Accomplishments.

When there is no work available from the nursing registry I work with, I need to accomplish something worthwhile. In the past, I have done gardening, cleaning the pool, washing the car, grooming the dog, and other home maintenance duties.

Tonight it's my bedroom curtains. The old curtains just about had it. They've been up since I moved in. They have holes and just filthy. I tore them out of the rails and straight to the garbage can. They are not salvageable, they deserve a good burial.

I went to my favorite store, WalMart. This one is open 24 hrs. Target should have a store open as long. They are missing out on my shopping money. Anyway, I looked around for something I can block the light from my window. I have a large window 94 inches wide X 40 inches high. They have a variety of products that can do the job but the most stylish are curtains. One brand is called the Eclipse (TM). It blocks 99.9% of light. Hey, that is almost 100%. It's made of soft, multi weave fabric. I chose the dark blue one as the other colors and fabric designs are not my liking. It's plain fabric without the flowery designs. I also chose to use a simple curtain rod with a spherical end design. There are a lot of choices and fortunately they are priced the same.

Hanging the hardware was simple. Cleaning the windows and the window sill inside was yucky but necessary evil. I'm not hanging a brand new curtain around a dirty window. The curtain was just enough to cover the window's width. The widest size they sell is 52 inches wide. I'm wondering if I need another panel. I'll try this two for now. I hope this solves the light problem that wakes me up at 2:30 in the afternoon when the sun sets at my window. I also hope it keeps my room cool.

Photo shoot, Fall 2008. (and pre-party preparation)

I'm back in the bay area for the 3rd annual Twins Birthday extravaganza. This time it will be on a Sunday as the Day in the Park event will make parking a hellish event and my sister doesn't want to hear the possible complaints by party goers if they have to walk half a mile for parking. Moving the party the day after Day in the Park event will make it more pleasant for the party goers.

I got up early about 7 am this Sat morning. Had breakfast prepared by my brother in law. Coffee and bagels. It was nice. Hit the spot as they say. Sister went to volunteer at the Day in the Park event to take people's blood pressure as a free service for hypertension monitoring. I on the other hand went to see my brother to pick up my white and blue paper background for the photo shoot. He lives on the main land of the bay area so I have to drive across the Bay bridge. The drive was not bad but he return route looks packed like a parking lot.

I was back by 1:00 pm and started setting up my portable studio. All was well when I found out that I left my flash mounts at home. Oh well, deal with it. I have to substitute a larger flash unit. The background lighting will not be even but it's better than none.

I took about 300 photos. Not all were good, that is why the word "edit" was invented. Editing was the most tedious task for me. I hate picking the best shot when there can be several.

I worked 3 hours of shooting and was dead tired by the end of the afternoon. Dinner was stuffed chicken with gravy. Yummy stuff, well worth the hard work I did.

After dinner, we made a sign-up board for the twins' party. A white hard board, an 8x10 photo, two 4x6 photos, fancy scissors, colored construction board and a set of glitter lettering are all needed for this project. After that we spent a few moments to separate 14 balloons all tangled up in a bunch. My sister has a set of warming trays that we set up and covered a couple of tables with colored table cloths.

After all this we started watching Harold and Kumar, Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Funny movie but lots of nudity.

Off to the Bay Area.

It's Friday and I drove to the Bay Area for the twins' 3rd birthday party next Sunday. I almost didn't make it if I have to work this weekend. I managed to squeeze in 2 days of work this week which is enough for me to survive. I'll work more in the coming week. I packed my camera and studio gear to do a photo shoot of my sister's kids.

I dropped Sarge off to the vet/kennel so I don't have to deal with him during my trip. This is no vacation as a photo shoot with the nieces can always be challenging and frustrating but fun to do.
San Dimas animal hospital was the answer to my dilemma. Most kennels require current shots within 30 days of boarding. San Dimas animal hospital will give the shots then will allow the dog to be boarded that same day. For $15/day, the dog will be walked twice a day and this includes the weekend.

After dropping off Sarge, I went to pick up my prescription. I should have done this yesterday but I was lazy so I'm paying the price. Oh well, deal with it.

I left San Dimas at 1:30 pm. The traffic on the 210 heading west was not too bad. I hit slow traffic on the 5 North before the Grapevine. There was an accident on the South bound 5 freeway and the lookiloos were slowing down the flow of traffic. I sat there for half an hour. People are idiots, slowing down to look is just stupid.

The drive was insignificant. 400 miles of driving is easy if your ride is nice. I used to drive a Civic and it was less than nice. The car's short wheelbase makes it a bumpy ride. I was worst when I changed to alloy rims and sport suspensions. I also got used to the Camry and E320. Both have long wheelbase and better cars overall. The seats are softer and more for long rides.

I missed Sarge during the drive. I'm used to checking on him. This time, no Sarge to check. He probably prefers being boarded as he gets anxious when riding in a car.

I stopped by Casa de Fruta to get some dried fruits for my sister. A gift for letting me stay over their place. Pasalubong kinda thing. I ate dinner at the diner there and ordered some chicken breast over spaghetti. I forgot the name of it. Some Italian dish. It was really good and it comes with a loaf of bread. Whoohoo, where is the insulin pump, hehehe.

The rest of the drive was easy enough. The sun has set and it's cooler. It's a little tough to read the navigation system as my eyes sight are now poor. I need those bifocals. I was switching from reading glasses to sunglasses during the drive.

I got to my destination around 8:30 pm. I unloaded some of my cargo and pretty much kicked back the rest of the night. The nieces were cute as usual. Making the 400 mile drive all worth it.