Working for the Kaiser organization makes it possible to apply for jobs anywhere they operate; so I left Marin County and bought a small home in Roseville - about 20 miles from my daughter's house. I worked for about 5 years and then retired .... and here I am!
El Dorado Hills, where they live, is an unincorporated "census designated place" [according to wikipedia] in El Dorado County, CA about 22 miles (35km) east of Sacramento on Highway 50. It is a booming area of about 48,000 people as of 2010. There are probably at least 15,000 more people now if building is an indication. There are shopping centers, housing areas, apartments, etc. going up all over the place. But, it's a very large land area too, about 49,000 square miles of rolling hills that are actually the beginning of the foothills of the great Sierra Nevada mountain range. It's not new as it's located only 13 miles from where gold was first discovered in California (remember the California Gold Rush?) so there have been residents for ages. But when the Gold Rush was in full swing it was Sacramento that became the center of activity so EDH is relatively new in ramping up. Here's a website if you'd like further information.....
http://www.eldoradohillschamber.com/community_information_overview.html
My daughter, Kari and her family had lived in the Mid-West for years, when David had a opportunity to work in California; Kari was thrilled to be returning to California but wanted to choose where they'd settle. She did lots of research and they decided it was to be El Dorado Hills: good schools, healthy atmosphere for their six children, lots of outdoor activities, access to mountains and cities and beaches. I'd not really known much about it but fell in love as soon as I visited them. I was at that time living in the San Francisco Bay Area, working for Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. Working for the Kaiser organization makes it possible to apply for jobs anywhere they operate; so I left Marin County and bought a small home in Roseville - about 20 miles from my daughter's house. I worked for about 5 years and then retired .... and here I am!
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