Busy, Busy Summer

This summer is flying by even faster than most. I think that's because both Kevin and I worked (or in my case, am still working) summer school this year. Neither of us have ever done it and we were both offered the opportunity at our respective schools, so we decided to work. I feel so fortunate that we're in a position to not 'need' the money, but I also feel that, with our economy so precarious at the moment, it would be foolish to turn down the opportunity for some extra cash -- even if it is just to pad the bank account.

Kevin's summer school job ended last week and mine ends next week. It hasn't been bad at all. In fact, I could definitely get used to it! Where as my regular job is 7:30 - 4:00, Monday through Friday, summer school hours are 8:00 - 12:00, Monday through Thursday. Which one would you rather work? Yeah, me too!

At any rate, we've been doing little fun things here and there. We're headed to Old Town Temecula soon to go antiquing and wine tasting (cheese tasting, too, because there's a wonderful artisanal cheese maker in the area!), and not long after that, we'll be headed to San Diego for some fun in the sun ... and sand ... and surf ...

In between summer school and fun, we've also been accomplishing many projects around the house. Yard work, deep cleaning, washing and ironing, cooking for the freezer, and I've even tucked in some crafting projects here and there. All in all, it's been a wonderful, albeit busy (!) summer.

School starts early for both of us - Kevin's on August 25th and mine the following day - and fall will be fast approaching. Holy cow, before you know it, it will be Christmas!! (Oh, did I mention I've already done about a third of my Christmas shopping? No? Oh, well ... now I have!)

That's All Folks!

Last Saturday night, we returned to the Hollywood Bowl for another fantastic performance. This time it was ... What fun! Before the piece, the conductor would introduce the it and tell us a bit about it and the cartoon that it was in. After that, the screen would show the cartoon - or section of the cartoon - and the Philharmonic would play the piece. It was great!! My cartoon man, Kevin, was in Heaven =)

Jammin'

Finally!! I've been meaning to write a post about making jam, but I've put it off because the batteries in our camera were caput and we kept forgetting to get new batteries. And, let's face it, what's a blog post without a few photos -- right? So, about three weeks late, but, better late than never!

The last weekend in June, Kevin and I decided to make a batch of homemade jam. Kevin had never tried it before and I haven't made jam in about three years or so, so we were both excited about it! We bought some jars, gathered all of our ingredients together and got started.

We decided to make strawberry rhubarb jam. Why? Because it's soooo good! At Easter, I made a strawberry rhubarb crumble that everyone raved about. It truly was delicious. I thought that, since that was so good, and jam is really pretty much a crumble or a cobbler without the topping, wouldn't strawberry rhubarb jam turn out just as delicious as the crumble? Of course it did! Here are a few pics of our first attempt at making jam together: Supplies ... Cooking the jam ... The finished product ... After we finished with the jam, Kevin looked at the finished product and said "All that work for seven jars of jam?!" Which, is true ... however, I did reason that these were fairly large jars of jam. If we'd made smaller jars, it would have looked like more =)

Of course, we couldn't really stop there. We were so inspired - and fruit was so plentiful (and CHEAP!) that we decided to make more jam the next weekend! We made more strawberry rhubarb (which we've determined will be our specialty!) as well as raspberry apricot and triple berry - which has strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. YUM! All told we made 36 jars of jam. After giving some away to family, our neighbors and our landlords, here's a pic of what we have left: Don't ya just love those cute little labels?

Do You Know These Ladies?

Would you if I said "There's No Crying in Baseball!"

If you don't know them, allow me to introduce you: Lois Youngen, Delores "Dolly" Brumfield, Marge Villa, Gene Travis, Maybelle Blair, Jeanie Descombes, and Pepper Paire. These seven ladies were part of AAGPBL - also known as All American Girls Professional Baseball League. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, do you remember the movie "A League of Their Own"? If so, than you do know who these ladies are!

Yesterday Kevin and I had the opportunity to meet all of these ladies in person! We attended FanFest at Anaheim Convention Center -- all things baseball. They are the nicest women - all with such interesting stories. What an amazing part they played in the history of baseball. Solidarity Sistahs! It did sadden me, though, when one of the ladies mentioned of that they are losing, on average, one of their members per month. Or as she said 'we're all dying off' =( Lucky for us, we got to meet these seven women before ... well, you know. We now have a baseball added to Kevin's collection that all seven of these women signed. What a great addition to the collection!

Thank you, ladies, for all of your many contributions to the game we love.

Here's another pic ... Kevin and I at FanFest. We had such a great time!!How lucky were we? Bob Feller was also there yesterday, signing autographs. Bless his heart - he's 91 and still out there giving to the game he loves. Thank you, Mr. Feller! It was very nice to meet you - and thanks for autographing our baseballs =)

Summertime??

We've had several weeks of questionable weather here in So Cal. What do I mean by that? This morning, the weatherman pointed out that our first week of July was half a degree cooler than the first week of this past January.

Hmmm ... curiouser and curiouser.

That said, I'd much rather have May Gray/June Gloom/July Can't See the Sky weather than the nasty heat wave they're having back east. WHEW!

Bowling

Hollywood Bowl-ing that is! This past Friday night we - Bev, Ken, Deb, Bill, Pat, Drew, Vicky, Kevin and myself - headed for the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate Independence Day. What fun we had!!

We all contributed goodies for an old fashioned picnic. Our fare included fried chicken, potato salad, watermelon, marinated green beans, fruit salad, buckeye bars, rice krispie treats and, of course, red, white and blueberry cookies. YUM!

Each of us came from different directions and just met at 'our spot' at the Bowl. We enjoyed our delicious picnic and then were treated to the fantastic LA Philharmonic for the first half of the show, and then the amazing Vince Gill for the second half of the show. At the conclusion of the second half, the spectacular Hollywood Bowl fireworks began. SO COOL!! We all had fun ooooohing and aaaaaaahing over the brilliant flashes of fireworks above the HB stage.

During intermission, we met several of our 'neighbors' behind us. We had fun talking with some new folks and sharing our homemade treats. We joked around saying that, since they're in our family picture, we're all family now =)

We all had such a great time. It was Pat and Drew's first Hollywood Bowl adventure, and the first time Vicky had been there for an LA Philharmonic show. I think all were suitably impressed. May I just say, if you ever have the opportunity to attend something - anything - at the Hollywood Bowl, do yourself a favor and GO!! (Dudes, what's up with those expressions?!)