Gemini Rising (Book)

about 6 hours ago
In response to "Sad News about Jackie the Eagle "

Thanks Webbie. I'll miss watching Jackie, too. Now, I gotta watch to see what Shadow does.

𝓦𝓮𝓫W𝓲𝓽𝓬𝓱

about 14 hours ago
In response to "Sad News about Jackie the Eagle "

Awwwww! RIP, Jackie.

Thank you for the update, Steph. I''ll miss watching Jackie videos.

a day ago
In response to "Catching up with Vegas "

You summed it up in a nutshell. The whole experience was great and memories and experiences mean a lot. It's nice we have pictures and videos to capture it - and I did win a Silver medal in Team for my division so I was pumped about that. I bowled good that day. I bowled good on doubles and decent on singles.

JACE

a day ago
In response to "Catching up with Vegas "

Isn't it great to go some place fun, meet up with old friends, and spend time doing all the things you love to do. Sounds like your trip was a huge success (even though you didn't win at bowling). Even the trip to and from was fun.

Aug 9, 2026 at 8:06pm
In response to "Today in a nutshell"

Thank you guys for stopping by and maintaining your streaks...

𝓦𝓮𝓫W𝓲𝓽𝓬𝓱

Aug 8, 2026 at 10:18am
In response to "Today in a nutshell"

That's why I'm here! Streaks and all.

Enjoy your stay, and play!

...

Soldier_Mike

Aug 7, 2026 at 11:53pm
In response to "Today in a nutshell"

Knew you'd put a string together!

{/font }

Soldier_Mike

Aug 6, 2026 at 11:26pm
In response to "Day 1 at the NV Police & Fire Games! "

Congrats on the 176 and 193! Maybe you can get subbed out for the divisible-by-3 games?

Have a great time!

Aug 6, 2026 at 8:33pm
In response to "Busy Stuff & Mediums "

The trip to Nevada went well. Good travels. Joey did lose his airpods case at the gas stop but we got him another one here at the apple store in Vegas.

The bowling team did good. We won 2nd place in our division!

I am a tad skeptic as well too. But I'd rather believe if you give me a good reason.

Madelyn Stone

Aug 5, 2026 at 12:43am
In response to "Busy Stuff & Mediums "

Safe travels and have a fantastic trip to Vegas!!
If for some reason you do anything embarrassing, just remember - what happens there, stays there, right?

I think there is more to Earth than we can possibly imagine and sometimes we get glimpses of it. So, yes I believe in stuff like psychic abilities. I am also a skeptic, so things on tv make me suspicious, since it could be faked pretty easily. If it was in person (still possible to fake it), I would be more apt to believe it might be real.
I do understand enjoying the shows though.

The book and Star City both sound interesting. Yay for the dog having a vacation, too! And for the couch being safe!

August 11, 2026 at 5:42am

#1120988

Space

Here I sit in front of my blog with my chocolate Premier Protein wondering what to write.

I've been interested in Space lately. I've always enjoy Star Trek the original series. And the reboot with Chris Pine was interesting. I liked the Next Generation. DP9 and Voyager were okay and I haven't watched anything after that.

I liked Star Wars the original trilogy. The prequel was okay the Disney stuff was awful.

I was fascinated with Artemis II visiting the moon. Looks like Artemis III has a revised mission - Rather than landing on the Moon, the four-astronaut crew will test critical rendezvous, communications, and docking systems with commercial lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin to prepare for the Artemis IV lunar landing.

Personally speaking, I don't know why Blue Origin is even in the equation. All their stuff sucks. They had a rocket explode back in May on the launch pad. Katy Perry and her friends went sub-orbital, back in 2025. Honestly, Space X is where it's at. And what about Boeing's Starliner? That POS stranded a couple of astronauts at the space station.

If it ain't Space X or NASA it's shit.

That said, I believe Nasa did something similar with the Apollo program - testing rendezvous, comms, and docking systems in LEO before sending Apollo 11 to the moon.

It's just a shame we have to re-do everything after 50 years. If anything, It's probably better with all the technological advances in the past 50 years.

Artemis IV will land humans on the moon. I'd like to do a dive in to the Soviet/Russian space program and see where it's at. Curious is all.

Sad News about Jackie the Eagle

August 10, 2026 at 6:51pm

#1120967

Guys, if you were a Jackie & Shadow Fan I have sad news. Jackie passed away this morning. Here's a clip:

Jackie was 14 years old. She was born in 2012 to "Ricky and Lucy" who also lived in Big Bear. They had another nest in Big Bear but that nest blew away while they were working on it so they made a new nest - the one that Jackie and Shadow use now. In the fall of 2016 Ricky and Lucy flew away. Since they weren't tagged no one knew were they went.

But, believe it or not, their chick, Jackie stayed in Big Bear. I guess it's not typical for Eagles to do that.

Jackie mated in Big Bear with Mr. B and they had a chick, named Stormy, but when Shadow showed up, Jackie kicked Mr. B to the curb. Jackie and Shadow have laid a lot of eggs since 2018, but only 6 have hatched where the eaglets fledged - Simba and Spirit, Sunny and Gizmo, Sandy and Luna. (Simba and Stormy were reported deceased by Fish and Game)

In late July, Jackie was injured and couldn't fly. She was seen swimming out of the water and hanging out on the shore before she was attacked by two eagle sub-adults. Thankfully some good human Samaritans saved her and took her to Fish & Game who took her to the Ojai Raptor Center.

The Ojai Raptor center determined she was anemic, with a low PVC count and had kidney inflammation. (Anemia and low PVC might be the result of the 2nd clutch she had which produced Sandy and Luna after she lost the first clutch this year) They did a lot of tests, gave her a blood transfusion and tried to get her PVC count up but couldn't and they reported she passed away early this morning.

What did I get out of watching Jackie the eagle?

Well, I learned a lot of about eagles. I was very impressed at how monogamous Jackie and Shadow were - but I also realized they could have their love triangles too. I followed some eagles in Wisconsin called the Trempealeau Eagles and that was pure soap opera. Mr. T was boffing a side hustle leaving Mrs. T to care for TE3, TE4, and TE5. Sadly 4 and 5 died when Mrs. T had to go hunting for food because it was still pretty damn cold in Wisconsin.

Eagles love fish. They love to improve on their nest and bring all kinds of sticks to make it better. Eagles can handle a little cold and snow (Eaglets cannot). Eagles will eat rodents. Eagles have to watch the nest carefully or Ravens might eat the eggs.

But most of all, what I learned from Jackie is that taking care of the environment THE RIGHT WAY is so important. I want the Eagles to have a good home but they can only have a good home if we humans are good stewards of the environment.

RIP Jackie

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August 9, 2026 at 8:30pm

#1120926

What makes Someone a BOOB?

Not that I really want all my business to hang out there, but Andy picked up a church bulletin today while I was coming back from Vegas. Next week they are saying a mass in honor of my mother and they spelled her name wrong. They spelled "Stephan" instead of "Stephanie" Sigh.... I'll call tomorrow and get it fixed. Still, it's the stress of doing it and hoping the boob on the other end of the line actually fixes it.

Day 1 at the NV Police & Fire Games!

August 9, 2026 at 8:02pm

#1120923

Catching up with Vegas

I'm back from the Nevada Police and Fire Games and oh, what a great experience! Mind you, I had a challenging time trying to keep up with my Daily 5 because after the first day the WiFi at the hotel would not work well and it took forever to load stuff.

Weds was our travel day to Vegas. The trip out was nice. Typically it takes 4 1/2 hours to get to Vegas non stop, but we stopped by Peggy Sue's the 50's diner just outside of Barstow. Brent and I spilt a Pastrami on Rye sandwich and it was delicious. I had a strawberry shake this time. Fab. Honestly, it's a time warp, but the food is worth it.

We got to the Palms around 430 pm, got settled in and I was happy with the room. We were on the 8th floor and had a frig and a Keurig. That's all I need, really. I brought a gallon size of cheerios and we went to Target for milk and bread so I could make sandwiches for lunch.

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant off the strip. It was one of the BEST Mexican places I've eaten at. Great ambience. I had a house margarita, 3 sopes with carne asade and we had chips, salsa and refried beans for an appetizers. Everything was delicious and reasonably priced.

At 930 pm Brent took me to the Orleans for bowling practice with the team. We caught up with some old friends, Debbie Willits was there - she retired in 2012 at 55. She was bowling in the competition but hurt her arm and only bowled in the team category. Megan Peer came. She's retired. Megan McKeever came - retired. Yoshi and Darrell came - retired and Pam came - retired. It was really nice to see everyone come and cheer us on.

We won team and the next day, Christie and Lori won 1st place in Doubles. The bowling alley is nice and well laid out. The house shot was decent. The third day Christie won 2nd place in her category but me, Sunshine and Lori didn't medal. Still, we had a blast bowling - but I will tell you - bowling 5 games in a row takes A LOT out of you. By the time I got back to hotel room yesterday I was exhausted.

Brent and I had a nice dinner with Pam and her husband the 2nd night at yard house and the 3rd night the team and the cheerleaders - 11 of us in all went to yard house for a nice dinner. Yesterday, Brent, Joey and I went to Kabuki for dinner.

I got a lot of loot - A t-shirt, a deck of cards, and a challenge coin. In fact, I was able to connect with Jessica, our coordinator, who was also bowling and exchanged P&F challenges coins on Doubles Day. Jessica was a wonderful coordinator and was very friendly.

We all agreed to come back again next year.

Hopefully we'll win more LOOT.

Our drive back to California went smooth too. At the border we stopped for gas and I got half a dozen of Pinkbox donuts. I

them even more than Dunkin Donuts. Then we stopped at "Charlie Brown Farms," in Little Rock and had a brisket wrap that was delicious. We left Vegas at 8 and arrived home around 145 pm.

On the ride home I started reading, "Never Panic Early," a book by Fred Haise who was one of the Astronauts on Apollo 13. It's a real interesting. It can by dry in some places but it's not so dry I can't power through it.

Here's a video of Fred talking about his book:

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August 7, 2026 at 11:38pm

#1120809

Today in a nutshell

This is just a quickie to maintain my daily streaks. Having issues connecting to the internet here in the hotel room.

Had a really fun day today bowling doubles but sadly my teammate and I came in 4th so we didn't get a medal. I did win 2 games of table poker and a couple of brackets. So I'll take it! After bowling I had a nice dinner with teammates and retired friends from comm div. Tomorrow is singles.

Today I bowled a 161 173 152 173 and a 155. My ave is 150 so I'm very happy with those scores

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August 6, 2026 at 9:17pm

#1120742

Last night's practice went well, but I'm not much of a Game 3 person. haha! I got a 176, 193 and a 112 the last game and that's kinda how today's Team event went. I did got the first 2 games. SUCKED the 3rd game and the 4th/5th games I was decent again. All my teammates showed up to play and we 2nd place in our division!

My bowling team for the NV Police & Fire Games, 2026

My bowling team for the NV Police & Fire Games, 2026

We had another team from Comm Div play. They played in a mixed division and medaled as well.

Tomorrow I play in the doubles tournament with Sunshine. We need to be there at 9 and it starts at 10. Today got over at 340 pm. We were the last team playing. I had to eat a slice of pizza from the snack bar which sucks. Tomorrow I'm going to bring my own sandwich. I'd rather have that.

Hubby and Joey came to cheer me on for a bit. In fact we had at least 5 retired co-workers come and cheer us on.

The hotel we're at is nice. There's an All You Can Eat Buffet. I'm afraid to try it. Going out to catch up with another retired co-worker who retired to Vegas.

NOTE: I hate to say it but I probably won't be catching up anything until I get home to CA. It's all I can do to keep up with the daily 5, so thank you so much for your patience!

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August 5, 2026 at 8:27pm

#1120680

Made it!

This is just a quickie entry to keep the streak alive. haha.

Made it to Vegas. I like the Palms. It has a Keurig. Gotta go shopping for milk and some stuff though. Off to practice a couple of times with my teammates.

August 4, 2026 at 7:47pm

#1120633

Busy Stuff & Mediums

Today has been a busy one. One of my bowling no tap partners dropped out of the league and the other one banged out because she said her hand hurt. I talked Joey into going and he did decent, but we still lost. The other team just executed better than we did.

Then I had to go to work, pick up our Station Fund merch to turn back into the vendor, go to the vendor, turn in the old merch, pick up new merch and bring it back to work. I had to do it today because tomorrow we're off Vegas, baby for the Nevada Police & Fire games. I am soooooo stoked!! I just hope I don't embarrass myself!

Last night I was watching Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry. I find the show amusing. I want to believe ... (I feel like Mulder from X-Files!)

I want to watch "Star City," which is on APPLE TV - the premise is - What If the Soviet Union got to the moon before the USA? I find that thought delicious but I need to find time to watch it. Sigh...

I am reading a book about Fred Haise - who was one of the Apollo 13 astronauts. I actually find it interesting though his writing style is a tad dry, the topic is interesting so it's not that painful.

We are going to kennel the dog while we're in Vegas. He enjoys it and it will give us peace of mind that he's not eating another couch while we're gone.

Question for you: Do you believe in psychic abilities?

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August 3, 2026 at 9:56pm

#1120575

Long Day

The simple fact I have no time to write for myself is annoying. I've been trying to finish a story for 2 years now which I can't because I run out of time in the day. And THEN I get another GREAT idea for a story and I have NO TIME to research it let along write it.

There I just wanted to say that.

Grr...

I'll see if I can re-arrange some time and priorities. We'll see what shakes out.

Today the family went to my husband's grandmother's funeral services. They were non denominational which was fine. The Chaplin was a fine speaker and I enjoyed the Bible verses he referenced. A lot of the family was there. His grandmother had like 12 siblings. Several had passed away. She was 96. But last couple of years since 2021, she had Alzheimer's. My sons were pallbearers and it was nice to see.

I was hoping for some good gossip, there wasn't really any. Or maybe I just wasn't on a good enough hunt for it.

We went to the smokehouse after the services to just hang out and visit. My husband had a nice visiting with his family. I'm a little tired now because has been a long day so I'll try to catch up with you all tomorrow.