Ryder

I just had to put up a couple of pictures of Ryder, Amanda's baby. She had these professionally taken.

He is just too darned cute. He looks like a little man in that outfit.
Kathy

Getaway Saturday

Today I went down to Laguna Beach with Cathy Peron. We went to the Art-A-Fair at the Laguna Arts Festival. I picked her up at 11 and we drove down Laguna Canyon, got stuck in a little traffic in the canyon, which is to be expected. When we got there, we got a good parking space right next to the Tivoli Gardens.

We walked around and admired some art. Cathy decided to pose with the Shell Art. All the clothing and decorations are shells. Not Cathy's though.

By 12:15 the lunch buzzer in my stomach went off, so we headed for the cute little restaurant in the gardens. I had a delicious tuna melt with grapes and criss-cut fries, Cathy had a biga-burger with fruit. Afterwards, we walked over to this little garden setting and took some pictures. I felt like I was going to get the final rose from the bachelor there.

Cathy - also waiting for the final rose.

Then we continued through the rest of the rows of various types of arts and visited with many of the artists.

We've decided to start our own art classes at my house on Monday nights. So Carol, get your watercolors out and come over on Monday. You and I will teach Cathy how to paint. Ha Ha!!

A nice young man took our picture for us. It looks like Bufa and Dora are at it again. All we need are the beaded skull caps.

Here is a sampling of my art from the first watercolor class I took.

We had a really nice day down near the beach. The weather was perfect, warm with a cool breeze. It was not crowded at all. I had planned to go to the opening night last Wednesday, as I had received an invitation from one of the artists. Good thing I didn't go - there were 2700 people there. What a zoo, the artist told me.

So that's all for now.

Love, Kathy

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

I started out this morning with our girls ritual - coffee at the Bagelry. Teresa, Rondi and I met there a 9 am, ordered our bagels and soda (way too hot for coffee), and discussed the latest happenings.

I went home and got ready for Lacey's baby shower, to be held in Anaheim at 1 pm. It was held in a rec room at the condo complex of Brandon's Aunt.

Here are Kathleen's mom, Lacey, Kristen and their cousin Candice.

Kristen and Lacey preparing the food, delish!

Grandma Lisa, Ryder and Great-Grandma Pat.

Lacey and Charlene in the background.

The party guests.

There were so many gifts. The baby is set for the first year.

Amanda, Lisa, Ryder and Grandma Pat.

Lacey - you don't even look pregnant from this angle.

We played games - one of them was to see how many balloons you could fit under your clothes. Amanda fit 4 balloons, one was in the back.

A very clever idea; Brandon's aunt set up a table where everyone was able to create a page for the baby book, using Creative Memories scrapbooking supplies.

Here is one of the pages that Pat made - Cute!

It took about an hour to open all the gifts. Kristen was her assitant, writing a list of gifts.

Ryder was having fun, running around.

Candice pitched in to help with the opening of the gifts.

One of the gifts included a swimming pool, that kept Ryder busy for a little while.

It was a fun shower and I'm so happy that Lacey got just about everything she needs to bring home the baby. It was good to see so many people I haven't see in a while.

That's all for now. I'm starting school tomorrow - Photoshop - for the 4th time. But I have to have this particular class to go on to a web design class I want to take in the Fall.

Adios, Kathy

Father's Day Weekend

First off I'm really irritated..... I created a huge blog post with about 10 pictures and the stupid thing didn't save - now I have to do it all again. Lesson learned - save constantly - even though this blog says it saves automatically - it does not! It's always best the first time.... so here goes again.

This is the entry gate to the LA Roadster Show. The back gate. I paid the $15 to get in, but got free parking; I parked at the Museum and took the trolley to the show.

Here are the roadsters. Attendance was way down in my opinion, must be the gas prices.

I went directly to the 3 vendor booths of my 3 brothers. Roy - West Coast Street Rods, Jay - The Deuce Factory - and Carl - Deuce Frame Company. Jay was there when I arrived. He had all sorts of things for sale, parts and arts.

Carl was in La Verne at the B of A, and Rubio's - getting tacos. He showed up about 12:00. I never saw Roy, as he was in the swap meet area selling his stuff.

The artist, Tom Fritz, was behind the guys so I checked out his beautiful hotrod art. I hung out at the show for about 2 hours, saw a few people I knew, mostly people I didn't know. So many new companies I've never heard of. Not like the old days anymore.

On Sunday - Father's Day - I drove down to visit Dad and Lynne. We went to lunch at CoCo's near his house. I had the breakfast tacos, yum! Afterwards we went back to his house and I put a new virus protection software on his computer.

We found that some critter is living in his frontyard and eating all the petunias and burrowing holes in the grass. We called Bubba-the-bug-guy (Lacey's new husband), and he will come this week to ridder the critter.

Me and Dad, he's the one with the mustache and glasses.

This is my homemade Father's Day card for dad. It's a picture of the whole family at Christmas. This is the year of the recycled or homemade greeting card.

This is a picture of me and Shannon that I rescued from one of those little light boxes you hold up to the sun to see the picture. I took it out and scanned it. It's just about destroyed. This picture happened to be taken at the LA Roadster show about 22 years ago, my time flies.

So I just talked to Shannon and she's getting ready for her first "Date" in New Zealand. Of course I do the typical "mother" thing. Get his name, number, myspace, license, address, bloodtype, etc. and leave it all with Peter and Rebecca. I'm just being cautious! She just says "God!" don't you ever stop! I said - NNNOOOOOOO!

I spent the day today at Bob's, just helping out and organizing. Tomorrow, Teresa and I will both go there and get more done. Bob is Teresa's pop who needs a little extra help, and I happen to have a little extra time, so it works just fine.

That's all for now, Love, Kathy

Party

Carl and I, and Rondi and Neil went to the So-Cal Party around 6pm. We visited with people and toured around, checking out the fine hotrods.

Carol was manning the T-shirt booth, while looking pretty.

Carl was yapping with Sam Davis, Thom Taylor in the background talking to Dennis Varni. The book signing table was very popular.

Here I am, between to hot men. Both Swedes.

What a good looking family! CUUUTE!

Emma the Artist is helping Grammy with the sales roster.

There's Nicole with her friends.

Some of the hotrods in attendance.

That's me! The shadow. Ha Ha!

We went to dinner at the Danson in Claremont. Good Food.

After dinner we met up with Betty and Brian, and Sandy and Don for a drink at a new pub called "The Back Abbey" in Claremont. Neat little bar/restaurant. The owner is Brian's chimney-sweep.

The guys were enjoying a glass of wine and conversation.

This is us in front of the Back Abbey.

Around the house

I took some pictures so Shannon can see what happening at home.

Here is the peach tree at the side of the house, the peaches are almost ready, about another week. In the meantime, the birds are picking them so by the time they're ready only half will be good.

The gladiolas are starting to bloom, aren't you thrilled!

This is Lily on the floor by the couch, I thought she had croaked.

Lili was groomed yesterday, so I tried to get a picture of her, she won't hold still then she goes into the big stretch, as if to say "you just wait until I'm good and ready".

I captured her in her favorite spot, the couch. She still will not look at the camera.

Shannon, I miss our morning "Coffee" routine. I only make half a pot now. I'm looking at this picture and cannot figure out what that white thing is on top of the fridge, it looks like a glove flipping me off. Weird -- I wonder what it is.

Here's the kitchen, just so you remember what it looks like. A big cluttered mess. I think I need some more nick-nacks.