Surprise!

My birthday surprise was super duper terrific! We went to Oxnard, which is in Ventura, right on the beach. My husband gave me the Carole kIng/ James Taylor CD and DVD set so we listened to the CD in the car, driving there.

We stayed in a suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel that had an ocean view. The weather was perfect, in the 70's. The pool was gorgeous. After a leisurely walk along the beach, we had a "duet massage," where we both had a massage at the same time. It was heavenly. After the manager's happy hour, we had dinner at the hotel. I had scampi and my husband had salmon. Around 9 pm, we went into the jacuzzi. After about 20 mins, another couple came in the jacuzzi and they proceeded to have a very good, I mean excellent, time.

The next day, we had a fantastic made-to-order breakfast, that came with the room. We walked around the Channel Islands Harbor and checked into taking an all-day excursion to the Channel Islands National Parks, which is on 5 different islands. We will do that sometime in July or August. We also walked around Ventura Harbor and basked in the glorious weather. I had a double scoop of chocolate ice cream and rootbeer ice cream for lunch. Yum!

We got back home around 6 pm. All it takes is a night away for relaxation and forgetting everything.

That night we finished up watching the series, "America, the Story of Us." on TV. It was a great history of the U.S., from the revolution up to current times. We learned so much and got us interested in some of the little-known facts of American history.

In "People" magazine, I read that Taylor Lautner (from the Twilight movie series) and Taylor Swift had lunch at the Elephant Bar in Valencia, Ca. Hmmm, that's about 2 miles from here. I mentioned it to friends. One friend said that her daughter is about to graduate 6th grade with Taylor Lautner's little sister. The school is in a quandary about how to handle his popularity when he shows up for his sister's graduation. He went to 6th grade and Middle School here, too. "OMG i'm so luhkee LOL LOL" as the kids would say.

We have a few hydrangea plants, but the flowers have always looked strange. I thought maybe they needed more fertilizer or something. Anyway, I googled them and we have a different variety than the hydrangeas that look like a pom pom. Ours are lacy-looking. These are ours:

June, June, June, June, June

The title is from the song "June is busting out all over," from Carousel. We've been busy lately, with fun and exciting activities.

We saw Carole King and James Taylor in concert at the Hollywood Bowl. They were incredible. The entire audience was in sync, singing along, but nobody minded their neighbor singing. Carole and James were on stage together the entire time. In fact, their concert from 2007 at the Troubador in Los Angeles, which is very similar, is being shown on PBS for the next week or so.

Our friends who went to see Carole and James with us, gave us field-level seats to the Dodgers/Detroit Tigers interleague game. We were about 10 rows up from home plate. Dustin Hoffman was a few rows in front of us. Jose Lima, a former Dodger, was also a few rows away. He was introduced and he stood up to wave to the crowd. The next day, he had a heart attack and died.

We went to a charity Las Vegas night. I played blackjack all night. Three of my poker friends were in the poker tournament. All of them made it into the finals. The grand prize was a 52 inch TV!

On Memorial Day, we went to a high school graduation party for dear friends. I've known these girls ever since they were born. One of them will be joining the Israeli Army, along with her older sister. They need to stay in Israel for 3 years in order to get health insurance and a good sum of money. I can hardly wait to hear about their adventures.

This Saturday night, we're going to see Three Dog Night at our local college performing art theatre. We'll be in row 2.

Next week is my birthday and Mr. Puffy will be surprising me with an overnight trip. I think that this is the first time that he's suprised me with something so big.

We're looking for carpets for the entire house. I don't know how we'll ever decide. There's so much to consider! But, it's time and we need them. The worst part is cleaning everything out...all the wall units, hutches, bookshelves, desks, drawers and dressers have to be empty. I guess it's a good chance to get rid of useless stuff that we haven't touched in years.

I think this will be a great summer!