~- Hello Daly -~

The Calm Before the Storm

2013-05-19T15:28:00.001-07:00

John and I are laying out on the vast dirt lot of our backyard enjoying the quiet day and warm sun. It is 3pm and 68 degrees this afternoon. When I lived in Vegas I would have thought it would be too cold to be in a bikini but here I am, beads of sweat forming on my skin. This strawberry piña colada is refreshing and the occasional breeze feels really good!In a few hours my parents will be here

Self Portrait Thursday

2013-05-02T23:16:00.001-07:00

I went to the DMV today to update my driver's license with my new address and add the Class M (motorcycle) endorsement. I had the opportunity to take a new photo but I declined. I don't like to pose for the camera, especially with a bunch of strangers around. Besides, no one really cares what the photo of me looks like on my license. Later I thought I would've liked to see a snapshot of my face

Motorcycle Safety

2013-04-27T11:16:00.001-07:00

All weekend I am taking a motorcycle class so that I can get the Class M endorsement on my driver's license which will allow me to ride any two-wheeled powered vehicle that is more than 50cc. Just in case I get a 150cc Vespa! So far I have learned a lot. I can ride a Suzuki 50cc now. I think it helps that I rode a bike and rode a scooter prior. The skills I learned there with turning is serving

David Walley's Hot Springs Resort

2013-04-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Near South Lake Tahoe is a resort called David Walley's Hot Springs Resort where John and I went for dinner to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. The restaurant overlooks beautiful meadows and the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains which we enjoyed over a quiet dinner. Our menu was Prix Fixe and we had a choice of items from the starter, entree and dessert. John had the traditional french

Settling In

2013-04-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

It has been almost four weeks since we moved to the new house and we are settling in little by little. From our windows we can see downtown Reno. The skyline reminds me of Vegas :-) so I like to look out there often. Havi enjoys running up and down the stairs. She is often seen perching in various places looking down at us. Elgy is also adjusting. She likes to be wherever we are so she is

Reno From a Balcony

2013-04-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

I had lunch on the balcony of the building where I work. It is a beautiful day here in Reno. All week actually ... but you never know. :-) There's not much I can do either way except enjoy it.

Good Morning to you too, Reno

2013-04-16T12:15:00.001-07:00

A friend tells me the spring season in Reno is predictable in the sense that we'll have spring-like weather for a week and then winter-like weather for a week. This has been true. I recently asked her if the snow is past us and she expected one more good snowfall before spring is here to stay for good. She was right. Snow on the upstairs patio. Driving down the street. No snow on

Grandma Mouse

2013-04-01T07:00:00.003-07:00

My mom's Mom who lives in Laos. Over 86 years old and doing fabulous!

Children

2013-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

My mom called me again today, to wish me a happy birthday. Our conversation started like this: Mom: How old are you now? It's time for you and John to have kids and be fruitful. Me: How about I donate my eggs and other women can have kids for me? (Silence) My Mom: How are your daughters doing? She was referring to our cats. Now we can begin to have a real conversation. I mean, look at

Celebrating My Birthday

2013-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Our lives have been so busy lately with the home search, John's racing in NorCal, and our trips out of town that we didn't have much time to think about my birthday. Usually we take some sort of trip to celebrate but this year, I initially didn't feel like celebrating because we had too much going on. So on my birthday John made me an extra special breakfast sandwich and fresh fruit. Then we

Good Friday

2013-03-30T09:41:00.001-07:00

I gave the scooter a break and rode my bike to work on Friday. John rode with me and along the way we stopped at My Favorite Muffin in downtown Reno for coffee and pastries. Then I was off to work for a little bit before leaving for the final walk through of the house. Since all the repairs were made to our satisfaction, we signed off and the keys were ours! We didn't waste any time moving

It's beginning to look a lot like Spring time!

2013-03-28T13:14:00.001-07:00

I got a new camera for my birthday so I thought I would take some test shots of the birds outside our window on our neighbor's tree. It comes with the standard 18-55mm lens and also the 70-300mm lens so I can capture subjects from a little farther away than the 55mm-200mm lens I had. My old trusty camera (the Nikon D60)the lenses, and everything I have acquired to use with it sold on eBay. I

Girl Interrupted

2013-03-23T16:25:00.002-07:00

We are packing this weekend and will be moving next weekend in to our new home. It is a two-story new construction outside of Reno, NV. There are a few things left for the construction team to finish including the fence and shutters (and blown-in insulation in the attic--oops!) but besides that, it is pretty much move in ready. I thought this day would take forever to arrive but the timing

Indy: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2013-03-23T16:13:00.002-07:00

Late this week I came back from Alliance 2013, an annual user-driven conference of Oracle application users from all over the world who gathered in Indianapolis, IN this year. There were educational sessions/workshops presented by users, Oracle strategists and developers, and vendors with information about their products. I was in Indy from last Saturday until late Wednesday. I have to admit

Weekend at Madera Stage Race

2013-03-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we were in Madera, CA for a stage race. While the races and our weekend went well overall, I have to admit it was also a weekend of dining disappointments. I had this long rant of a post but then thought better. No one enjoys reading about complaints and so I will stick to sharing the positive side of our weekend. We went to dinner with John's teammates on Friday and our

Ninja Breakfast Crew

2013-02-12T07:45:00.000-08:00

Early this morning before other members of our office came in, a few of us sat down and enjoyed homemade breakfast together. There were made-to-order omelets with mushrooms, green onions, tomatoes, spinach, bell pepper, cheese and salsa, red breakfast potatoes with grilled peppers and onions, two kinds of fruit salad, freshly made waffles with whipped cream, maple syrup, and cinnamon and orange

2012 Reno Santa Crawl

2012-12-23T14:39:00.002-08:00

I had never heard of the term "SantaCon" until after listening to Covino and Rich on a Sirius satellite show. SantaCon is an annual mass gathering of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes parading publicly on streets and in bars in cities around the world (Wikipedia, 2012). Covino thought it was "the most stupidest thing he has ever heard of" while Rich thought it would be the perfect

Elgy in Character

2012-12-23T14:29:00.001-08:00

You may not know that one of our cats, Elgy, likes to ride in cardboard boxes while we push or pull her around in it. We had purchased one of the car character kits for my scooter so it could look like a reindeer but instead I put in on Elgy's vehicle. She had such a blast in her new ride!

Reno Snow

2012-12-23T13:12:00.001-08:00

It started to snow and snow and snow on Saturday. The first significant snowfall in Reno this winter. Looks like there will be a white Christmas!

Nevada Scenic Byways

2012-12-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

There was a meet and greet at work where I had the opportunity to learn about the departments and functions that serve their constituents. During my tour I picked up a Nevada state map and there was a section about the Nevada Scenic Byways. Of the 10 listed, John and I are grateful to have been to all but two: Pyramid Lake (just 37 miles north of Reno) and Angel Lake (but we were so close during

Team Camp Weekend

2012-12-17T22:28:00.003-08:00

About one mile south of the village of Mendocino, CA lies one of the most quaint coastal ranches in Northern Nevada called Spring Ranch and where we stayed the second weekend of December for John's cycling team camp. The historic property has been renovated using antique and salvaged material. There is a bar loft and the main house (in which we stayed that weekend). The rooms are furnished

Night of Fun Bowling

2012-12-10T21:33:00.001-08:00

The other Saturday we went to the Grand Sierra Hotel and Casino for some fun time bowling. John won the first round and then as the games progressed, I started to pull ahead in each round. Perhaps my strategy of feeding him beer worked ;-) We put come cash in the slot machines and came out ahead. It doesn't take a large win for us to walk, LOL. The casinos must hate us. We have never

Home for a Visit

2012-11-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

I had a nice long weekend visiting family in Boulder City near the end of October. As much as I wanted to ride my bike or run on the trails along Lake Mead and visit so many friends I've missed since we moved away over a year ago, I found that all the precious time I had to spend, I spent with our family. John had driven home several days before I flew in on a Friday morning (he had loaded up

Let's Play Ball

2012-11-20T17:24:00.001-08:00

If I showed you just this photo, you wouldn't believe me that Havi likes to play basketball. I spotted her from afar, with a ball under her paw and grabbed for my camera. Just as she started to bat it. After that we rolled the ball back and forth across the floor ... until she got bored and moved on to other things, LOL.

Happy Halloween

2012-10-31T21:45:00.001-07:00

Last week I picked up a wind up toy for our cats. It's a ghost and the eyes sweep back and forth, back and forth as it scurries across the room. I remember my Dad brought home a toy like it once. It was a wind up blue police officer hat that would travel along, spin around in a circle, and pop up to reveal the face of a policeman that was tucked inside the hat. This Halloween creeped up