The "Prince" Party

Jack Prince introduced my parents to each other 52 years ago. He was with my dad the night I was born and has been in our lives as long as I can remember. Jack celebrated his 75th birthday and these are pictures of the party. This is Jack's house in Palm Desert. It's the most fabulous house I have ever seen. The house is over 12,000 square feet. The floors and walls are either marble, granite or onyx. A water filled moat surrounds the entire house. It has it's own tennis court and guest house. The pool extends almost the entire length of the house and has a swim-to bar. The waterfall on one end is incredible. The party was great with stories about how Jack was found on the courthouse steps as an abandoned infant and grew up very poor. He turned out to be a very astute businessman in auto sales among other ventures and is now a millionaire many times over. He's married to Avis and they are celebrating 23 years of marriage. The party was a great tribute to Jack who clearly has maintained many friendships and business partnerships throughout his life.

Make a Wish and Family Weekend

These pictures are Chad (my wish kid) arriving in a limo with his family at Guitar Center for a shopping spree. Chad loves to play the drums and his favorite band is KISS. Through connections at Guitar Center a special guest was also there to greet Chad, Eric Singer who has been a drummer with KISS and many other bands. Chad got to chat with Eric, got lots of pictures and Eric had some special gifts for him too. After Eric left Chad got to work on his shopping spree. After a few hours at Guitar Center the limo picked everyone up and returned the family to Chad's house where about 50 of his friends and more family were waiting to celebrate the day with a pizza party. Chad goes to Minnesota for surgery in a few weeks and may wake up from his surgery without his leg. He has a rare form of cancer so we are hoping for the best and praying for him and his family.

The rest of the weekend was spent between visiting with my parents, spending some time visiting with Debbie and family from Arizona and watching "The Ugly Dachsund" with Mark and Amanda.

Spring is Here!

I don't understand how to strategically place the pictures on this blog. The above pictures are from Balboa Park in San Diego. Robert took me to the Annie Liebowitz photo exhibit today. Besides my friend Wendy, she is my favorite photographer and I love her work. There were over 200 photos displayed and it was fabulous! In the park there is also an International Area that has seperate houses to depict different countries. They are staffed with volunteers and everyone has food to share and fun information about the country they represent. I especially loved visiting the Ireland house. We were curious about another area of the park that was an aircraft museum but all these younger people were flocking to it. We went and discovered they were having a fashion and lifestyle show. It was geared toward a younger, more hip crowd but we enjoyed the fashion show and of course, I found some things to buy too.

I can't believe how fast time goes by! Over the past few weeks I have lost a boss that I really admired and enoyed working with overnight. He just suddenly resigned and I didn't get to say goodbye. Last week my friend and co-worker Jocelyn, that I have worked with for the past 8 years, passed away of a sudden heart attack - she was 52 years old! Kelli turned 17 and is visiting her boyfriend who lives near me so it's nice to see her more often. Last weekend I spent in Santa Barbara with Rose. I had the opportunity to stay in a great hotel overlooking downtown San Diego and the bay from the 15th floor last week for a work related conference. Friday night I went to a Casino Night for the Chamber of Commerce and won a few thousand (play dollars) on the BlackJack tables. My dealer was a dream because he sort of "advised" me when I should take a hit or stand!! One of my Make a Wish kids will be getting his wish next weekend - a shopping spree at Guitar Center and I get to participate in his wish party after the shopping spree. I met with another young lady that has cancer and we will be working on her wish over the next few weeks. My volunteer work with the Make a Wish Foundation and the Human Society is so rewarding and I meet some great people.