More than a year ago, the “Mild Ones” came into existence.  To commemorate this joining, I created a fun little website to show the rides we had done, and the people in the group.  Suddenly, the website took off!  Suddenly everyone in the group had an idea for what should be on this website.  It was fun for a while, posting stories and pictures of our rides, but then an evil force came into our fun little group.

 

I call this evil force  “Crash Club” specifically “Hawkster” of the “Crash Club.”  He came in with his “skills days” and made riding all about “draggin knee” and racing around the canyons, then about just riding to enjoy the ride and see the views.  He also has a thing against cruiser style bikes.  Because of him, several people dropped out of our group, never to be seen since.  The group is just not the same.

 

Since that horrible time, no one has forwarded to me pictures of rides, and ride summaries have stopped.  Then some members of the group criticize the website because it is out-dated.  There was even talk of some members taking the website I had done, and doing it to their taste.  That was voted down quick!

 

But the talk has started again.  I don’t mind changing some things, but I do mind how no one approaches me about changes, they just rumble till their rumbling gets so loud you have to listen.

 

Just frustrating!

I found this on a friends site, hope yo don't mind that I borrowed it!


Enneagram Institute

I title this "Mothers" instead of 'Moms' because you are a mom, you are a mother.  But if you are a mother, you may not neccessarily be a mom.

Vicki is my mom.  Vicki married my dad in 1991 (I believe) when I was 9 years old.  Although she never offically adopted me or anything, she was soo much more a mother and a mom to me than my real mother.

Real moms don't kick you out to live with your dad (like that is supposed to be a punishment) when you are in 7th grade because they can't deal with you.

Real moms don't leave taking care of your younger siblings up to you while she hides in her room.

There is nothing better than a street fair!  Except of course a long weekend and a street fair, and going to said street fair twice!

On Friday Kim and I went to the Orange Street Fair.  Now having been to the Sunset Street Fair the previous weekend, and therefore having something to compare the Orange Street Fair to, I must say that the Orange Street Fair is the best!  Except for parking.  Kim and I looked for almost 1/2 hour for a parking space.  I also went to the OSF on Saturday with T, and it only took 5 minutes to find parking.  I love having a motorcycle!

The thing I love most about OSF is the food.  They have any food you could want (except for Indian food {from India} but then again, I didn't want Indian food).  The thing I hate most about OSF (besides the parking) is how crowded it is!  There is no way you can carry on a conversation in there, and someone walking around with a full cup of beer is just asking to have it spilled all over them.  They could expand the fair a block in all 4 directions, and it would still be jam packed with people.  I digress. 

On Friday Kim and pigged out on grilled corn (Kim) and BBQ Beef sandwiches (me).  We thought about funnel cake, but stopped thinking about it once we saw the line.  Kim got some Greek pastries, and then we walked past the Danish street.  That is when we saw them, the aebleskivers.  If you don’t know what aebleskiver are, then you are missing out.  They are basically a cake batter cooked up in skillets that have 5 to 7 concave domes in them.  They come out looking like doughnut holes, but they are so much better than that.  And they had the best raspberry jam poured all over them.  I think it was the jam that made them so good.

Not only are there food booths everywhere, but there are also craft booths as well.  Kim and I found one booth that made jewelry from silverware and flatware.  There were bracelets made from fork handels, earings of fork tines, and a spoon-bowl belt.  There were also wind catchers made with them all.  Having an affinity for different and unusual jewelry, I had to get a bracelet.

On Saturday, when T and I went, T got a bratwurst, and I the corn this time.  T then also got a gyero, and a whole box of Greek pastries.  I would comment on the pastries, but strongly dislike honey, and all the pastires seemed to be dripping of it.

A very good Street Fair indeed.  For next year I intend to befirend someone who lives near the Orange Circle so I can park at their home and just walk to the fair.  Anyone in Ornage want to be friends with a cute blonde who rides a motorcycle and likes food?  Anyone?

I got scuba certified on August 6th! We (the instructor and class) went to Catalina to complete our last three dives.  I was feeling apprehensive about diving again, after what happened last time.  Wait, I didn't tell you what happened last time.

 

Last time…

 

We went to Diver's Cove in Laguna Beach for our first ocean dive.  Everything was going fine and great.  I found the dive spot okay, I arrived on time, I got my gear on okay, I got into the ocean okay, I swam out the buoy okay (cold but okay.  I had forgotten to get a dive hood), and then I had to go down.  I wouldn't go down!  I had been using a 16# weight belt in the fresh water dive pool during class, but was told to get an extra 2# for the ocean.  I felt I needed 4# and when I got my equipment, they talked me out of it.  So I wore an 18# belt, and I WOULDN’T GO DOWN!  So I floated on the top until someone down on the bottom realized I wasn’t down there and came back up for me.  My instructor came back up and told me to try and dive down again.  She then proceeded to tow me down to the bottom.  I followed the dive line down to the seabed, and then tried to hold onto the line and kneel on the bottom.

 

Yeah right!  It was really surge-y down there.  We were all getting tossed around, and the four of us could barely hold onto the line.  The surge was also stirring up the sediment on the bottom, and I couldn’t see more than 3 feet in front of me. I began to panic.  I couldn’t see very well, I was getting thrown around, and I was NOT IN CONTROL!  I panicked.   Then another diver smacked me in the chest, and the line was yanked from my hands.  The next thing I knew, I was floating back up to the surface.  I tried to swim back down, but noticed my fin had fallen off.  It was sinking, and I was still going up.  So I surfaced again.  The assistant instructor popped up next to me with my fin, and waited as I put it back on.  My instructor also popped up and sent the assistant back down to watch the rest of the class.  I told her I couldn’t do it.  I need to have some small control over something, and I was at the mercy of everything down there.  She told me that I would only have to go down there and swim around for 15 minutes.  I said I was sorry, but there was no way I was going to be able to do that.  After more pep talk, she convinced me to go back down.  She gave me another 2#’s to help me stay down, and down I went.

 

I was still panicky, but my instructor was holding onto my BCD so I couldn’t surface again.  I’ll admit I didn’t really look around much.  I had my eyes locked on the instructor and just let her tow me around.  My main problem in class was removing my mask under water, and putting it back on.  I tried to do this several time in the pool on the second day of class, and couldn’t do it.  Each time I would unintentionally breath through my uncovered nose instead of through the regulator in my mouth and would inhale a bunch of water and have to stand up out of the water fast.  I was also swallowing the air from the regulator instead of breathing my air.   I went home and practiced all weekend in the pool at my apartment.  The next class I tried it again, and somehow, I made it the 30 seconds with no mask on my face, and without breathing in any water.  I was still not comfortable with no mask, but I had passed.

 

So, while the instructor was towing me around the ocean, I kept thinking to myself, “if I look around, water will flood into my mask.  Water will be right up next to my nose.  I could try and clear my mask, but if something goes wrong with that, I will have a mask full of water, I won’t be able to see, and chances are I will start breathing water in through my nose.  The surface is 20 something feet up, and I can make that with no air as long as I start out with a big fresh lung-full.  But I will have just breathed a lung-full of water in, and have none left to make it back up to the surface.  I am going to drown because I can’t learn to not breath through my nose!”

 

So I didn’t move around or look at much.  We finally finished swimming around and I was finally able to get back to the surface.  The instructor had to go over a few more techniques with one of the divers, so we were told to hang onto the float until they came back up.  All that up and down mixed with all the seawater I had swallowed made me lose what little breakfast I still had in my tummy.  All-in-all, it wasn’t the best first dive I could have had.  The instructor finally popped back up, and we had to swim back to shore.  By this time we were all exhausted from climbing down to the ocean in all of our gear (if you have never been to Diver’s Cove, the parking lot is above the beach.  It’s a long ramp down to a set of 30 stairs that leads to the beach.), swimming out to the buoy, diving and swimming around under the water, and then swimming back to shore.  We then had to fight the waves trying to get back onto the beach, and then we had to carry all of our gear (which easily weighs 50#s) back up those horrible stairs and that awful ramp.  We were so sore and exhausted from everything; we could only manage 5 stairs/steps at a time.  I had snagged a parking spot at the top of the stairs, so I offered to drive the other 2 divers up the hill to their car.  I then went home and ate and slept the rest of the day.

 

This time…

 

We got to Catalina at about 7:15AM.  Thankfully the instructor had hired an equipment taxi to take our stuff to the dive park.  We walked over to Casino Point and waited for the taxi.  I was still feeling nauseous from the boat ride over, so I just sat and relaxed.  Like I mentioned earlier, I was anxious about diving again.  I know I ranted in an earlier post that I wasn’t going to spend the extra $100 to go to Catalina, but promises of warmer water, CALMER! water, and better visibility convinced me.  The taxi finally arrived, and we all geared up.

 

It was actually okay.  The water was warmer (and I was wearing a hood), the water was calm, and I could see maybe 8 feet or so around me.  It was actually kind of fun.  By dive 3, it was a blast!  I was even able to remove my mask and put it back on, and clear it, 35 feet down, with only a few panic moments where I almost breathed water.  It was a really good dive.

I was walking through some of the antique shops at the Orange Circle and came across this sign in one of them:

 

“Easy women bringing sailors into the hotel must pay for room in advance”

 

It was stamped similar to a license plate.  You just don’t see sign like that made anymore!


Damn, should have taken a picture with my camera phone.

I am never going to get certified!  This is so frustrating!

I completed class on 7/14, and we were supposed to go diving that weekend.  However there was supposedly red tide, and diving was pushed back to 7/31.  That is fine, but we will only be doing 2 dives on 7/31, and you need 4 to be certified.  So we were supposed to do a boat dive on 8/6, but it was already booked.  Now they want me to pay $115 to go to Catalina and dive on 8/6, or perferably on 8/13.  Nuh-uh!  I am not spending another $115 on scuba.  Just let me get certified on beach dives!  You can do that!

So I emailed my instructor, and I may be able to do a beach dive on 8/7 to get certified.

I just want to be done already!

These weekend was a good weekend.  The apartment stayed mostly clean, I got some knitting done, and the weather was BEAUTIFUL!  I love it all warm and HOT!

 

Saturday I did some knitting in the morning.  I have been working on a shrug for a co-worker, and I am THIS close to done!  T and I then went to Irvine Spectrum for some Jamba Juice (nothing better than Jamba Juice on a nice summer day) and went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It was much better than I had expected.  One co-worker had warned me that the Oompa-Loompa’s would be annoying, but I liked them!  I liked the music in this one better than the original.  Johnny Depp was excellent, the perfect Willy Wonka.  The kids were also much closer to how I had pictured them when I read the book.  I think that is why I liked it so, it kept really true to the book.

 

Saturday evening I went into Laguna Beach for the Sawdust Festival.  A lot of overpriced jewelry, but it all looked really nice.  There were some wonderful art piece there, and one artist who welds flatware together.  She had created a lion’s mane with nothing but fork tines.   I did splurge and get a hair barrette type piece.

 

Sunday T and I jumped on our bikes and just road.  We headed down to San Diego for about 90 miles, then ate late lunch/early dinner and came home.  We made it down to Mission Bay and saw some scuba divers taking a class.  I will have to try diving down there, if I ever get certified!

 

Just a nice relaxing weekend.

< ? 100 Things # >

I have been wanting to do one of these for some time now, and suddenly had the time to sit down and type out a list.  Here it is...

100 Things About ME!

 

1.                 I was born in Salt Lake City.

2.                 I am the oldest of four. (1 brother, 2 sisters)

3.                  My favorite watch was a pink one with Tinker Bell on the face and I got it when I was eight.  I have no idea what happened to it, and I can’t find another like it.

4.                  Dogs scare me, even little dogs. Especially big dogs.

5.                 I moved to OC, CA in 2001, right after graduation.

6.                   My main source of income in High School was working on a stage crew.  That is where I developed Tendonitis in my wrists.  Yup, Tendonitis at the young age of 18. I can feel a low-pressure front coming on because my wrist will start to ache.

7.                 I made this list on July 7, 2005.

8.                  My nickname growing up was Ce-ce.  I was told it was short for sister.

9.                   My current nickname is Angi-pants, My aunt gave it to me.

10.            We had sheep, chickens, ducks, and rabbits until I was about 4.

11.            I HATE beans or anything with a bean texture, like lima beans or lentils.  I love peas.

12.           Stale popcorn tastes much better to me than fresh popcorn.

13.             I am addicted to the cookies and cream candy apple at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  I get one every time I pass the store.

14.            Thankfully I only pass the store about once a month or so.

15.            Sports do not excite me.

16.             I got my motorcycle license when I was 20.

17.            I pretend I am not afraid of anything.

18.            I am afraid of being lonely and unwanted.

19.             And Dogs.  Especially big ones.

20.            I have a ferret and I named her Frankie.

21.           I smuggled Frankie in from Nevada.

22.           Oh, mimes also scare me.

23.            My favorite Sesame Street character was Elmo.

24.            Peaches, mangos and raspberries are my favorite fruits.  Any combination of the three is my favorite food.

25.           I like to make lists.

26.             My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was 6.

27.           She taught me how to knit when I was 9.  Unfortunately she couldn’t remember how to purl, so I could only do garter stitch for about another year.  Then I bought a Learn to Knit booklet and taught myself how to purl.

28.            I don’t have a favorite movie.

29.             I write just like my dad, in all caps.

30.             My favorite colors are currently: yellow, cranberry, and indigo.

31.             I love IKEA.

32.            I love IKEA because I get to build my own furniture, and I love to build.

33.              I have a long stride.  I developed this from trying to match my dad’s stride when I was younger.  My dad is 6’ 3”, so he has a long stride.

34.             I got food poisoning from IHOP once.  I lost the best lobster leg meal I have ever had.  Damn IHOP!

35.             I have caught, killed, feathered (de-feathered?) and cooked my own turkey before.

36.              I have never broken a bone.

37.             I do have quite a few scars though.

38.             One is from falling in a fire pit.

39.              Another is from cleaning a fish I had caught.

40.             My newest one is from falling back onto some motorcycle pipes and I burning my lower back.

41.            My oldest is on my chin.  When I was 3 I was running through the kitchen and tripped on the bar stools and fell and bit my lower lip.  I almost had to have stitches.

42.            My second oldest is from falling off of the top bunk of my bunk bed and biting my lower lip. (This happened about 4 months after the bar stool incident) I almost had to have stitches.

43.             I have never had stitches.

44.             My favorite soda is diet cherry vanilla dr. pepper.

45.            I am working on getting scuba certified.

46.              I hated junior high (middle school).  I had NO friends.

47.            I have bad luck with cars.

48.             Two of my cars have blown their head gasket.

49.              I am currently carless.

50.            I had to ride my motorcycle through the rainiest season in 100 years.  I got very wet very often.

51.            If I had gone to college right out of high school, I would have a bachelor degree in something by now.

52.           Instead I took a few years off and now work full-time so I can only squeeze in evening classes here and there.

53.             Thinking of 100 things about yourself sounds easy, until you try to think of 100 things about yourself that you are comfortable sharing and okay with people knowing about you.

54.            I talk to myself.

55.            I didn’t start swearing until I was 17, and I have never used the “f” word.

56.             I have my nose and belly button pierced.

57.            There are two piercing in each of my ear lobes.

58.            I used to wear cute and fun earrings, but those are the one most likely to get caught on your motorcycle helmet.

59.             I have a very tiny head.  I wear children’s sunglasses and my helmet is a child’s small.

60.              I was born in 1983, the year Salt Lake City flooded.  Apparently Salt Lake City floods every 100 years.  They only have data on this going back to 1850’s.

61.             I like to sew, but hated sewing class.  I couldn’t take the criticism.  If it looks good to me, I don’t want to hear all the mistakes I made.

62.             I get along better with people older than myself.

63.              All of my friends are older than me.

64.              Usually I end up with groups of people who are at least 20 years older than I.

65.             I need to get “younger” hobbies.

66.               My aunt’s mystic friend told me that while my body was young, my soul was old, so I will get along with older souls better than younger ones.

67.             That’s something you want to hear.  You are a 60 year old trapped in a 16-year-old body.

68.              My nickname at work is enigma and the walking encyclopedia.

69.               I have a very easy time remembering things; my long-term memory is great.

70.            Unless I put my keys in the same spot every time, I lose them.

71.            I also tend to be forgetful.

72.           Hence me loving to make lists!

73.             I have a hard time hurting people’s feelings, or making people disappointed.

74.            My favorite ice cream is tin roof.  It has fudge and caramel swirled into vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered peanuts mixed in.

75.            My second favorite is peanut better cup ice cream.

76.             I am not a morning person.

77.            I sometimes miss high school.

78.            I have no idea what I want my profession to be.

79.             That may be why I have never taken college seriously.

80.             I like being tall.

81.            I hate being tall when it comes to pant shopping.

82.            Riding a motorcycle tends to make you dress less girly.

83.             I have gone for months without wearing a skirt or a dress.

84.             I miss skirts.

85.            And nice dress shoes.  Can’t wear those when I ride.

86.              I am really good with computers even though I never took a computer class.

87.            I like to read.

88.             My favorite books are true crime books.

89.              I think this comes from my dad being in law enforcement.

90.              I also like puzzles.

91.             Up until 7^th grade I collected codes. I had an entire notebook full of codes.  I was going to become a cryptographer.  Then I entered Jr. High and had no one to exchange coded letters with.

92.             I hate spending money, but I like getting things.

93.              I miss getting letters via snail mail.

94.              I love chocolate dipped candy canes.  I use them to stir my hot cocoa when it’s cold.

95.             I hate romance novels.  Utter garbage!

96.               My favorite piece of artwork is a self-sculpture titled “Breathless.” It’s a big blue head holding its breath.

97.             I love California, but miss my friends back in Utah.

98.              People have pointed out to me that I argue for the sake of arguing.

99.               I have cut off all (well, almost all) of my hair twice.  The first time I cut off 10”, and the second time was 11”. Both times I gave it to Locks of Love.

100.       I hate cold weather and/or being cold.  I feel cold unless the temperature is above 75.  I prefer 80.