Me at the LL Bean Store in Maine

I've got to admit it's getting better, a little better all the time

I don't even entirely know what these new iTouch phone things are, but I know I must have one. I'm not usually like this with new technology. My phone is not bluetooth-enabled, a blackberry, or camera phone, or even a flip phone. It's a phone that's just a phone. I'm not usually tempted by new stuff at all.

At first, that's how it was with the iphones. I ignored them. Then last week, I was sitting next to a Jewish granny on the airplane, and she had an iphone. I kept looking at it. I had no idea what it was but I WANTED IT. The only thing that alarmed me was that she was reading a manual for it that was the size of a dictionary.

Last night Mike and I went to the Arclight to see Iron Man. Excellent movie, I'm so proud of Jon Favreau! And before the film started we saw a girl in the row in front of us showing pictures to someone on her iphone. Again, the envy! So, she's showing pictures, so what?!? I should have been thinking. But instead I was just wondering how soon it will be before I have one of those things!

After the movie ended, Mike got out his Razr phone to turn it back on. "Put that thing away!" I hissed at him. "Aren't you embarrassed of it?"

Mike's been working a graveyard shift 3 nights a week, so lately life is not as regimented as I like it to be. It's hard to do chores when you have to be quiet during the day, and actually, since Mike only works the graveyard shift 3 nights, his sleep schedule is not normal either. I mean, he doesn't quite commit to sleeping during the day so he just naps whenever he feels like it at any time during the 24 hours. We never fold clothes anymore because the only flat surface to fold clothes on is the bed, and it seems that there is always someone in the bed since he sleeps at day and I sleep at night. He has to do 7 more shifts like this before he graduates. Since that will have to be over the next 3 weeks it seems like forever that this annoying schedule will continue.

We're getting a new dishwasher. Ours broke, it only fills with water for a few cycles, but not all of them. It broke a few weeks ago but the landlord isn't bringing a new one til tomorrow. That is also in part due to Mike's schedule. We had to have them only come when it wouldn't interrupt his sleep, so apparently it took several days before he and the landlord could even connect on the phone. I'm happy to get a new dishwasher. I hope it is quieter and faster than our current one.

Boston

Today I drove to Boston from my hotel in Maine. Massachusetts is prettier than Maine, but the traffic in Boston was hair-raising and I parked in the first parking garage I could find even though I had no idea where I was. I bought a map at 7-11 and walked to my destination, the New England Genealogical Library. It is not where I expected it to be. It's in an upscale shopping district, across the street from Victoria's Secret. The genealogists were not as friendly as the librarian at the Maine State Library. I did find some information that I was looking for. But then I went to the restroom and washed my hands and I think I left my rings on the bathroom counter. Stupid! How forgetful does someone have to be to leave her rings on the bathroom counter after taking them off one minute before? I had even hesitated to take them off, and then I told myself, "self, don't forget to put your rings back on." I think I got distracted because I had to turn my back to throw the paper towels away. I don't know. It seems unlucky, but I guess I could look at it as lucky because the rings were not irreplaceable. A couple of them were somewhat valuable, but the one I'm most disappointed about losing is my Mount Saint Helens ring that Mike gave me, but that was only $40 and we are moving to the Pacific Northwest so he can easily buy me another one. I will call the library on Monday or Tuesday and see if they found them.

I found my Teague ancestors in Maine today. There is very little about them to be found on the web, so I'm lucky that I had the clues that I did. My ancestors came from a small town that now has only 1500 families. But the town is dotted with cemeteries everywhere. It is quite lucky that I had the name of the one that 2 of my ancestors were buried in. It was much more difficult to find an address so I could figure out how to drive there from my hotel. Something about Maine is that they still don't have things like addresses or street names. The Yahoo map was backward, at least 3 times, and sometimes looked like this.

1. turn right, 3 miles
2. turn left, 2 miles
3. 4 miles

Do WHAT for 4 miles? But that's how it is in Maine.

I'm also lucky that I knew which cemetery to go to, because surprisingly, not all of the cemeteries seem to have been indexed. Though to be fair, it's only been 2 centuries, and I guess no one in Maine has time. I know not all of them are indexed because after I visted the cemetery in Turner, I drove to the Maine State Library and looked at their genealogy books. They had several volumes of cemetery indexes completed by the Maine Old Cemetery Association in the last few decades. The one my ancestors are buried in was not listed.

I was very happy because at the State library I found the evidence that I needed to prove a new DAR Revolutionary War ancestor. Unfortunately I am still lacking some evidence that proves my relationship to him, but it will come.

I'll post photos later.

I think tomorrow I will go to Boston.

Greetings from Maine

Wow, so long since my last post. I've been working in Maine for the last few days and will be here for a few more. Before that I guess I was preparing to leave. I work a lot but I also have gotten out to see a few things in town. I don't eat lobster, so I have to entertain myself with other Maine activities, which so far seems to be eating blueberries and wishing I had listened to Mike and brought a scarf.

Here is a picture of my dinner, blueberry chicken wings. Yes, you read that right.

I am staying a couple extra days to research my ancestors who lived in Maine. I'm very excited about that part.

More later!

No-chocolate recipe: coconut butterscotch bars

If you think a dessert without chocolate lacks rich flavor, this recipe will prove you wrong. These bars start with a rich shortbread bottom layer. You can get as creative as you want to with the top layers. Here's how I make it:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 1/3 cups coconut flakes

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Beat the butter, powdered sugar, and flour together in a bowl. When they are well-mixed, press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Bake it for around 15 minutes (until lightly browned).

Combine the remaining ingredients, and spread the mixture over the baked layer.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top layer is light brown around the edges. The center will not appear to be set, but don't worry. Let the bars cool completely before cutting.

In search of the fragrance of peace

I started researching perfumery at the start of this year. Around Christmastime, I guess, I had learned that my favorite scent, Tova, had changed its formula. Maybe it had changed a year ago. I knew something was wrong. But then the QVC message boards confirmed it, and I was quite disappointed because I thought Tova was the scent that could bring world peace.

Let me back up. After high school, I read Tom Robbins's book Jitterbug Perfume, which, among other things, is about such a perfume. A perfume that brings about world peace.

When I first smelled Tova a few years back, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to have it. And I gradually learned that every other wearer of Tova felt the same way. Wherever I went, people followed me to ask me what my perfume was. Total strangers. People who couldn't speak English. Everyone. And when Tova Borgnine got on TV to sell her fragrance, all the ladies called in with stories just like mine.

Then, I thought my chemistry changed. It didn't smell as good, or last as long. I found out later that it was the perfume that had changed, not me. Tova went on TV and denied it. (My research later found that it is unfortunately extremely common for a) a perfume to have its formula changed, and b) for the manufacturer to lie about it, in spite of the fact that anyone with a gas chromatograph can prove both a) and b).)

So I was quite disappointed and didn't exactly know what to do without the fragrance that could potentially bring about world peace. I decided to do research so I could find out exactly what was so magic about Tova. But then I read something on one of the message boards. Let's stop trying to re-create Tova, and go find something better.

Something better? Surely you jest.


...could there be?

So for the last 4 months or so I have read a large volume of information about where perfume comes from, how it is made, why it is expensive or not.

In my first attempt at replacing Tova I got quite lucky. I selected, from a random review, a sample of Fracas. Fracas turns out to be known in the industry as a masterpiece, and I love it, as does Mike.

But it was too easy, and I wanted to try more.

I tried Caleche (HATED it, smells like an old lady, in the worst way), all the Philosophy Graces (some are good, but don't last very long), and the whole Lili Bermuda line, which I had to import all the way from Bermuda since no one even had it on ebay. (Too flowery, by the way.)

But I'm learning quality, choosing better, and still reading everything I can about perfume.

Perfumes: The Guide was just released a few days ago. It's a review of about a zillion perfumes on the market, though interestingly, the Grace line and Lili Bermuda line are not in the book. Nor is Tova. Perhaps my focus is not mainstream enough.

But one of the authors mentioned that he added one fragrance that is no longer on the market. He thought it was such a masterpiece that it must be mentioned anyway, in the hope that the manufacturers will bring it back or so that readers will have a chance to get it secondhand. It's called Yohji Homme, and the review made me think that perhaps this is the next scent to bring world peace. I don't know. They stopped making it, so how can I take a risk and fall in love with it? But the author was so convincing in his love. I have never smelled it, but just bought an ounce on ebay for $75. My biggest perfume risk to-date. If it smells anything like Caleche, that guy has some hate mail coming his way.

Poppies 2008!

We went to see the poppies yesterday. I wanted Mike to see them before we moved away. Last year I'd heard they weren't so good, so we waited. This year, they are spectacular. Go see them! Go! go!

From Highway 14: Take the Avenue I exit and head west 15 miles.

From I-5: Take Hwy 138 east and turn right on 170th Street West. Make a left at the end, onto Lancaster Road. Follow the road two miles.

Latitude/Longitude: 34º40.661 N, 117º49.645 W

But the poppies are not limited to this precise location. That's one of the neatest things about them. They go on for miles, miles, and miles, and they're not limited to a state park. They are everywhere, and they're free. In many places they are as far as the eye can see. We could see hills that were so dense with poppies that the entire hill appeared orange, even from 20 miles away.

We stopped at many different locations to take in the sights and try to capture them with photos. Mike's favorite place was an area full of sagebrush and poppies. The jarring differences in color made the scene even more amazing.

I've seen the poppies many times and always try to take pictures. My photos have always turned out lousy. This year I finally got some good ones. I guess I'm finally learning how to use a camera. The instant feedback from the digital camera makes the learning process go a lot more quickly! Here's my dad taking a picture of me while crouched down in the flowers for a close-up. I actually had the camera away from my face at the time, so I didn't see my dad in the frame until after I snapped the picture. So he has one of me laughing while I'm standing back up.

Feline Pine is awesome

We've been using a new kitty litter called Feline Pine. It's little pellets made of pine, and when they get wet they disintegrate into sawdust. I've been hesitant to use any kind of kitty litter that doesn't clump. Many years ago I tried that Yesterday's News litter, which is pellets of newspaper, and it was awful! Feline Pine is not like that. You just pour about half an inch of pellets into the box. Just a small amount. Our cat Miss Jack did not mind it at all. When all the pellets dissolve into sawdust, you just dump out the box and start over. In the meantime there is NO SMELL at all, except for the occasional smell of pine. I don't know how it works, but it's amazing and I highly recommend Feline Pine!

Mirror image

Mike and Jack sleep in the morning like this every day.

Potatoes

A couple weekends ago I was visiting my sister in Dallas and she took me to Cracker Barrel for dinner. She let me try her hashbrown casserole and it was delicious! I tried a copycat recipe from Recipezaar but it didn't taste quite right. Next time I'll decrease the sour cream and add more cheese, and cook it longer.

You start with frozen hash browns (thawed)

Add sour cream, cheese, pepper, and cream of chicken soup. I might try substituting cheese soup next time.

Here's how it looked after 45 minutes at 350 degrees. It should be browner and crispier. Next time I'll cook longer or at higher heat.

Not an organic gardener

I recently bought and planted some strawberries, not from seed, but plants that had already been started. I bought 2 varieties. I planted some in pots and some in the ground. Our "soil" is terrible, so when I plant in the ground I typically dig out the existing "soil" and throw it away and replace it with purchased potting mix or something like that.

For my berries, I used a regular cheap potting mix for the pots, and a purchased organic soil for the ground. The bag of organic soil said that it could not be used in pots, though it didn't say why. Mike guessed because of the way it drains. I don't know. I opened the bag and it stank to high heaven and it had bugs in it. Like little gnats or flies or something. Since that's the only bag of organic soil that I ever used, I don't know if they are all like that or what. But I poured it into the hole I made in the ground, and planted the berries in it.

It's now been several weeks. The berries in the pots are doing much better than the ones in the ground. The ones in the ground are barely producing any flowers, two plants have died, and they are crawling with those little flies.

The ones in the pots are producing berries (some have already ripened, and they are DELICIOUS), but there's something weird going on there too. I planted in 2 pots and both pots are producing both strawberries and MUSHROOMS! Where the @#$%! did the mushrooms come from?!? And they are the frightening kind, that shoot up overnight and then spray their spores everywhere!

I wish I'd gotten photos of the mushrooms in their glory. They die so quickly, as soon as the sun hits them, I guess. But see that curly black and white thing to the right of the berry? Dead mushroom. Ugh.

I know "organic" is trendy right now, but I don't think I'll be using organic potting soil again. And my experience with patio gardening has brought out the pesticides and fungicides to fight the battles that I think I would otherwise lose.

Here is what I like: cupcakes
Here is what I don't like: smoke

The trouble with eating at odd hours

is that you tend to get poor service at takeout counters.

I am on the west coast, but I work for people on the east coast. So, as a courtesy to them, I do not take lunch until after they have gone for the day, which is as early as 2:00. But sometimes I am getting lunch as late as 3 or 4pm. This is normal for me and I don't get hungry until that time anyway. But I get looked at funny at the takeout counter, even if I have called my order in ahead of time.

I know I should just start bringing my own lunch. But I'm lazy.

Another problem with eating at odd hours is having to explain yourself to everyone around you. People have always seemed obsessed with my eating habits, and eating lunch at 2:00 or later always elicits an incredulous "you're eating lunch NOW???" or "late lunch?" or "is that your dinner?" pretty much every day.

Cold night

We're back from a short camping trip. On this trip we had good luck and bad luck. Our goal was to see if we could fit everything that we would need for the weekend onto the motorcycle. We were successful in doing that. We had to change our destination when the ranger told us that the campground we were headed to was still closed for winter. But he clued us in to another campground off of the same road, which technically no longer exists as a maintained campground, but is still accessible on a dirt bike. So we headed that way. It was amazing to have a campground all to ourselves. It was a little bit hairy to get there (including pushing the motorcycle through snow) but it was worth it. I don't know when the site was closed as a campground. It no longer had fire rings, picnic areas, or latrines. Of course when we had packed the bike with our original destination in mind, we had not packed for exactly those conditions, but we were prepared enough that it worked out fine.

The bad luck was that after the sun went down, we nearly froze. When we left our house it was 90 degrees out, and the campsite really isn't that far away. But the snow at 6000 feet should have been a warning to us. Our summer tent and bedroll did not cut it and we had a very long sleepless night. So we cut our trip short and packed up at first light and came home. I had imagined myself this weekend to be sunning in camp chair and reading a magazine. I set up my chair on our patio and did just that.

Before it was the dream suite

Now that Disneyland has turned the Gallery into the Dream Suite, there's been a lot of talk in my circle about the Gallery it used to be. The Dream Suite does sound pretty cool now that I have seen pictures and read about it a little. But this is not about the Dream Suite.

Before it was the Dream Suite, it was an art gallery. Before it was the art gallery, it was meant to be Walt and Roy Disney's private apartment. So, there is a patio overlooking the park and the Rivers of America.

At one time, Disneyland sold tickets for seats on the patio to view Fantasmic! at night. I think they were $40 each and they tried to sweeten the deal by serving a catered dessert that you couldn't get anywhere else in the park.

But before that, patio seating for Fantasmic! was by park invitation only. And my sister and I got an invitation.

It was sometime in the 90s and we had annual passes and visited the park once a month or so. We liked to visit the gallery because at that time it had cool exhibits (the quality of the exhibits declined later). There was a lady who worked there who treated us (and everyone else, I assume) like we were her dear friends. I think her name was Julia.

We had seen people sitting on the patio at night, watching Fantasmic. So we asked Julia about it one day. What do you have to do to get to sit on the patio to watch the show? She told us that the patio was reserved for guests of the park, like members of the fire department or city council. But, come back tonight, she said.

So we did, somewhat shyly, climb back up to the gallery after dark. And she opened up the patio doors and let us out. Another family joined us, a party of 3 or 4. So that was it, just us, in the dark, enjoying the show from our private balcony.

We wrote a thank you letter to the park, and Julia told us later that our commendation earned her a prestigious award. We saw her a year or so later and her name tag had the word "Ambassador" on it. She was now a Disney ambassador, traveling around the world doing publicity for the parks.

My sister said she doesn't remember the patio viewing, but her husband remembers her telling him about it. Now I don't feel so bad about all the things I have no memory of, all the things I have to rely on Shannon to remember for me.

Coming down with the Dow Jones

I love umbrellas!
You can get some beautiful ones at these sites:

rainorshine.biz
pareumbrella.com
tray6.com

Here are some pictures of umbrellas I like!

You can't believe everything you read on the Internet

...but you knew that already, right? Several times, I have read stories on the web that seemed legit and were even sourced, and when I was curious and went to check the source, found that the source had been mis-quoted.

So I have an ancestor that had a ship. His name was a common name at the time, and lots of men by his name lived in his colony and also had ships. Someone by that name is associated with the slave trade and other rebellious acts. I am trying to determine whether the infamous guy is my ancestor or not.

In my research, I found a post on a genealogy message board that listed many slave traders, as reported in so-and-so's doctoral dissertation. Two names that matched my ancestors' names were on that list.

I wanted to see the book with my own eyes, and find the source documents for that book.

I found the dissertation at Los Angeles Central Library. The dissertation was indexed and many names listed on the message board were not in the dissertation at all. Other names were found but with no evidence they were actually slave traders. I had gone to the library with a heavy heart, thinking that I was going to find the book that confirmed I am descended from two slave traders. Instead I only confirmed that you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. My mystery is still unsolved.

Today I agreed to remain an officer on the executive board of my DAR chapter for the next 2 years, so that pretty much cements the need for me to return to LA regularly to visit. I had looked at a couple of chapters in the Portland area and wasn't too excited by what I had seen. My chapter is coming along pretty well and I like it and want to stay and see it get even better.

In other news, Mike and are going camping next weekend on just the motorcyle. We packed up the saddlebags today as a dry run to see if everything would fit. That's when we found out that we lost our tent. We looked in every closet, under the bed, and in our storage unit. Even in my car. Could not find the tent. We did find a suitcase that is total garbage and I thought we threw it away a long time ago. I finally guessed that Mike must have planned to throw away the suitcase and then picked up the tent and threw it away instead, or we actually did throw away the suitcase, and the tent and the suitcase found a way to switch or morph.

So we decided to drive all the way to Rancho Cucamonga which is where they have a Bass Pro store, the only reason to go to Rancho Cucamonga as otherwise it is a horrible place to visit, on par with Irvine. They had a tent that must have been a special purchase because it was only $50, and all the other tents were over $100. We got the $50 tent and felt lucky. Not as lucky as if we had not lost our tent to begin with, but still.

Then we ate at a restaurant called Richie's Diner. They told us it would be a 20-minute wait, so we went and sat at the bar. Someone came out and gave us a free hot fudge sundae, and then the hostess called my name to say our table was ready. It had only been about 20 seconds, not 20 minutes. I liked Richie's Diner!

I dream of gardens in the desert sand

Mike took these pictures when he rode his motorcycle to Joshua Tree yesterday.

FAQ about moving to Portland

I was telling Mike and my sister that as people find out that the move has been pretty much confirmed, that I keep answering the same questions over and over again until I feel like making a recording so I can just hit "play" whenever it comes up. Shannon suggested that I post a FAQ here.

When are you moving?
Sometime this summer, probably in July.

Why Portland?
Mike and I want to buy some land, and we know we want to buy in the Pacific Northwest. We chose Portland to be a home base to operate from while we shop for real estate.

Why can't you buy in California?
We want some acreage with trees on it.

Why the Pacific Northwest?
Because I said that I have to live in a blue state, and New York is too cold for me.

What will you do for work?
I'm keeping the same job I have now.

Are you going to pursue a career in politics or public administration?
Probably not.

Do you have any friends or family in Portland?
No.

What does your family think about you moving away?
My family is excited because they would like to come and visit.

I have a friend in Portland. Would you like me to introduce you?
Yes, that would be lovely.

Are you going to admit to the locals that you're from LA/California?
Yes. I've heard that everyone hates Californians, but I'm proud of where I come from. I'll just have to work harder to make everyone like me. And if it's true that all the Oregonians are nervous because all the Californians are moving in, that means that half the people there are from CA already. (See question above for proof.)

Will you come back to CA to visit?
Of course, because that's where Disneyland is.

It goes something like this

portrait by Jerry, at the Raveonettes show last night

This summer, we are moving to Portland, OR. It's just a few months away, but it seems like such a long a time to wait.

In spite of the fact that we are leaving in a few months, Mike and I went to the garden center today to pick up some more things to plant in our patio garden. I got strawberries and he got thyme, peppers, and cat grass. We (and Jack) should be able to enjoy all of those things before we leave.

I nixed the tomato plants.

I love Legacy family tree software

I've been using Legacy for several years now. When people think of family tree software, I think most people think of Family Tree Maker, it's easy to find at Best Buy. Legacy is one of the competing software packages. It's the only one I've ever used and I love it. Several genealogy packages were recently reviewed by Family Tree Magazine, and Legacy got the best review.

Legacy is cool because they have a free version. And it's not like it's free for 30 days or free with popup ads, it's just free, and fully operational for your family tree needs. I used the free version for years. I just upgraded to the paid version a few months ago. The pay version is only $30. I upgraded because I wanted to create some more complex reports than the free version allowed.

I don't like Cyndi's List. That's a website that is a list of genealogy resources. All genealogists seem to love it; I hate it. Cyndi started the list before Google existed. Now that we have Google, I don't see why we need her list. And a huge number of the links on her list are outdated or broken. I know this because I decided to put my family tree on the web.

But first, let me back up. Before I was browsing other people's genealogy sites, I bought a book called Planting Your Family Tree Online. Incidentally, it happens to be written by Cyndi of Cyndi's List. I wanted to know the best way to use the web to organize my small tree of 600 or so names. The book sucks. She just kept saying things like don't use turquoise font, which is true of any site, not just a genealogy site. The best advice I got from the book was that one should look at other people's genealogy sites and copy one that I liked.

So I was at Cyndi's List taking her advice and trying to find someone else's genealogy site that would give me some inspiration for an appropriate layout. That's how I learned that a huge number of her links are broken. I got bored after about 30 minutes of looking at broken links or people's sites from 1993. I did not find a site worth copying and gave up pretty quickly.

I remembered that Legacy could create web pages. I guess I just didn't think they would be anything any better than the junk that's already out there. But I tried it. You just click on Create Web Pages and it brings up a short wizard. After filling it out you can choose from 5 different templates. It takes only a few seconds to export your web pages and you can view them immediately exactly how they would look on the web.

If you like them, then you just use a FTP utility to copy them to your website. I use a utility called 3D-FTP and it takes 2 minutes to copy.

Feel free to comment or contact me if you need more guidance on how to do this.

Check out my site! http://honeydays-ancestry.com/

Rainbow

I took this picture from the window of my office building on Wednesday. If you look closely, you can see it's a double rainbow.

Liberty Cart Dedication

My DAR Chapter purchased a "Liberty Cart" and donated it to a nearby VA hospital. Today was the dedication ceremony and I attended. That's me in the back seat in the middle. A Liberty Cart is one of those bigger golf carts that usually has 3 rows of seats. But the middle seat is removed and ramp is installed so that a wheelchair can go in the center. Many VA campuses are quite large, so the Liberty Cart allows for more movement in a quicker fashion, and also allows the families of the patients to ride with them. The cart is street legal so that the patients can be driven to a bus stop or grocery store or someplace out in town. It costs around $12,000, but my chapter is rich, so we voted to make this donation.

Yosemite in winter

We got back from Yosemite a couple days ago, but that cold that I had before we left was still hanging on, so I didn't feel like blogging right away. Even with a cold, it was a fantastic trip. We left around noon on Sunday, making the trip by car. It's supposed to be about a 6 hour drive from LA to Yosemite, but count on it being even longer when it's raining and when you keep making rest stops. It had been dark for hours by the time we got to the park. I was kind of excited about this because I had some idea that we were driving past some spectacular sights while driving to our hotel in Yosemite Valley, but it was so dark we could not see a thing. I knew it would be fun to wake up in the morning and see the mountains for the first time. The one thing I did see while Mike was navigating us through the snow-covered roads, was lots of stars in the sky. We turned a corner and boom! Out my passenger window all of the sudden there were about a million stars. "It's like being at the planetarium!" I said. The temperature was in the low 30s and I really wanted to get to the hotel. We were staying at Yosemite Lodge, which is one of 2 hotels in the Yosemite Valley (inside the park itself). The other one is called the Ahwanee and I guess it must be very luxurious because they charge over $400 a night, even in the off-season. Yosemite Lodge is a little over $100 per night. We had read mixed reviews on Yahoo Travel. Several people had said that since the Lodge is in the park, that the park employees don't have to be nice to be you and the service is iffy at best. We had read about moldy rooms, no towels, reservations that weren't honored. So, we packed as if we were going camping and hoped for the best. When we arrived at the Lodge it looked like a normal hotel and we were treated very nicely. It's really a series of cabin-type buildings, and the main building is located in the center of all of them. You check in at the main hall and then they point you to one of the smaller surrounding buildings where you'll be staying. They make you sign a paper that says you are "bear aware" and won't leave anything in your car, because allegedly bears will break into your car if anything smells good inside, even in winter when the bear is supposed to be hibernating. In spite of the fact that winter is the off-season at Yosemite, there were enough people at the Lodge that we had a hard time finding a parking spot outside of our cabin. Well, and the fact that there were huge snowdrifts in the parking lot kind of narrowed down the available parking spaces as well. But once we got inside, I did not know what anyone could complain about. We had a huge room that was clean and perfectly made up. It even had towels in the bathroom, and a TV, in spite of the fact that the Ahwanee claims to be the only hotel in Yosemite with TV. Each room at the Lodge also has a small patio or balcony with a couple of chairs and a table, so you can cook outside or enjoy the view while sitting outdoors. In our case, the chairs were piled high with snow, so we put bottles of orange juice and cans of beer in the snow and made the chairs serve as refrigerators. We slept soundly that night. In the morning, we saw that I had guessed right. Opening the curtains, we were treated to views of the biggest mountains I could imagine, immediately outside. Yosemite Valley mountains are more like big giant rocks. They don't look like the Rocky Mountains that I am used to. Apparently Yosemite Valley was formed by a glacier, and that has something to do with the way the mountains are so vertical and bare...but you'll have to consult a geologist for a better explanation because I didn't quite remember it. It was sunny and the only snow flakes were the ones falling out of the trees. I got snow flakes in my eyelashes. I put on lots of warm clothes. Ski pants under my blue jeans. Then silk shirt, sweater, a heated electric vest, and finally my coat rated for -10 degrees. And of course my snow boots and hiking socks, and a ski hat with a mask built in. The most important investment we had made before the trip was in two pairs of Yak Traks...like snow chains for your shoes. The night before, I almost slipped and fell many times in the parking lot. It was so icy and slippery. The Yak Traks made it so you had no idea you were walking on anything slippery. They were by far the most important thing we couldn't have done without on this trip. After installing our Yak Traks we walked from our room to a trail right outside the camp area, leading to a beautiful 3-tiered waterfall. They said it's a 15 minute walk from the cabin to the waterfall, but I would estimate more like a 5 minute walk. Maybe 15 minutes if you were the 92-year-old man with a walker that we saw on the trail. Naturally, the waterfall was beautiful. They said the flow was kind of weak because it was winter, but I didn't notice. The really neat thing was that due to the low temperature, the spray from the waterfall would freeze against the mountain at night. As it warmed up in the morning, the ice would melt and crash to the base of the waterfall, making a booming thundering noise that gave meaining to the word "daybreak". The park staff had cleared a trail in the snow and we hiked it for some time. I think we saw 4 other people on the trail the whole time. I hear it is wall-to-wall people in the summer, so I felt lucky that we had the trail virtually to ourselves. Yosemite Valley has a free bus that runs year round. In the afternoon, we took the bus to Yosemite Village, even though it is maybe just a 15-minute walk from the Lodge. I wanted to see what the bus was like. In the picture above, I'm waiting for the bus and looking up at the spectacularly tall mountains. Yosemite Village has a small deli and grocery store, the Ansel Adams art gallery, and the Yosemite US Post Office, among other things. They also have a cemetery but it was the one thing we missed on our trip and will have to catch the next time. We ate sandwiches at the deli and then walked around the Village and checked it out, then walked back to our cabin. The Lodge was to have an astronomy discussion that night, but due to being sick with a cold, I missed out. But Mike went out and he brought me back a book on the pioneer women of Yosemite which I read cover to cover the next day. I didn't go out in the morning because the cold had taken quite a hold, but Mike went out and hiked for a couple hours and took some gorgeous pictures. In the afternoon we participated in a 2-hour bus tour where the driver took us around Yosemite Valley and we got to see more waterfalls and various sights that we probably would not otherwise have been able to walk to or even drive to without chains. This is a picture of everyone looking up at Bridalveil Falls.

The driver told us that this was the most snow that Yosemite Valley had seen in many years, so I felt very lucky that we got to see it.

We spent a third night at the Lodge and drove home the next day. My car was muddy from snow, and when I went to work on Thursday, the car wash guy literally chased me down.

To see a slide show of all the photos from our trip, click here!

Well, I'm not paralyzed, but

I seem to be struck by a cold/flu thing which is not so much the wet, snotty kind but rather the dry seize-up-your-organs-including-your-brain kind. The kind that makes you want to sit on the couch and stare at the wall and feel perfectly content doing so. When you try to have a thought that considers getting up and doing something, your brain does its best to squash the thought immediately.

Alas, I must overpower these urges to stay still since we are going on vacation tomorrow and I have to pack and print maps and things like that. We are going to Yosemite for the first time. Yes, it's freezing there. But it should be very beautiful and I have invested in lots of warm clothes from head to toe. Ski mask, ski pants, hunter's electric vest which I will be testing out today. I ordered it three weeks ago and due to a back order situation it only arrived yesterday. And it was even quite lucky that I was able to get it yesterday since it is rather expensive and was sent via insured mail, which means having to pick it up at the post office, and in a town like mine, the P.O. is closed on Saturday.

I got water resistant hiking boots so we can hike in the snow and I have been breaking them in for the last 3 weeks so I know they are warm and comfortable.

It should be very fun, so long as I can get my brain and muscles to cooperate.

Today I am very sad because one of my friends has a kidney stone and she is having a difficult time. She is far away and so I can not go to her, but I wish I could.

But then I come home, and there is a pile of presents for me from Mike. He even wrapped them. And for no reason, it's not like it's my birthday or anything. So I smiled and felt happy for the first time today.