Parsley, a la Warhol

A little "whimsy" to end the day. This is one of our parsley plants. I got creative with photoshop. I liked the way the collage turned out, so I thought I would share. Enjoy!

How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

We didn't plant much of a garden this year... only some cherry tomatoes and an assortment of herbs. (The cherry tomatoes are so incredibly sweet! YUM!) But, we love our flowers too! How does YOUR garden grow this year?

Boys Day Out

Richard and John went fishing today at the river. They had a great time. It was a beautiful day. Lots of "nibbles" - and they did catch one rainbow trout. But, they were only fishing for sport - so they threw the fish back in. John fell in the river at least once - but it was a warm enough day that he dried off quickly.

Personal Mosaic

Here's another fun "blog" game. Make your own personalized mosaic by answering the questions below.

Here are the instructions:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

2. Use only the first page of results, and pick one image.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

Some people chose to always choose the 8th picture, or the 3rd on the 8th page or whatnot, but I chose which ones I liked best or felt like me.

Onto the questions and my answers:

1. What is your first name? Cindy

2. What is your favorite food? Chocolate. It really IS one of the four major food groups!

3. What high school did you go to? Culver City High School. I actually found a picture of a CCHS reunion… wasn’t my year – but fun nonetheless.

4. What is your favorite color? Purple

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Anyone that knows me well – already knows the answer to this question… George Clooney

6. What is your favorite drink? Wine

7. What is your dream vacation? It has always been my dream to go to Italy. This is a picture of Positano. Perfection!

8. What is your favorite dessert? Lemon Meringue Pie

9. What did you want to be when you grow up? A ballerina.

10. What do you love most in life? Family! Whether blood related or chosen! It’s the best.

11. What is one word that describes you? Smiling. Everyone always says that I smile all the time.

12. What is your flickr name? Cinderella – of course!

1. Happy Birthday To Cindy, A wonderful friend and Sweet lady, 2. coffee and chocolate mousse cake, 3. CCHSReunionClassOf1996 007, 4. Soft purple, 5. My cousin George!, 6. Colorful kitchen HDR, 7. Positano, 8. been dying for this!!, 9. More Like A Movie, 10. Pinky, 11. The Earth is God's Canvas., 12. Cinderella's cat

Tag - You're it!

My friend Laura has tagged me. I've never played a blog game before... but, here goes.

I tag Richard, Adrienne (even though Laura already tagged her) Megan & Andy, and anyone else that wants to play. This was fun. The instructions are at the end.

1. My hometown - Culver City, CA

2. Favorite Hobby - Right now - blogging!

3. Favorite vehicle - This is not something that I usually give a second thought to! I guess if I had to choose it would be a '57 T-Bird. The kind that Dan Tana drove in the TV show "Vegas".

4. Dream Career - A singer! Only problem - can't really sing!

5. Favorite Restaurant - In Los Angeles it used to be Robaire's on LaBrea. But, they aren't there anymore. Now, it's PF Changs!

6. Favorite Guilty Pleasure - Richard and I just LOVE the ShowTime drama "Dexter". It's awesome. But, definitely a "guilty pleasure".

7. Favorite Flowers - Stargazer Lilies. The beautiful perfume of them! Ah!

8. Favorite Color - Well I do love Black & White for clothing... but favorite color overall would have to be Purple.

9. Favorite Vacation Spot - Anyplace warm and tropical. But, the city that holds my heart always, is New Orleans!

Now, it's your turn!

1. Go to flickr.com or images.google.com 2. Type in your answer to the question in the search box 3. Use your favorite image of the subject. 4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.

Friendship

An Old Sicilian Proverb says ~ Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.

What would I do without my girlfriends? They keep me sane - make everything "all better" and life wouldn't be nearly as much fun without them! We laugh, we love, we share. We talk, we cry, we "keep it real". Yes, life wouldn't be the same without these wonderful women in my life. I'm thankful everyday for ALL of my girlfriends, and especially my YaYa "sistahs"!

The YaYa’s have been together for 8 years. We meet at least once a month for a good time – and we always seem to cause trouble wherever we go! (You haven't lived until you've been "shhh'd at a Bingo Parlor and almost thrown out for talking and laughing! Some of those women mean business!) I know that these five other women would tell me if my face was dirty – my breath was bad – or if I had spinach in my teeth. They are real – and true – and I don’t know what I’d do without them.

Date Night & Eddie Izzard

We don't often get out alone for a grown up night in the city. Last night was an exception. Richard and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see Eddie Izzard in Portland - and even had time for a nice meal beforehand. (Eddie is a British comedian, and stars in the TV show "The Riches" with Minnie Driver.) It was a perfect Portland evening. The evening was warm with a gentle breeze. We enjoyed people watching as we sat outside the Heathman Hotel while sipping our cocktails. Having worked in Hollywood for five years, I might add that Hollywood doesn't have anything on Portland in the 'strange people' department. We were definitely entertained! Really loved all the "little black dresses" accompanied by black army boots. And, there were several cross dressers passing by as well. Like I said - entertained!

Eddie was spectacularly funny. If you don't know who he is, I highly recommend that you check him out. There is quite a bit of his material on YouTube. His language is quite "colorful" - but his humor is intelligent, quick witted and very entertaining.

It was a perfect evening!

My Godfather, Orie

People come in and out of our lives. Some stay for a short time - others make a more indelible mark.

A year ago today my beautiful Godfather, Orie, passed away. He was an amazing man. Next to my father, he had the most influence on my life - both growing up and in later years. He and my dad worked for Walt Disney. They were there... they participated in the building of an empire. They were best friends, "Finkle" - that was Orie - and "Dingle" - that was my dad. (Side note: Orie's son, Loren, "my godbrother" called me "Little Dingle".) We celebrated family milestones together - vacationed together - and were each others support in sad times. We were family! My mom and my Godmother, Ginger, were best friends too. Just like "Lucy & Ethel..." always seeing what fun (translation - "trouble") they could get into. I miss these important people in my life so much!! But, they are all together now - in a better place - celebrating, vacationing, and enjoying each other - just like they did in life.

Orie, Cindy & Ginger

Cindy's Baptism Day - 1960

The Love of Nature

One of the things that we love the most about Oregon is the nature. Animals and flowers abound around us. Coming from So Cal - we are not used to having deer and racoons in our yard. Nor, are we used to the spectacular display of changing seasons!

We travelled to the West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon, OR awhile back. It was really fun to see all the baby animals, help feed them, and in some cases hold them.

We feel so fortunate to have moved to such a beautiful state. There is always something to do - and the beauty that surrounds is overwhelming sometimes.

BBQ with the Jamieson's

The weather was so beautiful today. Richard's sister, Kelly, invited us to their house for a BBQ tonight. It was a perfect evening for a BBQ and visiting with family around the patio. Jay, our brother-in-law, was the BBQ master - YUMMY burgers, Jay!

Rowan, our grand nephew, entertained us all with his laughter and happy smile. Perfection!

Goodbye Josh

Our sweet friend, Josh, leaves for Camp Pendelton today. He has enlisted in the Marines. We went to a goodbye BBQ for him yesterday. I miss him already! He will come home in October for several months and then off to Virginia for more training. From there - who knows!

We consider him and Ginger, his beautiful new wife, to be a part of our family. We wish them both a lot of love and good luck on their adventures.

Only in Oregon!

Bend, Oregon

Kent Couch lifts off from his gas station in Bend, Ore., in his lawn chair rigged with more than 150 giant helium filled party balloons, Saturday, July 5, 2008. Couch, 48, is making his third cluster balloon flight and hopes to go more than 200 miles to Idaho before running out of daylight or helium.

This is Couch's third lawnchair flight in as many years. He hopes to do better than last year when he flew 193 miles before running low on helium. He had to land in the sagebrush of Northeastern Oregon. (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard)

Cindy adds - can you say 'CRAZY'??.... sure you can!!!

UPDATE: He made it to Idaho. Landed by shooting some of the balloons with his trusty bb gun. Oy vey! I still think he is just a little bit crazy!

Independence Day!

From our home to yours - have a safe and sane 4th of July! We will be celebrating with a friends at several BBQ's this weekend. Fireworks with Kerry, Dodi & Alyssa on the 4th! Have a great weekend everyone!

Peer Pressure

Well, peer pressure always seems to work. "All my friends are blogging"... so - of course - so must I! My Dad would say - if Adrienne & Laura jumped off a cliff - would you jump too? The obvious answer is - absolutely!!

Enjoy our new blog. I already have a myspace page - but this blog will be dedicated to our family adventures. If you have a myspace page and want to link as friends, let me know!