Quickie Smart update

Just wanted to post a quick update to all of you that have asked about our Smart Car. I am thrilled to tell you that it is, once again, Smart! Yahoo! I got a call late Friday afternoon (after having dropped the car off again on Tuesday) that they FINALLY found what seemed to be the problem, removed and repaired the "part" and it was ready for pick up. YAHOO! If I was physically able to do a back flip, I would have...but...um...that ain't never gonna happen. Well, maybe in the pool...maybe....Anyway, I was able to get a ride to the dealership with a friend I'd had lunch with that day (thanks again Alisa! I appreciate it!) and I brought the little bugger home.

So....Friday night, I listened....for a while at least, and no alarm. Not a squeak, not a blip, nothing but pure silence. I felt relief. Big relief. Saturday night we were out late, quite late actually...so if the alarm went off before 2:30am I wasn't home to hear it. It didn't go off after we got home. More relief. Sunday night, nothing again. EXCELLENT!! Never have I been so happy to hear nothing! So, I'm thinking, maybe...just maybe....(knock on wood, fingers crossed and all that stuff...) they actually fixed the problem? Geeze, I hope so!

A Golden Day on the Bay

I am pooped. Not because the Smart Car kept me awake all night (that baby is STILL at the dealership - an update on that soon....), but rather because I took my 3 Golden Retrievers on a cruise around the bay today. Along with my oldest daughter, (a real trooper) I made the trek downtown to the Hornblower Cruise Ship terminal where we met up with a BIG gaggle of Goldens, all part of the San Diego Golden Retriever Meetup Group that I organize. (At least something in my life is organized!) This is an annual event for our group, and this is the third year in a row that we have participated. I love my 3 Goldens, but let me tell you, they can be a handful. Several handfuls actually! (Thanks to David for all of his help!!) They love being out and about, seeing other people, and their Golden friends, and it is fun to have them out, but it's a lot of work. A 50 lb. puppy, a 75 lb. & and an 85lb. pup end up being a LOT of dog to keep in line. Especially when they get excited, and let me tell you - they were EXCITED!

After the 1 hour cruise, we walked down to Seaport Village, a small shopping area right there on the bay. I'd contacted the general manager of the area to be sure they were "dog friendly" which they were, and we had a delightful lunch at a nice table, in the shade. (It's HOT here today!!) The whole morning was a lot of fun, it really was. But, as I said...I'm pooped now. Time for a nap. On a raft...in the pool.



Waiting to get on the ship-trying to be patient.

Joey and Kona playing around like
brothers do...















Part of our great big group!

Through an amateur's eye - a review of "Iron Man"

I will preface this review by telling you all that I am not a comic book fan. I am not a cartoon fan, nor am I particularly a "superhero" movie fan. I did love Christopher Reeve in the original Superman movies he was in, but haven't been too thrilled with the superhero stuff that has come out since. Oh, sure, George Clooney makes a pretty decent Batman (but why did the Batsuit have nipples?), but it's not so much the men in the tights that don't do anything for me, it's the stories themselves that can, at times, bore me to tears. So....predictable. (You knew that was coming, didn't you?)

Well, with that being said, let me tell you that I liked this movie. A LOT. I'm thinking that it probably did have something to do with Robert Downey, Jr. starring as the lead. I like Robert Downey, Jr. A LOT. Almost as much as I like Brad Pitt. Almost. RDJ stars as Tony Stark, a billionaire playboy with a conscience. I thought he was great, and the role showed off his magnetic personality. Iron Man also stars Terrence Howard (love him too) as Stark's old buddy, Jeff Bridges (used to love him and his brother Beau, but now they are both looking really old, and pretty creepy) and Gwyneth Paltrow (jealous of her because she was once engaged to my boy Brad.) They all play their respective roles fairly well, with Gwyneth being just a little too dizzy for my taste.

I thought the special effects were very good, with my favorite part being when Stark (Downey, Jr.) is getting "suited up" in his iron suit, which according to the character is actually "gold titanium alloy." Fun fantasy stuff to watch.

I'm not saying that this movie doesn't have it's flaws, but they're not enough to keep the film from being enjoyable to watch. The story has some wit, substance, and a little romance thrown in. And Robert Downey, Jr. Can't ask for too much more than that....I'd give this an A-

Mother's Day Fun

I'm hoping all of you Mom's out there had as much fun on Mother's Day as I had. We started off the day with a lovely brunch with my parents. (Actually, now that I think about it, my Mother's Day started off on Friday night as I came home from a long day at Magic Mountain to find not one, but two beautiful bouquets of flowers waiting for me - one from my wonderful hubby, and the other from the kids.) That was a great kick-off to the weekend. As mentioned, we had a wonderful brunch at one of my favorite places in a little village that we used to live in, called Carlsbad. The restaurant used to be called Nieman's, and we held our wedding reception there many, many moons ago. The name has since been changed to The Ocean House, but the decor is still the same, and the food is still as yummy. Especially the fried chicken, and the "gold-rush" mashed potatoes - oh, my mouth waters at the thought! I was also spoiled by more flowers, spa gift cards, among other sweet gifts, and a full day of fun. One of my favorite moments of the day was in between when we came home from brunch and then left the house again. For a few brief moments, as I was in the back of the house, on my bed, taking just a moment's siesta....I was suddenly joined by not only all 3 kids, but all 3 of my fur babies. Now, I do have a king sized bed, but with 4 people and 3 dogs, it was pretty darn crowded! It was fun though, as we all wiggled and giggled together. Thankfully Hubby grabbed the camera, and got a shot of us all. Not the best picture, but I hope it shows the fun.

Flowers, flowers and more flowers!
May 11th was also special because our youngest family member, Kona, turned 6 months old! My, how time flys!

Deep seeded frustration....all because of my "not so" Smart Car

Remember a while back, I mentioned a little problem with our new Smart Car, and the alarm system? Well, let me give you a little update. We've owned the car for exactly 66 days as of today, and it has spent 12 days in the shop because of the alarm system. If, by chance, you missed my little report about the alarm system, here's a quickie update-in a nutshell- the darn thing goes off in the middle of the night, for no reason, night, after night, after night.

When we've talked it in to get it looked at, the response has been, "We're sorry, but we can't duplicate the problem" and since they can't seem to duplicate the problem, apparently they do nothing to fix the problem. This does not make me happy. In fact, this makes me very, very angry. We picked the car up from it's most recent stay at the dealership this past Saturday, after it had been sitting there since Tuesday. Same response..."we can't seem to make it malfunction here." So, again we bring it home, with the hopes of having a good night of sleep. We go out with friends, have dinner, see a movie, come home, and hit the sack. Low and behold, we sleep through the night, and awake on Sunday morning overjoyed at the prospect of maybe, somehow, they have fixed something.

That was short lived. At 1:45am Monday morning, it goes off again. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, someone must be outside messing around with the car, trying to break in or something. This time, luckily, my hubby and I both make a note of the exact time, before he runs out to disable the alarm. Later Monday morning...oh, around 7:00am or so, we go to our computer, and pull up the recordings from our surveillance camera at the exact time we heard the alarm start. There it is, plain as day - NOTHING disturbing the car at all. Not a bird. Not a cat, not a mouse...not so much as a moth landing on the thing - yet there it is - lights flashing, siren going. Frustration mounts. We make a copy of the recording to take to the dealership. Neither of us was able to get to there though, we both had swamped days. "We'll take it in tomorrow," we tell ourselves...

So, again, we go to bed last night, with fingers crossed, hoping for a good, quiet night. These nights remind me of when we had newborn babies, and would get them to sleep, and pray for them to sleep through the night. Our Smart car did not sleep through the night. It woke up at 12:50am, disturbing the whole house, and probably a good part of the neighborhood. Now, I don't know about you, but once I get woken up in the middle of the night, I can't just drop back off to sleep. I stay awake for a long time. Last night (or rather, this morning) when it happened, I was awake for HOURS thinking about the frustration of it all, my temper flaring, mind racing, blood pressure rising. Not good.

Without getting into too many more details, as I've probably already bored you to tears, I took the car back to the Mercedes dealership, brought the videos of the last two nights of the alarm going off, sat there as the service rep. watched them, told him that I either want a completely new alarm system, or a new car...his choice. So, once again, we will wait to hear back so see what they come up with. This time, it'd better be good, real good. Or I will get mad....really mad...which reminds me of a movie preview I saw the other day..."The Incredible Hulk"...that guy's got nothing on my when I haven't slept in a couple of nights!

Six Flags Over "not so" Magic Mountain - a rant

Contrary to what I try to tell myself sometimes, I believe, once and for all now, that it's official. I'm old. I know, I know, how can such a young at heart, vibrant, full of life individual such as myself feel old? Well, try spending a full day at Magic Mountain with your kids...14, 15 and 21. It ain't easy friends!

Let me elaborate a little to give you some insight as to why I've made this horrible realization of the "old factor" creeping into my life. It's not that the walking around, standing in line, going up and down stairs all day had anything to do with it. I think it had everything to do with the place in general. Magic Mountain never makes the claim (at least on their web site) of being a family friendly theme park - good thing! It is anything but. (Although, in general, I would think that most people equate the two....theme park, and family friendly that is....)

The first indicator that Magic Mountain might have had some troubles in the past is the Sheriff Sub Station at the entrance. No, I'm not kidding...you get off the tram that brings you to the front gate from the parking lot, and there it is, the Sheriff Sub Station, complete with uniformed officers, squad cars, you name it, the whole nine yards. I guess I didn't think too much of it at first...that is until I actually got into the park - after passing through security to check my purse, and the metal detector. I didn't have a problem with any of that, in light of things going on in our society today, but it is hard to grasp the concept of family friendly - theme park- metal detector - Sheriff's officers....that is, until I saw the clientele of the place. (This is where I start sounding really old...hey, I warned you.) The place was crawling with "hoodlums." It's the best word I could come up with, although "gang bangers" crossed my mind. Magic Mountain does have a policy against wearing gang colors, so nothing was too obvious, but the under lying tone was right there, lying very, very close to the surface. Groups of young people swarmed every inch of the place, and I'm not talking about the groups from schools, celebrating 8th grade promotions, senior ditch days, etc. I'm talking about other types of groups. Those out looking for no good, making obnoxious fools out of themselves, using the "F" word, among others, so often that a sentence wasn't said without it. The park's "language" policy meant nothing to these people. "Guests using profanity or abusive language, symbols or gestures may be ejected from the Park without refund." Yeah, right. If they enforced that rule, seriously, the place would have been pretty much empty. Now, I am, by no means a prude, and have been known, every once in a while, to spout off a bit at the mouth myself, and have even been compared, at times, to a "sailor" or a "truck driver." But seriously folks, the people at M.M. were just over the top. Rude, obnoxious, crude, gross young people. It made me just a little sad. At the risk of sounding even older....I think our country is in serious trouble if this is the youth that will be taking over some day. Ok...I'll try to climb down off my soapbox now.

The other things that made me feel seriously old yesterday were the rides. I discovered, (although I pretty much already knew this part) and reconfirmed that I am not a roller coaster person. AT ALL. Oh, sure, I'm good with the old classics like the Matterhorn and Space Mountain at Disneyland, but the crazy ones that whip you around, and upside down, like a wet noodle...not for me. This park is full of them. Everything from Tatsu, to Batman, Scream, Revolution, Superman, Viper, and a handful of others I can't think of (there goes the memory now...) Those things are crazy - CRAZY! I was getting queasy just looking at them. No thanks. I did manage to get talked into going on a couple of the big rides. Ninja and Colossus. Never again. Seriously. Never....E V E R again. There were a couple of rides I did enjoy. The tram back to the car, and this....

This was, by far, my favorite ride at the whole park....kinda pathetic, huh? Hey, I keep telling you, I'm old.

Anyway...below are a couple of other pictures from our day. Enjoy!

One last note...as I'd like to leave this subject on a positive...the park was actually cleaner than I thought it would be, and there were a lot of security guards around, so we did feel relatively safe. I hadn't been in this park since I was about 15 years old....a long...LONG....L O N G time ago, and I'm pretty positive it will be an even longer time before I ever go again...

Just a couple of random shots

I took a few minutes last night, and tried (and I do emphasize the word TRIED) to read through my Nikon manual. I am not a technical, or very logically "brained" person. I could never be a computer programmer, or engineer, or anything of that sort. With that being said, I actually ventured off of my "auto" settings on the camera...made some manual adjustments, took some pictures, and promptly decided that I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and put it all back to the "auto" settings. I did get just a couple of decent shots, and thought it would be fun to share them with you here. I think this first one, of the Hibiscus, is my new favorite picture, at least of a flower, that I've taken.