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Summertime Staycation...

 

             { Cath Kidston photo above}..is it not the cutest tent..ever!!

This year due to the economy being Wonky....{unpredictable} and paying Uncle Sam... we did not have the finances to fly to  Alabama and/or go stay in Carpenteria like we usually do in the summertime.  My favorite thing is to camp right on the beach and here in California we have lots of beaches to choose from but our favorite is Carpenteria.  They have lots of antique stores that Mr. Incredible and I love to browse in, even though we have to bribe our children with "ice cream" to  do this.  Mr. Incredible is NOT a big fan of Camping...he would rather sleep in more luxurious accomodations such as a hotel or even by Camper....sure I'd go with something like this....

 

but in reality....we will hit places near our home like....

 

to see the lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

 

the meerkats are too cute!!

 

the monkeys...

 

oh you say...those aren't monkeys....oh yes  they are!!   Cute monkeys if I do say so...

 

the Baboons are always hilarious....

 

the giraffes are always sticking out their tongues looking to eat a nice juicy leaf...oh not a giraffe...Ok..what about a Zebra...

 

the zebras..so docile unlike these fearsome creatures....

 

Oh that's Mr. Incredible, don't worry about him..his bark is worse than is bite...

 

A smiley crocodile....doesn't he look friendly...not!   While we are in Australia...

 

let's look at the Kangaroos , check out their feet...Oh my aren't they ginormous!!

 

this two...look like these two.....

 

if you ever come to California for a vacation or staycation...the L.A. Zoo is a nice place to go and it is relatively cheap...you can bring in your own lunch and save money...but I still would rather be in Carpenteria antiquing.....but as they say there is always next year!!

 

so until then......

 

I'll visit it in my dreams...

                                          Image: French Garden House 

It's so beautiful today here...no rain the last couple of days.  It's warm in the house, I have all the Living room windows open today and they are still open at almost 7 p.m.  I already have my sleeveless nightgown while I sip my 2 Buck Chuck.  Yes..I am a very refined women..you see.  Ha!!!  Anyways...as I think about open windows and warmer weather I think about being outside.  I love the above picture and as I dream of my Dream House

  Every night as I go to sleep I dream of her {i know pathetic, get a life} I figure if I shoot for the moon maybe I'll land on a star...  Well, see that little window next to the fireplace I picture the first picture looking like that...a small brick patio with a small bistro set where you can sip coffee in the morning or maybe even open up the fireplace to have a double fire place { my husband says it can be done} and have a nice place to sit around the fire and drink wine and roast marshmallows.  It's a beautiful day to be thinking such lovely thoughts....isnt' it?

Check this out.....

Baby it's cold outside!! So I need one of these.......

  We don't have one...isn't that sad?......I'm not picky....I'll take this one too...

 I could see myself curled up on the red striped chair and ottoman with my cup of Joe..

 

or this white li'l piece of heaven with a cup of tea...told you I'm not picky...

  I'll even take this crusty old fireplace.....with a nice cup of warm spiced cider.....

 or drinking some wassail by this one...(don't even know what wassail is)...but I'm sure it's good next to this fireplace.....It's so cold here in Calif...and we are so bundled up....I really wish I could light my fire...maybe in the next house.   In the meantime I'll live vicariously through my blog....my imaginary world.  Hee hee.

con't of DEAR Bruce...

You may be wondering what happened the next day..... 

After meeting you at the market I went to find my cousin DEBBIE, whose shop was next to the market where we first laid eyes upon each other..remember, I know you do?  I saw you walking into the store and I said to you, "HEY, here comes my boyfriend!" (it was the season of Moonlighting..I loved that show and your character in it and that's when the infatuation of you began) and you said, "hey, that's me and smiled".   yes..it's all coming back to you now, isn't it?  That's when I went into to the market to see if I could strike up a conversation with you, but I just stood there looking at your ice cream container saying nothing.  Well after all I was only 22 at the time..what did I know about striking up a conversation with a Hollywood Movie Star.

So the next day....I went to see my  Cousin DEB on my Lunch break and she wasn't in her shop...so I figured she must of gone into the Health Food store to get a Veggie sandwich...(this is the North Shore of Kaua'i, ya know?)   and I walked right past you...not even noticing you standing in the doorway...and I yelled to my Cousin Deb at the back of the store picking out a sandwich in the cold-case..."Hey did my Boyfriend Bruce come back looking for me today?"  My cousin gave me the stare......and gritted her teeth saying, "he is right there at the door and Demi is at the counter".    OOPS!  I turned many shades of blush chablis.

My Bad as they say in 2008!!    Based on a true story circa 1988.

This   blog  who I luckly found because she commented on mine inspired this post.  She just moved to the City of New York to fulfill a dream of acting but I think the Chef hat is calling her name... this girl can cook!  Check out her recipes on the sidebar.   Anywho..she got me to thinking of the many run ins I have had when I lived on the island of Kaua'i and with the many famous run ins of the Stars I had while living there.  The story about Bruce Willis was the most memorable or maybe the run in with Sylvester Stallone, circa 1983.  But I have had the opportunity to meet lots of Hollywood stars, they are not at all like you think they are, their real life persona is a lot different....

Bruce was my favorite of all......by far.

Madonna and Sean Penn came in one rainy night when I was a waitress at the SHELL House Restaurant.  He was so quiet, she did all the talking..they didn't seem like a very happy couple, maybe that is why they soon divorced afterward.  But happy.....would be an understatement of the year describing  CHARO....that girl has got a ton of energy she could light up the whole city of Los Angeles.  Glen Fry I finally got to meet after playing Tennis at his house for several weeks, while  he was on the Mainland.  He came into Dinner with his wife one night and she forgot her purse at the restaurnant so I called them and they came back to get it and where forever grateful.  Then one fourth of July Beau Bridges came in with his family for a quick bite at lunch, he was very nice.  Billie Jean King lived down the street from me when I lived in Haena..it's a town at the end of the road on Kaua'i.  Then of course The Nash's...of Crosby, Still and Nash.  They did a few fundraisers for the school I worked at as well as after the Hurricane.  Jackson Brown who is a good friend of the Nash's brought his girlfriend Daryl Hannah down to the beach for some Surf Lessons on a Chirstmas Vacation, boy did she need a tan.  Also...I can remember thinking that Jon Bon Jovi should not where his Leathers when at the beach...no one wears Black Leather in Hawai'i....get a clue.  Then remember the short lived relationship of Bridget Nielson and Sylvester Stallone?   Well I can remember seeing her get out of a Limo...I never saw legs so long......I had met Sylvester Stallone years before in Palm Springs..walking across the street with my High School Friends...we were on the strip and crossing at the corner, I said, Hey that guy looks like Syllvester Stallone....well I kept walking and then I noticed no one was walking with me I turned around and they were at the window of his White Cadillac squezzing his arms.....I do remember he had the softest hands...like a baby's butt...

Here I am.....many moons ago on the Palm Springs Strip...

 

here are my girlfriends...we were crazy....19 year olds....prior to this picture be taken the friend nearsest the car was squeezing his muscles....I think he was flattered...we asked him if he wanted any Company...but you can't see but in the back seat and the front seat were sitting 3 body guards.....NOW...they all had way more muscles than Rocky did!    So that is my trip down memory lane.......

Dear Bruce.....

I'm married now..you will have to move on and find another girl of your dreams.  I know that Demi dumped you for Ashton...well he is much younger and has more stamina, a girls got a do what a girls gotta do.   You know that I've always been attracted to a bald head...but I found my Bald headed guy...so you have to stop sending me emails  requesting a reunion. I remember that day in the market...you where buying Haagen Daz...Chocolate Ice Cream..for Demi perhaps she was pregnant with your first child.  I wanted to tell you to get the Dulce de Leche....my favorite, but I just stood their looking cute afraid to look into your eyes because maybe we would have a one night tryst, then I would of found myself in the Tabloids...EWWWW not on the cover of STAR, PEOPLE Magazine perhaps but I could take not being on the cover of  STAR, .  Then I would be know as around town as a HOMEWREAKER and the sole cause of you and Demi's Divorce.   So I did the honorable thing and  I said nothing until the next day.......

 

Thinking Back.......

September 11th holds TWO sad memories for me....First this

   Hurricane INIKI, it occured in 1992 and the other sad event in 2001.  Hurricane Iniki  struck the beautiful Island of Kaua'i that I lived on.  It hit on September 11th around 4 in the afternoon.  I was doing my Student Teaching at Kapa'a Elem. that semester and so many classrooms were ruined, the Garden Island was completely devastated by this Category 4 Hurricane..the winds were up to 160 miles an hour....it was such a scary experience and at the same time a fascinating  experience.  Why did I find it  fascinating you may ask? Well  because it was so amazing to me that Mother Nature can pack such a huge punch with wind and rain. To be able to knock down trees, so many trees that have such deep roots.  To pick up houses and pitch them up in the air like it was juggling balls in a circus.  That is just crazy. We did not get a lot of rain in the Hurricane as I recall, it was that fierce wind that was so loud, like a freight train.  Kaua'i is used to such torrential downpours considering it's nickname is "the wettest spot on Earth"..the ground is used to that much moisture so it wasn't a major factor.  I was living on the North Shore at that time and that side did not undergo the brunt of the storm like  the south side did.   Fast forward in time till today, as  I follow the Weather Channel and keep track of Hurricane Ike.  I hope that the residents of Texas will be spared in what Mother Nature will have in store for them on Friday or Saturday morning.  I hope that people will evacuate and seek safety from the coast.  My thoughts are with you, Gulf Shore residents!  Please Be Safe! 

And of course this heart breaking memory that is on every news channel today;

  

Where were you?  I'm sure you all remember?  I was sitting at my computer(gosh, not much as changed for me in 7 years) I was at two peas..I was a scrapbooking fool then.  I was IM another Pea and she asked if I had seen the news? she told me to go turn the news on.  I did.  And what I saw I could not wrap my brain around witnessing the above image.  I mean who would deliberateely fly a plane into a building?   I thought..I must be having a nightmare.  I just sat there the whole day watching the news.  How could of this happened in MY country was my thought?  Who is Osama bin Laden?  The Taliban?  Still to this day 7 years later....I wonder why have we not caught him?  I know we have been not attacked in 7 years but....how can he be that good at HIDE and SEEK?  With the technology we have in my opinion he should of already been brought to justice.  What are your thoughts?  Here is a remembrance page I did for my Album.  (click on picture to enlarge)

I light these candles in remembrance to ALL the VICTIMS of this devastating day that occurred in our Nations History.  We salute you, you are the HEROS.

Do you ever Wake up and want to go......A

CRAZY

You kind of wake up and you feel sort of rebellious....You drive a little faster, maybe cut some one off for the "hell" of it.  Maybe peel out in the process just because....you may cuss a little more that day...flip some one off if they mess with you!   You want to dance crazy in your living room for no reason....When you were younger you did things like this on a normal basis...some objectionable things..I know I did...I wasn't a Saint. 

...I had a Convertible...a Red Cabriolet...that said, "I LOVE going topless."  and I flashed my Tata's on occasion...Here I am "A La Demi Moore" performing on the bar at "Our Cabin" up in Big Bear..circa 1983

Fast forward to 2008 as we were coming home from Hollywood Video this is what we saw

Oh to be Young...without any inhibitions...we got Mooned...my girls thought it was the funniest thing they ever saw....there were three of them and only one was brave enough to skateboard down the street like this....

Silly Boys!!   Do it now before you turn into a Responsible parent who drives the speed limit and never says bad words......but I still can dance naked in the living room listening to this guy, can't I?