Picture of the Day for 6/28/2011. I'm so excited! I've been searching for this book at my parents' house for years. It's one I used to read over and over when I was a young adult.* I had given up all hope of finding it, but it turned up in a dark corner of a bookshelf that I was cleaning out recently. The author is famous for his Great Brain children's novels. This book is autobiographical and tells the story of his Catholic father and his Mormon mother courting, marrying, and raising a family in the wild west. The tale is full of adventure and humor. If you haven't read this book, I suggest you do so. I know you'd enjoy it. Just don't ask to borrow my copy! Now that it's in my possession again, I'm not letting it go.I'm nostalgic for the days when I would read a book over and over again. Life is just too busy now for that.
Picture of the Day for 6/27/2011. Here are some words of advice. If you buy a chocolate truffle at the cafe across the street from your office and look forward for several hours to eating the truffle after a grueling 12-hour workday, don't put the truffle in your skirt pocket. Sadly, I've learned this is where truffles go to die. By the time I pulled the package out of my pocket, the chocolate was completely melted. I remained undaunted however in the face of this setback. I put the chocolate in the freezer for a few minutes to harden it up. Worked just fine.
Picture of the Day for 6/26/2011. My brother-in-law David received a belated Father's Day gift today. It may appear on the surface that he received the usual present you'd give a man on Father's Day, except this is not a typical tie. The lighting was really poor; otherwise, you could tell this tie is very pink. It's a beautiful tie and David was delighted with it. He's one of the few men I know who wears pink. He looks great in that color.
Picture of the Day for 6/25/2011. All the women in my family spent a leisurely afternoon at The Grand America hotel enjoying high tea. It was divine. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Picture of the Day for 6/24/2011. I'm a sucker for the weight loss promises on the cover of Women's World magazine. "Lose 24 pounds by Next Week!" "Lose 40 Pounds by Eating Chocolate!" The latest copy of the magazine profiled a cookbook author who reconfigures recipes so they have the lowest number of calories possible. I figured I'd check out her book so I ordered it from Amazon.
Picture of the Day for 6/23/2011. Normally, I would avoid posting cat pictures two days in a row for fear of being labeled a crazy cat lady. Technically, I can't be called a crazy cat lady since I don't share my home with 40 felines. I don't even have one cat- so there.
I was at my favorite little dress boutique and I was amused by the resident cat stretched out full length in front of the cash register- a high traffic area. People were just stepping over and around her. That must be one trusting kitty.
Picture of the Day for 6/22/2011. I apologize to my blog readers who are forced to read about my ongoing love affair with my sister's cat Jingles. I do seem to devote an inordinate number of blog entries to this creature. I couldn't resist one more. This is the face of a purely contented cat.
Picture of the Day for 6/21/2011. As part of the Tight Clothing Eradication Project (TCEP), I figured I'd better add exercise into the mix. All things being equal, I'd rather be lounging on the couch watching TV. Oh wait, that's exactly what I did. I lounged on the couch while I watched this exercise DVD. I suspect it would be more effective if I actually participated in the exercises rather than watch other people work out. Dang.
Picture of the Day for 6/20/2011. My clothes are a little tight so I'm back on the straight and narrow food path- snacking on raw vegetables with no dipping sauce of any kind (oh, the horror). All things being equal, I'd rather be eating chocolate, but that's what got me into the tight clothes predicament in the first place.
Picture of the Day for 6/19/2011. I spent a couple of hours today with my dad on Father's Day. He looks pretty good. Of course, I wish he looked as hale and hearty as he did a year ago. A lot can change in a year, but at least he's still around.
Picture of the Day for 6/18/2011. My dad is fast asleep. Hmm...maybe I shouldn't force him to watch the Food Network during my weekend visits with him.I love watching my dad while he's asleep. It appears there's a lot going on in his head. I wonder if he's dreaming of the time when he was still a young man and his whole life was ahead of him.
6/17/2011. My friends Kelly and Margaret attended Art in Pilar's Garden, an annual event hosted by Pilar Pobil on Father's Day weekend. Pilar, an 80-year-old artist who is originally from Spain, opens her home (located in the Avenues in downtown Salt Lake City) and garden to the public to view her artwork and other artists' works. The art in the garden is for sale. Since the majority of my disposable income is ear-marked for nerdy space-related activities, I could not afford anything there with the exception of the greeting card pictured below. 
Picture of the Day for 6/17/2011. I spent the evening with my girlfriends Kelly and Margaret. Margaret's next-door neighbor's dog, an American Bulldog named Butcher dropped by for a visit. What a cute dog. He's also a big, heavy dog. He knocked over Margaret who is a tiny little thing.
Now I totally want an American Bulldog. I'm in love...
Picture of the Day for 6/16/201. Argh- I was THIS CLOSE to purchasing my tickets to the final space shuttle launch on July 8. The two tour companies that contract with the Kennedy Space Center began selling tickets at precisely noon Eastern time on an online-only basis. I had the websites open and was ready to go. So was every other space nut on the planet since both websites crashed within a matter of moments. I was able to get as far as the checkout on one of the sites before it crashed. It was sooooo frustrating to get so close.The crash turned out to be a good thing. The tour company I really wanted to go with ended up taking orders manually which meant I was able to call the next day and order tickets. What's weird is the fact that despite looking like all hope was lost, I just KNEW that I would be able to get a ticket and I was right. Yay! I hate the fact that the shuttle program is ending, but I'm delighted I get to attend such a historic event.
Picture of the Day for 6/15/2011. The large excavator that's been parked outside my house for the last week has been replaced with this smaller skid steer* which will be used to grade the lawn into a smooth surface (now that the heavy foliage has all been torn out) that will be ready for me to plant grass or lay sod. I'm certainly my father's daughter since I find all this construction fascinating. I'm not the only one who finds it interesting. Apparently, my landscape makeover has been the talk of the neighborhood. *Don't be so impressed that I casually rattled off the names of the heavy equipment. I actually had to look these up.
6/14/2011. It's a red-letter day! The bushes that had taken over the front and back yards are gone! Vanquished. No longer will my property be a haven for rogue raccoons and feral cats. No longer will my property be the neighborhood dumping ground for beer bottles. No longer do I hate living here with all my heart. My happiness has increased by 1,000%. (That's sounds like a complete exaggeration, but I'm not kidding.) I didn't realize just how oppressed I felt by the overgrown foliage until it was gone.
Picture of the Day for 6/13/2011. It's the little things that can send you over the edge. Case in point, the way people in my parking garage feel compelled to back their cars into the parking spots irritates the snot out of me. I don't get it. Is it really that difficult to put your car in reverse when you're ready to leave? What really sends me over the edge is waiting for people to make the excruciating 40-point turn it invariably takes them to back their cars into the spaces, all the while blocking access so no one can get by until they're done. Annoying.
Picture of the Day for 6/12/2011. Sorry readers- it was kind of low-key day so I don't have an exciting picture to post. I've noticed the roses are in bloom so I took a picture of this flower as I was walking home from church.
Here's a picture of the entire family (minus a few family members living out of state) at my dad's birthday party last Saturday evening. I emphatically told everyone that I wanted a family picture and they were NOT to give me any crap about it (as they are inclined to do when it comes to photos). If anyone even looked like they were about to give me crap about having their photo taken, I gave them the stink-eye. This was about the best I could get- Corinne and Lisa were wrestling, Ethan looks like he's about to topple over, and Robynne is hiding behind Paula. Even though it's not an entirely crap-free photo, I still think it's very cute.
Picture of the Day for 6/11/2011. My dad turned 90 a little over a week ago on June 2. We held a family party for him tonight. As you can see, the celebration was a little too much for him. Poor man. I think it's been so long since he's been out of bed that the process of getting dressed and into a wheelchair wiped him out. He needed help blowing out the candles and I ended up feeding him his ice cream.
Picture of the Day for 6/10/2011. I got home too late to document Day 2 of the Great Landscape Makeover. Too dark to take photos. I'll get up early tomorrow and take pictures before Day 3 of the Great Landscape Makeover officially begins. In the meantime, I needed a subject for today's picture of the day and I thought it might as well be my new shoes because they're yellow! They make me feel happy and perky just looking at them. I must have the soul of little 5-year-old girl because I went around the office today pointing out my new yellow shoes to anyone unfortunate to be in my path. The shoes needed to be acknowledged because, hey, they're yellow!
Picture of the Day for 6/8/2011. Say good-bye to the wildly overgrown bushes in my front yard for tomorrow they are history. I'm sure there's a whole host of critters who call these bushes home who have no idea they're just about to get the boot.
Picture of the Day for 6/7/2011. I arrived home from my trip to Tucson on Sunday night to discover that I had no hot water. It always seems like I come back from someplace swanky to be swatted upside the head with plumbing problems. It took me until Monday evening to discover the root cause- Questar had come by when I was out of town and installed a new gas meter. This required them to turn off the gas which couldn't be turned on again until I was home to let a technician inside the house. Unfortunately, I was too late to call for an appointment on Monday so I had to wait until today. All I've been thinking about the past two days is how I want to take a hot shower. In the interim, I heated up a pan of water this morning so I could take a spit bath. I kind of felt like I was hearkening back to pioneer times. I would have said Victorian times, but that would require me to have a lady's maid to heat the water for me. There's a dearth of personal servants in my home and I'm not a delicate flower so the pioneer description is more apt.
Picture of the Day for 6/6/2011. Dang. This is the 2nd time this year I forgot to take a picture of the day. I blame the couch. It made me fall asleep and lose track of time. I got home from work and was going to rest for just a minute and the next thing I knew it was 4:00 a.m. the next morning.
6/6/2011. While driving to work this morning I was thinking about my mom and missing her terribly. I wondered why I was thinking about her so much out of the blue. It didn't occur to me until I arrived at the office and looked at my calendar that today is the 2-year anniversary of her death. I guess my subconscious mind was more on the ball than my conscious mind. Even after two years I'm still really irritated with her for dying!
Picture of the Day for 6/5/2011. The flight home from Tucson took us over the Great Salt Lake. I'm not sure what's up with the "green stuff"* in the lake, but it made for a pretty effect.*As a former English teacher, I have an impressive way with words, don't I?
Picture of the Day for 6/4/2011. I spent the day as Edgar Mitchell's assistant (i.e., the money gal who collected cash or ran credit cards- Mitchell charges $100 per signature) at Spacefest 3's astronaut autograph show. Mitchell was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 14, a mission that was commanded by Alan Shepard. I had served as Gene Cernan's (Apollo 17) assistant during Spacefest 2 in 2009 so it was nice to become acquainted with a different astronaut. Mitchell turned out to be both a lovely and popular fellow. I was delighted he was in demand since that meant we kept quite busy during the day. Mitchell has an interest in parapsychology and is an avowed believer in aliens. Consequently, it was interesting to observe the people who approached him for an autograph or just to chat. Half of them wanted to talk about his Apollo mission and to get some insight into what Alan Shepard was like. The other half were interested in discussing UFOs and aliens. I was curious about both topics so I listened to his comments with a great deal of interest. I liked Mitchell's story about Shepard's response to his inquiry about why Shepard had selected him for the mission. Shepard replied it was because he knew Mitchell would get them home.
6/3/2011. Check out the I'm Famous - Part 1 blog entry for some background information about this topic. Now I'm even MORE famous, if that's even possible (I'm kidding, I'm kidding). I approached Francis French, the co-author of Al Worden's (Apollo 15) autobiography that will be released next month, and introduced myself as the moon poster girl. He knew exactly what I was talking about. I showed him the print version of the July 2011 edition of the Smithsonian Air & Space magazine where the photo I took of Al Worden signing my moon poster last November appears in an article about the forthcoming autobiography. (I'm writing this blog entry nearly a week after the fact and I'm still geeking out over seeing my name in print.) French explained the reason my photo was selected was because it is a good example of provenance (showing the history of a valued object- in this case, an Apollo astronaut's autograph). French escorted me over to Worden to show him a copy of the magazine which he had not seen yet. French snapped a picture of me with Worden holding the magazine opened up to the page where my picture appears. We were laughing at how self-referential this was. I was laughing because the people surrounding Worden thought something significant was happening because they all rushed to take a picture as soon as they saw French doing so. I'm sure they'll look back on their photos and wonder who the mystery woman was.
6/3/2011. I'm loving the saguaro cactus (cacti?) that dot the landscape in Tucson, Arizona.
