Little Critter Snack

Picture of the Day for 10/28/2012. I have a huge English Walnut tree in my backyard. By this time of year, my lawn is just covered with walnuts that have dropped from the tree. I can see that some critters decided to avail themselves of the comfort of my porch to snack on the nuts.

Glued to the Couch

Picture of the Day for 10/27/2012. I have soooooooooooooooooooo much work to do to get ready for the speech therapy conference next month where my sister Robynne and I will be exhibitors. And soooooooooooooooooooo little time as we need to get Robynne's spoech therapy manuals burned on to data CDs ASAP.* My whole world has been reduced to this spot on the couch in front of the computer table as I work feverishly to proofread and put the finishing formatting touches on the manuals.

*Brooks- I still owe you a response to your question about why we are doing CDs. I haven't forgotten you!

Proper Date Attire

Picture of the Day for 10/26/2012. This woman is on a date. I'm not sure she's properly attired for a date. Just saying...

Signs of Snow

Picture of the Day for 10/25/2012. When I got up this morning, I could tell it had snowed during the night without even looking "out" the window. Do you know how I could tell? By looking "at" the bathroom window. It was glowing white.

I'm sure you've noticed the outside of the window isn't terribly clean. Don't judge me! Last year this entire wall of my house was covered in ivy which I had removed. I can't reach the windows on the 2nd story of the house to clean them of the residual dirt myself and ever since I got laid off last year, hiring window cleaners has been very low on my list of "must haves."

And speaking of snow, I wish I had been able to capture a good picture of the mountains yesterday. The top halves were snow-covered and the bottom halves appeared to be flaming red due to the fall leaves. It was a striking contrast.

Overly Optimistic

Picture of the Day for 10/24/2012. I believe I've mentioned before on this blog that my sister Robynne and I have purchased booth space at the annual ASHA convention in Atlanta in order to peddle her speech therapy manuals. Since they are in a PDF format, we're going to sell them on data CDs- 150 each of the six R manuals, 150 with the complete R series, and 150 of her Story Builder book. That's 1,200 CDs total. That's a lot.

I tend to take an overly optimistic "I can do that" approach to things. A lot of times I can. I have found, after several fruitless days, that I'm unable to burn 1,200 CDs on my own. I'm sure the only person this comes as a surprise to is myself.

It turns out the quantity isn't the problem. It's the dang process. I'd burn CDs following the correct process every single time, but when I'd test the CDs I had burned, a full third of them turned out to be unreadable. As you can see from this picture, I got to the point where I'd hurl the useless ones across the room.

Fortunately, I found a local company that is going to burn all the CDs for me. The young man who helped me is great- very zen which is what I needed to calm my frustrated self down.

Good Fortune

Picture of the Day for 10/23/2012. My real estate investing courses have emphasized the importance of building a "power team." I really wish "power team" meant a group of superheroes that we could send out to find the deals, fund the deals, and close the deals. Alas, the real definition of "power team" is far more prosaic. It's a collection of professionals (real estate agents, attorneys, property managers, bankers, accountants, etc.) who have some experience working with real estate investors or have done some real estate investing themselves.

Toward that end, Robynne and I met with her real estate agent, Becki, yesterday to ask her to join our team. We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant and received the following fortunes in our fortune cookies. We thought that was a pretty auspicious beginning to our real estate investing endeavor.

Sorry the image is sideways. I'm blogging on my iPhone at the salon while I'm getting my hair dyed. I'll rotate the picture when I can get back on my laptop.

Something's Wrong With This Picture

Picture of the Day for 10/22/2012. I received this political ad in the mail today and noticed an amusing error. Double-click the picture to enlarge it and see if you can spot it.

10/26/2012 Update: I was under the assumption that the only error was the claim that one of the candidate's sons was born in 1895- a full year before both of my grandfathers. To give you a sense of just how long ago that was, my grandpa Merrill was born when Utah was still a territory and he served in World War I. My sister Robynne pointed out another error I should have seen right away. The dinner meeting was scheduled for Monday, October 25. October 25 falls on a Thursday this year. Oops. The next time October 25 falls on a Monday is in 2021. I know political candidates start campaigning pretty early nowadays, but getting a nine year head start is excessive.

Fried Crispy Things: An Update

Picture of the Day for 10/21/2012. I had dinner at my sister Paula's house where she served my favorite meal of fried crispy things. The meal consists of fried chicken and fried corn fritters. The non-fried items, potatoes, gravy, pecan/chocolate pie, are equally divine. I've actually blogged about this topic two years ago, but it bears repeating for the following reasons:

1- My sister Robynne has heard me talk about the famous "fried crispy things" meal and recently inquired about it.

2- My niece Chantal adores this meal and I wanted to make her jealous because I'm the meanest aunt in the whole wide world.

Math Story Problems

Picture of the Day for 10/20/2012. I spent the day hard at work. While productive, it did not yield any opportunities to take an interesting picture of the day. So instead I'm posting a picture I stumbled upon in Facebook. I'm my engineer father's clone so I actually like math, but this made me giggle as it totally reminded me of sister Paula's family, many members of which are extremely allergic to math.

Letter to My Hallway Cupboard Door

Picture of the Day for 10/19/2012

Dear Hallway Cupboard Door,

I've noticed lately there's been a disturbing change in your behavior. For the past several days now, you've refused to remain shut.

This baffles me.

You've never exhibited untoward behavior before and until now, we've always maintained a cordial relationship.

Is it my fault? Have I been neglecting your cupboard needs? Are you acting up because I recently cleared out my parents' things from your shelves? I can understand how you would miss them. You provided shelter for some of those forgotten items in the dark recesses of your corners for nearly 60 years. They were your friends and I ruthlessly replaced them with my own cleaning supplies and household tools.

I'm loathe to raise these painful questions, but I can only assume your behavior stems from emotional issues as I checked to see if there any obstructions preventing you from closing fully and I could find nothing.

Please talk to me cupboard door! Help me know how to fix you. I know you'll be happier functioning as you should and I know I'll be happy not having to make a wide berth around you whenever I walk through the hallway.

Love,

Your roommate, Michelle

Sadie Has Long Hair

Picture of the Day for 10/18/2012. At our family lunch today I noticed that my great-niece Sadie's hair has grown VERY long. Apparently Sadie has very definite opinions about her hair and will not allow her mother to cut it. Good for Sadie! Cute girl. 

Girl Crush

Picture of the Day for 10/17/2012. I kind of have a girl crush on Laura Calder, a Canadian chef who has a French cooking show on the Cooking Channel. Since I work from home, I usually take a quick break to watch a few minutes of the show when it comes on at 10:30 a.m. 

I suspect it's less of a girl crush and more lifestyle envy on my part. She wears fabulous clothes, has a fabulous house, and cooks fabulous food. I'm sitting here writing this blog entry with my glasses on, my hair piled up in a messy bun, and wearing a ratty old t-shirt. And of my own volition I ate dinner at Taco Time last night. Not so fabulous.

Weird Food Concoctions

Picture of the Day for 10/16/2012. I like weird food concoctions. My neighbor brought over some fresh tomatoes today and I sliced one up, spread the slices with Laughing Cow cheese, and then topped each slice with pepper and a dab of chunky blue cheese dressing. It was yummy. That's a fairly tame concoction compared to some of the disparate food items I've mixed together. I'll have to remember to take a picture the next time I come up with something really weird.

Banquet Dress

Picture of the Day for 10/15/2012. As of today, I'm mending my eating ways. I'm attending another astronaut banquet in less than three weeks and I'd like to fit into this dress I plan on wearing to the event. I just need to lose a few pounds so the task is not insurmountable. The dress doesn't look like much on a hanger, but it's actually quite cute on. 

Rich Investor Class - Day 3

Picture of the Day for 10/14/2012. Stuff just got real (to loosely quote "Bad Boys 2"). Our instructor spent several hours showing us real estate calculations. I was doing pretty well until the last hour of the day. I'm good at math, but at that point 2+2 would have been like rocket science to me. 

Rich Investor Class - Day 2

Picture of the Day for 10/13/2012. Field trip! I haven't been on a field trip in decades! Our Rich Investor class went on a bus to view several local Reno homes currently on the market in order to learn how to evaluate properties. It was a nice break from sitting in a conference room for 8-hour stretches at a time.

Rich Investor Class - Day 1

Picture of the Day for 10/12/2012. Today is the first day of a three-day introductory real estate investing course called Rich Investor that my brother-in-law Will and I are taking in Reno, Nevada. This offering is part of a larger symposium with approximately 400 people in attendance taking a variety of classes (Probate, Commercial Real Estate, Wholesaling, Lease Options, etc.). The courses are offered by Rich Dad Education. Our teacher, Tracie Taylor, is an alumni of the Rich Dad Education system. When she started taking classes over a decade ago, she had a failed retail business and had declared bankruptcy. Now she's an extremely successful real estate investor. She's also a very skilled teacher and very engaging.

Just a heads-up, we purchased a four class package so this was just the first one. Consequently, you can expect to hear a LOT about real estate over the coming months. 

Candy Cigarettes

Just the other day my family was discussing candy cigarettes. If you are of a "certain age" then I'm sure you remember them. When I was a young girl, I used to buy them on candy shopping expeditions with my friends to Kolob Drug- a corner drugstore in my neighborhood. Going there seemed exotically dangerous as the proprietor was surly and there was a rumor he had killed a man. I'm sure he was surly having to deal with all the bored kids who liked to traipse through his store during the hot summer days.

My family and I speculated that surely candy cigarettes are no longer available as they are sooooooo politically incorrect. Imagine my surprise then when I saw them at a little candy shop I visited today in Reno, Nevada. It seems fitting somehow that you can find them in Nevada- land of the cigarette smoke-filled casinos. 

Bonneville Salt Flats

Picture of the Day for 10/11/2012. My brother-in-law Will and I flew to Reno today to attend a 3-day real estate investing course. Our flight path took us over the Bonneville Salt Flats. It's quite a sight to see from the air. Sadly, the pictures I took don't really do justice to the gleaming white salt.

Worn Out Blue Jeans

Picture of the Day for 10/10/2012. Well, dang! I just noticed that the seams in a favorite pair of jeans of mine are too threadbare after several years of wear to allow me to continue wearing them with any degree of modesty. I have no desire to flash anyone. On purpose at least. That doesn't mean I don't accidentally flash people since I have a problem with my jeans riding low in the back- especially when I sit down. A few months ago I attended a niece's school program and the woman sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to tug my shirt down lower to cover the back of my jeans since her young son had been staring at my behind. Oops. Why on earth any young man would stare at a middle-aged behind is beyond me, but there you go.
 

Newsies Party

Picture of the Day for 10/9/2012. My niece Renee is fond of holding theme parties and I'm fond of attending them.

One of her all-time favorite movies is Newsies. It has distressed her that I've never seen it before so that provided her with a good excuse to throw a Newsies viewing party.

The movie is set during the New York newsboy strike of 1899 so we had cupcakes decorated with little newspaper flags and Renee had New York street signs taped to her walls.

It was a successful gathering as usual! 

Reading Assignment

Picture of the Day for 10/8/2012. So, you know that Rich Dad financial seminar I took about six weeks ago? The one I dragged my sister to? The one where we vowed we would absolutely not be talked into purchasing any of their advanced real estate training courses? Yeah, we totally caved. We not only purchased a training package that includes four advanced training courses and a personal mentor, we signed up for their personalized coaching services too.

We're actually pretty excited to start this new real estate investing venture. My brother-in-law Will is going to be my business partner rather than Robynne because she's busy producing new speech therapy manuals for our You Can Teach Speech Now business. I'm looking forward to working with him.

The Rich Dad educators don't waste any time giving you homework. Pictured are just a couple of the books I've been assigned to read. 

Dayton House

Picture of the Day for 10/7/2012. I kept passing by this burned-out building on my way to/from the National Aviation Hall of Fame activities this weekend. The picture doesn't do the devastation justice. You couldn't help but stare. Very sad. And amazing the firefighters were able to stop the fire before it burned the entire structure.

National Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrinement Banquet

Picture of the Day for 10/6/2012. I attended the National Aviation Hall of Fame enshrinement banquet. Through a series of serendipitous events, I ended up sitting at one of the head tables with Eileen Collins (first female space shuttle commander) and Rhea Woltman (a member of Mercury 13- a group of female aviators who were briefly considered as astronaut candidates during the beginning years of the space program). Rhea was there to accept the induction award on behalf of her Mercury 13 compatriot Jerrie Cobb who was unable to attend. Eileen Collins is friends with the Mercury 13 women and even had them attend her shuttle launches so she was a natural choice to present the award. Since this event is the equivalent of the Oscars for the aviation world it was a BIG DEAL that I ended up among the company I did. I did have to laugh. Everyone, not just Eileen and Rhea, at the table was so accomplished. My little achievements pale in comparison.That's probably because they don't waste time watching Project Runway religiously like I do.

My initial excitement at being seated at the same table as Eileen Collins was dimmed once I realized the centerpiece obscured my view. Tall centerpieces should be banned from banquet tables! 

Fortunately, it all worked out in the end and I was able to hear most of the conversation. 

And, I was able to get a picture of myself with Eileen and Rhea. Eileen is so personable and Rhea is grand old broad (and I mean that in the best possible way- I'd love to be like her when I'm her age). It was fun getting to spend some time with them this weekend.

Who is that Woman in the Photograph?

I'm here in Ohio attending some National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) events. Every year the NAHF inducts four aviators into the hall of fame. This year, one of the inductees is Jerrie Cobb. Since she is unable to attend, one of her compatriots, Rhea Woltman, will be accepting the award on her behalf. The award will be presented by Eileen Collins, the first female space shuttle commander. You should google these women as they all have had distinguished careers in aviation.

Anyhoo, I attended a reception tonight that kicked off the weekend's festivities. It's a really, really, really loooooooong story, but I've become somewhat chummy with Rhea Woltman and I was chatting with her, Rhea's Air Force escort, and Eileen Collins for awhile at the reception. The official photographer for the event was having a field day and snapping tons of photos of our group. I've been laughing thinking about how he will be looking at these pictures later and wondering who the heck the mystery woman (me) is.

Another photographer was taking a picture of Keith Ferris (an aviation artist who is also being inducted into the NAHF this year) and was trying desperately to get me in the picture too. I assumed he thought I was a member of Mr. Ferris' party, but the fact I was standing next to Mr. Ferris was mere coincidence so I moved myself out of the shot. I thought I had been successful until the photographer came up to me shortly after that, handed me his business card, and said I should email him for the picture he snapped of me. LOL. I absolutely didn't get "he's hitting on me" vibes so I'm not sure what that was about.

Autumn in Ohio

As you can tell from my previous post, I'm in Ohio right at the moment. It's lovely here in the autumn. The fall colors are beautiful. And I was excited to come across acorns which, believe it or not, I've only seen in pictures.

107th Anniversary of Practical Flight

Picture of the Day for 10/5/2012. Today is the 107th anniversary of practical flight. I'd bet money you didn't know that! I attended a little memorial service in honor of the event at the Wright National Monument in Dayton, Ohio. An aviation historian, Dan Patterson, spoke for about 15 minutes and then flowers were placed on the monument honoring Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Nut Goodies!

Picture of the Day for 10/4/2012. I've been reading a series of mystery novels by Jess Loury where the main character lives in a small town in Minnesota and is completely obsessed with Nut Goodies- a candy manufactured by Pearson's, a Minnesota-based company. You can find their salted nut rolls everywhere, but the Nut Goodies have proven to be elusive in Utah. I know this because I'm easily susceptible to food suggestions and after reading the novels I've been obsessed with wanting to try the candy. I checked the Pearson's website which indicates the Utah Walmart stores carry Nut Goodies. Sadly, this is a dirty lie. In an interesting twist of fate, I happen to be at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport for a 2-hour layover. The first thing I did upon disembarking the plane was to run to a gift shop. I was delighted to see it was a veritable Nut Goodies bonanza. Yay! As you can see from the photo, I stocked up. I haven't tried one yet as I'm too busy savoring my candy victory.

Car Magnets

My sister Robynne bought us car magnets to advertise our company. Yay!

Now that I've got them, I'm noticing them everywhere on other people's cars.

Sadly, I've been "run into things with my PT Cruiser" gal to the point that my car looks a little disreputable. I'm hoping my car's state of disrepair doesn't drive away business!

Urban Horse

Picture of the Day for 10/3/2012. Well hey- here's a sight you don't see very often (or ever) at an urban shopping center!

Civic Duty

Picture of the Day for 10/2/2012. My neighbor, who lives a few houses down the street from me, applied for a "conditional use" permit to operate an accounting business out of his home. I showed up at the hearing where he made his case in front of my city's community council. I attended because I was all set to fight this, but upon hearing the plan (which was ultimately approved by the council), I feel OK. He can have no more than four scheduled appointments each day Monday through Thursday during the February through April tax season and no more than four scheduled appointments per month the rest of the year. He can only have one part-time employee and this employee and all clients have to park in his driveway.

My sister Paula is a member of the council (2nd from the right in the picture) and it was interesting to see her in action. She asked some pointed questions on behalf of the neighbors who had approached her with their concerns about the proposed plan. The applicant and his wife started to take offense, but Paula was good at diffusing the tension.

Mystery Wound

Picture of the Day for 10/1/2012. Do you ever discover you've been wounded and have absolutely idea how it happened? I have a big bruise and scratch on my knee and no clue how it got there.

Divine Peach Pie

Picture of the Day for 9/30/2012. My sister Paula, who is a fabulous cook, really outdid herself today with this peach pie she baked for Sunday dinner. Isn't it beautiful? I can honestly say this is the best peach pie I've ever had in my life. 

Worst Raffle Prize Ever

Picture of the Day for 9/29/2012. My nephew Rob's band, Hot Reagan, played at a benefit concert for a woman who is trying to raise funds to adopt a little girl from Latvia. I bought a raffle ticket and won the worst prize ever- a set of five plastic shot glasses. My niece Chantal photo-bombed this shot with the beer bottle cozies that her sister Renee won- another terrible prize. We think the bar where the concert was held rummaged through their stuff for things to donate. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I was amused more than anything and I was happy to donate to the cause.