Before We Go.......

.......I want to tell you a few things.  I haven't posted to my blog much this year.  Day to day normality doesn't seem very interesting when you are in the thick of it, but as I look back there's a thing or two I can say about 2012.

My post in March was about being happily married for 25 years.  Another post this year was about my thoughts and, perhaps, expectations for our children and my wish for them regarding their own happily ever after.  Our daughters are working very hard on their futures and we are so proud of each of them.

Gordon and I have had a relatively quiet 25th year together.  Business has been really, really good for Gordon thank God!  After the past few years we were wondering if we'd ever see the real estate market rebound but this year has been entirely different which has made us more relaxed and not quite so anxious about the future.

But I'm going to start on a sad note because for us, that's how our year began.  For those who have pets and love them like your own children you'll understand our distress as we watched the demise of one of our kitties.

In mid-February we had to put our little Jake down.  He had a re-occurring sarcoma on his hip from his kitty inoculations years earlier (feline leukemia to be precise).   He was only 13 years of age and in great physical shape except for the cancer.  We miss his great purr-sonality and sweet disposition.  No more Jakey, our Mr. Fluffy.  No more sweet face watching us through the family room door.  He was one of those cats that would continue to sit there staring in even after you opened the door for him!  and closed it.  We now have what the kids call "the pet cemetary" in our back yard.  Three pets in three years.  We have a quieter, sometimes lonely household without our Gracie, Jake and Sara.  Down to one cat now, Sox.

Do you want to come in or not?

But let's move on to happy!  Lots of things have happened with our family of friends such as, two of our dearest friends' daughter had a baby in March.  She's 40+ years of age and just an interesting, beautiful woman who happened to meet up with an old friend!  Timing was right and bingo....baby!  Our friends never expected to be grandparents (neither did the parents!) so it was a very special surprise to be blessed with an absolutely gorgeous and healthy baby boy.  An incredibly happy and blessed event!

Katy, Ken and baby Blue!

Perhaps he'll be an aviator?

But his Grand-daddy will be happy if he is a San Francisco Giants fan!

I have had awesome fun with my Bunko girlfriends each month:

The girls at Katy's home earlier in the year.

We continue to laugh, love and grow in our relationships.  We enjoy fantastic food at each others homes and lots of good times.  Thank girls!

In April our twin girlies turned 21!  Alison and Natalie were both in school on their actual birthday so we planned a little celebration for the following weekend and Jillian was able to fly in from New York with her good friend Heather.  Alison and I made fresh whole grain pasta and yummy vegetarian sauce and we sat outside and enjoyed some nice wines and not one, but two homemade birthday cakes.....coconut cake and a delicious strawberry cheesecake!

The next day we were up bright and early picked up by a limo headed up to Napa Valley for a day of wine tasting and exploration.  It was a gorgeous day and we had so much fun blasting Ali's IPOD, seat dancing, drinking champagne, visiting throughout our ride up through the wine country and enjoying each others company.  We went to Duckhorn, Rombauer, Chateau Montelena and Merryvale skipping our lunch reservations and ordering pizza in the limo instead.  I can't believe all our babies are so grown up and we are able to have some ridiculous fun with them sharing our interests and good times.

The gardens at Chateau Montelena

Sisters!  Alison, Jillian and Natalie

The crew at Merryvale; Leslie, Alison, me, Jillie, Heather, Natalie and Gordon

After the birthday weekend, the "twins" had to return to school but Jillie and Heather stayed for the week and we, of course, went to Santa Cruz for the day:

In Santa Cruz for our beautiful coast walk

And enjoyed many backyard appetizers and cocktails:

Wine O'Clock with Jill and Heather!

It was a very short week but we had so much fun and feel really grateful that we got to have all the girls together in the Spring and for such a big event.

One of the events we missed this May was my nephew Alex's commissioning from the Naval Academy.  Timing is everything and unfortunately for us, the timing did not work out to go see him proudly leave the Academy and venture off into his new life.  He will eventually be an ADMIRAL some day we are sure.  It's his dream to command a submarine and I've no doubt it'll happen  Alex is a wonderful, kind, interesting and highly intelligent young man with a very promising future and we love him!

Alex front and center!

And with his girlfriend at the Commissioning Ball.

After making the decision to switch her degree program earlier in the school year, we learned that Alison made the decision to leave Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and finish her college career at Hunter College in Manhattan!  She changed her degree program from BioResource and Environmental Engineering to Film and she changed coasts too!  Fortunately for Ali, and us as well, her big sister lives on the upper west side in Manhattan and knows the "ropes" of the Big Apple.  So I got into "get another kid moved" out of one school and into another mode....A G A I N!  In late May, Natalie and I went down to see Alison dance in her school's Spring recital (she was GREAT!) and, once again, schlepped a carload of her belongings home.  We gave away all her furniture (see earlier blog last spring when we schlepped all her belongings down to SLO!) to her friends and just brought the basics back; a whole kitchen, a couple small furniture pieces and her personal affects.   Alison now lives with Jillian on 64th street on the West side directly across Central Park from Hunter College.  An easy bus ride away from school.  The girls also have a new roommate and the three of them with two cats, Jillian's Sasha and Amy's Bentley are happily living the New York dream!

Hunter College or CUNY (The City University of New York)

Ali in front of her new University on a VERY HOT and HUMID day!

Alison has started classes and is enjoying herself and liking her professors.  She has a part time job at Urban Outfitter in the same neighborhood as their apartment and all is well.

Flatmates!  Ali, Jillian, Amy

But before Alison moved to New York, Natalie finished her junior year at San Jose State and headed off to spend a week with Jillian in NY, NY a welcome break from the daily grind at her University.  And she has continued to have a very busy summer.  As soon as she returned from New York she and I were off to L.A. for a week.  Natalie went to a summer "boot camp" to perfect her life drawing skills with an important animator working from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. everyday for a week.

Leveling UP!  Improving her drawing skills one drawing at a time.

I went to visit an old friend, Howard, that I haven't seen in 15 years! and spend a glorious few days in Aliso Veijo and Laguna Beach and then on for two nights with my friend Jim, exploring the Torrance area and playing tourist in "Hollywood" and "muscle beach" before retrieving Natalie and heading back up to northern California.

Natalie then went off over the 4th of July week with her boyfriend, Isaac, and some other friends before heading down to San Deigo with the BF for a short weekend.  Gordon and I spent a quiet backyard 4th with a dip in the pool and a quick BBQ.  Perfect!

Between dips in the pool and dinner parties with friends, July was spent in construction mode.  We had our living room renovated, put a nice flat screen in our family room, refinished our hardwood floors, which were in dire need of refinishing and replaced our carpeting.  With some new furniture in the living room and after 24 years in this home, every room in our house has been completely renovated and we love it.  It's our "grown-up" house now...no lingering stains or crappy old furniture; no marks or scratches from kids or pets.   Don't get me wrong, I'd do the kid and pet thing all over again however it is nice to have a "fresh" house.

A real estate conference took Gordon to Las Vegas in July also, so Natalie and I tagged along.  It was Natalie's first trip to Vegas.  It was crowded, hot, expensive, noisy, smokey and......why did we go there?  Oh yeah, to celebrate Gordon's 52nd birthday!

On our way to celebrate a birthday at Prime in the Bellagio

Natalie loved the gardens and fantasy worlds only Vegas and Disneyland can provide

A Vegas New York.

While Gordon was in his conference Natty and I laid by the pool, shopped and relaxed.  The three of us enjoyed Cirque Du Soleil's Ka ,an absolutely fantastic show one evening too.  Anyway,  the Vegas Strip never changes except for a few new skycraping hotels.  There's still plenty of hookers to go around and people trying to make a buck on the street.  We were happy to get back to our peaceful Pleasanton.

As most of you know, Jillian has been working on her first documentary film, Trichster.  In July she launched a campaign on  Kickstarter to raise funds for her venture and she successfully funded in mid August.  She continues to amaze us with her energy and enthusiasm.  She is working full time as an Editing Assistant at Fluid in Manhattan and full time as a Director and Producer of her feature length film shooting on evenings and weekends in New York and New Jersey and coming up mid-September, in California with one of her film's "characters".  Whew, makes me tired just thinking about it.  Stayed tuned for more news as we watch her make this exciting film!

Next up was a trip to New York and Virginia for me.  I took off August first to go see Alison and Jillian and spend Jillian's 25th birthday with her.  I love New York city.  There's so much to see and do and so much GREAT food and interesting little shops.  Briefly....here's what we did:

Eat, drink martini's, shop, rooftop party in Brooklyn:

View from the rooftop

More eating and shopping for items for the girls apartment and walks in Riverside Park and Sleep No More which is the most awesome, interactive experience I've ever had.  It takes place at the faux McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea.  Seriously, click on the link and find out about it and if you are in New York...get tickets!  If it comes to L.A. or San Francisco or a city near you, YOU MUST GO "SEE" IT!

Entry into Sleep No More

For Jillie's birthday, I baked a cake - your standard yellow cake with chocolate icing (yawn! but it's Jill's favorite!) and took the girls out for manicures/pedicures after starting our day in Riverside Park for a nice long walk.  Later we did some clothes shopping and ended up out for dinner and home for dessert.

Wrapping up a day of shopping!

I always have so much fun spending time with my girls.  The weather could have been a little less hot and humid but other than that I can't complain.  After just 6 days I headed down to Virginia to see the family.

Trips to Virginia end up being a bit of work driving back and forth to see my parents. Dad is in assisted living in Manassas not far from where I stay with my sister, Sandy and Terry.  Mom lives about an hour and a half away almost at the Pennsylvania border in Emmitsburg, Maryland.   Dad is doing okay.  He remains social and active though he still doesn't have use of the right side of his body after his devastating stroke.  He remains optimistic though.  Mom's in a little different situation.  At 89 years of age she is very frail.  She suffers from congestive heart failure and TMB......too many birthdays!  It was good to see them both a couple of times each and be able to spend a little quality time with them however briefly.

Mom on her good day!

Sandy and Terry just put a pool in their yard this summer so after a hard day driving! I was able to come home and take a dip in their pool.  It was lovely, hot, humid and perfect for relaxing.  I got to see my brother and sister-in-law Marcia; my cousin Susan and two of my nephews and their lovely ladies, Brian and Natalie and Chip and Brittany.  Sandy made some absolutely gorgeous meals which we all enjoyed poolside!  It was nice to see my siblings except I didn't get to see Shirley and Emory who were delivering Alex to South Carolina.

Spa day relaxation with Mary, Sandy and Susan

A Virginia sky

Terry poolside and the big brother, Paul, floating.  Note beer on chest!

Still life with toes

So after a week in Virginia I headed home to finish up summer.  The days have been so glorious....nice and warm in the evenings and crisp in the morning.  Fall is on it's way and with Fall it's time to go.....

My next post will be from Scotland!  Cheerio!