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Showing posts from April, 2012

First Place!

The Major League baseball season is upon us, and I am thrilled to say that the Boys in Blue are in 1st Place in the National League West, and at 16-6, are off to their hottest start since 1983.  The offense is smoking (Matt Kemp for MVP!), and the pitching has been better than expected. Like any ballplayer, I'm superstitious, and I'm convinced the good fortune is all because I've been changing into my lucky Dodgers T-shirt (purchased at Dodger Stadium no less) and wearing it on game days. I've come to this conclusion because the games they've lost have been the days I've missed wearing it. Coincidence? I think not.  I'm also convinced that the season will be helped tremendously if I not only wear the t-shirt on game days, but also if I don't wash it (of course another reason for not washing it could be that I'm afraid it will shrink on me and I'll have to lose another 15 pounds to fit into it - but I digress).  So for those planning to visit

Triple D Divas Do Northern Utah

Last Saturday, the Triple D Divas met for a day trip get-away to Northern Utah - specifically Logan and Brigham City (with a little touch of Idee-ho thrown in for good measure). We started our journey with lunch at the Bluebird Cafe. Everyone knows about the Bluebird - it's about the oldest place on main street, and is tradition for anyone whose ever done a Logan Temple Trip. We went in to see the Logan Tabernacle, and I snapped this cool picture of the oragn pipes. (Of course, now that we're all in our 40's and have shrinking bladders, the Tabernacle also made for a clean and convenient potty stop.) ...Also a view of the Logan Temple spires from outside the Tabernacle...    From there, it was off to Glossner's Cheese Factory for some squeaky cheese. After that, we went to the Pepperidge Farms Outlet, and the girls all found some cookies and stuff.  But nothing really excited me there.  However, the outlet is located in

Seattle

A couple of weeks ago I went off to Seattle for a 3-day Conference.  I hadn't been to Seattle since my teens, and I was really looking forward to it. While it was technically work, we did take some time to play. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Seattle, and my corner room with a view was on the 22nd floor. We got in on Tuesday and spent the afternoon at Pike's Market, where we had some awesome clam chowder, and saw the fish guys throw the fish. I also sampled some killer smoked salmon. Our conference was held at the Washington State Convention Center. We walked a few blocks from the hotel to the convention center and back every day.  BTW - Since when did Seattle have so many hills? I honestly don't remember them.  It was like Seattle was replaced by San Francisco. Other fun things 1 - there was a convention party held at the Experience Music Project - basically a rock music museum dedicated to Jimi Hendrix and the Grunge movement (b

Everyday Greens

Back a few months ago, when I had just begun this journey to eating my vegetables, I was having trouble thinking outside the proverbial box, and getting pretty tired of carrots and celery.  I mentioned this to my pal Sidney, and she recommended a recipe book to me called "Everyday Greens". It was a collection of recipes from a celebrated vegetarian restaurant, and she thought it would give me some good ideas.  So I checked it out of the library, and boy did it. It was so inspiring that I even renewed it a couple of times. Since then I've added spinach, different types of lettuce and cabbage, mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, and yes, even carrots and celery to my cooking repertoire. One thing I was excited about is that it provided several recipes for homemade sauces and dressings.  I was concerned about all the extras you get in the store-bought versions, and was looking for healthier versions.  I was especially looking for some Asian sauces, as it seems I've

Stripling Warriors vs. Rats

So there's been some controversy lately where some prominent coaches have behaved badly, tried to cover it up, been caught at it, and are now facing the consequences. And fans of their respective teams are now in an uproar, the general attitude being that "as long as said coaches are helping us win, what does it matter what they do in their personal life, or how they go about winning?"  Well, I for one beg to differ. My own feeling is that if it talks like a rat, looks like a rat, and smells like a rat, even in it's personal life, it's still a rat, and will continue to be in it's professional life. And I don't want said rat having any influence over impressionable young (or not so young) players, or over me as a fan. Same holds true for certain politicians who are serial offenders. If you have no moral discipline, how can I believe that you will have discipline and integrity in the rest of your life? The Book of Mormon tells a story about a group of youn

New Shades

So once I had received my bonus and tax return, I decided it was high time I got rid of the ugly white plastic horizontal blinds covering my windows. Not only were they ugly, but they just screamed "apartment living". And since I'm now a homeowner, not to mention a grown-up, I decided on replacing them with shades. My sister-in-law recommended the fine folks at Wallpaper Warehouse, so I had the decorator lady come out to take some measurements, and help me decide on a solution.  I chose honeycomb shades, in a lovely "Renaissance Yellow" color, and a week later, a nice young man came out and installed them.  It's probably difficult to tell from the pictures, but they really are nice-looking, and I think they warm up the rooms a bit.  The nice thing is they allow plenty of light in, but no one can see through them. At some point I need to do something about my offensive vertical blinds, but that's a project for another day.  For now, I'm plenty

Electrical Work

Before leaving for Iowa, I arranged for an electrician to come and take care of a few things for me.  I'd had a problem with my bathroom outlet tripping whenever I turned on the kitchen light, and I had a couple of weirdly placed (and just plain ugly) light fixtures that I wanted removed.   He came by on Monday afternoon, and promptly had the outlet fixed, which is very nice. He also removed the offensive fixtures, and not only that, he replaced them with new recess lighting. My bedroom now feels very fashionable. The electrician is also a firefighter. Seriously, could there be any better job combination there?  Anyhoo, it seems that my house is old enough that it was wired with aluminum instead of copper wire. Apparently there were only a few years where that was legal, due to the high cost of copper.  Go figure that I would be one to buy a house from that era.  But it also seems that it is a bit of a fire hazard.  So he recommends redoing all the outlets and switches, and spl

Iowa Trip

Got back earlier this week from a trip to the old home town in Iowa.  It was quite an adventure.  Before setting off for the midwest, I got to play host to my family members that would be traveling with me. It's not often I have guests in general, let alone overnight guests.  But we had a good time and it was fun to have some of the kids around. After a good night's rest, everyone set out the next morning for the Great Midwest.  I met up with them a couple of day's later after flying in to Des Moines. From there, we drove on to Maquoketa (the old home town). The purpose of our trip was to have a good long visit with my Grandma, and my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. We didn't do much in the way of sightseeing - mostly we sat at the old house and visited, told family stories, and ate too much.   But we did manage to do a few other things: Dad and my Uncle went fishing on the Mississippi River and got a big catfish. The catch of the day was promptly cleaned and fried