Finally, I have 'opened' my Gallery. There was a little problem with logging in. My password was not accepted. Long story short, I contacted my server and found out that through their 'upgrading', they had somehow discombobulated the ssh sometime back in October. They corrected it after I emailed them. But I had been sitting for months not knowing what was going on. It was extrememly frustrating.

If you click on PHOTO GALLERY on the sidebar you can view my first album. You can view them individuallly at your leisure or watch it as a slideshow. There is a place for Comments, so be my guest if you wish to leave your 2 cents!

Saturday night Luigi and I met up with our dear friend Dee Dee in Pasadena for our 'needs-to-be-more-often' get together for dinner and a movie. (The pic above was taken with Dee Dee's Zire Palm Pilot!)

Dee Dee took us to SONG, an incredible Thai place on Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There are actually 2 restaurants, one next to the other and owned by the same people. One is called Saladang which is more of an American taste Thai place, whereas the other restaurant serves more traditional Thai dishes and is called Saladang Song or SONG.

We sat in a large outdoor patio heat-lamped area in front of the main restaurant. The walls surrounding the patio are very tall and consist of intricate lattice metal designs in between solid walls. There is a little stream that encircles the patio on three sides.

Our server came over, a very pretty young Thai woman(actually they were all very attractive) who started telling us about all the specials they had that evening. The list was quite long and she was actually standing there a full couple of minutes. I could not understand her accent very well and only heard a couple of things like 'red curry' and sweet sour something catfish.

After numerous questions we finally settled on the sweet and sour catfish for hors d'ouerves and the Yum Eggplant (absolutely delicious), you have to try this one. The Yum Nua (grilled beef salad) and Kao ga-pao, a chicken dish. All of it was way off the map, a diners delight......veerrry scrumptious!

We had a achoice as to the aggresiveness of the spices, so we ordered mild. In a Thai restaurant 'Mild' is usually somwhat hot. The catfish came and went in a flash. It was barely presented to us before the plate was cleaned off. When they brought the other two entrees, we started in again with great relish. Surprise! They had forgotton to put the order in for Mild and I just about burned my mouth out. They were very nice about it and came to remove those two dishes and replaced them quickly. Actually it was still very tasty without the heavy spicyness. The only thing that should have remained spicy, though, was the beef...it tasted better spicy. But the whole dinner was a great experience and I am so glad Dee Dee thought to bring us there.

We talked so much though, it was going on 9:00 so that most of the movies had already started. So we opted, instead, for a coffee at Starbuck's and picked up a couple of videos at Hollywood Video across the way.

We settled finally on "Runaway Jury". Dee Dee had already seen it but didn't mind seeing it again, as Luigi and I hadn't seen it yet.

Thanks Dee Dee! We had a super time and a great frolic and giggling on our Bush Bashing free-for-all at the table.............nah we weren't THAT bad. ( I've heard worse on other blogs about Liberal bashing.)

Anyway speaking of food I took 'an Invisible Quiz'. You can see the resutls below...

Happy Eating..........darn, I forgot to tell you that I put on 3 pounds!! Yuk. Is it Atkins after all?....................

I have often driven past service vans or cars in neighborhoods and really not given it much thought. But there are times that the Van or car looks a bit suspiscious because of the circumstances.

Now I'll admit I'm a little nosy......but don't you wonder sometimes when you see a...oh I don't know, maybe a van that says Sweet Scent Carpet Cleaning, and it is sitting under the overpass of the freeway, in a residential neighborhood and there is no one around or anywhere near the van. Where is this guy? Hmm? Do you think he is visiting someone? What about those Traffic Control cars that drive around giving tickets. I saw one of those cars once, two days in a row, around the same time of day, under the above mentioned overpass. I didn't see anyone around giving any tickets. There was also a Comcast Cable Van parked outside an Apartment building across from my Building. No big deal. You see those vans all the time. I returned later that afternoon about 3 hours later,and it was parked in the same spot. No one was around. ok. Maybe it was a long job. Maybe someone's cables got discombobulated? Yeah. right.

Well, yes, that may be possible. But the same Van was parked there all night! I swear. The next morning it was gone. And I never saw it again. What about the LAPD car that was parked last week in front of a house. It was still there when I got back an hour and 1/2 later. There was no sign of any other patrol car or any officers around. Sure did take a long time for questioning. Maybe he was 'questioning' the Blonde that lived in that house.

Well, I guess I am nosy. But I see this frequently. If you think I am reading too much into all of this....fine. But next time you pass a service Van or Car that has been sitting a little too long, or is parked under an overpass several yards from the nearest house, maybe you too will start to wonder............Hey, maybe you are one of those people? But don't worry. I won't breathe a word.

My cat Sammie has cancer...Lymphoma to be exact. The last 4 weeks I think I have been to Hell and back. But I have read the email chain that has been floating around, confirming that our American whining doesn't hold a candle to the rough and crude 'living arrangements' of our Armed Forces in Iraq. In other words we have no reason to really whine about anything. My hat goes off to those guys....because I have seen those pictures of them in the desert.

But then again if my trials and tribulations are smalll compared to that, then I guess I wouldn't be writing this journal at all. For the moment I will forget about it and whine anyway.

The Veterinarian costs are unbelievable. If I am not poor now, I will be very shortly. If you ever have had a sick dog or cat , that required treatments or an operation or a hospital stay, then you know what I mean.

Sammie has been on and off as far as his health is concerned and no one, including the Vet knows for sure what the outcome will be. I have had added stress from other things as well. So even though I have not been sleeping in mud in the desert, surrounded by mortar fire, I am still in a pretty defunct state. As you know, I just lost another cat in November. So discovering that I have a very sick cat after just losing the other one has been very difficult for me to bear.

I still am trying to be optimistic and hope that I can have Sammie for a lot while longer. In the meantime I'll also pray for our guys and gals in Iraq and hope they can leave the desert War and come home to their own 'American Whining.'