Coloring With Kevin

Kevin Torres, a reporter at KDVR31 and KWGN2 Denver, colors. He hadn't for a while and neither had I.

Independently of each other, we both picked it up again, during this downtime.

He decided to do a Facebook Live event on Saturday at 11AM Mountain Time.

I showered and joined the event a few minutes after 10AM my time.

He mostly asked and answered questions of the 70 or so viewers (I think it peaked at about 100 views) and colored when he could.

I filled in some of the areas on my current work, that I mentioned I would do if I had time.

At the end of the session, he mentioned that he would do the same thing next weekend.

Interested, follow him on Facebook. Kevin Torres.

Hail Comes To Saugus

My Water Post For Today.

Our day was beautiful and I wondered why they had forcast rain.

Then right around 4PM, the clouds moved in and bad weather came.

It brought us about 30 minutes of hail and very hard rain.

Then, it moved out and we have not seen any rain since.

Thank you so much, for refilling our pond and watering our garden.

Always appreciated.

Totals: Week 2 Of Quarantine

We are holding our own here at the angel house. Still healthy and still staying home, for the most part.
Quarantine Week 2

Toilet Paper: 18 rolls (plus 6 in our emergency closet) The new entry is 9 rolls of bamboo toilet paper, which we put in the emergency closet. We have no idea about how that will work. lol

Paper Towels: 10 rolls

Tissues: 2 packages and many around the house for use.

Hand Sanitizer: Just 1 that I see, in use in the family room. When it runs out I will have to look into seeing if I have any other ones.

Soft Soap: A large bottle under the sink in the bathroom, that is in progress and then 2 new Lavender bottles that I got at Rite Aid.

We got our Quarterly supply of CVS Drugs through our Blue Shield Medicare Advantage Plan. It had 2 tiny hand sanitizers that we put into each car and a container of Rubbing Alcohol Wipes, that we used this week to wipe down our groceries. Big win on our end.

Meat:

I managed to get 2 packages of Chop Meat (AKA Ground Beef) at Smart and Final last week. We ate one and put one in the freezer.

Took inventory of our freezer Several packages of lamb and pork. 6 NY Strip Steaks. No Chicken in the freezer, but we scored with a package of 2 leg and thigh parts from a place called Golden Valley Chicken. I made it the same night and though not as good as Foster Farms, we survived.

The main reason we went shopping this week, is for some fresh produce. My Husband got 4 salads. With his 2 remaining salads from last week, we will have to make some sort of emergency trip before Wednesday. Can't get it through his head that we need to just shop one time a week.

Pantry is still full of staples, including the large container of Corn Oil I ordered from Sam's Club and so is the freezer.

I hope you are holding your own in these very unsettled times.

Choco-Banana Cookies Come In Handy In These Hard Times

We are running out of cookies in the house.

If I mentioned it here, I have so far made Mincemeat Cookies and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.

Most of my stores have small amounts of baked goods, so I have stepped in and made my own.

My Husband appreciates it greatly.

This time I went with the cookies that contain 3 bananas: Choco-Banana Cookies.

I made them years ago and put the recipe in my iBooks "Cathy's Kitchen".

In case you noticed how naked these are, they got frosted, by the way.

Coloring With Markers

Another of the things I have been doing, to keep myself busy during the quarantine.

My Son got a set of markers for a grab bag gift or something and (of course) didn't want them.

So I said that they would get use with me and they have over the past couple of years.

Well, work got so out of hand, those last 6 months and so I did not have time at home to do much of anything.

When I went into my closet a few weeks ago, I saw the marker set and decided to take them out and work with them during the evening.

This picture is almost done. I might add a bit of color to some of the white areas, if I feel in the mood.

Art always pleases me.

Especially when I combine colors to get another version of a color (the light green is an example of that technique).

When I get tired of art, I do Sudoku. :-)

More Pysanky: The Coronavirus Edition

I have so much time on my hands, that a week ago, I broke down and bought 6 egg colors for Pysanky egg making.

Last year I had wanted to make an egg for my great niece, but I didn't know her name or anything.

So this year I decided to modify a pattern and put her name on the egg.

It is the egg with the heart and diamonds on it.

Being it is a weird time in the world, I was lucky to get any colors at all. So I did the best I could trying to match what the example egg looked like.

It didn't come out perfect or anything, but I do like it.

Her name was supposed to be in bright yellow, but instead it is Goldenrod, which ended up having much more brown in it.

It makes the name not stand out enough. Oh well.

Now to figure out if I want to send it to her for her birthday in April.

Tulips Have Arrived

This is my back yard, where a few weeks ago, I had daffodils.

Hiding on the side, I noticed some purple.

I went to check it out and saw that my tulips have started to bloom.

Right now I have seven buds and 2 that have opened.

The little things in my life, that bring me pleasure.

Missing LA Fitness

This is our Monday and Friday Gym. LA Fitness in Valencia.

It has been closed for the past week and of all the things I miss, it is aquafit, I miss the most.

I had just ordered 2 new swim suits and got them after the closing, so they have not even been used yet.

It is so sad, but keeping healthy is the bottom line.

So...no gym for us.

Yard Work During Quarantine

During our quarantine, we have been doing many things.

One of those things is pulling weeds, when the rain stops.

We have had many days of rain this month and so things are suddenly growing, or coming back from the dead.

This week we have been attacking our front yard, on the left side.

My husband had done the right side of the yard, before winter, so it is pretty decent right now.

Lots of grass has grown over the past few years and I just did not have the time to even attempt to deal with it.

Well, now I do.

So any day that does not rain, I spend an hour or two pulling weeds and trying to make some order out of the chaos that it currently is.

No, the top photo is not the final version of what that area will look like, but it is MUCH better than the 3 inches of grass and volunteer plants, that grew over the past few years.

I found the drain in the flower bed and several rocks that were put in to separate different areas of the side yard.

It had been so long since I saw them, that I forgot that we had any.

The cat in the second photo, I am thinking of replacing. It has been there for decades and holds our 2 cat name tags on it. I am looking for a cat shaped piece of wood, to fashion into another remembrance of our cats, that are buried there.

Honolulu Harbor At Night

My Water Post For Today.

We pulled into Honolulu at 8:30PM. We saw the sun setting and all that, but when we were finally berthed, this was the view we had for 6 hours.

I found it so lovely, the water sparkling in the dark and the Emerald Princess sitting at dock, being refueled for their journey to the South Pacific.

Who knew that just a few weeks later, it would have some passenger problems and end up in the news.

Well, it was beautiful while it lasted.

I hope you enjoy.

Totals: Week 1 Of Quarantine

We are holding our own here at the angel house.
Quarantine Week 1

Toilet Paper: 22 rolls (plus 6 in our emergency closet)

Paper Towels: 11 rolls

Tissues: 2 packages and many around the house for use.

Hand Sanitizer: Just 1 that I see, in use in the family room. When it runs out I will have to look into seeing if I have any other ones.

Soft Soap: A large bottle under the sink in the bathroom, that is in progress and then 2 new Lavender bottles that I got at Rite Aid.

Meat:

I managed to get 2 packages of Chop Meat (AKA Ground Beef) at Smart and Final this week.

Took inventory of our freezer Several packages of lamb and pork. 6 NY Strip Steaks. No Chicken at all.

The main reason we went shopping is for some fresh produce. My Husband got 9 salads, split between Wednesday and then Friday. It will last him until next Friday, when we shop again.

Pantry is full of staples and so is the freezer.

We are very lucky, because we buy when things are on sale, Buy 5 and you get a dollar off each one. I usually give to the poor in our community, or to our Church, so being we had just returned from a cruise, we had lots of stuff stocked up.

A miracle, imho.

I hope you are holding your own in these very unsettled times.

Mass On The Web

As soon as the notice came out that Mass was restricted to 250 people, they immediately informed the parishioners that there would be Mass celebrated via Facebook.

I just happened to be online and caught about 2/3's of the Mass last Saturday night.

I thought that minus the crappy video quality, it came out good.

Yay, I don't have to attend for 3 weeks. :-)

The Windmill At Sunset

It has been a couple of years since I took a photo of the windmill in our backyard at sunset.

It was sunset and the rain had just stopped for a bit.

The clouds allowed the sun to drop below them and made for a wonderful time to take a few photos.

I took full advantage of that fact.

After another day spent mostly inside the house, it felt good.

I hope you enjoy.

Weekly Shopping Gone Wild

Normally we do our shopping once a week, at our local Vons. An occasional trip to Trader Joe's and an occasional one to Costco. Once a month or so.

In this new normal...has it only been one week? We find ourselves at a shopping center about 1 1/2 miles from our house. It is where my pharmacy is and it seems that if we have to wait for something, we duck into Ralphs to see if we can get something we need. Not a shopping list, but a guerilla attack. Our chances are slim to find what we need, but sometimes we succeed.

The other day we needed gas for our mower and had the can in the car. Instead of going all over the place, we used the station right there, figuring it costs less for that 1 gallon, then driving 4 miles and back to our normal station. I don't think we will be gassing the cars there normally, but it may come to that.

Off we go this morning, to the store we last shopped at a week ago...wish us luck.

Makenna's Eye

Off we went to Makenna's yearly check up.

I had noticed that something was going on with her right eye this year.

I give her drops for her left one, 3 times a week.

The vet looked at it and said that she needs drops in her right eye 2 times a day and let's see her in a week.

So back she goes today, to check out if the eye is getting any better.

The poor cat, more drops.

Otherwise, healthy.

An African Wall Hanging

I have been to a few Doctor's offices recently and so I see many pieces of art. Many yearly exams, etc.

This one was at the Dermatologist office, I visited a week ago on Monday.

I really liked the way patterns were made on the piece, via strings of yarn.

He caught me taking a photo of the wall hanging and mentioned that he got it in his travels in Africa.

He also told me that he had just returned from a trip to Madagascar, in January.

He said that it was not as wonderful as they made it out to be, but in spite of that he had a good time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day (2020)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all who are Irish...or want to be Irish.

It will be a laid back St. Patrick's Day for many, since the coronavirus has taken it's toll on the festivities.

We have our corned beef and so we will make it happen here, at home.

No idea if we will make soda bread, or buy some.

Enjoy the day, whatever you do.

Puʻu Kukui, Maui

My Water Post For Today.

We only went to Lahaina, Maui, but from our ship we could see the Puʻu Kukui, which is the volcano that made the west side of Maui.

It was almost the end of the day and so everything looks beautiful and it made me sad that we would be departing soon.

Beautiful water and a beautiful mountain.

Sorry we did not have more time to travel on the island.

I hope you enjoy.

Grand Princess Update

Did anyone else notice that we never did hear what happened to the many passengers who were not immediately let off of the Grand Princess?

The press has moved on to the many other things that are going on, with COVID-19.

I did find an update from today, 3/15/20, stating that they are trying to send the crew back to their home countries now.

You can read the latest report, HERE.

Hoarding

Hoarding has become a big deal in the past week.

We went to do our normal shopping, but earlier in the day and what we found amazed us.

Just about everything was gone from the aisles, no pasta, no meats (except better than meat), no bacon, no frozen food or ice cream, no water and most importantly, no toilet paper!

It made me so sad to see what customers were stocking up on, leaving nothing for any other shopper.

In one store I saw someone bag 5 avocados and as he moved away, he grabbed one more. You do know they go bad almost immediately, right?

My Husband and I did get what we needed, for the most part, but it was not easy.

I feel for the old in our community, who can't deal with these lines. The babies who suddenly can't be fed, because there is no water to make their formula.

Now I have to hope that standing in those lines didn't expose me to COVID-19.

A Lavender Pick Me Up

My neighbors across the street have a wonderful lavender bush by their front yard, which I have mentioned before HERE.

I was taking photos of my house the other day and I saw the bush was all in bloom and very healthy.

I couldn't resist taking photos of it.

I love the smell of lavender and (of course) the lovely purple color.

It made me happy and in the midst of all the bad news coming at us, this made me smile.

A Newsletter Photo

My Iconography instructor, Kevin, sends out a newsletter every month.

He wanted a photo of me, when I was working on my egg. He missed his opportunity and so when I started using a Q-tip to add green color to the egg, I told him he could try again.

He did take several photos and the one he used is quite nice.

I love the fact that I wore my (very) old Jets shirt.

I don't feel like I could use it on Facebook, since I don't have permission to do so. So I brought it over here, where things are quiet. :-)

Pysanky Eggs (2020)

First off: Happy Birthday to my Sister!

Due to a busy month of March at my Church, our normal workshop was moved to the first Saturday in March.

So we were a little early with our decorating the Ukrainian way, with Pysanky.

This was my 5th year making these eggs and at the end of the day, I had a total of 12 eggs.

It is getting to be quite a collection.

I have so many eggs that are black, that I decided to make other colors. One that ended up Orange and another one Red.

The simpler one, that is red, was the practice egg.

The more complex egg design ended up a sort of burnt orange. It was placed in a cranberry color and that is what happened.

They both look good and they do stand out from the others.

Here are the other 4 years worth of posts, if you would like to revisit them.

2016

2017

2018

2019

Lucia Is Almost 11 Months

My Great Niece is almost 11 months old.

I had to screen capture some tickets I bought for Hamilton the other day and so I learned how to do that on my cell phone.

Later on in the afternoon, my nephew and niece sent a video of their daughter and so I decided to try to screen capture it.

It is not perfect, but it is good enough and it shows off the love between Lucia and her Dad.

I was planning to go visit her next month, but due to the coronavirus, I canceled my plans for April.

Maybe I will get out there, before summer.

Otherwise, probably in September.

At this point, no plans are better then plans.

Trees No More

Remember the tree branch that fell into our back yard about a year or so ago? You can see the post, HERE.

When we got home from our 18 day vacation, I noticed something was very different about the view in our back yard.

It took a bit of time to figure it out, but several of the huge trees on our neighbors hill have been cut.

I couldn't believe it.

This first one is the stump behind some greenery.

I see a second stump toward the other side of the property.

I don't know why that one was taken out, but it makes me happy.

I have been worried for years about those trees coming down and taking out our bedroom.

I have not talked to any of the neighbors to find out what happened, or why it happened. I am sure it totally freaked out the cat, when it did.

Oh well...gone!

Bad Weather Coming

My Water Post For Today.

We have The Pineapple Express Coming this week and just to show you what it looks like at sea, here is some of the rough weather we encountered in the area of Hawaii.

Yes, it is rough and we suffered for it, but it is beautiful, too.

I hope you enjoy.

March Pledge Brings Withdrawal Feelings To Me

It has been hard being away from work, for some things.

One of those things is the complex ballet that we have to perform, to make a Pledge Drive work.

On Monday evening we are watching our normal programming and my Husband notices that the phone number is not being keyed on the break between the shows.

I then debate, should I call Master Control and alert them to the fact that the Phone Number is not there?

I ended up not calling, feeling that it was not my job or my responsibility to do so.

Of course, an hour later a second break runs and it too, has no phone number attached to it.

Now I feel worse, because I could have fixed it easily with that phone call.

After 3 days, I decided that I couldn't take it anymore, I had to tell someone. So I called in to make a date with my former work partner to get together, since it was his birthday on Thursday.

As an aside, I mentioned the lack of phone key and he said it was found and fixed before it ran again.

Big sigh of relief, from me.

Now I can meet up with him and enjoy my time catching up on our lives.

Was It Only 45 Days Ago?

Was it only about a month and a half ago, when this photo was taken?

My birthday, I was so happy, I was not worried about things.

There was a little bit of a rumble coming out of China, but nothing too bad, at that point.

The worst that we saw, were mostly Asian people wearing face masks. I am not sure if they were residents, or tourists to San Francisco.

Life was going on.

When we got onto the Grand Princess, they did ask if we had recently been to Wuhan, China and there was a message in our room telling us to wash our hands for 20 seconds.

They also had a staff member by the sink as you came in, to make sure you either used sanitizer, or washed your hands before using the buffet.

The thing I noticed immediately, was that people were coming onto the ship with coughs.

We rode full elevators with them, there was no way to not ride elevators with a 15 floor ship.

No one wanted to wait, so they stuffed as many people as they could into the car. The buzzer would go off, many times and the last ones into the car had to leave.

I hear stories about the next cruise out (on our ship the Grand Princess) and people are saying that the cruise line had no precautions in effect. May I state that this is not true. There was definitely illness going around and my Husband (and eventually I) got it, but it was not COVID-19.

Thank goodness.

On Friday I heard that 19 crew members from The Grand Princess tested positive for the Coronavirus and two passengers. I am heartbroken, because I knew so many of the staff and they worked so hard to make our cruise memorable.

Every day things get worse and the only thing that I am glad of, is that I am not working anymore and stay around my neighborhood and home.

Early Voting?

I mentioned on Social Media, that I had voted on Sunday.

We were early and so we were the only ones in the room with something like 4 workers, who helped us cast our first ballot on the new machines.

I could tell that this was going to be an issue, because it seemed to take quite a bit of time to get things going.

Signing us in with a scan of our Sample ballot, signing your name via the iPad and then being pointed to one of the machines that they had ready. I am unsure if any of the machines could be used, or if the worker knew to send me to the one I voted at.

All I could tell you is that my ballot came up on the screen.

I think that polling place had somewhere around 10 machines in the room, so I can just imagine how weird it would get, finding a machine that worked and bringing up my ballot, when several may be coming through at the same time. Is it possible that someone else could vote your ballot, by mistake?

I heard there were upwards of 2 or 3 hour waits on election day.

I wonder how many left without voting?

I know my diving friend left in disgust.

I think more work needs to be done, in this new system of voting.

Grand Princess Has A Possible Outbreak of Coronavirus

We just cruised on the Grand Princess. Coming into port on February 11th.

The news on Wednesday is that the passengers who followed us after our cruise, had several people come down with the Coronavirus upon their return to the United States and one of the passengers just died.

It ends up that 62 of the passengers who were on the cruise from 2/11 to 2/21, stayed on board the ship to then go to Hawaii. Which means there are worries that the current passengers on the ship are coming down with it.

Now, I feel bad for the passengers, but my Husband and I feel worse for the many crew who we got to know, from the Captain who married us, on down to our room steward.

Everyone was wonderful and we worry about their status.

It is a terrible thing.

You can read more many places, but HERE is one.

The Robot Park

When we went to Santa Clarita Park to vote on Sunday, I took a walk to the children's play area in the back.

Lots of changes have happened to the park over the 35 years we have lived off of Seco Cyn Road. A sign in the fenced-in area tells the story.

As a matter of fact, my Son used to spend summers at Camp Clarita, which used that very park for activities for the children to do, when they were not going out on field trips around Los Angeles.

One of the things that has changed is the beautiful Robot Slide is fenced off so that the children can no longer play on it.

It has been beautifully restored and shines with the love that the city obviously has for it.

A sign in the fenced-in area tells the story.

The robot was built back in the late 70's, when standards for children's play areas were different.

Most of the equipment was made of metal, which is very dangerous for children to play around. As a matter of fact, I broke a tooth on a metal jungle gym, so I totally understand.

Well the park has always been known as the Robot Park and not Santa Clarita Park, so when they added new equipment and took out the dangerous old ones, they spared the robot.

I can't tell you how many slides my Son made on that robot, but I am glad they decided to keep it as artwork for the park.

Sometimes, you win.

Evening Time At The Angel House

We truly appreciate when Makenna comes back to us after she finishes her final meal of the day.

The three of us spend another 2 hours watching TV, or in her case, sleeping.

She brings such joy to our evening.

The Batteries Of San Francisco

My Water Post For Today.

This post was not easy to figure out. It took hours and both my photos, my Husband's photos and Google Maps to let us know what we were looking at in this photo.

I could have taken the easy way out, but I wanted to get this right, since there are countless batteries on the hills of San Francisco.

This one, to the best of my knowledge is Battery 129. Built during WWII and never completed.

Of the couple of Batteries my Husband and I could see from our ship, this one was the best view.

There are 2 openings on the top of the hill, for the guns that were supposed to be brought there and used, but by the time it was ready, the war had moved on and there was less a chance of Japan coming in and taking over San Francisco.

Enjoy the beautiful bluffs of the Marin Headlands and a serene sail boat.

Godiva Chocolates

In honor of the fact that we finally opened our box of Godiva Chocolates, I decided to post this lovely photo of our bed.

I loved the swans and the chocolates that our room steward left on our bed, on the day of the renewal of our wedding vows.

I wanted to take home the swans, but they did not fit in our luggage, so they stayed in our room.

All I have are the memories...and chocolate that I am eating right now.

Princess really did a good job of making us feel special.