Chicken Noodle Soup

Picture of the Day for 9/30/2013. My Relief Society president, Robyn Park, brought over some homemade chicken noodle soup for me tonight since she heard I had been sick and thought I might need a hot meal. Very sweet.  And very tasty! 

The Mormon church's Relief Society organization is famous for taking meals to people who are sick (that would be me) or who are recovering from childbirth (so totally NOT me). 

How Robyn found out I'm ill is a complete mystery. There's only two people from my neighborhood who know I'm sick- my sister and my voice teacher. I asked both if they had mentioned this to Robyn and neither one had. Hmm. Weird. 

Oldest Living Fly

Picture of the Day for 9/29/2013. A fly managed to take an advantage of an open door to slip inside my house. It's been my constant companion for nearly two weeks. What's up with this?!?! I thought flies had life spans of 3 minutes or so. Yes, I know I'm exaggerating, but I never expected this fly to hang on so tenaciously. It's also a cunning fly as it has successfully evaded the fly swatter pictured below. And I've taken after this dang fly a lot. I'm starting to wonder if the fly is going to be around for Christmas. Sigh. 

Mountain Men Marathon

Picture of the Day for 9/28/2013. You know how one second you're well and then in the blink of an eye you're sick? That happened to me a couple of days ago. On Thursday I caught the nastiest cold and I've been pretty much immobile ever since. 

Yesterday while I was lying on the couch, I was glued to the Science Channel. Here's the text conversation I had with my niece Chantal about this:

Me: This is horrible!!!!! I can't seem to get off the couch. I'm watching the Science Channel. Apparently retirees are the primary audience during the morning. I can't tell you how many commercials I've seen for Medicare retiree health plans.

Chantal: I guess old people like science. Your incontinence specialist will be right with you. Please watch this special message from Medicare and Life Alert. Don't trip over your scooter. What are you? 100? Pathetic...

Me: I actually just watched a commercial for Life Alert. Hey!!!!!! Young people like science too! I'm watching shows about space. You know how I feel about space!

I also pointed out to Chantal that she LOVES watching documentaries about World War ll which is not exactly a young person's pastime. Ahem. 

Today I've been watching a Mountain Men marathon on the History Channel. I think I watched about 8 episodes from Season 1. I had never seen the show before and I became completely obsessed with learning about the three men profiled on the show. And when I become obsessed with anything, I head straight to Google. Here are images of the three men. I was particularly fascinated with Marty from Alaska who spends at least three months alone during the dead of winter trapping in the remote wilderness where he's hundreds of miles from any type of civilization. I got freezing cold just watching the show and I was in the comfort of my house wrapped up warmly in several blankets!

Marty Meierotto


Tom Oar


Eustace Conway

Sending the Birds to Safety

Picture of the Day for 9/27/2013. It has turned unseasonably cold and that just didn't fit in with my plans since my heater currently isn't working. I've been working on getting a quote to get my 60-year-old behemoth of a heater replaced so it's not like I've been lallygagging. I just expected to have until October before I needed to turn on the heat. Today has been so cold that I sent my parakeets to bunk at their Aunt Paula's house where it is toasty warm. I could tell they couldn't tough it out any longer when I saw them huddling together in their cage. Paula was nice enough to come over to my house and pick them up. This picture is of the empty spot where the cage should be.

Energy Experiment and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Picture of the Day for 9/26/2013. I've been reading a book about the energy we project (yes, yes- a blatantly New Age book). The book outlines a series of experiments you can try that demonstrate the power of negative and positive thoughts so I borrowed these dowsing rods from a friend to give the experiments a try. 



Experiment #1:
You hold the rods facing straight in front of you at chest level 10 inches away from your body and think about a really bad memory or experience. The rods will contract against your chest. 

Experiment #2:
You hold the rods facing straight in front of you at chest level 10 inches away from your body and think about a really wonderful memory or experience. The rods will expand outward until they bump against your arms. 

Results:
Totally works! Wow. 

What You Really Want to Know:
Nope- I'm not telling you what my really bad memory was; however, I am willing to tell you what my wonderful memory was. When I worked in Yellowstone National Park twenty years ago, I hiked down to the lip of the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone around sunset. By this time, all of the tourists had retreated back to the lodges and campgrounds so I had the entire place to myself. It occurred to me that out of 6 billion humans on the planet (at that time in the early 1990s), I was the ONLY person at this world-famous location. I stayed there for about an hour before hiking back out of the canyon. To date, it remains one of the most sublime experiences of my life. The red circle in the photo below shows you exactly where I was standing.

Miss Navajo

Picture of the Day for 9/25/2013. I've mentioned previously in this blog that I'm a bit of a documentary nerd. I love watching documentaries! And, I'm fascinated by Native American history which was one of the major areas of study for my masters degree in English/American Studies. The perfect marriage of these two interests is Miss Navajo- a documentary released in 2006 that follows Crystal Frazier as she competes in the annual Miss Navajo pageant where contestants are graded on their knowledge of Navajo history, language, and customs. I suspect it's the only beauty pageant in the world where the young women are expected to butcher a sheep! I stumbled upon this hour-long documentary on Netflix today and thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

I Don't Need to See This Every Day

Picture of the Day for 9/24/2013. I use www.godaddy.com for everything functional associated with my company website (design, hosting, email, online store, etc.). Jean-Claude Van Damme has replaced Danica Patrick as the spokesperson for GoDaddy so I'm forced to see this disturbing image of him doing the splits in a florist shop every single day when I log into my GoDaddy account. I HATE this picture! 

Invented Family History

Picture of the Day for 9/23/2013. While the family was gathered at my house for my great-niece Hayley's birthday party last Friday, my niece Renee asked me about this picture hanging in the dining room. My response that it was a $20 clearance item from a furniture store liquidating their merchandise was unacceptable to her. Waaaaaaaay too boring. So, here is the revised story I told her:

The young woman in this picture is Maria, an ancestor of ours who was of Spanish nobility (which is how my sister Paula ended up with the middle name Maria). She was an extremely tragic figure who was engaged to Juan Roberto, a general in the Spanish army. Juan Roberto and his army were on their way to meet and repel an invading army. The invading army's general was aware that Juan Roberto would be leading the Spanish forces against him and he was fearful as Juan Roberto's reputation as a cunning and ruthless general was legend. The enemy general captured Maria to torture her for information about Juan Roberto's location and strategies, but he sadly underestimated his captive prisoner's resolve and love for her betrothed. When word reached Juan Roberto that his beloved had died defending his life and honor, he became crazed. He and his loyal men attacked with such ferocity that the invading army was decimated. Sadly, Juan Roberto received a fatal wound during the battle and when his men discovered him after the dust had settled, they found him clutching a miniature portrait of Maria in his hand. His loyal soldiers knew from the smile on Juan Roberto's face that had been reunited with Maria in heaven where the two lovers would never be separated. 

This story was MUCH more acceptable to Renee. Phew!

First Sign of Fall

Picture of the Day for 9/22/2013. I saw the first evidence of the leaves changing colors. Where did this year go?!?! It can't be autumn already!!!

Business Reports

Picture of the Day for 9/21/2013. I've FINALLY been working on going through my packing boxes from when I moved into my house three years ago. Yep- you read that right. Three years ago. Some would say I procrastinate, but I prefer to say that I act deliberately and don't like to rush into anything. 

I came across a big plastic tub full of materials from when I taught business writing at the University of Utah in 1995 and 1996. As a business writing instructor, I was required to divide my classes into groups of four or five students and assign them to interview a local business and assess how writing/communication is conducted in a real world setting. At the end of the academic quarter, the groups were required to submit a lengthy report detailing their analysis. When I was going through my materials, I realized I had kept every single one of those reports. I decided to keep only one report as a sample, some of my teaching notes, and the class rolls/grading sheets. This eliminated most of the contents of that big plastic tub. It felt so great to be able to throw most of it away. 

Princess Hayley's Medieval Birthday Adventure

Picture of the Day for 9/20/2013. My great-niece Hayley turned 14 today. This momentous event was marked by an all-day birthday celebration. I picked her up after school and we met her mother Chantal for lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Hayley ordered a cheese quesadilla which she observed was too cheesy. Chantal and I were appalled. There's no such thing as too much cheese. Ever. What blasphemy. We informed Hayley she was not showing proper deference to cheese and would be required to undergo extensive cheese therapy and cheese education. We had her laughing so hard she almost spewed her Dr. Pepper a couple of times. Hayley thinks Chantal and I are beyond odd. 

After lunch, Hayley and I spent some time shopping for fun and then we ended up at a dollar store for party supplies so she could transform my home into a medieval setting for her medieval-themed birthday party. She was pretty creative. She bought yellow plates to represent the brass or gold plates medieval royalty would have used. 

She also decorated white paper cups with pink jewels to transform them into luxurious goblets.

For a final touch, Hayley placed banners adorned with jewels and fleur-de-lys pictures on either side of my front door. A royal party demands a royal entrance. Duh.

Just to torment Hayley, I wore the big red wax lips you can buy at Halloween. This totally creeped her out. You take your chances when you willingly spend an afternoon with Aunt Michelle is all I have to say. 

Once all the preparations were complete, we met the rest of the family for dinner at the Training Table. 

After dinner, the entire family returned to my house for presents and brownies/ice cream. Here is Hayley striking a royal pose.

We sat Hayley at the table of honor so she could open her presents away from the riff-rafff and we could observe her royal magnificence from afar. I love the look on Ethan's face in the picture below. He commented, in a supremely disgusted tone of voice, that this was more of a princess party than a true medieval celebration. He was no doubt hoping swords and weaponry would make an appearance. And just because I'm mentioning Ethan right now, I'll include a picture of his t-shirt which made me laugh.

I think the party was a success! Everyone lingered until well after 10 pm which is rather unusual for a family birthday party.

I believe the birthday princess had a fabulous day and even more important, she got a lot of birthday loot.

Equinox Sunset

Picture of the Day for 9/19/2013. I was driving to a real estate meeting this evening right about sunset. I keep forgetting it's a bad time to drive west at this time of day during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes due to the fact that our Salt Lake City roads are oriented due east/west and north/south in a grid pattern and the sun sets precisely due west during the equinoxes. You can flip down your car visors all you want, but you can't avoid the blinding sun. I could barely see as I was driving westbound on the freeway and almost ran into some cars that had slowed down- no doubt because the drivers couldn't see much either. I took this picture when I finally switched directions and headed south. 

New/Old Desk from the Salt Lake Temple

Picture of the Day for 9/18/2013. I found this antique desk at one of my favorite consignment shops. I was immediately hooked when I saw the tag- "Desk was used in the Salt Lake Temple, 1940." I'm not sure if that means the desk was built in 1940 or removed from the temple in 1940. Regardless, it's a beautiful old desk with an interesting history and the price was certainly right at $159. My sister Robynne said she's hoping the fact that the desk used to reside in such a holy edifice means it will send out "good influence" rays and help mend my heathenish ways. More power to the desk if it can do that!




One of the features I really like about this desk is you can either have it in "flat top" mode or "typewriter" mode. In "typewriter" mode, there's just enough space for a laptop. Pretty cool. 

Royal Summons

Picture of the Day for 9/17/2013. I received the "official" royal summons to Princess Hayley's medieval birthday party today. As her humble servant, this was a mere formality as I had already agreed to host the celebration at my castle.*

Actually, the word "castle" isn't too far off the mark since I frequently refer to my house as Polly's Pink Palace, due to my late mother's inordinate fondness for pink and proclivity to decorate/paint walls in that color.

Social Media Victory

Picture of the Day for 9/16/2013. Today's work victory consisted of figuring out the HTML code for the social media "sharing" buttons and inserting them into my website. Yay!

Same Shoes

Picture of the Day for 9/15/2013. I was sitting next to my sister Paula in church when I noticed we were wearing pretty much the same shoes. That's where the similarity ends. Notice how she is wearing white tights and I'm wearing black tights. It's kind of a metaphor for good/evil. Paula loves to give service and do good works. I, on the other hand, am kind of shifty and up to no good. 

Reader's Digest Condensed Books

Picture of the Day for 9/14/2013. I decided I need to finally tackle clearing out/organizing the basement; otherwise, I'll still be talking about how I need to do that 20 years from now. It's amazing how quickly time passes. 

To make this project seem less daunting, I'm breaking it up into manageable chunks. Today was Reader's Digest condensed book day. I scoured the basement for every single one of these books, organized them by year, and placed them on the top shelf of the bookcase below. I had to scrub that shelf clean of several years of accumulated dust.




I pretty much have all the books from 1950 through 1989. There are a few from the 1990s and even some from the 2000s. If any of you are interested in the books from your birth year as a souvenir, let me know. I actually like the covers from my birth year and think the books will be fun to display. 




I did not brave the basement without the appropriate spider-avoidance attire. Basements are where spiders love to lurk and I did not want to give them even an inch of bare skin to bite or crawl over. 

Animal Cops-Houston

Picture of the Day for 9//13/2013. I've gotten into a routine at the gym. I arrive when Animal Cops-Houston is playing on the Animal Planet channel. My routine of 35 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes on the treadmill (I'm trying to work my way up to jogging a mile straight) carries me through most of an hour-long episode. That's a good thing since I want to see how the cats, dogs, and horses fare after being rescued. It's amazing how many horses are being mistreated in Houston; there must be something in the water there. All the SPCA workers, veterinarians, animal behaviorists, and judges are starting to seem like old friends now. I kind of stumbled into watching the program since Animal Planet is one of the few channels at that time in the morning actually airing shows instead of infomercials. I guess there's always the news, but then I might learn something and become knowledgeable about current events. Can't have that!

Cute Missionaries

Picture of the Day for 9/12/2013. My nephew Rob and his missionary companion ate dinner at a member's house* in Gallup, NM. The member was kind enough to forward this picture to Rob's parents. There's just nothing cuter (and kind of nerdy) than two 19-year-old missionaries. Sooooooooo sweet!

*This is standard practice for members of the church to volunteer to feed the missionaries dinner. It's a way to contribute to the missionary effort. 

Grasshopper Gauntlet

Picture of the Day for 9/11/2013. This grasshopper was hanging out on the retaining wall in my driveway today. A sure sign that autumn is coming. 

Whenever I see a grasshopper, I'm immediately transported back to my elementary school days. When I'd come home from school, I'd have to climb the front steps to reach the front door where my mother would let me in the house. At that time, there were overgrown bushes on each side of the steps so basically you had to contend with a fairly narrow path through the foliage. During the fall, the grasshoppers would jump out at me from the bushes as I walked up the steps. As you might guess, this did not go over well with a girly elementary school-age child. I HATED braving the grasshopper gauntlet each day, but I did it. I guess I'm stronger for it. With no residual emotional damage. Hey! Why is my eye twitching right now? I don't get it...

Sam the Puppy Dog

Picture of the Day for 9/10/2013. I dropped by a friend's house today to see Sam, her new Yellow Labrador puppy. He's only three months old and adorable. He wasn't sure about me at first, but then decided he LOVED me. He would fling himself down in front of me so I could rub his belly. Cute!

Creepy Toy

Picture of the Day for 9/9/2013. I came across this toy my mother made for me when I was a little girl. It has "Relief Society craft project" written all over it. You're supposed to take brightly-colored shoelaces and thread them through the holes to make pretty patterns in the pictures. 

Here's the dilemma. I don't want to throw away something my mother made for me, but c'mon, look at the doll picture. It's creepy. Which will influence me more- creepy or sentimental? Creepy or sentimental? I still haven't made up my mind. What do you think? Keep or throw away?

Fred Haise's Wife

Picture of the Day for 9/8/2013. A friend was doing a Google search for the words "Fred Haise" (Lunar Module Pilot on the Apollo 13 mission) and "wife." Look what showed up. Me! Not sure how that happened since I'm most decidedly not his wife. Although I have to say his wife is one lucky woman since he is a definite NMP (Nicest Man on the Planet). I always enjoy chatting with Fred at the astronaut events I attend.

Tropical Birthday Celebration

Picture of the Day for 9/7/2013. My birthday is in December. Now, don't get me wrong. I was delighted to be born and continue to be thrilled I'm on the planet. However, as a natal month, December leaves a little bit to be desired. My birthday kind of gets lost in the holiday shuffle. It's not that I crave attention and gifts (although I'm not opposed to receiving gifts, duh), but sometimes it just seems like too much bother to squeeze in one more activity/celebration during an already jam-packed month. 

I've decided this year I'm going to liven things up by having a tropical birthday celebration in winter. To that end, I've already purchased flamingo paper plates and napkins. I'll have to be on the lookout for some tropical decorations as well.

Hoodwinked by Hayley

Picture of the Day for 9/6/2013. I labeled this post "Hoodwinked by Hayley" (that has a nice alliterative ring to it, doesn't it?) just to torment my great-niece Hayley. I like to say she hoodwinked me into picking her up after school today so she didn't have to wait for a couple of hours in the library before her mother could pick her up. She "claims" that she called me up last night and asked me nicely. She also claims there was absolutely no hoodwinking involved. Uh huh. Sure.  

Here are some other things Hayley blatantly hoodwinked me into doing:

Taking her out to lunch.




Taking her shopping at my favorite vintage shop.





None of these activities were my idea. No siree. I was hoodwinked I tell you!

Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!

Picture of the Day for 9/5/2013. I had a very unfortunate run-in with the sharp corner of my coffee table. Here's what I said for about five minutes afterward, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, vow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Surprisingly, I did not swear which is my usual knee-jerk response when I accidentally hurt myself.




I didn't have a big enough bandage to cover this wound, so I improvised with a sterile pad and four small band-aids to hold it in place. 

John Falter Original Print Ad

Picture of the Day for 9/4/2013. I had mentioned in a blog entry last year how I love John Falter's World War ll recruiting posters. I did a John Falter search on eBay and found this original 1942 print ad from a World War ll-era magazine. Since it was only a few dollars, I went ahead and bought it. 

Freezing Bananas

Picture of the Day for 9/3/2013. I add 1/2 of a banana to the juice smoothies I make every day. Problem is, the bananas get overly ripe before I can use them all so I decided to freeze them rather than waste them. I have learned the following:

1- There's a right way to freeze bananas. (And I suspect there's even a "righter" way to freeze them by separating them with parchment paper.)




2- There's a wrong way to freeze bananas. Of course I learned this the hard way. You're probably waaaaay ahead of me, but it didn't occur to me until too late that it's next to impossible to peel a frozen banana. 

Evening in Paris Perfume

Picture of the Day for 9/2/2013. I recall during my "growing up years" (some snarky people would say that hasn't happened yet; I choose to ignore those snarky people), my mother would mention how her favorite perfume when she was a young married woman was Evening in Paris. I haven't thought about it for years until this past month when all of a sudden I've become obsessed with this perfume. I guess it's a way of connecting with my mother now that she's gone. It appears that you can only purchase the perfume online which is frustrating since I don't want to invest in expensive perfume that I might not end up liking. I'm only nostalgic and wistful to a point. Then practicality sets in. 

When I was doing a Google search on the perfume and I saw that you can purchase reproductions of old advertisements, I ordered this little metal plaque.