Clown Retribution - Part 2

Picture of the Day for 12/30/2010. Sadly, I received this clown thingy for Christmas. Readers of my blog are aware that my sister Robynne and I are feuding over clowns. For readers new to my blog, here's the short version:

-I hate clowns.

-Robynne knows this.

-Robynne chose to torment me by tucking this clown in the toe of my Christmas stocking.

-World-weary sigh...

Actually, I thought it was pretty funny and I'm relieved I got off this easy since I feared I was in for an assortment of clown gifts this Christmas.

Christmas Paper Magic

Picture of the Day for 12/29/2010. You should be aware that I take Christmas wrapping paper very seriously. Oh sure, there's a LOT of really cute Christmas wrapping paper out there, but it's not necessarily the RIGHT paper. I don't specifically search for the perfect paper each year. It's a more organic process than that. When I stumble across THE paper, I just know it's right. I was getting a little worried this year since my organic "let it happen" process didn't seem to be working, but at the last minute I happened upon this paper at World Market. It was perfect since I collect Russian nesting dolls.

Getting a Head Start

Picture of the Day for 12/28/2010. In anticipation of putting a much-needed end to this month of hedonistic feasting, I bought a pair Skechers Shape-ups, shoes that are advertised as giving you a better workout, and more important, a shapely bottom.

Matching Necklaces

Picture of the Day for 12/27/2010. My friend Jenny hosts an annual post-Christmas party for her friends. I look forward to this gathering all year since I get to visit with friends I don't see all that often. Also, the food is always fabulous and we exchange presents. "Yay for great food and gifts!" is what I say. At the start of the festivities, I had mentioned to Suzanne (pictured here in the middle) that it was intolerable to me that she owned that cute necklace while I did not. Suzanne must have been glad to hear that since later that evening she gave me and Jenny (pictured on the right) the very same necklace, but in different colors. "Yay for cute jewelry!" is what I say.

Collectibles

Picture of the Day for 12/26/2010. My brother-in-law David summoned the family into his study tonight in order to very proudly show off his collection of figurines grouped by the following categories:

-Christmas Carol (as in Charles Dickens)
-Star Wars (of which he's most proud of Admiral Ackbar)
-Lord of the Rings
-Pirates of the Caribbean

"How old is my brother-in-law?" you're probably wondering. 64. I think it's cute.

Christmas 2010

Picture of the Day for 12/25/2010. Since I've been blogging about unsavory topics this month (i.e., creepy angel, naughty Christmas ornaments), why should Christmas be any different? I spent Christmas morning at my sister Robynne's house. This is a rather unsettling photo of their cat, Paris, who likes to lurk inside the Christmas tree. Below is the aforementioned tree (looking far less sinister than in the picture above) surrounded by tons of presents.


I had a VERY lovely time at Robynne's. Santa was able to find me there which was much appreciated. That Santa is a smart fellow. After opening presents and eating breakfast, we saw the movie The King's Speech. Excellent film. That's definitely a "need to own" movie.

My dad and I spent Christmas evening at my sister Paula's home where we also had a VERY lovely time. I was telling Paula's family about an astronaut biography a friend had sent to me mere moments before opening a present from them that contained that exact book. Oops. Wish I had kept my mouth shut, but who would have guessed that would happen.

In the parlance of my nieces, if you receive a gift that makes your head explode, that's a good thing. It means it was an excessively fine gift. ALL of the gifts I received were excellent of course, but the two pictured below did make my head explode. Both are associated with past and present obsessions.

My niece Renee gave me a recently published graphic (as in illustrated- not naughty) novel that depicts the first 1/3 of the novel Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. After reading this novel for the first time in the mid-1990s, I became so obsessed with Scotland that I even made a pilgrimage there in 1997 where I convinced the tour guide to detour the bus to Inverness, one of the significant locations in the novel. As readers of my blog are aware, my current obsession is with space. My brother-in-law Will picked up this collector plate commemorating the first moon landing at an antique store for me. Nicely done.

Below is a picture of Paula's dog Joey, exhausted from all the holiday festivities. I know how he feels.

My Dad Can Sing

Picture of the Day for 12/24/2010. My dad and I spent Christmas Eve at my sister Paula's house. She has a tradition where she lights the candles of her Christmas nativity carousel, turns off the lights, and has everyone (going in order from youngest to oldest) choose a religious Christmas carol for us to sing. My dad actually chimed in which just about made me fall over in both surprise and delight. Aside from participating in rounds of Happy Birthday, he does NOT sing. I think that is going to be my favorite memory of this Christmas season.

Mission Accomplished

Picture of the Day for 12/23/2010. Here is the promised update from last Monday's post where I indicated I was serious about cleaning my office thoroughly. It took 16 hours, but mission accomplished. This is the first time my office has been 100% neat and clean in the ENTIRE 15 years I've been employed at my company so this is quite a milestone.

Rival for My Affections

Picture of the Day for 12/22/2010. This is Cupcake the cat who stole my heart today. She was recently adopted by a little gift shop I like to frequent after her elderly owner passed away. She's darling. Even better, I don't seem to be virulently allergic to her as I am to most felines. Now, normally, I wax poetic about my sister's cat Jingles, but I'm thinking he has a rival for my affections. Jingles must have sensed my devotion is wavering since he peed on me tonight. My sister Robynne claims he's NEVER done that before. I suspect he was marking his territory.

Sad Christmas Tableau

Isn't this the saddest Christmas tableau ever? A Charlie Brown Christmas tree and a crooked dessert stand.

Actually, this tableau (at my sister's house) isn't the most pathetic. The fact that I can't find my Christmas decorations among all the packing boxes littering my house is worse. Thankfully, my friend Suzanne gave me a beautiful Christmas tree night light for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It's my only holiday decoration on display this year.

Parmesan Cheese Incident

Picture of the Day for 12/21/2010. You wouldn't know it by looking at this picture, but there's a slice of pepperoni pizza under this mound of Parmesan cheese. I was shaking what I thought would be a temperate amount of cheese onto my pizza when it all when wrong for me due to a loose lid on the shaker. You can't do much more than go "well dang" when something like this occurs.

Manly Presents

My great nephew Ethan is the Birthday Boy as clearly identified by his badge. He celebrated his 8th birthday tonight. "Boy" is certainly the operative word since I've never seen such a manly assortment of presents that included GI Joe, Batman, Spider-Man, Prince of Persia, Iron Man, dinosaurs, etc.

I'm Serious This Time

Picture of the Day for 12/20/2010. Back in January I blogged about how I'm finally going to clean my messy office in 2010. It's down to the wire, but it's finally going to happen.These are the "before" pictures. Although I've already devoted 10 hours to the project, it is still a work in progress since I have 15 years of papers and files to sort through. I'll be sure to post the "after" pictures when I'm done which I anticipate being this Thursday.

Picture of the Year

Picture of the Day for 12/19/2010. I'm about to make a bold statement. I've taken what I believe to be my all-time best "picture of the day." Let me provide some background information. My dad's unvarying daily uniform is a powder blue seersucker jumpsuit. Since he lives in these jumpsuits, they tend to wear out rather quickly so my sisters and I bought him some new ones for Christmas this year. My nephew Robbie, who is my dad's namesake, decided to try one on. This was the definitive hit of tonight's Merrill family Christmas party. I can't think of anything that makes me happier than seeing the two Robert Merrills stand side-by-side in matching jumpsuits. It's like a legacy has been passed on from one generation to the next.

Ghostly Lights

Picture of the Day for 12/18/2010. The cemetery where my mother is buried hosts an annual Luminary with over 10,000 candles dispersed throughout the grounds. Tonight was the first time I attended and the effect was both beautiful and haunting.

Christmas Choir

Picture of the Day for 12/17/2010. After posting discussions of x-rated Christmas ornaments and creepy angels, I thought I would blog on a topic that's actually uplifting. I'm singing with my ward choir for the Christmas program this upcoming Sunday. It's been years since I've sung (sang?) with a choir because I'm usually the one accompanying the choir on the piano. I've forgotten how much I enjoy singing alto and learning challenging music. We have a lot of accomplished musicians in my ward so we're not singing Christmas songs for pansies (not that there's anything wrong with Christmas songs for pansies of course). My favorite song we're performing is There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth by Mendelssohn.

Clothing Milestone

Picture of the Day for 12/16/2010. I did something today that I haven't been able to do in probably two decades. I bought a shirt in a size Small. And it's not snug. Wow.

Creepy Angel

Picture of the Day for 12/15/2010. I have a guilty secret. I'm an avid fan of Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. This show "explores the shocking theory that ancient Earth was visited by aliens" and is right up my very weird alley. Love it, love it, love it. I get a tingle every time the narrator uses the phrase "ancient astronaut theorists" which he does a LOT. This week's episode addressed the possibility that angels from various religious traditions could actually be aliens. The image of this creepy-looking angel was featured rather prominently during the episode and was accompanied by creepy-sounding music. Excellent!

Imprudent Word Choice

Picture of the Day for 12/14/2010. A few days ago I blogged about how my brother-in-law Will inadvertently produced x-rated Christmas ornaments. Little did I know there is actually a booming market for x-rated Christmas ornaments until I checked my stats page that shows the word searches people conducted that directed them to my blog. As you can see, there are a lot of people looking for naughty Christmas items! I have now changed the word "x-rated" to "suggestive" in the title of the offending blog entry.

Interesting Garland

Picture of the Day for 12/13/2010. I was walking past the Lion House downtown and noticed the railing was decorated for Christmas with a beautiful dried fruit garland. I had never seen one that incorporated pineapples before so I had to stop and take a picture.

The Bald Nun is Crazy!

Picture of the Day for 12/12/2010. My great-niece Hayley* sings in a German choir that holds an annual Christmas concert. Let me preference my snarky comments in the paragraph below with the observation that it's always a lovely concert. And what better way to start off the Christmas season than hearing Silent Night sung in the original German.

OK- now it's time for my irreverent take on the concert. The song titles were printed in German in the program. Hayley's mother, Chantal, and I were having a field day with the titles which meant absolutely nothing to us since we don't speak or read the language. We started to speculate what the titles could possibly mean and ended up coming up with our own interpretations. My personal favorite was "The Bald Nun is Crazy!"

*Hayley is the blond girl with the red dress in the middle of the back row.

Another Andy Warhol-Type Picture

My computer is making a habit of "solarizing" the photos I use as background wallpaper. Today is the latest masterpiece. I'm thinking my niece Hayley was rather prescient in giving me pink hair in the portrait she drew of me a few days ago

Perfect Timing

Picture of the Day for 12/11/2010. This picture is kind of blurry so you'll have to trust me that the expiration date on this jar of jam is 12/11/2010. And what is today? 12/11/2010. Whoa- pretty freaky.

I was checking out food expiration dates because in preparation for my holiday baking, I decided to scrub the kitchen and clean the science experiment that was my fridge. Anyone who receives baked goods from me this Christmas should rest assured that the items were prepared in an absolutely pristine kitchen.

48

Picture of the Day for 12/10/2010. I turned 48 years old today! I started off the day with a joint birthday celebration with my friend Jenny who was born the same year, same day, and same hospital as I was. We even think our mothers were roommates in the hospital. We met for breakfast this morning with a group of dear friends. I took the day off work so afterward, I went shopping, took a nap (oh how decadent to do that on a work day), and then met my sister's family at the Dickens Festival at the state fairgrounds.

It sounds sappy, but I walked around with a big grin on my face today.Given my health scare and surgery this summer, I just feel so grateful to be around to celebrate another birthday- healthy and happy.

Epic Morning Hair

Picture of the Day for 12/9/2010. I laughed when I looked in the mirror this morning upon arising. I've had bad morning hair before, but never on such on epic scale.

Below is another less than flattering depiction of me, but I think it's cute since it was drawn by my 11-year-old niece Hayley. She's spot on with the granny reading glasses which I keep perched on the edge of my nose.

"Suggestive" Christmas Ornament

Picture of the Day for 12/8/2010. My brother-in-law Will and nephew Robbie enjoy woodworking and made a selection of Christmas ornaments to give to family and friends that are variations of the one pictured above. Will jokingly referred to this as the "Phallus Series" of Christmas ornaments. This generated some very dirty yet very funny comments which I have the forbearance not to repeat on this blog. I have no problem repeating the comments in person however, so feel free to ask me for the details.

I Love John Young

Picture of the Day for 12/7/2010. Got my Air & Space magazine in the mail and was delighted to see my favorite astronaut, John Young, pictured on the cover. (In case you were wondering, yes, it is possible to have a favorite astronaut. You have to be a nerd for this phenomenon to occur, however. So don't worry my non-nerdy readers, you're likely not at risk for a sudden astronaut infatuation to strike you.) He's the one who was the catalyst for my fanatical obsession with space which started a couple of years ago. I wasn't even aware there was a person named John Young* until I watched a space documentary where he was interviewed. I was fascinated by him, but it was all over with when I came across this rather dashing picture of him as a young man.

*Actually, I was aware of a John Young previous to discovering the astronaut. My great-great-great grandfather is John Young, older brother to Brigham Young. I don't mean to speak ill of a relative, but clearly he's not quite as dashing as John Young the astronaut.

It's Come to This

Picture of the Day for 10/6/2010. I've reached a new level of desperation for a picture of the day- a photo of me taken in the ladies room at work. This is what happens when you work from early morning until midnight.

Sinner and Saint

Picture of the Day for 12/5/2010. My church membership records have finally been transferred from my singles ward to my home ward. (For the Brazilians who read my blog on Sundays and other random visitors who stumble onto this site, ward = Mormon congregation.) I decided to check my ward's online membership directory and to my surprise, I found that I'm listed right above Thomas S. Monson who has the distinction of being both the president of the Mormon church and a member of my ward. I had to laugh. Poor man, he has to share screen space with a flaming heathen. The phrase "sinner and saint" comes to mind.

Curly Hair

Picture of the Day for 12/4/2010. I used to have the straightest hair on the planet. Not so much as a wave or a bend or a kink. It's still mostly stick straight, but ever since my surgery last July, I've noticed I have two tendrils of hair at the back of my head that curl. I'm not sure what one thing or event associated with the surgery caused this, but after a lifetime of straight hair, I find it completely fascinating.

Alas, I'm a Spinster

Picture of the Day for 12/3/2010. Upon the recommendation of a friend, I'm reading Alas, Babylon, a Cold War post-apocalyptic novel by Pat Frank which was first published in 1959 and is set in central Florida. Frank begins the novel with a very unflattering description of a fussy spinster, Florence Wechek, who is the next-door neighbor of the story's protagonist. Based on the description, I expected this woman to be in her 60s at the very youngest, but Frank eventually reveals that she's a mere 47 years old! I'm 47 years old. Florence has two pet birds. I have two pet birds. The similarities are frightening. Now I'm depressed...

Blood Feud

Picture of the Day for 12/2/2010. Pay attention to the message on my great-nephew Ethan's t-shirt. Now take a close look at the picture I took of Hayley (the sister referenced on the t-shirt) right after Ethan showed up on the scene at the mall today. A short quiz will follow.


Question: What do these two pictures reveal?
Answer: That Ethan and Hayley are kind of mortal enemies.

Question: What does this say about me?
Answer: That I'm kind of a bad auntie for finding this amusing.

Load of Hay

Picture of the Day for 12/1/2010. My voice teacher (pictured above), Bonnie Weber, holds an annual Christmas recital to give her students an opportunity to perform in front of other people. My performance was adequate. I was happy with adequate since I've been suffering from a cold that's left my voice scratchy and raw.

I sang a lovely and haunting Christmas lullaby which sadly I managed to turn into a redneck lullaby. I had only practiced the song a couple of times and didn't have the words memorized so I had to rely upon the sheet music. My eyesight isn't the best and when I got to a line that read "the cattle too are sleeping in a bed of hay" I accidentally sang "load of hay" instead. This is what was going through my head the precise moment I uttered those words, "Load of hay, are you serious?!?" I almost started to giggle right during the performance, but managed to compose myself.

I was pleased that I ended up having the largest entourage of any of the singers. My sister Paula showed up with her husband, a daughter, and two grandchildren.

I'm a Wonderful Employee

Picture of the Day for 11/30/2010. I had my year-end performance review at work. Part of the process involves soliciting what is supposed to be anonymous feedback (although you can usually deduce the author of each comment) from 5-10 colleagues. I was a little worried about printing out my report today since I feel it hasn't been a banner work year for me due to being out on medical leave for nearly two months. I was extremely pleased to see I received glowing feedback from my co-workers. In fact, there's a comment that I'm awesome! Whew. I was also able to point out to my boss that I was responsible for selling the two largest one-off projects in the entire office this year.

I Finally Get Zombies

Picture of the Day for 11/29/2010. Zombies. I've never understood the attraction. I've politely declined when my nieces have asked me to attend the latest zombie movie. I've resisted them until now, but it looks like I finally "get" zombies. I'm completely obsessed with the AMC series "The Walking Dead." Never thought I'd see the day...

I Have a Dining Room Table

Picture of the Day for 11/28/2010. This holiday weekend was not all about shopping. I actually spent some productive time cleaning my dining room. I finally unearthed the dining room table and cleared a path around the table. It feels weird not having to step over the clutter to get into the kitchen. I'm definitely making progress on the house. I'm hoping to have the living room somewhat presentable by the end of the year. Then I could actually welcome guests into my home rather than living in fear someone will drop by. After that, I'll work on unpacking my moving boxes that have remained mostly untouched since I moved into my parents' house in August 2009.

Christmas Shopping

Picture of the Day for 11/27/2010. I took advantage of the "Black Friday" sales to work on my Christmas shopping. I'm about halfway done and for the people I still need to shop for, I know what I'm going to buy. It feels weird to be so on top of things at this stage of the game.

I was unable to resist engaging in my grand holiday tradition of buying just as much stuff for myself as I do for others. My readers should be glad that I refrained from posting a picture of the purchase I'm the most excited about. I was able to find my favorite underwear that normally sells for $12 a pair for $1.75. I ended up buying eight pairs. I'm not sure why I suddenly decided to show some restraint about posting pictures of underwear since I've posted worse on this blog.

New Blood

Picture of the Day for 11/26/2010. The title of this blog entry has nothing to do with vampires or the Twilight book/movie series. It's in reference to the fact that I'm excited to feature people who have not yet made an appearance in my blog this year. Pictured are my niece Michelle (middle), her husband David, and her friend Mandy. Michelle and David are in town for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Michelle and David eloped while visiting Italy this past summer. No fair! I want to elope to Italy. I'd throw out an invitation/challenge to my blog readers to make that happen, but since there's really no one marriageable among my readership which is mostly female and consists primarily of friends and family, there's no point. Sigh.

Unique Thanksgiving

Picture of the Day for 11/25/2010. My dad and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my sister Robynne's family this year. My dad and I are a package deal and are passed between my two older sisters for the holidays. I have cooked precisely one Thanksgiving dinner in all of my 47 years. A few years ago I decided I would like to host my parents for Thanksgiving at least once in my lifetime. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be the last year my mother could have made it up the three flights of stairs to my condo. Surprisingly, the meal turned out fantastic. No one was more amazed by this positive outcome than I was.

Anyway, back to this year's Thanksgiving. Robynne and I recognized the merit in having someone ELSE cook the Thanksgiving dinner and decided to go out for dinner at Mimi's Cafe. Unfortunately, so did everyone else in the Salt Lake valley. When confronted with a minimum two-hour wait, we found another place that was serving a Thanksgiving dinner buffet with no waiting. It was adequate.

Pictured above are my nephews Michael (L) and Robbie (R) with my cute dad who was just glad to have an outing. I think this is a darling photo.