Saturday, March 29, 2008

Hey Everyone,
Sorry I haven't been posting as often lately. I'll try to do better.

Let's see. . .last weekend we drove down to San Diego (2 hours) to have Easter dinner with Jennifer Daley and Preston and Aaron. We had a great time and awesome food. Preston's dad was also there, along with several of their friends. We went to our new church for Easter service and then got down to San Diego around 1pm. We went downtown to the gas lamp district and walked around. After stopping for a refreshing beer at a sidewalk bar, we headed to Jenn's house.

This is a cool building across the street from the bar we stopped at.

Our new church is called Cornerstone. Check it out here: http://www.cornerstonechurchlb.org/
We have been going for a couple of weeks now, and like it much better than the one we had been attending. It seems like a better fit. We will start Sunday School tomorrow.

This next photo is a little old, but I don't think I ever posted a picture of Laurie and I ready for our New Years Eve dinner. A lovely couple. . .


Several weeks ago it was suggested that because several of our friends and Laurie LOVE the show Lost (I hate it), we should have "Lost parties" on Thursday nights. It has been a huge hit. Around 15 or so people gather at 7pm and we have themed dinners where everyone brings a dish. The most recent one was steak and baked potato bar night. Mmmmm. The week before was pan-asian night, and we have had mexican night in the past. Next week is camp food night, where everyone will bring their favorite camping food like hobo dinners, smores, beanie-weenies, etc. We always go to Ted and Jans (pronounced Yan) house. It's a really cool place, with a game room (pool, foosball, darts, etc), a nice back patio area with fire pit and pool, and big screen tv. We eat, drink, talk, play games, and some watch Lost when it is on.

This is Jackie, Ian, Steve (who all work for me) and Riddley in the kitchen.

This is Ted and Lauries arms at the table. They are filling Vietnamese Spring Rolls on Pan-Asian night. Ted was 9 years old when he and his family escaped Saigon 3 days before the fall of the city at the end of the war.
This is Jan cooking a Thai stir fry. Jan works for me, and rents a room in Ted's house. This is common out here due to the high cost of housing.
Here you can see Deborah and Morgan, with Laurie in the background. Morgan works with me and has been a great friend and advisor. He came to Habitat to head up the JCWP project, and stayed on to help with some strategic planning. He'll be moving on soon, and I'll miss him.

Several folks in the game room. There are some intense foosball games every week. I stink.
Today we went to look at some bank repo properties (for Habitat), stopped by Wal Mart to pick up some necessities, bowled a couple of games, and went downtown Long Beach for a bit of dinner. We ate at George's Greek restaurant, a LB institution. George (very old now) greets you at the sidewalk gate with a hearty handshake for men, a hug and kiss for women, and a huge smile for all. Laurie had Greek meatballs with veg and rice, and I had chicken covered in feta cheese and spinach. A little baklava and greek coffee for dessert, and the walk back to the truck (several blocks) felt pretty good.
Well, signing off. Take care one and all, till next time.




















Friday, March 07, 2008

Home and Family Etc.

Obviously, we need to take the camera with us more often. I am actually out of new things to put up here. So, until then, here is a mix of family, friends and home. Enjoy. . .

By Mindy's special request, here is a picure of the house in Granger in fall

We desperately need new pictures of the grand kids-here are Ryin and Adan being brothers

These are our best friends in the world, who we still meet up with every year or so somewhere in the U.S., most recently in the Smoky Mountains

Here is Mindy and Adan hamming it up-too cute

Mindy and Mallory after they learned how to be this close without fighting : )

Laurie's mom's side of the family, most of whom I can't name

My Mom and an unidentified great grandkid (maybe Austin, or just some kid who likes chili)

Laurie and I with Mal and Nathaniel and his parents


A very old photo of Laurie's parents and sisters

Well, that's it for now. I promise I'll get some new material soon. Take care!

Saturday, March 01, 2008

This and That

Hello Everyone,
I thought I would put a variety of things on here today to give some new information. I have been busy with work, as usual, and had a trip to Atlanta/Orlando a couple of weeks ago. It was a very quick and packed full trip, but good.
Some recent happenings here include a trip to downtown LA, where we walked around for the first time to see what is there. It was really interesting, with a lot of ethnic diversity. We had lunch at a Meditteranian restaurant. We also drove over to Beverly Hills and walked around Rodeo Drive. Last week we attended our first Hollywood party! I was invited to the Global Green USA Pre-Oscar Party at the Avalon in Hollywood. This is the one where they promote green living, and have the green carpet instead of the red carpet. There were celebrities there, but we didn't mingle with them. It was still pretty cool, though.
Here are some recent photos of a variety of things:

This is one of the houses we recently completed at Habitat. This one is in south central LA.


This is part of the Vermont build site which was one of the two Jimmy Carter Work Project sites. This one consists of 3 townhome condo buildings. Two of the buildings are triplexes and one is an eight-plex, for a total of 14 units. You can see the solar panels on the roof, and the KABOOM playground in the central tot lot.

This is part of the San Pedro JCWP site. This one consists of 8 duplex townhome buildings for a total of 16 units. These are built in the "California Craftsman" style. The whole site sits on a hill overlooking the port of LA.

This is a shot down part of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. We didn't even feel comfortable going inside the shops on this street. Wow!

And here is a Ferrari parked on the curb at Rodeo. You name the luxury car and we saw it that day.

Switching gears (no pun intended), we decided to hang a hummingbird feeder out our front window after seeing a few of them in the flowers. We now need to install an air traffic control tower to accomodate incoming and outgoing flights, and ensure everyone's safety. They come in droves everyday, and empty the feeder in 2 days flat. Sorry for the security bars in the shot, but this is LA after all.

As we drove toward downtown, Laurie snapped this shot of the snow-capped San Gabriel mountains. We can see the mountains from all over the area while driving. The mountains start at the ocean up north of Malibu, run east and just north of LA, then curve south and run down toward Mexico. So, we are ringed on two sides by ocean (west and south), and two sides by mountains (north and east). It's a beautiful place.


Another shot of downtown snapped as we rolled down the 110 freeway. These are the only tall buildings in all of Los Angeles.

Well, more to come. Stay tuned. Now, were off to my bosses husbands 50th birthday. It is at the Los Alamitos Race Track, where we are promised food, casino games, motown sounds and a horse race named after the birthday boy! It's like a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for adults!