Our House in the middle of our street

Okay, finally, a few pictures of our new place. I had put if off thinking eventually it would be tidier, but today decided that would not happen. I took some very incriminating photos of the girl's bedrooms but am hoping by the end of day I can take before and afters. We are settling in and are very grateful to have such a nifty place to live - complete with vintage 1950's flying saucer lamp shade.

Question? How can I keep the area rugs from walking on the carpet? Would those rubber mat things work when it is carpet on carpet?

School is going well. I am really enjoying meeting new people - have made good friends and am making great progress on concepts and drawings for my project. I am tired and need to recovery days in between.

School is going well for the girls. MaCall seems to be enjoying Redlands University Symphony though not so sure about AP History. Eloise continues to be tormented by Zac - the know it all show off in her class - who just got 999 extra points for putting his report on a shower curtain.

Franz is always working in one way or another -but did go to a zombie movie last night.

Now we are off to Pasadena where the closest Dick Blick Art Supply is and the Hunters.

Happy Autumn!

Talk about Quinoa

Yesterday I went swimming with a friend who owns a time share in Arrowhead - for the express purpose of having year round access to the pool. In the locker room I met a woman from Venezuela who told me about a quinoa soup her mother used to make and how wonderful it was. She was going to go home and try to remember how to make it. I did some searching online and found several recipes for Ecuadorian quinoa soup - perhaps the same sort of thing? Sounds good - though I personally would leave out the guinea pig for guests - I am vegan after all.

Quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain, but cooks much the same as a grain and can be used in place of other grains, like rice. Not only is quinoa high in protein, but the protein it supplies is complete protein, meaning that it includes all nine essential amino acids. Not only is quinoa’s amino acid profile well balanced, making it a good choice for vegans concerned about adequate protein intake, but quinoa is especially well-endowed with the amino acid lysine, which is essential for tissue growth and repair. In addition to protein, quinoa features a host of other health-building nutrients. Because quinoa is a very good source of manganese as well as a good source of magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus, this “grain” may be especially valuable for persons with migraine headaches, diabetes and atherosclerosis.

In comparison with wheat, barley and yellow corn, quinoa was found to be higher in calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese and, zinc and was lower in sodium than the other grains.

Here is the link to the soup http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200211/kummer

I understand there is a red quinoa, though I have only found the white. Do you have any good quinoa recipes? Yesterday I topped mine with a corn and green pepper salsa, home made tomato salsa and greens. It was yummy!

New Routines

So, life for the Potter is anything but dull. We have moved into our new house - in Lake Arrowhead - but are still trickling over things from the other house and we wait for the bank to finalize the sale. We are trying to keep up on watering and general maintenance while we wait as we have a very nice lady who is anxious to move in, work in the garden and spend her retirement years there. It still makes me sad to be there, but this is all for the best and our new house meets our needs so much better. In time Franz will have new gardening beds in. Now I have lots of room for painting projects. The girls have their own rooms and bathroom and we have a Finnish Helo sauna which I have to say feels really good.

Things have been crazy though. I now go down to Laguna on Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons, however there was also an MFA critique last Wednesday night, so I was home by ten thirty then turned around and drove back at eight the next morning. I was brain dead for that class. I will need to sort out a place to sleep down there for the next one - if I have hopes of being alert the next day. I really enjoy my classes. My Thursday class is really a critical look at figuration vrs. Modernism. We are reading some tough essays but I enjoy the discussion in class. The Friday class is a six hour figure painting course with Joseph Todorovich - who is an amazing painter (his painting at the top). We are working on the Zorn palette this week - you use four colors, cadmium red, black, white and yellow ochre. The second painting above is by Zorn - all those greens, everything you see is created with those four colors. It is really amazing. I will upload my figure painting done last week tomorrow. My home work is to copy a master painting using this palette. I think I am settled on a painting by Sargent. I'll let you know.

This is all great and love being at school. I am making good friends and thriving on the dialogue. However, when at home I am finding it difficult to balance school and home life - girl's schedules. We have been working on getting MaCall and her two friends down to Redland's twice a week for Redland's Symphony practice www.redlandssymphony.com and I confess Eloise is missing out so far as I have not arranged for her lessons yet - trying to sort out when we have a car etc. Health wise I have had some tough days with all of the driving then having to study and paint on my days at home. I get overwhelmed and cry, then Franz works hard to make everything okay. He did drive me down the Friday before last and then he and the girls picked me up at seven and went to dinner at the beach. That was nice. We will do what it takes to make things work.

School seems to be going well for the girls and for Franz. We will settle in. It takes time, new place, new routine. I think I have finally stopped looking up to the ceiling for the pots and pans - now in a drawer instead of in the hanging rack.

The raccoons are another story...

Bodega Bay with Cottey Girls

Above, Serena, Kristin, Anna, Pauli, Wendi, Joyce and Shelly in the middle.

Kristin and Serena

Bodega

Serena, Anna, Shelley, Joyce, Kristin, Anna and Wendy

Serena and Shelley

So, Thursday last, I sat in the Oakland airport for two hours when my flight was delayed, but finally made it to Sacramento, where I was met by Bill and Brandon. Brandon had to go to work early the next day, but Bill and I shared a nice morning and lunch at a yummy place - whose name I can't recall. Later we met up with friend Joyce. She and I drove a Dodge Caravan to San Francisco airport where we picked up the other five girls (Anna, Shelley, Wendy, Kristin, and Pauli). We then drove into San Fran and by luck found parking in front of the Fog City Diner - so cute and vintage feeling - and had a nice meal before continuing our drive to Bodega Bay. Our house was perfect and close enough to the water to hear the seals barking. We enjoyed lots of beautiful weather and views, drove to Fort Ross, various darling towns, down to Point Reyes Light House. We watched The Birds and saw some of the filming locations. Most of the restaurants had their own gardens with fresh veggies on the menu. It was a great time. Can't wait for the next one!

Utah

Love this photo of Amanda and Tami - with her beautiful big bump!
We enjoyed a walk around Silver Lake at Brighton.
We enjoyed the fish at Thanksgiving Point.
Here the girls, with friend Cole, relax in the shade.
This is how Lucy travels in the car.

It was a nice week. So good to spend time away from the stress - be with family and loved ones.

We signed a lease today

We signed a lease today. The house is near Eloise's school - also closer to the junior high where she will probably go next year. We will be in a new ward - which I know nothing about so far, aside from their early morning seminary is held at the high school so will save on morning commuting.
Here is the link if you want to see pictures.
http://tedcalder.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album48

You will see it is nothing like our little cottage, which can be a fun thing. There are more bathrooms, another bedroom and a sauna for those chilly nights. Trying to be positive. This will be a good place for us and saves us money.

Major moving will take place between the 1st and the 5th. Boxes and help will be appreciated!

Nigerian rental scams

I want to share this amazing story. What is even more amazing is I have received three other stories almost exactly the same from other home owners who have listed their homes for rent. Isn't anyone monitoring these scams on craigslist?

Hi,

I did get your response concerning the AD I posted on craigslist.The house is still available but presently I'm not around.. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago in West Africa and fortunately I won the bidding so I have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because I will still have to rebid for it in the next 10 years. I came over here with my wife, we both owned the house when we got married. As soon as we settled down here I had a thought of selling the house so I have to look for an agent, after getting one, we got a deal but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house. I reasoned with her and accepted her advise. So I contacted the agent back and requested for my keys and documents. Later we decided to have the house rent out because of maintainance, we would have give the same agent this job also but the truth of the matter is that the agent would want to handle it professionally and the occupant may not be able to reason along with me later if I let him or her know that I'm letting it out because of maintainance.. If you notice, you will discovered that the price we are offering is far below standard price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the maintainance.. I know there is no way I can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we won't be able to see physical before sending you the keys and the documents to

occupy the space. But I just had a feeling that anyone who knows what it takes to put the kind of structure down should know that maintaining a building is mandatory, so if you belief you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours then I will be more than happy to let you rent the house.Please if you are ready now to occupy the house and believe you can assist us in

maintaining the house, kindly provide the information below for record purpose..

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF

Full Name__________________________________________________
Home Phone ( ) ________________________
Date of Birth_________________________________
Other Phone ( ) ___________________
Current Address_______________________________Apt#________ City__________________ State______ Zip________
Reasons for Leaving____________________________Rent $__________Phone ( ) ____________________________
Are you married____________________________
How many people will be living in the house____________________________
Do you have a pet____________________________
Do you have a car____________________________
Occupation____________________________
Your Exact move in date____________________________
How soon can you make the deposit payment________________________
How soon do you want to receive the keys and documents of the house________________________

House Address
24301 Briones Drive Laguna Niguel, California, US - 92677

CAPONE, NICHOLAS

House Rent $900
Security deposit $500

For more inquiries, please feel free to reach me on any of the numbers below
( +234-702-963-2643 or 011-234-805-803-9541 )

Best Regards