Today...what have you been up to? [2] (4 Viewers)

[Joan]

It's sunny again here today, still a bit chilly though. I agree with Angie's remark that just a couple of days with no rain and hot temps would have the authorities shouting hose pipe ban.

 

[A Guy]

We used to get decent amounts of rain in certain months, but it has been years since we had normal rainfall. We also get our water from the Sierra's, so snow pack is very important, and that is way below average for years as well. We usually have average highs between say, 55 and 70 depending on month. We do see some lows, and of course days in the 80's, even 90's and occasional 100's. We usually get some of our best weather in September and October. All over, the weather here is very mild, no real "seasons". We live between the Pacific and SF Bay, so the water controls the weather. You can drive 10 minutes south, and have the temps be 10 degrees higher. Mild weather is a selling point, and part of the reason it is so expensive to live here.

http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/California/San_Mateo_County-heat_map/

A Guy

 

[Angie]

What you probably class as mild is probably moderate summer to us , crikey you weren't joking on the house prices I like the fact the first one started at $13m oh yes please we'll have too of those. Over here London is a very expensive place to live and we're the same down south they have great weather but also mass flooding depending on the area and we are slightly colder in temp than where we used to be although we do seem to have seasons now even the occasional snow.

Got to go now as I have a workshop to teach.

 

[Joan]

House prices are ridiculous in a lot of places, even down here people who were born and bred in the area can't afford to buy somewhere to live. That's especially true in Tenby because it's a holiday resort during the summer and lots of people buy second homes, or if they do manage to build new homes they are way over the limit of what young people can afford and of course they don't have the stock of council houses after they were allowed to be sold off.

 

[Angie]

I know what you mean Joan, the houses prices now are astronomical. I do know that in certain places/countries that you are only allowed to sell them to people who grew up in the area to prevent people buying up houses as holiday homes. I must admit I feel sorry for the youth of today as they have to save for many years to to get even a tiny house. I'm so glad that we bought when we did and even we couldn't afford that back then, our neighbours children couldn't even afford to get on the property ladder.

I'm feeling a little more energised and organised this week I have finally organised my office to resemble that of an office rather than a dumping ground. There was that much stuff in there at one point I had to usher John out the door because I was feeling boxed in. Now it's like a summer breeze lol , the flow of the room is tons better, I have space around me and I found some baking books that I didn't know I had. :nerd: Whilst I was sorting that out I let Hannah loose with the hoover in her room! She was really impressed with herself and she even moved her couch to clean underneath it, at a girl!

 

[Joan]

Well done Hannah.

Glad you've got your office sorted out, Johns tends to be a tip but mine isn't as bad but is used as a storage place as well as my office. Got my desk, filing cabinet, printer table and a wall of shelves, then there's a couple of shredders a fridge and in one corner my stock of kitchen towels and toilet rolls.

That's the only problem with this bungalow, no storage.

 

[Angie]

Lol! When I read that quickly Joan I thought you had kitchen rolls in your fridge!

:roflmao:

I cannot believe the difference it has made, I now have a book shelf for my books and I found books I didn't know I had so Han and I ended up getting all inspired by them and we have made a list of things we want to make at Easter.

 

[Joan]

It's surprising what you find when you start to have a clear out, sounds like we'll see some new goodies in the gallery, can't wait.

 

[Angie]

Yeah Han and I are going to do some Easter creations hopefully before Easter if we can what with it being on Friday! I'm surprised she hasn't drawn out the designs yet although I'm sure she will.

 

[Angie]

I've been a busy bee of late, I have now finished my classes for Easter and am currently working on the Workshop/Cupcake Decorating classes of my site. I have been adding icons in to make it a little more user friendly and also it gives the user a more visual view of the courses on offer. I've also decided that I seem to get more traffic and views if I use the term class instead of workshop so I'm in the process of rewording everything. :nerd:

Check out the Cupcake Decorating Classes Section and let me now what you think. Joan you'll be on quick glance spell check.

 

[Joan]

Looks great Angie and I like the Avatars at the side of each section. Only brought up the section that had places left and I didn't see any spelling mistakes.
:thumbs:

 

[Angie]

Thanks Joan, I've wanted to do it for ages and have been asking John how I can make it more visual. I'm really pleased with the results even though it has taken me two days to finalise it. :nerd:

Now I am adding in by-lines to all my featured articles and trying to get creative with the descriptions, :unsure: I have also added a cake pop tutorial too.

I think I will surprise Hannah after school today and take her to the pictures to see this.....

[video=youtube;iLGDJkhYnVc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLGDJkhYnVc[/video]

 

[Joan]

I just looked at that tutorial, yummy.

Didn't play the video as things are running slow at present.

I went into my VM to start 10 then decided to do the updates which included the new preview. It was taking too long to download it all and I had to shut it down last night. Started up this morning and started the updates again, it took over where it left off, a defender update and the preview. It's doing the install now but I got fed up waiting so minimised the VM and left it to get on with it so I could visit my forums, didn't fancy going down to my office but wish I had because things are running slow.

Might have to forget most things today till everything's finished installing so if you don't see me around the forums don't worry I'm still here but don't want to stress this notebook too much.

 

[Angie]

So have you finished installing yet? John had that the other day, it took him ages to sort his PC out. Thanks for letting me know though, I do worry when you've not been around.

We've had a busy day today, we watched a movie this morning, nipped to my Mum and Dads and made some lollipop cookies. We even managed to devour an Easter egg and taste test some of the cookies too. Han did some shaped cookies but when it came out of the oven I inadvertently taste tested her egg shaped one. She questioned me over it and I fessed up! She forgave me though lol!

 

[Joan]

I'm still trying, that time it was supposed to be doing the install and it suddenly disappeared. I swore at it and went back to the host OS. Next time I went to 10 it was going back to the previous version so still no upgrade. Tried a couple of times but it's just told me it couldn't do it and gave me an error message, 0x80246007.

Started it up this morning went to Windows Update in 10 and it started the download for the new preview, it's still downloading and at 75% at present.

I went to a few of my forums via my Kindle as I'm getting fed up with waiting, but I've come here from 10 while I'm still waiting for the download to finish. I have no idea if it will work after, if it doesn't I might give up and just stick with the 10041 preview, I so wanted to try out the new browser Spartan but I've not got time to mess around.

Sounds like you had a busy time, and naughty Mummy beating Hannah to the tasting.

 

[Angie]

Oh dear me Joan, have you not thrown it out of the window yet? Has it finally finished installing or have you just pulled the plug on it? I think when new technology and software comes out it should be made simpler whereby it can be implemented in less time than it takes to make a brew. I swear you need a tech degree to set up TV's and PC's and iPad's these days. I thought they were supposed to be making life simpler for us not harder!

We have been a little busy over the past few days, as well as devouring Easter Eggs we have also been out to Haigh Hall for the day. It was a lovely warm day and the kids even managed a ride on the miniature train there. We had a picnic on the bench, Linda got a parking ticket and the kids had great fun all round. Here are the pics...





Oh yes Joan Han has forgiven me for the taste test of her Vanilla Cookies.

 

[Angie]

Today we have been to the Roller Rink, it has been many years since I have skated and after a few wobbles I finally found my feet. Han really enjoyed it and only managed to fall once, the fall came after her famous last words of 'Guess what Mum I haven't fallen yet!'

We did have a lot of fun even though Han bounced a little , she also saw a few of her school friends too. We weren't allowed to use mobiles on the rink so this is the best photo I can do. This was just before we were about to leave.

 

[Joan]

Today we have been to the Roller Rink, it has been many years since I have skated and after a few wobbles I finally found my feet. Han really enjoyed it and only managed to fall once, the fall came after her famous last words of 'Guess what Mum I haven't fallen yet!'

We did have a lot of fun even though Han bounced a little , she also saw a few of her school friends too. We weren't allowed to use mobiles on the rink so this is the best photo I can do. This was just before we were about to leave.

View attachment 2635

What a pity you couldn't take any photo's they would have been great, glad you had a good time. The skating I did mainly when younger was ice skating not roller skating, well it was ice at a rink but the streets on the roller skates.

 

[A Guy]

Wow, roller rink, been decades! Did you do the Hokey Pokey? That's what it's all about...

A Guy

 

[Angie]

Ha ha, we used to go to the Ice Rink when we were teens as the roller rinks had shut down then. I had a few wobbles until I maintained my balance and they I managed to build up my speed and confidence. I was determined not to fall as I had my phone in my back pocket. I think the no phone use on the rink is a safety aspect which is fair enough as there are lots of different age ranges. Hats off to the Dad's too who were in skates and roller skating against the outer edge of the rink.

Han fell once but did really well, we did go a while ago but they were shut so at least this time we got on the rink. It was great fun and it took me back to my youth, I even did a few rolling motions with my legs. We had the whizzy skaters flying by and those that can skate backwards which is something I never mastered. I think we will definitely go again though, as for hokey pokey, we do the hokey cokey Bill and then we turn around that's what it's all about. Sing with me.....