Back from CA and taking grant writing break. Our last full day in CA we went shopping at a mall with circular escalators. At the top I was hanging over the edge to take pics. Lynn couldn't stand it any longer and grabbed my backpack and pulled me away from the edge. She REALLY hates heights! That night I had to pack everything. Good thing I brought an extra bag! I needed it for all the junk I picked up at the exhibits. Imagine that bag going through the x-ray machines! LOL! While packing I turned on the radio and found a station I liked. After a few minutes the DJ announced they were going to play David Bowie's entire set list for his current tour! AND the DJ said they were doing that because Bowie was playing at Berkley THAT VERY NIGHT! Awesome set list, BTW. I can't wait for the concert in Indy!!! Anyway, back to CA...We headed home on Saturday and I'd planned to write my HOPWA grant on the plane. However, the person in the seat in front of me decided to recline. I had no room for my laptop lid to open unless the computer was shoved into my stomach. Since I was in the middle seat I had to keep my elbows tucked in on both sides which made typing impossible. So I'm working on it today. Everything went well at home while I was gone. My mom went home yesterday and is not looking forward to her upcoming angioplasty on Thursday. I'll be sure to post how it went as soon as I find out. Send her your prayers and best wishes for the test to go well!

Today was fun. We visited the exhibits and picked up lots of freebies and useful info. I snuck up to the top floor where the Cityscape Restaurant is located (on the 46th floor and not the 28th as I thought before). It was closed so the elevator wouldn't go there so I went to the floor below it and walked up the stairs. I got some great pictures and no one seemed to care that I was up there. Lynn and I couldn't fine any good workshops for the afternoon session so we decided to be tourists and leave the hotel. We talked to a Bellman and he suggested we take a hotel car to see the sights we were interested in so we had our very own driver/guide, Eric. He took us to Lombard St. and drove us down this croocked little road. It literally zig zags! Don't worry...have pics! Then we wanted to drive across the golden gate bridge...which is painted red and is 3/4 of a mile long. He stopped in a parking area after we crossed it so we could get pics. We could see Alcatraz Island from there. After that he took us to Fisherman's Wharf and suggested a good restaurant. He dropped us off, gave us his # and told us to call him when we wanted him to pick us up. We walked toward the restaurant and realized we'd forgotten the name of it! So we kept walking, hoping we'd find it. A dumb pigeon dive bombed Lynn and she yelled "BIRD!" and ducked. I told her I'd put that in my blog! Finally, Lynn called our driver guy and asked which restaurant he'd said. Scoma's! EXCELLENT food! Had seafood, of course. Then we wandered around, browsing the shops until it started to get dark. Lynn called Eric to let him know we were ready to go back to the hotel. We sat and waited and watched this white, stretch limo pull up. I commented that the only purpose of a limo is to impress. Lynn wandered who might be in the limo. She then joked that maybe it was for us. Yeah...right. The driver got out and spotted us and walked over. He asked, "Are you Lynn? Eric sent me to get you because he's busy." OMG! We were stunned! We got to ride in a LIMO! He took us through little Italy and then Chinatown and pointed out interesting landmarks along the way. When we got back to the hotel he was really nice and offered to take our pic in the limo because we knew no one would believe this one if we didn't have proof! We had a very fun afternoon :-)

Ok...so I'm not really on the top floor of the ENTIRE Hilton hotel. I'm on the top floor of tower 3 of the Hilton. There's 3 towers to this place and the highest floor is the 23rd and there's a restaurant on the top floor of that tower. And we're leaving CA on Saturday, not Friday. I got a little confuzzed...nothing new there.

Other than that the food is great, the sessions I attended today were good. The opening session was awesome. The people are friendly and best of all I'm not so exhausted today! One nights sleep and the jet lag is GONE!

The conference spans 2 hotels, across the street from each other. Both are big. I had to go to the other one today for lunch and workshops. When I was done there I couldn't find my way back to the Hilton! It's like a labyrinth of hallways, lobbys, escalators, elevators, stairs, shops, meeting rooms, restaurants, rooms, windows, and other assorted amenities amidst a sea of people. And anyone who knows me knows how "good" my sense of direction is!!! Do I dare venture outside by myself???

Oh, and I plan on showing Lynn how to send text messages on her cell. No fun if she can't message me back *grin*.

There is SO much to do. I need to browse all the booths and get info & freebies. There's some fun things to do as part of the conference that I want to check out. And I have the HOPWA grant to work on. Some sightseeing is a must. And I haven't finished exploring the hotel. Need to take pics. Have stuff to read. Notes to type before I forget what I learned at the sessions today. Terribly busy. You wouldn't want to be here. Really. It's chaos. A madhouse. Terrible view from my window. Awful weather. *cough cough*

Hello from partly sunny CA! Made it here without any glitches. The trip was pleasant and uneventful. I'm really tired and I know part of it is jet lag so tonights post will be short. The hotel is awesome. My room is on the top floor (19th). I have high speed internet access :-) and my bed is calling to me. Good night!

I just found out that "Weird Al" Yankovic's parents passed away on Good Friday. They were found dead in their home...victims of carbon monoxide poisening. How horribly terribly sad and tragic. My heart goes out to Al, his wife and his daughter.

A funny thing happened at lunch yesterday...I like ketchup. I had ketchup on a napkin for my fries. When done, I folded the messy napkin. Some ketchup ooozed out onto my fingers. Just like a little kid, I thought it was cool and squeezed a little harder. SPLAT!!! Ketchup splattered all over my face, my shirt and my jacket!!!!! I'm a DORK!

Carpet is expensive. I know this now, more than ever. I've also learned that dog pee, once it soaks through to the pad never goes away. It can't be cleaned up. It's nasty. It makes the carpet smell bad. The carpet makes the house smell bad. Cleaning it makes it worse. A professional cleaning makes it REALLY worse. Bad enough that I ripped the carpet out of my living room. If you've ever heard stories about pet pee getting under the carpet pad and never drying let me tell you...IT IS TRUE! It soaks through to the floorboards too. Leaves nasty, smelly, musty, disgusting, spot. Have to let it dry. Kilz will cover these spots. Now I have a living room with carpet cut out of the middle, a perimiter of carpet around 2/3 of the room, a carpet island at my computer desk AND a big area in front of the TV that's painted white with Kilz. It ain't pretty, people. Someone said I had a choice to not purchase new carpet (said because I was stressing a bit that day). I suppose I could live without carpet in my living room. But the house would never sell that way. If I want to have even the slightest chance of selling it I have to replace the carpet. But hey...new living room carpet makes it worth a little more than it was before! Carpet is ordered and now I just wait...

Did I say I'm stressed? Understatement. I have to go to CA next week for a conference. I'm broke and borrowed $ from one of my retirement funds to get the carpet. I have to take a computer with me to CA which means hassles at the airport. This meant purchasing a new keyboard to fix the computer I'm willing to drag to CA. Why do I have to take a computer? I have a grant due the 24th of this month! My mom got bad grades on her stress test and has to take more tests. Carpet issues. Money issues. Work issues...AGH!!!!

On a brighter note...my ex father-in-law is like a second dad to me. He brought a lawnmower that my mom had set aside for me but that I had no way to get here. He drove all the way here (2.5 hrs) just to bring the mower to me. Wasn't that nice of him?

I'll be blogging from CA each day so watch for updates!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

Weird Al concert last night ROCKED!!!! Pics will be in my photo album this weekend :-)