A year of great adventures, great friends, family and everyone else who has been part of my life this year……

01-04 – Santa Cruz Island
01-11 – Dustin’s Visit
01-15 – Caborca
01-19 – San Diego
02-02 – Salton Sea
02-08 – Downtown LA
02-15 – ZipLine!
02-18 – My First House
02-22 Death Valley
03-06 – Caborca
03-08 – Chris Brown
03-12 – Trevor Hall Concert
03-15 – Shooting
03-20 – George’s Recital
03-22 – Family Visit’s LA
03-31 – Grandma Vistit’s LA
04-02 – Beer Making
04-03 – Rack Reset
04-05 – Short Rope Rapel
04-14 – GTC Washington
04-18 – Earth Premier
04-25 – Sirin’s Garden
05-09 – Joshua Tree
05-25 – Lava Beds
05-31 – Iowa Road Trip
06-20 – San Antonio Falls
06-28 – Paintballing
07-05 – July 4th Yosemite
07-11 – Super Cloud Canyon
07-26 – Los Padres
08-02 – GTC Miami
08-09 – Robbers Roost
08-12 Ally’s Going Away
09-01 – R.I.P GG Spring
09-07 – Idyllwild Rock Climbing
09-14 – Portland and Mt. Hood
09-20 – Oregon Coast
09-27 – Bouldering in Bishop
10-02 – Mossman in LA
10-06 – Parents in LA
10-27 Beach House and Santa Barb
11-02 – Astoria and Seattle
11-08 – Sirin’s Floors
11-14 – San Antonio Falls
11-28 – TnT Joshua Tree
12-03 – Caborca
12-05 – Santee Boulders
12-10 – Mossman in Laguna
12-13 – Thanks an X-Mas
12-14 – Wino Mossman
12-26 – Christmas in Iowa

This has got to be one of the most ridiculous musicals I have ever seen! But it was definitively very interesting throughout the whole movie…

The film is a cheerful stylised musical comedy a la 8 femmes. The story happens in the guesthouse of sister Klivia in one of the Dutch towns. The inhabitants of the guesthouse are very cheerful and good-hearted persons whose open communal lifestyle is contrasted with the life of somewhat nasty and complaining neighbour behind the wall herr Boordevool. Boordevool has spent ages looking for the reasons to shut the guesthouse. One day a girl from the the guesthouse meets a nice young guy Gerrit. Sister Klivia lets Gerrit stay regardless of him being a thief. Will that give a chance to the insinuations of the neighbour?

This was a great movie overall, very interesting story, great songs (even though they were in some crazy language) and the characters were all great portrayal… Plus, it gets an extra star because of this: Yum!

I haven’t posted about a Movie in a while, mostly because I haven’t had time to watch some of my favorite genre of movie, foreign movies! But I just took some time to watch Strayed.

June 1940. German troops are advancing on Paris. Odile, a widowed teacher, succumbs to the widespread panic and, with her two children, joins the exodus from the city. Philippe is on the cusp of adolescence, Little Cathy knows only that they are going South. After fifty kilometres, a German plane attacks, decimating the helpless refugees. Odile and her children lose everything. A shaven-headed youth appears from nowhere and leads them away from the carnage. His name is Yvan, he’s seventeen years old. Cut off from the rest of the world and living in confined quarters, Odile and Yvan find themselves confronted with their own desires.

This is yet another great example of French cinema and story telling. I would highly suggest you go check it out…

Plus, how can you resist a hottie like Gaspard Ulliel swimming around in red underwear?!

Winnie Mae Spring, youngest daughter of Fred and Mary Josephine Else, was born May 30, 1911 outside of Guss, Iowa on the family farm. She left this life to rejoin her family and friends on August 29, 2009.

Winnie grew up on the farm. After her mother’s death Winnie spent her high school years with her brothers and sisters, therefore she attended several different schools and was thrilled to graduate from Corning High School in 1931. Winnie continued her education with night and summer classes and one of her proudest achievements was receiving her bachelor’s degree from Drake University in 1971.

After graduating from high school Winnie taught country school for two years before finding her life partner in Clyde Spring. They were united in marriage on December 28, 1932 in Maryville, Missouri. The pair were blessed with 5 children,Clytha, Berdine, Janette, Larry, and Reldon.

In 1961 Clyde and Winnie became members of the Prescott Order of the Eastern Star. Together they traveled many miles attending meetings and functions. Winnie served as Worthy Matron in 1986, 1989, and 1990. As well as serving as Worthy Matron she held a variety of other positions in Eastern Star. She served as Grand Warder from1989-1990 and traveled extensively all over Iowa with her traveling companion Ellen Grace Brown. She enjoyed meeting up with her fellow officers who served with her and the group-who dubbed themselves the Peanut Clusters-had regular reunions. They just had their annual gathering in August 2009 which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Clyde and Winnie farmed for several years near Guss and Corning, Iowa before they purchased a farm north of Prescott in 1944 where they lived for 31 years. While living on the farm Winnie always grew a big garden and canned lots of her garden treats. Winnie returned to teaching school in 1953 and taught country school for 5 years before taking a position teaching 7th grade at Prescott and retired there in 1975.

After retirement Clyde and Winnie moved to Las Vegas, NV for two years. They decided to move back to Iowa and built a home in Lenox. After their retirement they enjoyed traveling and visiting family all over the country.

Winnie was an active member in the Prescott Methodist Church and later the Lenox United Methodist Church. She served as Circle Leader and U.M.W. President and found greeters for each Sunday’s service for over 10 years.

Winnie was an avid card player and whenever friends and family gathered she could be counted on for a game of cards. She loved to tell jokes and make others laugh. She enjoyed reading and writing and could always be counted on to have a good book on hand to share. She enjoyed quilting and made many quilts for her friends and family. Winnie was a wonderful cook and her family especially enjoyed her roast and noodles and delicious pies, especially her rhubarb and peach.

Winnie was a devoted and loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother, great-great grandmother, and friend. Her family and friends will always remember her unfailing kindness and wonderful sense of humor.

Welcoming her to her new life are husband Clyde; Winnie’s parents, Fred and Mary Josephine Else; her siblings Bessie Lewis, Erma Clowser, Myrtle Corbin, Lester Else, Francis Else, Cassie Foster, Archie Else, and Victor Else; daughter Janette Johnson; grandson Curtis Johnson; father and mother-in-law John and Cora Spring; and son-in-law Kenneth Black. Left to cherish Winnie’s memory are her children; Clytha Black of Lenox, IA , Berdine (Florence) Spring of Palm Desert, CA, Larry (Diane) Spring of Lenox, Iowa, Reldon (Lometa) Spring of Las Vegas, NV, and son-in-law Larry Johnson of Fontanelle, IA. Nine grandchildren; Janell Black, Jim (Peggy) Black, Sheila Mansfield, Raymond(Teresa) Johnson, Belinda (Robert) Lawson, Pam Spring, Tony Spring, Paul (Sara) Spring, Sheri(Jack) Shores. Ten great-grandchildren; Rebecca Weaver Armes (Neil), Chris Black, Andy Black, Paige Lawson, Justine Lawson, Bailey Shores, Logan Shores, Joseph Spring, Derek Spring, Josh Spring, and one great-great granddaughter Keira Hauser. Sister-in-law and husband Ed and Marge Naven of Lenox, IA. Also many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

My landlord and new neighbor are douche bags!

On Monday I get the following email from my landlord:

Please remove boards and briquets from near or around the mail box area. You can store these items in front of your parking spot.

The barbques that are stored near the mailboxes should be kept out of the walkway otherwise they will have to be removed.

There are two planters on the sidewalk that will need to be remove to the opposite side of the building as they cannot be put on the landings or in the planters. If not removed within the next week I will have the gardeners remove them to the opposite side of the building. Whomever owns them, please contact me upon receipt of this.

Ok. I have lived in this apartment complex for THREE YEARS and these items have ALWAYS been in the SAME FUCKING SPOT that they have been. They are community BBQ’s that people use whenever they want to BBQ. They are NOT in the way of anyone moving about, coming or going of anything. The planters are MINE and are located DIRECTLY under my window of my apartment as to obscure the UGLY plantings that he has in our planting beds.

So then I get home and find a NOTE on my door.

Please remove the door mat from infront of my door

Again. I have lived here for THREE years, my door mat is a red ISU door mat. (See picture) As you can see it is in NO WAY offensive, overly large, bulky, in the way, covering up someone else’s decorative door mat, etc. So why on EARTH would ANYONE complain about it?

So then I sent my landlord an email saying that if he didn’t take care of this issue I would be moving out. So then I get this reply from him:

The way the building was built, they probably thought mat’s were 1/2 the size of what is normal now. so each apt could have a door mat. Seeing that this is not the case.

I have been in touch with #4 and what I suggest is for him to buy a mat your size each of you can have a door mat, but so each is not touching it seems 1/2 the mat will be off center of the door.

If this will not work for either of you, than I suggest that one mat be put in place that I think would work to settle this situation.

Some compromise will have to be agreed on and please email me concerning this.

REALLY. Are you FUCKING kidding me!? So I actually have TWO door mats, one is just a plain peice of carpet that is the exact same size as the red one. This morning I come out of my door and my “neighbor” has taken it and placed it DIRECTLY in front of his door and ONTOP of mine. Excuse me? Now you are TAKING my door mats?

UGH. Who is this fucking guy that he has such a fucking problem over a god damn door mat. I could understand if it made some offensive joke or wording, but all it says is “ISU Cyclones”. It’s not blocking his door, he has NO door mat with ANY fucking wording on it, etc. So what the FUCK is his god damn problem!?

UGH. I am moving. I need a new apartment ASAP. I cannot deal with this douche bag!