Earthquake!

11:42 a.m.
Magnitude 5.4

Wow, it was kind of a scary one. Everyone wants to know, where were you? My first phone call was to Daughter #1 to tell her that I was in CVS! She laughed. In Texas, she was eating at OC Burgers, of course. In CVS in the real OC, I was in the aisle next to all the liquor. The sound of thousands of glass bottles shaking on the shelves was rather unnerving.

Fortunately, all's well here.

Birds at Crystal Cove

Walking down the trail from the parking lot to the beach:

A quail family: mom, dad + 10 babies!

More Birds at Crystal Cove

The Best Singing Birthday Card Ever

From Leah to me.

And then there's this one, the best birthday card I ever got from a cat!

Laughing at the Improv

Anjelah Johnson was hilarious! She did a benefit show at The Improv for the PTA at my school.

Neon Cruise

Long-awaited Saturday night plans: A Neon Cruise in Los Angeles, sponsored by the Museum of Neon Art.

We will be on top of an open air double decker bus.

I remember this sign from when I was a kid. I never did understand why Felix the Cat was selling Chevrolets.

Registering for Classes

Wow. What a difference 30 years makes! I am registered for my classes and it took about one minute. How well I remember standing in lines holding punched data processing cards... No more standing "in line", I went "online" and took care of the whole thing from home. These are the classes I will be taking this semester:

Educational Technology: Rationale, foundations, theories, careers, trends, and issues in educational technology. Implications of educational technology for instruction and information in schools, government, and corporations.

Web Multimedia Development: Systems, aesthetic, and learning theories applied to design of web-based educational multimedia. Planning and prototyping digital media.

Forget the iPhone, I Got a Blackjack!

$199 for an iPhone? Not for me, apparently. Despite the fact that I have been an AT&T customer for nearly a decade, and pay a couple thousand dollars a year to them for four lines, no, I am not eligible for the $199 price. But sure, I can have one of those babies for $399! This is not, of course, what the AT&T store told me earlier this week. They said I would be eligible for the $199 on one of my other lines and I could just switch it over to my line. I guess Apple and AT&T changed their mind on that one.

After three visits to AT&T stores, I was fed up. All I really wanted was a phone that would get me on the internet and has GPS. Well I got one, and it was a lot cheaper than the iPhone. And the GPS is better, too - it has turn-by-turn directions, which the iPhone does not.

So there, Steve Jobs - you can have your pretty iPhone. Oh yeah, I heard about all those people who stood in line for hours but then had a little trouble getting theirs to work. Well my Blackjack II is working just fine, thanks.

A Very Interesting Bird

Anybody know what kind it is? I have never seen one before. He was in my front yard when I got home. Then he hopped across the street and found a snail.

Home Improvements

A New Shed

Well, it's not really new, but it's new to me. Bought it from a neighbor. Malay helped me move it up the hill and set it up. When you don't have a garage, a shed is pretty important.

Painting the Guest Bedroom

The color is called Natural and it looks very nice with the white trim. Got to get that bedroom looking better for the grandchildren's visit next month!