Let's get up to date!

On June 18th we finally drove out of Los Angeles, 3 hours behind schedule. We didn't get to Angela & Bob's house in Sacramento until 10pm, needless to say we missed dinner. We had a great time the next day when they took us wine tasting to a couple of their favorite wineries.

Friday morning we set off for Portland to see Steve's best friend Bill and his wife Cordelia. Saturday they took us to see their Lake Merwin property and some SeaDoo fun.

We had a great view of Mount St. Helen.
Got to ride the Sea Doo
Did I mention that Bill wanted to show us what they can do? They are not like a kayak, they won't right themselves.

Sunday was a golf day. It started out with drizzles but ended beautifully, warm and sunny. Even better, we scored well.
Monday ended our little vacation and we headed for our new home.
All-in-all the week went really well.



We were pleasantly surprised to see that the cheapest gas was just up the road.

So picture this; we pull through the entrance at around 7pm

Steve, jokingly, says "Wouldn't it be funny if they booked our condo?"
So guess what we see when we pulled up to our condo? The lights were on and there were indeed people inside. Luckily, we were able to stay in the single side for the night and they were relocated the next day. It did slow us down. We couldn't even start unloading the truck until after noon.
Before we left L.A., Steve spent hours on the phone getting all of the utilities set up. But things just kept snowballing. Direct TV never showed up on Tuesday, like they were supposed to. When we tried to call they to find out why, we discovered that the phone company didn't set us up with long distance s we couldn't even call them to let them know that there was a problem.
By Wednesday the phones were working and Direct TV showed up to install our new dish, but Wildblue never showed up to install our high speed internet.
Steve was beyond mad. By Sunday evening, we finally had all of our utilities up and running.
It's been nutty everyday. We've never worked this hard even when we had jobs, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Look Ma, All Zeros!

Need I Say More?

Pomp and Circumstance

Palos Verdes High School sent their graduating seniors off with quit a bang!




Families started staking their claim as early as 3pm for the 6pm ceremony. Luckily Michael's Dad, Dick, Grandpa Dick and Aunt Linda got their earlier than we did to save us some seats. Unfortunately, they were towards the back, so pictures were tough to get.



We sat proudly as 427 seniors walked the walk to collect their diplomas
and were declared official graduates.

As you can imagine it was chaos afterward and I find Michael with a bit of luck.
So we quickly got as many pictures as we could before they had to be loaded up in the buses that were scheduled to take them to an undisclosed location for Grad Night.










On Tuesday, this bunch will be off on a 19 day backpacking trip through Europe.

Packing Sucks!

"Come on in and have a seat, if you can find it."

With only 7 days left before we leave, it's getting a bit crowded in our small living room. Now the only issue is what NOT to pack. We have that rock and hard place problem going on.

I've already had to reopen cartons to try to find utensils so I could make dinner. Just a couple more days and it's gonna be take out for every meal.
Whoo Hoo!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go... NOT!

When I wake up on Thursday morning, I won't have a job! It happened! The day finally arrived, the day I have been looking forward to for longer than I can remember. For the first time in 35 years, I am unemployed. It hasn't really hit me yet and I'm not sure how long it will take. We have taken a 3 week vacation before, so maybe in a month it will really
sink in.

So this morning I did my final walk around our giant building to be sure that I was able to see my friends at Lithographix. To give them my best and tell them goodbye... hopefully not goodbye, but see ya later.
So to those of you that I missed I just want you all to know that it was a great 6-1/2 years working with
you all!

SEE YOU LATER!

Happy... Party!

June is always a busy month in our household. Starting on the 1st we have our anniversary, followed by Michael's birthday on the 8th then Casey's & Ryan's birthday on the 26th.

This year we have even more to celebrate. Michael will graduate from high school on the 12th and leave for a 19 day backpacking trip to Europe on the 17th. Then, the day we have been planning for over 4 years... we leave for Idaho on June 18th.

To celebrate all of these special dates we decided to get everyone together for our last bash in California. We had Bradfords and Suarezes all over the place.

Check out the slideshow and see for yourself.