Got Caviar?

Why does the dog bark and growl when I am home alone at night?  Scares the crap out of me!  Yes, I am a bit of a scaredy cat - I admit it.  She must feel more at ease when both of her parents are home.  Either that or she is just being mean and hateful to me!  I have checked all the doors and windows.  I hope she doesn't have to pee because I am not going out there.  Also, I had told my landlord I would go check for something downstairs and outside tonight.  Oh hell no.  That would mean having to go into the basement AND go outside too.  Overload!  It's not like it's a scary basement.  It is a finished basement with plenty of light.  Perfectly safe, I'm sure.  But it's called a basement and I'm afraid of basements!  There...I have put out there yet another fear.  My number one fear is still opening the Pillsbury cans.  Freaks me out every time.  So, I just don't.  Yes, I was most likely dropped on my head as a baby.  I blame all of my oddities on that.

So I went to my parent's church for "Thanksgiving Dinner".  It was fine.  Food was ok - saw a few strange people.  A normal church activity.  They had a TON of pies.  Oh...another fear - pies from the unknown baker.  I am the same way about potlucks.  If I know who made something, I will eat it.  If I don't - I just can't!  So if you ever see me at a potluck and see my plate piled high with one thing, you will know why.  I know the cook!  So here was a strange thing at the dinner.  It happened during prayer and mom told me that she knew if she were to open up her eyes and look at me that I would be laughing.  She looked and yes, I was laughing.  I even snorted!  It was such a dumb thing that it was hilarious.  So the Pastor says the prayer for the meal.  And this is how it starts out...(mind you, he lost me after the first sentence)... "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather as a church family and while we don't have Caviar, we do have many delicious dishes to enjoy".  WTH?!  I just busted up!  He may as well have added "champagne" to the sentence too!  Caviar?  Does he even know what Caviar is?  He is a very straight-laced Vegan guy which made it even funnier!  Anyway, it probably was not an appropriate time to laugh but then again, when have I ever been appropriate?!

It is the year 2012 - almost 2013 and guess what?  The Guadagni house FINALLY has an LED Flatscreen TV.  Yes, we really do.  No longer will we have the big 2 ton boxey TV in our living room.  Yippee!  I am so excited.  Have not taken it out of the box yet but who cares - we have one!  Now we can finally utilize that hi def that we pay for every month.  Yep, it's true.  Had the hi def for a while - did that a little bass ackwards.  And I have even bigger news!  We also have a Blu Ray Player!  Rah rah!  So the guy at Best Buy says "you've never seen a Blu Ray movie"?  NO!  I felt like an old dial telephone on the wall with the squirly cord.  I may never use it, but betcha by golly wow, I have one!

Remember, we should be extra thankful this week.  For what, I'm not sure but we can all come up with a little something.  And if you will be having Caviar for Thanksgiving, you can be all the more thankful! (if you like the nasty stuff).

♥jules♥

Banana Slugs!

Finally...finishing up the Alaska trip...

Our last stop in Alaska was in Ketchikan.  The town is known for it's many totem poles.  I think you either like totem poles or you don't.  Honestly, I have never found a person who likes them.  Except for myself.  I am fascinated with them.  We were only in Ketchikan until 1:00pm and I was so bummed that I didn't get to see more.  The town was very cute.  A lot of houses on the hills, all different colors.  Bright reds, blues, etc.  We actually saw a very cool bald eagle (while on a tour to see a bear that we didn't see).  What a beautiful bird.  I got a pic but you won't know what you are looking at so I won't even bother posting it.  Ketchikan gets a lot of rain and it was very green.  We went to an Alaskan rain forest - don't picture Costa Rica - it's not the same.  Just a lot of trees and moss.  One thing they are famous for are Banana Slugs.  Seriously, did I really think I was going to see a Banana Slug?  I thought...what are the chances?  Well guess what?!  May I present you with an Alaskan Banana Slug!...

A real beauty, huh?!  I liked it so much that I took its picture again! 

Got a clearer view this time!

We left Ketchikan at 1:00 cuz we had to get on the "road" and head for Canada.  We spent all night and most of the next day crusing toward Victoria BC Canada.  When we arrived it was almost dark.  A little disappointing but it was still cool to see it.  We went on a bus tour through Victoria and then ended up at Butchart Gardens for a night tour.  Absolutely gorgeous flowers.  I have actually been there during the day and it's even prettier but it was kind of  neat to see it at night.  I will have to say the Ashton Kutcher camera took pretty good pics at night.  I was super pleased.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a Nikon Digital Touch.  Ashton Kutcher does the commercials on TV for it.  Except when he swipes his finger across the screen, the pictures pop up much nicer than when I do.  Hype I tell ya!  Here are some pics of Butchart Gardens...

We got back on this ship about 11:15pm and it was time for bed knowing that when we woke up in the morning we would be in the Port of Seattle.  I was happy to get home to my girls but real sad the trip had to end.  Alaska was incredible.  I would recommend it to anyone.  It's just something you really should experience in your lifetime at least once.

This was the last shot I got of the ship as we were leaving the terminal.  All the cranes, equipment etc were for the food/supplies being loaded onto the ship for the next departure in about 7 hours.  The Carnival Spirit is my favorite Carnival ship.  I have been on her 3 times.  This was probably my last time.  She has moved to Australia and at this time, there are no plans to return her to the United States.  She's taken me to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo, Costa Maya, Acapulco, Cabo, Canada, and Alaska.  Great memories to carry with me! ♥

The Weekend and Skagway pics

Super busy but fun weekend.  I love getting off work @ 11:30 on Fridays.  It's almost like not working at all.  Compared to 5:00, 11:30 is a cinch. 
After work I picked up Rox from the doggy day spa.  It's a regular dog wash/groom place but she believes it is a day spa.  Let's keep it that way, please!  Here is my sweet baby girl...

Rox and I went home to clean.  2 hours flew by and it was time to get ready to go out.  Luigi got home and then Rhonda got here as soon as she could after work.  We went to Entwined on Grand in Escondido.  That is Boyd Kerr and Kristi McGee's new restaurant.  We sat out on the patio because...they are DOG FRIENDLY!  Roxie got to join us.  We had Happy Hour food which was so yummy.  Rhonda's friend, Greg, joined us too.  Later, our friend Rob Kerr joined us also.  We had the most delicious Sliders I have ever had.  We had a flatbread pizza.  We also had charred artichokes.  And then Greg ordered stuffed dates.  I HATE dates.  But let me tell you...they were delicious!  I think they were stuffed with goat cheese and they came with a sirachi plum sauce.  All of the food was amazing and the restaurant was beautiful.  Definitely going back.  After that we went to Grand on Grand to catch my friend Barbara's husband's band, Scaring the Wives.  They are awesome.  It was their last performance of the year.

On Saturday, we checked out a new church.  The church isn't new but it was new to us.  I kind of liked it.  It's in San Diego - Tierrasanta actually.  Beautiful church and everyone was very nice.  Will have to go back and check it out again one of these days.  Had lunch at Chow Fun in Carmel Mountain.  Then I took a REALLY long nap.  Too long actually.  Woke up close to 6:00 feeling like lead.  But I refreshed and Rhonda was back over.  We went grocery shopping, stopped to see our friend, Elli, and then came home to make pizzas.  Well - Luigi made pizzas.  We ate them.  Rhonda and I had a good time together.

Sunday...busy day doing chores and watched the Charger game in the evening.  Yep, busy weekend!

Here are a couple of pics of Skagway...will talk about Skagway tomorrow when I post the final pics of Butchart Gardens in Victoria Canada. ♥



Me @ Saxman Village - Totem Poles



Luigi and Mom @ ??? can't remember right now!



Rain Forest in Ketchikan

Cute little totem pole! (that painted wood statue is cute too)

Juneau

Was home sick today.  I won't go into details.  Just one of those sicknesses where it's best to be at home.  I did manage to clean my kitchen AND take a shower.  Thank goodness for that.  The shower.  So I kind of dropped the ball on posting Alaska pics.  I believe I posted our first stop which was Skagway.  Our next stop was Juneau.  I was excited to get to Juneau because I had read a story about a statue of a dog that sits at the pier.  Her name is Patsy Ann.  You can read her short but touching story at www.patsyann.com

Jules and Patsy Ann

There were 2 ships in port - Carnival and Princess (story below)



Having breakfast @ the LaPlaya Grill before checking out Juneau




It was starting to rain when we left Juneau...

 So in Juneau we went to the Alaska State Museum.  We had also wanted to visit the capitol building but we ran out of time.  I like Museums.  I don't love Museums.  I can go through a moderately sized Museum in about 40 minutes.  Then I'm done.  While the family leisurely spent their Saturday morning in this Museum, I was hanging out on a bench people watching.  There weren't many people there so I had to get enjoyment out of who was there.  There was a very crabby old woman in a wheelchair - she bitched at everyone.  She ordered her husband around to no end.  After what seemed like hours, the family was ready to leave so they found me (I'm not hard to find in a Museum).  The old lady said to Luigi "go get my husband for me - he is in the blue jacket".  Not wanting to be as rude as she was, he said ok.  He went and got the man in the blue jacket and said "your wife is looking for you".  The man replied "I would prefer NOT to be found"!  Ok, that said a lot.  So we are walking away and she said to me "are you also on the Princess"?  I said "no, we are on the Carnival Spirit".  She made the most disgusting face and said "ohhhh, awful".  Really?  It was one of those moments when you have so much to say but can't say anything.  Of course, I bitched all the way out the door.  Walked by a man sitting outside the Museum (must have been waiting for his family) and he heard me bitching.  He said the logical thing though..."Well, neither one appear to be sinking"!  Thank you! ♥