What makes me tick?

My brother and I were eating together yesterday at a memorial service. They had a lunch that was a buffet style. He brought up things he knew about me that makes me , well me. He said I liked ham. Not too bad since I had a ham sandwich on my plate. Everything he said was correct. That got me thinking about all the little things that people do that makes them who they are.
Things that make my world go round.

1. I like to take hot showers. I come out all red. I like a nice hot shower, but this can be bad. When I camp and have to use a public shower, I find myself freezing because it’s not scalding hot.
2. I also tend to sing in the shower. Not all the time, but it seems to be only 2 or 3 songs that I sing over and over.
3. I am terrible at picking out something nice to wear. I never get it just right. I end up with half my clothes on the bed after trying things on until something works.
4. I don’t wear much makeup. I am not very good at makeup and don’t know why it cost so dang much. I like to keep it simple. I hate lipstick. It always comes off and I can’t see a guy wanting to kiss a girl that has globs of it on. There is something wrong with a product that can stick to a drinking glass even after being washed in the dish washer. No need to say more.
5. I vacuum too much. I hate a dirty floor. Depending on my time I can vacuum daily to once a week. I don’t think I can stand it any longer than that. I will find a blade of grass on the carpet and that gets me thinking. What else has been dragged in? When you see how much I pick up with all that vacuuming, you would understand why I do it so often.
6. I don’t mind doing laundry. Putting it away is a different story. I wash everything. I have a towel on the couch so the dogs don’t get it dirty. I wash that all the time. I take down the curtains and wash them. Bathroom rugs…. I could go on and on.
7. I hate doing dishes. I don’t like anything about it.
8. I like making dinner. I don’t make anything fancy, but I would rather eat home cooked food than eat out all the time. I don’t like cleaning up after dinner.
9. Like to bake things. Bread, cookies, and cupcakes. I bake something and give it all away to co-workers and friends. It makes me feel good when they are happy I baked something for them.
10. I like to make a homemade vegetable soup and bake homemade bread to have with it. Yummy.
11. I like to plant flowers. Everything looks better with flowers. I want a house with a lush green yard.
12. I would like a chunk of land with a lush yard, big old shade trees, and a koi pond. I want a big garden and maybe a duck to swim in the pond.
13. I like to grow a garden. I am always frustrated that I have such a small junky area to grow a garden right now. One day I will have a great garden.
14. I would rather have a bowl of strawberries than a bowl of ice cream for dessert.
15. I don’t care for chocolate that much. If something is dipped into it or it’s inside something then it’s ok. I could never eat a Heresy’s chocolate bar. A Heresy’s kiss it too much for me.
16. I like to take pictures. I just snap away at anything I like. Mostly its trees, flowers, my dogs, and motorcycles racing.
17. I like the mountains better than the beaches. I would much rather go to a lake than the ocean.
18. My favoriate thing to do at Bass Lake is float on a raft all day.
19. I like to take the waverunner out on the lake, but it’s old and the lake is rough. This makes for a bouncy wet ride. I wake up and hit the lake right at the time you can go any speed. The lake is like glass. I love to take a spin around the lake smelling people cooking breakfast and the pine air.
20. I am a firm believer that bacon makes anything taste better.
21. I am always cold and love a good quilt to cuddle under after a long day of work.
22. I wear flip flops all summer long. I hate to go back to work, because I have to put shoes on again.
23. I like to wear different charms on a necklace, and change them often.
24. I want to travel as much as I can and see all that there is to see.
25. I have never put a limit on what I can do. If I want to do something, then I will find a way and work hard to get it. Life is what you make of it.
26. I love my family.
27. I am who I am. I don’t put up a front. What you see is what you get. I don’t care what someone thinks of how I look when I come off the track. I will be sweaty, hot, hair a mess, and stinky from over 100 degrees all day in a leather suit. :-)
28. I have a hard time making girl friends. Most don’t like to do what I like to do. I am always looking for a girl to hang with.
29. If you become a friend of mine, you are a friend for life. I will always be there for you.
30. I enjoy a nice day with the sun on my face. The sound of the birds and the smell of the grass.
31. I almost forgot, I also like to watch boxing on TV.
That's it for now. Hope you learned a little something about me.

I like to bake cookies.




I love planting flowers

My yummy vegetable soup.

Yummy!

Crash: What's New?

Here are some pictures and a bit of an update to what's going on at the end of the 4th month of my recovery.

I got a riding boot on my swollen foot!!!! Wow
4 months

4 months

Acupuncture visits are down to one a week :-)

Here are some pictures of my acupuncture. The most needles I had at one time was 10. Normal amount was 6-8. I am now down to 4. They don't hurt for the most part, but there are areas that killed.

*********************************************************************

I am happy to say that I have always been one to wear the best gear that I can. I always tell new riders that they need to invest in proper gear that fits well. The gear I had on saved me from other injury.
You can't imagine the looks people give us that are not used to seeing people in riding gear. Our weekend rides turn into a freak show when we stop for lunch at at In-n-Out. It's pretty funny. And to all the people that ask..... Yes, it is hot in the gear in summer. Also, no it is not warm to wear a leather suit in winter. Notice all of us having hot chocolate.

Right side of helmet.

Left side of helmet

Same area

Front left side of helmet.

Left side

Left side, back of leather suit.

Front left side.

Left shoulder.

Left glove

That's it for now. I am just starting to walk on my own. I bring my crutch with me in the car, but I am trying to go without it. I hope that I will pick up speed now that I can start to learn to walk and balance. I miss my life. I can't wait to be the old me again.

You Quack Me Up

Awwwww so we meet again!

Let me take you back in time to when I was working at Disneyland when I was around 19-21 years old. I went to school full time, I ran cross country and track. I also worked weekends, holidays, and all summer at Disneyland. I was pretty much always tired and hungry for that matter. I used to work closing shifts so that I could avoid the crowds and the heat. The only problem with that is if you worked until 2:30 AM, your lunch break was after all the restaurants were closed. I would just pack my dinner and eat it in a break room. One day I bit into my sandwich and noticed that something was wrong. My dad and left me a sweet note IN my sandwich. The ink bleed out into my food making it inedible. His joke left me without dinner that night. My dad has always liked to play little jokes here and here. Simple ones like moving something on some ones desk without telling them for months and months. Bigger tricks like seeing a coworkers shoes in a bathroom stall and turning off the light leaving them in pitch black as they are most vulnerable. I can go on forever.

As of late there has been this little duck that has been the object of humor. I have no idea where he found it. I have no idea why he picked it up. I also have no idea why he keeps hiding it in my things. I visit with my parents and find this little duck stashed in my purse, bag of oranges my mom picked for me, or in my car some place. Now and then I find it before I leave the house. I once found it in my coat pocket as I was about to leave. I of course had to find some place to stash it without him noticing. That little duck has been back and forth between our houses I don't know how many times. This has to be at least a year of random duck deliveries. I can't help but laugh at the duck when I see it. Not only for the fact that this ugly duck toy has been passed to me without me knowing, but for the fact that I don't know why. How did this all start? Well, I know one thing. I am not going to be the one left with it. I have to plot and scheme it's return. My fine feathered friend has not see the last of the Harsen home. It will find it's way back.
Oh and dad, I love you too.

Ever wonder what Lisa is up to?

The End.

Quilting Fun

I don’t know why I started to quilt, but I sure enjoy it now. I have never had a lesson, but I am enjoying the learning process. (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

It started years ago when my grandfather Leo was sick and was in a rehabilitation center. I thought I would make him a lap quilt for Christmas. I was sad that he only got to enjoy it one week before he passed, but he really liked it. After many years I thought I would get a sewing machine and make another quilt. I was glad that I was able to make one for my grandmother Ruth to enjoy while she was in the hospital for some time. She said people asked how about it all the time. I like that it sparked conversation for her and that she found comfort with it.

Here are a few of the quilts I have made. I don’t have pictures of all the quilts I have made. Some were for my friends and family. I should take a picture of each one I make. People collect quilts and pay thousands of dollars for them. A quilts history is important, and it is recommend that a quilter keeps records on each quilt they make. Here are the ones I do have.

I call this my Happy Quilt. I liked the yellow print at the time. It has cute little bees on it. I don't know why, I just liked it. (That's where the name came from.)I made this quilt for myself a few years ago becasue it is bright and cheerful. I have used it on the couch just about every day since I have broken my foot. It looks better in person. Pretty crazy bright in the picture. This is a Bear Paw quilt pattern.
I made this quilt for Miles. It’s not easy to find a pattern that is manly, but I think this one did the job. Anytime you have to sew triangles it’s going to be a hard long process. I still like this one a lot.

Here are two quilts I made for the the cabin at the lake. Bailey always sits on my quilts when I am making them. I don't know why. lol
I had to make two more of these quilts for the cabin. Once you use one, you don't want to give it up. Four people and two quilts was not a good match.

Log Cabin Quilt with Delectable Mountain boarder.
Sometimes I see a pattern and I just have to make it. This is a pattern that you can arrange in many different ways. I liked the red and white colors and the zigzag pattern.

As you can see Sonoma likes the qult also.

This is my all time favorite quilt. It is simply called Koi Pond.

I saw this pattern online as a block of the month. They post one block pattern a month so that you don’t get over whelmed. I ended up buying the pattern and getting it done over my Christmas break in 2007. It was also the first time that I had a nice sewing machine, Miles had gotten for me for my b-day, that could sew what I needed to sew. I was able to do the “quilting” part of the quilt now. That is the process where you tack down all the layers by sewing all over the quilt.

I like the boarder material. It’s printed like rocks. That took forever to find.

This is my artistic version of Bass Lake.

Since Bass Lake is my favorite place, I thought I would make a picture type quilt. I used flannel to make this quilt. I was limited with material that they make in flannel, but it came out ok. I bought all of it in Oakhurst, the bigger town next to Bass Lake. It is based on the view of Goat Mountain from a dock on North Shore Rd. Miles has claimed this one as his favorite to use each day.

I love to watch and feed the ducks on the lake so I added some. There used to be quite a few canoes on the lake when I was growing up so I added them as well. Also, my family used to have a canoe with an outrigger, and a motor. It was the slowest thing on the lake. My brother and I also used to get soaked from the waves of the other boats. Awww good times.

I added the deer since there are always some on that side of the lake.

Here is a checkered flag quilt that I made as a thank you to my friend Darrick. He used to race supermoto bikes. A checkered flag seemed the right fit.

Back side of the top of Eric's Quilt

I saw a pattern in a magazine and wanted to make it. I had never made a quilt from a magazine pattern so I was a little worried how it was going to come out. I don’t really follow patterns when I make a quilt. This is called Yo-yo quilt pattern. They had it in crazy bright colors, but I wanted to make it in earth tones. I thought of my brother when I saw the quilt so I had to make it for him. I had made him a quilt already, but it was one of my first ones from a few years ago, and I had a lot to learn still. I wanted to make this one for him for Christmas. It took months to make. All the triangles killed me. To make it worse I broke my foot and had to have surgery before the quilt was done. I really wanted to give it to him for Christmas. I did not want to show up empty handed. I managed to muster the strength to finish his quilt. It was not easy. My foot hurt so bad I could hardly stand it. I had to get a TV tray and prop my foot up on it so I could sew. I am glad he liked it and that I was able to finish it in time.

I always enjoy making a quilt. It's hard work, but it's cool when it's done.

It also gives me something to do as I recover from my broken foot.

(If I find more pictures of quilts I have made I will add them to this post. )