Taking a small break

After blogging every day since the first, suddenly I keep saying to myself, "I got nothing!"  Can't think of anything for the blog, and I'm not doing anything interesting, and don't have any ideas.  Writer's block?  Dull life?  Not really, just needing a break, I think. 

So, everything is well, and I'll probably post something tomorrow or Friday.  I have a couple of things I wanted to post, but will wait till then.

So, don't worry.  In case anyone besides my daughter noticed I'm not blogging, I'm okay, Katie's okay.

From Me and Katie, Happy Wednesday, everyone!  : )

Happy Halloween!

Happy Sunday, and...

Happy Halloween

I blogged every day in October - Here's my Badge!

I live in a community of mostly seniors, but a family with two kids moved in right across the lawn.  My front door faces their patio and living room window.  They are the first kids to live near me in six years.  What to do on Halloween?

For six Halloweens, and there has never been a knock on my door from trick-or-treaters.  Sometimes I go to my son's house to see the grandkids in costume, but tonight I plan to stay home.

Katie is driving me crazy - she keeps putting her paw in my hand while I'm trying to type.  She must be desperate to go for a walk.  I'll be back....

We walked for quite a while, up and down different streets in the area.  Here are some photos:

This orange tree, on my street, still has oranges at the top.  You may have to click to see them.

These two old pine trees were just trimmed. They will look neat when more growth fills them in.

Beautiful day at the lake.

The Pyracanthia are all full of berries now.  Really pretty.

"Okay, why aren't these ducks running from me?"

Blue skies, fluffy white clouds, little breeze, perfect day for a walk.

Every time I walk down this streeet I wonder how these two palms got so curved.

The dad from the new family was playing ball with his dog on the lawn, so Katie and I went out to visit.  I asked where they were going to trick-or-treet. He said they were going over to Encinitas, about 3 towns over (it's where my son lives). I told him about my son's last neighborhood, which was super for trick-or-treating. Lots of kids, very well lit, everyone decorated their houses, really friendly. I sent him an e-mail with the address and mapquest map.

When Katie and I came back into the house, their dog, a big black lab, tried to follow, and BOY, was Katie NOT letting him into the house.  Very territorial little Miss.  She bared her teeth and growled like crazy, and he backed off. 

Right after I came back into the house, my son called and invited me to go with them - guess where? The old neighborhood! I'm not sure if I'll go or not, but it's nice to be invited.

Hope the gouls and goblins are good to you tonight, and that you get lots of treats.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, Happy Halloween everyone!  : )

Halloween Eve, a "do nothing" day

I mentioned a day or two ago about not being able to become a follower on other blogs by clicking the Follower button.  Yesterday I tried again and it didn't take - again.  I use Firefox, but also have Internet Explorer that I use for some things.  So, I clicked on Internet Explorer, brought up my blog, clicked on another blog I was trying to follow, clicked on their

 
button and it worked.  I went down the list of blogs I couldn't "follow" and they all worked. So, I guess if something doesn't work on-line, I can try another browser and maybe that one will work.  I can live with that work-around.

First Camellia bloom from my little backyard tree.

Nothing much going on today.  I slept in a little, fixed breakfast and coffee, and have been following up on my TV shows on Hulu all morning.  When I'm done with that, I'm going to find a good book on my Kindle.  I had to charge it this morning.  It's been sitting for quite a while, and since I'm still using the original battery, it always needs a charge when I don't use it.

It's cloudy/sunny here in San Diego today.  I woke up to rain.  It's been dry for hours now, but still wintry outside on and off.  I'm still in my sweats and actually turned on the heat for a while this morning.

I've got some frozen "spring rolls" in the oven for lunch, and that's about it.  I don't plan to do anything else today. 

 Katie Mouse

My neighbor and I always talk about how guilty we feel when we have a "do nothing" day, but hey, we're old enough to be retired - and still working.  We deserve "nothing" days if we want them. It's just hard not to feel like we should be doing something.

From me and Katie, have a nice Saturday, everyone. : )

Double, double toil and trouble

I don't have much to write about today - so here's a jumble of stuff.  I almost have my October badge for blogging every day, and I made my own this month (it is allowed).  It's very cute for October, the theme is "Play."  I'll put it up on the blog on Sunday.

      

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

              - William Shakespeare

We're getting close to Halloween!

Is anyone else having trouble signing up to follow other bloggers?  I can't get the Follow button to work.  It was giving me trouble last week, then it worked for one day, and now it won't work again.  Has something changed?

My weekend has started. I'm not driving to Boulder Creek this weekend, so I have lots of time on my hands.  Right now I can't think of a single thing to do with all this time.  Not complaining, not complaining.  I'll come up with something.  : )

I've seen it explained many ways, but this is the best answer I've found:

You're trying to fool people with redundant information and somewhat faulty math. Yes, the three men paid 27 dollars in total but that is not part of the problem. The problem is who is actually holding the money in their pocket.

The three men gave the manager 30 dollars. So the manager has 30 dollars. The manager took 5 dollars and handed it to the bellboy. The bellboy handed 3 dollars to the three men, and kept 2 dollars for himself. 25 (held by the manager) + 3 (held by the three men) + 2 (held by the bellboy) = 30 dollars, therefore there is no missing dollar.

It'll help you to wrap your mind around this one if you picture one man instead of three doing the transactions, and forget the 27 dollars paid.

Remember these?

Why can't a man living in the USA be buried in Canada?

If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have?

One big football fan claimed to be able to say the score before any game. How did he do it?

 Answers

Because you can't bury a living man. 

If you take two apples, than you have, of course, two.

The score before any football game would be 0-0, right?

Another Katie Costume: 

Bumble Bee

Today I'm sending in my documents to Santa Clara County to request Certified copies of my Marriage Certificate and Divorce Decree.  I have the forms I need all filled out, and I'm going to a Notary Public this morning to have my signatures notarized.  Should get them back within 14 days at the most, then I'll take them to the local Social Security office and they will complete my application. 

I learned that my ex-husband took his Social Security benefit at age 62, so I won't be bothering with the Widow's benefit if he predeceases me. He has other income, so he used his as a supplement to what he already has.  If I work for another year or so, my benefit will be more than what he's collecting, so I'll continue collecting mine. I actually feel better about that, so everything is good.

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

Halloween town

WELCOME to Cruzin2some!  Thanks for becoming a Follower, I've been reading along on your blog, too.  Lately you have had questions that I'm definitely going to have in a year or so!  Hope you enjoy coming along for the ride!

 

Halloween Town

So... about the Boulder Creek property.  I made some phone calls yesterday - first to the county assessor.  They said the property is still in my name, I still don't owe any taxes, and it is still not buildable.  I'd need an acre, and it's 1/5 of an acre.  I told her about seeing the house on the Google Earth map and she said the satellites are so far up, they are often distorted when you are looking at specific properties. She said to call the planning department about parking my RV on the property.

So I called the planning department.  She said technically I am not allowed to park there.  I can only park an RV on property that has a building on it.  But she did say they are a complaint driven department.  If I parked there and no one complained, I'd be okay.  If someone complains, I'd have to move.  Good to know.

I told her about thinking someone put a house on the land, and out of curiosity she looked it up on their satellite program and this is what it showed (I went on their website and could pull it up, too): 

 Do you think the satellites could be off that much?

The blue outline is the property - see the house in the upper left corner?  There is actually another in the lower right corner, too.  That makes me think it might be off a little.  The woman at the zoning planning department said there have been no permits pulled for the property, so if there is something on it, it is definitely not legal.

I then called a Realtor I talked to in August 1994 when I was going to sell it (if it was worth selling), and she is still with the same real estate office.  There is a house in foreclosure next to my lot, and I wondered if it had anything to do with the structure that seems to be on my lot.  She took the information, did some checking and called me back. She said she gave both APNs to a local title company, and they are going to check on it.  She will call me back with information by Friday, or early next week.  Just in case someone had their lot lines wrong.  She asked me exactly where the lot was, and I gave her the "Beer Pub" location right next to me, and I'm hoping she will actually drive out and see for herself.  The lot is 4.5 miles from the town of Boulder Creek, so it would only take a few minutes.  It would be nice to have an "eyes on" opinion.

I really want to see the property, but it's an eight hour drive each way, and I don't know if I want to make such a long drive over a weekend.  I think I'm going to let the experts do their research, and see what they say.  If there is a problem, I'll go next weekend, maybe take off Monday so it will be a Friday through Sunday trip with Monday to recover. If it looks like everything is okay, I'll probably wait until I go up to Vacaville again to visit my daughter and her family, and we can take a day trip to see it then, walk around Boulder Creek and have lunch there.

After I wrote the above, I pulled up my condo address in Google Earth.  And you know what?  It has me two blocks over from my street.  Interesting...  Maybe it really is off that much. 

Maybe this is all much ado about nothing.  If so, at least I learned I can park my RV on the lot as long as no one complains.  I'm going to have to knock on some doors when I go up there and make some friends. : )

Boooooooo!

PUZZLE:   Here is a puzzle I have always liked.  It was in the San Francisco Chronicle when I was in high school, and I cut it out and saved it for years (and years and years).

Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager finds out that the room rate is $25 and gives the bellboy $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to split among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totaling $27. The bellboy has another $2, adding up to $29.

Where is the remaining dollar?  I'll have the answer tomorrow.

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