The Corporate Card - Thursday 12/4/2008

I have a corporate card!

Well, anyway, a corporate generic holiday seasons greeting card that everyone in the office signs, which gets mailed to our clients. It reminds me how important I am in the grand scheme of things.

When, in my dewy youth, I envisioned signing this many autographs in a row there was a bookstore involved, and a small but eager line of people with eyes aglow.

And a title page, dammit.

If the universe grants the realization of this vision, I vow that all my autographs will be legible.

Unlike Jens, the office manager, whose signatures on the last few cards imply that a person named Gerbil Horvanian works here.

Happy HouseDay! - Tuesday 12/3/2008

I took this two years ago. It's the stairs leading to the back deck at my Mom's house. This is where I grew up. (Though admittedly, it was a concrete patio when I lived there.)

Today is the house's 48th birthday! It's the day my family moved in, about six weeks before I was born. (Did I make the math easy enough for you?)

My parents designed and built it themselves. I really like the way Mom laid out the kitchen, with a built in oven and a stove top built into the counter that divides the working kitchen from the dining area.

Also very cool: There's a secret passageway! One pair of closets was never sealed off in between, so you can crawl through over the shoes and under the hanging clothes.

You're not supposed to. But you can. Trust me, this will win you major points with young friends.

Today's the day we start celebrating Christmas. Used to be with an ornament or a special favorite food next to your plate at dinner on December 3rd. My favorite was my own jar of maraschino cherries and the little glass bird ornaments that clipped onto the branches and had a little spray of stiff plastic threads for tails. (Cooler than I am describing, honestly.)

Happy Birthday, House!

I Am Already a Winner! - Tuesday 12/2/2008

First off, so you don't miss it: You could be a winner (soon), too. Just get yourself over to Los Angelista's Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness and see what she says about winning your own Wii Console and WiiFit!

And then read more of her blog. It's really, really worth it.

So as I was saying, Los Angelista gave away an HP photo printer on her blog today and (drumroll please!).... I won!

Not on my merits, but by the luck of the draw. Anyway it comes, it's wonderful.

I am humming Mary Chapin Carpenter's "I Feel Lucky" right now. Yes, I am.

I have been pining for my own photo printer, so I can make reproductions without having to run over to the drug store. And I'll be able to control the color balance, etc.

Oh frabjous day!

She made my Chinese food fortune come true : "You will receive an unexpected gift from an acquaintance."

Yes! Now we can work on the others that I have taped to my monitor at work:

1) Fortune will smile upon you.

2) You deserve respect and will get it.

3) You can expect a change for the better in job or status in the future.

4) You will soon get something special because of your charm.
Hmmm...that last one's a little scary in a The Monkey's Paw kind of way.

Now get over to Los Angelista's blog and be entertained and engaged.

Boom! - Sunday 11/30/2008

It came out of a clear blue sky, as they say.

I was on the cell with Kitty and had just pulled into the garage when BOOM! The garage shook, the car shook, and Kitty asked what happened because she heard it too.

Forgive me, I've read too many episodes of CSI : Miami (more than 130, oh my gosh) but I thought it sounded like not one but TWO bodies landing on the roof.

I got out and tried to look over the eaves. Rationally, it was probably not even one body. And it wasn't any kind of earthquake I'd ever felt. I said to Kitty that it might have been a sonic boom from one of the planes they test over the Mojave desert, just over the Sierra Pelona mountains.

Hydra, woozy from his under-the-weather napping, came out to the driveway to find out what was the matter. (No laying of a thumb upside of his nose, though.)

Our downslope neighbor came out with the news. He'd been watching CNN. The space shuttle Endeavor was landing at Edwards Air Force Base. Aha! Now that made sense. It makes a big impression when it reenters the atmosphere.

You can see in the photo that it was, indeed, not Florida in which the Endeavor landed.

Wish we'd known they'd be doing that. It would be worth the half hour drive to see it come down!

A Perfect Saturday Morning - 11/29/2008

Ah, yes. This is why I drove down to O.C. last night instead of this morning. So I could start a fire, make a pot of tea and read the last chapters of The Thirteenth Tale.

Perfect!

No, wait.

Something's missing!



There now.

Perfection.

There and Back Again, Again - Friday 11/28/2008

So... after a nice day of reading at home, I thought I'd go get the mail. Went to retrieve the mailbox key from the hook and...

Oh. No.

I instantly flashed on my keys in my jacket on the bed in the Cuz's spare room.

Called them. Yes, they found the jacket right after we'd left, but didn't know the keys were in there.

So on the day upon which I planned to buy nothing and drive nowhere, I ended up driving 220 miles round trip and buying gas in Orange County.

But I had my iPod, so I sang along to favorite tunes all the way there, and listened to stockpiled episodes of This American Life on the way back. Accomplished the whole thing, including a short conversation with the Cuzzes, in four hours. Traffic was moving.

Sigh.

Thanksgiving - Thursday 11/27/2008

While we had Thanksgiving dinner, a bird of a different feather watched us from Cuz-M and Cuz-P's back yard.

I wandered around taking photos of the paving stones Cuz-P makes, and the flowers in their yard.


I love the way their white washed fence sets off the roses!


The person who gave them the cutting that these shamrocks grew from says he brought it over from Ireland himself. I didn't realize that it had blossoms.


One of many blooms on this shrub.


Yellow!


After a long day of making us feel at home, Le Roi is bushed. Fuzzy photo because I didn't want to use the flash.


Hydra naps. As it turns out he was at the beginning of a weekend long illness. Let's just say he didn't keep his Thanksgiving dinner very long.

Now We're Cookin' - Wednesday 11/26/2008

I worked from home today to avoid the pre-holiday drive time traffic. I love getting up, making a pot of tea, and going to work on the other end of the house.

Clients were typically demanding as the people they work with put pressure upon them to tie things up before the long holiday. But I was mentally prepared for it, and I didn't have a commute behind me or ahead of me.

On my lunch break I made hot artichoke dip and tried a new recipe for cranberry sauce. It sounds unbelievable, but here it is:

Brandied Cranberry Sauce

16 oz. cranberries
2 cups sugar (I might do a half cup less next time, I adjusted for 12 oz. of berries)
1/3 cup brandy (I forgot to reduce the amount)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Rinse cranberries. Place them in a cooking vessel. Add the sugar. Cover, and put in the oven for an hour. (No additional liquid, just the water from rinsing.)

When you take the cranberries out of the oven, pour the brandy over the top. Stir or don't...I saw recipes that advised both methods. I poured them from Pyrex to this serving dish and then added the brandy, which mostly evaporated.

Me Too, Lulu - Monday 11/24/2008

Lulu relaxes on the couch after monitoring the writing group--she's a herder by nature and she keeps us in line--and a late night toddle around the block.

Whew. It was a good night and I'm glad to stay the night in Braveheart's artsy home, but I feel like I've been on the road for a month at this point.

26 Miles (Santa Catalina) - Sunday 11/23/2008

It was admittedly a bit gloomy as we set off "26 miles across the sea" as the song goes, aboard the Catalina Flyer. That's the Harborside Restaurant to the right. We pull out around 9:00 a.m.


A glimmer of sunshine along the way.

I spent about half an hour standing on the deck next to the--what do they call it?--the place where the captain hangs out. When we hit waves, I hung onto the railing and let my knees take the shock.

I felt like Slim Pickens riding the rocket at the end of Dr. Strangelove. Whoo hoo!


We passed an outgoing vessel on our way into port. The man next to us explained to his infant son that the jet engines put a lot of bubbles in the water and turned it this color. Thanks, daddy.



The Catalina Flyer safe in the harbor. That's the Avalon Casino in the background, from the Italian word for "gathering place." It's a movie theater and museum that never was a gambling place.


After poking around in some shops and having lunch with the gaggle of cousins, we hopped the trolley to the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens, where we saw such Dr. Suess-esque plants as this one. (It has island in the name of it, appropriately. Why oh why don't I take notes?)


Along the way we pass this bum. I sneak up to leave a dollar on his chest, only to discover it's our very own Hydra grabbing a nap while the rest of us coo over the succulents and cacti.


From beneath the monument. That's Cuz-M pointing something out.



I love all the details and shoot at least fifty pix in and around the monument.



Inside looking out. What a glorious day.



Hydra and I split from the pack and head for the casino. One of our number has a stress fracture in her foot and is not up for more walking, which is so reasonable. We feel like we need to move.


It only takes us about ten minutes to get there, and we buzz through the museum, which includes a great little exhibit about the May 2007 fire that burned more than 4,000 acres on the island. That's about 10% of it. 2700 people were evacuated by vessels like the one we came over on.



We head back to the mainland at 4:30.


By 6:00, we're back and the lights are on at the pavilion/Harborside Restaurant.



Our welcoming crew. Anyone know what this guy is?

On the Road Again - Saturday 11/22/2008

But not so far this time. Just down to Orange County, where we booked a room at the Holiday Inn, Laguna Hills for the night. Hydra's Michigan cousins are in town, and we're getting together tomorrow for our first-ever voyage to Catalina Island.

I'm not sure whether this hand towel elephant is sweet or just a little creepy. I shifted him to the couch in the room without pulling him apart.

I made a pineapple upside down cake to contribute to dinner, using a combination of recipes and advice from Kitty. I think it was the best ever. Though it's not as pretty, it's better to use crushed pineapple than rings. More flavor and easier to cook.

I thought I took a photo of the cake, but I guess not!

Destined for Stardom? - Thursday 11/20/2008

These guys were filming outside Papoo's Hot Dog Show when I drove past them on my way home. I actually circled the block to go back and get this shot.

I think the one guy is a waiter and the other guy is going to don the French fry costume.

There was only one other guy on this shoot. He grinned when he saw me taking the photo. Wish I'd been able to include him. (He's to the left.)



Apparently, it takes a lot of prep to play French fries.

He should maybe come down to the acting studio that took up residence next to my office and try the Meisner Method. I think hollering "My carton is red!" at a fellow actor for fifteen minutes would help him.

Miss Smarty Returns - Wednesday 11/19/2008

As much as I adore traveling, I'm actually kind of happy to be back at my desk. Probably because I work very independently and I'm well suited to my job. I like setting my priorities for the day after I check my e-mail, even though I know new things will arrive during the day that will knock them askew.

When I'm at work I do, indeed, feel like Miss Smarty. (Thanks to OneL for the gift of the mug, some years ago.)

Adios, ABQ

Albuquerque's plaza, which is at lower elevation, was not as far into fall, so there were still leaves on the trees.
I was impressed with the terra cotta and turquoise freeway ramps.



Some interesting graffiti on the freight train next to my Amtrak car. It was a great trip. It was really amazing spending time with Diver again. In most ways, we fell right back into our old, important friendship like no time had passed at all.

What else did I learn from this trip? After weeks and weeks of relying upon spell checker, I now know how to spell Albuquerque.

Ancient Party Rat!

Later that day, we visited Petroglyph National Monument. That's a pack of Cub Scouts going up the hill ahead of us.


Lots of people have been interpreting these petroglyphs for a lot of years. But you tell me... does this look like a rat with a maraca or what?


An excited cat.


An excited pregnant woman.


Not everyone was excited. This bird, for instance, seems calm. They call it a Macaw, but the interpretive sign was pretty faded so I'm not sure why.


Sundry makes a glyph with her hand.

Ha, ha.

Funny Sundry.

Sandia Peak - Albuquerque

We bid Santa Fe a fond farewell early Sunday morning and drove back to Albuquerque. First stop, the Sandia Peak Tram. You go up 2.7 miles and about 4,000 feet in about 20 minutes. That's Albuquerque in the background.



Part of the trail at the top.



Diver on the trail.


We spent about an hour at the top. This is the view back toward Santa Fe and Taos. You can also see Los Alamos from here.

I wonder if it glows in the dark?



Our chariot arrives. Pretty cool trip. I'd like to come back and talk Hydra into tramming it up and hiking it down. (Trust me, he'd rather hike than ride at these heights.)