Tracie's World

Tracie's highlights from the year 2008: January: In January I hosted a dinner at my home. The highlight was the nasty gumbo that I made and never finished. Hosted corporate visitors for a work project. February: The trip from H-E-double to Panama City, Florida. Although there was some fun involved, and it was good to be with all my co-workers, the prevailing memories are bad weather, missed planes, delayed luggage, water outages and bronchitis. Our ward created 3 Relief Societies and I was called to be RS secretary. March: Raising money for and participating in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kid's Sake bowl-a-thon. Hosted more corporate visitors. April: April was a big month for birthdays, both for friends and family. My friends Carma and Joe got married. My friend Janeen and I started a golf class. May: In mid-month I went with friends to visit Mesa Verde National Park. I drove home to Oregon to spend my birthday with my family. Some friends and I camped out and attende...

Went with my friend Randy to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Leonardo (old Main Library) yesterday. It's been here for several months and I think I'm probably the last person in Salt Lake to see it. I was a little leery at first, knowing that I am not good with seeing medical things sometimes. But it was really cool. There were displays of what our blood vessels look like, and our nerves, and it was cool to see how all the muscles work, especially in relation to the tendeons and ligaments. Bodies were sculpted to show them in motion, and show how everything worked. Each organ, muscle, blood vessel, nerve, and bone all serve specific functions. But in order for the body to function and perform correctly, all the individual pieces need to be unified and work together. It's going to sound cliche, but in designing the human body, the Lord really did something miraculous.

I saw this list in today's Deseret News, and thought it sounded fun. Can you guess the names of these Christmas songs? (The answers are in the next post) 1. Tucked into a desolate point halfway to spring 2. Winged beings belonging to effulgent kingdoms. 3. A chocolate-covered cake blithely floating above. 4. Questions come to me while I aimlessly rove. 5. A special winter day devoid of any color. 6. Ascend, Oh crook user and come after. 7. I won't be off in some distant place when it's time to open presents. 8. The smog-less bewitching hour arrived. 9. Leave and do an elevated broadcast. 10. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city. 11. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas. 12. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element. 13. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans. 14. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals. 15. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere. 16. Listen, the celestial messe...

1. In The Bleak Mid-Winter 2. Angels From The Realms of Glory. 3. Ding Dong Merrily on High. 4. I Wonder as I Wander. 5. White Christmas. 6. Rise Up Shepherd and Follow. 7. I'll Be Home for Christmas. 8. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. 9. Go tell It On The Mountain. 10. O Little Town of Bethlehem. 11. O Holy Night. 12. Silver Bells. 13. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. 14. Frosty The Snowman. 15. Peace On Earth. 16. hark, The Herald Angels Sing. 17. Silent Night. 18. Joy to the World. 19. Little Drummer Boy 20. O Come All Ye Faithful. 21. The First Noel. 22. As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night. 23. Away in a Manger. 24. Twelve Days of Christmas 25. Do You Hear What I Hear ?

On Wednesday, a friend of mine called to catch up. We had not visited for awhile, so he invited me to go to The Nutcracker with him. I said that would be great. He asked what days were good, and I said either Thursday or Saturday. He Saturday tickets would be too hard to get, so he would get tickets for Thursday. That same evening, a guy called and asked if I would go with him to his company party Thursday night. I told him I would love to, but I already had plans to see The Nutcracker Thursday night. He apologized and said he should have called in advance. We continued talking, and I mentioned that Las Vegas bowl would be on Saturday. He said that would be fun to watch, and he would probably come over Saturday night to watch the game with me. On Thursday afternoon, my friend called and had just gotten the tickets, but for Saturday instead of Thursday. So I said, I'm sorry but I can't go now, because I made plans and am having people over on Saturday evening. He apolo...

Our Relief Society was given the assignment to feed the sister missionaries last night. The only stipulation we were given was that we needed to live between 1300 and 2100 South, and dinner needed to be between 5 and 6:00 PM. Knowing that I was one of the few who lived between those coordinates, I volunteered. I figured I needed the good vibes anyway, and that the missionaries would for sure bring them. So, I called the sisters Tuesday, and said I would be feeding them. I gave them my address, and was then informed that I was out of their area and lived too far west. They said they would request permission from the office to come to my place. They also mentioned that they had an appointment at Temple Square at 5:45, so could we make dinner at 4:30. Normally I get off work at 4:30, but I figured I could probably duck out a bit early. I told my friend Angie about it, who lives a little further east, and she graciously volunteered to do the dinner at her place. She could also arr...

'Tis the season to break out all my Christmas CD's and even my old cassettes, so I can get my fix of Christmas music. Since I don't listen to it the rest of the year, I only have so long to work through all of them, especially since I keep adding to the collection every year. As a general rule, I prefer the classics. For me, it's just not Christmas without Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Andy Williams or The Carpenters. But every once in awhile, I really enjoy something new, like The Barenaked Ladies and Sarah Mclaughlin singing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings". So far this year, my favorites have been The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and The King's Singers "Rejoice and Be Merry" (thanks to Steph for giving it to me), and Gladys Knight and The Saints Unified Voices Christmas CD. I've been listening to them over and over again. And the MoTab, thanks to Mac Wilberg, does this totally awesome version of "O Holy N...

Saturday night, I got to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert with my friend Dtephanie and her Dad. It was a great evening! The concert featured Brian Stokes Mitchell (love that man) and Edward Hermann. There were a lot of touching moments for me, but my personal favorite moment was Edward Hermann's narration of the story "Longfellow's Christmas", which is the story behind the writing of the hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". I don't hear of a lot of people enjooying it, but it has always been one of my favorite Christmas hymns. I can really relate to the feeling of despair, but then the message of hope through Christ that comes at the end of the song. Sunday morning the Choir performed it again for Music and the Spoken word. And it thrilled me even more, and I got all choked-up as Edward Hermann shouted out at the end of the story that Christ is the message of hope and peace. Later that morning I put in my old cassett...

This just in - the makers of Airborne reached a legal settlement with some 30 states, where they have to pay out a lot of money, and remove any labeling on their product that makes it sound like it prevents and treats colds. They weren't sued for being dangerous, just for claiming to treat and prevent the common cold. Now isn't that just something worth suing for. Sigh... I personally have used Airborne, and another brand called Emergen-C, and have liked them both. When a sore throat hits, they give me enough "juice" to get through for a few hours until I can get home and take a nap. Whether they really work, I don't care. It makes me feel better to be taking something, and it might as well be vitamins rather than something else. That begs the question - what are some of your home remedies for treating a cold?

Beverly Garland died the other day. You may not be aware of who she was, but if you are a lover of classic sci-fi films of the B-grad variety, or of classic TV, then you've probably seen her. Some of her more famous roles were as the new wife/step-mother on "My Three Sons", and Kate Jackson's mother on "Scarecrow and Mrs. King". She also starred in the cult TV classic "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", and guest-starred in many others. I got to meet her once. For those of us who work at Holiday Inn, we also knew her as the owner of the hotel now known as Holiday Inn Universal Studios, but formerly known as Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn, located in Los Angeles. She came and toured and did a presentation at our facilities here several years ago. All the employees had the chance to meet her, get a photo taken with her, and have her sign autographs. I had a personally signed mousepad with her photo on it. (Kitzchy, I know.) There was nothing shy or da...

In baseball news, the Seattle Mariners just traded one of their relief pitchers to the New York Mets. The pitcher's name is J.J. Putz. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but with a name like "Putz", the fans in New York are going to have a field day. Because no matter how good the guy is, he's always going to be a putz. Here's a small sampling of the things you could say about Mr. Putz. If he's good, they'll all go nuts for Putz. If he's bad, they'll hate the guts of Putz. If he's really bad and gets released, the headlines will scream "Team cuts Putz". If he gets any dogs, they'll be known as the Putz mutts. If he smokes, they'll be talking about the Putz butts. The list is practically endless. Too bad there's no longer a team in Brooklyn. Because if he could have played for them, no matter what he did, they would at least "fuhgedaboutit".

In today's creepy entertainment news, Boy George was convicted of false imprisonment of a male "escort". Kind of brings a whole new meaning to "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?". (Sometimes it's just too easy...)

It's December, and that means it's time to watch Holiday movies. I'm a sucker not just for the classics, but for those sappy ones on Lifetime and Hallmark. You know the ones - "A Boyfriend for Christmas", "A Town Without a Christmas Tree", "A Carol Christmas", "Snowglobe", etc. They usually star some fading TV star like Tori Spelling or one of the angels from "Touched By An Angel", or someone from a daytime soap who's hoping to hit it big. One thing I have noticed is that there are about a gazillion remakes and updates of "A Christmas Carol". The other day I think I counted 4 or 5, all being played on the same day. So this begs the question - What is your favorite version of "A Christmas Carol"? My personal fave is a black and white British version from 1950, starring Alistair Sim. I remember seeing it for the first time the year that my family lived in Bellingham, Washington. It was Christma...

The news of the day from Salzburg, Austria: Apparently the city has blocked developers plans to turn the former Trapp family home (and seen in "The Sound of Music" as the home of the Von Trapp family) into a hotel. Residents complained and were concerned that tourists would tie up traffic and make a nuisance of themselves. Umm - HELLO! Of course they would have, but do you really think anyone visits Salzburg for any other reason than to climb every mountain and go on "The Sound of Music" tour? It ain't because Mozart was born there, that's for sure. It's because the hills are alive with the sound of music. Who do you think pays your sales taxes? Loud obnoxious tourists!

There's an article in today's Odd News, about a deer hunter in Missouri. The hunter went hunting and shot his deer twice. The deer fell down, and the hunter went to check out and admire his kill. Apparently the deer decided to only "play" dead, and when the hunter approached, the deer leaped up and proceeded to give the hunter an old-fashioned butt-whipping. The hunter was able to recover enough to "take care of" the deer. This time he made sure the deer was absolutely dead. The hunter however, had a minor concussion, bruises, and needed stitches in his scalp. I'm not saying hunting is bad - I eat meat AND I know where it comes from. But memo to the hunter: Next time, you might want to make sure the deer is actually dead before approaching him. Deer are kind of like stray cats, in that it is not really that wise to be nice to them. Once, my family was staying at a lodge in the mountains of Easter Oregon. There were a lot of deer around who app...