Happy Halloween!

Hi, hope you have a safe and fun Halloween.  I haven't posted this week due to a power outage that occurred on Monday.  It blew out my front shipping/business computer and so we've been here late nights getting another computer up and running.  Ahhhggg!  Even fried the hard drive so nothing is recoverable.  But I'll get over it!  Here's a pic of a neighbor's house decorated all scary looking.  I wanted to get a pic at dusk, it would've been better with the blown up pumpkin and ghost..  I'm going down to my sis' and help with make-up, pumpkin carving and holding little hands for trick-or-treating tonight.  Will post pix next week.

Since I don't have any jack-o-lantern pictures, here are some orange flowers from my yard!

 

Have a beautiful day!

My Fedex Buddies

Looks like Fedex is taking over!  Really, it's pix of delivery trucks early last Saturday morning (that is why there isn't as much traffic).  I often see them on my drive into work.  They are leaving from a terminal on San Fernando Road.  They go up to 2 Fwy and then branch off to where they have deliveries.  There are 5 trucks and look at how perfectly their distance is to one another in the second pic.  Looks like it was staged.  You do have to be a good driver to work for them!

Meet my delivery and pick-up Fedex drivers that help me send and receive important packages and letters to you and your loved ones:

This is Juan.  He's been my Express delivery and pick-up driver for more than 10 years.  He is a sweetie and ladies, he's not married yet!  He's into hunting and mountain bike riding.

This is Anthony.  He is my delivery and pick-up driver for Fedex Ground Service.  We've been working together for almost a year and ladies, he's also single.

This is Rick.  He helps Juan by making his pick-ups for him on his busiest days.  Geez, I've known him for years but not as long as I've known Juan.  Ricks happily married.

Come to think of it, my job isn't so bad, I get to hang out with these good-lookin' guys everyday for a few minutes!  Lucky me!  If you had a mailbox here, these are the men that would bring you packages!  Lucky you!

My Kids

Meet my kids, they are from left to right: David my stepson, Sheldon and Sadie.

Good kids, or I should say adults.  Where did the time go?

The Fountain

Here are some pics of the renovated Griffith Park Fountain, William Mulholland Memorial, that sits on the corner of Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Blvd that I took this morning.  I drive by it everyday on my way to work.  It really is pretty and I get so used to driving by it all the time and busy watching the traffic that I don't notice it all the time.  I wanted to share it with you.  I was shooting into the sun so the pics didn't turn out as good as I would have liked.

Taken from a website:  William Mulholland (September 11, 1855 - July 22, 1935) was the head of the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles, CA.  He was responsible for building the water aqueducts that allowed the city to grow into one of the largest in the world.

These last 2 photos are borrowed from a site that said it was ok to copy.  This pic looks to be before the renovation.

These are much better than my pics!  Hope you're having a great day...

Update (More info):  Today 10/24/09 I had a customer come in and while I was faxing his papers for him, I noticed he had on a t-shirt from the Department of Water and Power.  I asked him about it and he told me he's been retired for about 11 years but that he was 3rd generation working for them.  His Grandad and father had both worked there.  I told him I had started a blog and that just yesterday, I had taken pictures of the fountain and wrote about it on my blog.  He told me that under the fountain there is an electrical switching station and he remembers going there with his dad when he was a young kid.  It's a large room with all kinds of controls all around.  He doesn't remember how he got down there exactly but he does remember steps.  Geez, I never knew there was an underground room under that fountain.  See... ya learn something everyday!

The Birthday Girl

Meet Tamara, my niece (my sis' daughter, her first born) who is turning 11 on this coming Saturday.  She is at 5th Grade Science Camp up in Big Bear right now.  In the photo above she is setting the table for dinner.  She's having a great time up there in the mountains.

I was there when she came into the world.  I got a call from my sis, "Its time" and I drove down to the hospital in Orange County that very early morning and stopped to put a sign on the door of the shop that we would be closed today as my sister was having her baby.  I can't believe it's been 11 years already.  She was the most beautiful newborn baby, really.  She had these rose bud lips and she went to sleep right after all the fussing they did with her.  They wrapped her tightly in a blanket and as she laid there well, she was just sleeping beauty.  I spoke softly to her in a whisper, "Welcome to planet earth, I'm your Auntie Ann and you have great parents".  Then they handed her to my sister after she was all tidied up.  It was amazing to attend her birth as I remember it more vividly than my own children's births, since I was much too busy to notice everything that was going on.

Here she is at her Princess Party (6th birthday).

At the beach with her mom in 2006. 

 

At her dance recital last June, 2009.

Here she is in 2007, with her granny square blanket.  I'm teaching her how to crochet.  She is smart, talented, pretty and I love her oh so much!

Stayed Home

Howdy, I stayed home over the weekend (I work on Sat. but not on Sunday).  Had a chance to go to my niece's b-day party at a skating rink but I had work to do.  I got more stuff packed up in my room in between cold drinks, (was it hot out or what?) towards listing the house and moving (boring).  Threw some non-chemical snail bait around some plants as the snails have been feasting, darn those hungry critters.

I think I figured out how I want my grannies to be attached.  Single crochet around each in white yarn and then go around again creating loops.  Then match the loops on each side and go through each set of loops, connecting the squares together with single crochet.  I'll think of the ridge that it will create around each one, as a sort of picture frame; framing and separating each one.

 

 

 

I put some green paper under them to show more contrast so you could see the stitches better.

Now I have 70 more to go before I'm done.  I'm in no hurry since it is supposed to be for leisure, not for rush and stress out!

Hey, I got 2 new, mailbox rental customers today and another person wants to open one soon!  If you want to open a mailbox, you don't have to live here as we do mail forwarding, too.

This post was late today since I was so busy and then I forgot to eat lunch, so I am posting now after I had my half of sandwich as dinner instead of lunch.

Time to go home, I'm outta here.

The Men in Brown

Come and meet the "Cream of the Crop" at United Parcel Service.  They help me make my business go 'round.  These guys work really hard and really long days.  When I think I'm working late, I'll be driving up the street and see a UPS truck still out delivering so I know they get home late and rarely eat dinner with their families. 

Here are my regular UPS helpers:

This is Danny.  He delivers the packages for my mailbox holders every afternoon.  On some days, I take packages off his hands that can't be delivered to my neighboring businesses because they are out to lunch.  This saves him from making a trip back.

This is Joel (he looks serious in this pic but he's friendly, really).  He picks up all my outgoing packages everyday about 4-4:30ish.  He just hurt his knee and he's taking a bit of time off.  I'll miss you, Get Well Soon, Joel!

All Wrapped Up, Gifts and Toys

Here at the shop, we can make your gifts pretty for you!

These are for Donna my long time customer; it's her son's birthday next week.  You should see what she brings me over the holidays to wrap up for her!

A couple weeks ago I painted a box red to hold these soccer balls:

Let me know if you want to purchase one!

My Happy Place

 

I took a much needed 3 day holiday over the Columbus Day weekend.  Since I rarely have a Saturday off I decided to attend the First Annual Fall Plant Sale at my fav place, Descanso Gardens.  It was in cooperation with Monrovia Nursery, Mt. San Antonio College Agri Dept. and Descanso.  They had speakers on Saturday which is why I wanted to attend Sat.  I learned all about the magnificent Oak tree and it's symbiotic relationship with other life forms.  Amazing!

 

 

Descanso has the most Camellia plants of any public garden in California.  They are everywhere throughout the garden but there is one place under the oaks where the majority of them live.  The best show of Camellia flowers is in January through March.  If you've never been there you should go because it's beautiful and peaceful.  They're open everyday except Christmas day.  Check it out www.descansogardens.org .  They have a large rose garden where you can get married.  This is the entrance to the rose garden:

 

On Sat. I also learned about how to graft citrus trees so you can have different citrus fruit on the same tree, new plants that have been hybridized by Monrovia Nursery that will grow well in So. Cal. and added my to my knowledge about vermiculture (worm farming); how to make compost tea that plants just love. Because I'm moving, I didn't buy even one little plant, boo, hoo.   Here's the plant sale on the main lawn:

 

They even have fish (Koi) in their ponds:  They'll swim close to the edge and the kids can reach down and touch them!

I've been going to Descanso Gardens for years; I  used to stroll my babies there.  It has improved over time although, I miss the Japanese arts/crafts/book shop they used to have.  I still have the origami books and some of the special square papers that my daughter just had to have.  I always stop in at the new Gift Shop before leaving:

Have a beautiful day!

New Walls

I've been busier this week here at the shop.  That is good since maybe it's a sign that the economy is recovering.  I do like to see when people come in with a "Loan Modification Agreement" that needs to be notarized since this is one more person that is gonna be able to stay in their house and not lose it to foreclosure.

My hubby and I went to see Michael Moore's, Capitalism: A Love Story film the other night.  A must see.  Go see it.  The truth about what is going on needs to be understood by everyone.  We need to take back our country.  That's all I want to say because I want you to PLEASE see the film.

Here are some pix of our new walls and ceiling:

 

The drywall mud has been applied sanded and is drying now.  Through that white door is the bathroom and a couple of walls and part of the ceiling needs to be fixed in there, too.  I'll show ya that soon.

In celebration of Halloween coming up, here is a couple pix of Mr. Spider that I almost ran into while leaving the house.  He was sitting in his huge web he made and sure gave me a scare and the heebee jeebies this morning.

Sorry if this creeps you out.