RRHOF

RRHOF? What's that? It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

My sweet boy and I headed to Cleveland to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over Spring break. It was a total surprise for him and he didn't know where we were going until we got to the airport. He got the chance to guess, but I had it under wraps until the end!

We had a long day of travel to get there. Sacramento to LA to Nashville to Cleveland. Yikes! We were in Nashville long enough to grab a bit to eat and send a postcard.

It took 2 days to get through the museum. I feel like I've done my job as a parent, schooling my son on classic rock and what "real" rock is really about. We had a GREAT time and it primed our plans for a road trip between Memphis and Nashville. I'm hoping we can pull it off this summer, but if not, next year for sure! The museum was designed by IM Pei. See any resemblance to the newer parts of the Louvre?

We went to 2 restaurants that were featured on "Diner's Drive Ins and Dives". First was a Slovenian/German restaurant. You should have seen the look on his face. Total WTF! The family style dinner included soup, salad, pork roast, bratwurst, schnitzel, homemade sauerkraut, potatoes, funky veggies and apple strudel.

The next night we went to Melted Bar and Grilled. They had awesome soups and AMAZING grilled cheese sandwiches. My boy had a sandwich with lasagna in between the bread.
It rocked!!! Mine was a "Hot Italian" with cold cuts and mozzarella and parm. WOW!

More Productivity

I don't know what has come over me but I am full of energy and ready to get busy around the house. I dug through my closet yesterday and gave Goodwill over half of my hanging clothes. Wow did that feel good! I even found $7 in a pair of pants so it really paid off. I'm going to wait a week and go through it again just to make sure I tossed everything I don't want or wear.

Here's what I've got on the horizon:

I live in an old home with all the original windows. I know, not very energy efficient by I'm not ready to spend the money on window replacement. All of the window have handles to turn and you push the window out to open. A few still have the original pull down screens but many are missing. I'm hoping to have a pull down window screen installed in my bedroom on Monday so I can have the window open without the cats getting out. If I like their work, I may have them do the second window in my bedroom and one of the living room windows.

When I was gardening last weekend I didn't put flowers in the window boxes under my bedroom and living room windows because then I can't swing my windows open, which I am hoping to do after the screens are installed. I need to find some low profile, cascading flowers for these spots. I want a vibrant colour that says WOW!

I have my wood screen doors primered, now I just need to get them painted. The paint I bought that was supposed to be black ended up being a very dark blue. I'm heading back to Home Depot to get the right colour. Once they are painted I'm going to hire a handyman to hang them for me. I love having my doors open when the weather is good. The screen doors will keep the cats in and the bugs out.

I have an area in my backyard that is covered in pea gravel and random plants. I've been eying this patch of earth for an herb garden after I get all the pea gravel scraped off. My bare feet will appreciate not having those little rocks around to step on.

I'm going to be watching the backyard this weekend to see where my sunniest spots are. I want to put a tomato plant in a pot but I need to know where it will get enough sun. The main reason for this is so I can buy one of those awesome colourful cages I saw at Raley's!

My garage is a DISASTER! I swear no one in Land Park ever parks a car in their garage. They just keep their junk in them. One of my summer projects is to completely empty the garage, hose it down, paint the floor and paint the stucco wall this very cool shade of purple. While everything is out I will Goodwill or dump about half of it. I'm going to look at IKEA for some shelving and the rest gets put back in neatly.

One last project on my radar is to pull up the carpeting in both bedrooms and have the hardwood floors refinished. They are the only 2 rooms with carpet and it's a yucky colour and yucky dirty. That will happen when my son is in Israel for 5 weeks this summer.

Phew! That's all I have planned for now, but I'm sure that will change. Photos and updates will be forthcoming.

A Very Productive Weekend

It was a great weekend. No rain, sunshine, minimal TV and lots of work around the house, inside and out. First thing Saturday I headed to Target’s garden center and bought plants for the pots on my front and back porch. I even had enough plants for the wine cask planter at the back of my yard. I also swept down all the cobwebs, swept and then hosed down both porches.

I’m thinking about planting tomatoes, just so I can use one of these colourful cages. It’s about time they were made in another colour other than boring silver. Beautiful!


My bedroom closet has become the black hole of my house. If I don’t know where to put it, it ends up in my closet. I made tackling the paper blizzard a priority. I bought a 2 drawer file cabinet and now have neat folders for my tax filings, house purchase paperwork, etc.

My next step will be all the clothes in my closet that don’t fit me and I probably wouldn’t’ wear if they did. There is a Goodwill Express drop off around the corner from my house. Next weekend, goodbye old clothes!!

I'll also be getting to the weeding and painting of my screen doors so I can get them hung in time for when the weather is warming up.

A Good Cry

I think that sometimes we need a good cry. I think it cleanses your body of funks, lows and the blues. I had one of those moments tonight that was triggered by an episode of Grey's Anatomy. The episode was with an elderly woman being DNR and her family and friends watching her go.

With my emotions still raw with the passing of my little kitty cat, I just cried and cried until I had no more tears left. I felt better when I was finished; like toxins were released. I don't know if this is the end of my grief, but it's a great start.

Beautiful Feet, Unhappy Feet

I started the day about me. That hasn't happened in a very long time! The pedicure felt GREAT, and the little flowers on my big toes blended in nicely with the flowers in the neighbor's grass. I got my fingers to match, so I felt like a complete set!

So this was the beginning of my day. After I got home I baked my third item for the fundraiser for my son's former middle school and then worked the rest of the day on the event. Here's one of the items I baked. It is chocked full of mini marshmallows, bittersweet, white and butterscotch chips and caramels.

I spent the evening being the official photographer of the event. Don't let that fool you. It just means that I have the nicest camera! I was also on Hobart duty. A Hobart is the dishwasher found in many a commercial kitchen. I think I did about 50 loads of dishes!

By the end of the night, my dogs were seriously barking!! They looked fabulous, but boy did they hurt!

Am I Really a 15 Year Old Boy in a 47 Year Old Woman's Body?

Saw this plaque at my son's school and it totally cracked me up. Enough said!