iPhone and a blonde joke

I know it's been a while since I've posted, so I've been a bad blogger. My excuse is worthy, though. Eddie got me an iPhone. I've had it for a week. I can't live without it.

That doesn't mean I don't have tons to say about the recent goings on. So I'll be back soon to rant, I'm hoping, in a very different way.

In the mean time, here's a link to a great blonde joke. Sometimes it's good to laugh at yourself.

Timing is everything

Last night was quite dramatic! Our yard backs up to Ave. U, which runs east and west. The setting sun can be brutal to drivers, especially this time of year. The sun may have contributed to the crash that happened last night. I think it reflected in the driver's rear view mirror, causing the 78-year-old female driver to loose control of her Chrysler. The car clipped a large oleander bush on my next-door neighbor's back fence line, flipped over, then hit an oak tree.

I was in the sunroom on the computer when I heard the crash. Joe and Eddie were just pulling up in the garage. The driver was going east on Ave. U, and Joe and Eddie were going west. She had just passed them when she lost control. If Joe and Eddie were 2-3 seconds earlier, she would have hit them head on.

Even though I could see the crash from the sun room, I didn't know what had happened. I ran out to the garage and onto the street, where I found the car up-side-down. I couldn't see too well into the car because of the smoke from the deployed air bags. Eddie called 9-1-1. I soon saw a leg from the driver's side. Someone opened the driver's side back door, and I crawled partially in to see a lady was inside. Thankfully she was able to move and tell me her name. I held her hand and continued to talk to her until EMS took over. Emergency crews arrived quickly; police blocked off traffic, fire trucks and an ambulance were at the scene. The woman was soon taken away in an ambulance.

Police questioned Joseph, since he saw the car drive into the oleander bush just as Eddie was pulling into our garage. Eddie and I gave our statements. Our neighbor was not at home; boy, is she going to be surprised.

The car crashed into the fence, which was mostly down already because of the storm. Both of us are getting our fences replaced, and I had just been on the phone with the fence company rep, who was as city hall pulling our permits.

Timing is everything. Again, we are all very lucky.

Galveston, Now Open

Yesterday I contacted Laura Elder, business reporter for the Galveston Daily News, and told her about one of my web sites, Galveston, Now Open. Today she posted about it on her BuzzBlog, and she might mention it in tomorrow's Biz Buzz column. Hopefully people will see it and let me know about more signs around the Island to be photographed. Right now there are 36 photos in the album; I'd like to get it up to over 100!

My Scrapbooking Wish List...for now

I've been clearing out my old scrap room and setting up my new craft closet (read: less space for the same amount of stash.) And despite now having less space and adopting the "Light" theme this year, there are a few things I really want. I rarely purchase these wish list items; I guess there's fun in posting them, tho.

Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch
Fiskateer Kelly Jo has a You Tube tutorial how to do the treading water corners.

I'm pretty sure I need a Bind It All

and some of the Bind-It-All supplies, like
Binder Wire and these Bracket Shape Covers by Theresa Collins

I think I could do some real cute damage with these Scalloped Circle Giga Punches from Marvy Uchida



Of course, all the new stamps from Ali Edwards and Technique Tuesday will be hot sellers:

OK. That's enough for now. Speaking of hot sellers, I'm sure to post some of my predictions from last week's CHA show. After a look through my blog reader, I'll post my thoughts.

Randomness...

Eddie's friend, Joe Jaworski, announced his bid for mayor of Galveston, kicking off the next election cycle. Local politics is more a part of my life than when I lived in Houston. In Galveston, you actually know and socialize with the players. And the issues are more personal. Gambling. Buyouts. Education. Sometimes there are no degrees of separation.

Eddie sent me this link on Right Brain v Left Brain. Can you see the dancer? Is she spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise. Does she change direction? Now, watch the image with another person, and see if they see the same thing you do at the same time. Eddie and I didn't. It's an exercise in perceptions. Very cool.

Tomorrow is National Yoga Day. I'm going to Sangha to participate in a series of one hundred and eight sun salutations. All proceeds will be donated to the children's section of Rosenberg Library, which flooded (of course).

Twitter from CHA! and a giveaway!

If you Twitter and you're going to CHA, or just twittering about CHA, be sure to place the hash tag #chaw09 in all of your tweets. That way, inquiring minds can subscribe to http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23chaw09 and get all the feeds with #chaw09 in them!

There are several ways to check out the tweets from #chaw09:

• In your browser, go to http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23chaw09
• To subscribe to the feed, go to http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23chaw09 and click on the feed icon, and add it to your reader.
• I've also added the feed to my blog in the sidebar, so you can come to my blog to read all the tweets from CHA.

To test it out, go to Twitter and post with #chaw09 in your update, then go to the feed and watch it appear. The possibilities are endless!

Learn more about feeds here.

Any questions? I'll try to answer them if I can.

Oh, and don't forget to post a comment, whether or not you'll be twittering from #chaw09. At the end of CHA, I'll randomly choose a winner to receive a 20-sheet pack of Bazzill cardstock #sbpga.

Life's a beach!

Seagulls wait for dump trucks to offload sand.

Joseph, in the yellow shirt, had a blast playing in the fresh sand. Over time, the tides will smooth out the 5-ft. edge. You can see how deep the "new" beach will be from the seawall.

Yesterday, Joseph and I went to the Seawall to check out the beach renourishment (or beach reconstruction) close up. Hurricane Ike blew away the beaches that are a vital tourism attraction in Galveston. Instead of fine, fluffy sand, the storm left mile after mile of broken seashells, which is no day at the beach.

Dump trucks are bringing in 400,000 cubic yards of sand from other parts of the island to widen the beach to about 70 feet and 5 feet deep. (I'm guessing each dump truck carries 8 cubic yards, so that's 50,000 loads!) Dump trucks have been hauling sand along the Seawall since December 17.

The renourished beaches, coupled with the mild weather we've been having, have brought out the courious. Yesterday, a holiday for most kids, the beaches looked as if it was early summer.

Although the wider beaches will make the island more attractive, the project is really designed to protect the base of the seawall from erosion. The project must be finished by March 31 so it doesn’t interfere with the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nesting season.

If you want to read more about the beach renourishment, here are some links to recent news reports. Note: My husband, Eddie, serves on the Park Board.

Park board agrees to match state beach funds
State pledges $3M for beach reconstruction
State looking for funds to finish beach projects

Official Scrapbooking Hash Tags

With CHA right around the corner, and lots of tweets going and not going, I propose official scrapbooking hash tags. Game? Any more to add?

#scrap = anything SBR
#chaw09 - 2009 CHA Winter Show
#chas09 - 2009 CHA Summer Show
#sbpga - scrap book product give away
#sbc - scrap booking contest

My latest project: GCS Web Site

Yesterday I held a training session for the teachers at my son's school on the school's new web site I developed. Check it out: Galveston Catholic School. This has been a great experience for me. I was taken back to the days when I developed and delivered end-user training at Shell. I've learned so much by immersing myself in the enterprise solutions offered by Google. I got to see the light bulb of learning go off in the eyes of my son's teachers. I was able to impart something useful and exciting to people who truly appreciated it... so much so that we're doing it again next week!

MDF Initials

I scrapped these real quick for Christmas gifts for all the kids.