A Life Beyond #12

There have not been a large number of houses to show/sit for Stingy of late and subsequently there aren't many pictures to show you. I did find this though.
It comes from a house of an elderly vocal performer who is also a pack rat:

Stuff EV*ERY*WHERE. (It's not hoarding if you have money.)
Including this interesting tidbit on the mantle in the living room:

She has those signs all over. Maybe back in the day smoke at parties was a problem for her voice?

This is me and who knows?

Mother's Day 2013

Tarzan spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday - for Mother's Day.
Now, I know Tarzan is a deep guy but even I was amazed at what he produced this time.
Especially after I asked him the day before how it was coming and he said, "eh, it's done." So laid back that man.
Anyway.
It wasn't a straight up, "my mother is the best" kind of thing, which I appreciated. (Everyone's mother is the best - for them.)
It also wasn't a copy of a General Authority talk - not that those dudes aren't fabulous - they are - but I watch Conference, I read the Ensign, I don't need it read to me. I want to hear a person's own personal anecdotes, their own testimony.
Tarzan started by talking about the universe, gravitational force, solar bodies, all that and pulled it together - using scriptures - likening the family unit to the universe. Then he gave specific examples from his own life; the example set by his mother, the principles she taught him, and how they each have an effect on the world as a whole.
Totally unique.
Something I hadn't even thought about before, but rang true as he said it.
It was a lovely tribute to his mother and an amazing commentary on our place in the universe.

This is me and it was brilliant.

The Way It Used To Be

I don't remember exactly what day I heard this. (NPR has a horrible filtering/sorting function.)
But I have an opinion about the piece, which was discussing what elected officials earn. Namely Presidents, Cabinet people, Congressmen and Senators.
And I think they are definitely paid too much.
It is my humble opinion that elected officials should be doing their job out of desire to make the country a better place and not a belief in their own 'divine right' like the kings of old that the US of A was founded on leaving behind.
They sure don't pay me a sizable sum to serve on jury duty. And the video that is shown at orientation talks about the civic responsibility and how our service with only token compensation keeps the system equal and fair and *I* would like to think if Washington saw it they would feel guilt for the desire to line their own pockets and not give two snaps at how greed affects the nation as a whole and we might actually get better suited representatives if those running for office understood that it wasn't a paid position.
It wasn't always a paid position. Or not a large compensation. With a lifetime of Secret Service and a pension forever.
'Back in the day' Congressmen and all those guys had jobs outside of serving the country and when they weren't in session, they went home to their jobs. Their living. Their lives.
I think it was a better philosophy.
Your thoughts?

This is me and there would be less drama and maybe more work done.

Birthday - Part 2

Poor Tarzan. His birthday was a conglomeration of a bit here and a bit there. On the actual day we had cake.
Last Saturday we went to his favorite restaurant, Zankou Chicken. It's a Mediterranean/Organic fusion type place and everything is delicious. But the best part is this crazy good garlic paste butter thing that goes on top and it's just amazing.
Tarzan LOVES it. You will notice in this picture:

There are already two empty containers in front of him.
Both of those were full of the creamy, garlicky condiment. I like the stuff, no question but no one inhales it like Tarzan does.
Even spread out over several days, I think it was a good birthday.

This is me and yes, more is forthcoming. It's a lot of information to process to coherency.

Ode To My Honey

I seem to have been derelict in my duties last year and did not do an ode to Tarzan. Which puts on the pressure to make this a good one.

Dear Tarzan,
Once again - or rather, still - we are busy with full schedules and places to be after the work day is over. But you keep working, keep trying, keep growing, keep serving, keep teaching. You are smart, funny, cute, tall, charming and willing to share. Greying with style, random and adorable. I wish you all the best of everything, always!

This is me and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tarzan!

Returned

I am back and will post something substantial soon, I promise.
There's this whole laundry thing driving me because all the clothes in my suitcase smell like bratwurst. (The fact that I brought 9 lbs. of bratwurst and cheese home does not have anything to do with that.)
It was a lovely trip but the time changes and the stupid airline schedule means I do not have any idea what day or time it is and I might have to be at work in ten minutes. Or hours...

This is me back home.

Weird Dream #43

Things have been going well here with Rocketgirl & Co.
Condor is adorable of course, the weather is less than stellar but not as horrible as feared and the woman herself is far better than her own posts let on. She's managing as the mother of three with style and aplomb.
I have felt a little superfluous serving mainly as a companion and family gossip dispenser. Mostly because I came all intending to do nighttime duty so she could remember what sleeping for a full 8 hours feels like, and SHE WON'T LET ME DO IT. Something about it making her feel like she has control of the situation...
This leaves me getting a lot of sleep and last night, I dreamed a really vivid and intense scene that left me exceptionally weirded out.
I dreamt I was getting married. To Rufus - an ex-boyfriend from USC - though I hadn't seen him since college. We were to meet in an office in the temple - which looked like a hospital - in order to get reacquainted. Rufus arrived in a wheelchair with both feet in those walking boots they give you when you sprain an ankle or break a foot. He also brought his ex-wife and four children. He kissed like I remember though and we spent time talking and looking at old photos when my mother came to tell us to hurry up because we were holding up the line. That's when I realized I had forgotten my make-up bag and had only one pair of shoes - apparently I need two pairs of shoes to get married. We were going ahead with it despite my anxiety and were queued up to be next when Tarzan arrived, in a broken down, old, blue, car and came to stand with the crowd. When I saw him I ran up, threw my arms around his neck, said, "it's always been you" and kissed him thoroughly.
We walked out to his car - before or after being married I do not know - through the wet parking lot of the temple/hospital, past a food truck with a very long line of people and stopped to talk out by his car, where, after a short while, a man wandered by with several black antelope following him. It was as we turned to look at them that I woke up.
It was so real I had to talk to Tarzan this morning just so he could tell me everything was okay.

This is me and it was trippy.

Magazine Cover

If there's a cuter picture of a family watching General Conference anywhere in the world, I want to see it:

Left to right: Woody, Rocketgirl, Sunshine, Floyd and Condor

This is me and if they were any more adorable I might throw up.

Arrival

I can't say I am a fan of the early morning departure:

Though I somehow always choose that option, but it does have it's advantages. Mostly the speed with which one can get through the check-in and security lines.
It was a long trip yesterday but accomplished with little complaint:

Also the nature of airport food has improved drastically from the stereotype:

And I have arrived in the Land of Cheese to play, bond, and hopefully help out a little. The younger crowd does not seem to mind. Sunshine:

Woody:

And Condor:

Well, he's a baby, what do you expect? I was asked to repeat last night's bedtime story telling performance this evening so I take that as a good sign.
The weather is a little unsettling. Or the aftermath of last week's weather. Been a long time since I lived this:

This is me and it's a party all up in here!

In Between

Tarzan and I just got back from a road trip with Stingy and company - loooooong post or two coming on that - and now I am getting ready to fly out to see Rocketgirl for almost two weeks but my plane leaves at a ridiculous hour of the morning - why do I always DO that to myself? - and I still have to finish packing.
So.
Instead of anything substantial, I leave you with this random quote off one of the libraries I drive by on my way to work.

"People should think. Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That's voting." -Robert Frost

This is me and when next I post, it will be from The Land Of Cheese!

Seriously?!

This is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.
Seriously:
How can you not squeal when watching this?

This is me and I am not a bird person, but whoa. Cuteness.

Factoid

Interesting fact for the day:
A roasting avocado pit smells exactly - EXACTLY - like moth balls.
And speaking of avocados, check out these puppies:

Comes from one of our neighbors, with a really old tree, that makes lots of really large avocados. Like grapefruit sized.

This is me and don't say you didn't learn anything today.

Bright Spot

There are many, many, maaaany challenges with being the Relief Society President.
Oh so many challenges.
But sometimes there's a nice perk.
This time, after getting up before the crack of dawn to fetch two from the flower market downtown, trucking them up to the building and making sure they had food and water for the day, then enduring miles of meetings the next day for Ward Conference, I got to take one of them home to keep:

So pretty:

 

Starburst lilies are my favorite flower:

This is me with a lovely table piece for a while.

Varmint #2

Caught me a second possum this evening:

Turns out they're like ants; there's never just one.
After being rebellious and actually capturing the first critter, then being humane and dropping it off to begin a new possum life somewhere else, I was quite proud of myself and amazed at the ease with which it had been accomplished.
This lasted about 24 hours.
Until I saw another possum waddle through the yard and knew my work was not yet done. Some possums are not as gullible as others and do not come for mere cat food.
A piece of bread with peanut butter, however, was all it took to get this guy. With zero waste or crumbs left over.
S/he also took a little trip to a very nice park and can live happily eating from trash cans.
I am wiser than before though and will not celebrate completely until I know we got them all.

This is me and I really should start a new series here.

I Love The Internet

Sure, it has issues what with the nekkid peoples and false information and all that, but there are days when I do love the Internet.
Where else to pictures like these come from?:

I am a fan of people words coming from animals:

 So cute:

This is me and I totally laughed out loud at this one. Now put your hands up:

New Nephew

(It's the complete opposite side of the family but I think BHB will appreciate the nickname of my newest nephew.)
Yesterday morning, Rocketgirl was once again marvelous and brought an adorable little boy into the world. Meet Condorman:

Ridiculously adorable, just like all her other children and how could they not be with a mother like this:

Mother and baby are doing fine. According to his mother "the Condor is seriously awesome." Congratulations!

This is me, Aunt Jane again! Woot!

Caught Me A Possum

It's a Jungle miracle!
We finally caught the possum that has been eating the cat food:

Only to find out that no animal control organization will come and remove it because, and I quote, "we moved into their space so we have to learn to coexist with them." She was quite emphatic that it was illegal for me to trap and relocate the stupid thing.
Bring it.
I'm not about to let this go on if I have the means to remove it. This is not the first time I've had to deal with wildlife in my backyard.
I documented the raccoon we used to have, here. Apparently cat food wasn't enough and he moved off to find better grub, leaving a hole in the ecosystem that is the crawl space under my house.
Enter the possums, and there are enough of them in the neighborhood that one enterprising female had babies this last year. The dog next door caught one baby and I have been infuriating the cats by not feeding them out of doors in the hopes that the possums would move on.
Apparently they are a very tenacious species.
Six months with none of my food and they are still giving me issues. So a friend loaned me a trap, I baited it and not 20 minutes later I had caught...one of my cats:

Stupid Bear.
Good thing he learned fast, because 20 minutes after letting him out, I had a possum:

After all the nonsense with the animal control people, Tarzan took it three miles down the road and dropped it in a park.

This is me managing my own wildlife.

Record High

It's been so warm lately - unusually warm - so warm, the chocolate on my Girl Scout Cookies is melting.
Even while still in the house.
I love the Jungle - especially this time of year - but there are moments when it seems overly enthusiastic and this might be one of those times.

This is me with sticky chocolate on my Thin Mints.

Lamb vs. Lion Situation

Do people still talk about March coming in/going out like a lamb/lion?
I remember it being very common when I was growing up but not as much any more.
If it's a fair simile to use I want to proclaim March in The Jungle came in like a lamb this year. It was soft and sweet. The sun was out, the breeze was blowing, it was clear and warm and I had the top down the whole way to work.
Didn't do my hair any favors but it was best drive of my life.

This is me hoping it doesn't end.

Fire, Fury & Flame

And then there are days when I love The Jungle. (Actually, I always do. It's the people that are sometimes stupid.) This particular time I love that we live in a town with great theaters and I get to see the just-on, just-off Broadway shows.
ATL and I went to see the out-of-town opening for Jekyll & Hyde last night. And it was spectacular.
Not really good, but definitely a spectacle.
It's a difficult musical to be sure. Who wants to go and see the main character die? (We were very early this time - which has never happened before - so we talked to the ushers about the show and one said it was depressing to have to watch Dr. Jekyll die every night and twice on Saturdays.)
I was hoping that this new iteration would have some redeeming quality to the story.
It almost did.
I really liked the journal entries being written across the screen to help us see it from Dr. Jekyll's point of view. I wanted there to be one last entry - just a line or something - to finish the show and bring it full circle but there wasn't and it left a depressing feeling as the curtain fell.
The songs are amazing though. I've listened to the CD from the original show's cast and I suppose I am a little bit spoiled by Robert Cuccioli's performance. That man was amazing. He even changed his voice when he sang as Mr. Hyde. Phenomenal skills.
I may or may not have gushed all over the screen about him here.
(If you want to see the whole show, it's still on YouTube, with David Hasselhoff as the main lead.)
But about the real performance and the real actors this time.
You may have heard of Constantine Maroulis - he was on American Idol:4 - and there's no question he has the voice. He's of slighter build than I expected him to be after all the promotions. But he has a really great voice and he sang well. I just felt he was too anxious to get to the angry, mean guy and didn't spend enough time on the calm, rational man. There were a lot of pyrotechnics, and video tricks which sometimes worked and were a little over the top. 'Confrontation,' which is possibly the hardest song in the show, just had too much fire and was MUCH too loud. The amplifiers could have gone down a few decibels (try 50) and been just fine.
True for most of the show actually. The whole good vs. bad thing plays better when the good guy is calm and in control and the bad guy is wild and crazy. Doesn't work as well when both of them are belting it to the ceiling and lights going off everywhere with smoke and strobes. Constantine needs to finesse the role a little but he could be great.
Deborah Cox, as Lucy, was outstanding. I liked the character better this time than any other before. She played it well, she sang it fantastic and she finessed it all over. Really marvelous performance.
I still think Emma is my favorite part in the show. She was a little more snobby than I wanted but Teal Wicks played her well enough. Obviously she can sing. (She was Elphaba on one of the Wicked tours through The Jungle. I saw her UNDERSTUDY. Oy.) Together, she and Deborah did a really phenomenal job on 'In His Eyes.' Brought down the house.
Laird MacKintosh played John Utterson, Jekyll's best friend, and he was good. He wasn't a bass, which I think works better sound wise but whatever.
And that is pretty much the cast. It's a small group and most actors play two or more parts because they are so limited. It's almost a one-man show.
ATL and I had an excellent time. We do love live performances and it's always a thrill to go to the theater. It might need some tweaking before Broadway but I got to see it before New York did!

This is me and it was a big show.

A Life Beyond #11

And that's why my "job" bugs me.
Most times it's fine.
I love the houses, I love pretending that I know things. I like my complete lack of responsibility for the things I do. But there are days...
I went to show a house for Stingy the other day. It was a new house to me, she was in a hurry and didn't tell me anything about it. She doesn't usually but sometimes I can grab the MLS sheet and read the year the place was built and how many bedrooms it has before I go introduce a person to it. This time I did not get that chance and it was a big house. I did count the bedrooms as I ran through turning the lights on - but I missed the maid's room and when that was the first question the broker asked, I knew it was going to be a tough day.
It was.
Including "if you don't know, don't guess" which is a valid point, but I wasn't guessing, I was being snarky about the obvious answer to the question, and ending with "you don't know anything, so why are you here?" I almost answered "so you don't steal anything."
But I didn't.
I was good.
Until they left, and then I called Tarzan and cried.

This is me and I have some weird days on the job.

Because 13 Years Isn't Enough

Is anyone else in their car so much that they hear the same segment on NPR more than once in a day? There are days when I hear every edition of Marketplace and they're identical...
In my desire to hear the funny, quirky things, I hear other things repeatedly. And I have noticed that NPR certainly likes to beat the inflammatory topic drum.
Here's my (next) question for you: how do you feel about Pre-Kindergarten being required and why?
All I know is that my parents worked hard when I was growing up, one or both of them, multiple jobs, etc., and yet all nine of us learned to read and count before we went to school. What's the push for pre-K? When do children get to be children?

This is me, looking for another perspective.

Cat, In Repose

I forgot I hadn't posted this picture from the holidays:

That's Spike, the youngest of my cats, and one of the two I raised from birth. She really likes to snuggle. Probably some throw back to her kitten hood. She has taken to sleeping under the blankets with us at night, (which freaks Tarzan out completely when he reaches for me and grabs fur instead), and her favorite resting places are inside or under things.
Like the present above or the laundry:

When I come home from work, the store, or anywhere, she follow me meowing until I sit down so she can lay in my lap. She often stretches directly across my arms when I'm typing and seems offended if I move her off.
I always wanted a cat that preferred me and would snuggle but this is ridiculous.

This is me and she's a weirdo.

Pho Close

With the temperature dropping - well, sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes rainy, sometimes windy - I have been experimenting with making soup.
I don't profess to be better than Cambell's or Progresso but I was hoping it might be more convenient to make Pho than have to go out to a restaurant every time I wanted some.
It is certainly not as simple as opening a can and heating it up but it was a fair approximation of Pho, I thought. I used this guy's recipe and it was easy to understand and follow. We began with roasting the ginger and onions on the stove:

 

(Did not expect the skin to peel off and fly everywhere, or the juices to spit out quite so quickly.) After the roasting, the skins came off:

Chicken bits go in the water:

Add all the flavor ingredients:

And boil for a very long time:

Drain the liquid out and discard the solids:

Yes, this exercise was just for the broth.
For the actual eating, we use the broth and a lot of other items. There is a lot of preparation of ingredients for this thing:

Then we assembled the individual bowls by layering the cooked noodles:

Mushrooms:

Chicken:

Onions:

Scallions:

Cilantro:

Then add the steaming hot broth over it all:

Tasted totally awesome:

But it sure took a while. Can't say I'll be whipping that up on a regular basis.

This is me makin' soup.

A Life Beyond #10

I have a lot of clothes.
At least I believe I do, and when it comes to laundry it sure looks like I do.
But in a space like this:

 

My wardrobe would look pitiful. Just pitiful.
Tarzan and I combined wouldn't fill it up.
And this is just one of two for the master bedroom.

This is me not even pretending.

Fancy Pizza

When I made the pizza it looked exactly like the picture in the recipe:

But I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to taste that nasty. Something in the crust area was just not good. I remembered the salt so that wasn't it.

This is me and it didn't taste like it looked.

Bang Bang

The thing about compromise is this; neither side gets EVERYthing that they want and both have to give up things that are vitally important but less so than the things they get to keep.
It's not a great system but it's better than a completely dictatorial, might-makes-right plan.
And that's where the country is with gun control these days. (Or pretty much any hot topic that is flying in the media.)
The far end of one side wants any person to have any number of any type of gun, no questions asked.
The far end of the other side thinks we should have a big pot, melt all the guns down and then we all smoke a peace pipe because all the world's problems will be solved.
Obviously, neither point of view is correct.
Especially when it comes to legislation on the topic. Yes, yes, all people should be self regulating and responsible but they aren't and there have to be rules.
Just not stupid ones.
So enters the compromise part.
Some guns should be allowed - the one side just needs to deal with that - but there does need to be regulation - and the other side needs to deal with that.
What is wrong with a background check?
They make people wait to get Harley Davidson motorcycles.
It takes nine months for a kid.
I see not the problem with waiting a bit to get a gun.

This is me and I wish people were more logical.

I'm Amazed It Hasn't Happened Before

I saw the wisdom in BHB's question about soldering my wedding and engagement rings together.
They look kind of like this:

Her comment made a lot of sense this morning when in reaching for my glasses, I brushed against my rings and they went bouncing down behind the headboard of the bed.
I've managed to find and retrieve the solitaire but I can't find the band anywhere.
Tarzan and I are going to have to unmake and undo the bed this evening.

This is me searching.

Post ApocaDecathlon

And this is what the end of a zillion pages of material, 15 kids, nine months of chiding, scolding, driving, drilling, begging, crying, laughing, cajoling, praising, and commiserating and two days of competition looks like:

This is me and it's all over but the awards.