Tracie's World

Last week, our VP posted a note on his Facebook page about how a bee made him scream like a little girl. I ended up on a conference call with him the next day, and thought I would tease him a little. I mean, one little bee doing that to a grown man? Turns out, it was thousands of bees congregating under the eave of his house. All I could say was "Ewww", and I never hope to have to deal with that many bees. Segue to last weekend when I was home in Oregon for a visit. While I was at lunch with my Mom, my Grandma, and my sister, we got a call from Dad, saying that there was a swarm of bees in the garden, surrounding one of the fruit trees. I wasn't too concerned at that point. At least, not until we got home, to find out what a "swarm" meant. There, in the garden, surrounding the apricot tree, was a round cluster of THOUSANDS OF BEES! It was as BIG AS A BASKETBALL! Needless to say, Aunt Tracie was completely creeped out, and ran into the house, and she di...

I spent the weekend in Oregon visiting my family. They had wanted me to come home several weeks ago to celebrate my birthday, but work interfered. So I decided to make a visit at the next available time, which was the Father's Day weekend. Unbeknownst to me, the family decided to still schedule a celebration. I arrived Friday, and after a few hours of visiting, was told I was going out to eat with my parents and my Grandmother. But we needed to make a quick stop at the church first. What I didn't know was that the entire family was there waiting to surprise me. And did they ever. My never-ending devotion to the Dodgers was rewarded with a Dodger's baseball surprise party. It was most fun. They served ballpark food - nachos, chili dogs, bags of peanuts and shave ice - and I was presented with gifts of a Dodgers banner and a birthday card from Manny Ramirez (yes - I know it's not really from Manny, but a girl can always dream). They also all went in on a gift of ...

Living in Salt Lake, there are certain places where it seems like everyone goes to eat at least a few times a year. One of these is Ruth's Diner, in Emigration Canyon. Ruth's has been around since the late 1940's, and was originally housed in an old dining car. From what you read in the history, it's founder and namesake, Ruth, was quite a colorful character - a chain smoker who smoked in the kitchen, who swore like a sailor, and never let the customers get away with anything. You got it the way she cooked it, whether you liked it or not. Ruth passed away in the 70's or 80's, and the Diner's changed hands a couple of times since then, but it's been in the same location for years now. I don't know that you go there specifically for the cuisine, but more for the laid-back atmosphere and location. If you're lucky, you can eat on the back patio. The service is never fabulous, and it's a bit run-down. But they also have live music. One t...

Fleetwood Mac has been my favorite band for a long time now. I'd been waiting/hoping for years now to see them in concert. But knowing their history of in-fighting, I figured it may not happen again. Imagine my surprise when they announced they would in fact be touring this y ear. I kept checking their website to see if they were going to play in Salt Lake. But nothing ever showed up, so I thought I'd have to see them in Denver or Vegas or somewhere else. So last month, imagine my joy when I heard some colleagues over the wall talking about Fleetwood Mac coming and how they had gotten their tickets. So that weekend I coerced Inge and Angel into agreeing to go with me, and got our tickets. They were nosebleed seats, but I didn't care, as long as I was in the same building as Stevie Nicks. Well, last week, the Delta Center (I'm sorry, I just can't call it the ESA) announced that they had closed off the upper bowl seating, and that everyone up there would be r...