I have always wanted a vespa and i am looking and admiring them. does anyone own one or know anything about them? could recommend a model to try?

Does anyone know what happened to her blog? I miss reading it! it is in my top 10.

I helped a friend move today into a duplex she and her husband have bought. For the amount they paid (280K) they could have bought a house in an area just the same and had their own building. It is amazing that someone would buy something so small when they have to grey hounds and want to have a child in the next couple of years. It is nice but needs some remodeling and new flooring (carpet is brown and to me gross). I want a house but I have my dream of working for the foreign service. What do i do?

I spent less than 6 dollars today, spent 2 hours on the phone with my friend V. She used to work with me, we became good friends and I miss her so much at work since she left two weeks ago. She returned to TX to be with family while she looks for another job. It is hard to see her go but she could not deal with the games and politics and favorites that happen in her section.

I am watering the yard as we speak. I love to water the yard even though I hate to garden in large quantities. I want a yard done that all I have to do is water. I remember watering my grandmothers yard, just under an acre. Always beautiful, always fun to talk to her and I remember how much fun it was. She had been gone almost 6 years and I miss her as much as if it was yesterday.

Sunday are loose plans until I have to hit a scrap booking party and dinner with a couple of friends. It will be an early night as I hit the gym Monday morning at 5:30 am.

I know it has been several months since I last wrote and so much has happened I am not sure where to begin.

I spent two weeks with my sister and her family in Holland in May. I took my mom for the visit and we had a fantastic time. It is probably my last trip to the Netherlands (number 8) and I can say that I have seen just about it all. I love it but it is time to move on to another place.

I am looking at shanghai in 2008, or morocco, or Italy with a friend (time share she and her husband owns, he is to ill to travel long distances but keep telling us to go.) Shanghai is to visit a couple of visiting fellows that I have been working with for six months. They were a lot of fun and desperate to learn about emergency management and California processes. It was a fun project that I took on myself. It was just a hoot to work with them, and maybe a new job from them in January 2008. I could move to china for a year or so. I am planning to study mandarin this next fall in school just for fun.

Four days after returning from Europe my mom was entered into the hospital with what they thought was a heart attack. We not, turns out her heart is pumping at about 35-40% of normal (cardiomyopathy). No wonder she gets so tired so quickly. She had an angiogram and an angioplasty before they figured out that was the problem. She is in cardiac therapy for a while and they are hoping to get her back to 50 % if they can. She is facing congestive heart failure for the end. She is only 65 and I am really not ready to loose her yet. My sister and her family are moving here this summer and her kids deserve a chance to be around grandma full time. This makes me second guess the working toward my dream job but she gets so excited to hear about it and planning to come and visit me but it is scary not knowing what is going to happen. I am really not ready to lose my mom and facing that now is very difficult.

I applied for, interviewed and got my job at work. I had been on a list for a long time and it is doing what I already do. I interviewed with the office director and my current supervisor but pretended I had never met them and gave really strong answers with lots of samples and examples of work I had done in the past. The office director was surprised (because I’ve been working her for two years already) to learn everything I had done and it was nice to remind my supervisor what I have done in the past. They will not pay for another grad program but she will wrote me an agency support letter for a different masters program offered through the federal government. I am desperately trying to put together the strongest application ever. I have already asked for letter of recommendation and begun working on my essays and such. It would be nice to do this program and make a name for myself outside of the one office and agency. We will see what happens.

I have figured out what to do with my final paycheck from the old job, and where to put my vacation hours pay out. Should pay off just about 2 credit cards which will feel nice!

I have missed not being able to read things for a while but works has been nuts with several things not the least of which is the South Lake Tahoe fire situation.

I have applied for a couple part time position that should pay about 750 a month more. After buying a bed and a computer it goes all to debt. I could cut the debt by almost half if this comes.

I hope to write more, a goal is once a week or more when I can.

Thanks for visiting!