Watching

Wednesday: (07/18) Lou made green slime for breakfast. About 10am we drove the RV down to the San Antonio Mall, about 1.5 miles from home. They knocked down most of the old mall a while back and now it is looking more and more like they are making progress toward completing the reconstruction. Unfortunately the construction is behind a fence with fabric on it and there is no good place to watch. Lou has been wanting to spend some time watching the work so today was the day.We parked by the fence and could easily look over it to see the activity. We picked a very busy day when they were pouring a bunch of foundations until after 5pm. I pretty much did the same thing I've been doing at home, tinkering at the computer but the view out the window was much more interesting. Lunch was takeout from Lou's favorite restaurant LUU Noodle House nearby. Our usual combination chow fun with some egg  rolls and an avocado smoothie. The avocado smoothie is nothing like Lou's green slime even though both are smoothies. Lou's is a combination of all sorts of vegetables with enough fruit to sweeten it some. The avocado smoothie at LUU's is a sweet treat more like a milkshake. Lou's lasts better than a big breakfast, LUU's is a tasty treat only. This has been one of our shortest RV trips, ever! For dinner Lou and I stoped in at the Chili's next to where we were watching and had their two for $20 dinners. We both had BBQ ribs. 

My Achng Back

Thursday: (07/12) Lou baked an omelet for breakfast. Ernie and I finished about a third of the concrete edge for the green house/patio area. Chinese chicken salads for lunch. Leftovers for dinner. I had pizza.

Friday: (07/13) Brother Ernie's birthday today. We had green smoothies for breakfast. Eventually we got started pouring some more of the edge concrete that keeps the baserock in place but my back gave out after the first pour and Ernie had to come out of his planned day of general relaxation and bring the project to a better stopping point. Lou made more Chinese chicken salads for lunch. Since I was off duty for the day (week) I relaxed in the afternoon (napped). For dinner we all went to Marie Calendar's. Courtney joined us. Prime rib specials.

Saturday: (07/14) Leftover ham omelet with some of Dawn's bread toasted for breakfast. My back is still off duty so i got a late start. By the time i made it outside Ernie had already gotten the materials and tools for finishing the pouring of the concrete edge. I watched as he finished up the edge. Wieners with steamed vegetables for lunch. I tinkered with the computer the rest of the day. BBQ ribs with oven baked French fries and corn on the cob for dinner.

Sunday: (07/15) Oatmeal with yogurt and diced fresh fruit for breakfast. Ernie stripped the forms today. Lunch at Chili's. We all had their soup and salad lunches. After lunch Lou, Dawn and I went shopping. The primary stop was at the Big Lots store in Redwood City. The had a 20% off sale today and I'm out of energy drinks. Fortunately they finally had some of my favorite Rumba energy drinks so i bought all they had. It's a discontinued drink made by Monster/Hansen and is the best I've found. Getting them at Big Lots where they cost about 25% of anyplace else is a bonus. Beef pot pie for dinner with banana peanut butter freezes. 

Monday: (07/16) Green slim for breakfast and green salad for lunch. For dinner Danw had prepared some excellent baked potato onion soup. I continued in relaxation mode and tinkered at the computer all day.

Tuesday: (07/17) Lou went all out for breakfast and cooked eggs, bacon and hashbrowns. I had a dentist appointment at 1pm but didn't need lunch. I got my new crown today but needed some additional grinding so had to be numbed up again. With my shiny new tooth in place I was off. I stopped by the Santa Clara Big Lots to see if they had any of my energy drinks and they did so I got a few more cases. Shouldn't need any more for another year, or two. Then I stopped by Best Buy and picked up Dawn's repaired cell phone. They replaced it under the warranty. It had been in a loop continually rebooting. Now I can get mine back from Dawn. I stopped by and got a couple of egg rolls for a late lunch. Then, feeling optimistic, I stopped at Walmart's and bought a couple of more pairs of shorts. That should eliminate any possibility of a hot spell anywhere we go. For dinner we had spaghetti squash with a white shrimp sauce served with asparagus, tomato and green peppers. My back is feeling well enough for me to be getting around fairly well and to possibly get into trouble by thinking it's OK now. It needs a week or so more before I should use it. So more fun!

Self Publishing Machine

Wednesday: (07/11) Ernie and I started early moving some rock in the cool of the morning. We started a bit after 7am in violation of the no work until after 8am in Palo Alto, but rules are meant to be broken and we were pretty quite anyway. We were quite, that is until I started using the tamper after 8am. We stopped by 11am. Breakfast was more green slim, I mean green smoothies. Actually very good. Lunch was Chinese chicken salads. Dawn and I headed off toward Gilroy after lunch. I needed to get a replacement Fantastic vent fan for the motorhome so we stopped at Camping World in San Martin just North of Gilroy. We then continued on to our primary destination, Santa Cruz. Traffic was terrible on the freeway so we exited to surface roads only to be hung up in more construction. Seems like a plot? Dawn wanted to attend a meeting at the Bookshop Santa Cruz about self publishing. The book store has a fancy new Espresso book publishing machine, one of only 80 in exstance and of only 12 in retail shops. Their machine is one of only two on the west coast, the other being at Powell's in Portland. The machine can print, bind and trim a 100 page book in less than 5 minutes. Kind of slick at  a cost of less than $10 for the 100 page book ($5 setup and $.045 per page). You can't tell the difference from any other paperback book. Right now the cover can be color but the inside is only B/W. It can also trim the books to any size from about 8.25x10.5 inch maximum. Cool machine. Hopefully they get a full color version soon. It would be excellent for printing blogs. Speakers also spoke about doing consignment distribution and publisizing your book. Dawn was really pleased with the information provided. We arrived downtown about 3pm in time to look around some. I walked out to the wharf and the Beach and Boardwalk amusement park. then returned downtown. We had dinner at the New Leaf Market downtown. I had a turkey meatball calzone and Dawn had a millet yam patty and some potato salad. I topped by dinner with a brownie ala mode at the Marini candy shop nearby. The meeting was at 7pm. We finally departed at 9:20 pm and drove back over the hill home.

Working On The Rock Pile

Tuesday: (07/10) I started the day by moving some surplus stuff out to the curb hoping someone would take it and save us disposal fees. I moved a couple of half sized king bed box springs and a bed frame and head board that we didn't use in reassembiling our bed. I got all the stuff out but didn't complete attaching the "free" signs on them before a neighbor came over and took them. That was fast and saved us $35 disposal fees and anothr trip to the Sunnyvale dump. I then dropped by the dentist office to have my temporary crown reattached. Having to wait a couple of weeks for a permanent crown here at home is certainly different than getting it the next day in Mexico. And the cost is 5 times as much as well. But it's quite hot down in Yuma this time of year. I lounged around watching a little TV and having lunch trying to avoid having to go outside and work. About 1pm i started doing the final touches and then started moving the base rock from the driveway to the backyard. I got arounf 1/3 of the needed rock moved and cleared the driveway for the return of the motorhome. I workd untill 8pm to accomplish it. The last two hours were much nicer than the first four hours. It had been forecast to be 86 degrees today but got up to 93 degrees. I was actually quite comfortable. i tried out my new desert shade hat that covers the neck and has a wide brim. it was actually much cooler. In moving the rock i also got to use my new cart. It hauls bout two contractor wheelbarrows full at a time. It made fairly quick work of the rock move. About 5pm I had a couple of refried bean and cheese sandwiches and a rice pudding. I was feeling rather worn out before eating but dinner perked me up. After cleaning up I brought the RV home form it's parking spot about two blocks away. We never feel comfortable with it away like that. Lou and Dawn had a few shopping banking and a Dentist appointment as well today.

Good Bye And Thanks For Your Loyal Service

Monday: (07/09) First thing this morning was the to clear the driveway for the approaching rock. I moved the motorhome and car and put up a little temporary barrier to keep the rock off the lawn. I stopped off and got some donuts for my breakfast. Lou and Dawn had the green smoothies again.


The truck arrived at 10:30.


Unfortunately the driver didn't do as good a job as hoped and part of the load had to be dumped in the motorhomes side of the driveway. I needed to go by Lowe's again for some PVC fittings and that trip turned in to a day trip.


We've been planning of getting rid of our old Volvo so we did. Above it's on it's last drive.


 It was dropped of at the dismantelers. Poor thing. It served us well since 1986 but uses too much gas and has become ocassionally unreliable. Oddly, the unreliable part may have finally had a resolution about a week ago. I think I finally learned which connector to wiggle to get it to start. A bit too late though.With barcode installed, it was off to become something new.

We stopped for lunch at the El Rincon Restaurant across the street form where I used to work and near to the dismanteler. I had a milanessa torta and Lou and Dawn had quesodillas. We stopped at Lowe's for the PVC fittings. While there we noticed a nice dumping four wheeled cart and bought one. We were in the little Accent and it was already full so getting the big heavy box in the car was a challenge. Next we stopped by the Sunnyvale dump to drop off an old CRT computer monitor. Since the Palo Alto dump closed Sunnyvale is now our disposal site. Another stop was at the Bed Bath and Beyond store in Mountain View. I had a couple of paper towel holders that we didn't need. They've been hanging around for years unused but they were taken back with no problems. A nice store. When we got home I assembled the cart, not too simple of a task. It really handles a load nicely. Since we had disposed of most of the day I just tinkered in the backyard tweaking things around the new walkway. Lou made tofu chow mein for dinner.

Sixteen Tons

Thursday: (07/05) Lou enjoyed cereal for breakfast. I was fasting so planned to eat later. First thing on the list today was a visit to Kaiser for some lab tests for me and an appointment for Lou. After I donated a few drops of blood, I stopped by the Hong Kong Bakery for breakfast of a pork bun and an egg tart. Yum! When we got home I tinkered in the yard removing the existing sprinkler valves an piping. They will be relocated and are in the way. And they leak too much for where they are. Toastados for lunch. We had leftovers from our Holiday dinner. Peanut butter banana ice cream for dinner.  


Friday: (07/06) Green smoothies for breakfast. I did my final final grading for the walkway by the greenhouse. I had a change of drainage plans so some adjustments were needed. Toastados for lunch. After lunch I went by Lingsol Garden Center to get the geotextile fabric I need to line my hole and to order the base rock I need. I calculated 12 cubic yards but they sell by weight so it turned out to be 16 tons. How cute! "You load sixteen tons of crushed  recycled concrete base rock and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt." Later Lou and I went to Lowes in Sunnyvale for a few things. Part of my new plans include relocating all the sprinkler valves so I needed a few parts and fittings. Lowes is the only place with stock for my valve manifolds.  Pad Thai for dinner at LUU noodle House. 

Saturday: (07/07)  I started laying geotextile fabric and drain lines. Green smoothies for breakfast. Hamburgers for lunch. Leftovers for dinner.


Sunday: (07/08) I spent the day finishing installing the geotextile fabric and drain lines, water lines, etc. Green smoothies for breakfast. Enchiladas for lunch. Cheese burgers for dinner.


The dirt pile viewed from both sides of the arbor.

Happy 4th!

Wednesday: (07/04) Happy Birthday USA!. Another green smoothie morning long with morning tea in the back yard. We had our holiday meal around 2pm. What could be more appropriate for a celebration of US origin than tacos? Maybe the corn on the cob helps? We enjoyed the meal in the back yard with good weather.