Archive for the 'Gormish News' Category

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The Latest

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

Merry Christmas to all!

Cody enjoyed Christmas. His present was in a box which he opened in order to get to his stuffed squeaky dog.

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Afterwards, he was a very tired puppy.

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Mike’s family came to visit us for the holidays. We went to the beach, Marine Mammal Center and Huddart Park for archery.

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Cody enjoyed all the family time but also really likes just snuggling at the end of the day.

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Cut and Color

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

OK. It’s been so long I have to refigure out how to post on here!

I got a cut and color today. It’s the first time I’ve every colored my hair. It was getting full of quite a bit of white. For inquiring minds here it the new look:

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It was called Light Brown. Lots of people are commenting on how the like it but I am thinking it is darker than what I want.

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European Vacation Photos

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

A few photos from our trip to northern Italy and southern France.

We started in Florence, Italy taking in Brunelleschi’s dome for the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fior. The cathedral complex includes the Baptistry and Giotto’s Campanile.

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We also did a lot of walking the streets of Florence and visiting the Uffizi Gallery, one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world which is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi.

One of my favorite aspects about being in Italy (and France) was eating Gelato every day – OK, maybe twice per day. Gelato stores are readily available with an incredible array of flavors.

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From Florence we took the train to Vernazza. On the way, we stopped at the quiet Renaissance town of Lucca, which still has its city walls intact. Much different from the chaos of Florence!

Maybe my favorite time on the whole trip was the two nights in Vernazza and the wonderful Cinque Terra. There’s only one real street in Vernazza where cars and trucks come down in the morning for deliveries. The rest of the day it and the side alleys all over town are pedestrian areas. This is the “road”/alley to our room in Vernazza.

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One day we hiked the Cinque Terre trail from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare. Then, we rode the train to the far end of the hike, Riomaggiore and walked back to Vernazza. The trail was easier in some areas than others. The hardest parts were the thin terraced trail from Vernazza to Monterosso and the climb up the 450 steps to the hill town of Corniglia. The views at every turn were fabulous and worth all the effort.

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Vernazza

Every day we ate a simple breakfast that we bought ourselves at a local store. We usually ate croissants, another bread item and orange juice. Lunch was often eaten quickly while we were changing trains or hiking. It was usually a hearty bread with meat and cheese. Dinner was always at an outdoor cafe. The weather was always perfect for an outdoor meal.

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Cafe in Nimes, France

From Italy we spent a long day traveling to Avignon, France. We took a trip to Nimes to see some Roman ruins including the Colosseum.

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In Avignon we visited the Pope’s Palace, the Pont d’Avignon and the city park. The old city is surrounded by a wall such as seen in this photo.

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We also visited the laundromat in Avignon, figuring out how to read French directions and use the machines.

Next, we visited Arles, France – just a bit south of Avignon. There were Roman ruins there as well as a Colosseum. We got to enter this Colosseum and see it from the inside as well. The outside is being restored. Look at this picture. Can you tell which side has been restored?!

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We headed back to the southern coast and visited Cassis, France. Here’s the view of the harbor from our hotel balcony. The Mediterranean sea is to the right.

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Our goal in Cassis was to relax and visit the Calanques. We had planned to hike but our tired feet needed a rest so we took a boat tour instead to visit the calanques.

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We set off next for Nice, France. We were derailed by a French train strike. We had to be re-routed and the trip took longer than planned. The main consequence of this was that 1) we didn’t get to go to Monaco and 2) we were getting really tired of train travel.

Nice had a great old town with a wonderful market.

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The promenade in Nice is also a great way to walk and view the ocean.

From Nice we took the narrow gauge railroad Chemins de Fer de Provence to the medieval looking town of Entrevaux in the French Alps. We climbed the 500 feet uphill to the old citadel.

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Today is our anniversary. Happy 20 years!!!

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In this photo we are standing on the bridge over the Var river, which is the access to the town of Entrevaux.

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When we exited the back of the citadel, we found a marked trail. We decided to do some hiking and followed the trail about another 500 feet uphill. We had a great view of the Var river and the countryside around it.

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We finished our trip by returning to Italy. We spent a day in Milan, shopping for gifts, walking the shopping district and climbing to the top of the gothic Duomo.

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We had a great vacation. It was tiring but we saw lots of cool things and ate great food. Our airplane ride home was the most disappointing part of the trip. One piece of Mike’s luggage got left in Italy by the airlines and we had to wait 3 hours in D.C. for a thunderstorm to pass. We got home at 10:30 p.m., very tired. The girls were very happy to see us return. Jennifer would not let go of me when she hugged me at the airport. It is nice to be missed.

These are 21 of the over 400 photographs I saved from the trip. Happy scrapping to come!

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Self Portrait Tag

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

I’ve been tagged by my dear friend Sue. The assignment is to immediately take a self-portrait. It was nighttime and I was due for a haircut the next day, but here I go…

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I took this using the self-timer on my digital SLR. I propped it up on a table and leaned over on the floor to get the shot.

The rules of this tag are:

Take a picture of your self right now, no primping or preparing. Just snap a picture.
Load onto your blog.
Tag 3 people to play…remember if you are tagged on another blog we will all be heading to yours to see if you played along.

I’m tagging Ramona, Tracy and Donna

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365 Project Week #4

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Here’s the summary of last week:

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Denise Gormish: Template

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids, designerdigitals
Ali Edwards: Day + Month Labels Brushes,
designerdigitals

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What’s Cooking 12/2/08 and LIFE

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

LIFE has been wild around here. Jennifer has been filling our life with soccer! In the outdoor arena, her team won the Redwood City championship. That filled one weekend. Then, she decided to do an indoor soccer tournament. That was another weekend of 6 games in 3 days. These girls who had never played indoor soccer took second place in a tri-city tournament! And this weekend is the outdoor area tournament. I *think* we will get a bit of soccer break after that!

Since the girls had the entire week of Thanksgiving off, we decided to go to Disneyland Sunday-Wednesday. We had a great time. I’ve still got over 100’s of pictures to edit…

Then, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now, I am catching up, planning Girl Scouts for two troops and getting us ready for the holidays. 23 items on my TO DO list yesterday. 11 left to do today. Making progress!

Monday: Beef Stroganoff with noodles, sweet corn and grapefruit slices

Tuesday: Chicken Teriyaki with rice and peas

Wednesday: Pizza

Thursday: Penne Pasta with Italian Style Meat Sauce, bread and salad

Friday: Tater Tot Casserole, roasted beets, and glazed carrots

Saturday: Ricoh party for Mike and I; steamed potatoes with toppings for the girls

Sunday: Turkey Tetrazzini

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Severe Weather Alert

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

From the Weather Channel:

...POSSIBLE RECORD BREAKING TEMPERATURES ON TAP FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO AND
MONTEREY BAY AREAS THROUGH SATURDAY...

THE COMBINATION OF STRONG HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT AND OFFSHORE FLOW
WILL USHER IN VERY WARM TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES MAY APPROACH RECORD
LEVELS IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS OF THE FORECAST AREA FRIDAY AND
SATURDAY. HIGH TEMPERATURES COULD REACH THE UPPER 70S TO MIDDLE
80S...EVEN ALONG THE COAST. THESE TEMPERATURES ARE 10 TO 20
DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL FOR MID NOVEMBER. TEMPERATURES WILL BEGIN TO
COOL ON SUNDAY AS HIGH PRESSURE WEAKENS AND A SEA BREEZE DEVELOPS.

PEOPLE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES THROUGH THE WEEKEND SHOULD
TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE VERY WARM TEMPERATURES AND ADJUST
ACTIVITIES ACCORDINGLY. WEAR LOOSE FITTING LIGHT WEIGHT CLOTHING
AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SHADE AND AIR
CONDITIONING IF AVAILABLE.

I guess we’ll have to be very careful of the SEVERE weather around here at Jennifer’s Saturday soccer game.

I love California weather…

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What's Cooking 10/09/08

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Sunday: Beef Stroganof with noodles, corn and grapes

Monday: Corned Beef with cabbage, red potatoes & carrots and cantaloupe

Tuesday: Manicotti, garlic bread and salad

Wednesday: Dinner at PACC plus a treat for Mike’s birthday – Triple Chocolate Truffle Cake

Thursday: Restaurant of Mike’s choice

Friday: Submarine Sandwiches

Saturday: Pad Thai, Thai Chili Beef, pineapple, kiwi and white rice

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08 Election

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Here’s a quick layout to record our family’s feelings about the election of Barack Obama.  The title and red quote comes from one of my all-time favorite songs, The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby. By total coincidence, Hornsby is my maiden last name.

Journaling:

That’s just the way it is; Some things will never change.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008. It was history in the making. We played our small part. We prayed. We voted. We waited. I camped out in front of the TV sorting laundry and ironing while waiting for the election results. Mike and Jaclyn walked through the front door, coming home from her soccer game, and sat down. Right after the polls in CA closed, it was announced that Barack Obama had enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Celebrations erupted all around the country. John McCain followed with a classy and gracious concession speech.
It was getting late for the girls but they pressed us to let them watch Barack Obama’s speech. We agreed. All eyes fixed on Grant Park in Chicago. I couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgia for Chicago at that moment. I couldn’t help but feel the unity among all Americans at that moment. I couldn’t help but think that something special was happening here in our country.
Barack Obama appeared on the stage and spoke like a leader with intelligence, gentleness and humility yet firm and full of belief in the people of our beautiful country. The girls listened. My heart felt joy. Tears formed in Mike’s eyes.
“And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope. For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”
Change has indeed come to America.

That’s just the way it is; But don’t you believe them.

Digital products from: http://www.designerdigitals.com

Katie Pertiet: Playtime Layered Template
Jesse Edwards: Happy Harvest Solids, Clean and Serene Solids and Fabric Overlays
Fonts: You Are Loved and Garamond. Images and logo from the internet.

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What’s Cooking 11/2/08

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Sunday: Rib-eye steak with Cream Biscuits and Pineapple Chunks

Monday: Tacos with Guacamole, Tomatillo Salsa and Refried Beans

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes with Cauliflower Gratin and a mix of Blackberries and Raspberries

Wednesday: Pizza Night at PACC

Thursday: Manicotti with Green Salad and Garlic Bread

Friday: Chicken Breasts and Mushroom Sauce with Roasted Beets and Celery Sticks

Saturday: Chicken and Apple Sausage with Green Salad, Glazed Carrots and Apple Slices