FISHFEST 2009

Saturday we had a BASIC event where we went to FISHFEST, which is a concert festival that went from 3-11pm.

Here are (from left to right)Angelica, Nicole and Stephanie:

Here I am with Tania, and Jennifer Baker, who Lisa had given a free ticket to. She was visiting from Vegas and decided to come to the concert last minute. It's a good thing she was given the ticket because the concert was sold out!

There's Darcy and Lisa:

Lisa's Surprise Party

Friday, my friend, Nicole organized a surprise birthday party for our friend, Lisa. She was so surprised!

Carnitas and asada were served along with homemade guacamole made by Mark:
Me and the birthday girl:

Adele, from our small group came by earlier to drop off balloons and some Lochera (mexican) cookies. Only a few people were brave enough to try them:

Here's a close up look at the exceptionally weird cookie:

I didn't try it because I was so stuffed from all the great food!

Laundry Love and Sunset Concert

Friday my work was let out at 3pm, so I utilized that time by picking up my new friend, Dyanelle and going to Hermosa Beach, making burritos to pass out to homeless people, and then going to the local laundromat to help homeless people get their clothes washed. There wasn't anyone who showed for the laundromat part, so several of the people we met there took the burritos and drinks we had out to where they know some homeless people congregate.

I was able to meet a lot of new people and get to know Dyanelle better. We stayed at the laundromat with Annie, who organized the event, just in case anyone came after the fact. We had to leave a little early to go pick up Dyanelle's sister, Lady Ann.

Saturday I slept in and then did chores during the day. I did laundry (if only I knew I would be going to a laundromat the day before!) and organized more of the papers in my extra bedroom. I am trying to get it ready for Shelley, my friend who will be staying with me while she finds a place in the South Bay. The room looks worse now than it did before, but all I have to do is put some containers away, put the Christmas Ornaments in my storage area and get rid of the extra artificial Christmas Tree I have!

Saturday night I went to church and helped in the nursery. There were only two babies, one being very vocal about not approving that her parent's left. I actually had an opportunity to get to know the dad, who seems like a great guy. His wife is nice, too, but she is sort of quiet. After service I went to dinner with Bryan and Jenn. We went to Mimi's Cafe because I had a free appetizer that I got about a year ago and never used.

Sunday morning I organized some more and then headed over early to Hermosa Beach for the Sunset Concert. I walked to the 90210 beach house (end of Hermosa Beach) and back then met with Nicole and Lisa by the Sea Sprite Motel to head to the sand to set up a place before the concert. We were met up with by Chris Tabon and Cori Blair and we also saw Pam Maury and Dan Bradford (he's a pastor at my church). I left early so that I could make it to my car before dark (I was parked almost a mile away). I sure got my exercise! I was glad of that!

My Sister's Keeper and Group Hike

Friday night I wanted to see "My Sister's Keeper" so I invited a couple friends to meet me at AMC. One of my friends has a parent that has cancer, but she came anyway (the movie is about a girl who fights for medical emancipation because she was genetically created to provide bone marrow, etc, to help her leukemic sister). All 6 of us were in tears and I couldn't for the life of me find my tissues!

A couple of the girls had to leave early, but four of us went to Islands for drinks and appetizers. We had a fun time catching up. My friend, Angie and I ended up talking and catching up after Lisa and Nicole went home. I had a fun time, tears and all!

From left to right: Nicole, Kristen, Helen, and Lisa:

Saturday morning, I met with a group called Christians Hiking for the Lord at Del Cerro Park for a local hike. Nicole and Lisa had decided to go so I picked them up and we went together. I had forwarded the invite to our BASIC email listing and we had several people come! Also, my friends, Deanne (along with her dog and her friend's dog) and Tania came. The weather was pretty hot, so it is sort of understandable that the hike was short, but I was hoping we would have gone farther along the trail. I'm going to have to organize another group that might want to have more of a work out.

Actually, Tania is planning on doing a 3-day hike in Peru on the Inca trails to Manchu Picchu at the end of August with my other friend, Colleen. I think they may want to do the hike a few times before they go because it is a tough hike and you really should get conditioned.
Nicole and I snuck away from the group to start hiking again because there was a lot of waiting on this hike and we wanted to actually hike!

Instead of going back on the main hiking trail, I suggested a different trail to Jon Flickinger, the group's leader, so that's what we did. It's a little bit steeper, but everyone seemed to handle it well.

Nicole and Lisa take in the beautiful view. That's Catalina Island in the background.
After the hike we went to Ruby's Diner for lunch.

At church that night, Nicole's parents, Ron and Nancy, were celebrating their 45th anniversary. In honor of that, they brought 4 cakes (one for each section of the church) to have after the service. Here they are cutting one of them for a photo op:

4th of July Weekend

This is the first 4th of July weekend since I've worked for HCP where I've gotten the whole weekend off! I did have to stay later than most on Thursday to review several schedules so I could rest easy for the weekend, but beggars can't be choosers!

After I finished up with work I drove to my friend, Nicole's. We went and got Daphne's Greek Cafe food (one of my favorites) and rented "Faith Like Potatoes" which I had heard was a good movie. We ate while watching the movie. Although the movie was good and had a good message, it felt like a very LOOOOONG movie. :-) It was just nice to hang out with a friend.

Friday I slept in a bit before doing my new exercise routine. Then I got ready for the day, did laundry and organized a bit before heading out to PV for dinner. My brother-in-law's brother, Andy, was house-sitting for family friends so he had a few people over for a BBQ. I passed the turn I was supposed to take so I drove all the way up to Crest Road. It was a blessing in disguise because I stopped at a cute lemonade stand to ask for directions and patronize their business. It made the girls so happy! I was glad I could contribute to their entrepreneurial spirit!

The BBQ was a lot of fun. I was able to finally meet Aton, Andy's good friend who I had heard so much about. He was born in Israel and then emmigrated to the U.S. when he was 7. His perspective was interesting to hear about. Some of the conversation was a little heated, but I don't mind that.

The group of us (about 8) played "Would You Rather" which is a fun get to know you game.

The 4th of July was busy! I woke up early to meet Nicole and Lisa at Nicole's parents so that I could know how to get there from the kayak place. Well, I took PCH North instead of south and ended up in Wilmington! So I had to take the freeway again back to where I started! Suffice it to say, I did not make it to Nicole's parent's house prior to kayaking. I ended up just going straight there.

The street where the kayak place was closed off so I had to turn down another which was fine because parking was hard to find. I found a metered parking lot which was a bit of a walk from where I had to be, but I don't mind walking!

We were all supposed to meet at 11am, but we had to send people out at different times because a lot of people were running late. I didn't get in the water until about 12:15! I shared a double kayak with my friend, Stephanie. We were a good team! I've kayaked before and have had a hard time of it, but we were like pros! We kayaked to Naples (canal area of Long Beach harbor reminiscent of Venice) and were pummelled with water from long-range water guns!

After kayaking most of us ventured to the Detjen's for lunch. The Detjen's live in Bay Harbour which is a nice set of houses where a majority of them have slips for boats. The Detjen's own a yacht, so they needed a place to put it, so they got the house!

We had Subway sandwiches for lunch with pink lemonade and potato chips. Kayaking really takes a lot out of you, so it was nice to sit in the shade on their back patio and look at the boats. After lunch a water fight ensued between Lisa, Julia and Nicole and passing boats. Lisa got soaked!

A group of people left after lunch and the "second shift" as Nancy Detjen said, came over. Nancy Detjen and Bryan Johnson played Sequence against myself and Ron Detjen. Ron and I beat them both games. :-) Angie, Gretchen and Lisa Harden came over and brought tons of h'ors deuvres that we all had to fill us up before going out on the boat.

We all piled into the boat to travel to where the Queen Mary fireworks go off.
At first we went into the cabin, but decided it would be more fun to go out on the bow of the ship for the trip there.


Here's Angie, Gretchen and Lisa Harden in the cabin:
Este and Eden want to be the "King of the World!"


From left to right: Stephanie, Nicole, me, Lisa and Julia:

The fireworks how was good. Angie, Lisa, Bryan, Gretchen, Kaitlyn, Amy and Nancy joined us when we reached our destination and we all watched the fireworks show together. Angie started a "claim it" game when seeing which fireworks she liked, so as the fireworks went off you'd hear people say "I like that-claim it!" It was funny.

To end my weekend I am went to lunch at C & O Cucina with my friends Colleen and Liz. We were going to go to C & O Trattoria but the traffic was ridiculous! C & O has these delicious garlic knots that are addictive!

Happy Birthday America!

Smashbox Master Class

Friday night I went over to Nicole's to hang out with her and our friend, Jenn. Jenn and Nicole made a wonderful dinner. We ate it while watching "Gran Turino". I was skeptical about this movie, but although it has a lot of derogatory language the message was a good one--stay connected to people and sacrifice for friends/violence isn't the answer, but protecting yourself and those around you is important.

Saturday morning Nicole had organized an outing to Nordstrom, to a Smashbox Master Class. For those that might have never heard of it (I sure hadn't), Smashbox is a make-up brand started up by Max Factor's grandsons. This brand is used in 80% of the magazine photos. There were 7 of us, so we dominated the class. They taught us how to put their product on and gave us several tricks of the trade. I have never really used brushes when putting on makeup so that is really what I learned.

Jenn was used as the guinea pig, I mean model. ;-)
Chris and Angie after their foundation application.

Here is Dyanelle and I. Dyanelle only needed a tinted moisterizer and her skin looked flawless! She was able to do a lot more fun stuff on her eyes. I admit, I was jealous! This is before our eye make-up, lipstick, etc. was put on.

Here is Jenn in the final product with the makeup artist/instructor.

After putting everything on, I was kind of disappointed. I looked worse than when I do my own make-up with out brushes or expensive make-up. Besides the way the make-up artist did my eyes was almost exactly what I do. Well, I tried to take consolation in the fact that I guess I've been doing it correctly all these years, but I was still looking at myself and was not satisfied. I have to admit that I am apprehensive about using bronzers and blush because I tend to blush on my own, but one of the make-up artists convinced me to let her put it on me, and it made all the difference!

Unfortunately for my wallet that meant I bought out the entire counter. The brushes are what makes it expensive but they said those last 10 years, so I keep reminding myself of that! It was a fun class, though. We all had a lot of fun!

Here is Nicole and Lisa. Nicole fell in love with the "Rolls Royce" brush that is used to apply the cream to powder foundation. She was making love to that thing it was so soft! You can't tell because this picture is mid-application, but all these ladies looked gorgeous when we were done!