DREADFUL Brownies

Picture of the Day for 7/30/2012. If you ever attempt to make sugar-free and carb-free brownies, I do NOT recommend using the following ingredients:

1- Sugar substitute like Stevia.

2- Almond flour instead of wheat flour.

These will produce the most DREADFUL brownies. Sadly, I speak from experience.

Apricot Update

Picture of the Day for 7/29/2012. Success! I was finally able to pick some apricots. My apricot tree is close to the inadequate chain-link fence separating my backyard from my neighbor's backyard. The neighbor's massive and snarly dogs have chased me away every time I've made an attempt to get close to MY tree in MY yard! My neighbor was outside today and introduced me to the dogs who were as tame as could be. He said they are conditioned to freak out at people on the other side of a fence since at their previous residence the neighbor kids used to taunt the dogs through a fence. He told me the trick is to use their names when they act up. Hopefully, that will work. I've hated being apprehensive every time I've stepped outside.

Picking the apricots was a messy and squishy business as half of the fruit has already dropped to the ground.



I had to use the garden hose to wash off my feet and flip-flops before I could go back inside the house. The apricots have permanently stained my flip-flops orange! Good thing I only paid one dollar for them at Old Navy.


Now I just need to get motivated to make jam out of all those apricots.

Pre-Set Website Templates

Picture of the Day for 7/28/2012. I spent the day wrestling with the pre-set website templates available on godaddy.com. I'm trying to build my company website and the placeholders for the headers on these pre-set templates won't expand to accommodate the company logo. As you can see from the picture above, you can only see the top portion of the logo (full-sized image is below). Grr. I hate not being able to trouble-shoot this problem myself. I'll call customer support on Monday to see what can be done. I suspect I'll be calling customer support a lot before I finish setting up the website.

Parking Karma

Picture of the Day for 7/27/2012. I have excellent parking karma. So much so that my friends and family comment on it. I'm usually able to get what I call "rock star parking" extremely close to whatever venue I'm visiting. Here I am (red PT Cruiser) parked directly in front of the restaurant where I ate tonight with a friend. Parking is at an extreme premium at this location so getting a spot here is pretty much a miracle. Not for me with my "rock star" parking karma!

State Agency Tour

Picture of the Day for 7/26/2012. According to the advice of two attorneys, my sister Robynne and I had to change the name of our company from Teach Speech Now, L.L.C. to You Can Teach Speech Now, L.L.C. Long story.

Anyhoo, since we had already registered our business with the state of Utah, I had to file an article of amendment to make the name change with the Utah Division of Corporations. That office is downtown. I had to complete the paperwork on the 2nd floor of the building and then go down to the main level to pay the $37.00 filing fee.

Took a detour to the Salt Lake County Assessor's office 20 blocks away to change the mailing address for my condo which I still own and rent out. I haven't been living there for three years and it's only now occurred to me that I haven't been getting my tax notices for the condo. They've been mailing them to the condo address. Oops. The clerk indicated I need to go to the Recorder's office. Luckily, that was just across the hall.

Then, I had to drive to the Utah State Tax Commission office waaaaaaay on the northwest side of the city to present them with a copy of the article of amendment document.

I think I'm done for now making the rounds of state agency offices. Phew!

I Don't Think I'm Having Hot Flashes

Picture of the Day for 7/25/2012. This fan is my constant companion at home. It goes where I go since I always seem to be uncomfortably hot. There are two things that may account for this:

1. It's been a really hot summer and I'm not sure my air conditioning is able to keep up.

2. I may be having my very first hot flashes, but I'm not convinced this is the case. From what I've heard, there's no mistaking a hot flash.

Evolving Reading Habits

Picture of the Day for 7/24/2012. I dropped by Barnes and Noble to browse the magazines. I can tell I'm in "entrepreneur" mode since normally I gravitate toward cooking or entertainment. Instead, I headed straight for the business magazines and even purchased three of them.

Company Logo

Picture of the Day for 7/23/2012. My sister Robynne and I came up with a logo for our company today. If you love it, let me know. If you don't love it, please don't let me know!

Lightning Storm

Picture of the Day for 7/22/2012. Spent about 1/2 hour on the porch tonight watching a lightning storm pass through the valley.

T-Tapp Workshop

Picture of the Day for 7/21/2012. I attended a four-hour T-Tapp* exercise workshop today. Our instructor, Elizabeth, is pictured above. I have the book and the DVDs, but it's hard to know from just those if you're actually using the proper form so I jumped at the opportunity to attend a live session which doesn't happen often since there are no certified trainers living in Utah. We were all newbies in the class so Elizabeth spent the entire four hours painstakingly teaching us the basic workout. At tempo, the basic workout should take about 15 minutes. It turns out I wasn't using the proper form and doing so kicks your butt. I was exhausted by the end of the session.


The following description comes from the www.t-tapp.com website: What is the T-Tapp program? It is a comprehensive, compound muscle movement done in specific sequence involving isometric isolations with linear alignment and neuro-kinetic flow. It works muscles layer by layer from the inside out and develops muscle density instead of muscle mass. Because of this, rapid reshaping can take place. No jumping, no weights and no dieting. Inch loss comes quickly at an average of one clothing size per month with no loose skin. Best of all, it works regardless of age or fitness level. T-Tapp is designed to put the body in proper functional alignment, restore metabolic function, and stands on its own as a complete workout as well as enhancing the effectiveness of ALL of your workouts. Basically, your entire system gets "tuned up" like a finely adjusted machine. This technique has some similar principles to Yoga, Callanetics and Pilates, but at the same time it is nothing like them.

Tropcial Flowers?

Picture of the Day for 7/20/2012. I parked next to this bush at my gym today. I did a double-take since these flowers seem a tad too tropical for this Rocky Mountain climate.

Home Office Options

Picture of the Day for 7/19/2012. I've mentioned on my blog how my kitchen doubles as a home office.

This is not a good idea given the close proximity of this...

I've gained 12 pounds since November. Not good. Grr...

I can't set up my home office in the room designated for that purpose since it looks like this...

Yeah, I haven't made as much headway unpacking my boxes as I would have liked.

In the meantime, I can't use this space as alternative despite having a nice big table for a workspace...

Believe it not, there's not a single outlet in this entire dining room.

I tried setting up my laptop on the coffee table in the living room...

I don't mind sitting on the floor while I work, but I'm not able to get my legs underneath the table so it's horribly uncomfortable.

I went trolling through the house to see if there was something else I could use. I thought my mother's sewing bench might work...

Nope. It sure didn't.

I saw an ad yesterday for a computer desk on sale at Shopko for $25. Here's how it looks after the 400 hours required to assemble the dang thing. Who know such a simple-looking desk would have so many components?

I have high hopes that this will work out.

Time for Laundry

Picture of the Day for 7/18/2012. This is my underwear drawer. Hmm...do you think it's time I did some laundry?

Ice Cream for My Dad

Picture of the Day for 7/17/2012. Today is the one-year anniversary of my dad's death. I made a quick visit to his gravesite and left him a strawberry sundae from McDonald's. He practically lived on those the last few months of his life so it seemed to be an appropriate gesture. Knowing my practical dad, he probably would have considered it a waste of a perfectly good sundae.

Whenever my sister Paula bought him a sundae, she asked for extra strawberry sauce. I didn't even ask for extra sauce, but they gave it to me anyway. I wonder if my dad "nudged" the McDonald's server from the great-beyond. It certainly made me smile.

Baking Experiment - Cinnamon Roll Cake

Picture of the Day for 7/16/2012. A few days ago I tried a recipe for a cinnamon roll cake. I adore cinnamon rolls, but they seem like too much trouble to make so this seemed like a good alternative. I don't think the recipe calls for enough cooking time. The cake should probably be baked to the point where it's a little overdone since the brown sugar filling and the glaze make the cake a little mushy. As you can see, the mushiness hasn't stopped me from eating a few pieces. Duh- it's cake.

The Latest Henchman-isms.

7/15/2012. We celebrated my niece Renee's 36th birthday tonight. My great-nephew Ethan, who hopes to grow up to be a henchman someday, sat next to Renee during the birthday cake-eating portion of the evening. He started to say "it's an honor to sit next to the birthday person," but upon realizing that didn't sound henchman-like enough, changed the statement to "it's an honor to kill the birthday person."

Later that evening Ethan announced he would like a pet rattlesnake. Of course he would. No surprise there.

Do Mermaids Really Exist?

Picture of the Day for 7/15/2012. My niece Renee, who loves the programming on the Discovery Channel, had us watch a show that posed the question, "Do mermaids really exist?" Sadly, I am left without an answer since I had to go home before the conclusion of the show. I guess I'll never know now...unless I happen to catch a re-run. ;-)

Anachronistic Pioneer

Picture of the Day for 7/14/2012. A common activity for Mormons is to go on a "trek" to recreate the experience of their pioneer ancestors crossing the plains while pushing handcarts. Part of the experience requires dressing in pioneer garb which means long dresses, aprons, and bonnets for the women/girls. I noticed this family (pictured above) sitting across from me at the restaurant where I met a friend for lunch today. They had obviously just returned from trek as they were still dressed in their pioneer clothing. It was a little jarring to see the mother texting on her iPhone. That was definitely not part of the 19th century pioneer experience.

Temporary Buddy

Picture of the Day for 7/13/2012. I got home from having dinner with one of my nieces to discover a cat waiting for me on my front steps. I got out of my car to greet her and I immediately became her best friend. She followed me up to the porch where she snuggled with me for a few minutes before sensing another cat lurking in my backyard. This was of far more interest to her than me so she ditched me to go chase the cat off the property. They ran past me in a blur. I thought she would return once her mission was accomplished, but she sauntered leisurely down my front lawn and off into the street, never giving me a backward glance. I feel so used... ;-)

Learning How to Start Up a Business

Picture of the Day for 7/12/2012. I'm not sure I've mentioned on the blog that I'm going into business with my sister Robynne, a speech therapist who has been publishing speech therapy manuals for the past 30 years. She's working on a whole new batch of manuals and instead of going through a publisher, we're going to make them available for download on the internet. She's responsible for creating the merchandise and I'm responsible for everything business-related. I've been learning a LOT about starting up a company. This week I've been researching website hosting/design/shopping cart options in addition to mapping out the flow (pictured above) for our website which we hope to have up and running by the first week of August. Any advice my readers (ahem- I'm referring to you Brooks Lehnig) might have about starting up a company would be much appreciated! I'm trying to avoid as much of the "error" portion of the "trial and error" process.

New Hairdo

Picture of the Day for 7/11/2012. I stumbled upon the website StumbleUpon (haha- pun intended) which, at the press of a button, brings up a random website for you to check out based upon your preferences. I indicated that I was interested in things like Food/Cooking, Interior Design, Jewelry, and Photography. One of the websites I "stumbled upon" provided a video demonstration of how to do a hairstyle where the hair at the front is French-braided while the hair in the back is swept up into a messy bun. Lo-and-behold, I was actually able to recreate the hairstyle. That's a first. My strong-willed hair usually dictates what it's going to do rather than the other way around.


Another site suggested by StumbledUpon listed a recipe for Slutty Brownies. That caught my attention. They looked pretty decadent.

I can tell I'm going to be a little obsessed with StumbledUpon for awhile.

Last of the Frivolous Purchases - For Awhile

Picture of the Day for 7/10/2012. My friend Rebecca Hunt makes lovely jewelry and she delivered a necklace I had asked her to make to match some earrings and a bracelet I had purchased from her last year. She threw in these pretty earrings just for fun. I suspect this will be the final frivolous purchase I make for awhile since I receive the last of my severance payments this week. Gulp.

The picture isn't that great, but the necklace turned out stunning. I'd love to learn how to make jewelry. That's in addition to all the other gazillion things I'd like to learn of course. My sister and niece gave me a jewelry-making kit and instructional book last year for Christmas so that will be a good start.

Aborted Apricot Picking Attempt

Picture of the Day for 7/9/2012. See that step ladder? That's where I was until a few minutes ago when the neighbor's vicious dogs decided my presence was no longer wanted or required in MY backyard. There's a fence separating our yards, but the dogs try to climb over it, presumably with the intent to eat me, every time I make an appearance. I'm trying to pick the apricots before they get overly ripe, but I was only able to gather a few before I was forced to make a hasty retreat. It's so annoying. And more than a little frightening.

Zombie Handbook

Picture of the Day for 7/8/2012. My 12-year-old great-niece Hayley just completed a zombie survival handbook filled with all sorts of sage advice geared toward young adults. My favorite excerpts are below:

-Try to avoid using karate. It's likely to do you no good, and you may get germs. Take no chances on that either.

-Have an adult kill any zombies while you load the car with your family and things.

Hallway Cupboard

Picture of the Day for 7/7/2012. For today's cleaning project, I decided to tackle the cupboard in the front hallway that was filled with my parent's things consisting of an assortment of cleaning supplies, tools, a lifetime supply of matches (not kidding- I will never need to buy matches again in my life), and various odds and ends. What an archaeological dig that was. My favorite quirky find was my sister Robynne's ponytail that my mother had saved from the very first time Robynne had cut her long hair. I know this since the bag of hair was labeled with Robynne's name. I'll be returning that little keepsake to my sister.

Visiting on the Porch

Picture of the Day for 7/6/2012. My porch has gotten a lot use in the short time it's been clean. My friends Suzanne and Steve (who are siblings) came over and spent a spent a couple of hours visiting with me on the porch. I only get to see Steve a couple of times a years since he lives in Washington DC so he had not yet been subjected to my aura camera until tonight. It appears that he has a white aura which denotes enlightened spirituality. Either that, or it was merely a trick of the lighting.

Bubble Fountain

Picture of the Day for 7/5/2012. I was downtown at the new City Creek shopping center when I noticed this unusual water fountain. I love the bubble shape of the water.

4th of July Festivities

Picture of the Day for 7/4/2012. Busy day! It started off with a neighborhood breakfast.

I sat next to my 90-something neighbor Max McBeth who related some fascinating stories I had never heard before about his time in New York City in the early 1950s. He showed up at our table wearing a straw hat and asked if it were OK if he kept his hat on during breakfast. Such courtly manners!


The theme of today's patriotic program was the American flag. Harald Clark (sporting a great-looking kilt) provided a really interesting overview of the evolution and history of the flag (hence the display of flags shown in the photo below) from its inception to its current incarnation.



The Boy Scouts conducted a flag-folding ceremony while Tim Barney outlined the "unofficial" meaning for each of the folds.


The neighborhood celebration ended with a parade down the street.


Busy night! In honor of my newly clean porch, the family gathered at my place for a potluck dinner which turned out to be a very successful event.


The adults enjoyed visiting while my nephew Robbie kept the younger kids entertained. He assumed the role of Evil Mastermind and the children did his bidding while performing the following roles/functions:

Ethan - Henchman (he's pictured below bowing before his master)

Hayley - Chief Assassin

Sadie - Secretary (just because you're a band of ne'er-do-wells doesn't mean you shouldn't take good meeting notes)

Dane - Servant


Of course it wouldn't be a Merrill family party without zombies coming into the picture. In addition to being a superb Evil Mastermind, Robbie does a pretty wicked zombie imitation. As you can see from the photo below, Hayley is unaware of the danger that lurks behind her. Run, Hayley, run!


Ethan, on the other hand, is fully aware of Robbie's transformation into a zombie, but remains unfazed. That is a mistake. Run, Ethan, run!


After the zombies, henchmen, and assorted villains went home, I watched the Holladay City fireworks from the end of my driveway.