Picture of the Day for 4/28/2011. A friend and I had lunch today with Colonel Howard C. Johnson, more commonly known as Scrappy Johnson. (This picture isn't terribly flattering of me, but I selected it since I was amused by my hair flying all around my face. My hair and Florida don't really get along and this is what my hair looks like at any given time here- a little out of control.)Scrappy served in World War ll, Korea, and Vietnam. He has the distinction of breaking the world's altitude record in 1958 by flying to a height of 91,249 feet in an F-104A Starfighter. After lunch, my friend spent an hour grilling Scrappy on the details of this record-breaking flight for an article he's writing. Scrappy is 91 years old, but as sharp as they come. I can barely remember last week so it was with a sense of awe that I listened to him relate detailed facts and figures from over half a century ago.
Picture of the Day for 4/27/2011. I attended Sunfest which is held annually in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. Sunfest is described as "Florida's largest music, art, and waterfront festival." That might be true, but not on opening night. I was really interested in seeing the art, but didn't realize until after I paid the $34 entrance fee that the art show doesn't start until Friday. Dang. I then decided to check out the vendors since I'm always up for shopping. There were tons of vendors there, but nobody was selling anything interesting. The booths were mostly devoted to cell phone companies, the FL lottery, radio stations, local newspapers, etc. Dang.I moved on to the music. Sunfest attracts big-name groups, but none of them were there tonight. Dang.Don't get me wrong, the time I spent at Sunfest was pleasant enough, but I left after an hour to go shopping at a nearby shopping mall.
Picture of the Day for 4/26/2011. I'm a certified sugar fiend. It's definitely an inherited preference. My 89-year-old father who is bed-ridden in his nursing home and for the past several months has refused to eat much of anything still perks up when a sugary treat is offered to him. The nurses keep a daily log of my dad's health status and activities. I was amused to read recently that my dad requested Dr. Pepper and ice cream for breakfast which the nurses happily provided to him. That's the proper attitude. When you've reached that venerable age, you should be able to go wild and eat whatever you want. I'm still young enough that I'm trying to rein in the sugar consumption. At least my latest candy obsession, the 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp Bar, only has 170 calories.
Picture of the Day for 4/25/2011. Here's my work office away from home- La Qunta Inn in West Palm Beach. I'd rather be shopping than working in a hotel room, but I don't want to waste vacation days while waiting to see the space shuttle launch on Friday.
Picture of the Day for 4/23/2011. I was sitting in my hotel room this morning wondering how I was going to spend the day when the housekeeper arrived to clean my room. We struck up a conversation and she mentioned that she lived in Christmas, FL- about 10 miles west of Titusville, FL where I'm currently staying. Based on her description of the Fort Christmas Historical Park, I decided to drive out to the town.
During the 2nd Seminole Indian War, the U.S, army began construction of a fort (replica pictured below) on December 25, 1837- hence the name of the fort and the community that was established in the area
The park is also home to several restored historical homes from the area that show pioneer life from the 1870s through the 1930s.
After exploring Fort Christmas, I continued on a few miles further to the Orlando Wetlands Park where one of the guides took me on a 2-mile ride through the park. The pictures below don't do justice to the landscape. It was beautiful.
My tour guide, Joey (pictured below), tried to find an alligator for me (of which there are estimated to be several hundred in the park), but they must have been hiding since we didn't see a single one. Dang.
I love happy accidents. Before this morning, I was completely unaware of Christmas, FL and the Orlando Wetlands Park. I had a really great day exploring the area and all thanks to a completely chance conversation with the hotel housekeeper.
Picture of the Day for 4/22/2011. I flew into Melbourne, FL today. Quick topic detour - the Melbourne airport is the tiniest airport I've ever flown into. Loved it. It was an extremely short walk from the gate to baggage claim and then to the car rental desk. Very quaint.As we were flying into Melbourne and passed over the Kennedy Space Center, I could see the Vehicle Assembly Building where the Apollo rockets used to be assembled and where the space shuttles are currently readied for launch. It's that tiny white blob in front of the wing. You can totally see it, can't you?!
Picture of the Day for 4/21/2011. OK- this is probably my most boring blog entry year-to-date. Don't give up on me though. Future blog entries are guaranteed to be more exciting.Anyhoo, I was grasping for a topic for today's "picture of the day" when I remembered that I was planning on waxing poetic about the new cake pan I purchased for my ill-fated cake bake-off at work. Although I'm still feeling the sting of an unwarranted defeat, the experience introduced me to Nordic Ware cookware. Love it, love it, love it. My love mostly stems from the fact that it's not non-stick which is very hard to find. I hate non-stick pans since they scratch and rust easily. Of course, one should probably not leave one's pans in a sink full of water for several days on end, but that's beside the point...
Picture of the Day for 4/20/2011. As mentioned previously on this blog, I'm a bit of a magazine junky and subscribe to several of them. Based on the divergent nature of the topics represented by my magazine subscriptions, you might assume I'm a little schizophrenic. I prefer to think I have varied interests. It is true though that I'd be likely to inflict a lengthy and detailed discussion of the space program on guests at a tea party. That's only if I were ever to hold a tea party, of course. Potential tea party guests who quail at this prospect are safe for now since I don't have the time or the venue (i.e., a clean house) for such things.
Picture of the Day for 4/19/2011. I adore Idoloonies- a weekly podcast on TVLine.com that examines the previous week's two episodes (performance and results) of American Idol. The podcast is an interesting mix of obvious fondness for the show, extremely snarky commentary, and clever editing. You should check it out!
Picture of the Day for 4/18/2011. I have a colleague from the Newport Beach office who begins her emails to me with the salutation "Dear Michelle" as if she were sending me a formal letter. I find this totally charming.
Picture of the Day for 4/17/2011. I had my silhouette done at a little portrait shop on Main Street in Disneyland. I'm not sure how much this actually resembles my profile, but I think the silhouette is cute.
Picture of the Day for 4/16/2011. Today we went to California Adventure which is adjacent to Disneyland. This is a picture of the family (back row) on the Tower of Terror ride just as it catapulted us to the top of the tower and is about to drop us 40 feet. I love the wild rides. I recommend clicking on the photo to enlarge the view so you can see the look on everyone's faces. Too funny.
Picture of the Day for 4/15/2011. Today was our first full day in Disneyland. Pictured above are Kellie as the princess and Corinne as the pirate which is perfectly suited to their respective personalities.We had a jam-packed day of activities, but I don't have much photographic documentation of it. That's because my family has a hard-core "take no prisoners" type of approach to Disneyland. In fact, their motto is "There's no time!!" - meaning there's no time to waste on lallygagging or meandering or taking pictures. We practically ran from ride to ride. The strategy paid off since we were able to go on all our favorite rides at least twice during the day.
Picture of the Day for 4/14/2011. Today was my niece Corinne's 24th birthday and she requested that we meet for dinner at the Coco's across the street from Disneyland, so we did! Of course, this required a full day of travel from Salt Lake City, but no sacrifice is too great for a niece. Actually, Corinne requested a trip to Disneyland for her birthday and I was invited along for the ride. It didn't take any arm twisting to convince me to go as it's been over 20 years since I've visited the park.
Coco's was memorable for the fact that they were out of everything. We heard the phrase "we're out of that" more times than we could count. After we were done eating, it took a very long time for the waitress to bring our checks. My brother-in-law David wondered snarkily if they were out of checks too.
Here are the ages of the members of our group: David-64, Paula-60, Me-48, Renee-34, Corinne-24, Kellie-23. After a full day of travel and dinner at Coco's, the three youngest members of the group went back to the hotel at about 8:30 p.m. to go to bed. The three oldest members of the group walked approximately 1/2 mile to Downtown Disney, shopped for a couple of hours, and then walked the 1/2 mile back to the hotel. There's something wrong with this scenario.We arrived in time to see the nightly fireworks show. I like this picture because it looks like the fireworks are being stealthy in the background.
Sorry! I know I owe my faithful readers some blog entries. I got back from a trip to Disneyland at 1:00 a.m. last night and I just walked in the door tonight after a 14-hour workday. I'm so sleepy I can't keep my eyes open. I promise I'll update my blog tomorrow night.
Picture of the Day for 4/12/2011. Man oh man oh man oh man. I loved this movie. I definitely will need to own it once it's released on DVD.
Picture of the Day for 4/11/2011. I spent 12 long hours at the office today. Got a lot accomplished. After work I went to the gym where I did a rigorous fat-burning routine on the elliptical machine. Got home and stared at the crooked lampshade which I don't have the energy or inclination to straighten. Go figure.
Picture of the Day for 4/10/2011. This is the back of a magazine that was delivered to my house yesterday. This is typical of the magazines that arrive in my mailbox. I haven't been able to figure this out because I never see magazines in this condition at other people's homes. Either I have really wretched magazine karma or the post office targets my magazines for destruction before delivery.
Picture of the Day for 4/9/2011. It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but it's snowing. Of course it's cold and wet and snowing. Again. I'm starting to believe it's been snowing non-stop since the day I was born. I'm not being overly dramatic either. I'm just grumpy. You know what makes me really grumpy? Knowing that one day the snow will stop and it will suddenly be a sweltering 100 degrees for months on end until I start to believe the sun has been burning into my flesh since the day I was born. Is it too much to expect that we might have a few weeks of pleasant spring weather as a transition between the two extremes? Did I mention that I'm feeling grumpy?
Picture of the Day for 4/8/2011. If I know you and you're unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of my camera, you WILL be making an appearance on my blog. Case in point, my friend Suzanne and her husband Tom (pictured above). They were good sports and agreed to be my subject for today's "picture of the day." We attended the wedding reception for a mutual acquaintance of ours. I used to attend the same singles ward with this woman until my surgery last summer forced me to do a quick disappearing act. After my recovery, I decided it was a good segue into attending church at my home ward. I saw a lot of friends from the singles ward at the reception tonight for the first time in nearly nine months. It was fun.
Picture of the Day for 4/7/2011. Do you know what the face of pure contentment looks like? My dad surrounded by his three daughters. Every Thursday afternoon all three of us girls spend an hour or so together visiting my dad. He's so hard of hearing that he can't hear a dang thing we say. Consequently, we spend most of the visit chatting with each other, but he looks happy just to have us there. This picture does not begin to adequately capture the look of contentment on his face, but it was the best I could do.
Picture of the Day for 4/6/2011. It just occurred to me tonight, based upon the copious number of Amazon mailers strewn around my house, that I might be an Amazon.com junkie. My iPhone doesn't help matters. I can order merchandise with just one press of a button. I think it's going to take me years to read all the books I've ordered.
Picture of the Day for 4/5/2011. I spend on average about 1.3 minutes a day getting fresh air. When I was a little girl who spent most summer days playing outside, I would not have been able to fathom growing up to be an adult who rarely ventures outside (except to walk from my car* to my various destinations). As I was pulling the trash can out to the curb, I actually happened to look up at the sky and noticed how lovely the clouds were this morning. I guess I should get outside and look up more often. *As a little girl, I was able to fathom growing up and getting a car. I was born ready to drive, as evidenced by the fact that my first words were not "mama" or "papa," but "car keys." I had my priorities straight!
Picture of the Day for 4/4/2011. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.In case you weren't clear about my feelings on this topic- damn.OK, I realize the entire space shuttle does not revolve around my schedule, but I already had travel plans in place to see the shuttle launch that was originally scheduled for April 19, but is now pushed back to April 29. My schedule is pretty flexible so I'll still be able to go, but now I'll have to pay the exorbitant fees to change my flight reservations. Damn.
Picture of the Day for 4/3/2011. This is going to be a whiny entry. I've been plagued by big league sinus troubles the past few days- the kind where the pain radiates down into your teeth and gives you a flaming headache. That's all I have to say today. I'm going to go fling myself onto my couch and curl up into a ball.
Picture of the Day for 4/2/2011. I adore pasta. Add cream and cheese to pasta and I'm in ecstasy. Apparently, Nigella Lawson (a Food Network chef) feels the same way. I came across this recipe for linguine where she ends with the most unique set of instructions I've ever seen in a recipe:Transfer the pasta to a bowl and eat alone, and thrillingly.I was transfixed by the word, "thrillingly." I have no choice but to make this dish now. I'm working on assembling the ingredients which aren't currently in my pantry. I just bought the white truffle oil (pictured above) and next time I'm at the grocery store I'll have to pick up some white pepper. I'll post an update after I get a chance to try this recipe and let you know if it was the thrilling experience I'm hoping for!
