In about 15 minutes, a public community TV station will broadcast live our city council meeting. I don't want to miss the broadcast because a lot of feathers ought to be flying at some point of the meeting. One of major issues is back on the table to discuss: An appeal to stop the construction of  a building for condos and retail stores, as well as a building for the local community foundation on  a block in downtown Hollister that has been vacant since the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. That's all I'll say so I can get my tortilla chips and lemonade before the meeting starts. I''ve created two photo collages for Mosaic Monday , a meme hosted by Angie of Letting Go of the Bay Leaf . The light switch covers I painted in May are the subject of the top photo collage while the faces in rocks off the side of highway make up this second collage. For the latter's inspiration check out the highway wall photo (last one) in yesterday's post . Click here t

Now that the Husband's eyes have healed from his cataract surgeries, he can drive again. And, that means I can be a passenger again . Last Wednesday was his first time back at highway driving. Yippieeee! I took out my pocket camera and clicked away at the passing scenery. These first two photos are of hardworking men and women harvesting greens, possibly romaine, in San Juan Valley, outside of San Juan Bautista.     You're looking at drivers heading north on Highway 101, just pass the exit to San Juan Bautista. Yup, I click away at nearly everything and anything. So is the advantage and luxury of shooting pictures with a digital camera. We were heading south on Highway 101. Did you ever see Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo ? He shot a driving scene through this grove of eucalyptus trees. Part of the movie was set in the old mission city of San Juan Bautista. FYI: Hitchcock built his own mission tower for the movie. There's usually congestion around

1. I just turned on the computer so as to maybe write a post. How long has it been? 2. A City water department employee told me over the phone that the $150 credit on our utility bill was for the deposit we placed when we opened the account, which is returned after three years at an address. I don't remember forking over $150, nor does the Husband. 3. I called the car rental place for a pick-up. It's a free service, so why not? We've been renting cars the past few months to get to the Husband's eye appointments up in the crazy freeway world of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Husband's cataracts were destroyed and he can now see 20/30 in his right eye and 20/25 in his left eye without glasses. 4. Sudoku is my newest addiction. I did 5 or 6 puzzles this morning. Yesterday, lovely friend L dropped by with a Sudoku puzzle magazine in LARGE Print. Whoooo-hoooo! 5. Pride vs. Prejudice  by Joan Hess is what I'm currently reading. Today I learned that the woman accuse

Dear Blogging Friends, Half an hour ago I removed a bunch of spam comments that were put on my blog today. Click. Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOO! I removed the last 100 comments. Aaaaaaaaak! I found instructions for restoring deleted comments that made my eyes roll. Fortunately for me I have copies of most of your wonderful comments in my email box. Alas, not from Birgit, Adam, and others whose comments, for unknown reasons, don't get sent to my email box. So, if you don't see your comments on the more recent posts, you now know why. Please know, I am very, very sorry. Sighingly, Su- sieee ! Mac

Whooo-hoooo! Five books. Five books. Five books. A happy song for me. I bought five books, a buck a book, from the local Friends of the Library the other day. It took all of five minutes, a minute a book, to decide I wanted them. Hurrah, hurrah! Molly the Cat likes the titles, too.  So it seems. I'm still working on Anne Perry's latest Daniel Pitt novel, Triple Jeopardy , set in London in the early 1900s . If you read Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, which was based in the 19th century at the end of Queen Victoria's reign, you may like the Daniel Pitt series. Daniel is a 20-ish attorney who is Charlotte's and Thomas's son. So far, his parents play a minor, but still very important, role in the series. Once I'm done with Triple Jeopardy , I'll start on one of the five books. Which shall be first: Everything is Beautiful , by Mira T. Lee; Pride vs. Prejudice , by Joan Hess; Major Pettigrew's Last Stand , by Helen Simonson; I Fe

Snip, snip, snip. The past two mornings I've been trimming the daisy bushes in the front yard. A lot of daisies to be deadheaded. I chose to wait for the California poppies to go to seed before starting the task, so I reasoned. Snip, snip, snip. Glub, glub, glub. A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird has been Molly the Cat's and my companion these past mornings. She, the hummingbird, loves drinking the flowers of the Hot Lips Littleleaf Sage by the driveway. Cool name, Hot Lips. Remember Major Hot Lips Houlihan? Click, click, click. "Want to see a hummingbird's nest?" I asked, as I plucked the camera out of the bowl in the hallway. The Husband got up from the breakfast table and followed me out the door. I discovered the nest minutes before in the tree in the front yard. That's an upside to deadheading daisies. I think the hummingbird was used to my presence because she didn't seem to mind that I was standing nearby. Click, click

Earlier this week the Husband and I attended the funeral service for dear friend J's sister, Rosie, who was much loved by her family and friends. Two of her nieces told loving, funny, and cheerful Rosie stories to us all there. They called Rosie the fun-loving auntie who, from their stories, you can tell the nieces thought of as their second mother. It was heart-warming to hear as I'm childless as well, and, once was the fun-loving auntie.  That's life sometimes, bittersweet. The family considered Rosie to be the lumpia king. She made the best and it sounded like she always kept lumpia (similar to an eggroll, for those who've never tasted lumpia) in the freezer ready to fry at any time of day or night. Hearing all that talk about lumpia got me wanting some so when the Husband and I got home, I took out lumpia wrappers and leftover lumpia filling from the freezer. I managed to roll sixteen lumpias from the mix. Hurrah! But what do I do with the rest of the wrapp