Picture of the Day for 1/31/2012. Here's the next messy room we're tackling in the epic Bob and Polly Merrill Basement Clean-Up project. Believe it or not, this seems less daunting than my dad's office which we worked on yesterday. At least the family room isn't filled with box after box of financial records that require careful scrutiny.
Picture of the Day for 1/30/2012. My sister Paula and I finished clearing out/cleaning her old bedroom this morning and moved on to my dad's office. There was never a bill or a special offer from Reader's Digest that he ever threw out. This is going to take awhile...
Picture of the Day for 1/29/2012. I attended the opera Rigoletto today. It was a lovely production by the Utah Opera company. This was the first opera I've attended in several years. I'm not sure how I got out of the habit since I love opera. I kind of had no choice given my upbringing. When I was a little girl, my dad would spend every Saturday afternoon working on finishing the basement. As he worked, he would listen to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio. At first, this sent me scurrying to the far corners of the house to avoid the "noise," but by the time our family started attending live opera when I was a teenager, I had become a fan.
Picture of the Day for 1/26/2012. My sister Robynne just purchased this "NO" button. When pressed, the button says no in a variety of different formats:No way!Not a chance!No, no, no!Wouldn't it be great if you could actually use a "NO' button for those occasions where saying no can be a little bit tricky?
Picture of the Day for 1/25/2012. OK- I'm sorry that I'm just about to sound like an infomercial, but I'm wild about this skincare line that I just happened to stumble across at Walgreens. It's the first product I've ever tried (and I've purchased a lot) where I can see "visible improvement" in my skin. I've kind of been obsessing over this after a store clerk asked me if I wanted the discount available to customers age 55 and over. Ouch.
Picture of the Day for 1/24/2012. The grand adventure begins. Paula and I started clearing out our parents' belongings from the basement. This is going to be a behemoth task as the entire basement is filled floor to ceiling with boxes. We started with Paula's old bedroom. The picture above shows the room after 10 straight hours of work. I'm thinking this project is going to take awhile...
Picture of the Day for 1/22/2012. My niece Corinne was trying to make Joey the Beagle look threatening by waggling (yes- waggling is an actual word- I looked it up) his ears at me, but that dog couldn't look threatening even if he were armed with a gun and a chainsaw.
Picture of the Day for 1/21/2012. Oh fine, it's been one of the mildest winters on record with not much snow to speak of, but winter finally decided to make an appearance today. Bad timing. Sitting home and taking a picture of the snowy street outside my house is definitely not how I planned to spend my Saturday evening. I was supposed to go see my niece Chantal's husband Rob's band, Hot Reagan, perform tonight, but unfortunately, the weather was too bad to brave the freeway. It's been a year since I've been to a performance so I had been looking forward to it. Dang, dang, dang.
Picture of the Day for 1/20/2012. I laughed when I saw the title of this book at Barnes and Noble tonight. It's precisely the phrase my friend (and former colleague) Richard and I would use (with a very specific intonation) whenever anyone would do something annoying. This never failed to crack us up.
Picture of the Day for 1/19/2012. So, as I mentioned in yesterday's blog entry, I've been unpacking the boxes from when I moved out the last of my stuff from my condo a month ago. Most of the boxes contained kitchen items which meant that I needed to find a place in my already over-crowded kitchen for the additional items. Instead of just finding places to squirrel away the new stuff, I did a complete reorganization of my kitchen.
Picture of the Day for 1/18/2012. I started unpacking the boxes from when I moved out the last of my stuff from my condo a month ago. I came across this glass vase that seemed like a perfect container for the seashells I collected on the beach of Sanibel Island (located off the western coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico) last November. The day I spent there was so perfect that it's nice to have a visual reminder of the experience. The seashells are giving me a serious case of wanderlust. It's been a little over two months since my last trip/adventure and I'm starting to go crazy. I'm just a wee bit addicted to travel.
Picture of the Day for 1/17/2012. I had the house appraised today- with the intent of determining the house's value so my sisters and I can divide up my dad's estate. Upon seeing the VERY pink kitchen, the appraiser said, "That's an interesting color." That was VERY diplomatic of him.
Picture of the Day for 1/17/2012. At the urging of a friend, I finally watched Blazing Saddles for the first time.* VERY American. Later in the day, I saw the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Despite being an espionage film- it was extremely low-key and cerebral. VERY British.I kind of felt like I had whiplash going between the two extremes in one short day. The comedian Eddie Izzard has a VERY funny routine about the difference between American and British films. Warning- if you click on the "VERY funny routine" link to watch the YouTube video, you should stop at the 1:30 time mark if you're sensitive to bad language.
*I don't mean to be disloyal to said friend, but my favorite comedy from that era (early 1970s) is still What's Up Doc?
Picture of the Day for 1/15/2012. After about a 2-year hiatus, I've become obsessed with playing Bejeweled again. I spend far too much time doing this as opposed to doing something productive with my time such as looking for a job!
Picture of the Day for 1/14/2012. I spent the day working on a write-up of my dad's Navy career that my sister Paula will include in the ward history for 2011. I listened to the tape I recorded in 2002 of my parents reminiscing about their World War ll experiences to help jog my memory. I'm glad I did as there were a lot of fascinating details I had forgotten.
Some of their most poignant memories were about my dad's brother Wayne who served aboard a hospital ship. Wayne told them that his worst memory was standing in six inches of blood and guts because they were dealing with so many wounded soldiers that they didn't have time to clean up the operating rooms. Wayne returned home irrevocably changed from his war experiences. My parents married when Wayne was already in the Navy so my mother never met him until after the war. She said that she was sad she never got to meet the happy-go-lucky Wayne that her in-laws had described to her.
My dad's most poignant memory was about shipping out to Guam. As his troop ship sailed out of the San Francisco Bay harbor and passed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, he wondered if he would ever return home. After his discharge from the Navy in March 1946, he sailed back to San Francisco on a troop ship. My dad said this sight of the Golden Gate Bridge evoked much different feelings than during his departure.
Picture of the Day for 1/13/2012. I'm sorry readers! Now that I'm in my "looking for work" stage as opposed to "traveling and doing exciting things" phase, my blog entries are a little dry. I'm hoping to resume the "traveling and doing exciting things" phase real soon. In the meantime, I'll talk about my favorite new job search engine- www.indeed.com. You type in the key words and location for your job search and the site remembers them the next time you visit and indicates the number of new job postings associated with those key words. I've become a little obsessed with checking in on the site.
Picture of the Day for 1/12/2012. Yes, I'm becoming my parents. They always used to hang their calendars on the inside of a cabinet door in their kitchen and I now I find myself doing the same thing. It's one thing to fall into a rut, but I'm not even falling into an original rut of my own.
Picture of the Day for 1/11/2012. My sister Robynne picked up this ugly carving of a troll for $12 at a thrift shop. She looked it up on eBay and apparently it's worth $90. Apparently, the person who donated this item to the thrift shop was unaware of the value and found no humor in this figurine. Robynne certainly did as this is right up her quirky alley. She's had a soft spot for ugly dolls ever since she was a little girl. She feels bad for them and wants to give them a home. Pictured above is Jingles the Cat checking out the new member of the household. If he were human, I'm sure he would have groaned just like Robynne's son and husband did when they saw the ugly troll.
Picture of the Day for 1/10/2012. Please note that you're going to have to read through this entire blog entry to see the connection between "Zombies vs. Project Runway" and the following description of my wisdom tooth extraction.Yes, this is a picture of a clean gauze pad. Just be glad I didn't take a photo of the mound of bloody gauze pads resulting from yesterday's wisdom tooth extraction. I've been soooo smug about the fact that I've never had to have any of my wisdom teeth removed. Sadly, I believe the smug gods heard me and finally decided to teach me a lesson. About a month ago, one of my wisdom teeth broke while I was eating a bagel. My dentist determined the tooth had to be removed since it had broken up into my gums and couldn't be saved. Upon hearing this news, I (a grown woman of 49) burst into tears as I've never gotten over the horrific experience of having six permanent teeth pulled for my braces nearly 40 years ago. Fortunately, yesterday's tooth extraction was a piece of cake. The only problem is the wound didn't stop bleeding for nearly 24 hours after the procedure. The following is a text conversation I had with my niece Chantal regarding the excessive bleeding:Chantal: So have you passed out or died from blood loss yet? Do I need to come over there and resuscitate you?Me: I'm alive and well. FINALLY stopped bleeding.Chantal: Oh good. I had visions of you passed out in a pool of blood. Surrounded by Project Runway DVDs and cases. And you do realize that would have been an open invitation for zombies to come eat you. I'm so glad to hear you escaped that wretched fate.Me: Phew. I managed to survive a zombie attack yet once again. I'm lucky.Chantal: This time. But you really need to stop this zombie attraction behavior.Me: Excellent advice. I will work on it.Chantal: Yes, see to that. At least you have Project Runway DVDs to hurl at approaching zombies. Those could be useful.Me: Again, excellent advice.
Picture of the Day for 1/9/2012. I entered new cooking territory today. In all my 49 years, I have never fried an egg. Now, before you think I'm totally backward, let me state I'm great at scrambling eggs or hard boiling them- it's just that before today, I've never tried my hand at frying one. So, I got on the internet, read up on the best techniques, and gave it a go. My experiment wasn't entirely successful. I could never get the yolk to warm up past the "ice cold" stage unless I flipped over the egg which then turned it into an "over easy" egg- not exactly what I wanted. Any suggestions?
Picture of the Day for 1/8/2012. Here's my first book report of the year. I'm currently reading The Help and I love it. Can't wait to rent the DVD once I finish the book.
Picture of the Day for 1/7/2012. I attended the symphony tonight with my sister Paula's family. It's been years since I've attended a performance by the Utah Symphony which is a shame since it is a world-class orchestra. Tonight's program featured Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and the guest soloist was Conrad Tao- a 17-year-old prodigy. It was amazing to watch him. Tao made it look so effortless. There is nothing more sublime than music well-performed. It's like everything thing else goes out of focus and the only thing that exists in the whole world is the music.
Picture of the Day for 1/6/2012. Pictured above are two bags filled with Christmas gifts I received last month. Some background information is called for. You see, my father was notorious for stretching out the consumption of any holiday candy he received for months, if not years. Used to drive us kids crazy to see that candy just lying around- not being consumed. I find myself doing the same thing with Christmas presents. I'll read the books, watch the movies, listen to the DVDs, and do the crafts I received for Christmas over the whole course of the year. It's a great way of stretching out the enjoyment of the holiday.
Picture of the Day for 1/5/2012. My brother-in-law David was wearing this t-shirt today. I only have one thing to say regarding the sentiment expressed on this t-shirt: Amen!
Picture of the Day for 1/4/2012. I attended a "Explore Career Options" workshop at an LDS employment resource center with my friend Richard. After taking a very lengthy self-assessment survey, I learned that I should be either a waitress or a photojournalist. Richard's survey results indicated that he should look into being a pawnbroker. I'd pay good money to see that happen.
Picture of the Day for 1/3/2012. Oh man, the holidays were a time of hedonism and eating with wild abandon. Now I'm paying the price and returning to the gym several pounds heavier. The good news is I've discovered that I really like the rowing machines at the gym.
Picture of the Day for 1/2/2012. I spent most of the day watching Project Runway (Season 2) while organizing financial records. This is how I like to multi-task. Having the show on in the background kept me focused on my organizing project for several hours and I got a lot accomplished.
Picture of the Day for 1/1/2012. I've been pondering my New Year's resolutions for 2012. I know it's trendy NOT to have resolutions, but I still like making them. I won't plague you with the entire list, but I will say that I want to work on completing goals and tasks. For some reason, when it comes to my personal life I have not had a great track record for seeing projects through to their finish. It's not through lack of ability because as my friends and family are well aware, when I set my sights on something, I'm VERY good at getting what I want.I'm starting small with my attempt to reverse this bad habit. Every year, I buy a desk calendar with the intent of making a brief journal entry for every single day of the year, but I've never made it much past January. I'm going on record and stating this is the year I will meet my goal.
