Friday, May 29 in California...

Sorry, still haven't put the last 2 days of pictures up... maybe tomorrow night.

Today I started out the day checking out the Santa Barbara coast... then up to the Santa Barbara Mission. Apparently they recently had a festival where people drew chalk drawings in front of the mission... the pictures were AMAZING! I'll have pics up later... Then I drove up the coast on Hwy 1 most of the way. Also went off the coast to a little town that was founded by the Dutch and is the only town designed differently than any other town in the area. There are towns along the way here, including the one I'm staying in tonight, that seem to me that they haven't changed much since the 1970's... it seems that I could have done nearly the exact same trip 30 years ago... kind of interesting. I saw sea lions on a dock by Morro Rock today. Tonight I went to Hearst Castle... amazing. They have 5 different tours you can take, I took #5, the night tour. I need to come back here someday and do some of the other tours.

Tomorrow, up to Monterey Bay... Last Hwy 1 stretch I'll be doing on my way up there tomorrow morning. Then to spend part of the day with Brian Johnson. Haven't seen that guy in more than 5 years... maybe 7. It should be fun! We're going to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and maybe some other stuff depending how long we spend at the Aquarium.

Thursday...

So, today I went to 2 lectures, and then went to get my rental car. Ended up with a black PT Cruiser. I hate PT Cruisers, I think they're the ugliest cars in existance. Wait... second ugliest, the ugliest is the one that looks like a box on wheels. Anyway... Drove up to Santa Barbara via the Pacific Coast Highway... took at least 2 hours longer than the interstate probably would have... or maybe not since the interstate would have brought me through downtown LA in the afternoon... Anyway, this was beautiful and worth it. I drove by a big sign to Camp Pendleton and though of Jake... I drove through seaside towns on the ocean side of LA and couldn't help but wonder if there was a celebrity in the car next to me with tinted windows... Then I drove by a sign to Peperdine University and thought of Christina. So many friends that have lived out here at different times... I got to Santa Barbara and checked into Guest House Inn & Suites, which by the way, has a VERY SLOW wireless internet connection. Then I went to La Super Rica which is a very good, makes the travel books, hole in the wall rickety looking Mexican food stand. It was very good. :)

So, pictures from the San Diego Zoo and Balboa park are working on uploading now, and I'm not waiting for them to load to label them and such, I'm going to bed... you will have to wait for the pictures from the drive today. I'll work on those later. For now I'm going to bed!

Conference DONE!

Ok, a couple more hours of lectures this morning... then the conference is over. I'll be getting my rental car around noon and heading north to Santa Barbara today, a couple stops along the way...

Yesterday I did the conference in the morning and then went to the San Diego Zoo and a little bit of walking around Balboa Park after the zoo closed yesterday. I will work on getting those pictures up soon I hope.

Today in Review...

I slept in, then wandered around the Gaslamp District a bit. Ate lunch at the Tin Fish, it was pretty good. Then I went for 4 1/2 hours of lectures. I went to on on "Hot Topics in Bioethics"... apparently I don't watch or read enough news. I need to figure out who Bernard Madoff is and what he did. Haven't looked that up yet. Then I went to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. That was pretty interesting. Old ships are so beautiful. One of the ships they have was used to film "Master & Commander"... apparently I never saw that movie. Then I was going to walk back along the bay... but a guy who does the cycle-cab things (I don't remember what they're called)... anyway... he offered me a ride all the way back to my hotel for $6, so I took him up on it. His name was Sasha and he is 22 and her from Serbia for the summer to make money to buy a nice guitar. This is the first time he has ever had a job because he has been in college and gotten money from his family. He is in the US for his first time and has only been here 3 weeks. Interestingly, he learned English as a child from watching the Cartoon Network. Anyway... it was a nice ride and a nice chat... and I gave him more than $6... since that was significantly lower than I think the standard rate was.

Got the pictures up to date... all captioned and all the pictures through tonight are up. Either click on the slideshow from the previous post or the link on the left. (For those of you reading this in Facebook... you have to go to "view original post" to get the links).

California pictures so far...

So, here's what I've got up so far... it's a representative group of the pictures I've taken... not many are captioned yet. I'll be slowly working on that over the next few days while I add new pictures of the upcoming days. You can look at the pictures by clicking on the slideshow above or the link on the left.

I also put up a few new pics of Evalynn, my niece, on the Spring 2009 pictures if you want to check those out too.

First few days in Cali...

So far...

Day 1 (Wednesday)... I flew into LAX. I had reserved a car from ACE Rent A Car - never use them. First of all, in LA, they make you take the Holiday Inn shuttle to the Holiday Inn instead of picking you up at the airport themselves. Then they pick you up at the Holiday Inn. From the time I picked up my luggage, to the time I was at the rental car office was a whole hour. They are 2 miles from the airport. Then it took ANOTHER hour to actually be in a car. Never use ACE Rent A Car out of LA. Horrible. Anyway, I drove to Joshua Tree National Park once I finally got out of LA. Picked a campsite... then ended up running back to into town to buy gas and water. There is no running water in Joshua Tree National Park. I also found out that the roads were just paved 2 years ago. I suppose not bad when you consider that the park just opened as a national park in 1994. I tried to get my campstove to work... but it turns out that general Coleman Camp Fuel doesn't work. I could get a huge flame but not a regular blue flame for cooking. So, peanut butter sandwich. Decided I'd find the RIGHT fuel the next day. The interesting thing about this campsite is that it is about an inch of sand on top of rock, so I couldn't stake in the tent. And it was windy. I put rocks on the straps you put the stakes through, but it still blew away. Chased down the tent. Then decided to put the rocks IN the tent. That worked.

Day 2 (Thursday)... Woke up early and did a lot of exploring the park. I drove up Keys View Road. Then up to Oasis Visitor Center and the Oasis of Mara. Drove down Pinto Basin Road to the Cholla Cactus Garden and Octillo Patch. Then to Arch Rock and Skull Rock. Then I drove back into Joshua Tree. I went to a cool outdoors store called Nomad Ventures and they had the White Gasoline I needed for my camp stove. Yay! If you're ever in the area, check them out, very helpful. They suggested I go to the Crossroads Cafe for lunch. Well worth it - amazing burger, AND they make their own amazing salsa. Then I went back into the park and checked out the Hidden Valley Trails and Barker Dam. Then I rested in my air conditioned car for about 45 minutes before deciding to hike up they Ryan Mountain Trail. That hike was awesome. I go to the top and there was another couple, about my age, up there... I asked them to take my picture. Turns out the guy is a professional photographer. Random. I took their picture too with his Nikon D700 with all kinds of fancy features and extras... ohhh... When I got back to my campsite I made my first meal on my cook-stove. Worked perfectly. :) Then another nights sleep... The funniest thing about the day was people complaining about the horrible humidity. It was 16% humidity. Is it ever less than 16% humidity in Minnesota?

Day 3 (Friday)... Up and made breakfast - eggs & sausages on my cook stove. Then off too drive to San Diego. I took the senic route which took awhile. The beginning of the drive I was dissapointed by the "senic route" but then as I got up into the mountians it was awesome. Not many pictures because there were very few if any places to pull off. There are pictures from one pull off. When I got to San Diego the rental car company shuttle brought me to the hotel. This hotel is less than 6 months old and beautiful. I took my first shower since Tuesday. :) Then I checked into the conference. Then I decided to go out to Coronado Island for the evening. I had dinner at a nice Mexican Resturant that reminded me of actually being in Mexico. I had hoped for a beautiful sunset... but the clouds rolled in... which seems to be normal here. Oh well, maybe another night. Now I'm back at the hotel... conference starts tomorrow at 1pm, not sure what I'll do in the morning.

Maybe I'll get pictures up by tomorrow. Working on getting them all on the computer first, then have to wort through which ones will go online. Fun fun.

Pictures

So, I FINALLY got all my pictures up from my visit to Charlotte to see Rose & Korey.

Click on the slideshow or use the link on the left to see the album.



The next 2 weeks I'll be doing stuff around home, specifically yard work to make my house look more like a home from the outside, and working... and on May 20th I'm off to California for 5 days of a conference and 15 days of vacation exploring the west coast for my very first time! There will be a lot of pictures on that trip, no doubt.

Charlotte Continued...

Tuesday I came to Charlotte and just hung out with Rose and ran some errands. I got to eat at Chick-fil-A. I love some Chick-fil-A. Especially their waffle fries. And the fact that they play Christian music in the restaurant. The we just hung out at their house after Korey got home and ate some food and talked.

Wednesday, as mentioned in previous post, Rose and I went to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Then hung out at their house.

Thursday, Rose and I went to the Latta Plantation and Latta Nature Preserve. We got a bit lost on the Latta Nature preserve trails... but it was a nice day for a hike. They need to either have paper maps to take with you, or signs up along the trail. They just have one sign with a map at the entrance to the trails by the parking lot. Anyway, we made it out eventually. :) Then after dinner we went to Cold Stone. I also love Cold Stone. Unfortunately... somewhere between Cold Stone and when we ran to Target Friday morning, I lost my debit card. So, after searching for it, I had to cancel it... so I'm down to my credit card and $75 cash until I get a new card in 5-7 business days. I have my checkbook too, but nobody takes out of town checks.

Today, Friday, we went to downtown Fort Mill, SC to take some pictures because they have cool old buildings. Rose is working on a project that she needed some "urban photography" and I just like taking pictures. They had a lot of antique shops we looked around in, but neither of us got anything. In the afternoon we went to Costco because Rose is trying to decide if the membership is worth it. Tonight we might go mini golfing after dinner, but it's kind of hot outside (still 88 at 5:30pm)... so we'll see. I'm not used to this hot weather!

This weekend we're going to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and going to The Biltmore Estate. More pictures will come on Sunday Night or Monday.

It's been fun and relaxing to see Rose and Korey and not be running around like crazy busy all day. I need the break. The only down side is that I am allergic to something here! Started as soon as I got here. I've gotten store brand Claritin-D, Afrin, and gone through a LOT of Kleenex. This needs to stop. Allergies suck. I'm glad I'm not this allergic to anything at home because it would be miserable to be like this all spring or all summer.

You can look at all my pictures to date by clicking on the slideshow in my previous post or by clicking the 'April 2009 - Charlotte Trip' link in the left hand column. I take a lot of pictures. Some are cool. Some are not. :)

Adventures in Charlotte

So, I'm in Charlotte visiting Rose & Korey and enjoying some time off...

Today Rose & I went to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, NC. I took a lot of pictures trying to artsy... if you want to check them out, here they are!

Painting adventure...

After a stressful and sad weekend at work, I spent my 2 days off working on re-painting my bedroom. Last weekend Alison helped me pick out colors and she did a very good job because I LOVE IT!

Here's what the bedroom looked like before:



And here's the result of a day and a half or work:

Recent "Adventures"...

I haven't traveled at all recently... haven't even left Minnesota since November, and that was just across the river to see friends in LaCrosse. But... my life has been entertaining. :)


I did the Vasaloppet for the first time since 2000. 35km on a beautiful sunny day with great snow! I finished faster than I predicted, so no pictures of me actually skiing, but that's ok.



I've been playing aunt to this cutie as much as possible:



I've been working on making little updates to my house, most recently I finished re-decorating my bathroom:



I went to an outdoor baseball game in the snow:



Because I was invited by "The Nerd"... My friends are not boring people!



Now off to work all weekend!

I plan on updating this more often than I have. Sorry for the neglect.

New Pictures up

If you want to check out some pictures from my every day life of the last couple months... there are new pictures up! Link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aleathea.anderson

A New Year

I am trying this year, to not dwell on the things that make me frustrated. I am trying to have a more positive outlook. I am trying not to feel down on myself when those that are my supervisors decide to make me feel like crap on a regular basis. This has already been challenging this year... but God is definately on my side on this one. Today, my devotion time included coming across these verses:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, than I am strong. -2 Corinthians 12:8-10-

I am praying I can live my life more positively this year.

Thanksgiving Fact...

Thanksgiving was not always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. The Continental Congress issued its first Thanksgiving Day proclamation for December 18, 1777... The purpose:

"That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively and prosper the public council of the whole."

Source: WORLD; November 15/22, 2008; page 9.



ALSO... My first and only niece made her appearance at 1:15am on Thanksgiving day! Her name is Evalynn Mae Holland... isn't she beautiful! Look at all that hair!

I wish I totally understood this...

I'm sitting here still awake trying to stay up to find out about Coleman vs. Franken...

But, with this whole presidential thing... I wish I understood why popular vote and electoral votes don't correspond with each other what so ever...
Why does 52% vs. 49% become 338 vs 159 electoral votes?
Seems to me it should be somewhat closer to 258 votes vs 239 votes with those percentages... which would mean neither one would be the winner yet. I just don't get it.
I'm probably more frustrated about it because I'm tired.


AFTER SOME RESEARCH...

Ok, so today I'm working on figuring this whole thing out...
For those of you who are curious, this is how it works...

*The number of electoral votes a state gets equals the number of of the states Congressional delegation. This means: the number of US Senators (which is always 2) PLUS the number of US Representatives.
*Ok, so the current number of US Representatives is 435 - assigned to states proportionate to the population. BUT each state is entitled to at least one representative.
*This means that even sparsely populated states get 3 electoral votes... and California has the most electoral votes at 53 because they have the high test population.
*The District of Columbia gets 3 according to the 23rd Amendment.

So, this seems somewhat fair to me... but I still don't understand why the popular vote percentage and the electoral votes seem off if the number of electoral votes is actually based on the population of the state... oh well, I guess I don't' have to understand.

Ok, so that's my basic understanding 18 hours after the original post.

FINALLY!!!

Ok, so if you didn't hear... the house in Isanti I was going to buy had a crappy inspection... so I didn't buy it. Still waiting to get my ernest money back... grrr...

BUT... I found a house outside Milaca I liked too. Not nearly as much character... but a cute split-level on just over 5 acres. Little creek goes through the back yard... It's about 17 miles from work, which isn't bad at all. AND... if all goes well, we'll close in 2 weeks so I almost have a home! Yay!



Click HERE to see full album.

Chicago Pics

Chicago Pics are here: (click on the picture to get to the full album)

Chicago - October 2008

I'm trying Picassa... I can't find an online album I like, so this is a trial... let me know if it's easy to look at.

Adventures in Chicago

So, Wednesday I arrived in Chicago. I was kind of planning on taking a cab into the city from O'Hare (which is 17 miles)... but then as I was walking out of the airport I saw the public tranist maps and realized that was going to be a whole lot cheaper. So, I took the El/Subway to the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed at. So, I had tried to find a cheaper hotel downtown, but I couldn't find enough of a price difference that would make up for the hassle of having to find my way to the hotel by 7am each morning if I was staying somewhere else. So, alas, I ended up at the Hotel Inter-Continental where this conference was held. I go up to my room... and it looks nice... until I look at the bottle of water which informed me that if I drank it, $6.95 was being charged to my room. There was a nice basket of snacks too, but agian, it informed me that the regular sized bag of M&M's was $4 if I caved and ate it. Also, no free complementary toothpaste if you forget yours: agian, $4. I go to log onto the internet, agian... $13.95/day for internet access. You'd think a $240/ night hotel would suppy a few of these things for the cost? (thank goodness for a CME stipend from work and that I'm not paying for this) Anyway... next time, I'm finding a cheaper hotel. At the Holiday Inn Express (one of my favorites)... Free wireless internet, no taunting snacks (and a reasonably priced vending machine down the hall), and often times a mini-fridge to keep my Diet Coke cold. No more fancy hotels. Screw this. And there was a banging noise in the wall every time the fan turned on. Anyway... enough about the hotel.

Wednesday night before the conference started... I went walking around and started getting cold, so I decided I had to do something inside. I decided to go to the Shedd Aquarium. It was kind of fun, but not the coolest aquarium I've been at. Maybe something to do with the fact that the outdoor part with the dolphins is cosed for renovation. :( Also, my camera was apparently not fully charged, so I didn't get many pics before it died. Also, that resluted in only one picture of the bean mirror in Millenium Park. They were busy setting up for the Chicago Marathon in Grant Park, so on my walk I saw the most big white tents and the most port-a-potties I've seen in one place in a very long time. Before I went back to the hotel, I went to Walgreens and bought my Diet Coke, granola bars, pretzles, and E.L. Fudge cookies at a NORMAL price to ward off any inclination to even TOUCH the super expensive snacks taunting me. Then I went shopping. I mean, my hotel was on the "Magnificant Mile"... how could I NOT go shopping? I got my first pair of LUCKY jeans ($30 of normal price - YAY!) and so far I love them. I also got 2 pairs of good shoes that I've been drooling over and I FOUDN THEM ON SALE! YAY! Big city shopping is awesome, lots of sales. Then I hung out in my room for a bit and attempted to sleep. I sleep like crap in new places.

Thursday... 7 hours of continuing education lectures with psych topics... un-interesting to most of you, so I'll leave that out. At lunch I went wandering a bit and took some fun pictures. After we were done... I went over to the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States and saw Chicago from up high. When I was in Chicago for my rotation, Alison and I went to the Hanckcok Tower that time, so I decided to do the other this time. Then I went to a show "No Country for Old White Men" which is essentially a sketch comedy show at Second City comedy club. A lot of the famous people on SNL, MadTV, and some movies trained here before they were "discovered." It was actually quite awesome. Then I went home late and slept.

Friday... 7 more hours of continuing education lectures with psych topics. Then I walked down to Navy Pier. Much more going on down there than there was when I was here for 6 weeks in February and March... Took a 30 minute boat ride tour of the Chicago Skyline. Pretty cool new view. Ate some food. Took some pictures. Then I went to another comedy club called: iO (improv olympics)... this is by Wrigly Field. Pretty much all the famous comedians who didn't train at Second City trained here (including Tina Fey). This was pretty funny too, totally worth it. :) Then I packed and went to bed!

Saturday... 5 more hours of continuing education... this just finished... now I will be heading to find some Chicago Style Pizza before heading to the airport... agian on public transportation. Hooray! Back in MN tonight!

Pictures will be uploaded later tonight or tomorrow (I hope).

WHAT are you spending OUR money on???

So, agree with me or not, I wanted Mike Huckabee to be the Republican nominee... now I'm stuck not liking EITHER choice for president (or MN senate for that matter)... but I still get Huckabee e-mails a couple times a week... this was from yesterday...

Dear Huck PACkers-

I wanted to write you to convey my disgust with the passing of this 451 page bailout bill. Wall Street has gone trick-or-treating in Washington a little bit early this October. Wall Street is getting the treats and America is getting tricked. The “Axis of Arrogance” has tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Main Streeters and in doing so hid a sty full of pork in a bill whose constitutionality is questionable at best. Friends, the folks in Washington continue to treat your wallet as their tip jar and this has to stop.

Just check out a few provisions in this bill:

Sec. 211. Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters

Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.

Sec. 312. Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.

Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for a motorsports racing track facility.

Sec. 322. Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.

Sec. 325. Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.

At a time when we are at “ground zero” and on the verge of an all out financial collapse, I am disgusted that these provisions were made.

At a time when Congress had the opportunity to do something to help the American economy, they lived up to their low approval rating. The only thing we can thank Congress for right now is that they are consistent. They are consistently spending money that doesn’t belong to them, consistently expanding pork projects, consistently doing nothing to help rebuild the American economy and consistently hurting the future of our country. Ultimately, they are consistently ignoring their own values, principles and beliefs and as a result, the American People are going to have to suffer.

Without the bailout there might have been some temporary hurt, but the long term effect will be far worse because of the precedent this bill has set and the “Bail-Aholics” it will create. Within minutes of the bill passing the state of California was already in line asking to be the next recipient of a Government hand out. We are creating an economy where you cannot fail and by doing so disabling our ability to ever truly succeed.

I am afraid this is just the beginning of the bailouts. We must not go silent into the night, we have to continue to fight and stand up against these legislators.

Almost a home owner! Yay!

Ok, so after this process of looking and looking some more I finally picked a house AND they accepted my offer. So, now I have to get an inspection and apprasail and all that jazz which is complicated by the fact that someone stole the power line from the pole to the house... Anyway... this house in in Isanti, just outside of town, on 4 acres. Brick, wood floors... really fun. The windows and shingles are pretty new. It was built approximately 1900... but when we were there yesterday there's a little board hanging from the peak of the roof that we believe says 1882... so it may be 100 years older than I am.

If you want to see all the pictures... here they are.