OK, not really behind the scenes but behind the hills of San Jose.  San Jose is a pretty large city.  The population is 974,000+ people.  We are not just a concrete jungle, we do have some areas that might be considered, "country". 

     Today I took care of Jessica and Matthew while their parents worked.  I told them we were going for a ride up in the hills.  At this time of the year our hills are a beautiful emerald green so I thought it would be cool to take a ride and show the hills to the children. 

Let me share my city with all of you:

This is the Sikh Gurdwara that is near the foothills of San Jose.  Matthew called it the Kingdom of God!

Kind of a blurry photo, but here is downtown San Jose:

Jessica was THRILLED to see this horse:

A very cool water tower that has seen better days!

The entryway into a monastery:

Here is the church:

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On Saturday we celebrated Jenny's 17th birthday.  WOW! 
Here is the birthday girl with Chris and their 2nd cousin Brendan:

Sue and Jenny:

Jenny and her boyfriend Nelson:

Jenny's grandmother Cari (she is my seamstress too) and moi:

     It rained here on Sunday so we didn't go see the firemen.  Peyton said he didn't want to go anyway.  He told me that he wants to be a doctor and a wrestler when he grows up.  SO, I guess he isn't like Pierce.  I'm not even sure if Pierce still wants to be a fireman these days!  Heck, I'm 47 years old and I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up!   

     I'm pooped from my day with Jessica and Matthew even though we didn't do much of anything.  When my niece Wendy left for work one of the first things out of Jessica's mouth was, "When are we going to have fun"?!  We are talking at around 6:30am!  FUN?  Let me wake up first kid!

I'm going to hit the sack now.  You all have a great day and be sure to hug your families.

I have 57+ hours of recorded shows on my DVR right now so I'm leaving you with this quote this evening:

Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television.
~David Letterman 

     Prior to going to your own Xanga we get to see "Featured Weblogs".  Isn't it nice that we are not inundated with the "Pro-Ana" Xanga sites anymore?  That was WAY out of hand before they changed to the new look of the Xanga front page. 

That was my random thought of the day. 

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     Below are some photos from my day with my younger niece and nephews.  Behind the Target that we went to were a couple of fire trucks.  We were told that they are there every Sunday, testing out their equipment.  VERY exciting for the children.  Well, Jessica wasn't too thrilled but the boys sure were!

Here are Matthew, Jessica, Pierce and Peyton on their way to see the firemen.

Pierce and I met the fireman below when we were shopping at Target last month.  He is 1 of eight Vietnamese firemen here in San Jose:

Here are the knuckleheads!  Looks like the younger bro's are choking the older siblings!

My boss commented on how big Pierce is getting after seeing the photo below:

     Weekend Plans:

      My neighbor Nayeli ALWAYS invites me over for birthday parties at her house.  Nice, eh?  BUT, the party is usually taking place when Nayeli calls me so I am not prepared with a gift.  SO, tomorrow I am going to hit up the store to find Nayeli's aunt some baby shower gifts.  Mind you, I have NO idea when the shower is but doggone it, this time I will be prepared! 

     SO, first thing tomorrow morning I will go shopping and then in the evening we will celebrate Jenny's 17th birthday.  She turned 17 on Wednesday.  Chris had a wrestling match that evening so we weren't able to celebrate on her actual birthday which she didn't mind because she got to see her boyfriend at the match.     He helps out coaching Chris' team.

     On Sunday I'm going to have Peyton and Pierce for a few hours.  We'll probably go check out the firemen and then just hang out at my house.

     We have Monday off for Martin Luther King's birthday so I will be taking care of Jessica and Matthew as their parents have to work.  I'm going to spend the night at their house Sunday night.  We'll have fun for sure!!

     My sister Debbie and bro-in-law Robin are in Florida right now as Shane is moving to Madison, Wisconsin.  They will be driving to WI, starting tomorrow.  Please pray that they have a safe trip.  I hear the weather has been horrific there. 

You all have a great weekend and be sure to hug your families.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good. 
~Martin Luther King 

• Time to face the facts.......


• Reality bites.......


• The truth hurts......


• Wake up and smell the coffee.......

     Wonder what I'm talking about??  Let me splain......on Sunday I decided to take my niece Jessica and 3 nephews Peyton, Matthew and Pierce for the day.  We first started out at Target.  While at the checkout stand the clerk said, "Oh, are those your grandchildren"?    NOOOOO!!!!!!! 

1. Technically I could have 4 grandchildren.


2. I'm 47 years YOUNG and I could have started having my own children at a very young age and having a 7 year old grandson is not unrealistic.


3. I do NOT dye my hair


4. I will NEVER dye my hair.


5. Never say never, right?


6. I love bullets.......

     Really, I need to face the facts that I am old enough to have grandchildren but in my head, I sure don't feel like I could.  I have a Xanga friend "GrannyHappyNanny".  She has 5 grandbabies and she is younger then me.  They are simply adorable too! 

     Will I ever accept the reality that I am getting older?  I really don't think so.  In my head I am still in my 20's.  Or at least I act like it.  I refuse to grow up.  THE END!
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     Silly me........I didn't thank Bonnie for making my new Xanga look.  Bonnie is VERY talented when it comes to fixing up and making Xanga front pages purrty.  I LOVE my Xanga. 

THANK YOU BONNIE!
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     My coworker sent this really interesting site to me (click on the pic to check it out):

     I've got to get to work now folks.  You all have a wonderful day and be sure to hug your families.

Age is an issue of mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. 
~Mark Twain

Where did the time go?  My baby brother Daniel is 40 years old today!  YIKES!! 

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Daniel is the 40 year old on the right, my nephew Nick is on the left!

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My toe is doing ok.  It is a bad time of the year to have this procedure done because I have to keep it covered.  If it was summer, I would be wearing sandals.  I go back to the Dr. tomorrow.  Being diabetic now I am susceptible to footsie problems, so I really need to keep an eye on that part of my body.

Weird - I had finished this post and made it public and then somehow, the bottom of my post disappeared. 

I've been extremely busy with work and all of the overtime that my guys have been doing.  Thankfully the storms are over and we are back to "normal".  System wide, we had over 2.5 million customers out of service.  YIKES!

Tonight I'm going to my Godson Chris' wrestling match.  I am going to videotape their exercise routine as it's really cool.  I'll upload it hopefully tonight to show it to you all! 

I've got to get busy - You all have a wonderful day.  Happy Birthday Baby Bro - I LOVE YOU! 

Be sure to hug your families!

I'm a cookie lover so I'm leaving you all with this quote (it's my kind of diet):

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

Howdy Folks, I survived the BIG STORM of 2008.  Really, the worst day for SJ was on Friday.  Thankfully I didn't have any damage to my home (my bosses fence fell down) nor did my power go out.  I did have a table/umbrella in my backyard fall over but it didn't break.    From what I hear, we still have a great number of outages in the Bay Area and we are using help from electric workers from different states.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

I mentioned that I had a Dr's appointment in my last entry.  It was a podiatrist appointment.  I had an ingrown toe nail so on Friday my Dr. removed part of my toe nail.    Thankfully it was numb when he did it but YOWZA, did I wake up on Friday and Saturday night in pain.  The Dr. gave me a prescription for Tylenol/codeine but I told the receptionist that I already had vicodin at home and didn't need the prescription.  But, I never took any pain meds as I already take toooo many meds for other ailments and didn't want to take anything else.  I just decided to "ride through" the pain.  No big deal, I just went back to sleep. 

On Saturday, Sue and I went out to TJMaxx because I wanted to pick up a Baptism gift for my Goddaughter-to-be, Giada.  Even though the baptism isn't until March/April, I wanted to get the gift early, just to have it.  While Sue and I were shopping at TJMaxx, my toe started hurting because my foot was raised up by the 2.5" heal from the shoes that I had on: 

Similar to these:

SO, at TJMaxx, I went to the shoe department and found these:

They are Traps, fake "Crocs" and they are SOOOO comfortable.  I never thought I would own a pair of these shoes because they are so ugly but when I put them on, I couldn't believe how wonderful they felt on my feet.  I am wearing them to work today because I can't wear closed shoes as my toe is still wrapped and will be for one week.  Also, online the fake Crocs go for $29.99 and the shoes that I bought were only $9.99.  What a deal, eh?!  I sure do love a bargain!

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

I'm leaving you all with a poem that I "borrowed" from a newsletter that I receive a couple of times a week from a Compassionate Friends group in Atlanta.

You all have a wonderful day and be sure to hug your families.

Don’t Look For Me Among the Tombs

We are having a pretty big storm right now.  The wind is roaring - 25 mph - it's raining pretty good too.  There are floods on the roads/freeways.  Do you think people are slowing down on the roads?  NO.....they are going to same speed they always go, rain or shine.  What the heck is wrong with these idiots.  Ah yes, they lack common sense.

There has already been one fatality in the Bay Area.  A man was racing his Camaro on the freeway and lost control and died.  For what?  Lack of common sense.

There are already 7000 people out of power.  FYI:  I'm in the gas department.  But my guys do help out the electric guys during storms. 

I've got a Dr. appointment at 2pm today but I'm not going to go on the freeway to it.  I'm taking the backroads.  There are too many crazy people out there that, yep....they lack common sense.

My sister Debbie is having a Princess House party tonight.  I have no idea what I'm going to buy.  This is what I bought at the last party I went to in December:

EDIT:  It seems some of you haven't heard of Princess House. It's actually Princess House Crystal.  Check out the website here!

I have so many Princess House items in my pantry that are still in the boxes.  I just don't use the stuff but was taken by it in the 80's when everyone was having parties.  Princess House has really expanded their list of items for sale.  They even sell spices!  I love the pitcher up above....it looks SO retro!

That is it for the weekend plans.  I'm staying indoors Saturday and Sunday.  I cannot stand to be out there in this horrible weather when people are idiots and lack common sense. 

Whatever you all do this weekend, be safe and be sure to hug your families.

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. 
~Robert Green Ingersoll

Grandma's are sure smart:

• Who Shot JR? is talked about heavily from the TV show Dallas. On November 21, the conclusion draws more viewers than any other show in TV history up to that point.


• Post-It Notes are introduced by 3-M


• Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer


• John Lennon is assassinated by Mark David Chapman


• Brook Shields whispers, "You know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." the ad was banned.


• Ronald Reagan is elected, defeating Jimmy Carter, and takes credit for freeing the Iranian hostages in his inaugural speech.
  
• RU-486, the abortion pill is released in France.
  
• CNN is launched as the first all news network
  
• Richard Pryor gets badly burned trying to freebase cocaine.
  
• US hockey team beat Russia for the gold in the Winter Olympics.

The above bullet items are just some important things that happened in 1980.  My nephew Shane was born in August of 1980.  That should be included above too!  BUT, the reason I am writing about 1980 is that 28 years ago on January 3rd, was the first day of my job.  WHERE has the time gone?  I don't feel any older then when I started working for "the company" 28 years ago.  

If any of you saw the movie "Erin Brokovich", I work for the company that she sued.  I actually couldn't watch the movie because I was embarrassed at what our company did.  My sis Debbie, brother-in-law Robin, nephew Jimmy and a cousin of mine all work for the same company.  My sis Nini had almost 19 years working for the company until she got married and moved to Virginia.

I've been in my current position at work now for almost 17 years.  I do payroll for 35+ men.  I LOVE my bosses, we have a really good relationship.  Maybe they will let me take 1/2 day off to go shopping to celebrate my anniversary?  Nah, I've go tooooo much work to do being that it's the beginning of the month/year.

You all have a wonderful day.  Be sure to hug your families too.

”You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play."
--Warren Beatty

For Everything A Season
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war,
And a time for peace.
--Ecclesiastes 3

First off - Let me thank all of you that left comments here and on Christopher's memorial website.  We (my family and I) truly appreciate all of the support you, my Xanga family has given us for the past 2+ years.

Being that Christopher's birthday was on a Saturday this year, we had quite a crowd show up.  Amazingly Christopher's former girlfriend Melissa arrived just at the time everyone else was told to meet.  She had NO idea what time we were going to meet on Saturday so definitely Christopher had something to do with her being there right at that time.

You know me, I had my camera with me.  I gave it to my Godson Chris to take photos. 

Here is the Christmas Box Angel that greets us when first entering the cemetery.  A Superman lunchbox with Christopher's business card is on it:

My niece and nephew Shane and Wendy sharing Wendy's scarf.  It was pretty cold for us California folks (51°).  This was the first time Shane was with us for Christopher's birthday:

I loved the dew on the rose that was in the flowers at Christopher's grave:

Here is a toothless Jessica (she didn't get her 2 front teeth that she asked for from Santa) and myself (look at my GRAY hair!):

Here are Sue, Jose, Shane and Wendy looking at Christopher's car.  Robin drives it to the cemetery on his memorial and birthday:

After going to the cemetery some of us went out to lunch at a place called Harry's Hofbrau.  The food there is like eating a Sunday dinner at Mom's house!  VERY good!

Denise, Chris, Jenny & Jessica:

My brother Donald and his g/f Corina:

Jessica, Wendy, Robin, Debbie, Shane and goofy Matthew (I swear Christopher is inside of him):

Last,but definitely not least, below are lyrics that Robin read from a Kenny Chesney song:

"Who You'd Be Today"
Kenny Chesney:

Sunny days seem to hurt the most
Wear the pain like a heavy coat
I feel you everywhere I go
I see your smile, I see your face
I hear your laugh' in the rain
I still can't believe you're gone

(Chorus)
It ain't fair you died too young
Like a story that had just begun
But death tore the pages all away
God knows how I miss you
All the hell that I've been through
Just knowing, no one could take your place
Sometimes I wonder, who you'd be today

Would you see the world
Would you chase your dreams
Settle down with a family
I wonder what would you name your babies
Some days the sky's so blue
I feel like I can talk to you
And I know it might sound crazy

(Chorus)
It ain't fair you died too young
Like a story that had just begun
But death tore the pages all away
God knows how I miss you
All the hell that I've been through
Just knowing, no one could take your place
Sometimes I wonder, who you'd be today

Today, Today, Today...
Today, Today, Today...

Sunny days seem to hurt the most
I wear the pain like a heavy coat
The only thing that gives me hope
Is I know, I'll see you again someday

Someday, Someday...