49!

49... the number of goodie plates that we made (and delivered) this year.  We really enjoyed going around and delivering plates and visiting with friends this year.  But, let me tell you, it takes quite a lot of baking and candy making to fill 49 plates!  This year this is what we did:

3 Batches of Fudge
3 Batches of English Toffee
3 Batches of Spritz Cookie Press Cookies
2 Pans of Shortbread Tidbits
1 Batch of Gingerbread Cookies
1 Batch of Peanut Butter Bon-Bons
2 Boxes of Chocolate Dipped Ritz Bits
1 Recipe of Shortbread Candy Cane Cookies (these were yummy, but the breakage rate was pretty high)
4 Batches of Pink Kisses (meringue cookies)
1 Batch of Orange Truffles
1 Batch of Nutella Cookies
10-12 Batches of Peanut Brittle (it doesn't make a lot - but it is a microwave recipe, so it is quick)

15 Hours with No Power

LINCOLN, CA - 3,100 PG&E customers remained without power Monday morning after a power outage knocked out the lights to as many as 13,000 customers, late Sunday afternoon.
JD Guidi with Pacific Gas and Electric said the outage started at 3:06 p.m. when a transmission pole went down.
By 7:15 p.m., Guidi said access to the downed pole was slowed by mud and water and the equipment needed to make repairs was at least two hours away.At 10 p.m. crews on scene were able to fix a portion of the problem and turn on power to several thousand customers.
At 6:05 a.m. power was slowly coming back on and full restoration was expected by 8 a.m. Monday.
Crews are continuing to investigate if weather played a part in the outage.
PG&E can be contacted at 1 (800) PGE-5000 or at the PG&E website.

Yesterday was a rough day!  We woke up to lots of rain and strong winds.  Sometime later in the morning (probably around 10:00) our shade canopy in the back yard was picked up and blown over - it smashed into one of the citrus trees, bent some of the cat fence netting, bent some of the patio cover slats, gashed several holes in the shade cloth, and bent a couple of the poles.  We didn't discover that it had blown over until just before we left for church.  So, we went to church, and then during the 3rd hour it started really pouring outside - one of the teachers said she heard some thunder, and then the lights went out.  They stayed out for the rest of the meeting (the poor ward that meets after us was still in Sacrament meeting - they were sitting there in the dark and not doing anything!).  We had kids in some of the inside classrooms crying, so we were tyring to move them to a room with a window and calm everyone down. 

We finished our block, and then headed home - the power was out all over - even stop lights weren't working. We got home and had a couple of hours before it got dark.  So, before it got dark, we pulled the canopy off of the tree and pulled the fabric off the structure.  I don't know if it can be repaired - I hope I can patch it up.  Then, we decided to put some goodie plates together to take to some of the neighbors (we figured in the car as we drove them around, we would have heat!).   After we got back it was dark - and the power was still off.  We haven't ever had power off for more than a few minutes - we are on the same grid as the Lincoln Airport, so they are good at getting us up quick.  So, we tried to figure out what to fix for dinner - without a microwave!  We lit a bunch of candles and then ended up making scrambled eggs (we have a gas stove, so we were able to light the burner manually to cook).  We couldn't believe that it had been over 4 hours and we still didn't have power restored! 

Originally, I was going to work on making some more goodies for our plates (we do about 50 plates!), but that wasn't an option.  We couldn't watch TV or get on the internet!  What to do!  We actually ended up going to bed by 8:00 :-)  At some point - probably about 9:00 we got an automated call from PG&E which said that they were working on the problem and expected power to be restored by 6:00 am.  Sure enough, at 6:10 am all of a sudden power came back on.  So, we survived 15 hours without power!

More storms are supposed to come today - hopefully not as bad as that last one.

It looks like it is going to be good ...

Feed Your Potter Addiction!
Harry Potter's Page

Discovery Cove

On Saturday September 18th we went to Discovery Cove.

We had fun in the bird aviary - there are three separate rooms with different types of birds.  They give cups with food and the birds will just swoop down and land on you!  It was kind of startling at times!

We had a blast swimming with the dolphins - we got to be with 3 different dolphins for about 40 minutes.  Yoshi, Rascal, and Dexter.  We got to touch them, kiss them (that was Yoshi), have them do tricks, and then we swam out and held onto Rascal as he pulled us back to the shallow area.




Staci with Yoshi





Melinda with Yoshi





Staci with Rascal



It was also nice to float in the lazy river, walk in the pool with the stingrays, enjoy breakfast and lunch (included in the price - and actually pretty good food) and relax on the lounge chairs.  Discovery Cove is a nice place!



Disney's Animal Kingdom

Friday, September 17th we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  I really liked it - it had quite a few shows, a safari, a train ride up to a petting zoo area, a few rides, and of course lots of fun shops.

We saw the Birds of Flight show - 

And a Lion King Show



Simba



Acrobat Monkeys



Singers



We enjoyed a safari ride...

... and a parade...

  

We had a fun day!

Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!!!!!!

On Thursday the 16th we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure park to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - which is an area in the park.  They did a great job with the buildings and the castle.

This is the Three Broomsticks.  We ate lunch here - they have British food - fish & chips, shepherds pie, cornish pasties, english trifle, and of course, Butterbeer!



The Three Broomsticks



Inside the Three Broomsticks



Butterbeer





The Hogwarts Express was at the beginning of the "Wizarding World".   The village includes Zonko's Joke Shop, Honeydukes Sweet Shop, Dervish & Banges, the Owlrey (where you can get postcards postmarked from Hogsmead), the Three Broomsticks, The Hogs Head, and Olivander's Wand shop (which really resides in Diagon Alley).
There is another roller coaster ride called the Dragon Challenge - Staci and I started to go in the line - but once we got past the gate, we saw that it was just a regular roller coaster that had lots of loops and drops - and we decided we didn't really want to go on it.  I think we are showing our age! :-)




Honeydukes Sweet Shop

 



The Hogwart's Express









Hogsmead Village

















Hogwart's Castle sits at the other end of the "Wizarding World".  The castle has a ride in it.  The line weaved around the outside first - through some of the "grounds" and the greenhouses.  Then, it went into the castle through several rooms with moving/talking picutres on the walls.  We saw the headmaster's office too.  The ride was on a bench that they strap you in and then it moves around quite a bit - plus has video (like the "Star Tours" ride).  It was fun.  We wished that we could go back through the castle just to see the stuff in there again - but we didn't want to wait in line for the ride again.

Next to the castle there was a small roller-coaster called the "Flight of the Hippogriff".  Hagrid's hut sat by the roller coaster and also Buckbeak was in a nest close by.






Hogwarts Castle



Hogwarts Castle























It was fun to see the Wizarding World - I wish that it was bigger and they had more stuff there!  We started to walk around to see some of the other areas in the park, but it was very HOT and HUMID and we ended up just leaving and not doing anything else there - instead we went back to the hotel and I got in the pool to cool off.



Florida

Staci and I took a quick trip to Orlando last week.  We left on Wednesday the 15th early in the morning and arrived at the hotel that evening.  We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club - International Drive.  They have 7 buildings that circle a lake.  It was very pretty!  They put us in building 1 first (which you can see is the taller building on the left of the picture below) but after the first night, we asked to move.  It was by the pool (they have movie nights - so there was lots of noise) and right by the elevators (very noisy all night long) and it was a handicap room - so the bathroom wasn't the best (no counterspace). 

So on Thursday morning (after we went to the Timeshare marketing meeting at the HGV Park Soleil resort) we moved to building 7 - which is across the lake - but easy access to the pool and the main area by the bridge.

The pool was very nice - and there were a couple of hot tubs that we used almost every night!



There were ducks and turtles in the lake - and we enjoyed feeding them and watching the ducks try to avoid the turtles!

What a Day!

Yesterday was the kind of day that you hope doesn't happen very often!  I had a 6:05 am flight to travel to Minneapolis for work, which requires me to get up at 3:00 am to leave the house at 4:00 am to get to the airport around 4:45.  When I arrived at airport, the ticket counter was busier than usual.  I finally got to the computer to check in, and I completed that step, got my boarding passes, and then set my suitcase on the scale and waited for the agent to tag my bag.  I stepped out of the way so that someone else could check in after me.  A lady came up and started to check in, meanwhile, I was still waiting for them to tag my bag.  She finished, and then we were both waiting for our bags to be tagged - but mine was up on the scale.  When the guy finally came over, he asked for her ID and boarding pass. She tried to direct him to me first, but he just waived me aside and got her information.  Then he pulled my bag off the scale and behind the counter and got her bag behind the counter too (can you see where this is going?).  Then he handed her bag tag receipt to her and mine to me.  We both tried to tell him that we weren't traveling together and he just nodded and waived us away.  As we walked away, we both said that we hoped he got it right.  So, my flights were actually fine (I flew through Denver) and was even upgraded to first class on the flight from Denver to Minneapolis.  But, sure enough, when I got to baggage claim in Minneapolis, my bag never arrived.  So I went to the counter to report it missing, they brought up the information in their computer system and said that it showed it did arrive in Minneapolis.  I explained the situation and we walked over to the bags that were remaining and sure enough, we found my name on the bag tag on a suitcase that wasn't mine.  My suitcase was on its way to where ever the other lady's final destination was. So then they had to fill out a claim form and I had to describe the bag (of course it is a black suitcase like 99 percent of the luggage out there!).  Then I made my way to the office  - I was surprised how hot and humid it was too.  After working the rest of the day I called the United Bag check number to find that they still had not found my suitcase - and I figured chances were not good that it would arrive that evening. 

So I went to the hotel to check in and decided that I better go to Target to get some of the basic toiletries that I would need for the next day and Kohls to buy something to wear.  I hopped in the rental car and headed toward Target which was a few miles down the freeway.  It was rush hour - stop and go traffic.  I was a couple of miles from Target, when all of a sudden I got rear-ended! It was an 18 year old driving and I guess he just didn't pay close enough attention that we stopped again.  We pulled over to the side to assess the damage - there wasn't much - mostly just scratches on the back bumper, but of course, I'm in a rental car and I don't want to have any problems with the rental car company!  So, I get on the phone with the rental company (and wait on hold for a while).  Then, this other car pulls over in front of us  - and it turns out it is the guy's dad who just happened to drive by and recognized the car.  So he helped out the kid, we got all the information that the rental car company needed.  So by this time, we had been on the side of the road about 30 - 45 minutes and it was still very hot and humid (and I'm in the only clothes that I have!).  We finally finished and I continued on my way to Target and Kohls.  I got some basics and an outfit to wear for work the next day (casual - with only flip flops for shoes) and then made my way back to the hotel.  When I get back to the hotel I got all the way to my room and found that the card key didn't work anymore - so I had to go back to the front desk to get a new key and then go all the way back to my 10th floor room.  I ended the day by opening up a bottle of sparkling flavored water (after it was sitting in the fridge in the room for a couple of hours) and having it spray out all over me.

I had to fill out a multiple page accident report form for work - and I'm sure there will be some additional paperwork when I turn in the car... hopefully it will not be a lingering problem.

I also just got word that my suitcase was delivered to my hotel today - so that is a good thing.  I wonder where it went?

10 Years

Ten years ago I moved to Lincoln.  I have lived in this house in Lincoln longer than I've lived anywhere in my whole life!  Does that mean I'm from Lincoln? I never know what to say when people ask me that question.

The Great Bathroom Remodel Project

Ok - I thought I would be posting these pictures much earlier... but the bathroom took longer than I expected - and we ended up not finishing until late the night before the girls came... so I never got around to taking that final "completed" picture.

So - here is the process:

These are the "Before" pictures... (but actually we had already pulled out the carpet).

May 4, 2010

The first step was to pull out the cabinets and the shower doors.  (You can see the toilet sitting in the shower stall).

May 17, 2010

The tile was next (I LOVE how the tile came out!)

May 18, 2010

After the tile they installed the cabinets:

May 18, 2010

Next - they installed the granite and sinks and faucets

Then we painted the room and then we got split the electricity to two boxes and installed the new lights and then hung the mirrors.

They refinished the shower pan.

We installed the crown moulding (with rope accent to tie with the cabinet rope accent).

We got the knobs put on the cabinets the night before the girls arrived!

The whole time we waited for the shower doors.... and waited... and waited.  (The original guy that was installing them stopped returning phone calls and finally my contractor called someone else to come measure and make the doors... they finally got installed on the first day that the girls were here.)

So - finally, the completed project!!