Holidays

[princess]

Is anyone DRIVING anywhere for the holidays??

We'll be home for Thanksgiving this year. All of the kids/grandkids are coming our way. One from nearly 4 hours away & one from an hour & a half away.

Then a couple of weeks later we'll be taking our youngest, her husband & 2 boys to Disneyland. It's actually a birthday trip. That will be a 7 hour drive. We plan to take the Accord unless there's rumors of snow on the "grapevine" at that time. Then we'll take the Pilot.

We haven't decided on Christmas. Probably have them all here again. We try to be cooperative with the various inlaws & have the odd years here. That leaves the kids every other year to gather with the rest of their family. We also include their inlaws here. In fact, an ex's family gets included on nearly all of our gatherings for the grandson's sake.

The birthday this past weekend included ex's families from 2 different directions! We pride ourselves on being civilized!

So how far are you driving?:)

[Wardsweb]

I've got a five hour drive to Dallas the day after Thanksgiving to see my sister and pickup three sets of home speakers. My other bad habit. :D

[princess]

More speakers??? Are these ones that need some TLC or are they already just how you want them?

[Wardsweb]

Little TLC, one set needs the woofers refoamed, which I can do. The other two need some cabinet attention, again something I can do. Then I keep what I want and sell the rest to pay for it all and put a little change in my pocket. :)

[princess]

We used to do that with old Hondas, we'd buy bargain, non running or barely running cars. Their bodys & interiors usually just needed cleaning. We'd rebuild the engine or and tranny, then sell them. We normally only owned them for about 2 weeks. Then they sold the first day run in the paper. We adveraged about 900 per car profit. We stopped doing that when the kids became teens, knowing much of the "free" time would be put inot them. I'm sure the feeling of rescuing something you like, & the feeling of pride from successfully restoring it is the same. The pocket money isn't bad either!

:)

[jbuffethed]

I am going home for 2 weeks Christmas and New Years, then driving to N.D. So many miles to put on my new baby :(

[princess]

Burr...... enjoy your drive!

[princess]

I just found out that we have a trip planned for July in Orlando! We were there July of 2000 & then in Dec. of '01. I liked July better, it rained everyday! I think the heat index was 110. It was fun! The thunder! The flashes across the sky!

:banana:

OK, you need to remember I'm in CA. It's warm 8 months, hot for 2, & cold/wet or foggy for the other 2. Storms are fun to me! :yes:

[princess]

Tomorrow will be the start of a 5 day absence for me. I need to start in on the cooking for the 20 people that we'll be having here for Turkey day. Wednesday is the pies, well, all the desserts & the ham. Then Thursday the rest of the dinner. (Turkey, Salmon & many many trimmings...) Today I wasn't around much because of making the center pieces. I should be back on Monday. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!:D I hope your bellies are filled, your favored teams win, & you stay safe!:yes:

[princess]

Hello Y'all!

Hope you had a wonderful LONG weekend!:D

We had lots of "family time". Wed. we played "phase 10" until 3 AM, then played "hand & foot" (card game like canasta) between dinner & dessert. The grandkids played dessup with the knights & princess clothes I have. The oldest grandkid read a poem she wrote before dinner & the 5 year olds (3 of them) did the prayer.

In 10 days we'll be heading to Disneyland!

Only bad thing over the weekend is that our team got their butts kicked!

:mad:


Life goes on......

[Wardsweb]

Had a grand time. Skies were blue and weather great 50/60's. Took the five hour drive to see my sister and picked up some more speakers while I was there. Saw Time Line, which was pretty good, although they took some liberties with the book (typical). Had some fantastic sushi, tempura, and teryaki just north of Dallas. Life is good.

[princess]

We had pretty good weather here too. Sunny with a few clouds, but not cold.

Time line is slated in for next weekend. We'd planned it for this one, but saw Haunted Mansion instead. Figuring it wouldn't be out long. Then started a Star Trek marathon... watched the first 3 movies, 7 more to go!

Glad to hear your weekend went well! Do some before & afters of the speakers than need some TLC!:)

[BenjiBoy650]

I'm planning all my trips after christmas. I got 2 going to prospective colleges in CA. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UCLA are the two, and I have so many more to go. I have a friend at UC Berkeley, probably go visit before the end of the year. Also plan to visit Stanford but I don't know if I can get in with my lowly 1340 SAT :sorry:

[princess]

Our oldest daughter had a scholarship for Cal Poly in SLO. It's a pretty area, but not much to do. You have to get a permit just to prune your own tree! She's now at Fresno St. It's taken her quite a while due to bad advise from the staff & raisong 3 kids. This is her last year though. Then she'll support the family & her husband will do school fulltime for a few years. Our son is in Sacramento in school. The youngest daughter had planned on Pepperdine, but ended up staying up here, working & having a family.

Good luck on deciding which school suits you best!:D

This time next week we'll be loading the suitcases in the trunk & heading down I5 to Disneyland!:banana:

[Wardsweb]

My daughter lives in the south of France. The cool thing there is the University is free. (FYI: college is high school there.)

[princess]

That's cool! I'd heard that education is done VERY differently in most of Europe. The expectations are higher too. Learning a half dozen languages is more the norm. We have it too easy here & in turn have a lot of people that aren't well educated compared to the rest of the developed world.

Other than occationally helping to pay for a book, or a utility bill, our oldest daughter has had no help from us. She made some stupid decisions in her teens, like having a baby in her senior year.... but within 2 months from graduation she had her first apartment, worked full time & was in community college full time. We provided free child care & bought her a car. I'd stop by with groceries & diapers sometimes. We're proud of her & because she feels like she did it herself, she's proud of herself too. I do want to point out that we didn't refuse to help. It's how SHE wanted it! Later she married & has never missed a semester of school. She has only had one that wasn't at least 17 units.:D All while helping to bring in money & having 3 kids. She's VERY energetic!

When there was sooo much negative going on with opinions of France, were you fearful of your daughter's presence there??

It would have been pretty scary to me!

[Wardsweb]

Kudos to your daughter. We hear so much about the bad kids, it's nice to hear about a good one. One that accepts responsibility for their actions and doesn't expect Mom or Dad to "fix it". Sounds like she learned, made the best of it and moved on. :up:

[princess]

Thanks. She has more pluses than minuses. She has been known to get VERY down on herself over a "B". When she got it, she told me afterwards in tears. Turns our she got a B because she never bought the book for the class. Her stubborness didn't allow her to mention it to us & she couldnt afford it. KIDS!!:scratch:

[BenjiBoy650]

I think I gots a full scholarship to CSU cuz my mom works for SFSU, dunno how that works but I'm counting it as one of the biggest factors :) Hey :up: for your daughter princess, I wished there were a lot more people like that in the world. Instead most of my peers are dicks thinking they can do what they want and get away with it...anyways...

I'm planning on taking 2 community college language classes this spring (hopefully they'll let me in) on top of my full high school load. In senior year I'm considering taking 2 or 3 community college classes in various subjects in order to explore what kind of major I want to go into (again probably with a full load in high school). I've got so many decision to make now geeeeze.

[princess]

That's great BB650!!

Maybe if you have enough units in your senior year you can do high school half the day & community college the other half. I've known many that have pulled that off. What languages do you plan to learn? When my youngest worked for St. Marys her dependents would've had a free education, so you're probably right.

Thanks!
Somehow we ended up with 3 kids on opposite ends of the spectrim! Each has their great strengths & weaknesses with practically no overlaps. As a parent it has always amazed me that 3 people that grew up in the same home, very close in age, could be so completely different! I'm proud of each.

[BenjiBoy650]

I've had two semesters of Chinese (though that counts as two years in High School) and this upcomming spring I signed up for Chinese 3 and Tagalog 1. I was thinking of doing something like a half day of HS but I don't want to compromise my academic subjects but I need more electives so it might be more like being in HS 2/3 of the day. Still I don't like the idea of High School, I feel it is not beneficial at all because we have very bad teachers and jackasses as classmates. I would much prefer to just head to college right now.

[princess]

Since you already did the SAT can you take an equivilancy test & end high school? I personally think that most of us need the "stupid" social stuff in high school deal with it later better. Our youngest took her GED at 17 (it was close enough to her birthday) to get high school done. She'd been to the dances & balls in lower grades as the date. She still feels like she should have just hung in there & regrets her decision. So think hard!

Our state has a real problem having teachers that actually want to be there! There are a handful & those should be praised. So if you have any that you really like, let them know!:)

[BenjiBoy650]

I do have one or two. They gave up six figure incomes for teaching. Our district pays 15k less per year than a district that's just down the road a few miles. I think most of the teachers don't go there because they don't have the skill to teach at that level, ergo our teachers suck.

My social life = none. I have no life, I'm so socially inactive that I can make do without a cell phone. Amazing don't you think? I do have the option of jetting out of high school right now and going to community college as a replacement but that's really for people who need flexible schedules or who just can't cut it in HS. I don't think that's the right choice for me. I would like a full scale challenge that's more suited to my career goal of being a mechanical engineer. Instead I have to sit around and shoot the shit in English Honors so that I can get into a good college. It just doesn't make good sense to me.

[princess]

Let those couple of teachers know that you appreciate their sacrifice!!

Although most states still may have problems getting teachers, they normally don't have such a gap between incomes for being an educator & the rest of the work world. For some odd reason, the daughter at Fresno St. WANTS to be a teacher! She's a runt & by the time kids hit 9 they'll start passing her up in size!

Wouldn't Cal Poly be a good choice for M.E.?

Your social life will change after when you're in college. Our son was bored in high school & didn't have much social life. He does now. So active that I was ready to wring his neck for missing a special family gathering to "go play". He figured out a balance.

Hang in there!

[BenjiBoy650]

Yeah Cal Poly is a pretty good school for engineering but as always aiming higher is never harmful :) Part of the reason why I'm not so active in my social life is because I don't really fit in with my peers, I just seem to be slightly more mature than them. I don't like movies or just "hangin out." I feel like if I'm sitting idle not doing much (even when I'm sleeping), it's a waste. That's why I don't like sleeping, and that's another factor that separates me and my peers :) Also partly because the high school clubs suck. Basically you join and sit around and talk at lunch time once a week for almost the whole year. Then if you're lucky one time in the year you get to go on a field trip somewhere. Big whoop.

[princess]

set your goals & aim there!:yes:

I just noticed the buildings in the background of your picture. Are they anywhere near the PakNSave? I was a secret shopper for Safeway/PakNSave for a while. The store there was one of mine. It's been a few years & things are constantly changing....

I also had Elk Grove, Stockton, Pittsburg, Dublin, Lafayette... I got paid to shop. Most women would love a job like that! I hated it! You can only ask where the dog food is so many times before you feel like an idiot! I did it for a year & paid cash for my '86. The pay was OK. I just really don't like shopping! See, I'm "weird" too! I named my "drummer" George!:rolleyes:

I need one of those cats hanging by a toe nail picture..... Hang in there!!

[BenjiBoy650]

Yeah it's near the PakNSave in Daly City. Wow good memory :up:

[princess]

It looks like "tink" won't be making the drive to Disneyland after all.:(

It's suppose get some snow on the grapevine on our travel days. We don't want to have to deal with chains... so we'll be taking "belle" instead. Tink was looking forward to the drive down I5, she's only been to Disneyland once. Belle's been there lots of times.

The idea of having DUAL climate control for this trip was sounding sooo good! The prince & I have many things in common, but travel temps is NOT one of them!! Oh well, we'll probably being going again for our usual March & April trips....

BB650,
I thought they might be, but I never know... condos all start looking the same sometimes. I think I noticed them because they look very much like a complex my parents bought into when I was a teen in Concord.

[princess]

See you all on Monday!!!:banana:

[BenjiBoy650]

Helluva holiday we're having. Some jackasses just keyed my dads '97 Camry and slashed all four tires...but they didn't touch my car. I wanna move outta the Bay Area cuz we got so many damn jackasses. It's just infested with morons that don't deserve to live. If not for people like princess, I1 and Bean I'd have given up on being human a long time ago for fear of associating myself with such a society of idiots.

[princess]

I'm BAAAACK!!

Our trip was great! The drive down we did see some snow, but not on the pavment & could've taken the Accord. No biggie, now his is the one covered with bugs!

Friday we hit pretty much everything in Disneyland park. There were NO CROWDS! The boys had a wonderful time. We do a sticker thing with them, if they earn 10 stickers for being good, then they get to pick out a toys as we're leaving the last night. They managed to get their toys. It was a bit rough at times. Mom & Dad have different expectations than Grandma & Grandpa.

Saturday was a mess! We spent the day at CA Adventures & that went very well. I got to do the "drop" ride that my prince won't touch, with our son in law!! The plan was to have ice cream at a parlor in Disneyland, then go back to DCA for the Xmas version of the electrical parade. We couldn't get out of DL!! So many people had come in to see the Xmas fireworks & snow that it was wall to wall people. We ended up staying in the park, but away from Main Street, then later took everyone over for the Fantasmic show.

The drive home was wet, but it went pretty fast. It's nice to be home. Tonight we'll go out & get our tree. :banana:

BB650, So sorry to hear about your dad's car! Can the ket marks be buffed out? We did that on my mom's Accord & it looked much better than ones with that line of touch up paint you see sometimes. Hopefully the rest of the season will go much nicer!:)

I think we have the same percentage of "morons" as the rest of the nation. We just have a large population so it seems higher. But stupidity is why we garage our cars. It takes away opprotunity.

[BenjiBoy650]

Good to hear ya had a nice time! As for the car the marks have been buffed but they're still showing a bit. It's okay, I don't think it's too deep and if you buff it too much you'll just be compromising a huge area of paint. Can't park in the garage, spaces are reserved for the 2 Mercedes' :D

I think we tend to have more morons in our area because of the high stress environments. For instance, high stress high tech jobs, traffic, unpredictable weather (at least in my area, microclimates you know), etc etc.

[princess]

I checked with the prince & he said they normally replace the seals with the timing belt & water pump. Where was this done at?

[BenjiBoy650]

Grace Honda, San Bruno. I don't remember how it ended up but I think they paid the labor and only charged for the camshaft seal part itself.

[princess]

Oh, so this was already taken care of? Had me all in a frenzy for past stuff! :scratch:

[BenjiBoy650]

Originally posted by princess
Oh, so this was already taken care of? Had me all in a frenzy for past stuff! :scratch:

If you ever need another spike in blood pressure I need 5+ TSB's for my '99? haha

[princess]

Hey be nice!

I'll put on bulletins as soon as that part of the site works again. Wards working on it. Go to the "factory direct" & tell me if you can see what's been put in as the "test".

[BenjiBoy650]

Can't open it.

[Inspector1]

Hey Benji,
It's a Bummer that people have no respect for others vehicles....
I see it on a daily basis... Bank owns/ lessee trashes
The scratch issue would peeve me to no end due to it being intentional..... I can understand dings and accidents to an extent but flagrant damage... I just don't understand..........
Prime example 1999 BMW series..... 35k 2/32 tread on 2 tires
0/32 w/steel hanging out on other 2 . 2 car seats in back seat
Lady has 6month old Baby.... Nice home and Neighborhood......
Husband drives 2001 A6 quattro -- extra clean......
I scratch my head and think...... 1000 month payment on Bimmer
1000 for new tires... Wife and 2 kids..... priceless????
People really have their priorities mixed up??

I1:)

P.S. I know ones a ML whats the other Benz??

[BenjiBoy650]

'86 300E. Only 127K on it hehe. Paint is 10x smoother than mine too because it's gotten like at least 100 bucks (and that's at wholesale company prices!) worth of wax/clearcoats/buff/polish/whatever.

[Inspector1]

I bet the interior looks new..... Their leather holds up very well...
To bad Honda doesn't use leather like that!!

I1

[BenjiBoy650]

Originally posted by Inspector1
I bet the interior looks new..... Their leather holds up very well...
To bad Honda doesn't use leather like that!!

I1

I agree!! Interior looks extremely good, especially compared to the Honda 6th gen leather. The 7th gen seems better though. As for new Mercedes well lets say the ML's leather is starting to crack and it's regularly treated with industrial strength leather conditioner.

[princess]

Just my opinion.....(on leather) my '02 was leather & it felt much better than the '03's leather, but I have a hunch that this more industrial feeling stuf will last even longer. The Pilot has the same dotted leather as my buddy's Mercedes. Hers feels great to the touch, but under the leather it isn't as comfy as I'm used to. Her car does have a nifty swivel cup holder in the middle! She has pretty much all the same bells & whistles mines does. No Navi though. She likes mine better because there's actually a bit more interior room.:) I have another buddy with a '93 Accord with leather that's NEVER been treated & has 200K on it, the seats are in mint condition.

I agree about so many people's priorities being all messed up! I will write down plate numbers of people that I see putting their kids in danger. CA has very strict laws about it & yet I'll see parents with kids that aren't buckled & wandering around the moving car!!

BB650, If so many have problems opening that file, then we must have a host problem somewhere! I sure hope it gets fixed soon!

[princess]

OK, what colors do you all do your Christmas decorating in?? Our tree always is in red & gold, even the tinsle. All the lights are red inside & out except for the motion icicles, they're white. One of our girls has everything blue & silver, the other has a random mix of all colors.

My best friend & neighbor has quite a mixture of styles & colors outside. Her daughter's friend said "it looked like Christmas came & threw up all over the yard". She didn't find it funny, nut I sure did.

I just finished making some "coal" for our son. I bought him a Tshirt that states " 1 day of coal, 364 days of fun, I'll take my chances". The coal is a lollipop receipe that I just added black food coloring to. When it cools I break it up. It can be flavored with anything, licorice, root beer, fruity stuff. ...

We still have more fudge to make. That's actually prince's thing. He usually makes light, white & dark choc. , mint, butterscotch & peanutbutter. One year I found choc. raspberry chips. Then he dips bite size pieces in choc. It's VERY rich, but GOOD! Our friends & family really enjoy getting it.

Happiest of holidays to all!!!!:D

[BenjiBoy650]

Assorted lights for the tree, gold for the stairs. The tree has stuffed animals and ornaments and the like but no real single color decorations.

[Inspector1]

All white lights on tree and Window candle lights(18) Tree could be considered country, ribbon, wooden beads, glass and ceramic ornaments, miniature baskets.... We are into Longaberger stuff..
120+ baskets, pottery, dishes. cast iron racks and stands....
I'm not into outdoor lighting on house... Have landscape lighting around walks and down drive. I have several varieties of ornamental grasses and those are lighted also, so I believe lights on house would be a little to much... It's kind of cool right now we had about 4-5 inches of snow today, it makes the landscape lights glow on the snow.... Looks like Christmas....
It's supposed to be in upper 40's by Tuesday and melt off snow but we may get snow again on Weds ;)
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Santa's good to you!

I1
:)

[princess]

We don't get snow here. It has, but about once every 10 years or so & the most was 3". Christmas is usually foggy in the morning & night, but crispy & sunny during the day. Just right to send the kids to the park to play football, while I'm making dinner.

[princess]

We had a rollie pollie Christmas! We had breakfast at our daughter's, then lunch at one grandson's great grandma's, then dinner here with guests. Friday we barely could even look at food! We had a good trip to Fresno & took the new pup. He traveled well! The kids seemed happy with our choices in presents. All went well!

Now the lights are all picked away. The tree is gone. The decorations boxed.

Hope you all had a happy day too!:)

[BenjiBoy650]

My Christmas was pretty good, trying to get back from the Sierra's into SF. Right after we passed about the 3000ft snow level, they closed the road I think, both directions. Lucky us, just made it in the nick of time. Drove the Camry though...hehe

All pics are on I-80 Westbound

CA/NV border, agricultural check station:
http://www.angelfire.com/nb/benjiboy650/IMG_49441233.jpg

Donner Summit:
http://www.angelfire.com/nb/benjiboy650/IMG_49541233.jpg

Dutch Flat:
http://www.angelfire.com/nb/benjiboy650/IMG_49621233.jpg

Colfax:
http://www.angelfire.com/nb/benjiboy650/IMG_49681233.jpg

[Inspector1]

Hey princess,
Here's a picture of lights.. Trees down but thought I would show...
I1:)

[princess]

It won't let me look!

[Inspector1]

See If it works now... It's new so just playing with some online pictures... check album if it lets you in...

I1:)

[BenjiBoy650]

Ja! Same here no pics!! Internal Service Error

Still no go!

[princess]

nope. not now either!

[Inspector1]

Check and see if it works with imagestation


Hey Benji how do you get it to link... so it just shows picture
I tried IMG button the paste link but it's not showing up???

[BenjiBoy650]

I think it's the link to the picture that you're posting. If you're trying to link it from Imagestation, it's pretty finicky. I remember something like having to take off .orig or something?

[BenjiBoy650]

[IMG]BB650:)

[princess]

Wow! Lots of windows!!!

[Inspector1]

Thanks Benji ,
I'll Have to play with pictures to get figured out ......

I1:)

[Inspector1]

BINGO..... I think I got it......
Interior picture....mobile office....

Oh no 40yr old kid with new toy... hehehehe....

I1
:) :D

[BenjiBoy650]

I think you still have work to do! Take off the .orig.jpg at the end, leave the first .jpg

Nice interior, I wish I had leather and wood :bawling:

[Inspector1]

fake wood the only real wood is the basket on frt seat and the 1x that my printer and inverter is mounted on....
I1

That drops size down??

[BenjiBoy650]

Originally posted by Inspector1
fake wood the only real wood is the basket on frt seat and the 1x that my printer and inverter is mounted on....
I1

That drops size down??

Probably but it doesn't make a big difference IMO. Unless you're trying to show a really big picture. I can't see the one where you posted .orig.jpg so there might be no way around it. You could also open an angelfire account and link it from there, but make sure you have at least some sort of webpage on it because they closed the last one that I was using purely for storage. Certain places don't allow you to link the picture, it just shows up blank.

I've been looking for some real wood trim for the Accord but I don't like it. All the real wood pieces are stick on (of course), but the factory inserts for the doors and center console are actual trim pieces (albeit plastic). I don't like how it shows a bit of the original piece because the cut isn't always made to fit EXACTLY onto the piece. Pet peeve but I think for the money they make me spend, it's justified.