Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in D'nellin's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, May 11th, 2008
1:03 am	Mallards... We looked out the window this morning as we were getting ready to go out to breakfast and what did we see--a mated pair of wild mallard ducks sitting on our front lawn in the shade of our arborvitae bush. They seemed very comfy and as we went out, they didn't even move much as we took a bunch of pictures of them. The neighbors said they had just been in their swimming pool. --Wonder if they were blown off course by the winds yesterday. They seemed a bit out of their usual flight path. They were still there when we got back from eating, but left shortly after that. Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
8:54 pm	Moving day Today Dan's nephew and his wife came over and got two big show cases and three map cases out of the mineral room. We donated them to the historical society of the nearby city where they live. The cases were each about six feet long and seven feet high as they sat in the mineral room. Fortunately, with the removal of a few nails, screws, angle irons, and a piece of plywood or two, they came apart in two pieces each, top and bottom. The various pieces just barely fit out the doors, and all the many parts went on a flatbed trailer. They merrily went off with it all, and we waved goodbye with a sigh of relief. For a while, we weren't sure we would ever get the cases out of the room. It's amazing how big the room looks now without all the excess furniture. This is the first time in about 25 years we've seen portions of it. It has POSSIBILITIES! We are planning to outfit it as an office where Dan and I can both work. Dan wants to take our time and see just what we want in there before we go out and buy a lot of furniture; but I plan to get a couple of file cabinets rather soon. We need them. This is a real sign of the changes in our lives. I never thought I'd see the day when the room wasn't filled with minerals. However, I'm sort of excited about what we are going to do next. Current Mood: amazed (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
7:24 pm	Wind... As I sit here typing, the wind sounds like it's going to tear the house apart. The air conditioner is creaking, and the wind blowing through the trees outside sounds like heavy beating surf. Small limbs and leaves are getting blown off. --And it's cold! Tomorrow or the next day will be time to clean up after it. --Typical spring! This is when you get tempted to move away from the desert. (Comment on this)
10:57 am	Minerals Just realized when I was printing up some pictures of the Ex-mineral collection that other people might enjoy the pictures too. If you want to see some of the specimens we had in our collection, go to www.danweinrich.com and click on the Dawn and Jim Minette Collection. There are 11 "pages" of minerals on view there. They took beautiful photos of the pieces. More will come up from time to time. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
9:26 pm	Spring... At last the weather is warm, even though it's windy. I've been working in the yard planting some marigolds and stocks. I hope they like it enough to grow for a while. It's always hard to tell whether they will like the desert or not. The succulents are doing well, and my century plant--which is more than 45 years old-- has finally decided to bloom. The main plant has put up a stalk about 15 feet high and about 10" thick. It's a beautiful thing and it's just beginning to put out the blossoming stems at the top of the stalk. It will probably be another week or longer before it starts to blossom. I can hardly wait to see it in full bloom. Dan's first wife and I planted our agaves (century plants) at the same time. The one she planted bloomed three years ago, and I have been waiting for mine to decide to bloom. I will take pictures of it to record it's progress. Sometime back I broke my favorite small Cannon camera, and I got another very similar camera. However, it doesn't take such good pictures. I think I've figured out what the problem is. The auto focus doesn't seem to hold; consequently the pictures aren't as sharp. I'm not quite sure what to do about this--I may have to get another camera. --That's a pain. I'm working on the last story I've planned to write for the book. If the editor wants something else later I will fill in the blanks, but this is pretty much "it" as far as I'm concerned. It's been fun, so far. The mineral pictures for the book are turning out to be fabulous. Good minerals--excellent photographers! Dan got a clean bill of health from his doctors, and so have I. Our life together is GOOD. What more can we ask for. Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
5:54 pm	This and that... It's a beautiful day here today--it's 5:43 and it's 86 degrees F. out. Absolutely perfect! Needless to say, we had lunch on the patio, and I got a fair amount of yard work done. it was a great way to spend the day. Haikujaguar got me thinking about spinach salads, and a marvelous one I had the other day. It had dried cranberries and apple slices in it, and was dressed with a very vinigar-y raspberry dressing. It was fantastic! It was at a restaurant, and I'll definitely be back for more. It was a prelude to a very lovely meal. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
7:14 pm	Writer's Block: Family Matters What is your "role" in your family? View other answers Most senior "Mom". (Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
11:13 pm	Poppies, poppies, everywhere... Dan and I went over to the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve today to enjoy the flowers. To say the least, they were spectacular!!! Most of the desert isn't having a very good wildflower year this spring, but the area west of Lancaster got a good amount of rain at the right times, and the hills can be seen to glow a lovely orange from the city more than 15 miles away. It's really impressive. The Poppy Preserve is loaded with poppies and goldfields (small yellow daisylike flowers). There are few other flowers but that doesn't make much difference, because the flowers that are there are so fabulous in quality and quantity. I got a bunch of really nice pictures there, and of some groups of flowering Joshua trees in an area nearby. It was a very successful day. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
4:42 pm	Catch up "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...." The sun is shining bright, and the temperature is in the 70's at least. Its a perfect day to work out in the yard, and I've been out doing a bunch of gardening--trimming a few trees and digging dandelions out of the lawn preparatory to mowing it. Later in the day, I'll try that. I'm busy working with my editor on the book, again. I took a few days off while Dan and I went to South Lake Tahoe for an outing with Dan's family. It was beautiful up there, though a tad too warm for the skiers in the family. They only got in one good day of skiing before the snow got too wet. However, we had a good time eating out, gambling, and watching movies besides enjoying the snowy scenery. I broke even with my gambling, so I was happy. We saw a really good movie while we were there--"The Bank Job". The name doesn't catch your attention, but the plot of the movie goes all over the place and has a lot of unexpected twists and turns. --And you come away amused. At least, we did. When we came home from Tahoe, we found a lovely surprise on the doorstep. Tor sent us a beautiful photograph of Danny and I from our wedding. It was a gorgeous big print, very detailed and excellent colored. We're so pleased with it. I am eager to get over to Bakersfield to get it framed................ Current Mood: energetic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 25th, 2008
2:11 pm	The wonderful world of travel and other things... Well, we're back from another round of travels. The end of last month we went to Laughlin to celebrate Dan's birthday with several of our friends. It was a lot of fun as usual. We went home, and straight to Ventura, CA, to celebrate our Daughter-in -law's father's 80th Birthday on Ground Hog Day. What a change from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean! The weather was balmy, and the navel oranges are on the trees ready to be harvested. Actually on the way home we stopped at a fruit stand and picked up some oranges that were about the size of grapefruits and marvelously sweet. --And, oh how good they smelled! The following week we headed for Tucson to the mineral shows. The first show we attended was the Westward Look Show. It is held at the Westward Look Resort in the foothills north of Tucson, and the venue is spectacular--all the cactus and wildlife the area is known for, and the luxury of a first rate resort. We enjoyed ourselves mightily, while I enjoyed looking at the lovely minerals displayed there and we visited with our friends. On Sunday night, I joined five other ladies and we gave talks on "Women in Mineral Collecting" to an audience of about 200 people. It was a lot of fun and it seemed to be well received. While we were there, Dan and I had breakfast with the Editor of my upcoming book and we got her view of how the book should proceed. I think it should be very good--she's a really good editor. The book she edited to go with the Tucson main show this year sold out by Friday of the show--and it was an $85 book. --Lots of beautiful pictures, and great stories of the best mineral collecting areas in the US. On Monday, we moved down to the Inn Suites, another motel nearer the Convention Center in Tucson. A Large "Motel Show" of minerals was going on there, and every room on the lower floor of the motel--and many on the second floor--was occupied by a mineral dealer, and they were selling all sorts of minerals, fossils, and jewelry. I spent a couple of days wandering around looking at all sorts of beautiful things and visiting with friends, of course. I bought a few small specimens for my new collection. Just because I sold the other collection, it doesn't mean I've given up collecting. Part of my collection was being sold at the main show at the Tucson Convention Center. The show started on Thursday, and none of the specimens was sold before the start of the show, so there was quite a crowd around the booths where the specimens were to be sold on Thursday morning. It was quite satisfying to see the stir the collection caused, and to have people come up to me at the show and tell me how happy they were to have one piece or another that they had bought. I felt really happy that they were so happy. All in all, it was a very nice show and we had a very good time. Current Mood: productive (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 25th, 2008
4:45 pm	Eight Weird Things Meme Haikujaguar tagged me for this and I thank her. I've been far too absorbed with some things in my life lately and it's about time to take a little time out for fun. Hmmm...eight weird things: 1. When I was in high school--long, long ago--and we took our aptitude tests they had a test for the boys to take, and a test for the girls. The powers-that-be assumed that girls and boys had far different interests and career goals (ie: girls--nurse, teacher, homemaker, etc.). After they gave me the girls' test, they gave me the boys' test, because my interests were so different from the normal. I was interested in math, Engineering, the great outdoors, and science. 2. I was the only girl in high school to take Mechanical Drawing. It confused the teacher mightily. He didn't know what to do with a girl in the class. The boys were a bit annoyed to have an intruder, too. However, I showed an aptitude for the course, and got an A grade. 3. I went to the Colorado School of Mines and studied Geological Engineering. At one time, I was the only girl attending the school with just over 1000 men. Contrary to popular opinion, it got lonely not having any other girls around to talk to and pal around with. However, for my interests, it was the best place I could have gone. It was a hard school, and "hell on earth" occasionally, but it made me who I am today--and I'm not unhappy with that. 4. When I was in college, I wasn't allowed to go on the field trips to working mines, because at that time there was still a superstition about women being bad luck in mines. At least, it was a good excuse not to take a woman underground. 5. I married a mining engineer, and I was in every working mine he worked at. We also spent a lot of time underground in old mines looking for mineral specimens. For the most part, I love underground mines--as long as I don't have to climb up and down shafts. (I'm afraid of heights.) Come to think of it, I love Open pit mines, too. Now that he's gone and I'm a bit older, I miss the good old collecting trips we used to take. The last mine I was in was the Sweet Home. My granddaughters were along on that trip. 6. I took a computer course when my youngest son was in High School so I could talk to him. ---'Nuff said. 7.I am a somewhat compulsive person and I like things to look neat. I haven't driven my husband batty yet picking things up before he is done with them; but some days it's close. 8. Both my husbands graduated from the Colorado School of Mines, and both were Mining Engineers. They both worked for the same mining company. I appear to be "in a rut", but I am an exceedingly happy woman. Let me see, do I know eight people to "tag"...obviously Revar, Tugrik,... my mind goes blank, and I do have to get back to ironing curtains. My dryer tried to "permanent press" the load in massive wrinkles. --New dryer is to be delivered Tuesday. Current Mood: amused (4 Comments |Comment on this)
11:56 am	Skunks, buzzards, and Snow... It's been some time --again --since I wrote and I've missed many events. Like the nice striped skunk that was dashing out of the back yard when I opened the door to look at the rain a couple of weeks ago. Or the buzzards that were circling over the street where we live this week as they were headed back to their "summer" nesting grounds. Yesterday, it was snow as we passed over the Tehachapi's on our way to Bakersfield. The desert side of the mountains was well covered with a beautiful white layer of snow. It continued to the pass just west of Tehachapi then we fell below the level where the snow line was. The roads were dry and the sun shown through light clouds on the Bakersfield side of the hill. The view of the valley was exceptional, because rain the day before had cleaned the air. It was a good thing the roads were clear, as all the traffic that ordinarily travels the "Grapevine" (Hwy 5) was being diverted around by Hwy 14 and Hwy 58 (thru the Tehachapi pass). There was an amazing amount of traffic on the road, much of it trucks. At one point, I counted 15 trucks together in a "pack". Fortunately, we got out of the city before rush hour. As it was, we hit new snow falling east of Tehachapi. There was more than a foot and a half of snow on Hwy 5, and nothing is moving there yet. There was more snow last night, and a foot and a half of snow fell as far east as Wrightwood. The Southern California skiers and snowboarders will have a field day as soon as they are able to get to the resorts. We are snuggled down at the house, and plan to stay that way for a while--there is supposed to be another storm coming in the next day or two. We sure need the moisture. --We haven't gotten any snow yet. I am still writing on the book, and will talk to my editor in depth about the project a couple of weeks from now at Tucson. The last chapter in the book may well turn out to be much more interesting than we'd anticipated. Current Mood: harassed (Comment on this)
Monday, December 31st, 2007
11:49 am	The end of the year It's the end of the year, and time to look at what I've been doing. Lately, I've been busy with the book and I find that I'm about 2/3 of the way done with it. Fortunately, I've been writing parts of the story for a long time. Most of my work now has been getting it into some coherent form to make a book of it. The photographer is taking the last pictures that need to be taken for the book, so I've gotten the outline of what we need to the editor. It's hard to believe it will really happen... As Dan would say, "we hit a speed bump" in early December that may make a very interesting last chapter for the book. The collection disappeared for a while, and things were very exciting for a couple of weeks until we got it back. It put a pall over our Christmas celebrations for a while. More about that when I can talk about it--there are legal proceedings pending. That's one of the reasons I haven't been writing much lately. Anyway, life hasn't been dull. Again, while I think about it--Everyone have a Happy New Year! We're off to celebrate. Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Friday, December 28th, 2007
9:22 pm	An Early Happy New Year... The end of the year has been hectic, to say the least, so I want to wish you all a Happy New Year while I think of it. May your New Year be all you hope it will be, and bring you the happiness you all deserve. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
10:39 pm	My Editor... My Editor called today to get acquainted. Editor! I actually have an EDITOR...and we are really going to put out a book on the mineral collection! I'm so excited, I'm bouncy thinking about it. In the past, I'd thought of doing a book about Jim's and my life collecting minerals, but it was always sort of a nebulous 'sometime' idea. Now it's really going to happen and the book should come out by next September. That will really keep me busy for the next while. It will be a book with many pictures of the minerals and some stories of how we collected them. It should appeal to a certain audience who love mineral collecting and good minerals. My Lady Editor sounds like she should be exciting to work with. I am starting to get the stories together for her to look at and decide which of them she wants to include the book. She already has a number of pictures of the collection to work with, and more will be taken later. Some days life is almost too fun! Never give up on life, just when you think nothing exciting will ever happen again, something really EXCITING comes into your life. I'm living proof of that. Over and over, new adventures add joy and happiness to my days. Imagine after age 70: Selling a major mineral collection Getting married Writing a book And who knows what else, it's only been two months! Current Mood: elated (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
4:55 pm	Happy Birthday Bat... Happy Birthday Beloved Bat. It seems like a lifetime ago we were rushing up to the hospital at Ridgecrest. But then, I guess it was--YOURS! We love you... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
10:16 pm	The Happy Bride... Well, we finally did it! On Saturday the 13th, we got married on a riverboat on the Colorado River at Laughlin, Nevada. It was a wonderful wedding with about 55 of our closest family and friends there. Dan's sons and daughter sang for the ceremony, and the weather was letter perfect. Garth and Tor were there and Tor took our wedding pictures--he said about 1200 of them, and I believe him. I can hardly wait to see what he got. All our kids were there including my oldest son and his wife and daughter from Washington state. And there were cousins, and nieces, and great nieces and nephews, and grand children and great grandchildren, also my Mom, Sister, and nephew. The family has gotten bigger by magnetudes. (My Mom, who will be 90 next year, confided to me that she doesn't think she will have time to get everyone's name straight). There were several good and long-time friends there too. The ceremony was held as the boat went down the river at a gentle pace. The Bride wore a golden sand-colored silk chiffon handkerchief-hemmed dress with a powerful amount of beads on; and the Groom looked like an 1890's Judge with his white beard, black hat, cowboy boots, and brocade vest. And when the preacher asked him if he'd take the bride "to have and to hold" he said "You bet'cha!" --So, I guess we're officially "hitched". Actually, it was a beautiful ceremony, with a bit of humor here and there. We had a very nice reception on the upper deck of the boat while the crew got the lower deck ready for dinner. We ate and visited as the sun went down, and everyone had a good time. We docked about 8:00PM, and we went down on the prominade near the "Colorado Belle" Casino, where Tor had everything set up to take the formal pictures of the wedding party. It was a wonderful warm night and we had an interested audience watching while he took shots of us and our family and friends. Afterwards, many members of the wedding party adjourned to the casinos nearby; and some of them won a nice amount of money, so a good time was had all round. The next morning we took as many of the group as we could get together to the "Golden Nugget" for their excellent Sunday brunch. They had tables set up in a tropical forrest setting--waterfalls and all--and they had a magnificent Champaign buffet. Everything from escargot and frogslegs, to shrimp, lobster tails, and crabs legs. Also fruit, salads, chicken and roast. Steaks and omlets cooked to your taste, a lovely berry cold soup, and all sorts of deserts including Cherries Jubilee and Bananas Foster. One member of the party said it was the most decadent breakfast he'd ever had. The people at the Nugget really did a beautiful job. After that, the group broke up and headed off their separate ways, as several of them had to get back to work on Monday. Dan and I stayed on a few more days, because a group of retirees from the Borax Company we used to work for gets together every year at this time for a reunion at Laughlin. We had a good time visiting with old friends and were ready to come home this morning when the party broke up. Now on with the rest of our lives... Current Mood: happy Current Music: Sunshine on my Shoulder makes me Happy... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
11:14 am	Now it can be told... Well, the deal is done and the minerals are almost out the door. This afternoon they will be gone. Right now the house is an awful mess with boxes (flats) all over the place, but they are about to be whisked into a truck and a van to be taken off so the specimens can be cleaned and sorted and reappear for sale in Tucson in February. I'm happy with the deal. It will free me from worries over the collection when we are off on one of our trips. And besides, I'm not giving up collecting, just downsizing. I've already started my new collection with a specimen I got at Denver. It's a beautiful acanthite miniature from Mexico. Jim always wanted the collection to be sold, so I know he would be happy. He wanted many people to be able to enjoy the minerals. Now I'll get the fun of seeing who ends up with the specimens. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: The Ride of the Valkeries (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
10:48 pm	Revar's roadtrip eventually ended up here for a day or two. It's a real treat. We've had a really nice visit--and of course, a trip to Domingo's for dinner. Can't beat that. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
10:40 pm	Fall So It's turned from summer to fall suddenly...as usual. Before we left for Denver we had had a month of over 100 degree temperatures every day, and the nighttime temperatures hardly got below 70 degrees. Now the wind is blowing and there is dust in the air and it is 56 degrees out tonight. Fall has "fell" again, I do believe. The pomgranates aren't quite ripe yet but they will be in about two weeks; and I believe we've seen the last of the figs. The figs were very small this year, but tasty. The garden is a mess this year after the stuccoing. It played havoc with the plants. Current Mood: cold (Comment on this)