Tracie's World

Saw this article online today, and was impressed.  I wish I'd had an instructor as creative as this.  Maybe communication would not be so difficult as it is for me sometimes. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100525/ap_on_re_us/us_plato_in_public I did have a professor of Roman History, who had us all on a Friday night play a live version game of Rome.  It was kind of like "Survivor", but Roman Style.  We each played a real character, and had to play for control of Rome during the time of Caesar, Antony, and Octavian.  Dr. Hall would run around in character as Jupiter (King of the Roman Gods), and every time we saw him, we had to say "Ave Jupiter".  Fun, but not necessarily life-altering.

This year, at my work at least, it seems to be all about bikes.  Several of the guys ride their bikes to and from work, and the company is officially a "bicycle friendly workplace."  They're trying to encourage everyone to take up bike riding.  So for the last little while, I've been contemplating getting a bike.  I used to love riding bikes when I was a kid.  It was my main mode of transportation.  I rode it all over the neighborhood, and we had all sorts of shortcut trails through the neighborhood to get to friends houses.  But that all pretty much stopped with the whole learning to drive thing.  And now, it's been many years since I've actually ridden a bike.  Howevuh - lately I have been thinking about getting a bike.  What with the new abode, I have a little more space to store one.  Plus, I live so close to the Park now, and I could easily ride over there and do a couple of laps.  And it would be a fun way to get some phy...

"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."  It's official.  After 20 seasons, NBC has cancelled Law and Order (the original series).  All I can say is that I'm stunned.  I'm sorry, but I just have to have a moment right now.   I'm a relative newcomer to the series - I started watching in 1993, during Sam Waterston's first season as ADA Jack McCoy.  My youngest sister and I would plan our Wednesday evenings and stay up late to watch it.  During the last 16 years, I've been through a host of different assistants (and for the record, Angie Harmon was my favorite), a whole slew of different detectives (R.I.P. Lennie Briscoe), three District Attorney's, two Assistant District Attorneys, two court psychiarists, one Police Lieutenant, and one medical examiner.  I've s...

An early birthday shout out goes to my pinkest of pals, Pinky Lovejoy, whose birthday is tomorrow.  We met when we were assigned to be Visiting Teaching companions, visiting Inge and Amy.  And here we are, still hanging out all these years later.  Not only is she a most generous friend, but she knows more movie stars than anyone I know.  Happy Birthday Pinky!  Love you!

The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News both noted yesterday the passing of an old gentleman named Karl-Heinz Schnibbe.  He was a Mormon who emigrated to Utah after World War II.  The fact that he passed peacefully and at the ripe old age of 86 is really quite remarkable, considering his early years.  He was one of a group of young LDS boys living in Germany who opposed Hitler.  Not only did they disagree with the Nazis privately, but they actively disagreed, distributing anti-Nazi propaganda.  Eventually they were caught by the gestapo, tried for sedition and treason, and convicted.  For their efforts, one of them, a young man named Helmuth Huebner, was executed.  Karl and another friend spent the rest of the war in forced labor camps.  Both survived and after seven years in various camps, Karl emerged weighing less than 100 pounds.   Eventually they both ended up moving to Utah, and lived quiet lives.  Thirty years later, some...

Another update on our plans for Operation Dream Come True.  I did some playing around on the internet, looking for fun attractions in the L.A. area.  As a result, we've booked a couple of tours that sounds like a lot of fun.  We'll be going on the L.A. Deluxe Grand Tour that will take us to all the fun and kitschy Hollywood attractions - Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kodak Theater, etc.  The tour company will even shuttle us to and from our hotel, so we won't have to worry about parking.  The movie buff in me can't help but be thrilled about this one. We've also booked a dinner cruise from Newport Beach.  Considering that Newport is my birthplace, I'm excited to see what it looks like now.  Of course I won't remember anything from then, since we moved when I was so young.  But it will be exciting nonetheless.  Looking at the map, the harbor where we board the ship is only blocks away from the hospital where I was born, a...

An update to a story I blogged about several months ago, about the South Korean woman who had failed her driving test over 900 times.  It seems that her persistent efforts finally paid off last month. SEOUL, South Korea » A South Korean woman who earned a driver's license after 960 tries is ready to buy a car and get behind the wheel. Yonhap news agency reported Thursday that 69-year-old Cha Sa-soon passed the driving part of the test last month on her 10th try. South Korea requires a written test first, and Cha took it nearly daily since April 2005 before passing last year. Yonhap quoted her as saying she wanted to buy a small secondhand car to visit her son and daughter and for her business selling vegetables. I'm so thrilled for this woman!  It's a great example of how persistence can make dreams come true if you want it bad enough.   You go girl!

I think it's well known to my friends that I am not an adventurous eater.  I do enjoy trying some ethnic cuisines, but the extent of my adventurousness ends at Chicken Coconut Kurma and Lamb Saag.  If I even hear the dreaded t-word (that's tofu for the uninitiated), I won't go anywhere near it.  And for the most part I'm not a vegetable eater.  My daily vegetable intake is usually limited to a glass of low-sodium V8.  It's not that I think veggies are horrid, but if given the option of bread and cheese, or a vegetable, guess which I'm going to choose? Anyway - Last night I went over to eat with my brother's family, and the good sister-in-law made a lovely meal of baked ziti (I just so happen to love baked ziti).  And I have to say, hers was absolutely delicious.  So imagine my surprise when I found out that the recipe came from her "Sneaky Chef" cookbook.  And that not only did it contain ziti and tomato sauce, but it also had mashed tofu and a v...

Another item on my list bites the dust!  We booked our flight last night, rented our car, and Janeen and I purchased our tickets for the Dodgers game vs. the Angels on June 11.  L.A. here I come!