Living in Long Beach

These were taken on my blackberry while Carolyn was getting ready. Obviously, I took the headshot myself. These don't do justice to all the accessories on my outfit, for example, the "CAL Labor for Carter/Mondale 76" campaign button. More later...peace out...

I am getting ready to re-enter the early 70's this evening...I'll take some pictures of the hippie Halloween party that I am going to tonight and post them via my phone. In the meantime, please enjoy this relic from a few years ago...groovy man...far out...

Last Saturday, we had another fun Girl Friends Dinner. This time I was the host. I served mixed green salad with walnuts, cheese, and strawberries with a very calorific poppyseed dressing and cheese toast. For the main course there was campanelle pasta with choice of regular pesto or dried tomato pesto and shaved parmesan, homemade pumpkin "lasagna" (oops, I forgot the nutmeg but it was still okay) and mixed vegetables (green & yellow beans, carrots & cranberries) in a herbed butter sauce. For dessert, there was a 2 layer carrot cake with maple nut frosting (all homemade - the cake had a secret ingredient - butternut squash!) and homemade zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Oh, there was also my standard appetizer of spinach dip in a rosemary olive oil bread "bowl" with raw veggies. And of course, lots of wine. We celebrated Carolyn's upcoming birthday (and Kate brought lots of presents for my birthday since we didn't have a September dinne...

Can you see it?? On the way to shopping, I stopped on PCH to look into the bay (I think it may be the Los Cerritos Channel?) and I found a sunken treasure... Someone went through a lot of trouble to get this shopping cart down there. The whole area is gated off. I wonder how many people have noticed it?

This afternoon, there appeared to be a wedding rehearsal going on in front of the Greek church by my condo. So cute. As I rounded the corner, I couldn't believe my eyes. On the church lawn is a sign to vote NO on Prop 8!! If they know the sign is there (or better yet, put it up themselves) then a big YEAH to the church. Even though the rehearsal appeared to be a different-sex couple, it is nice to see a church stand up for equal rights. If you are interested in Prop 8, you can read about it here . Okay, if you clicked the link then you caught me; this is how I feel about Prop 8. A nonpartisan version is here . Basically, Proposition 8 is a CALIFORNIA initiative to change the CALIFORNIA constitution so that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in CALIFORNIA and therefore eliminates the rights of same-sex couples in CALIFORNIA. Why do I keep typing "CALIFORNIA" in all caps, you may ask? Because the only two people I know who are for Prop 8 (elimin...

I am waiting until election day so I can vote in our club house. Fortunately for me, if it is too stressful I am just steps away from our hot tubs and saunas. A few weeks ago, I called to see if I could be a pollster (okay, the official title is "pollworker" but I don't like the sound of that!) but ALL the slots in Long Beach (the 5th largest city in CA, 34th largest in the nation - in case you were wondering) were already taken. As a side note, I wasn't "volunteering" because of good will but because it pays well and I thought it might be interesting. Since I have had some extra time this year, I have really delved into our issues, I mean, propositions. We get an official 143 page voters' guide to read. Crazy, isn't it? I don't remember getting that from the state of GA. Later, I got a supplemental guide (15 pages) and then of course, the sample ballot (65 pages) for my district which includes the LA and Long Beach props. And this is only the o...

Strawberries, blueberries...sushi? This restaurant just opened on 2nd Street in Naples. I haven't had the courage to try it yet!

A quick shout out to Susan who is training for her upcoming breast cancer walk (there's still time to contribute to her!!!) The mayor of Las Vegas came up to her and asked if he could have a pic... How cool is that?

As a follow up to my original post , last night around 2:30 am I was awakened to the sound of a tidal wave. Okay, not really. It was just a sprinkler next to my unit where the cap had come off. Water was shooting up like a fountain in Las Vegas . If I had had any, I would have played a Celine Dion song from my deck to make the experience complete for the occasional late night passersby! The good news is that I called security and they were checking it out before I could put on shorts and grab my camera. The bad news is that I didn't do a good job taking a picture, security didn't seem to be concerned "as it is only water" and lastly, my HOA dues are still over $350 a month...