W.H.E.W!!!!

Okay people, please breathe a HUGE sigh of relief with me.

1 - 2 - 3 - NOW!

WHEW!!!

That's good.

Now I will tell you why you are so relieved.

We were having this nice lazy Saturday afternoon. I came back from some mundane household shopping to find two envelopes lying on my side of the bed. The hubby had sorted out the mail and left my junk for me to deal with. I had a short exchange with him about how he should dispose of such garbage for me. And then I get down to business.

One was from the DMV. I knew why they were writing to me, my car registration is due in a couple months. Groaann...more money leaving my little piggy bank. Leave it alone. We'll deal with it later.

The second one had just a return address on it. No name, no clue where it was from. I weighed it, felt it, seemed like something from some credit card company. Damn these spammers. Using up so much paper that I am simply going to throw out. Maybe I should just throw it out. Why bother opening it. Grumble, grumble, groan, groan, rip it open, jaw drop!

It is........

my......











Green Card!

How Beautiful Is My Valley!

The weather and scenery has been changing quite dramatically over here in the last few weeks.

After a really long dry spell, the rain Gods were finally appeased! The skies were completely overcast for an entire week. I got a brief glimpse of open sky on my way home one evening. Just one small window!



But this was nothing like the monsoons in India. There was some hail in the valley, and a lot of snow on the mountains.

We went up to the mountains to get a closer look, but the snow had already started to melt. But it was still beeeeautiful!



The area in the foothills of the mountain was pretty rustic. A lot of ranches and horses there. Here's a nice little barn...


And this is a view of the Silicon Valley!


The valley also produces some GIANT lemons like these!
(Please do not ask me whether I am sure these are lemons. I wouldn't call them that if I didn't know, right?)



And boasts some amazing sunsets! Right in the middle of a bustling city!



Fresh air, clear blue skies, fluffy white clouds, views of emerald green mountains, almost like a painting...right in my parking lot!




Vintage Mercs!


And custom made bikes! This one is a "Big Dog". Had never heard of it until I saw one!



I have a few more pictures that I took today, but those will have to come in another post.

What I love about the US - Public Libraries

I suppose there are a lot of things, so maybe this will be a series of posts.

The first thing to go here has to be the public libraries!

- They're the best!

- They have all the books I would ever want to read...in good condition!

- If my branch doesn't have what I want, I can place a request to get it from another branch within the same system...online!

- I can renew my books online

- I can place hold on books online

- If I have a book on hold, they do not allow others to renew them. They respect my spot in the queue!

- Most of them have an excellent environment for kids: story times, lots and lots of books, and other fun programs

- They have a very good environment for studying...books, couches, coffee, peace!

- Cell phones are mostly not allowed

- They have free internet access. This was very handy when I moved to this city and had no internet at home, and had not started work yet!

-They help people with their taxes too (I think some libraries have some informational sessions)

- They have a lot of classes for free. One which I found very good was teaching English to elderly immigrants!

- They have reference books for EVERYTHING (I got stuff on crocheting, hubby got to learn about some electrical codes in our county!)

- They also have DVD and videos

- The one I go to has HINDI ones too!!!

- They are the very best!

They are an AWESOME service to the community! I am glad my tax dollars support my excellent library system.

Here's my little nieces in my library. (Yes, it is MY library :-)