Ring In The New

We have a new look that has just been unveiled. It's on this KCET Promo.

Tonight at midnight, we change over to what we are going to be for the foreseeable future. I have been doing all sorts of things to make this happen. I am currently in Phoenix, AZ so the rest of the Department is keeping things going, but I do check in from time to time. It's pretty ugly right now, especially getting shows captioned in time for air, but we will make it.

Our main HD Channel will be comprised of some Children's programming, some cooking and travel shows and some British programs. It's going to be interesting and in my humble opinion, just fine.
In addition, we will have the Kids and Family Channel taking over for our Desert Cities and Orange Channels.
V-Me the Spanish language channel will continue and MHZ Television will take the place of World.

It's a lot to change over, but we will get it all done, I am sure.

What do I think of the logo? Let's just say I will reserve judgment, until I see the rest.

40 Years Later, The Kids Give Them A Party

My husband's army buddy and his wife have been married for 40 years. We acknowledged that fact back in August and thought that that was that...not so fast, wombat breath.

The son gets in contact with us and tells us to cancel our Thanksgiving plans. They need us to instead come over between Christmas and the New Year, for a surprise 40th Anniversary party.
We immediately get on board with this and as a matter of fact, we are the ones who got to keep them away for the day and make sure they arrived on time.



Amazingly, it went like clockwork and they were totally surprised. So surprised, that my husband's army buddy was speechless!
If you know him, this is almost impossible to comprehend.
He always has something knowledgeable to say and says it. :-)

It was a good time with smoked meats, made lovingly by his son and cheesecake, made lovingly by his daughter. Lots of drinks and lots of laughs. We had a great time.

A great set of parents and a great set of children. Thanks for being a part of our lives.

A Tribute To A Breakfast At Tiffany's Kind Of Cat

My sister was so not a cat person. She spent years not understanding why we had one in our house. One day though, a cat came into her life. Staying by their door, begging to be fed. My brother in law said don't feed it! My sister listened for a bit...and then started feeding the cat tuna (or was it salmon) from a can.

The cat got in a fight and was terribly hurt. My sister was heartbroken, my brother in law got them both into a car and they went to a vet and he said, do whatever you have to, to make the cat better. The cat made it and they took her home and named her Cat. They have lived together as a family, ever since.
The years passed as years do and the cat got older. Recently, the cat wasn't eating, always a sign that the end is near, but we all kept hoping.



Today I got the message from my sister that Cat, the animal who was never given a formal name, similar to the cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's, had finally passed on.

I love you Cat and know we will all miss you.

I am glad you brought love, to both my sister and her husband.

She will be there waiting, on the other side of wherever, begging at the gate for you both.

Shoe Polish Son Returns For A Visit

I am writing this and he is sleeping within about 10 feet of me right now. :-)

This is my last son, my shoe polish son, who has been spending his time in Chicago, learning to be a medical corpsman. He has gotten his orders and will be training down in Pendleton, where my Marine Son is currently stationed. As you can see from the photos, much has changed in his life. He has tats on both arms and what you can't see is that sitting on my driveway is a wicked truck.

On top of that, he serves our Country.



Oh, someone just woke up. I guess that I can start my day now, since we are leaving for Phoenix in a few minutes.

Thanks son, for your service and for your company, during your leave. It's good to see you.

A Special Fruit Cake Post

An old tradition that we used to do for many years, was basting a fruit cake.

My Husband wrote about it on his blog and I want to feature it today on mine, because its a great post.

Many thanks to my guy, for bringing back some very old memories.

The World's Best Fruit Cake!

Sacrificial Ornaments

What is my Christmas tree full of?

If you guessed sacrificial ornaments, you would be right.

All these stuffed ornaments that I made back in the 80's are now playthings for the cat. The bottom of the tree is full of them and most days I come home and they are on the floor.

It does my heart good.

Merry Christmas From Huell

Last year, for the very first time, I was invited to the Huell Howser Christmas Party. He does it every year for the people who put his show onto the air and I guess he finally realized that I am a part of that team. :-)

This year it was at the Tallyrand Restaurant, in Burbank. I walked in the door and was greeted by Santa Huell himself.

It was quite funny.

The party was great, too. :-)

Christmas Eve 2010

I had a busy day yesterday.

After working a few hours and then attending a party, we had Choir rehearsal for today's Christmas Eve Mass. This is the first time we will have a combined Children's Choir and High School Choir performing. It's going to be stunning!

Of course, my son will be working the audio board, along with 3 other techs and me. :-)

Yes, more is more. :-)

Merry Christmas from our family, to yours.

The King's Speech

My Husband and I went to see this movie, last Thursday night.

I had known nothing about it, but he heard good reviews and wanted to make the trek down to Hollywood and view it. So I went along with him and I am incredibly glad that I did. The movie was engrossing from the beginning to the end. Events you knew about from History class were brought to life and made even more real. I personally loved little Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. They were so cute and you could already see the events that made the future Queen, what she is. Oh and I loved them all doing their royal waves, at the end of the King's Speech. Yes, they do it the same today, from the Balcony of Buckingham Palace. :-)

Well acted and well directed, the movie just shined.

If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

It's Official!

The favorite couple have made it official, they are engaged.

You can watch my "Other" son pop the question at The Magic Castle, HERE.

My personal favorite thing is when she hits him upside the head, for doing it this way. They are just so cute!

Ricotta Pie AKA: Pizza Dolce

Here you go, Denise and anyone else who is interested in an Italian Ricotta Pie Recipe (called Pizza Dolce in our house).

Just click on the link and it will make it full size. Note: I had to click it and then click it again, to make it full size.

It is very rich, but oh so yummy.

Enjoy.


*This page is from the Culinary Arts Institute Cooking Magic series. The Italian Cookbook.

Oh No! A Flood At The Pond

My Water Post For Today.

It is not raining hard, like we get in an El Nino year, but 3 days of on and off steady rain has taken it's toll on my pond drain. I took this photo just before sunset and just after dinner, my Husband and my Brother In Law went outside to try to find the drain in those rocks you see in front of the pond. The amount of water standing in the area of the rocks and the patch of lawn itself, had increased.
It took a bit, but I can now say the drain has been cleaned and water is flowing down to the street, as it should.

Enjoy the pond, on a rainy day in December.

Snowball Cookies

If you remember a recent post I had, regarding Cookies Lost and Found, I ended up finding much more then I thought I did, when I posted a few links to recipes. One of the comments, included a recipe for the cookies I was talking about.
You can see it HERE.

Last weekend was frantic, but I managed to make them a week ago at 10PM. It was the only time I had to get them done, before another week hit me. They cooked up in no time and minus the time I had to wait for the frosting to firm up, they were nothing but a pleasure to do. I managed to make them all in one batch in the oven (on 3 trays), which worked out even better, seeing as I was doing them so late at night.
I used a Meyer Lemon peel as the extract and added the juice of the same lemon, in the frosting.

Folks, they came out delicious.
I brought some to work and they were a hit there, too.

Thank you my friend Denise, for sharing your Grandmother's Recipe.
You made this Italian girl very happy.

The Birds

OK, what is the deal with the crows?

They come in a group and next thing you know, they are taking over the area. They frighten me, when I see a large group of them and I am sure I am not the only one

The other day, I took a look out my boss' window and not only are these birds there, there on the lawn are several squirrels, too.

Aren't they afraid of these giant birds? I would be hiking out to the next County, if I were them.

Whatever...

Movie Tickets And A Pizza

The man I married is amazing!

I mentioned a few months ago that he has been entering our local papers best caption contest.
His entry finally won him 2 tickets to a Regal Cinema movie and a Red Brick Pizza. I not much for popcorn or candy with a soda, so that is just fine with me.

What really impressed me is that Last Saturday's paper had a large image of the photo that his caption goes with and a note saying that he had won the prize and the winning caption itself.

Congratulations to my man! :-)

Christmas Eve At Live From Daryl's House

It was the 15th of the month and so I checked out LFDH, to see the newest episode of the Internet show that Daryl Hall does. The main page sends you to a link about a special show that will be televised on Christmas Eve on WGN. You can read the press release below.
Interesting and if we don't have a party on the roof of KCET, maybe I will watch it. :-)

NEW YORK, December 14, 2010 – On New Year’s Eve, WGN America will air an exclusive broadcast of Live from Daryl’s House, A New Year’s Eve Special, hosted by award-winning singer/songwriter Daryl Hall, founder of the legendary music duo Daryl Hall & John Oates. Live from Daryl’s House, A New Year’s Eve Special, will air on WGN America from 11pm-1am East/8pm-10pm Westand will include music from Rob Thomas, Neon Trees, Train, Smokey Robinson, Todd Rundgren and more.

Daryl started Live from Daryl’s House, A New Year’s Eve Special, a free monthly web show in November 2007 after having the idea of “playing with my friends and putting it up on the Internet,” and the show has since garnered acclaim from Rolling Stone, SPIN, Daily Variety, CNN, BBC, Yahoo! Music and influential blogger Bob Lefsetz, who have cited Live From Daryl’s House as a perfect example of a veteran artist reinventing himself in the digital age by collaborating with both established colleagues and newer performers.

On December 31st, WGN America will air a special broadcast of Live from Daryl’s House, A New Year’s Eve Special, from 11pm-1am East /8pm-10pm West. The WGN America broadcast will contain highlights from 36-episodes of the Webby-award winning series, and will feature a mix of well-known performers including: Rob Thomas, Neon Trees, Train, Smokey Robinson, John Oates, Todd Rundgren, Sharon Jones, Eli Reed, Patrick Stump, Toots, Fitz and The Tantrums and Jose Feliciano.

TAC No More

Back on October 6th I posted that I had been named Chair of the PBS Traffic Advisory Committee (TAC). You can read my innocent post-election enthusiasm HERE.

The very next day my world fell apart, at least in all that concerns PBS and unfortunately, this position was caught in that crossfire. My station is leaving PBS at the end of this month.
We are leaving and I am good with that, but they decided to make a clean break, moving into our future and that means they don't want me to serve on the Committee anymore. A Committee I have served on for the past almost 2 1/2 years. Yesterday was our monthly meeting and the first order of business was that I had to formally resign.

To say the least, I am upset and I am going to miss some really wonderful colleagues...but life goes on and so will I.

The only good thing I take away from this is that my plate is plenty full at this moment, so one less thing is on it now and in that regard, I do feel relief.

Thanks to the TAC for making me much more then I was before I joined. I have learned so much from them and I feel more confident, moving forward in my life. I will never forget you.

Yes, you can teach an older dog, new tricks. :-)

Meteors And Me

I was driving home from work last night and as I came down into Santa Clarita, I thought I saw a meteor...but then I immediately decided that it must have been a reflections from the truck passing me on the right. I continue my drive about another minute or so and then see another flash of light and this time, no one is around me. I then figured out that there must be a meteor shower going on and lo and behold, on the news is a story about a meteor shower. WIN!

I thought it was particularly cool that without even looking for them, they were all over the sky.

You can read more about it, HERE.

Pond At St. Andrew's Abbey

My Water Post For Today.

This pond is found at St. Andrew's Abbey and it is one of my favorite reasons to visit. It is in the back of the property and brings serenity and quiet to the area. It is a place where you can indeed get in touch with your inner self. Asking those questions you never have the time to ask, as you go about your busy life.

The monks at the Abbey decided that they could no longer support having a festival, so this photo is from 2007. They did not have the festival last year and my husband and I had hoped they would bring it back this year. That is not to happen.

In honor of it's serenity and it's loss in my life, I post it today.

Pond Eye View

I guess this could be a water post, but with all the bubbles, it gets delegated to Sunday.

I was shooting some sunset shots the other day and for some weird reason, I took a couple from the back side of my pond. In other words, the view you would have, if you were sitting with the fish in my pond.

Minus the bubbles and the pail over the supports for our non-existent deck cover...don't ask...it looks pretty cool.

We always wanted a spa over in that area, nice to know it would have been great.

Christmas Tree At Union Station 2010

We had police action at North Hollywood Station on Friday night. They closed the station right at rush hour and so I decided I just did not want to deal with all that and instead I took the train home again. Remember I was there just 2 weeks ago, on Thanksgiving eve.
Well, in those two weeks, look what turned up in the front of Union...the Christmas Tree is up and what a beautiful one it is.

All silver, with white lights and yellow ribbon, it is truly stunning. One of their best, IMHO.

I particularly love the reflection of the tree in the beautiful floor. It just blends in with that Art Deco look of the station.

I miss this so much.

North Hollywood just doesn't have the same feel of the season. :-)

Tree Decorations 2010

The Tree is finally done!

Yes, here is what it looks like in my Living Room.

Pretty much what I had last year, which was totally white lights on my tree and an angel on the top. I held back on lots of the ornaments, because one, the cat can reach at least the last 1/3rd of the tree and two, it is plenty crowded on there without the rest.



I found these cute candy lights and put them around the old entertainment shelves that are in our bay window. I thought they came out cute. Sorry you don't see them too well, but they are the red and white circular peppermint ones.

Icicles have been on our fireplace for decades and always look fabulous.

That's it this year.

Pet Collage - Or Why We Love Our Pets!

My TV Station decided to combine a Nature episode called "Why We Love Our Cats and Dogs" and a shelter anti kill documentary that we aired earlier this year, called No-Kill. We had people live in the studio along with the ASPCA (I believe). Each talent had an animal on their lap, but the coolest thing was that behind them was a collage of our staff pets, including my cat, Makenna.

They made enough money pledging the show, that we will be repeating it both on Saturday and Sunday. Money goes not only to us, but to the shelter organization. Win Win!

Click on the photo and you can see Makenna. She is about the 3rd row down toward the right center of the photo. It is the photo of her laying under our Christmas tree last year. :-)

Foggy Morning

Monday morning, after a storm passed through overnight.

Fog is not something that we get very often, but when we do, it is always impressive, due to the hills, mountains and river (don't ask why, but many times the fog congregates right in the river bed where not a speck of water is to be found).

I loved how it looked out my front window and grabbed my camera. A nice misty morning with the glow of headlights and the fall colors.






Here's my backyard, not quite as impressive, but a nice contrast to the front.


My chimes are there in the corner of my kitchen.


They let me know when it is windy. :-)

Pearl Harbor Day - Union Station In The 1940's Revisted

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that last year I posted a photo of some people hanging out at Union Station, Los Angeles in period costumes. I had no idea why this was, but I took a photo of them. Well, here it is a year later and what do I see online?
An article about Pearl Harbor Day and that every year they celebrate the Anniversary by having a special train from that era, with people dressed in period costumes!

I immediately knew who those people were, from that photo last year.

Check out the article for this years ride, HERE.

I love when I figure something out. :-)

Oregon Coast

My Water Post For Today.

Oregon, home of sneaker waves. Those rogue waves that come along out of nowhere and crash over your head and suck you out to the sea.
When you are on the water in Oregon, you give the beach a wide berth. We learned that fun fact when we stayed at a lovely B and B in Yahats. There were signs posted all over the beach and yes, we heeded the warning.

Here is a lovely photo of normal waves...but trust me, don't turn your back on them. :-)

I hope you enjoy.

The Beauty Of Stained Glass Cats

I fell in love with this stained glass.

I didn't even ask a price, but I decided that I wanted to have it with me always and so I took a photo.

I saw it hanging in a store at Knott's Berry Farm the other day.

Number 1, what would I do with it? I have nowhere to put it.

Number 2, it is probably very fragile and I would never get it into my car, or get it home, for that matter.

So the bottom line is that I left it at Knott's and will let it's beauty grace my blog, via this photo.

I hope you enjoy it.

Cookies Lost And Found

I have been dubbing hundreds of tapes for our new life as a non PBS Station. What that means is I deal with many cooking shows, that come from a distributer called APT. I received 24 tapes in a 25 episode series. Episode #23 was missing. Being the curious person that I am, I checked to see what the subject matter was...and here is what I found.


Episode #1123
Italy 23: St. Joseph’s Day Altars

Not only did the Italians bring a tremendous work ethic to Louisiana, they came with a love of family and an incredible faith. The St. Joseph Day altars are a true testament to their strong beliefs. Margo Battaglia Clement and Margaret Teeter introduce audiences to this continuing Sicilian and South Louisiana tradition. Chef Folse visits with Sandra Scalise Juneau as she prepares a fresh batch of her fabulous cuccidatta, or fig-filled cookies. Bobby Lonero and the New Orleans Express entertain the audience with traditional Italian favorites.

My Dad's family are from Bari, but this episode description seems to indicate that the recipe for a cookie my Aunt used to make at Christmas Time, called Cuccidatta, was Sicilian and not Baresi in origin. I don't believe she used figs, but instead used prunes. Similar digestive result occurs, if you eat figs or prunes, so maybe it was a local difference. :-)
Her cookies had a farina concoction in the middle of the dough and then the entire thing was covered with prune juice that was cooked until it was thick and syrupy. For some reason I enjoyed it.
That got me thinking about another cookie she would make and as the day progressed, I came up with a term for them: Lemon Drop Cookies. I queried that title and two blog posts caught my attention. You can see them with their recipes for these cookies, HERE and HERE. I never heard an Italian name for the cookies, but the information I was seeing says that they are called Anginette. The photo I used for this post, is exactly what I remember the cookie looking like.
I also remember a wreath shaped hard cookie. I don't know if she used the same recipe, or a similar one to make this and she did not put the icing on them. I liked that the best. Good for dunking. :-)

I don't know if I will have time, but if I do, I am definitely going to try to make the Lemon Drop Cookies.

My heritage calls me.

Knott's

Just a few photos of Knott's Berry Farm at the Holiday Season.

Here is the main entrance on Beach Blvd in Buena Park. The original entrance to Cordelia Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant and a few shops. That area still exists and is now called Marketplace. The line up for Chicken Dinner was long, even at 3PM, when we passed it.






You enter the park and they have a beautiful tree set up. Not the only one that they have, but a beautiful place to take a photo.


When you get further inside, you find that 1/2 of the park is transformed into a Holiday Bazaar, with outdoor booths and indoor displays of Holiday crafts.

Our friends and my Husband and I love walking around the area. Carolers singing and an old time feel, greets each guest to this part of the park.




Though you can see the rides over on the other side of the park, it isn't TOO intrusive...well, minus the yelling when the people on the Sky Tower plummet down to earth.

I hope you enjoyed a little walk into the world of Knott's. Sorry I can't send you a jar of jelly. :-)

Fall Leaves And Roses

OK, a show of hands.
How many of you have fall foliage and roses blooming at the same time?

My Husband asked me to take a photo of this tree in our neighbor's back yard. When I went to the back fence, I saw this rosebush with lots of blooms on it.

I don't know about you, but I find it amazing.

That is Double Delight, by the way. Planted in honor of my Mom's sister. It has a wonderful fragrance, on top of a lovely color and it is probably my favorite rose, due to the frangrance.

Welcome to some Fall and Spring, all at the same time. :-)

Happy Chanukkah 2010

Happy Chanukkah to those who celebrate.

This photo comes from 2006. It is amazing how little the table I have set up currently, has changed over the years. These are my decorations and I use them each year.

Tradition! :-)

This year, being that it is mid week, we plan to have a roast, matzoh ball soup (I made the matzoh balls last night) and some potato pancakes. I think the guys will get something going and maybe by a miracle (as the oil lasted 8 days) I will make it home at a decent hour (HA!).

Enjoy that which is the celebration of Chanukkah.

Blessed art thou oh Lord our God, King of the Universe who has sanctified us by thy precepts and has commended us to kindle the Hanukkah lights.

Makenna On My Bed

A new Makenna photo.

She was on her favorite spot on my bed. It's below my feet and she seems to love it there. We see her there holding court for most of the day.
Sleeping and allowing petting of her royal body.
My guys usually give her a pet, when they pass through the area.

I hope you enjoy.

The Fountain At Knott's Berry Farm

My Water Post For Today.

We visited Knott's Berry Farm on the Friday after Thanksgiving. As soon as we came into the park, we saw this lovely fountain which so asked me to photograph it for my water post. It was making lots of lovely splashing water noises. Something that is always appreciated by the patrons of the park and of course, me.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Last Time It Snowed

I have been going through some of my photos this past weekend, for a family friend.

When we came across this one, my husband asked if I was going to do a water post, with it. I didn't think it was worthy, but this one is pretty special to us, so here it is.
It was taken out front of my house, the last time it snowed in Santa Clarita. This was February 9th, 1989...21 years ago. They tell us that we get snow, on average of every 11 years. Well, in this case, we are way overdue.

Pretty cool to go back in time and see what a snowfall can do to my street. :-)

In case you are wondering, my house is the brown one over on the left side. I got rid of that color, as soon as we painted the house.

Puppy Today, Guide Dog Tomorrow

I am not allowed to say anything about the location of this photo. :-)

I asked a friend if he had any photos of a new puppy that has arrived to be trained as a guide dog. The person did and called this one up. Number one, what an incredibly cute puppy and what a cute collar she has!!!!!

Number two, some lucky person is going to get a beautiful guide dog in a year or so, from Guide Dogs of America.

Abbey Road Crossing

My friend and his Significant Other are over in England and France this week. One of the really cool things they managed to visit, was the crosswalk out front of Abbey Road Studios. Here they are, in the crosswalk, posing for a photo.

There is a camera that operates 24/7 and by knowing when someone visited the crosswalk, you can see them doing the still frame photo like the 4 Beatles did on their Abbey Road album. The infamous photo that fueled the "Paul is Dead" hysteria.

By the way, is it me, or is that a very dangerous crossing? My other question is, why the crooked lines in the road?

Thanksgiving Eve At Union Station

It's the day before Thanksgiving and all through the Southland, everyone is rushing to get to their family or friends. :-)

Not exactly the Christmas rush, but busy as all heck. I decided not to take the bus and instead I took the subway to Union Station. I hadn't been there in quite a bit and amazingly, lots had changed since my last visit.
I got off the subway and the smell of pretzels greeted me.
My first thought...I am not at North Hollywood Station, that's for sure. Yum!
I get up to the top of the escalator and there is this huge Wetzel's Pretzels booth, right where we used to walk to get to the tunnel to the trains. As you can see, there was quite a lineup for pretzels. I was impressed.



Then I see that off in the distance (it is on the far wall of the first photo), is a Famima store, selling all kinds of things for the busy traveler.
Fresh food and goodies, batteries, magazines, hot coffee and other drinks etc. Perfect for the Amtrak traveler.

Again, it was busy as all heck.

Good job Union Station.

A Major Accident

I have mentioned before that my Husband has a younger brother. What I may not have mentioned is that his brother has had a girlfriend for the past 10 years. My brother in law's girlfriend has 4 children and 3 grandchildren. I truly can't keep up with it all sometimes. Especially since I have never met any of them yet.
One of her children, I believe the youngest, moved down here and has been living with them for the past month or so.
The other day we got a call from them. They would not be able to come up and see us because her son was in a major accident, that very morning. You can read the newspaper account of the incident HERE.

To say the least, I am very sad to hear about this and feel so sad that I really don't know the man. My brother in law came to visit us last weekend and commented to me that he misses having him living at their place. He also said that his "stepson" was negative on the drug test they gave him. That I was definitely glad to hear. He has enough trouble with his injuries, lack of work, applying to colleges, etc...without a drug caused accident.

In good news for him. He has returned to their home and may, if things work out, come up to the house for Thanksgiving.

It's Time For Frost

After a weekend of on again off again rain and cooler temperatures, I wake up on Monday morning to find I not only have to put on shoes to get the paper, I need a coat, too. Well, actually I took my fleece blanket and wrapped it around me.

When I got outside, I saw that there was frost on the grass and of course, frost on my roof. Quite the feeling of Christmas.

What a pleasant surprise, for this Angeleno. :-)




This is the last day I had my fall leaves on my welcome sign.

Last night I changed it to a Thanksgiving horn of plenty.
I think of all the cute little cut outs that came with the sign, I like the leaves the best.

My sister in law gave it to me and I so appreciate it.

A final thought.
Since things get crazy, this week, a Happy Thanksgiving to those traveling this holiday.

I was originally going to, but was asked to delay my travel til the week between Christmas and the New Year, so that's when my family will be visiting our friends.

Make Memories.

Sunset On The Water

My Water Post For Today.

Posted by a friend on Facebook, this incredible sunset was taken by photographer, Kevin Obregon and won Second Prize in a contest.

I love the purple color of the photo and the dramatic sunset reflecting on the still water in the pond.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

The Martini Shot

For the Max Martini fans.

I saw this the other day.
There is a page was explaining what different film jobs and terms mean. When I saw there is a term called Martini, I just had to find out, what it was.

Basically, it refers to the final shot of the day, as you see in the photo. A little more information can be found HERE.

It's Martini time. :-)