Driving 101 in Southern California

Just a few guidelines to follow when driving in the southern California area. If you live here, then you should know these already but if you are moving here or just visiting, please pay close attention to these helpful tips.

Rules of the Road:

1. The speed limit should really be viewed as the lowest possible speed you are driving, especially on the freeway. Instead of following the posted numbers (which are just a suggestion anyway), just follow the eighteen year old going 85. You will be much safer.

2. Under NO circumstances should you use your turn signal!! (For those of you unfamiliar with this device, it is located on the left side of your steering column) Whether you are changing lanes on a freeway during rush hour or going 40mph on a city street and abruptly decide to turn into a shopping center, the turn signal is completely pointless. In fact, it may be better for you to leave your turn signal on and keep the drivers behind you guessing when you’ll turn.

3. Feel free to change lanes on the freeway without checking the lane you are moving into…for that matter feel free to jump three lanes! Everyone understands that you were not paying attention and CANNOT miss your exit!

4. We are all experts at multitasking, so if you need to shave, apply make-up, read your morning paper, or talk on your phone while driving to work in the morning, it is no problem! Driving with your knees is perfectly acceptable as long as you are glancing at the road once in awhile.

5. When you come upon an intersection without a left turn signal arrow, you should sit and wait for people to turn left while you wait to turn right. Forget that note in the DMV handbook that people turning right have the right of way!

6. It is generally accepted that the faster you are driving on the freeway, the farther left you should be in the lanes. However, if you are going to be on the freeway for a long distance, then you are definitely justified in staying in the far left lane. This applies regardless of your speed. If you are going 65mph and have people passing you on the right doing 80mph, they may honk as they pass you. Just ignore them – they are most likely suffering from road rage and will take it out on whomever they are talking to on their phone.

7. When you are driving onto the freeway from a city street, do not bother to speed up to the flow of traffic. Take your time and slowly increase your speed from 40mph until you are amidst the freeway traffic. Then maybe you could speed up to 60mph. But only if you are ready!

8. If you spot an accident on the freeway (doesn’t matter which side of the freeway), you MUST slow down or stop and check out what is happening. Depending on how many vehicles are involved and how serious the accident is, you may have to immediately call friends and/or family members to tell them about it! Do not continue driving down the freeway until you have seen as much as you can from your vehicle.

There are many more but I wanted to at least cover some of the basics. So I hope that all of you can now drive like the SoCal drivers….or at least fake it!! Happy driving (or whatever else you may be doing while moving down the road)!!

A Lovely Saturday Afternoon

I had a wonderful Saturday afternoon with my friends Steve and Mariana, so I thought I would share! We went to a Wine & Food pairing event in Del Mar and it was so much fun! It was held in a Hilton hotel and seemed like it was going to be a little more formal than what we expected. The room almost looked like it was set up for a small wedding reception.....with about 4 different wine glasses at each place setting! So we sat at our table and the presentation began on the different wines we would be tasting from the Napa Valley area.

The first was a Napa Sparkling wine (Schramsberg) which was served at the door with brie stuffed mushrooms. It was excellent! The second tasting was a White Meritage wine called St. Supery Virtu - it is 52% Sauvignon Blanc and 48% Semillon. It was very good! Even Mariana liked it and she is normally a strictly red wine drinker! This wine was paired with a red snapper ceviche - SO Good!







Then we moved on to the red wines, starting with a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon which was served with a mini burger on a small brioche with bleu cheese and carmelized shallots. I wasn't a fan of the wine that much but the burger was very good!

For our next tasting we had a 2005 Meritage St. Supery Elu which was a Bordeaux blend. This was a red wine that I actually did enjoy!! For this wine we were served sliced lamb steak with a reduction made with the same red wine. It did not taste like lamb! It tasted like a very tender steak - very good!

Our last red wine was a 2006 Petite Syrah and was served with an israeli couscous made with vegetables, beets, prosciutto, and goat cheese. I liked this red wine too but the couscous was AMAZING!

We ended the afternoon with a Tawny Port by Fonseco paired with a Dark Chocolate creme brulee - yes, DARK chocolate. Oh my GOD! That was soooo good! We also had the option of tasting a Moscato, which was very tasty! The port and Moscato both went very well with the creme brulee.


On top of all the great wine and fabulous food, we ended up spending the afternoon with a great group of people at our table! Half of our table ended up being employees at the hotel and they were a lot of fun! One woman, Lisa, is in her last month of pregnancy and going in for a C-section this Wednesday! She was just loving the food at first and we (Mariana and I) finally convinced her to taste a couple of the wines - she loved them! So what started out as a two hour wine presentation, ended up being 3.5 hours of great food, wine, and conversation with new friends! Here's one last photo of our table - and here's to new friends! CHEERS!

Wide feet = Fashion Outcast?

This is a gripe post...it's a gripe I've had for a LONG time. I had a recent reminder of it so I felt the need to share. I have wide feet....not FAT feet, the bones in my forefoot make my foot a D width. This sucks....in general it sucks and being a female looking for dress shoes, it REALLY sucks! I've been able to find tennis shoes that fit - thank God for New Balance - but dress shoes are another matter altogether. Many, many, many shoe brands do NOT offer wide widths which means that most shoe stores do NOT carry anything I can wear. This sucks. This is why I have always hated shoe shopping. I can never find something I like AND can actually wear. So through the years I have learned my limited choices.....I can buy shoes at Payless Shoesource, which is great because they offer wide widths for almost every shoe they sell! The only problem is they are not the best quality. I have also found that Nordstrom's sells wide width shoes - yippee!! Now if only I was rich and had LOTS of disposable income, I could afford to spend $150 (minimum) on a pair of shoes. The other option is to go to specialty stores that carry wide widths. Have you ever been to one? They all assume that you are a woman over the age of 60 with cankles and a variety of foot problems. So the shoe selection is limited to nurse looking shoes or very supportive but very ugly "old lady" shoes! Seriously?? I have a wedding I am in next month and so this is what brought the issue to the forefront again. I am a fan of Kohl's for clothes shopping so I thought I'd check out their shoe selection. Hallelujah! They have wide width shoes!! Woohoo!!......oh....actually they do have wide width shoes but they start at size 7. Naturally I wear a size 6.5!! Murphy's law!! Anyone have any other place that I could try????


Signed,
Extremely frustrated!!

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Vintage pictures - Genealogy site

My friend Beth posted this cool celebrity look alike collage that you can do online, so I thought I would play as well!! I definitely don't mind being compared to these ladies....Faith Hill??! Works for me! Thanks for the great time waster Beth!! Love it!

Tag You're It!!

I have been tagged by my friend Beth and the rules for the game are posted above. You have now been invited to join in the game of tag on your blog! It's an interesting way to get to know your friends or at least your blog readers!!

7 Weird/random facts about me:

1. I am an avid reader and have been since my parents read me books at bedtime! I can easily spend half the day reading a great novel, if I had the time. I don't have time for that now BUT I do read every night before I go to bed. In fact, I can't really go to sleep without reading even a couple pages of a book first!

2. Many of my friends know that I love to cook but I love baking more! Ok, so they probably know that too! I definitely need to follow recipes when I cook or bake but I LOVE making substitutions or additions to see how I can improve the dish. I love making different dishes for other people - it's not as much fun when it's just for me!

3. I cannot stand make-up! I think it may have something to do with a boyfriend I had in college. He made the comment that many girls wear a lot of make-up to hide their flaws but if you end up going home with them and see them in the morning without make-up, how scary would their face be?? Also, the base I used to use made me break out and my dermatologist told me to stop wearing it. Ever since then I am just not into make-up. Most days I wear NONE! If I feel the need to dress up, I might put on mascara and eyeliner....maybe eye shadow if I really want to dress up. But that is it!! If I had to put a full "coat" of make-up on now I would feel like my face was suffocating!!

4. I am conflicted about moving out of San Diego. I have been missing four seasons for many years now and have never felt like San Diego is a place I'd want to settle down and have a family. But it seems the longer I am here, the harder it will be to move. I have many great friends here and they will definitely be hard to leave. It's an ongoing conflict....

5. I LOVE watching movies!! I watch the news every morning while getting ready for work and I definitely get my dose of reality through that and my work. Movies (and books) are a great way for me to escape! I am easy to please and enjoy almost every genre except horror. Mainstream action flick - yes! Romance - yes! British comedy - double yes! Disney movie - yes! Drama, comedy, action, independent, etc.....all good! :-)

6. I do not believe in organized religions. Before you get offended, realize that I am not trying to talk you out of your beliefs. I just feel like a lot of people use religion to guide them when they are lost and some people can lose themselves in their religion. This does not apply to everyone. The religious fanatics who are killing in the name of religion scare the hell out of me!! And I've met some people who seem to be just a few steps away from that level.... I do believe in a force that connects all living things on earth.....I'm a strong believer in nature and Mother Earth. I saw a fabulous bumper sticker the other day that I think really articulates my point of view well. It read: "Evolution is fact - God is just a theory" I LOVED IT!! We have plenty of evidence of evolution and yet God is just some story that some men created centuries ago to gain order within society (my opinion).

7. Ok, so this last one may be somewhat political (which I am normally not at all - and it gets a bit more serious than I normally am in my blog) but the upcoming election keeps showing commercials on TV about this and it bugs!! Gay marriage is just fine - leave it alone!! If two men or two women decide they are in love and want to spend their lives together - why do people feel the need to prevent it? Just leave them alone and let them get married!! It's not hurting anyone in any way. These commercials keep talking about how children are having to learn about gay marriages in school. Really?? So now you're afraid to teach your children tolerance? Huh....that is scary to me!

That last one was a doozy!! ;-)

Ok, the tags are supposed to be random but I don't know that many people with blogs!! So you are now tagged!! Christine, Tertia, Laura, Nathan, Debbie, Julie, and Jeanie. I hope you play!!

Economic help....

We are all feeling the hardships imposed by the recent changes in our economy and the news stations are all bringing us information on how we can save money in various ways. I was watching the Today Show this morning and they had a segment talking about trading items instead of purchasing - trading online is becoming much more popular now that people are all having financial troubles. So for those of you who may want to check it out....I have three listed below that seemed the most interesting and useful.

Zwaggle - This site is a national network of parents who have come together to share items they have from their kids. So if you have a car seat that is too small for your child, you can go on this site and post it as available. If someone "purchases" it, you get a certain number of points which you can use to "purchase" something that you need. They have all different categories - clothing, furniture, toys, DVD's, sporting goods, etc. Great site for any parent but especially new parents!!

Swaptree - This site swaps similar items but is not just geared towards kids or parents. With this site you actually list everything you plan to trade and they calculate what you could receive in trade. You mail in your items (almost everything can be mailed for less than $3) and then you get to look through the site and choose what items you now want. Aside from the minimal mailing fee, everything is completely free. It's an outright trade...no bartering or fees for products.

Bookmooch - This one definitely caught my eye!! I am an avid reader and love getting new books but it can get expensive if you keep buying new books. This site also uses points to trade. You just list the books you are willing to trade and wait for interested people to contact you. Then you mail your books to the interested party and use the points to go shopping for books that you are interested in adding to your collection!

Well, I am going to go check out the book site and see what they have available!! I hope you get a chance to try these sites out and I hope they help you!! At the very least you can save yourself some money while we are going through this economic rollercoaster!! Happy shopping!

Leopard Sharks

Snorkeling with the leopard sharks in La Jolla is something I have been wanting to try for awhile but hadn't gotten around to in the past 8 years. So this summer I decided it was time! I had my adventure snorkeling with the leopard sharks awhile ago but it has taken me a long time to get my pictures developed!! Sooooo....I went out with friends in August and we snorkeled with the leopard sharks off La Jolla shores (photo to the left). I wasn't exactly sure what to expect although I knew they were harmless.

Well, apparently the sharks have a season when they are in the San Diego area and we hit the tail end of the season. So when we got out into the water, we really had to search for the sharks!! The conditions weren't ideal....water was a little on the murky side (as you can see from the photos). The sharks are bottom feeders, so we had to stay in an area with water around 10 to 20 feet deep in order to be able to see the sharks. On top of that, the sharks are a little shy....which meant that in order for me to get any pictures, I had to dive down and chase the sharks!! LOL It was too funny! I probably saw a total of 20 sharks during the 2 hours we were out there. It was a great experience but I wish that there had been more to see! So I got kind of bored when I couldn't find anymore sharks and I will leave you with my very awkward self-portrait!!