June 27, 2007 plans have changed again. Well Santa Barbara is out for camping so I guess we will try Soledad Canyon again. A new motor home showed up here yesterday and as the man was setting up his tripod satellite dish Dave went over to talk to him. They were at the Santa Barbara 1000 Trails campsite where we were going and they told us they have no cell service there at all. If you leave the park and drive a little bit you can get cell service, well that isn't going to work for Dave since he is on conference calls throughout the day. Good thing we found out before we drove all the way there, now the only bad thing about Soledad Canyon is there is only one area that you get cell service really well and hopefully when we get there that area is open and not packed with RV's or trailers. Last time we were there if Dave walked to the back of the motor home he would lose the cell service but as long as he stayed up front he wouldn't lose his calls. Hum, maybe he just told me he lost the calls because he didn't want to sit in the back of the motor home where his office was at that time, we will see when we get back there.
I'm telling you it is killing us being back in Bakersfield or maybe just being back in California. Being in Bakersfield is costing us a fortune, I got my car fixed, remember the steering wheel that was broken when my brother, Marty, lost the keys to my car and had to get a locksmith out to re key it, The part cost $40 the labor was $200 and they kept my car for 2 days because once the cylinder was fixed it had to be re keyed again. When we had plumbing work done awhile a go the plumber had gone into the attic and said we had holes in our roof, so we had 2 different companies out yesterday to see if they could patch the holes. Both companies said the roof was shot and needed to be replaced. One bid was $8,400 the other was $8,900 so I'm sure you can guess who we went with, now that is really something we needed before paying for the wedding. I think that is about it for now, will do more complaining later and more updates.

June 26, 2007 it's been another week in Bakersfield, and I guess I should do another update. Kim said last night, to me, that I haven't been updating lately and I said we're in Bakersfield doing nothing, so there's nothing much to talk about.
The last blog I had mentioned that we had taken golf lessons, we had another lesson yesterday. Golf is a tough sport, there's a lot to remember, how to hold the club, the swing, keeping your eye on the ball ect. From last weeks lesson I was sorer on Thursday then on Wednesday but to tell the truth we are both still sore. Danny joined us on Thursday and has been practicing with us just about everyday, we even got Kim out there hitting the ball. Kim and Danny both said we can teach them what we learn that way they don't have to take lessons too. Last Wednesday Dave was too sore to go to Salsa dancing so we didn't go and this week is the last class so I know we won't go to that either. It doesn't break my heart like I had said before the teacher wasn't that good anyway. Last Saturday was Carla and Jessica's, Danny's nieces, birthday party, but it was also a 30th birthday party for Shawn, our nephew. So Dave and I drove to Palmdale to Danny's sister's house and visited for a little while then headed for Garden Grove for Shawn's party. That L.A. traffic just sucks, it took us over 2 hours to get there, I told them when we finally made it that this was the last time I make this drive. After the party Dave and I spent the night at Mike and Trini's house, we all sat up until after 11pm talking and laughing. Sunday morning we hit the road and drove to Simi Valley to pick up Dave's car keys and Kim's book that were at David Jr's house. We visited with David and Jodi, and went over the picture taking times for the wedding. We were going to go visit some people but we both were tired and wanted to get on the road to Bakersfield before the traffic got to bad. Besides on Saturday, before we left, Dave had picked up a sliding pull out shelve for the basement of the motor home and wanted to get back to install it. We went by Kim's to pick up Valley, since she stayed there for a sleep over, and Dave asked Danny if he would help him install the slider. We had planned on cooking dinner for them but it took Dave and Danny longer then they thought, so we ended up going out to Olive Garden, boy I sure love their Salad and bread sticks. So last night Danny came over after work and the 3 of us went to hit golf balls again while Kim was at her pump class. A little after 6 we all met at the motor home and fixed Fajitas and that's just about it for now. Very exciting stuff, this Thursday we take the motor home in for a tune-up and then head out for Simi. Dave and Brad go diving this Saturday then on Sunday we are going to Santa Barbara for a couple weeks.

June 19, 2007 almost another week has passed us by, boy time flies when you're here in Bakersfield, thank goodness too because it is darn hot here. Last weekend here at the RV park it was their Grand Opening, so they did a lot of advertising trying to get a lot of people here. They maybe almost filled up 1/2 of the resort, this place is really nice but not cheap they need to do better then that if they want to stay open and not have live-ins here. Of course too, this isn't the best time to camp in Bakersfield, it's darn hot here like I said earlier. All the balloons they had out kept popping because it was hot here last weekend. Enough of that.
Last Saturday was Kim's surprise graduation party, and Danny pulled it off, of course with a lot of help from family. The plan was to go to Danny's niece's birthday party at his parents house in North Hollywood, well, when Danny's sister sent Kim and Danny their invitation she put her Palmdale address by mistake, so we had to figure out how to fix that. Remember from the last blog Kim and I had been at the jewelers on Sunday, in Simi, looking for Danny's ring and I managed to tell Pauline that we would be back the following Saturday for Kim's surprise party. On Tuesday, like I said on the last blog, Dave and I drove to Thousand Oaks to meet with our financial advisor, on the drive back Danny called and said Kim doesn't want to drive down to the b/day party because she was tired of driving down every weekend so Danny could go by himself. When we got back Kim was at the motor home because we had asked her to come by and let Valley out since we were gone all day. We started talking about the weekend and she didn't know that Dave and I were going to go to the birthday party too with them, so I think that made her feel a little better about driving down south again. (I had also told her we hadn't seen Bibi's and Fernando's house yet in Palmdale and we were looking forward to it.) Now the next thing was to somehow change the b/day party to North Hollywood. Danny had Bibi call and say the party was in N. Hollywood because all of the kids friends were there, well Kim didn't answer her phone and Bibbi had left a message. When Kim got off work she called Bibbi back and Karla, the oldest, answered the phone and Kim said "so the parties at Grandma and Grandpa's" and Karla says "NO it's here at our house, Mom Kim thinks the party is at Grandma's but it's here" Bibi gets on the phone real fast and tells Kim they had to change it to N. Hollywood and the girls didn't know yet. Kim then calls me and said it isn't in Palmdale but N. Hollywood and since we are going down that way why don't we go by the jewelers for Danny's ring, then I said "that's a good idea" and since it is going to be Riley's birthday I need to drop off Riley's present so I don't have to mail it, she says no problem. (Riley is David's stepdaughter) As we are driving down she isn't to happy with me because I am driving slow, I told her I'm retired and am saving on gas. When we are going into Simi she wants to stop at David's because she has to go to the bathroom, we all say NO we will go at Macy's right by the jewelers. We all stalled as long as we could, even Pauline at the jewelers said "does she know yet" and I told her No go slow. Kim was very mad because we were running so late to get to Danny's parents house so when we got to David's she said just drop the presents off for Riley, we said No you can go in and at least say HI. As we got to the door and it opened and the people that were there yelled SURPRISE she was really surprised. Her mouth dropped open and she had a look like what in the hell is going on and we can't stay because we have a party to go to, until she saw Danny's niece's there. We got her and I have to say I don't really want to do that again, to much pressure and I don't need that anymore. It was a great party, Thank you to David and Jodi for hosting it, it was a lot of fun.
Now today, Dave and I took our 1st golfing lessons, I just know we will be hurting tomorrow, it was fun though. Last winter when we were here in Bakersfield the golf places we went into they all said "go to Jose's Golf Range" for lessons so that's what we did. The teacher is Chang Bok Kim and I can't understant a thing he says, he is the one that owns Jose's. The lessons went well though, at least for me, I have never done this before and he said I did really well, at least I think that's what he said. Will see tomorrow how sore I'm going to be, but I'll give it another try, the friends we are meeting in Canada, after the wedding, like golfing and would like to go golfing with them at some time. I think that's it for now, Valley ended up hurting her leg again trying to jump on the couch, and didn't quite make it, so she is limping more again, she just has to keep working on getting those leg muscles stronger.

June 13, 2007 another week has passed since I last wrote so I better get caught up again. Last Wednesday night we started the Salsa Dancing lessons, it was OK but the teacher is not very good. You could hardly hear her, she would show you a few steps then turn the music up louder, so then it was even harder to hear her. I thought for sure Dave was going to walk out, but he stayed. At one point she had you go in the middle of the room with 1 or 2 other couples and show everyone else all the steps she had been teaching, well there was NO WAY Dave was going in front of everyone, there was no way I was going to push him because then he would for sure quit the class. I really can't say for sure but my bet is tonight will probably be our last class if the teacher is as bad as she was last week.
Friday was Kim's pinning for nursing and she was allowed to have 3 people up front with her so it was Danny doing the pinning and Dave and I were there too. Well, Danny couldn't get the pin to cooperate so we were standing there and standing there with everyone waiting. I told Danny you don't have all day lets get moving. It ended up some other people took longer then us so we didn't feel so bad. Kim was number 2 and I think there was like 40 more after her, so it was quite awhile of sitting and watching nurses getting pinned. They also had other awards they were handing out too. It was just my luck the couple next to me, their daughter was #3 and every time they mentioned her name this lady would moan, I thought she was having all kinds of orgasms next to me, needless to say Danny and I kept laughing thru the whole thing. Danny's parents came up for the pinning, which was really nice of them to do, they had just planned to stay at Kim's until Sunday then they were taking off for Lemoore to go gambling. (now we know why Danny likes gambling) David Jr. came up too for the pinning and took pictures of the whole thing then afterwards we all went out to dinner.
Saturday was Kim's graduation, which was really long too, and of course when she walked up to get her diploma Dave and I starting crying, boy we are going to be big babies at the wedding, I can see it now. After the graduation Kim and Danny brought Danny's parents by our RV so they could see all the improvements we had done. Then we all went back to Kim's to BBQ chicken and visit, we took Valley over Kim's with us and she seemed to get around just fine with Chelsea and Toby.
Sunday Kim and I drove down to Simi so the girl Kim hired to do every one's make-up could put make-up on me so she would know what my skin was like and what would look good on me. Needless to say, there is not enough make-up in the world to ever make me look good. After that we went to the jewelers to look at some rings for Danny and ended up having to have one made because Danny is so darn picky, that's going to take about 4 weeks to do too. After that we headed back home because Valley was locked up in the coach because Dave and Danny had driven to Fresno to go to an RV Show. On the way back from Fresno they were stopping in Lemoore to go gambling with Danny's parents.
Yesterday, Tuesday, Dave and I drove down to Thousand Oaks to meet with our Financial Advisor. We wanted to make sure that we were OK on our finances with Dave quitting work in July, and he said we were good to go I don't know how but I'll believe him. After that we made doctor appointments, then at 2pm we went to watch Riley, David's step daughter, in a talent contest. She was singing, and she did a real good job too, we were lucky because she was the 1st one up so when she was done we could leave. We had to get back to Bakersfield and were trying to beat the traffic.
That's it, I'm all caught up again.

June 6, 2007 I just got done posting more pictures, mainly the ones from that wild life safari thing I went to in Oregon. I talked about how close the animals got to my car now you can see for yourselves.
June 2nd was Kim's bridal shower which was really nice, so many people showed up and most I haven't seen for a year. Tracy and Aimee did such a great job, I swear it was the best bridal shower I have ever been to. Thank you, you two, for doing all that you did for Kim, thank you to Tracy's mom, Yasmin, too.
June 2nd was also my Uncle Bob's 79th birthday, Happy belated birthday.
Sunday, June 3rd, Kim and I managed to get all the gifts, and boy she sure got a lot of really nice things too, we got them all put away in the spare bedroom closet. Danny's rule is nothing can be used until after they get back from their honeymoon, that way everything is new and unused when they start out together as husband and wife. (too bad neither of them are new and unused, ha ha)
That's all the exciting news I have for now except on Thursday evening Brad and Diane are stopping by with their motor home to stay for one night. Brad and Diane are our friends from Simi and Brad is the one who taught Dave how to scuba dive.
Tonight we start our Salsa Dancing lessons with Kim and Danny, should be really funny with my two left feet.

Friday early evening, June 1, 2007. June already, where has the year gone? It's been officially a year since we moved into the motor home, I've thought about the Simi house once and missed it but it didn't last long. All and all the time has flown by, I don't mind keeping this up for a while longer. Who knows, we might even make Dave's 5 year plan, but I'm not ready to hold my breath yet, but right now if we just keep moving I think I could go longer then 5 years. Maybe I'm afraid of stopping, if I do I would probably have to find a job and my only prospects would be a Wal-Mart greeter because at the end of this year I'm going to be 50 and who the hell wants to hire someone 50?

Anyway, I'll try and recap the week, since I last wrote, which I believe was Sunday.

Monday, May 28th, was Dave's "60th" birthday. Happy belated birthday to him, I was there so this is only a belated birthday wish for the blog. Anyway, I got him an ipod for his music to listen to when he starts walking with me, hint hint. He is going to retire again at the end of July so he has no excuse,( no, I can't go walking because I have morning meetings, won't work anymore). We went over to Kim and Danny's at 8 am so Dave and Danny could work on putting up the gate in the backyard so PG&E could get in the back yard and read the meter without the dogs attacking them. We have gotten warning notices from PG&E so this had to be done, bummer Dave had to work on it on his b/day. Monday night we all went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse so he could have his Prime rib dinner.

Tuesday, I went to JC Penney's, while Dave was working, looking for the "Mother of the Bride" dress. I had an idea of what Kim would like me to wear because we looked at some the Saturday before when we went to get the Flower Girls dresses. Well any way, I ended up purchasing "3" dresses at Penney's and told them when I paid for them that I would be bringing back at least 2 if not 3, it all depended on what my daughter liked, and they said No Problem.

On Wednesday early evening I went to the gym with Kim and I think she was trying to kill me, but it didn't work, we went to a kind of work out class. You do a lot of stretching, lunging with weights and abs, and if I must say I believe I kept up with the class. Even as fat as I am I did better then some of the girls that are 1/2 my age, they kept quitting and I didn't. Kim gave me a bad time because I was sweating so much but at least I kept up, she even said that to Danny and Dave, she didn't sweat at all but mom did. See if I go with her again.

When we got back from the workout, Kim and Danny fixed dinner then I went in and tried on my dresses for them to judge. Well needless to say the "Mother of the Bride" dress is picked out. Now that Dave has his tux measurements done and I have my dress picked out it is really starting to feel real to me.

Thursday Dave and I returned the dresses I wasn't going to keep and got some bridal gifts for the bridal shower on Saturday.