Hen Cam

Picture of the Day for 6/29/2010. Raising chickens is very trendy right now. I have no desire to raise chickens* but I do enjoy watching them on www.hencam.com. Below is a blurb I lifted directly from the site:

Welcome to the HenCam. We are located about thirty miles west of Boston, in the USA. There are seven hens in the HenCam coop that you can see on the inside and outside cams. Candy, the rabbit, lives with these chickens. More hens live in the right side of the big barn, (seen just beyond the HenCam run.) The goats, Pip and Caper, live on the left side of the big barn and you can watch them on the GoatCam. To find out more about the residents of Little Pond Farm, click on Bios.

The site is highly entertaining. I recommend checking it out.

*Have you ever attended a state fair and smelled the chickens? Worst smell on the planet.

More Home Remedies

Picture of the Day for 6/28/2010. Lately, I've been plagued by ferocious leg and foot cramps- the kind that leave you breathless with the pain. Obviously, this means I'm not getting enough potassium in my diet. This prompted me to purchase some bananas and coconut water (which contains a whopping 670 mg of potassium). Coconut water (extracted from Brazilian green coconuts no less) is definitely an acquired taste. To render it palatable, I dilute it with ice water and add Crystal Light powder. So far so good- no nasty leg cramps.

Tell-Tale Signs of a Shopping Spree

Picture of the Day for 6/27/2010. So, how can you tell I've been on a shopping spree at my favorite boutique? By the animal print bag and hot pink tissue paper which is a hallmark of Solissa's (the aforementioned favorite boutique). I actually went on a little mini shopping spree yesterday, but didn't have a chance to take a picture of my purchases until today. I've been trying to go easy on the shopping sprees since I went a little wild month, but I just couldn't help myself. Besides, it's been over a month since I've tormented my niece Chantal with a picture of insanely cute shoes that she cannot wear. Below are my latest purchases - two shirts, a scarf, and brown suede platform sandals.

Little Card, Big Trouble

Picture of the Day for 6/26/2010. This is an access card to my office building. Notice I said "an" rather than "my." That's because when I arrived at work this afternoon at 3:00 p.m., I realized I had left my access card in my office. Dang, dang, dang. Unfortunately, shrugging my shoulders and deciding to take the day off was not an option since I have waaaaay too much work on my plate. I ended up calling a co-worker who was kind enough to loan me his card. Too bad I wasn't able to get an earlier start since it's 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday evening and I'm still here at work.

Roses

Picture of the Day for 6/25/2010. This is certainly a lovelier image than the one of the weeds I posted a couple of days ago. My friend Karl and I saw Toy Story 3* at the Century 16 theater last night. Lining the sidewalk to the theater were the prettiest rose bushes.


*Stupid movie- made me cry at the end.

Full Moon

Picture of the Day for 6/24/2010. It's a day away from the full moon. This picture above is notable because I was finally successful at taking a photo of the moon where it didn't appear as a tiny point of light in the sky. Of course, with the rays of light radiating from the moon, it looks more like a picture of the sun rather than the moon. Sigh. Someday I will capture the perfect image of the moon. I'm determined.

I didn't realize how office-bound I've been until I took these pictures last night. I was struck by how good the summer night air felt on my skin. It's sad when fresh air feels like a novelty.

Weeds vs. Michelle

Picture of the Day for 6/23/2010. I'm so busy at work that I've never had a chance to arrange for a lawn service to do some much-needed yard work. Meanwhile, the weeds have gotten out of hand growing up through the cracks in the driveway. I'm talking weeds that are knee-high tall. Now, the landscaping at my house has always been a little sketchy, but even I was starting to worry about what the neighbors would think. When I attempted to address the problem last night, I was surprised to discover the weeds were a formidable opponent and refused to go down without a fight. I'm not sure either side can claim a victory at this point. I was able to manhandle some of the weeds out of the ground, but others stood their ground. I can see I'm going to have to call in reinforcements.

Trendy Reader

Picture of the Day for 6/22/2010. I've started reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," the first book in a trilogy by Stieg Larsson (a Swedish author). His books are all the rage right now- very trendy. Below is a plot summary from Amazon.com:

Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues.

Ususally, I'm not a fan of trendy books, but I'm glad I started reading this novel. I can understand the appeal- it's well-written and the characters are fascinating.

On a completely random tangent, whenever I see the author's name, Stieg Larsson, I think of Sig Hansen, one of the fishermen from the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" show. I have quite a little crush on Sig. Maybe it's just my Norwegian heritage responding to another Norwegian. ;-)

White Towels

Picture of the Day fro 6/21/2010. Sorry readers- my topic is not scintillating today. I'm the proud owner of 6 new white bath towels, 12 new white hand towels, and 24 new white washcloths. Gotta love Costco. I kind of have a thing for white towels, kind of like my mother had a weird obsession with stocking up on toilet paper. (Side note: I've lived in my parents' house for almost a year now and I have not had to purchase a single roll of toilet paper. I'm still making my way through my mother's stash.) My obsession with white towels even extends to cleaning rags. I only use white towels and cloths for cleaning. I'm a little weird...

Father's Day 2010

Picture of the Day for 6/20/2010. Can't let Father's Day pass without getting a picture of one's 89-year old father. I let him see the photo I snapped of him. He didn't really love it, but said it would do.

Travel Rituals

Picture of the Day for 6/19/2010. Arrived home from Florida tonight at 11:30 p.m. Thankfully, my trip home was a lot less eventful than the trip out.

I have very specific travel rituals. Arriving home late at night is one of them (I like to make my vacations last as long as possible). Another one is my loyalty to Shuttle Stop 8 in the long-term parking lot at the Salt Lake City airport. I always park close to this stop so I can remember where I've parked. I chose this shuttle stop in honor of my friend Suzanne whose favorite number is 8. I implemented this ritual a couple of years ago when I arrived home in the middle of the night only to discover I had absolutely no memory of where I parked. I wandered around forlornly in the dark until a parking attendant took pity on me. It turns out, the "powers that be" are aware of every car in the parking lot and how long they've been there. I gave the attendant my license plate number and he was able to locate my car within a matter of minutes.

Lake Okeechobee

Pictures of the Day for 6/18/2010. Spent the afternoon at Lake Okeechobee, Florida's largest fresh water lake. The photo above is of a canal leading into the eastern side of the lake. Below is an actual picture of the lake. I'll be posting better photos once my camera stops giving me attitude. Apparently, Lake Okeechobee is a popular hang-out for alligators, but since it was so blasted hot and humid, they were smart enough to stay in the lake rather than venturing out onto the banks. Consequently, I saw a few snouts poking out of the water, but not much more than that.

Interesting Landscapes

Pictures of the Day for 6/17/2010. I flew into the West Palm Beach airport this morning. During the final approach to the airport, I noticed very interesting and varied landscapes below me. The symmetrical grids of the farmland in the photo above contrast starkly with the round shapes of the marshland in the photo below.

Travel Odyssey

Picture of the Day for 6/16/2010. I'll get back to this picture in a second. For now, I need to launch into a tale of travel that rivals the The Odyssey. (OK- maybe that's an exaggeration, but I did have a bit of an adventure getting to my destination.) I was scheduled to take an 8:00 p.m. flight to Las Vegas and then catch a 10:00 p.m. red-eye flight to Fort Lauderdale. When I arrived at the airport, I learned that my flight from Vegas to Fort Lauderdale had been canceled. Eek. At first I was informed that Delta Airlines wouldn't be able to get me to Florida until Friday evening. Unacceptable, especially since that would give me less than 24 hours in Florida before I had to fly home Saturday afternoon. I ended up with a great ticket agent who spent about a 1/2 hour finding a creative way for me to get to Florida early the next morning. She put me on a flight to Phoenix. From Phoenix, I took a flight to Atlanta. From Atlanta, I took a flight into West Palm Beach. From the time I hopped on the 8:00 p.m. flight to Phoenix, it took me precisely 12 hours to make my way to Florida. It was a loooong night, but I could have kissed the ticket agent for working her magic with the flights.

Anyway, back to the photo of the day. As if my traveling schedule wasn't causing enough stress, both straps on the carry-on bag holding my laptop computer snapped. I was lucky to find a replacement bag in a gift shop at the Phoenix airport.

One perk to my rescheduled flights was the fact I got to fly first-class from Phoenix to Atlanta. In all my 47 years, I've never flown first-class before. Let me just say it was a revelation. First-class passengers have an entirely different flying experience than the coach passengers. I tried to take a stealth picture of the first-class cabin without looking like a gawking hayseed, but the best I could do was to snap a photo of the bottles of water and the headphones waiting for us at our seats.

New Addition to the Family

Picture of the Day for 6/15/2010. My niece Corinne acquired a new guinea pig over the weekend. It has the cutest face ever. I refer to the creature as "it" since a name is yet to be determined.

Thank Goodness for Hulu

Picture of the Day for 6/14/2010. I'm still at the office as I write this blog entry since it's been another 12-hour day at work for me. I employ a variety of strategies to keep myself entertained after-hours when I'm the only one in the building. Watching Hulu, the website that allows you to view TV shows online for free, is one of them. My obsession with all things space-related is unabated, so it should come as no surprise to my readers that I opted to watch a show about the universe and galaxies tonight.

Proof I am Not a Hoarder

Picture of the Day for 6/13/2010. Although my house looks like it should be profiled in an episode of the TV series "Hoarders," I am not a hoarder. This donation receipt from Deseret Industries is proof! In a fit of industry yesterday (and in an effort to avoid logging onto my work computer), I decided to get rid of ALL clothing that is now too big for me. I ended up donating four big bags of the following clothing and accessories to charity:
-28 shirts
-22 skirts
-4 pairs of pants
-2 jackets
-7 pairs of shoes
-1 purse
-6 scarves

Whew!

Random Stuff for 6/12/2010

1- At lunch today with my dad, I was telling him that I believed the building which housed the acoustical engineering firm where he worked for nearly thirty years was now home to a sex shop. He digested that bit of news for a moment and then asked me what a sex shop entails. I gave him a high-level overview. It made me laugh- never thought I'd be having a conversation like that with my 89-year-old father.

2- My nieces have a new description for someone who is very manly. In their words, the virile man under discussion positively "vomits testosterone."

3- My niece Corinne has started a blog called "Some Strangeness in the Proportion." I inquired about the origin of that phrase and she informed me it's from a quote by Poe: "There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion." Love it.

Lawrence Welk Rocks

Picture of the Day for 6/12/2010. I was channel surfing tonight and stumbled across this infomercial for some Lawrence Welk merchandise. It made me smile. My mother was a HUGE Lawrence Welk fan. One of our local public TV stations used to air re-runs of the show on weekends. My mother would be absolutely glued to the TV. This was too much for my dad who escaped to the kitchen to watch his own TV shows. Can't blame him. A little bit of Lawrence Welk goes a looooong way.

Bathroom Blockade

Picture of the Day for 6/11/2010. You might be wondering about the significance of a trash bag in an office hallway. It has deep significance to me. As my readers are aware, I tend to work late nights so I'm usually here when the cleaning staff arrives after-hours. The cleaning staff is made up of lovely, but sadistic individuals who invariably know when I'm having a "situation critical - must use the restroom immediately" crisis. It is at those precise moments that the staff decides to clean the women's restroom. (I'm kidding of course. They don't do this on purpose, but I must say their timing is uncanny.) It happened again tonight! I returned to the office after going out to dinner and drinking a good 40 gallons of water only to find the bathroom was unavailable. Argh.

My Niece Loves Me

Picture of the Day for 6-10-2010. My sister Paula gave me a copy of an outline for an essay that my niece Chantal had written 22 years ago for school. This essay waxes poetic about the fabulousness that is Michelle Merrill- auntie extraordinaire. Aww, my niece Chantal loved me lots. Very cute.

Note to Chantal: Any smart-aleck comments in response to this blog entry automatically revoke your invitation to join me and Karl for dinner tomorrow. Careful...

Threatening Skies

Picture of the Day for 6/9/2010. The skies were threatening over Bountiful, Utah tonight. Sadly, nothing really came of it. I say sadly because I love violent weather. There was a pretty dramatic lightening storm that shook my house a few days ago. Loved it. I clearly inherited this from my dad. I have fond memories of him sitting out on the porch whenever there was lightening to watch zig zag across the sky. My mother, on the other hand, hated lightening and stayed safely tucked inside the house while demanding we get off the phone since the electrical current might come through the phone and zap us. I usually decided to join my dad on the porch.

My most dramatic encounter with violent weather occurred almost 20 years ago while I was working in Yellowstone National Park. I was out hiking one day when a very intense storm struck out of nowhere. I was a couple of miles away from my dormitory and had no choice but to keep walking alongside the road in the deluge. A man in a truck stopped to see if I needed a ride. The most notable thing about this man was the fact he had a shotgun mounted in the rear window of his truck. Eek. I had to make a split-decision- do I go with shotgun guy or take my chances with the lightening strikes hitting far too close for comfort? I chose shotgun guy who turned out to be a very lovely fellow. Whew.

12 is the New 8

As a co-worker and I were lamenting the fact we've been working 12-hour days, he said, "You know, 12 is the new 8." That made me laugh. It's so true. A mere 8-hour work day would seem like a decadent indulgence to me right now.

My Teeth are Great

Picture of the Day for 6/8/2010. I'm going to share some insight into my "picture of the day" habit. There are some days when midnight is quickly approaching and I realize, in a panic, that I have not yet taken a photograph. I rush to think about something representative about my day that I can document on film (metaphorically speaking since I use a digital camera). Today is one of those days. Sadly, the most eventful thing to happen is my dentist appointment where I was informed that my teeth look great. Hence, the reason for the close-up of my teeth you're seeing in this blog entry. This close-up has reveaed one front tooth is significantly smaller than the other. How come I don't see that in the mirror? I'm also in need of a good dose of whitening.

I Don't Need to Read David Archuleta's Memoir

Picture of the Day for 6/7/2010. David Archuleta (the phenom from season 7 of American Idol) made an appearance at the Deseret Book right next to my office building for a book signing. There was a huge line of people waiting to see him. At the ripe old age of 19, Archuleta has written a memoir "of soul, song, and the power of perserverance." I'm sure it's a lovely book, but I have no interest in reading life advice from a) someone who is young enough to be my child, and b) someone who hasn't lived long enough to have much life experience under his belt. Just saying...

The Jungles of Holladay, UT

Picture of the Day for 6/6/2010. This is the jungle that is my side yard. My backyard looks even worse. I guess I should do something about it. Sigh...

In the midst of all the weeds, there is some beauty as evidenced by the irises growing in the backyard. The irises used to grow profusely until my dad decided to thin them out when I was a tiny girl. Even as a 5-year-old, I recognized this was a bad plan and begged my dad to hold off. He didn't listen to me (and really, who can blame him for ignoring gardening advice from a 5-year old). He should have listened since the irises never did recover from his over-zealous pruning.

Stealth Photography

I love my iPhone. If you put the ringer on mute, you can take pictures without that tell-tale "clicking" sound that most cameras make. Also, when you've got your iPhone in your hands, people assume you're texting or checking email. These conditions are instrumental in taking what I call "stealth" photos- pictures of people who don't realize they are being photographed.

Below is the first stealth photo of the day.

This group of people caught my attention because they were so eccentric. I ran into McDonald's this morning to grab breakfast and I ended up sitting across from them. One woman was wearing a pink cowboy hat, had very bright spots of ruby red rouge on her cheeks, and spoke in a very loud voice. A young woman sitting at the table next to the group commented on how much she liked the hat. This resulted in a long discussion about where to obtain pink cowboy hats. The young woman eventually joined the group when they pulled out a coupon organizer and launched into an animated discussion of shopping with coupons. I was transfixed by the conversations.

Below is the second stealth photo of the day.

This young woman and her too-short outfit got a LOT of attention at the Pride Festival tonight.

Utah Pride

Picture of the Day for 6/5/2010. These are my friends Margaret Ruth and Kelly Hansen. We attended the 2010 Utah Pride Festival- my first ever appearance at such an event. My gay friend Karl hates attending the Pride Festival because he says it's just an excuse for drunken revelry. I didn't really see much evidence of that. Instead, it felt like every other festival (i.e., Utah Living Traditions, Utah Arts Festival) I've attended in downtown SLC. There were food booths and vendors selling all types of merchandise. I bought a couple of very lovely scarves.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Picture of the Day for 6/4/2010. What's wrong with this picture? I'll be happy to tell you. This is the hallway outside my office door. The office is deserted and rightly so because it's 11:45 p.m. on a Friday evening. I should be home watching TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" (one of my favorite guilty pleasures), but oh no, I'm still here working. Sadly, this will be the norm for the month of June (and possibly July). Sigh. I just better not find out that other people are enjoying lazy summer days. Consider that a threat...

I am NOT a Senior Citizen

Picture of the Day for 6/3/2010. I received a "senior citizen" offer to subscribe to Sunset magazine. I am outraged! I'll admit to being middle-aged, but as a 47-year-old, I cannot be remotely categorized as a senior citizen. Perhaps that label might apply if I were living in ancient Egypt where life expectancy was less than 40 (I googled that bit of trivia), but not in 21st century America. Also, with all the talk about how there's no such thing as privacy and how our personal data is EVERYWHERE, one would think the publisher has access to databases clearly identifying my non-senior citizen age. Sheesh.

My Dad is 89 Years Old

Picture of the Day for 6/2/2010. It's my dad's 89th birthday! That's quite an accomplishment to live so long. I love this photo "tableau." My dad is pictured here with his 16-year-old namesake (Robert Merrill Collins) and a random cowboy from the Lone Star Steakhouse where we took my dad for his birthday dinner. We had to keep reminding my dad it was his birthday, but that's OK. He still had a good time being out with his family and drinking several Doctor Peppers.

This is also the one-year anniversary of the last time I had a conversation with my mother before she passed away. I called my parents' apartment to wish my dad a happy birthday and got my mother on the phone. She mentioned that she wasn't feeling well and didn't even realize it was dad's birthday. I wish I known at the time it was the last time I'd be speaking to her.

Brigham Young's 209th Birthday

Picture of the Day for 6/1/2010. Today is Brigham Young's birthday! He was born 209 years ago on June 1, 1801. I know this because there was a massive wreath placed at the base of the Brigham Young monument marking the event- not that you could tell from this photo. I noticed the wreath when I walked across the street from my office building to buy some dinner. I ran back to my office to grab my camera, but by the time I returned, the wreath had vanished. Bless my co-worker's Richard's heart. When I told him how disappointed I was about the missed photo opportunity, he picked up the phone and called around to see where the wreath might have gone. He didn't have any luck, but I thought it was sweet he made the effort.

I should remark that today is also my brother-in-law David's birthday. He is not 209 years old.