Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas

Christmas is nearly here.  I walked around looking at Christmas lights the other night; they were gorgeous.



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Church lobby




Catching up....Thanksgiving was good; I spent it with my mom, oldest nephew, and youngest brother and his family.

I love the way the lobby of the church is decorated every Christmas.  It is a bit strange not to be having Christmas Joy though; there are so many good memories from all the CJ shows I have been to.

God isn't finished with Bethany, but transition can be a challenge.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

More funny comics.

I love these.

The Peanuts--They are a favorite.


Peanuts


Garfield.

Garfield


Drabble.

Drabble

Monday, October 13, 2014

Bethany's last service with Pastor Keith

Bethany Church's senior pastor of worship, Keith Wells, retired at the end of September after leading worship at Bethany for 40 years.  The worship service on September 28, his last time leading the service as pastor of worship with Bethany, was beautiful.  Pastor Keith will be missed.


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Comics

The comics this morning were particularly funny.


I love Marmaduke.


Marmaduke



And Drabble.  Yes, prices have gone up over the years.

Drabble


 I can definitely relate to this one.


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And who doesn't love Garfield....


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And the Peanuts?  Snoopy is my favorite, although I love all the Peanuts characters.


Peanuts

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Once Upon a Time and NCIS: New Orleans

I am delighted that a new season for Once Upon A Time has started; I am looking forward to seeing what happens with the Frozen story line.




I am also very happy that Scott Bakula has a lead role in another TV series; it has been too long. From what I can tell so far, NCIS: New Orleans is going to be a good series.




I have loved his work through the years.   Quantum Leap was (and still is) very special to me, and I liked Star Trek: Enterprise and Men of a Certain Age a lot, and I've enjoyed various roles Scott has guest-starred in.  It is about time for another show. 

Friday, September 19, 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Highlander (T.V. show)



I went to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles several weeks ago.  I enjoyed the interaction between Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello, and I liked the background information about how April rescued them from her father's lab, but it wasn't all that impressive.  I'd have been better off just waiting for the movie to come out on DVD.

In fairness, it isn't unusual for sequels in a series of movies to not be as good as the original, and kids do seem to like these guys.

I've been reacquainting myself with Highlander after not watching it for a number of years.  I'm ten episodes into the first season.  It's a good show.  The flashbacks to Mac's past lives are interesting, and Adrian Paul certainly is good-looking.




Thursday, September 18, 2014

Knott's Berry Farm

I went to Knott's Berry Farm with a friend on September 8.  I hadn't been there in quite awhile so it was fun.  We had a late lunch/early dinner at the Chicken Restaurant, and got a shopper's pass and walked around for awhile.  It was a Monday, so it wasn't crowded like it probably would have been on a weekend.




I love the Old West theme; that is a fascinating time in history.   One of my favorite parts of the park is the Ghost Town.


Another favorite part of Knott's is the Indian Trails.  The totem poles are cool.



And a little closer to the totem pole.  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20406121@N04/4680254693/

I love the old schoolhouse, but I didn't get a good picture of it; I'm sharing a link here courtesy of Creative Commons.

And here is a link with Knott's history.

https://www.knotts.com/media-center/history

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Texas

I spent some time in San Antonio from July 12 to July 18 and got to see and do some cool stuff.  This is a link with some general information about the city.

http://www.10best.com/destinations/texas/san-antonio/




I had lunch in the Towers of the Americas.  Here's a link with some information.

http://www.toweroftheamericas.com/



The Alamo is a must see when in San Antonio; there is so much history there.  Here is a link.




The Riverwalk is another must see.  Here is some background information.






And I got to go to Austin (which isn't that far from San Antonio) and I took a tour of the state capital building.  Here is a link.



Austin is pretty, and although it was hot, some of the locals said they were actually having a mild summer.  It was a good trip.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Robin Williams

I was very sad to hear about the passing of Robin Williams.  He will be missed.



My favorite Robin character was Mork from Ork, I loved that show, but he had a number of other great roles also.  He was a talented and funny person.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Catching up...

I took a drive with a friend to the city of Orange in June.  Old Towne Orange Plaza is especially pretty with its fountain, trees and old buildings.

 
Here is a link with some info about Orange:  http://www.cityoforange.org/about/history.asp

And another link for Old Towne Orange specifically: http://www.cityoforange.org/depts/commdev/old_towne_information.asp
 

In July, we took a walk around El Dorado Park after having Italian food for lunch.  It was a fun, relaxing day.
 
 
 
Here are a couple of links about El Dorado Park:  http://www.longbeach.gov/naturecenter/default.asp
 

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Historic Sites-Banning House

The Banning House is another interesting historic site in California.


Phineas Banning, the original owner of Banning House, moved from Wilmington, Delaware to San Pedro, California in 1851.  He was instrumental in the transportation business (stagecoach), building the Los Angeles Harbor and constructing the railroad.  He was also one of the founders of Wilmington, California.

He initially worked as a store clerk and then a stagecoach driver.  He started his own staging and shipping company later.

Banning acquired the land where he built his house from Manuel Dominguez, a member of the family that originally owned the land in this area.  The land was has been owned by the City of Los Angeles since 1927.

Banning died at a young age after an accident, but his influence on Southern California history is significant.

Here are several web sites with more information.



Saturday, March 29, 2014

Historic sites-Dominguez Rancho





I love old historic sites and buildings. The Rancho Dominguez is important in California's history and it's a beautiful place. The Rancho is the first Spanish land grant in California. The land was granted to Juan Jose Dominguez in 1784 by King Carlos III. Dominguez was a retired soldier who came to California with the Portola expedition and later with Father Juniperro Serra. The land passed to Cristobal Dominguez, Juan Jose's nephew, and then to Cristobal's son, Manuel. Manuel completed construction on the Rancho in 1826, and this is how it is seen today.

http://dominguezrancho.org/

Friday, March 14, 2014

What I've been doing lately.

I have been keeping busy. I am taking classes to learn how to build websites. I need to do something, I honestly don't know how much longer my medical transcription job will last. I am fortunate to have a job, but the work load isn't consistent. I'm never really sure whether I will have work or how much I will have if I do.

I haven't given up on teaching, I still do volunteer work, but I don't think I'm going to be able to depend on teaching for a full time job. They simply are not hiring teachers. I would actually be interested in teaching web design after I've had enough experience under my belt to do so. Whatever the case, computer/web design skills are good to have.

I am enjoying the classes; the instructor is enthusiastic and patient.

I will talk more about my classes soon.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Brave

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Brave recently and loved it.



It was refreshing to see a Princess movie where the Princess wasn't rushing to marry a Prince. Don't get me wrong, I love movies like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. (I love Disney and Pixar in general, but that's not the point of this post). However, the central themes of those stories revolved around young girls who were in trouble and needed a man to save them. It's different in Brave. Merida wants a life of her own and doesn't want to be railroaded into getting married just because it's what everyone expects of her. The movie focused more on the relationship between Merida and her mother than her finding a man.

Of course, Frozen goes a step further. I think this is the first Princess movie I've ever seen where a main character actually SAYS a girl doesn't need a man to save her and maybe it's not a good idea to marry someone you just met. :-)




Monday, February 10, 2014

The Beach



A friend of mine and I went for a drive along the beach a couple of weekends ago. The ocean is so beautiful. We had a fun day.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

A New Year...

It's 2014. This last year flew by fast. My oldest niece (middle brother's daughter) and niece and nephew (youngest brother's kids) were here the week of New Years. They had a good time.


I've been watching NYPD Blue on Amazon. Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) was my favorite character. I didn't really watch it after they killed him off.








I loved the Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) character also, but there was something special about Bobby.


It's not that Rick Schroder didn't do a good job with the Danny Sorenson character. I liked his character. It's just that Bobby Simone was a hard act to follow and things weren't the same without him.


It is normal to get attached to your favorite characters. I survived when George Clooney left ER even though I liked the Doug Ross character a lot. I couldn't keep watching it after they killed off Mark Greene (Tony Edwards).








It was the same when William Petersen left CSI and Vincent D'Onofrio left Law & Order Criminal Intent. The shows just weren't the same without them.








And when Chris Meloni left Law & Order SVU.






The only show I really paid attention to through the character changes was the original Law & Order. I loved the characters, especially Lennie Briscoe.





However, the storylines in Law & Order focused more on the cases the characters were working on rather than the characters. I think that's why it held my interest; I wanted to see whether they convicted the suspects.

Whatever the case, the characters on these shows have meant a lot to me and I missed them after they left.

The images are from Wikipedia.