Christmas Party Photo Bomb

Picture of the Day for 1/31/2014. On what would have been my grandmother Viola Merrill's 115th birthday (sorry, I felt compelled to share that random fact that has nothing to do with today's blog entry), we held a very, very, very, very belated Merrill family Christmas party. My sister Paula and her family had been out of town during the holidays and this was the first opportunity to regroup. As usual, my 8-year-old great-niece Sadie was my little shadow for the evening (love that girl) and when I went to take a picture of her, my niece Lisa deliberately photo bombed the picture. I have to say well done to Lisa (love that girl too). She looks particularly creepy in the background.

Bad Combination

Picture of the Day for 1/30/2015. You know how water flavorings are designed to flavor, um, water? 

Well, I learned firsthand they are not designed to flavor sparkling water. I poured some of this powder into a bottle of sparkling water and boom! A flavored-water explosion ensued.

Vintage Czech Glass Earrings

Picture of the Day for 1/29/2015. I have a new jewelry obsession and it's very specific - vintage Czech glass earrings. I stumbled upon this jewelry genre quite by accident on eBay. Prior to a month ago I had no knowledge of vintage Czech glass earrings and now I MUST have them.

Here's a pair I bought. 

And here's a pair that I really wanted, but forgot when the bidding ended and missed out.

California Office Building

Picture of the Day for 1/28/2015. I'm getting my bearings in Irvine, California where my office is located. I finally clued in that this is my office building. You might think that's kind of a no-brainer, but it looks very different from the other side where I enter the building.

Flowers in Winter

Picture of the Day for 1/27/2015. Don't see flowers like this in Utah in January. Unless you grab a bouquet from the cooler at your local grocery store or have them delivered by a florist. I love California!

View from My California Office

Picture of the Day for 1/26/2015. I'll be spending three days in the Irvine, California office this week. I've been given a really nice cubicle for whenever I'm in town. It's right by a window with a very nice view. Which you can't really tell from this picture. Trust me, it's a pleasant view.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Picture of the Day for 1/25/2015. I spent several happy hours today at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. Here's what I saw.

Giant sea bass

Colorful fish. The pink fish are male while the orange ones are female.

More of the colorful fish. I was captivated by the bright colors.

Stingray #1

Stingray #2

Cownose rays

Starfish and sea anemones

Jellyfish

Lorikeets who perched on my arm to drink nectar. The one closest to my hand actually landed on my head and climbed down my hair to get to my arm. I think my red hair (which looked particularly bright in the sun) attracted the bird.

Palm trees seen from the outdoor lounge that had the most comfortable 
couches where I fell sound asleep for an hour. I only got two hours of 
sleep last night so I was wiped out. I just hope I didn't drool or snore!

Outsmarting the Birds

Picture of the Day for 1/24/2015. I'm heading out for a 4-day work trip tomorrow and I'm leaving my birds on their own. This requires some strategic planning on my part since my white bird, Cora, is quite a pill. She loves to pull up on the water and food trays and sometimes pulls them out so forcefully they land upside down on the bottom of the tray. That's OK when I'm around to fix things, but I don't want to risk this happening while I'm gone. I clipped the trays to the cage and I'm pretty sure they are Cora-proof at this point.

Valentine Workbook

Picture of the Day for 1/23/2015. After I got home from my regular job at 8:00 pm tonight I spent the rest of the evening until about midnight getting my sister Robynne's Valentine's Day workbook for language and vocabulary ready for publication. I'm a busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy gal!

Backsliding

Picture of the Day for 1/22/2015. I've been doing so well the past couple of years keeping my house straight. Which is how I like it. It all went wrong though when I went back to work full time. This is the state of my dining room right now. The rest of the house looks just as bad. Argh.

Lisa's Butt

Picture of the Day for 1/21/2015. I pulled out a schematic my sister Robynne drew of a speech therapy activity template she wants me to make so I could start working on it tonight. It's been a couple of weeks since she drew this and I totally forgot that my niece Lisa doodled a butt on the paper. We were having some sort of butt discussion (like you do as a matter of course in our family because we're a little odd), but now I can't remember what it was. I do recall Lisa recognized that it's not a great representation of someone's bottom.

Facebook Explosion

Picture of the Day for 1/20/2015. My company's Facebook page has been going wild. We've gained about 25 new "likes" in the matter of a few days. This is unprecedented. My sister Robynne and I have been trying to figure out where in the world all these sudden likes came from (Pinterest? A post we made on one of several speech therapy pages on Facebook?) but we can't determine the source. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but we are curious.

Baby in a Bonnet

Picture of the Day for 1/19/2015. I couldn't resist one more picture of my great-niece Hazel Pauline. Here she is wearing a bonnet that her great-aunt Robynne crocheted for her. 

Meeting My New Niece

Picture of the Day for 1/19/2015. My niece Michelle arrived in town yesterday with her new baby, Hazel Pauline. Of course it's been love at first sight for all of us. I would have posted a picture of her yesterday, but the lighting was so low I didn't get a good picture. Here is Hazel sitting on her grandpa David's lap during one of the rare instances when she's awake and alert. 

She's only a few weeks old so she's not awake for long stretches of time yet. That's OK. There's nothing more soothing than holding a sleeping infant.

Bosom Photographs

Picture of the Day for 1/17/2015. I've been taking a lot of pictures of my bosom lately. Don't worry, this isn't going down a naughty path. I received some fun necklaces for Christmas and I took pictures of them so I could show the gift-givers that I was wearing the items.

Great Tchaikovsky!

Picture of the Day for 1/16/2015. I was composing a one-word email today that consisted of the word "gotcha" which the auto-correct feature on my iPhone changed to Great Tchaikovsky. I loved that! I think that's going to be my new catchphrase from now on. For example, "Great Tchaikovsky, gas is now below $2!"

Do Not Bend!

Picture of the Day for 1/15/2015. I received this envelope in the mail today that clearly said "Do Not Bend." How do you think it was delivered in my mailbox? With a whole lotta bend. Sigh. 

The "Do Not Bend" envelope included four autographed photographs from astronaut Story Musgrave. Sigh. I now have four wavy signed photos. Which is better than no signed photographs, but still...

Mystery Writing Competition

Picture of the Day for 1/14/2015. I was asked to help judge six entries in the Freddie Award for Writing Excellence in the hardboiled category. Entries consisted of the first 20 pages of an unpublished manuscript. It was great fun. It was interesting to see the various skill levels across all the entries. All six authors had excellent/creative ideas and there were a few that could really turn into something with a bit of polishing. And there was one entry that is publication-ready. I was completely entranced by the author's writing style and I was disappointed when the 20 pages came to an end. I was convinced the author was a man, but just found out that the author is a woman which impresses me even more that she was so successful in writing from another gender's point of view. I was delighted to hear today that this author made the finalist round. I hope she wins!

Duggar's Tater Tot Casserole Recipe

Picture of the Day for 1/13/2015. My sister Robynne fixed a modified version of the famous (infamous) Duggar family Tater Tot Casserole recipe for dinner tonight. I was soooooo excited! I'm fascinated by the Duggars and you can't go wrong with an ooey-gooey casserole. It was great. 

Insufficient Light

Picture of the Day for 1/12/2015. I work from home much of the time. I think I would enjoy it more if my work space (i.e., living room) didn't resemble a dark cave. Even the floor to ceiling windows, bright overhead lights, and floor lamps don't do much to dispel the gloom. Any suggestions for improving the light?

Dark Hair

Picture of the Day for 1/11/2015. Just got my hair dyed. It looks extra dark and not red in this particular lighting. This is actually pretty close to my natural hair color- if I weren't completely gray and had any natural hair color left.

John Glenn Autograph

Picture of the Day for 1/10/2015. Yay! I received my copy of We Seven (written by the original Mercury 7 astronauts in 1962) back in the mail today with John Glenn's autograph!

Cowboy Boot Table

Picture of the Day for 1/9/2015. This table with cowboy boot legs was at the shoe shop where I picked up my boots that needed some repair work done on the heels. Very appropriate decor.

Monster Spider Web

Picture of the Day for 1/8/2015. EEK!!! What kind of monster-sized spider created this spider web? EEK!!!

Hayley's Boots

Picture of the Day for 1/7/2015. My great-niece Hayley is of an age where I kind of covet some of the things she receives for Christmas and birthdays. She received a really great pair of boots for Christmas that made me go, "Hey, I want those." I was at the Payless shoe store purchasing the boots when I admitted to the clerks that my 15-year-old niece got them for Christmas and I really liked them. I loved the look of extreme horror on their face at the thought of an obviously middle-aged woman copying the fashion style of a teenager. Once they got over the initial horror, they got into the spirit of things and raved about how much they love these boots. We ended up bonding over the fabulous-ness of those boots in particular and boots in general.

Robynne's Hair

Picture of the Day for 1/6/2015. My sister Robynne is letting her hair go gray. To help along the process, Robynne's hairdresser dyed the tips of her hair blonde so the contrast between hair colors is less noticeable as it grows out. Robynne met me and her daughter Lisa for dinner tonight and it was the first time we saw the new look. It's not a bad look at all- just shocking since we're used to her very dark hair. At one point our constant staring was creeping Robynne out and she told us to cut it out. We couldn't help it! Just getting used to the new look!

Mascara on My Upper Lip

Picture of the Day for 1/5/2015. I was getting ready for work and accidentally got mascara on my upper lip. How does this even happen? It's not like I was waving the wand around in a crazy fashion. 

That's not snot on my nose, by the way. It's the make-up remover which wasn't even making a dent in removing the mascara. Of all the things I thought I would have to contend with on a Monday morning, this wasn't one of them. 

I apologize for subjecting you to the extreme close-up of my face!

Sleeping Apart

Picture of the Day for 1/4/2015. If my birds were humans, their sleeping arrangement would mirror 1950s television where married couples were depicted sleeping in separate twin beds. Whenever I take the blanket I keep draped over the cage at night, I find my birds on opposite ends of the cage. I'm going to start calling them Lucy and Ricky. Points to my younger readers who get this reference.

I Don't Have a Christmas Tree

Picture of the Day for 1/3/2015. So, you know how it was an agonizing process to get my Christmas tree decorated? After ALL that work, I came home this evening to discover that my tree had toppled over. Sigh. It's been leaning a little bit, but not enough to cause alarm. At least only a couple of ornaments got broken. This just makes me tired.

Job's Daughters Officer Installation

Picture of the Day for 1/2/2015. My great-niece Hayley belongs to Job's Daughters International, an organization for young women between the ages of 10 and 20 that is affiliated with the Masons. She was just elected as an officer within her bethel (i.e., local chapter) and tonight was the installation ceremony for the new officers.

Here is Hayley wearing her robes.

The ceremony was highly ritualistic. There was a LOT of marching and processionals. Hours and hours of it...

 Here is Hayley with her escort, Jake. A VERY happy Hayley.