Not much going on here, so I loaded a few pictures.

A couple geese walking through the fresh snow Sunday morning.

This is a new shotglass case I got for Christmas. The three bottome shooters are Mazatlan, Mexico, BB Kings Blues Club Memphis, and Cancun, Mexico. There are four shotglasses along the top, although you can't see one of them because it's dark blue. They are: Key West, Florida, Great Platte River Road, Kearney, Nebraska, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California, and Amelia Island, Florida.

Here's the top, it says "Denise's Shots"

This was my bedroom window last night. We had a wicked storm go through. Not a lot of snow, at least I don't think there was a lot of snow. Most of it was blown all over the place, due to wind gusts of up to almost 50 miles per hour. Along with the wind, the temperatures dropped from almost 50F late morning to 0F overnight.

Kerry suggested I get some mistletoe so that Cupid might want to "jump my bones" when he is around next month. Now tell me...who wants to get jumped by someone wearing a diaper?

Day 6 and 7:

Because Saturday was supposed to be the worst day of the storms passing through California, we didn't do much. We did go to the hospital to see Bob, since he was now in a room. We didn't stay long, as he was sleepy due to the antibiotics. They had him on a wide-spectrum drug, until the urologist verified it was a U.T. infection, then they started him on one specifically targeted to that. We parked in the Red Cross parking lot, she showed me sorta where her office is. We couldn't go in, because it wasn't open, and her key to the office was in her purse when it was stolen a few weeks ago. She is too embarassed to ask for a new one, so someone has to let her in each time she goes there. From there, we walked over to the hospital. Fortunately, it wasn't raining right then.

She took me for a longer tour of downtown Glendale, showing me all the places she goes, runs errands, gets gas, all those exciting things. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store so she could pick up a few things.

We hung out at the house for a few hours, playing 221b Baker Street again, and watching a little television. About 6pm, we got into the car to go eat out. There's a nice Mexican restaurant in Glendale that she likes to go to, so despite the rain (and since we needed to go back there anyway) we went out to eat. We both ordered margaritas, I had taquitos and something else that I forgot, lol. Very yummy! It was pouring rain outside, so we got quite wet running back to the car. From there we drove a couple blocks to the Glendale Centre Theatre to see their production of The Foreigner. The theatre is in-the-round, and there are NO bad seats. It was quite hilarious, and a most enjoyable way to spend the evening. The drive home was pretty scary though. I've driven in hard rain before, but in Chicago we know how to make the roads so the water drains off them. In California, they let the water sit on the freeway, which you have to try to drive through. Hydroplaning is a big threat when driving in torrential downpours in CA, and I was lucky to go 40mph going home. Several times, I felt like the tires were no longer touching the road. I was VERY glad when we arrived safely back at my aunt's house.

Sunday dawned cloudy and rainy again. We had plans to drive up to Santa Barbara to visit my other nephew Doug, his wife, Margie, and their two children, Alycia and Aaron. They live in Grover Beach, so meeting in Santa Barbara was about halfway for both of us.

Aaron has Muscular Dystrophy, and is in a motorized chair. They also have a special van that was custom fit for his chair, with a ramp and everything. The chair is amazing! I think they said it cost about $20,000, but it has four-wheel drive, and raises and lowers, so he can be at chair level, or can be eye level to his dad who is over 6 feet tall. It even goes down stairs, as shown in the pictures below.

All he needs is a little help from behind to navigate down stairs.

Once he's all the way down, one set of wheels lifts up, and he will only use one set of the larger wheels, and the smaller set of wheels. He can go through grass, some sand depending on how packed it is, over curbs, it's amazing how well he can get around. None of this has stopped the family from taking trips, and doing things together. We met them for lunch at the Doubletree Resort, then walked a few blocks to the Santa Barbara Pier. Because it was off-season, not much was going on, but it was nice to walk out to the end and see the ocean. That was as close as I was going to get on this trip. Just as we were getting back to our car, it started raining lightly. The weather couldn't have co-operated more. It rained until we arrived, then quit until we were ready to leave.

I drove us back to my aunt's house, we had dinner, and she fell asleep watching television. She had already started feeling sick by that time, and it wasn't two days later that I started feeling it myself. My trip home the next day was an adventure in itself, so I'll save that for my next post, lol.

Days 4 and 5 in California:

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Pardon that temporary interruption, but the cold weather took over my primary brain functions. Now that it has warmed up a bit, I'm feeling more normal.

On Thursday morning, my aunt and I packed up our stuff and checked out of our hotel rooms. We went and paid a quick visit over to my sister and her hubby to say goodbye to him and the cats. (Darn, I should have taken pictures of them, they're gorgeous.) We followed my sister in her car over to the lady that takes care of her mother-in-law, Katherine. She's 101 years old, God bless her. She has short term memory problems, but in the past has always remembered me. She has good days and bad days, but I think this was not one of her better days. Unfortunately, she didn't remember me, so the visit wasn't very long. Plus she does tire out easily.

Her son, my BIL got tired of answering the same questions over and over, so he made a card file. On each card, he wrote down her most common questions on one side, and the answer on the other. And he used some of her more common phrases in the answers. One of our most favorite phrases of hers is, "Don't TELL ME!" One of the cards asks about her house, which was sold years ago. His answer to the question is that the house was sold and the money's in the bank. Another question asks about where her money is. The answer is, "In the bank, earning interest." Then below that it says "That's nice," another of her frequent sayings. So now when he goes to visit her, and she asks him one of these questions, he just opens up the card file, pulls out the card and has her read both sides, that way he isn't repeating himself 50 times, lol.

It's amazing that she is 101 years old, after the life she has had, but she is a terrific lady, and I consider it an honor to know her. We stayed about 15 minutes or so then were directed back out to the freeway so we could head north to Los Angeles and my aunt's house.

We stopped at this cute little place for lunch. I don't remember the name of it, or even exactly where it's located, so looking on a map doesn't help much. There were a few shops, and some activities for kids during the summer months. Most of it was closed for winter. If I really did some digging I could find it, maybe another day I'll look into it more fully.

We stopped in Glendale so I could see the nursing home my uncle is at. He was sleeping when we got there, and was not real aware of things, so I'm not sure if he knew me or not. He's suffering from Parkinson's, and being unable to swallow on his own, he has a feeding tube and needs constant care. They are taking very good care of him there, and he's close to the Red Cross where my aunt volunteers, and a hospital.

She took me on a quick tour of Glendale (where the Tournament of Roses Parade is held each year.) We then went to relax at her house and get settled in. After she showed me around telling me about all the improvements she's had done to the house, I went out to her patio and saw the following sunset.

This was to be the last sunset during my stay in California. The next day dawned overcast and rainy. Because of the rainstorms approaching California, we changed our plans a bit for the last few days of my stay. We agreed to drive up to Lancaster to see my nephew Dennis on Friday instead of Saturday, since it looked like Friday would be less rainy than Saturday. Unfortunately, that meant his new wife was working, and when we attempted to go meet her at her work, she couldn't spare any time because she her boss was there. Maybe next trip I'll get to meet her.

Dennis' son lives with him, along with his wife's son and daughter. Dennis also has two daughters, they are currently living with their mother. I'm not sure why he didn't ask to have them there when we came to visit, and we didn't want to ask, thinking it might be a touchy subject. The mother seems to think that all her children are sick (she's a hypochondriac) and wants them all medicated. The girls are about 9 months apart. From what I was told, the younger one is no longer medicated, but unfortunately is her mother's daughter. The older one is still medicated (I believe) but has other issues too. They are both teenagers, but the older one has no female hormones, so she is not going through puberty like all the other girls at school. I believe she is taking medicine for that, not sure how well it's working, or if it's working.

Our visit was relatively short, we saw the son (my great-nephew, he's 15 I think) for about two minutes, then Dennis, my aunt Val and I went to lunch at Panera. While there, my cell phone rang, and checking the number I said to Val, "Who would be calling me from the 818 area code?" She had no idea, so I didn't answer, and no message was left. We dropped Dennis back at his house, and Val and I left to come back to her house. On the way back through the mountains, it started raining harder, and we saw an accident on the other side of the road, involving a couple cars, that had traffic backed up for several miles. We were glad to not be in that mess.

Once back at my aunt's house, she checked her messages and it turned out the nursing home had been trying to reach us (hence the call to my cell phone from the 818 area code.) My uncle had been transferred to the hospital, they thought he might have pneumonia. Val had thought he felt warm when we saw him on Thursday, but never mentioned it to the nurse at the home. We drove in the rain to the emergency room, and I sat with all the walk ins while she went to go see Bob and talk to a doctor. Turns out it was only a urinary tract infection, so he was going to be admitted. She gave them the information for his urologist, due to his repetitive infections in the past. He was kept there for a few days, and then returned back to the home.

After the jaunt to the hospital, and the lousy weather, my aunt and I just relaxed Friday night with a glass of wine and a board game. She had several suggestions: Monopoly, Scrabble, and two different Sherlock Holmes board games. We decided on one of the Sherlock Holmes games, called appropriately enough 221b Baker St. We had a lot of fun going around trying to get clues to solve the mystery. Before we knew it, it was near midnight, and we needed sleep.

I was sitting here debating whether I wanted to post anything to blogger tonight. After getting caught up on new comments and new posts at the other blogs I regularly check, I had signed out and was sitting at the blogger start page.

As I was messaging a friend in msn, one little part of the start page was still visible. It says, "Post thoughts." Hmmmm, do I have any thoughts to post tonight? All I could think of was....

I want to be WARM!!!

So there you have it, my thought for the day.

Brrrrrrrrr!

I just finished streaming, put on The Weather Channel, it says it's 8F outside with a windchill of -10F (-13C wind chill of -23C).

Tomorrow's high temp is supposed to be 6F.

On that note, I'm going to go bury myself under a couple blankets.

"Midway Magic"

Since I don't have a lot more pictures left of my vacation due to the lousy weather the entire second half of my trip, I will post some interesting facts about the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier.

- The USS Midway was in service for 47 years, from the end of WWII to the liberation of Kuwait in 1991

- The USS Midway was the first ship that was too large for the Panama Canal

- It was the first carrier to operate extensively in the sub-Arctic

- Pilots from the Midway shot down the first and last MiGs of the Vietnam War

- Midway led the evacuation of Saigon, rescuing 3,073 refugees in two days

- Rescued 1,800 Americans fleeing the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Phillipines in 1991

- 225,000 sailors served on the Midway, average age was 20

- No other aircraft carrier has served America as long as the USS Midway

- Surpassed 2.5 million visitors since opening in San Diego in 2004


Here are some additional numbers about USS Midway, that might be interesting:

- It only cost $90 million to build in 1945, but cost $260 million to overhaul it from 1966-1970

- 69,000 tons total weight (average car is about 2 tons)

- 2,000 compartments

- 2,000 electric motors

- 1,500 telephones

- 1,001 feet long (305 metres)

- Set all-time record for days at sea, 327

- 258 feet wide (78.6 metres)

- 18 decks

- 12 boilers

- 3.4 million gallon fuel capacity

- 100,000 gallons fuel used daily

- 260 gallons fuel used per mile (glad my car doesn't get that kind of mileage!)

- 2 physicians were on board, and 1 dentist (for 4,500 man crew)

- 10 tons of food daily

- 13, 500 meals served daily

- 2,000 potatoes daily

- 1,000 loaves of bread daily

- 4,500 lbs of beef when served

- 500 pies when served

It's track record of humanitarian missions, establishment of new naval aviation standards, and dedication to the American ideals of liberty, freedom, and peace was unmatched. The called it "Midway Magic."

Day 3: With not a lot planned for today, my sister mentioned that we could go back to where she attended the New Year's Eve party, because they have daily tours. That place was the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier, currently docked in San Diego Harbor. I'm not sure if it's permanent, but it's possible, since it's right next to The Maritime Museum along the waterfront.

This was where you paid to get in for the tour. My sister paid and kept the ticket, so I have no idea how much it cost, lol.

This is a shot looking up at the antennae or whatever those things are that stick up from the top of the carrier, lol.

Here's the entrance where you go inside to the hangar deck, where they hand out headsets and a hand-held audio player. There are many numbered spots throughout the carrier, you just press the button for that spot and you get a recording of information about it. You can do them out of order, as many as you want, etc. It's suggested, that you should allow 3-1/2 hours if you want to do the full complete tour. There are a total of 60 areas to see on three levels.

This is up on the flight deck. I believe that's the Island Superstructure, and includes Flight Deck Control, radio rooms, Captain's Cabin, and Admiral's Quarters.

Here's a shot looking back from the forward end of the carrier. That's part of the skyline of San Diego behind it. It's kind of hard to see, but I believe that's an F-8 Crusader in the foreground.

Here's a shot of some of the helicopters on deck, once we finished the tour and were down on the ground again. This is from the opposite side of where we entered. I believe the chopper on the left is a Huey Gunship, the white one in the middle is an SH-3 Seaking, and the grey one on the right is an SH-2 Seasprite.

This is what we came around the carrier to see. We could see it clearly from the flight deck, and had to see how tall it actually was up close. You can see me standing in front of his leg, and as I'm almost 5' 5", the statue is over 20 feet high. (25 feet tall to be exact.) For those of you not familiar with this very famous image, it's from the end of WWII, in NY. When the end to WW II was announced, thousands of people ran out to Times Square, and a Life photographer was there recording it. He saw a sailor running around grabbing every girl in sight. As the photographer ran on ahead, he turned around and snapped the picture just as the sailor grabbed a nurse, bent her back, and kissed her. It's one of the most recognized images from WW II. This statue was on loan the city of San Diego. It was previously displayed in New York and Sarasota, FL. It was only in San Diego through 2007 (so how come it was still there on Jan 2, 2008?)

Here's another shot of the statue showing how close to the carrier it is. I don't know what the sign read, I didn't get a chance to read it because my aunt was parked illegally, and we didn't want to dawdle.

My sister also took many pictures of our day on the Midway. Once she sends them to me, I'll post them, she took some cute ones. The whole day was beautiful, about 70F.

Day 2: We didn't do much on New Years Day, except watch football. I missed the Rose Parade completely. I should have taken pictures of my hotel room, it was probably as big as Styx's apartment, lol. And we got a deal on the price because my sister Sue knows someone who knows an employee (or something like that) so we got the rooms for $75 a night instead of at least $120. You enter the room, and there's a kitchen to your left, with a stove and dishwasher and refridgerator. Straight ahead is a couch (with a hide-a-bed) and a desk, and a television set. Just past the kitchen is the bedroom, that has a door for privacy. There's a vanity sink and mirror, another tv, a chair and ottoman, a king sized bed, and a nice big bathroom. Plus a closet, and an ironing board. It's almost more of an extended stay type places. It was called American Inns or something like that.

This is my great-niece Leah. She's six years old and already a drama queen. She started calling me "auntie Denisey neesy neesy" and of course her younger brother picked up on it and started it too. Her mother tried to stop them, but it still would slip out every once in awhile. Note the red hair? It's prevalent in my family, lol.

Here's Bob working his daily Sudoku puzzle, with Sam working his puzzles next to him. Sam is only three, but is VERY into construction. The box of puzzles has 4 puzzles in them, and he knows each one by it's proper name. One is an excavator, and he can actually say the word, lol. Note the red hair? LOL

This is my aunt Val. She's 30 years older than me, and still looks WONDERFUL for her age. For those that know how old I am, you can figure out how old she is, lol.

Side story about my trip that I didn't mention in my Day 1 post. When I got to the airport Monday morning, I was thinking that it was New Year's Eve, the flight wouldn't be full, there'd be plenty of room on the plane, etc. Since I was flying out of Midway, it was quicker than O'Hare, and I was able to use the skycap service to check my bag and avoid the ticket line, which was very long. Since I had my boarding pass, I went straight to security and then to my gate. As I was walking to my gate (only a few gates past security) I noticed there were a lot of people walking around in orange shirts, sweatshirts, hats, jackets, and they all said Illinois on them.

I thought for a second and then realized I'd hit the mother of all plane trips. University of Illinois fans flying to LA for the Rose Bowl football game against USC. I was afraid the flight would be rowdy, certainly knew it would be packed. I think at least half my flight were U of I fans going to the game, many were families with multiple children, all wearing orange and blue, lol. Who knew when I made my flight arrangements back in November that I'd have to deal with this, lol. Fortunately this flight went off without any hitches and I arrived safely and on-time in LA. My aunt certainly knew she was in the right area when she saw all the Illinois shirts of people coming down to baggage claim, lol.

Day 1 in California, New Year's Eve. My sister, Sue, and her husband, Bob, were headed out to a party on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. They left my aunt Val, my niece Tina, her two kids, and me, all alone.

We drank some wine, we watched t.v., we played dominoes and hearts, and at about 12:15 AM, my aunt and I left to go to our hotel. It was a nice quiet way to spend New Year's Eve.

I'm home from sunny (and not so sunny) southern California. I have a cold, to go with all the rain we're getting right now. I'm pretty sure I got it from my aunt, but there's some disagreement between us where she got her cold from. It didn't stop us from enjoying our time together. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, due to the inclement weather, but I'll transfer what I do have and give you all the exciting details of my week, hopefully tomorrow.

Until then, stay warm and stay dry, where ever you are.