Last Week's Activities

Potato Shooter, Brandon's Birthday, Academy Awards, Gourmet Dinner Group, Oscar Party, Lunch with Lauren, Newcomers Club, Hot Stone Massage

Last week was a wonderful mixture of family, friends, pampering and a potato shooter!!! Yes, I do lead an interesting life...

Last week was the newcomers club monthly meeting at a nearby golf course and our speaker was Sue McGinty, a mystery writer. I was asked to talk about the changes to the newsletter (they loved the changes I made! I can't do anything half way!!!) and the president and I even put out a 'teaser' about an upcoming contest we came up with. Me, being the organizer person that I am, recruited four ladies at my table to join my Tuesday / Thursday exercise class.

Thursday was a day of Me Time - Exercise class and a walk with my friend on the beach - she'd been gone for a week, so it was nice to catch up on her activities. The relaxation from a hot stone massage sent me to bed early that night.

Friday was the Gourmet Group dinner - yummy!!! My friend's beautiful home has a great view of the ocean and bay and was the perfect setting for what she called the family "Sunday Dinner" - tri-tip, beans, bread, salad. Gulp! Now, I'm up next month for hosting dinner. Being the creative type, dinner HAS to involve creativity, so I'm planning some fun activities for my guests while I prepare dinner - they don't know yet, but it's going to be Creativity Night - no experience necessary. The picture is of the 'beadable' spreaders, pickle forks and wine stoppers I got from Oriental Trading Company. The balls screw off, so they will thread on beads while I fix dinner. There was mention of us starting a cookbook with the recipes from our get togethers, so my mind was swirling thinking about having them transform a binder into a cookbook to hold our treasured recipes. Well, see how that unfolds.

Saturday morning, my sister, nephew and I went to my hometown of Lemoore for my nephew's birthday party - he's seven now and I can't imagine how that happened. I went over to their house early to help Nicki, my sister-in-law, with preparations. She's working as a full-time sub right now while a teacher is out on maternity leave, so life is hectic for the family. Great party!!! The highlight was when one of my brother's friends brought out The Potato Shooter - it was a science project for his son's seventh grade class. Oh my gosh!!! It's made from PVC pipe (not your little stuff!), has an ignitor inside the tube and then they found the best propellant was hair spray. So, the Potato Shooter was loaded with 10 seconds of hair spray and a full-on russet potato - that thing shot the potato out like it was a cannon! As the party progressed and it got dark, my brother, in his 10 year old wisdom (he's really 40) got egged on by his friend to put on his motorcycle helmet and be 'hunted'. Needless to say, my brother now has a welt on his beeeeee-hind from where the potato hit him...Might I say, I don't encourage this and it was done under safe conditions...it was hilarious!!!

Last night was Oscar Party Night! Loved it! The party was my suggestion to the head of our Chick Flicks group - it's fun to come up with the ideas and then have someone execute them. Shary was dressed to the hilt with a beautiful blouse and long skirt. The food was excellent and I took popcorn since it was all about movies! I got the popcorn boxes from Michaels - it made a quick, inexpensive, yet impactful snack. I loved the format of the show and found it interesting that there wasn't a lot of 'bling' so far as diamonds and necklaces and the colors of the dresses were very muted.

I had lunch with Lauren Johnston, from the old Aleene's days, at a restaurant I'd never heard of - evos - feel great fast food. We even had some airbaked fries and topped it off with some Karma Ketchup. It was great to get together with her - there's never enough time to get totally caught up!

This week is in full swing already with dinners out, a COPE meeting on Friday and I have two sets of friends that I get to see on Saturday - I can't wait! One I haven't seen in four years. I was asked last night to be a sub for a Bunco party on Wednesday - I HAVE TO GET WORK DONE somewhere in there too. Yikes!

A friend and I just took a walk on the beach - the weather has been so gray and rainy, we took advantage of some sunshine and I'm thankful to get some oxygen to my brain, so I can get some writing done.

Make it a tremendous week!

Joan

When was the last time you did something for the first time???

I seem to be in this 'experimental' phase with the help of my new friend, Valerie. Tomorrow, we're heading to a local country club for a Superbowl party. She even talked me into wearing red and white and she'd wear black. Oh, my!!! Life certainly is interesting.

I had a surprise yesterday - I had gone for my walk, talked extra long to a friend on the phone and as I was sitting at my computer, something made me look out the window and I noticed my nephew from a nearby town and then I noticed one of my other nephews, Steven, was with him. Steven surprised everyone in the family by just showing up - that doesn't seem so odd except that he drove all the way from Virginia to California without telling anyone. It was delightful to sit outside, enjoy the view of the ocean and catch up with my nephews.

Last night was a delight - it was Gourmet Dinner Group Night at a friend's house - six of us got together to chat, have a most delicious dinner and just to relax. I am finding my new friends to be quite enlightening - the conversations run the gambit of politics, men, to well, lots of things...

I've decided to not plan so much because lately it seems like everything goes out the window...

Go Cardinals!
Joan

Today is the two month anniversary of my BIG move to Morro Bay. Many thoughts came to mind and in thinking back I have accomplished many, many things - most very small but some very BIG.

I joined a newcomers club with off-shoots from the main group depending on your interests. Last week I had the wonderful pleasure of attending my first Gourmet Dinner group. Ten ladies gathered at a home where we enjoyed lovely food and interesting conversation until very late. The ladies are very diverse in education, jobs and families and our topics ranged from the overuse of antibiotics to wine to men. There was NEVER a dull moment. It's fun to be thinking about what I will serve when it's my turn, a theme, a special place - maybe a beach party! All of a sudden Beach Blanket Bingo came to mind - hmmmmm...there might be something to that!

I finished up a very rewarding writing job today. The people I worked with were very appreciative and very professional. This job has been 'hanging over my head' since before I moved and I'm happy to have it off my to do list. There was an added twist to this job - I connected with an elementary school classmate who works there. I was emailing her about our elementary school centennial and she said she'd mailed off a package to a Joan Fee that week - small, small world!

I am very excited about this weekend (mixed with a little dread) that my brother is coming over and we're going to work in my front yard - it's been neglected for years and years and at this point is an eyesore with dirt, weeds and a few of my flowers sprinkled along the outskirts. The people who lived here before drove their truck in the yard so there are ruts and holes. We will be adding soil, putting in a retaining wall and pavers to cover the yard area. It's also Harbor Festival this weekend which means tons of entertainment and we're even going on a tour of the power plant - it's the other thing besides Morro Rock that dominates the skyline.

Last weekend was my elementary school centennial. Our principal and his wife had been at the school for 47 years and she passed away earlier this year so his speech was very emotional. One of the stories he told was how he and his wife moved from Iowa to The Island School District and sat crying at their kitchen table when they first got here because they actually thought they were moving to an island. The Island gets its name because it's a strip of land (pretty big strip) between two rivers. Mrs. Wilson was my seventh grade teacher and both were a great inspiration to me and my family since I was in kindergarten - actually before that because my sister went to school there also (my younger brother graduated from there too, he now works there and his two sons attend school there).

My next door neighbors got into the spirit today - a new Halloween flag was flying by this afternoon with orange lights adorning their patio and I see purple light in their kitchen window. It's fabulous to have neighbors who get in the spirit.

I am so looking forward to Cruisin' to Cabo later this month. It's a five day cruise (plus we're leaving a day early to spend some time in San Diego (one of my favorite cities!) the day before we leave. We're only at Cabo for a day, so we're planning our leisure time on the ship - lots of reading, lots of doing nothing and more doing nothing. The dynamics of 14 people in one group will be interesting and in talking about our day in Cabo, it seems as though we all want to do something different - we'll see how that plays out.

The weather is absolutely fantastic - I have lived in Morro Bay before, but I don't remember it being such a joy during the fall.

The sun has set on another beautiful day and it's time to chill - tomorrow's a big day - I get to order fill dirt, retainer wall bricks and pavers! Yippeee!!! My sister reminded me to take before and after photos.

I will leave you with a quote from a friend - it's about singing, but it can be about anything that brings you happiness be it knitting, crafting - whatever..."Singing is medicine for the soul, good or bad singing will still bring happiness to the singer. "

Joan