New Camera pics

Here are some pics that I took with my new camera today. Excuse my makeup-less face. So far, I really like it; there are so many features that I'm eager to try out. It is a fun little camera and already passed my self-portrait test.

These are my candle holders from Thailand.

I wisely chose the small version of this pic...I wanted to spare you all from blotchy skin!

Treasure

When Hector cleaned out the spare bedroom, we found all sorts of hidden and forgotten items.

1. Mr. Beer: A Christmas gift from M about 8 years ago. This was when the micro brew beers were getting a lot of attention and Hector became pickier about the beer he drank. At the time it was thrown into the closet and forgotten. I'd see it occasionally while searching for other items in the closet but this time I thought I'd try making some brew. Hector gave me the go ahead since it's his gift and I followed the instructions exactly and now it's busy fermenting in the cupboard until Saturday when we'll bottle it and let it sit for another 1-2 weeks.


2. Altoids poster: A gift from Hector circa 1997. We were living in Brentwood at the time and I was really into Altoids. The ads were cool but I especially like the one with the robot from Lost in Space holding a tin of Altoids saying Danger! Hector saw a poster at the bus stop and well, I somehow got it as a gift. :) It was too big to put up anywhere in our apartment so we rolled it up and put it away. It made the move with us and I found it in the closet just after we were reminiscing about it. I took it to Michaels today and it'll be in a proper frame and placed in spare bedroom in a few weeks. I still like Altoids but prefer the cinnamon ones while Hector still chooses the peppermints.


3. Arched candleholders from Thailand: a cheap cheesy souvenir from Phuket. Almost a year ago we went to Thailand where I picked up some little things to remember our trip. I picked these out and they were wrapped up in some brown paper and lots of packing tape. I completely forgot about them until Hector asked me what it was. I promptly unwrapped them and put them on a shelf. Yay, it's fun to find unexpected items.

So that's just a few of treasures I found and there is so much more. I'll post more when I upload more pictures which reminds me...I got a new point and shoot camera (Canon SD1000). For those who know us and our messy house, things disappear in the "black hole" which is our house. I know everything should have its place but it doesn't help when I live with absent-minded people which I am becoming too. Our last little digital camera has disappeared and I'm the last one to have touched it so therefore, I lost it (sad but true). Most of time when we lose it, it turns up after a few days when one of us stumble across it. But not this time, it's been gone for about a month and I haven't seen it anywhere; not in its usual places or any unusual places. So I decided to get a new camera (and use up my gift cards). Yes, our old Nikon should be popping up somewhere now that I bought a new camera. I like having a small camera in my purse that is easy to carry around. You never know when something catches your eye!

Sunday at the Fair

So our annual trip to the OC Fair was Sunday; this is the time where Kat and I take Tyler to enjoy all the fair goodness. None of us had any lunch so we immediately went on a search for pizza. Kathy knows the fair like the back of her hand but this year those fair gnomes decided to rearrange the food stands so we wandered for a while before finding the pizza stand. I had the hankering for a blooming onion so we shared that too. It was good but would be even better if they used some seasoning salt in the batter...a little bland. Then is was on to the rides and games. I saw the water gun game with some Sonic the Hedgehog prizes along with other stuffies. Tyler and Kat got down to business of playing this one and I helped Tyler with his aim. We came really close to winning (Tyler was second) but Kat took first place and won! Amazing and on her first attempt!! She chose the stuffed Angels bear (she loves the Angels) so she was pretty happy with her prize. Tyler got down to the fun job of picking what rides he wanted to do. He rode down the big rainbow slide, did the house of mirrors (he avoided running into the glass this year), flew the 'Superman' ride, went in the Funhouse (twice) and finally he & I rode the Ferris wheel.

All of our tickets were spent so it was back to games. We found another water shooting game and with a little help from me, Tyler won his first prize! He chose the stuffed penguin and he won at seat #7 (his age) so he was very excited. I usually love playing the ping pong ball game where you toss them at floating dishes but the prizes were so lame that I didn't bother playing it. I didn't want any weird Spiderman dolls or Strawberry Shortcake dolls but maybe this year they will have better prizes. I decided to have us all play the first water game again to maybe we could win a stuffed Sonic for Joshua. It was the 3 of us playing then another woman joined in and of course, she won. Boo! Kat bought Josh a bubble blowing gun so he'll be happy with that.

It was time for another snack so Tyler chose a banana milkshake and I had a swirl cone...so refreshing in the summertime. Tyler was done with the fair and so were we but on our way out the African gymnasts/acrobats started performing so we watched that. Overall we had a great time at the fair but it was time to head home.

Baseball

Tyler's baseball game went pretty good on Saturday. Tyler got a base hit and he's starting to realize the power he has to really smack that ball. We're going to work on that more so he can gain more confidence.

Hector was hard at work this weekend getting the spare bedroom ready. He and Tyler put the bookshelves and CD cases together. Today we assembled the futon frame and put the futon in its cover. Overall the room is coming together... I really wanted to paint and put new carpet in but we can do that later. It will be a nice room for the kids to play their PS2 games and when we have guests.

Winding down

Our busy summer schedule is winding a down a bit. Today Josh finished his summer school and Tyler is done with soccer camp. Those are the major activities completed so we can mostly relax now while continuing with baseball and swimming.
This weekend will be busy...Saturday baseball game and we will be cleaning up the spare bedroom for guests next week. On Sunday I'll be taking Tyler to meet up with Kat at the OC Fair. There will be lots of games to be played, prizes to win and lots of food to eat!

Random Music

Here are my random 10 songs on my iPod today.

1. She Talks In Stereo - Gary Myrick & The Figures
2. The Four Seasons Violin Concerto - Candida Thompson
3. Dancing Barefoot - U2
4. Moving in Stereo - The Cars
5. Black Celebration - Depeche Mode
6. Oil 1 - Moby
7. Speed of Sound - Coldplay
8. Don't Speak - No Doubt
9. Dreamland - Black Box
10. M-Four - Moby

Didja know...

that all those digital photos you collect on your computer will only last about 10 years? Even saving them on DVD or disc will slowly deteriorate and you'll need to update them as technology changes. Even old fashion photo negatives will last "forever" according to the show Its' All Geek To Me so that's just what I want to hear. They showed a scanner that can scan old film negatives and convert them into digital photos...pretty cool.

that I got a new video game for my Nintendo DS called Cooking Mama. There are several recipes and you try your hand at slicing, stirring and measuring etc. I had to try the boiling rice portion several times before I could finish the task before time was up. And I was just trying to measure the rice and add water! It's lots of fun though...I'm eager to try some new recipes once I'm a pro at boiling rice! Some of Nintendo's games sound pretty cheesy and lame but they are so much fun. Also try Brain Age to exercise your brain and keep it lively. Tyler likes it and he also learns without even knowing it.

Cobra

Here is M's super cool new car! It's wicked fast and lots of fun. It was kind of hard to get into since it's really low and you have to avoid touching those hot pipes. M is having a great time breaking his new baby in and hopefully he can stay outta trouble!

It's only Tuesday

We started this week with a whirlwind of activities. Tyler has soccer camp from 9am to noon this week, started swimming class 2 days per week along with his baseball practice and game and today is only Tuesday! To complicate matters, I bought the final Harry Potter book Sunday night and try to squeeze in reading time. Luckily, I'm a fast reader and finished the book this afternoon. Excellent ending....that's all I say about it.

We're also on 'relative watch' this week which has been dragging into its 3rd week. It's a long story and those who are in the loop know the situation but let's just say, we're still waiting for them to arrive. It's quite exhausting and I'm grateful to be an only child!

Our friend also finally received his car (baby)...it is a Shelby Cobra replicar that is just gorgeous. I got a quick spin and it was scary/ dangerous how fast and powerful this car is but also such fun. I can easily see myself getting whiplash riding around in this car just from the extreme acceleration since it doesn't have headrests!

Okay, more later because we now have to head to baseball practice.

Deja Vu

Last night, Tyler runs up to me when he was supposed to be sleeping and say,"My tooth came out!" I mean how many teeth can this boy lose in 3 weeks? I think it is been about 1 tooth per week for the last 3 weeks. Okay, I think this will be it for a while...Tyler is raking in the dough.
He also won't be able to bite anything until these new teeth start coming in. Tyler was a drooly kid growing up and for now he's learning to keep liquids in his mouth all over again. :)

Practice Makes Perfect

Tyler started his summer baseball program last week so there are 7 more weeks left. The program is casual with an emphasis on fun so hopefully they can avoid the fanatical parents. Tyler is probably the biggest kid on his team so we worked on improving his basic skills like throwing, hitting and fielding. He is getting better on the sportsmanship and teamwork aspect of the game. We have his game at 12:30pm and we're hoping that it won't be too hot. Hector is at work today so he won't be able to help this time but I'll be there trying to take some good action shots.

And now from Tyler...

Last night I tried to go to sleep early (around 10:30pm) when I hear footsteps running up the stairs and then Tyler bursts into the bedroom.

"Mom, my tooth came out!"

"Oh, wow. I thought you were asleep by now."

"Well, my eyes were closed....but my tooth was twisting around in my mouth so I pulled it out! Can I have a plastic bag so I can put the tooth under my pillow?"

Oy, I hope this time "the tooth fairy" has something smaller than a $20 bill for this tooth. I tell Hector to put something under the pillow before going back to sleep. Tyler informs me that he received $10 for the tooth and is just as excited (he has no real concept of $$).

Joshua blurbs

After catching his reflection in a car window, Joshua says, "My hair looks cute!"

Everyone say, "Awwwwwww."

Random Music

It's random music day...put your iPod or MP3 player on shuffle/random and list the 1st 10 songs. You can't change or skip any of the songs....you can see what I have on my iPod. So here goes:

1. With A Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion soundtrack
3. Love's Divine - Seal: Grammy Nominees 2005
4. Homicide - 999: Punk University Vol. 1
5. Best Thing In Town - Green Day: Kerplunk
6. Only The Lonely - The Motels: Modern Rock- The Cool 80's
7. (Keep Feeling) Fascination - Human League: Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's Vol. 10
8. Sexy M.F. - Prince: The Hits/The B-Sides
9. Positive Role Model - Pet Shop Boys: Disco 3
10. Marry Me - No Doubt: Return Of Saturn

Okay so I like complilation CDs and The Beatles are here because my friend Kat uploaded all her favorite Beatles songs onto itunes. I just like to tease her about her love for The Beatles when the songs come on.

Minor Mayhem

On Tuesday night Hector and I went to the OC Fair to see Psychedelic Furs, ABC and The Fixx. For some reason, ABC had to drop out of the tour so The Alarm stepped in. The Alarm opened the show and I managed to shoot some pics with my super long lens until I got caught by security so I had to put the camera away. Hector is usually the troublemaker so he teased me about causing minor mayhem. Whatever...anyway the show was really entertaining and Psych Furs played all their hits which really had the crowd jumping. It was fun to see all the 40-somethings rocking out to these 80's British bands. The tour was called Rocking The Colonies 2007.

After the show we were hungry and had every possible food available to man at the fair. I had roasted corn on the cob while Hector had a gyro. I was still hungry so I ordered some onion rings that were huge!! I could only eat 2 rings before the greasiness got to me which was probably the equivalent of 6 regular size rings. I'm looking forward to bringing Tyler back to the fair with Kat so we can take in some rides and attractions.

Cute Hat

Practice Makes Perfect

After my last attempt at haircutting, I was banned from cutting Tyler's hair. Joshua is another story because he will not let someone cut his hair...well, not without lots of screaming and squirming. In the past I cut his hair while he was asleep and sometimes he would let me cut his hair but it's always a struggle. So Hector found the hair clippers and Josh let me cut his hair! This time I used the 1/2 inch guide and just did his whole head this way. Boy, we had a nice pile of hair on the carpet.

So at least this attempt was successfull and Josh seems to like his new do'.

Back to the drawing board

I called the tour operator about the vacation we were interested in and after finding out the ages of my children ( 4 and 7 years old), she said that they didn't allow children under 9 years old. Huh? I never encountered this before...I didn't think of their ages as an issue. Oh well, now I'm focusing my attention on Europe (leaning towards Paris)...the deals are plenty especially starting in the fall months. Plus I think the kids will love Paris with the Eiffel Tower and Metro.

Tentative Travel Plans

I've been vacillating among several places to go for our next vacation. My original choices were Italy, then Buenos Aires and Paris entered the picture and then Hector suggested Canada. These are all very good places but like usual I let Budget Travel guide my final decisions. I read the Real Deals section which feature their 40 top picks and let the packages 'speak' to me. This happened to me last year when the Phuket and Singapore trip caught my eye and BANG! that's where we went. So it's happened again this issue because we want to go somewhere in October so I need to narrow this down. Then I have to get Hector time off work so I am essentially the travel planner at every level. When I get the official "greenlight', I'll keep my mouth shut for now but it's a great deal that I don't think I want to pass up.

Carlsbad

Oy, I just got back from a trip to Carlsbad (about 80-90 miles from LA) where Kat, Fran and I did some major shopping at the outlet stores there. It was so much fun! We arrived at 10:45 am and snagged a great parking spot (for when we needed to unload all our shopping bags)! The first stop was the Dooney store where Kat and Fran bought 2 purses each. The purses were so cute and even marked down more so also a great bargain. I had to stop by the Coach store while Kat and Fran moved their personal stuff into their new purses. We had lunch at Ruby's then more shopping! By the time we finished, I had 2 pairs for shoes and some underwear for me and Tyler. We had a great time! My day wasn't over yet...later it was drive-in time! We went to see Ratatouille with Pirates 3. Of course the kids could only last thru their movie and didn't want to stay any longer. When I tried to start the car, it wouldn't turn on! AARGH, the battery died. Good thing our friends Roger and Laura went in their truck so we borrowed some jumper cables from the snack bar (apparently this happens quite often) and jumped started the car. So that was my very busy Saturday.

Flap Hat

I finished this hat super quick...I really love the chunky yarn with all the reds and black. I'm gonna have to keep this one for myself...too bad it doesn't get very cold here in SoCal. Well, I'll always look ultra cute with my various hats.

Well, wadda ya know...I do look cute in this hat! :) It reminds me of when I was a kid and had really long hair so my mom always had my hair braided to keep it out of my way.

That's Weird

I just noticed that my most recent blog posting has the wrong date. Hump Day was about my Wedensday but had July 11 as the posting date (I posted it this morning 7-12). Oh well, hopefully it'll correct soon.

** Nope, it's fixed now.

Music of the Day

Okay, it's a slow day so I'm gonna copy something that I saw on another person's blog (sorry I can't remember who it is). You put your iPod or other MP3 player on random and list the 10 songs that come up. You can't cheat or change the list (like omitting your guilty pleasures or cheesy songs). So here goes...

1. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky by Johnny Cash. 16 Biggest Hits
2. Miserablism (Moby Electro Mix) by Pet Shop Boys. Popart
3. Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. 16 Biggest Hits
4. Too Marvelous for Words by Frank Sinatra. Songs for Swingin Lovers
5. I Guess You're Right by The Posies. Every Kind of Light
6. I Don't Know What You Want...by Pet Shop Boys. Popart
7. Bizzi's Party (Booker T. Vocal Lick) by Bizzi. Groove Radio Presents: Speed Garage
8. Working Class Hero by Green Day. Working Class Hero
9. Your Joy by Chrisette Michele. Your Joy
10. Glamorous Glue by Morrissey. Beethoven was Deaf

Hump Day

Yesterday was such a busy day. Poor Hector was on call overnight and didn't get any sleep that night so after Josh went to school, I took Tyler to the mall to see Ratatouille which was really cute and funny. Tyler is especially excited to the new Mr Bean movie coming out soon too. My mom has a lot of the old Mr Bean episodes and they are extremely funny.

We came back home at 2 pm so I fed Tyler lunch because he had baseball practice at 3 pm. I had a dentist appointment at 3 pm too so it was nice that Hector was up to take Tyler to practice. My teeth cleaning went fine..the hygenist was very thorough. Tyler's baseball practice went well although Tyler becomes one of the clowns with his friend G...oh well, their first game is this Saturday! Eh, the whole league is just for fun and in Tyler's group they don't keep score.

Joshua came home at 4;15pm and used the potty again! Yay! Then I'm off to take Tyler to swim class at 5 pm. This is the last class of the session before the next session starts in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile Hector has been slowly going through our spare bedroom which has become the catch-all (junk) room. He has been going through everything, deciding what to save, throw away or give away. We can actually see the floor again! What a great guy...I can't organize myself to do all that.

After such a busy day, we went to King Taco for dinner. Oh, so good! The kids and I have our usual lengua (beef tongue) sopes and horchata. Ahhh, that hit the spot...somehow I forgot to have breakfast or lunch with only some popcorn at the movie. To top off the day, during the kids' bath & acoording to Tyler, Josh got out of the bathtub and went potty in the toilet. Double yay!!

Cable Purse

Okay, here is my first purse that I finished knitting but was delayed because I had to stain the dowels and buy ribbon. Now it's complete and it came out nice. This is also my first experience with cables which was a success. I love the colors in this yarn of various purples with some dashes of peacock blue and pale green. I went through several ideas to find the right project for this yarn and finally decided on a purse. I need to start my list of Christmas projects and start knitting again. Hopefully my wrists can handle all the work I have planned.

Knit Purse

I finished a purse and had to improvise a little but overall, I'm pleased with it. I probably should have used a lighter color ribbon instead of chocolate brown but oh well, it was my first try. The ribbon ruching was more difficult than I thought...I lost count of how many times I stuck my finger. Ouch. The pattern I loosely based my purse on said I needed 1 yard of ribbon. The ribbon I bought was 9 feet long and I used every bit of it. Ugh. So I can already tell that I'll need to visit Joann's tomorrow to buy ribbon for my other purse. Bah!

Baby Steps

After procrastinating with Josh's potty-training...I buckled down and really worked with Josh this week. When Josh got up in the morning, I'd sit him down on the potty for several minutes and repeat every 2 hours. He doesn't enjoy sitting on the regular toilet (maybe a fear of falling in) so I dug out the Baby Bjorn toilet which is just a pot that a very small toddler can sit on. When Josh came home from school, I had him sit on it and he didn't protest. I gave him a Gameboy and some M & M's to give him incentive to stay put and after 10 minutes, Josh stood up and said,"All done." I figured that was enough time for one sitting but I looked in and he went potty! Yay...time to celebrate so Josh had some chocolate ice cream! It's a small step but we're slowly getting there.

Another one gone...

Tyler pulled out his tooth tonight...one of the front ones so he will have that goofy toothless look that kids his age get. You know where their adult teeth are way too big for their head. Those front baby teeth have cavities so we're really stressing how important it is to take proper care of your teeth.

Friday Night Fun

I'm so happy that the weekend is here! We are free (schedule-wise) for now and it's really nice. Hector and I actually got to sleep in uninterrupted until 9:30 am today! It's a miracle! I could have slept in more if the phone hadn't rung with our friend Dan calling to ask if we were at Disneyland yesterday. Huh, how did he know that? Well, Dan called Hector's cell phone this morning and some guy answered, "Disneyland Lost & Found". Well, we were really at California Adventure last night and Hector lost his phone running around at Bear Creek (?) the wilderness jungle gym for kids. Ha, we didn't know he lost it! So Hector is riding back there right now to get his phone. At least we don't live too far...it's 30 minutes with good karma.

It was a chance for us to get out and my mom to hang out with us for a bit. We didn't ride anything...we let the kids run around then it was time to wait for the Electrical Light Parade. Then after the

parade is finished...California Adventure closes (9pm) so everyone filters out and tries to see the fireworks show at 9:25pm. I wanted to leave before the craziness starts after the fireworks so we made our way back to the tram. It worked...we could see some of the fireworks in line and then we drove home. It was fun and I took lots of pics of the kids playing in the letters that spell CALIFORNIA just outside the entrance.

Aftermath

Our July 4th celebration started off low key with us doing basically nothing while Hector had to work for 5 hours. Well, I did manage to clean the kitchen so that was good. He-man & She-ra invited themselves over which was fine. I made it clear that I wasn't doing anything special for dinner, if they wanted to bring something that was fine. Hector ended buying lots of kalbi ribs to grill and I made sticky rice. Oh and I also made some finger jello...who doesn't like jello?

After dinner, we packed up the kids and headed on out to our local park to watch the fireworks display (which is about 1 mile away). We let the kids run around and play on the playground equipment until dark until the show starts. It's a good thing I packed some popcorn and other snacks to keep them occupied; also I ran into our neighbor Laura who gave us some yummy poundcake with strawberries & blueberries. The fireworks were cool to watch but nothing spectacular.

The real fun was today. Since Hector had the day off I thought that we could take the kids back to Soak City and also invite He-man & his wards. Last time the little girl was being so bad that they had to decline the invite. So we were already to go...that is until 7:30am He-man calls to say the baby boy was up all night teething & crying so neither of them got any sleep. So they had to cancel again...bummer.

Remember when I took the kids last week to Soak City and everything was a breeze? Well, this time was the opposite. There were about 6 day camps this time and we started off the morning waiting 30 minutes in line to buy tickets. We decided to get the season passes but you can only buy them at Knott's Berry Farm (across the street) so we bought day passes which we later credited to the season passes. So if you ever plan on going to a water park, check to see if you can buy tickets online which will save you lots of time. With all the extra people there, I couldn't find any loungers under the canopies and the cabanas were all rented out but I found a couple under partial shade so that was fine. We had our usual fun in the wave pool then I thought we should grab lunch before the crowd starts. Well, it already started....if I knew if would take an hour to wait & order our food I would have played in the water longer with the kids. Instead we waited at a table while poor Hector had to stand in line. Ugh! Oh well, that's part of the day. Overall we had lots of fun and now we can come back and bypass the ticket line!

Happy 4th of Juy!!

Create your own Fridge


Have some fun today!

iPod update

Ok, my music transferred okay but I had all my old music in a folder which was about 10 gigs of stuff and since it didn't appear to be needed, I deleted it. Yep....BIG MISTAKE! Now my music won't play in itunes although my iPod stuff is still intact. I think I need to delete my itunes library and reload everything. I'm gonna have to do some serious research and see what damage control I can do.

Earlier this evening I tried to fix my problems and ended up creating more headaches for myself. I can't even remember what I did...I just know that I deleted the bad copies of music from my itunes library (over 3000 songs). I agonized over the idea for a while then went ahead because itunes couldn't play the songs anyway. I downloaded the Music Rescue program and that was fine. I hooked up my 80 gig iPod which started asking me question about transferring music. It gave me the choice to transfer or don't transfer....last time I transferred the results brought me to where I am now (really deleting my original itunes files did me in) so I chose Don't transfer and lame itunes proceeded to sync my iPod and basically deleted my music in the iPod. I thought I was going to cry! After worrying about all my music disappearing, I remembered that I have another 20 gig iPod that I use upstairs that has practically all the latest music. This time I set it to enable disk use and manually manage the songs and went through the whole process again. This time it worked although copying 3400 songs takes up a lot of time then it puts the music into itunes. Now for the final test....I set up my playlists which took another hour or so and hooked up the 80 gig iPod. Now the dang thing has to sync then load all the songs back on.

It's 10:20pm...I went and downloaded a program that will transfer your iPod music to your computer. Under normal circumstances I think the process would have been quick and painless but because we're talking about my seriously messed up itunes, the process has taken about 5 hours. That's because of one false start where I waited for all my music to load and then it didn't work. After tweaking it a bit, the program worked about copying my music and right now it is transferring my music to my 80 gig iPod.

10:40pm...still loading but it's on 2800 of 3300 so just a little bit more. I got some duplicates during the copying process but I'll take care of it another day. Let this be lesson for all...learn from my horrible mistakes and just use Music Rescue.

10:45pm It's done! I believe that my nightmare is over (at least for tonight).

Soak City Pics

Here are the pictures from Soak City...Joshua absolutely loved the wave pool. He hung on to his innertube and rode the waves like a pro.

It was great to be in water especially when the day was sunny and the park uncrowded. This week got hotter so I'm glad we went last week otherwise I might not have lasted as long as I did.


Here is the Beach House just as the bucket is pouring 100's of gallon of water. Don't go in if you don't want to get wet! I'm trying to plan another day ASAP!

Hallelujah!

My passport expires in November 2007 so I sent in my renewal application March 20 and I am happy to say I received my new passport today (July 2). It only took about 13 weeks...now I can plan my next trip since the passport will be good until November 2017.

Transferring Music

Have you ever had to transfer your music on your iPod to a new computer? I've done it a couple of years ago and it takes a couple of hours but it can be done. I upgraded to an 80 gig video iPod around Christmas time then a few months later got a new laptop. I was planning to transfer my music the way I had done previously but Hector found a thingy called The Tornado which basically hooks up to 2 computers via USB and you drag and drop files etc you want and whooooosh, it transfers to the new computer. Of course both computers must have the same programs but The Tornado worked like a charm on my photo files. The big question was how it would work with itunes? Hector managed to figure out a way (don't ask me because I still don't know) that transferred my music. He also saved all my music in a folder in case any music got left behind. So far so good but I have to make new playlists which is such a pain but I wanted to change them anyways. I had a lot of music to transfer about 3400 songs and only 3000 made the long journey to the new computer. Argh! Now I had to figure out what I was missing and compare to my old files. I know this starting to get a lot more complicated...plus I haven't synced my iPod to the new computer out of fear that my music would be erased forever! Today though I made the plunge and synced the iPod. It asked me if I wanted to erase and sync my iPod....okay, kinda scary since all my entire music is on it but I click okay. Then it asks me that there are songs on my iPod that are not in my library (I'm assuming my missing music) and do I want to add them to my library? YES! So as I type, the computer is loading all my music which hopefully is my entire catalog. Keep your fingers crossed.

Party II

Our second party of the weekend was today at Cindy's house in Palos Verdes. It is a hoity-toity area which consists of a 'rural' country area with horse property and the ocean area with gorgeous views depending on which direction you're facing. I love Cindy's house although it is very large, the ocean view is to die for. She won't have to worry about other homes in front although there is that off chance that a very strong earthquake could send the house into the ocean.

Compared to yesterday's party, this one was fairly lame. The kids don't care but this water slide was much smaller than the one from yesterday. Cindy said the guy didn't ask how large her yard is or maybe he only had one size. This one would have fit in our yard easily. Oh well, Tyler jumped right in but there were about 12 kids his age fighting over the slide. After a while it got ugly when a kid sitting at the top of the stairs placed his feet on Tyler's chest as he climbed up and shoved him down the stairs. OMG....I was on the balcony at the time so I witnessed the whole thing so I yelled down to Hector to get on this kid. Tyler started screaming & crying and I ripped into that kid who had some nerve to appear nonchalant about the whole incident. If Tyler had done that to some other kid I would have reacted the same because I want my child to have actual manners and common sense. That's a major reason why Hector and I chose Torrance to live instead of PV because those kids are major brats who have no sense of responsibility. Those boys were rude to Tyler because they didn't know him. I know a lot of their behavior is normal boy rowdiness but I can see how they'll turn out later if they don't have boundaries. Anyway, Tyler was fine and luckily no other kids were at the bottom of the stairs when he fell otherwise there would be a lot more kids crying. This party just reconfirmed our right decision to live where we do!

Hector pointed out the difference between the 2 parties. The 1st one was geared equally to adults and children. It had lots of food, drinks (regular and alcoholic), plenty of entertainment for the kids and an area for the adults to hang out and relax. The 2nd party was mostly for the kids since it appeared that most of kids were dropped off by their parents. So the kids were a bit rowdy with little adult supervision...the kids were operating the sno-cone machine with the red syrup all over the table and food. Yikes, what a mess. Oh well, the kids had fun at both parties so that's all that matters.