Catherine Elizabeth

The Royal Wedding is over and it was such a beautiful thing to watch, even at 3AM on the West Coast. I set my alarm and watched the exchange of vows...figuring that the rest could wait til I was at work, since my station was re-airing the wedding at 10:30AM and continuously looping it on our website.
I knew it was going to be an emotional moment for me, because William's bride...is Catherine.
You hear her referred to as Kate (with that K as the first letter), that her full, official name is lost to many, including me. That changed today, when the words Catherine Elizabeth were said, many times.

I am so proud to carry the name of a future Queen. ;-)


THE SOLEMNIZATION OF THE MARRIAGE

The Archbishop of Canterbury says to Prince William,

William Arthur Philip Louis, wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together according to God’s law in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour and keep her, in sickness and in health? and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?
He answers,
I will.

The Archbishop says to Catherine,
Catherine Elizabeth, wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together according to God’s law in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love him, comfort him, honour and keep him, in sickness and in health? and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?
She answers,
I will.

The Archbishop continues,
Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?
The Archbishop receives Catherine from her father’s hand. Taking Catherine’s right hand,
Prince William says after the Archbishop,
I, William Arthur Philip Louis, take thee, Catherine Elizabeth, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law; and thereto I give thee my troth.

They loose hands. Catherine, taking Prince William by his right hand, says after the Archbishop,
I, Catherine Elizabeth, take thee, William Arthur Philip Louis, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law; and thereto I give thee my troth.

They loose hands. The Archbishop blesses the ring,
Bless, O Lord, this ring, and grant that he who gives it and she who shall wear it may remain faithful to each other, and abide in thy peace and favour, and live together in love until their lives’ end. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prince William takes the ring and places it upon the fourth finger of Catherine’s left hand.
Prince William says,
With this ring I thee wed; with my body I thee honour; and all my worldly goods with thee I share: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Couple kneels. The Archbishop says, Let us pray.
O Eternal God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, giver of all spiritual grace, the author of
everlasting life: Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy name; that, living faithfully together, they may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, whereof this ring given and received is a token and pledge; and may ever remain in perfect love and peace together, and live according to thy laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Archbishop joins their right hands together and says,
Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

It's A Party - Tiki Ti Hits The Big 5-0

This was Wednesday outside the Tiki Ti. The anniversary mugs had just arrived and Big Mike was signing the first one, as I passed by.
They are celebrating their first 50 years in business, here on Sunset Blvd. As I have posted many times before, I pass them twice a day and many times I say hi to Big or Little Mike. I have only had a drink there twice, but it is an unforgettable experience, which I would like to repeat in the near future.

Their drinks are truly one of a kind and very, VERY potent!. You rarely can drink more then one, if you are a casual drinker, like I am. It just knocks me out.




I was told that they have a Facebook page and I managed to find it.
I found this photo taken earlier on Thursday.
It is a photo of the City of Los Angeles giving Big Mike a proclamation for their 50th Anniversary. Very cool to see.
As I passed on Thursday, there was a Flat Iron mobile food truck parked outside the front door and a huge line. Mugs were available, but only for a few customers. According to the guy in charge of the mugs, there will be 600 more around the middle of May and hopefully, I can get a few for me and my friends.

Oooga Boooga!

TAP - AKA Transit Access Pass

This is a TAP card. As of this month, I am now able to load the card with money from my credit or debit card. Before that, I had to take a trip to City Hall in Santa Clarita, or visit our local Drug store, that has a Post Office and other services in it. It was always a royal pain in the butt.

Today, I was down to $6.70 and only had 1 full fare left...so I decided to try this new way to refill my TAP card. It went like a dream and I now have some decent value on the pass, once again.

I love when technology catches up and actually makes life better, instead of worse. :-)

A Covered Bridge At Sunset

We have lots of bridges around the Valencia section of our City, though not traditional wooden covered bridges.
This one happens to span a north/south main road, so it brings people from east to west (or west to east). :-)

It gave me an outstanding view of the sunset through the bridge.
I liked it and I liked how well landscaped the land around the bridge is.

Cool sunset, all in all.

Photos Of The Lot - KCET Hollywood Sign And The Beginning Of A Goodbye

You may have already heard the news that we have finally closed escrow on our historic lot.

I have known that it was in process, but late Monday afternoon we were called to a super secret meeting and the President confirmed that we no longer owned the ground we have owned for 40 years. It is really bittersweet for me. The lot is historic and beautiful, as I have mentioned...but we have not been able to truly keep it up as we should. So it is time to say goodbye. Thankfully, we have a year to get our new digs together and move out. It will be state of the art, which will help us with our mission, to serve the public in Los Angeles. From what the President has promised, it will allow us to engage with the Community both offline and online. Important things for the 21st Century.
The Church of Scientology now owns the lot and minus my concerns about this, the one thing you can see is that they treat their properties well...I am not too sure about how they treat their members...

More later on where we end up going. Some thoughts I have heard, point to the Burbank/Glendale Media District, but I have no firm answer at this time. That particular rumor would work out well for me, since it would cut off something like 15 or so minutes from my commute and lots less money. We shall see, but I would like to state that I am optimistic about this...at least until I decide otherwise.

Since I hijacked my original idea for this photo, I will give you the Cliff Notes version.
This photo shows the area between our two Soundstages, A and B. The area in between them, where the KCET Hollywood sign is, used to be our two control rooms and audio rooms. As you can see, they were high above the action on the stages.

Now days, they are not used at all.

Analog lost in a Digital World.

Blessings Of The Water Kind, On Easter

My Water Post For Today.

I wish you could smell what this spray of herbs gives off, as they sprinkle the parishioners with holy water. It was so outstanding and unexpected...but enough about the herbs themselves.

I liked how those herbs looked, waiting for the Priest to pick them up at the start of the Mass. Holy water in a bowl and holy water in the font itself. Very religious and beautiful, all at once.

I hope you enjoy.

Easter Baking 2011

The Easter baking is finally done and boy are my hands tired from all the dish washing. :-)

We are scheduled to do the audio for the 12:30PM Mass tomorrow, so it will be an easy meal. Chicken, stuffing etc. I bought a cherry pie for dessert. After all this baking, I felt like taking the easy way out on dinner.

Enjoy the day.




Update:

This is for Jason.



He asked that I shoot a photo of the Meat pie with a slice cut out of it. So here it is.

A Super Happy Easter To Me - Recipe Of The Week

This is a first for me. I post daily on this humble blog but yesterday was the first day that information I wrote, ended up on someone's website. In this case, my employer's website.

Let's start at the beginning...

It all started out innocently enough. My employer decided to start a Food Club. A great idea, IMHO. They began to post recipes and things about a month ago. Being that Easter was coming up, I sent them a link to my post about Easter Egg Bread and Pizza Rustica. I told them that if they wanted it, I was more then willing to rewrite the post for them. It took them a bit, but finally they gave me the go ahead to do 2 posts for them. "Oh and do you have a photo to use?" "Uh yeah, I think I do." lol
So two weekends ago I wrote the posts and submitted them via email. I heard nothing for a bit and then a "yes they were fine" and finally on Thursday afternoon, I went to check things out and I was told that they were posted! Woot!

I am getting tweeted and liked and gee, that's pretty cool all by itself.

I just want to state for the record that my Mother would be SO PROUD!

Photos Of The Lot - Stage B

One of the most incredible things is when you can get up on stage and watch a production being shot. There is an energy and excitement, chaos and surprisingly, organization as the professionals and the newbies go at it. Creating something from nothing, ultimately for broadcast. I have had the honor to work many a stage production during the 80's and 90's. Never enough though, because we gave up a huge amount of production as the 90's ended and also, I was in Operations during those years, raising my son. But like a horse who remembers how to race, I still remember what stage production entails.

This stage is B.

It is our largest soundstage, home of among other things, Cosmos, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Puzzle Place (year 2) and my personal favorite, American Bandstand's final year with Dick Clark (which I had the honor of working).
Stage B is allowed the most audience, because it has 3 emergency exit doors (we put in the third one for some production back in the late 80's). When it is empty, it is huge! The lighting booth is way up in the rafters, though we have moved the
Control Rooms over to our Digital building, the ETC. They used to be in an area between the two Stages. The staircase leading to them, is still there at the corner of the stage.

I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Easter Bread For My Sister

My sister and her husband have had a bit of a hard year and so to send some love their way, I baked some Easter Bread a few days early and shipped it out overnight to her. I got up at my normal time and took the dough I had made last weekend out of the fridge (I took it out of the freezer the night before). It was soft, but cold and so I turned on the oven, while I let it rise. It took a bit, but it finally got going and did raise. Since I was going to send it by mail, I did not put the normal Easter Eggs in it. I instead just braided it.

I thought it came out cute.

I hope they enjoy it.

Just a reminder, the recipe for both Easter Egg Bread and Pizza Rustica are on the side of my blog, under recipes. Or click Here.

Makenna And The Fancy Feast

My cat is too fat.

The vet put her on reduced dry rations for the past 4 weeks. My Husband and I felt like she was starving to death, she was so obsessed with her food dish, or lack of dry stuff in it. 4 weeks finally passed and she went in for her weigh in.
the result...
She lost 1 ounce in 4 weeks. Grrrrr...

The vet was disappointed and so we compromised. She gets dry in the morning (which has lots of carbs) and she gets meat in the evening. Fancy Feast Classic, to be exact. I am not happy to have to spend so much on her, but lets see what this does.
She, of course, is ecstatic over the change, woo woo, she gets meat!!!!!



I thought I would show her back in her younger days. A week after we got her, for a little contrast.

Matzo Ball Soup

Happy Passover!

My "Secret" recipe for Matzo Ball's comes from the Manischewitz Matzo Meal box...well, it did until recently. When I pulled out the box on Sunday, I found that they have replaced this tried and true recipe with something called Fluffy Matzo Balls. Oh, major yuck!

So the trusty Internet came to my rescue. I found the Classic recipe on their website and it follows here and down below. By the way, in my husband's family, a generous shake of cinnamon is added to the mixture.

I normally double this recipe and when I form the matzo balls, I moisten my hands. This helps keep the matzo ball from sticking to your hand. I rinse my hands again after making about 5 matzo balls No matter how you make them...enjoy.


Manischewitz Matzo Balls


Ingredients:

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
* 1/2 cup Manischewitz® Matzo Meal
* 2 tablespoons Manischewitz® broth or water
* 1 teaspoon salt, if desired

To Cook You Will Need:

* A small bowl
* 6 cups (1-1/2 quarts) cold water
* 4 quart pot

Preparation:



In a bowl beat eggs; add oil, Manischewitz® Matzo Meal and salt. Blend together. Add broth or water and mix until uniform. Cover and chill in refrigerator for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, bring 6 cups (1-1/2 quarts) salted water to a brisk boil. Remove chilled matzo ball mixture from refrigerator. Moisten hands and form batter into matzo balls, approximately 1 inch in diameter. Reduce heat. Drop matzo balls into pot of boiling water. Cover tightly and simmer until thoroughly cooked, about 30-40 minutes. Remove matzo balls from water. Serve at room temperature, or warmer. If serving in soup, place matzo balls in soup pot and allow to simmer in soup for about 5 minutes or until heated through.

Cat Faces

My Water Post For Today.

A few weeks ago I visited the L.A. River. One of the real interesting things about the river itself is that the storm drain covers within the river have all been painted with Cat Faces. They are pretty cute to see. A man named Leo Limon has painted them. You can read about it all, here.

I hope you enjoy viewing the L.A. River, and the cute cat faces that adorn it.

Preggo...Finally!

I knew it for sure this very day in December.

I took one look at our friend from Phoenix's son's wife and I could see it. I don't know why, but I was that sure. She was shocked when I asked, but immediately confirmed it and asked me not to tell anyone.

Last week they announced that the baby they are expecting around August, is going to be a girl and they are both very happy with the news. She is a dancer, so I heard earlier today that the baby has her first tutu.
The mother goes on to say that she was not the one who bought it...but still. You know she approves. :-)

Any bets on the baby having flaming red hair?

Congratulations and my best to the two of them.

Photos Of The Lot - The Tower

I have decided to make a new occasional post on interesting views of my lot at work. It won't be as often as a water post, but just when the spirit moves me.

I feel like starting with the most prominent feature on our lot. The microwave tower.

Built in 1971, it dominates the surrounding area and I am sure that the choppers at Children's Hospital use it as a guide, as they come in for a landing across the street.
Once in a while, we get a hawk who decides to call it home. Watching for easy prey to catch and eat. It works well for them, being most things on the ground don't even look that high up.

As I walk toward work each morning, it is the first thing I see and it always makes me smile, because it proves that I work in Broadcasting, a career that I totally love.

New Media

This poster hangs in New Media.

It's a few years old, but some of the players in the photo are still at the helm, steering the boat of social media and web development into the future. Gary over on the top far left and Juan over in the second row 2nd, on the right side, are definitely still here.
It's amazing how fast things change in their area. Mine changes all the time, but I feel like a tortoise compared to them. For New Media, it is always the next new thing.

Dealing with them in the daily "Nimble" meeting, I see them a lot more then I ever have in the past. I find it amazing, but I think I finally have all their names figured out. Trust me, I never did before.


As several of the staff have said before, it is truly the most exciting part of our workplace. Direct contact with our viewers and members, in interesting ways. I enjoy the interaction, both in the workplace and via things like Facebook.

I salute them, as they work to build the New KCET.


Photo of the "thumbs up" posted on our website today. I definitely "Like" it.

Rosemary Lemon Chicken And Potatoes

My husband came to work with me last Friday. While he was sitting in my office, we had my station on, since I always monitor its status. P. Allen Smith had a program on George Washington's Mount Vernon and showed a recipe using rosemary in it. I wasn't really paying much attention, but I was paying enough attention to comment to my husband that cooking the potatoes with the chicken (roasting a chicken happens every week, in my house) sounded interesting.
When I was at the store on Saturday, I saw a bag of red potatoes and bought them. My guy had obviously REALLY paid attention, because without this recipe in hand, he put it all together.
We didn't use rosemary (though we have plenty growing by our pond). We used a really kick butt spice from Penzeys called Mural of Flavor. I am sure there is rosemary in it, along with many other things.
The dinner came out excellent and it was so fun to see my husband cooking.
Here is the recipe and if you want to check it out on P. Allen Smith's website, click the title. Enjoy.

Rosemary Lemon Chicken and Potatoes

1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds
1 lemon, quartered
1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary
6 - 7 rosemary stems
1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound new potatoes, quartered
1 small white onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions

Prepare your chicken by removing the giblets. Wash and pat dry.

Slice the lemon into 4 quarters. Take 2 quarters and squeeze them over the chicken. Take the 2 squeezed quarters, the 2 unsqueezed quarters and 6 to 7 rosemary stems and tuck them in the chicken cavity.

Rub the skin with a little olive oil. Season with salt, fresh cracked black pepper and a little of the chopped fresh rosemary.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan and set aside.

In a separate bowl toss the potatoes and chopped onion with1/3 cup olive oil, the remaining chopped rosemary and salt and pepper.

Dump the potatoes in with the chicken. Spread them around the bird.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the juices run clear.

Now, wasn't that simple? A great use for fresh rosemary from the garden.

Serves 4

Get That Camera AWAY!

Me fooling around with the cat.

Makenna is never happy when I take photos of her, but you can see she is especially not pleased with me, in this one.

I like how it looks.

This is not something I normally get a photo of.

Love that cat.

A Week Of Barbecues?

You never know what is happening from one second to the next, here at the angel house.

Once again, we are sitting quietly in our living room, when our son and one of his friends (not a son...but close) come in. The friend asks if he can use our BBQ on Sunday morning. Sure, I said. How early? lol
It ended up being a gathering at 11AM, which was totally not a problem for me. When I asked my son the next morning why this was going on, he told me that his friend was having a barbecue every day of Spring Break and this was the last one.

They came, they cooked and we added a bit of stuff to the mix. It went very well and considering we had hail back on Friday, it was good to have our back yard used for a summer time activity, instead of being neglected.
A cook out says to me that spring is back again and I am totally on board with that. yay.

Photo:
Far left is my son's friend
Middle is son number 3 (look at how
long his hair is now!)
Far right is my son

Spring In Oz

My Water Post For Today.

It is finally spring along Lake Ontario and in honor of that fact, an Oswego Facebook page has been posting some really wonderful photos of the downtown area, by the mouth of the Oswego River.

This one was particularly lovely and so you get to see it. The wave action and the lighthouse, both make it a great photo.

I hope you enjoy.

Public TV Makes It Through The Budget Process & Lunch With Engineers

First off, I am happy to report that it seems that Public TV has made it past the latest round of the "Zero Out" Wars. This money, also known as our Community Service Grant, helps us pay dues to provide shows. It is also used to produce shows that are of concern to the local public, in our case, the Los Angeles area. Glad to see it.

While those hours til the shutdown of the Government were going on, about 15 employees and former employees of KCET got together at Acapulco, for some lunch. We had major restrictions on what could and could not be said about the possible sale of our lot, but we could and did reminisce about the days when we produced Emmy Award winning shows for things like, PBS. At our table was Roy, who won an Emmy for Cosmos, along with Jerry, who also won for Cosmos. Dan who was our head editor and who was the engineer who shut off our analog transmitter, a few years ago. My Husband was in attendance, since he had worked there for a time and spent 20 years or so answering phones for our On Air Pledge Drives, so everyone knows him well. At least this generation of staff, do.

I know there is a lot of sadness with the potential loss of our lot (after all we have spent the past 40 years there)...but this was not where we began our lives as a Public TV station and it was good to get that perspective from the guys who worked our Vine Street location, at a time when we were not members of PBS. Property doesn't make the station...the people do.

A fun time was had and talk of another lunch was mentioned.

Rethinking Posters

As many of you know, there is a lot of Rethinking going on here at my TV station. Our new logo is: Rethink TV.

One of the things that are in our On Air package are these little sayings.

I made a trip to the main building the other day and as I walked in, I saw this sign right by the elevator. I had never seen it on air, but I immediately liked it.

I especially like the word Brave.

That is what we are, explorers in uncharted waters and if that doesn't take a bit of bravery, I don't know what does.



As I continued on my way, I got into the elevator. I had business on the third floor and when I got off the elevator in the executive area, I saw this saying.

I have seen this one on air, so it was not surprise, but it too is interesting and edgy.

Of course we have a long way to go, before we earn those Rethink TV stripes...but I can definitely say that we are trying.

Oh and I guess I have finally gotten used to the black, white and gray logos.

The God Of Thunder, Mighty Thor!

I saw this poster yesterday in the subway station.

My immediate reaction was "What the Hey?"

Where are those locks of golden hair?

Oh yuck! This guy looks like a Klingon!

To say the least, this Thor fan is not impressed with the look of this latest version of the Marvel Comic epic character. Click the link to hear the theme song to Thor.


’Cross the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard,
Where the booming heavens roar,
You’ll behold in breathless wonder,
The God of Thunder, Mighty Thor!

TechCon 2011

It had a soft open yesterday, but today is the official beginning of TechCon 2011.

I was supposed to lead the Traffic and Operations part of the Conference, but with our loss of PBS Membership, I lost my Chair position. In addition, for this year at least, I am banned from the Conference.

To say the least, I am not happy right now.

To my Traffic peeps, I wish them a good, productive time and a little Tiki or Margarita time, too... :-)

"Oh it's a real beauty, a mexican cutie. How it got here I haven't a clue."


==========
Photo Credit:
Kevin Ruppenthal

Borg-Like Bunnies!

This was the bizarre thing that greeted me, when I got some orange juice at the store.

After I got the OJ, I turned back to my cart and my eyes caught dozens of bunnies staring at me.

What was their problem? LOL


I must admit that I am not in the least tempted to buy those bunnies.


Just a little too weird the way they stare...kind of like the Borg in Star Trek.

Wedding Audio

I was planning on posting this on Saturday, but it got pre-empted, due to the multiple window posts.

Recently, my son was asked to work a wedding at the Church he runs audio for. When asked to work a wedding, it comes with a $75 check, at the conclusion. Not bad for 2 hours work. :-)

I, of course, work with him and being I earn a living, I let him have all the money. It was the first time I was involved with working a wedding and I had to learn new things, which I sort of did. I know I will do a bit better, if we ever do this again.

The wedding itself was unusual, due to the fact that the wedding party had about 25 people surrounding the Bride and Groom (you can see them all in the photo). I have never seen anything like it.

The tech part of the wedding went just fine and I hope this brings an occasional gig my son's way. It would be kind of nice to actually have him earn money doing audio.

The Dream Of The Green Turtle

My Water Post For Today.

We went to Lowe's.

After getting everything on the list, I mentioned that we should really check out low voltage lights for the front of the house. Our current ones are 26 years old and they look it. We found an arts and crafts style set of solar lights and broke down and bought them. They should match the door real well.

We thought we were done...

Not so fast woman! Look at me!
There it was, a really cute solar turtle on the next rack, calling to me. I liked it, but there was absolutely no price on it, on the rack where it sat, or on any of the other turtles. That should have been it...but the turtle just wouldn't let me walk away from it. I saw a worker with one of those price guns and I got her attention. It ended up being only $19.99.
My response...I said, SOLD!
By pure fluke, we had a 10 percent discount. That made the price $2 less, which was just a little bit better and now it lives by our pond.
The solar rock behind it is where the batteries charge and maybe an hour or so after I added it to my pond, a lizard was seen sunning itself on the fake solar rock. I got a kick out of that. :-)

Welcome little green turtle. Enjoy our pond.

Kitchen Cleaning

This morning in the kitchen.

We spent all day yesterday working on stuff in the kitchen, trying to bring order to chaos.

We got the valence back up on the window and that seems perfect to us. It blends it back into the room and you don't feel like it was just put in.

I painted a lot of the breakfast nook area, giving the yellow a new clean coat of paint. Washed all curtains and rehung them. Washed the floor and Hubby washed all the nick nacks that hang around the room.

We think it looks better now. The cabinets and wood, etc will be dealt with as time passes, but why wait to bring the room up to the standard of the window and make the room ours, once again. :-)

Window: Before & After

It is not done, by a long shot...but for your viewing pleasure, here are the before and after photos of the new window in our kitchen.

I am calling it the poor man's house addition. No permits to pull and just a small increase in price compared to putting in a new window. I figure it was probably 15 hundred more for this window, then for just a normal window. Yeah, it's not nothing, but it gives the room a much bigger feel then what it had before.

I will admit that the room is still small, but it feels big.


We are going back and forth with what to stain the wood, white paint or match it to the cabinets. Check back with us soon, for that decision. :-)

We have a name of a person who will hopefully be staining the cabinets, to give them a new lease on life. you can see they really need it.

When that is all done, we intend to paint the house and then get granite (or something similar) counter tops. The counter is probably later in the year. The house is definitely top of the agenda, since we now have scratch coat on the stucco.

The guy who did our front door, will be working on that.

I can't wait til we get most of this behind us.

Lacey Art Studio

First off, Happy April Fool's Day to you all. :-)


In my graffiti post the other day, I mentioned the many local businesses who JUST painted their buildings. This one is the most unusual one, that's for sure.

It is a novel idea. They painted their cream colored building to match the sign above their door. Using the window shades for the main photo and the building to match the background areas...blue sky and green grass. When it was being painted, I was seriously worried for the owner, because it it quite weird on its own. But now that it is finished, it actually works.

What do you think?