Photos from my garden

I think my "oops" blog yesterday was inaccurate - thank goodness, because we all find little things in our postings, correct them, and re-save.  In the comments section Rick said he didn't think that was the problem I was having with the "four posts."  Well...  upon further thinking, I realized what I did that particular day was actually delete the post and start over again.  I was so frustrated that it wouldn't format correctly.  Sometimes it's just better to start all over again, and that's what I did.  I'm now thinking that's why it kept posting as a new blog post - it actually WAS new each time.

Thanks Rick for your comment, it really made me think further.  Whew!  I apologize for misleading everyone, and thank goodness we can continue to correct and post with no worries.

I was writing the other day about my rose garden not being at it's best right now.  It's starting to bloom again.  It's in the front of my condo by the walkway in front of my door, and my kitchen window overlooks the roses.  Here are three of the varieties.  There are also some reds, but there were no blooms today.  I don't know the names:

  

 

 

This one is huge and sturdy.  

When it opens, it looks like a porcelain rose.

These roses were planted by the original owner of my condo, and I think they are very old.  The stalks are very thick and thorny, and the blooms are very fragrant. I love having them to cut and bring in the house. 

 

This is one of the spider webs in my back patio area.  Every year a huge spider sets up housekeeping in the same place and builds a web.  He wasn't at home when I took this photo.  Probably hiding nearby waiting for his lunch to fly into his web.

 

This is another web, but in the front by my front door.  If you click on it, you'll see the spider right in the middle of the web.  Every year this web appears, and it's anchored from my roof in a couple of places back to the juniper tree.  It's huge.

Since I keep getting these webs in the same places every year, I wonder if it's a family of spiders, or the same spider.  I'll have to look that up.  How long do spiders live, anyway?  Couldn't be that long.

This is a bush, not very compact, that is a volunteer, sprouted up a few years ago by my front door.  I've let it grow to fill in a bare area, and all of a sudden I noticed last weekend it's bearing some kind of fruit.  I have no idea what this plant is.  It was just a green bush, but now it's really pretty with this fruit.

I wonder if it will flower.  Or if it's an edible fruit.  I'll have to wait and see.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Friday, everyone!  : )

Blogger blunders: posting, oops... editing and re-posting

Stargazer from Boondocking Blogger posted an apology to her readers, explaining that she found a misspelled word on a previous post and made a correction, not realizing this made the post come up on her readers' lists as a new post.  You can go to her Blog for a better explanation.  This was my comment to her:

"Thank you for an interesting post - I didn't realize each edit causes a post to appear again and again to our followers as if it is a NEW post.  I sometimes find little things in my posts and make corrections.  Probably driving my followers crazy, and I didn't even know it. Live and Learn! "

Last month I had a problem with some information not formatting correctly, and the line spacing was all screwed up.  They were the posts about the many ages of a woman, the Captain Underpants post, and maybe another one.  I had saved that information previously in other programs and was doing a "cut and paste" into my post. Then I added to it, and published.

I have lots of old files of interesting or funny things I've saved through the years.  A couple of times when I've purchased a new computer, I saved documents on CD's (before thumb drives, etc.) and have them filed in my desk.   One day I was going through some of the old CD's and found things I had forgotten about.  I really enjoyed re-reading some of them, they brought back memories of times and places in the past.  I decided to use a few of them in those posts.

So, anyway, I was really frustrated, because they looked fine as I was putting them together and then when I'd hit Publish Post and check them, again they were spaced wrong.  I didn't know why they were formatted wrong.  I'd change the spacing in the edit mode and publish it again.

One of my readers commented that my blog appeared four times, but I didn't realize what she was talking about. Now I know.  I thought it was appearing after itself, four times in a row, but now I think she meant she was being notified over and over that I had a new post.  And it was the same each time.

So, I guess I should offer my apologies to anyone who has clicked on my blog thinking a new post is ready, only to find the same one they have already read.

I did finally find out later when an "Aha Moment" happened that if you take text that's formatted in a different program, it might look okay, but you have to take the formatting out, and re-format it to fit the program  it's going into.  Someone I know had some line spacing difficulties on her professional website, and when I figured out why I was having problems, I e-mailed her and she was able to fix her spacing problems, too.

You would think posting something every day would be pretty simple, but I keep learning new things.  I guess it's obvious, just not something I thought about, that it would re-post as if its new.  I'm going to need to make sure I do all my edits before I hit the Publish Post button.  And check it out on "Preview" too!

Do you ever find a misspelling or something you need to change, do an edit and re-publish?

That's it for today.  Thanks again, Stargazer.  It's always nice to learn something new, especially when it stops me from making the same mistakes in the future.  And - sorry for the misspelled word in my comment. : (   I'll have to start using the Preview function there, too!

From Me and My Dog, have a great day, everyone!  : ) 
(Hitting PUBLISH POST now...)

5-year-old Little League game

A big WELCOME to Carolyn and cpatinjones, two new Followers who are coming along for the ride with me and Katie on our journey to full-timing.  Thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoy reading about our daily goings on.

On Sunday I met up with my son and his three kids, Kennedy - 7, Gavin - 5 and Graydin -1 1/2 at Gavin's Little League game.  Tom's wife is out of town, so he was running all day.  He fed them breakfast, got them all dressed and took all three kids to church, went back home to change clothes, then off to Gavin's Little League game where I joined everyone.  Then after the game, took us all out to lunch in Encinitas, to the Yellow Coyote Tortilla Factory in The Forum. I had the taco salad, and it was fabulous.

After lunch I left them to run my own errands, and Tom took the kids home to change clothes again, then it was time for Kennedy's cheer leading practice.  OMG.  Now I know why God gives the kids to the young people.  After cheer practice, it would be dinner, baths, get ready for bed and school on Monday.

Tom takes it all in stride, but I'm tired just writing about it!

Here are some pics from the Little League Game on Sunday.  Remember, Gavin is only 5 years old, he'll be 6 in December.  He is an amazing little ball player!  It's hard to see the ball in some of the photos, if you click on them, you can see the arrows I've added.

This out was so close, I didn't realize the runner was out until I ran the film clip at home.  Gavin said they won the game, but I don't think they keep track of the score.  Everyone bats, and most of the kids can't throw or catch well enough to make many outs.  Once everyone has their ups, the side is retired.

 Second out.

And another out at first base.  This was the second inning, they play three innings.

Everyone gets up each inning.  They have a bunch of tries to hit a ball thrown by a coach.  If they don't hit it, the T is brought in and they hit from the T.  Most of the kids were able to hit a pitched ball, though.

 

Running to first base.

The game was really fun to watch. They play a different position each inning.  Gavin was Right Field, First Base, then Center Field.  I was pretty proud of him!

From Me and My Dog, have a great day, everyone!  : )

Katie's 2009 Halloween costumes

Thank you all for your comments on my post about buying my RV and going to the Pomona RV show.  I think I'm going to listen to you and drive up.  Actually, they are also having some seminars, and I wanted to at least attend the one about full-timing.  Sounds like I should keep gathering information, and I guess this show is the best place to be for that. 

At the Del Mar show I got the free coffee travel mug.  I have lots of them, but this one is a good size, and perfect to throw the coffee in I don't finish in the morning.  Finish it on the drive in.  Usually I just toss it.  I used the mug this morning, and it worked great. 

Some of the comments said something about a year going fast - from your lips to God's ears!

Last year I concocted three pretty lame costumes for Katie for Halloween.  My daughter Kristy e-mailed me that Lauren, just turned 2 at the time, asked her what Katie was going to be for Halloween.  You have to realize this was coming from a 2-year-old, and she was completely serious.  Lauren loves Katie, and Kristy and Matt tell me she talks about her all the time.

So, not wanting to disappoint Lauren, and not wanting to spend $20 at the pet store on a costume, I looked around the house and came up with these:

 Katie, Katie, Fancy Lady

Katie, Detective Dog

Katie, Master Putter

I got these props together quickly, snapped photos, and e-mailed them to Kristy.  I guess Lauren was okay with them.  I suppose I should come up with something new this year.  New and Better!  : )

I'll let you  know what I come up with.

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday everyone!  : )

The Del Mar RV show, and living below one's means

So, I attended the RV show on Saturday.  It's only 20 minutes from my house, and it was a beautiful day.  Perfect for walking around checking out RVs.

I saw one I would have definitely been interested in if I was ready to buy.  It's a Tioga - somewhere around 29'.  I didn't get lots of information, since it really doesn't matter at this point, but I sure liked the layout.  It was listed at $39,999 I think, something like that.  In my price range.  It's a 2006.  It was so clean and spacious!  I don't care if I have slides, but they sure do make a difference.

 The colors are good - won't show the dirt as much as a lighter color.

The couch was really padded and comfortable, and the bed-over-cab was very airy.

 Nice sized bed, lots of windows, cross breezes.

 Good storage space, and a nice counter for photos or flowers.

 Loved the kitchen area - seems spacious and good storage.

 The bathroom was nice and clean, big enough shower.

It was really clean, and very light and bright.  I don't care about slides, but I will admit they do add a spacious feeling, and that would be nice for full-timing.  From what I've read and heard, there is very little that goes wrong with slides, but I think given the choice, I'd go without slides.  The Tioga had everything I wanted as far as the inside goes, and I could see myself living in this one with Katie.

This one below - have you seen it?  I didn't write down the name/model but I guess if you can afford it, you already know about it.  See the price?  $899,999. 

It actually has a slideout deck with a large TV that looked like it slides back into the RV when not on the deck.  In addition to lots of other slideouts.  Large rooms, everything anyone would want or need.  Beautiful. Tons of counter space. Very nice rig!  Of course, it's almost a million dollars!

But you know what I walked away thinking?  This is my second RV show now, and there's another one in a couple of weeks in LA - marketed as the biggest one in California - that I was very excited about going to.  I realized, though, that I have at least a year before I can realistically buy my RV.  I think I'm about a year ahead of myself. 

At least I know some of the RVs that are out there, and some of the things I want.  But I'm so easy, I've lived in so many places and really liked them all.  I think I'll be happy in almost anything, as long as it's clean and safe and mechanically sound.  It's really going to come down to finding those three things in a rig I can afford.  Being in the right place at the right time, with enough money to get what I need.

So I decided I'm not going to spend the time or gas driving to LA for the other show.  I'm going to continue downsizing my "stuff" and paying off my debt, and saving my money so I'll be ready in about a year to seriously look for and then buy my RV.  I just have to keep my eye on the prize.  It's easy to forget when something is so far away, at least for me, and I think writing this blog, and reading your blogs, is what will keep me moving ahead to my goal. 

Which brings me to my second topic, living below my means so I'll be ready financially when the time comes to "hit the road."

The above quote is one I found years ago, and have tried to think about from time to time.  When I first saw it, I printed it out on a sheet of card stock and hung it near my desk.  I do live within my means, but when I first saw this I was not.  In fact, now I'm trying to live below my means, and most of the time I'm accomplishing that. It is such a feeling of empowerment to live below my means.

I'm not doing any big - I still have cable (although it's basic cable), I eat well (but I always cook at home, seldom eat at restaurants), I have a nice phone and laptop, so there are things I can't (or won't) live without.  But there are so many small things I do that end up saving money, and hopefully will make a difference over time.  I'm also not buying any new clothing unless it's something I really need.  I have lots of shirts, shorts and jeans, which is what I'll wear when I retire, so if it's not something I'll need then, I don't buy it now.  In my spending days I wasted a lot of money on clothes.  Wish I had all that money now!

That's it for today, and now I'm going to cook some chicken breasts, an artichoke and a baked potato with all the trimmings.  Maybe some wine.  See?  I DO eat well.

From me and Katie, have a great evening, everyone!  : )