It Rained!

Happy start of Labor Day weekend, to all in the United States.

This was yesterday, as I commuted home from work. A storm cell centered in the Studio City/North Hollywood area, started moving over toward us in Burbank. I managed to get to the bus, just before the rain came, though it was quite strong as we drove down Magnolia Blvd, toward North Hollywood.

When we got to the station, most of the rain had ended, since the storm had began in the west and traveled to the east. That resulted in a lovely full rainbow. Not the first that I have seen at North Hollywood Station, but definitely the widest one.

Quite unexpected on this last week of August, but nice.

School Is Back

School is back in session as of a week or so ago. What that means to me, is that I have to pass not one, not two, but three schools in a two mile period.

I bought a house just a block away from the future Elementary school that my son ended up going to. We loved the fact that I could walk him down the street and watch him cross over to the school. It was perfect.

He then moved onto Junior High, which is down the hill and about a half mile east of the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately for all of us, there is another Elementary school right before the Junior High.

They try to stagger the start times for the two schools, but it just doesn't work out well. One starts at 7:45AM and the other at 8:00AM. When I am passing this area (at 7:30AM), it is prime time for BOTH schools. Junior High is way into their drop offs and Elementary has just begun, though parents with children in both schools are also dealing with their duel duty. The final thing going on, is that it has 3 crossing guards working in that intersection. That just adds to the madness.

Honestly, what they really need is an overpass to safely get the children through the intersection that becomes a bottleneck.

Last July, I actually saw several schools in Modesto, that have overpasses and I believe it is a very smart idea. Keep the kids away from the cars. I doubt though, that I will live to see the day when they can make this area safer and better, for all of us.

The photo is of Seco Canyon Road, which is the low spot between 2 mountains and yes, a river (or in this case a wash) runs by the schools. The Elementary school is about a block ahead, past the traffic light, on the right. Junior High, a block further. Sigh...

The Three Little Kittens: Merijntje, Jonasina And Oskar

Once upon a time, there was a farm tom cat (who really needs spaying).

From what I understand, the cat has fathered many kittens with many females. My friend in Belgium managed to rescue 3 very tiny kittens back on July 3rd and though it was touch and go for a bit, especially for Oskar, the runt of the 3, they are all eating and growing big and strong. As with kittens, they also attack my friend and each other, with those so very sharp claws and teeth. But as they say, this too shall pass. :-)

She has been documenting their lives on Facebook, with photos and this one spoke to me.

It won't be long, before they get too big to cuddle like this, so I decided to grab this one and highlight it here on my blog.

Left to right in the photo, they are Merijntje, Jonasina And Oskar (the runt of the litter). If I am correct, the first two are promised to people...but why do I feel that little Oskar may end up staying with my friend and her already full house?

Only time will tell. :-)

Ainslie Turns One

She was born as Hurricane Irene arrived in New York, last year.

A very scary time, not only the parents, but for the rest of us waiting for the news. You can read about it HERE

I am sorry to hear that a new hurricane is making its way to the Gulf Coast, after missing the better part of Florida. In good news, I am glad that it is not a repeat of last year, because this past Sunday there was a celebration in New York. Little Ainslie turned 1 year old yesterday.

The photo was taken just before her party.

Her beautiful outfit was made by both her loving grandmothers. May I say that this child is always tricked out in the BEST clothes. :-)

Happy Birthday baby...and many, many more.

Cat Tails

My Water Post For Today.

While we were gone for the early part of the summer, they obviously did much work on the transition areas of Bridgeport Lake. This is an area that has water and soil. They obviously planted cat tails in there. The cat tails are (I don't think blooming is quite the word for this) appearing from the greenery and it is quite pretty to see.

The only time I remember seeing cat tails as a child was at some place my parents took us, when we went fishing on Long Island. I have no clue, where, of course. :-)

They definitely add beauty to the area and of course, to the water.

I hope you enjoy.

My Icon In Her New Home

I showed my St. Kateri Icon off the other day, in a post about my cat, but here is the photo of her at her home in my house.

I decided that I wanted to see her every day and since my living room is the generally cleanest room in the house, I felt that would work the best. I didn't want her in the full sun, so I gave her a position at a window that I can easily leave closed.

The thing you see laying down just in front of her, is a card of the Icon the class did last year, which I bought during the workshop. There were 2 bowls of plants on the wooden file and that frames her well. A few indian designed coasters (which were also on the wooden file), finish the look. It's not an altar...but what the heck.

It's her home in my home.

Madeline And The Inauguration

My son was working the audio board on Sunday and one of the other techs mentioned that the soloist during our Mass, had sung at Ronald Reagan's first Inauguration in 1981. He was shown a video on Youtube and mentioned it to me. He told me that she sang with Ray Bradbury, but I was pretty sure that must be wrong. :-)

We went home and he pointed out the clip to me.

As I immediately figured out, it was actually Ray Anthony's Big Band playing that evening. By the way, Madeline did a hellava job! Big Band has always been her favorite music to sing, so this is no real surprise to me.

If you would like to see the video, you can view it HERE. Fast forward around 6 minutes in.

As with so much from that era, the video was probably taken off a VHS copy. Apologies in advance, for the poor quality.

Westlake Theatre

My husband's friend from his army days, spent a few years getting his Masters in LA and one of his jobs was at The Westlake Theatre.

Every time we go to that area of town, we see that huge sign that still stands at the top of the building. It reminds us of that long ago time, when the theater actually ran movies.

Due to the change in demographics of the neighborhood, it eventually ran Spanish movies and then later, became a swap meet, which still goes on today.

From what I can find, there are plans to return it to something wonderful...but it got caught in the economic downturn in 2008.

Maybe someday I may visit it.

Who Is Watching Over Who?

I went over to the living room to take a photo of my Icon's new home. I was so boring, that my cat, who was taking her mid afternoon nap, went back to sleep. Since she considered me so unimportant, I quickly took one of her sleeping and posted it on Facebook. For me, at least, it is a rarity. She always watches me, when I am anywhere around her.

I have noticed that this exact spot seems to be her favorite in these hot, dog days of summer and it made me wonder...is my Icon watching over her, or is she watching over my Icon?

It's a cute shot, no matter who is watching over who.

Living In Angola...Or Not

A friend of my son's just returned from his second deployment. This time he was in Liberia, Africa. I have no idea why he was there, but he posted over 100 photos of the area and this was one of them.

He is a Seabee, in the construction business and so he wears that hard hat. The locals, obviously found it fascinating.

What a great shot.

Welcome home sir, glad you are back.

I Didn't Save Any Apricots

Here is my apricot tree, at the height of the fruit bearing season, witch was late May, or early June.

If you read my post from earlier this year, don't bother clicking the link HERE.

So the big question from my post was, there were all these apricots...did you end up eating any of them?

Well, yes and no.

I managed to take one off of the tree the night I took this photo and I did eventually get up the courage to try a taste of it, a few days later.

Well, how was it? It seemed to be OK. I didn't see any fiber in the one I tasted, but just the possibility of it, made me very cautious.

In those few days, Mister Squirrel made his spring and ended up eating every single one of them!

He looks quite chubby in this photo.

Oh well...

Groman Eden

My Water Post For Today.

You look at this photo and wonder where the heck it is located. You can see dry hillsides and power lines off in the distance. What is going on here?

Would a clue be that it was taken on Father's Day of this year?

This is at the top of the Jewish Cemetery, not far from the Newhall Pass area of the San Fernando Valley. We normally just visit my Husband's family, down at the bottom of the property, but on Father's Day, we visited our friend's Father. He is all the way at the top, by this beautiful Waterscape.

It's amazing how you can find beauty in the oddest of places.

I hope you enjoy.

Baby Jenny

This is Jenny.

One of my son's High School friends relocated to Arizona and so I friended her on Facebook.

She had a baby earlier this year and it has been interesting watching the little one grow. What surprises me, is that I remember her Mom going off on hikes with my son and his friends and now she is a Mom herself.

I know my son is almost 22, but it feels like his generation of friends are a bit on the young side, to be having kids. I know the reality is, the Mom was actually plenty old enough.

My best to her and her beautiful daughter, Jenny. May life treat you kindly and may she be a blessing to you.

Bettina Has Left The Building

She just went through the hardest work move, we have had and then she retires just 3 months later. I don't know if I would have put myself through that, but she did and she went out on her terms.

I don't know about her early days at KCET, since I didn't arrive until the 80's, but she left for a few years and then returned after I arrived. Her husband was a staff engineer in the early days but had moved on, by the time we met.

Bettina was a Unit Production Manager, the person, who kept a show on budget or announced whether a show was viable or not. I may get mad about "Bean Counters", but I know in my heart of hearts, that they are the most important part of any production. Shows can't function without them...and she was one of the best.

She did not want anything from the Company, so we did a low key (HA!) party for her. A book of memories was compiled. Lots of funny and serious photos were taken and words of well wishes written to her.

The party was the first real major use of our new "Training Room", at least by the staff itself.

A yummy chocolate cake from Portos. Champagne and Sparkling Cider for a final toast to our friend and work colleague.

Good luck Bettina, it has been a pleasure working with you.

Jay Leno

This is for my cousin in Florida, who doesn't believe Jay Leno is my neighbor...well, work neighbor, that is. :-)

This is my view from the 5th floor, Master Control area of the new workspace. I am on the exact other side of the building, facing east. This is facing west, toward the NBC area. I have shown the stage before, but from the ground level. This is the view from the 5th. Yes, I and many others, keep track of what is going on at Stage 11. This week Jay Leno is back from his 2 week "Olympic" vacation and so we once again, can see what is going on over there.

Minus last Monday, the day he had Michelle Obama as a guest. That day they shot very early, probably to confuse those who might try to attack her. We didn't even know she had already been there, when we got in and so we spent the entire day waiting for the circus show to arrive. It never did and boy, were we disappointed. :-)

I don't like his show, but it does break up the work day, watching the audience and him arrive. I hear he drives a different car from his collection, each time he comes to work.

The Heat Of Summer Has Arrived, But Here It's Back To School

Here in Santa Clarita, summer's almost gone...

Well, actually it is probably as hot as summer will be, but today the kids go back to school.

The problem with the kids going back to school, is that on my 3 mile route to work, we pass 3 schools within the first mile. When everyone is in, it's torture.

Today everyone will be in. Darn...

Wish me luck. It will probably take me 20 minutes to drive that little stretch of road.

Sigh...

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Photo is Saugus
High School, after
the remodel in 2007.

The Bus Shelter By Our New Home

These bus shelter signs are part of a campaign and I am missing a photo of the first bus shelter sign in the series.

We started the campaign way before we moved over to our new home at The Pointe, so I never saw it.

As I scrolled down looking for my bus shelter signs, I found this one.

I didn't realize that I had it. It was taken in March of this year, just before we moved. it is the second sign of the campaign, Be Bolder.

Obviously, Be Smarter is the missing sign. We basically "own" the bus shelter that is on our building's property and since that is where I get on and off the bus, I see it a lot. I think we leased it for a year or so. Since we can't get a sign on the top of our building, it helps us be "out there" in our new Burbank home. Lots of media types pass it every day. :-)

I like the signs. They are clever, creative and memorable.

I have no idea if there will be any others after the current sign campaign comes to an end. I am sure something will come along.

This one is Be Braver and my favorite part of the sign, is Doc Martin with his son.

That baby is just too cute!

If you are a Doc Martin fan, I can tell you that they have 4 sets of twins on call and available for use while, shooting.

That's a lot of babies!

Obviously here is the one you would expect...Be a Member.

Asking for money is never easy, but we totally rely on the contributions from our public. Without them, nothing is possible.

As you also might notice, I am not the only one who likes that Doc Martin photo.

There the baby is again. Yay!

I have something cute to look at, while I wait for the bus in the afternoon.

A Saturday Evening Sunset, Shared With My Son

We saw it for the first time as we were leaving the Saugus Cafe, after dinner. The cafe is located in the flat lands, by the river. My son saw it and brought it to our attention. We could see that, even with the power lines, it was going to be stunning in a few moments and we wanted to capture it. So off we went, to the Angel House and both me and my son grabbed our cameras and set out to document it.

We both grabbed different locations and over the course of 5 minutes or so, we walked up the hill and got many views. It ended up that both chose the same location, for their "Best" shot. The one that showed off the light shinning upwards from the sun. It took a bit of work to get it to show up on the photo, but it was worth the effort.

Thank you God, for this beautiful sunset and thanks to my son, for noticing it in the first place.

Water Lillies On A Lake

My Water Post For Today.

I have neglected my walking routine this past week and so the photo was taken 2 weeks ago.

There is a place along the route that juts out into the housing and so when we walk, it is in the shade. This means that the beautiful water lilies they have planted there, have already gone to sleep for the evening. The problems of walking the lake at 7PM. :-)

The ducks came over and made a wave circle by the lilies, to add a bit of contrast to the image.

I hope you like it, even without the flowers.

Creating An Icon: Day 2 To Day 6

If you missed my first post on creating an Icon, please go HERE.

Day 2: One of the main things that separate Iconography, from just a painting, is the golden halo around the icon's face.

It is like they are shining with divine light from inside themselves.

To create that look, we heat up the clay we applied the day before, by doing some incredible heavy breathing.

You breathe at least 3 times...slowly...very slowly and then you apply the gold leaf and attempt to get it to stick.

I had an such a hard time making the gold stick to the clay bolo.

I spent hours and hours breathing and breathing and breathing on the icon.

I am still hurting from that and I am writing this part of the post, 6 hours later.

Thankfully for me, the gold finally did stick and you can see how it turned out in the second photo.

That is 3 layers of gold leaf burnished and then polished with an agate.

The last thing we did, was ring it with red paint.

I may add divots tomorrow, to make it look like it has jewels around it.

We shall see how I feel and how much time I have.

=================

Day 3: I added those divots around her halo/nimbus. We began painting what is known as the Roskrish (which means chaos) and it is the application of the base colors. Part of those base colors, is the sankir, which is the first base coat for the skin and hair areas of the Icon. Basically 1/3rd or so of this base coat will remain at the end of the project. We then began the first light aka (body). Painting large light areas onto the Roskrish. These areas will be painted on 3 more times, in smaller and smaller areas. In between, we will float the entire image with water mixed with small amounts of paint. That is for tomorrow.

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Day 4: We did first float, which is a color wash. Second light (soul) added more highlights in small amounts and second float. It is coming along, though the wait time between coats is starting to become a little boring. If you rush the floats, the different paints mix together and so you get leakage between areas.

Later on in the day, we returned for a presentation between 7PM and 9PM on the Revival of the Icon. It was basically placing the Icon into its place in art history and its revival today.

================

Day 5: More floating and lighting. We did the third Light (Spirit), third float and then the final light, the fourth light (Divine). The fourth light is so very small, that we put these thin lines on, in groups of 3.

Just imagine trying to do that. Very labor intensive work, but we have built the light layer by layer and now this is the top, the part that shines through all those floats. It boggles the mind.

At that point, we are now told to begin putting in the final details, since we will not be floating anymore.

The final adding of the black and red lines, occurs here.

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Day 6: We are here, at the final few hours. We only have 3 of them and so it is a total rush day, trying to get as much done, as possible. Added today are her lily, the cross, the lettering on either side of the Saint, the edging, another ring around the nimbus. I expected to get a final photo of the class with their completed work, but that didn't happen. Our teacher had a flight to make and so we headed out, as we finished.

Many intend to return next year, but I am not sure...though getting the project oiled, might get me there.

I found the class a good exercise in learning a process. Due to my unfamiliarity with Icon Painting, it really was just a show and tell kind of experience. There are so many things I would have done different, if I knew that they would remain in the final version of the painting. Those black lines around everything, I would have made a little less bold. We etched the image into the board, but I am unsure if I would do that again. Though it may have made the floats stay in place, so maybe it did have a purpose. Touch ups, during each layer. Yes, I would pay more attention to those imperfections in the chaos and fix them before it became almost impossible to do so. All in all, it was a week well spent, getting in touch with a more spiritual side of painting. Just reciting the Iconographers Prayer each morning went from being a weird thing, to something I had to do before I began. Especially the line about being so unworthy to draw the lines. :-)

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A Prayer Before Beginning an Icon:

O DIVINE LORD of all that exists, Thou hast illumined the Apostle and Evangelist Luke with Thy Holy Spirit, thereby enabling him to represent Thy most Holy Mother, the One who held Thee in her arms and said: The Grace of Him Who has been born of me is spread through the world! Enlighten and direct my soul, my heart and my spirit. Guide the hands of Thine unworthy servant so that I may worthily and perfectly portray Thine Icon, that of Thy Mother, and all the Saints, for the glory, joy and adornment of Thy Holy Church. Forgive my sins and the sins of those who will venerate these icons and who, kneeling devoutly before them, give homage to those they represent. Protect them from all evil and instruct them with good counsel. This I ask through the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother, the Apostle Luke, and all the Saints. Amen.

What's In A Name?

I am in the home stretch on my Icon. Three hours of workshop today and I am done. Yay!

See my post tomorrow, for the final Icon.

For today, I wanted to touch on something that has been a lot on my mind. Why is KCET, the only company in the building, who has their name on the sign out front?

It bothered me so much, I asked building security what the deal was. What he told me is that DC Comics doesn't want the public to know where they are. There are so many geek crazies out there, that they prefer to just rent the space as Warner Brothers. They wear WB Id's, too. We are the only ones who know they are actually DC Comics, minus the article that came out when the leased their floor.

Our other occupant, Outlook Amusements, also doesn't want anyone to know who they are and where they live. Though when I pulled up their website, it is obvious that they are tenets at The Pointe.

They are part of what used to be called The Psychic Network. Horoscopes, Astrology, etc. Or as they say, a positive force in people's lives. Just don't come knocking on their door... :-)

Fidelity is on the ground floor of the building and they obviously want people to know they are there. As I know, most of their work is via phone calls (my son had his college savings plan with them, at a point in time).

So that leaves all the companies that are directly related to the building owner on the sign. Worthe owns the building, CBRE is the real estate agent who leases the building.

We are so not afraid, that we stenciled our name on the 5th floor wall, in black letters. Click on the photo and look at the top floor right side. You can barely see the KC in the 6th panel from the right. It's there, trust me. :-)

New Curtains In The Family Room

As if I have nothing else to do with my week off...

Here are my new curtains.

I spent a little time each evening, working on putting the backing on them, so that we could put them onto a curtain pull.

We are getting used to them, but so far, I think they will work out just fine.

I am so glad to get rid of the slat things we have had for 27 years.

Icons For Dinner - St. Michael Catholic Church

Yes, my Blessed Kateri Icon is progressing nicely. More on that, at the end of the week.

We went to dinner after class last evening. The teacher and all of us basically talked of normal things. Toward the end of the dinner the teacher mentions in passing that he once painted Icons on the dome of a Church and that one of the students documented parts of the painting.

Well, to say the least, I was intrigued and so I looked up the information on Google and this is what I found. St. Michael Church in Minnesota is the place where my teacher was part of a team who drew the Icons. The Church is done in the Eastern Tradition and so that is where the Iconographers came in. Icons originated in the Eastern Catholic Church and to give the new church the feel of the east, Icons were needed.

My teacher said that it took the team 6 months to complete and that each day cost $2,000 for the 60 foot scaffolding. Every day they went over, cost them a fortune. He also mentioned that they would paint a layer and then move to the next apostle and paint the next layer there. I assume it was a way to keep each of the artists from "owning" a part of the work. Each contributed and became part of every one of the 12 Apostles.

You can see the documentary, if you are so inclined, HERE.

A Blessing For My Icon

I promised that I would not discuss how my Icon was going...but I thought it was incredibly cute that Ramon the dog came to visit us, along with his owner. His owner is our former Parish Administrator who now belongs to Holy Angels Parish, Father Blaise Brockman. If you happened to see last years photos, there is one of the people in the class, along with Father Blaise and Ramon. I guess he was interested to see how this years workshop was going.

While he was there, he joined us for lunch and then he was asked to bless the Icons from the previous year. Before saying the prayer, he also said that our Icons were being blessed, too.
Yay, I was slaving over a blessed Icon. :-)

I don't know how Ramon the dog likes the new parish, but he definitely remembered Blessed Kateri and us.

It was a very hard day for me, dealing with the gold leaf on the Icon, but this gave me an unexpected and very fun, distraction.

Tomorrow we go out to dinner after class. We shall see how that goes. :-)

Iconography Workshop - Day 1

Last year, my Church had an Iconography Workshop and they put up a Facebook page, that showed some of the milestones of the project. At that time I said to myself that if ever it came back, it was something I might want to do. A few months ago, they announced the second workshop and that the subject of the Icon would be our almost "Saint" Kateri. It felt like the spiritual stars were in alignment. You can see the announcement and photos from 2011 Icon Workshop HERE.

Work was still a mess, but my boss and I took a leap of faith and she said yes to my request for time off and I somehow came up with the money, to make it happen. As I keep trying to tell myself, it's cheaper then a travel vacation. :-)

Day 1 saw us transfer the sketch of St. Kateri, onto the Icon Board. The board is a very thick piece of wood with many coats of some sort of white chalk like substance. After we transfered the sketch, we then etched the image with an etching tool, which you can see in the first photo. The thing with a piece of cork on it.

After that process was done, we began to paint the clay onto the halo (also called the nimbus) of the Saint. The clay is mixed with leather glue or rabbit glue and a little bit of honey and it is called clay bolo. You paint with large amounts (called puddling)and then spread it around. When you get to the end, you let it dry, sand it with 400 grit and then 600 grit sandpaper. The final step is that you burnish it with an agate, until it is smooth.

For now, my Saint Icon has its burnished bolo. The day just flew and this is where we ended at 4PM.

Tomorrow, we will begin our day, by adding gold leaf onto the nimbus.

You can read about some of the techniques I will be learning, during the next week, HERE. Though it seems to be much more complicated, then what my 6 day workshop will be able to handle, it does give you a clue to some of the steps involved.

I will not bore you with a post every day, but I will try to post the final product next Sunday.

Wish me luck.

The Right Bank And The Left - Two Views Of Old Miss

When we were in St. Paul, we first walked down to a park like area by some really nice housing. It was on the left side of the river, as you travel downstream.

They had a water fountain made of concrete conduits, flowing into the river. It was a lovely area and its view was a boat dock, including a steam boat, on the right side.

The next day, we walked across the bridge just downstream from where we took the photo the day before and walked by the boat docks. We took a photo from there, looking back toward the park and housing on the left side of the river. By the way, the Science Center is over on the right side of this photo.

Both days, the sun was hardly there, though we lucked out with no rain on either journey.

I hope you enjoy the river, from 2 sides.

Two Weddings And An Audio Board

Last weekend my son and I ended up working audio for not one, but two weddings.

Every Audio Tech was away at a Life Teen retreat and so they came to us, to work the gig. No big deal, we are actually getting pretty good at it.

The first wedding was on Friday afternoon at 3PM. I asked my boss if it was OK to leave work early, to give my very competent son a hand. She OKed it and off I went.

Each time we do this gig, we learn more about where to find stuff and how to make each wedding happen. This one had a quartet of 3 people. I was confused, but I guess this quartet, was missing one of their team, for this Friday afternoon gig. I was told to mic their instruments, but they did not want to do this. They felt that they were loud enough on their own. I decided that we could compromise. I asked if they had a problem with me setting up a Choir mic, just above them? They said no and so that is what I did. It gave my son options, if he felt the music was too low or if he ended up sending a line feed over to the photographer. We ended up not sending the feed, but he did use the audio coming off that mic, to supplement the audio being generated by the two violins and one cello.

Other then that, the wedding went as expected. The couple is now married. :-)

Wedding 2 was on Saturday afternoon at 1PM.

We had a visiting priest, so in addition to our normal set up, we had to make sure the priest got the wireless mic on correctly. He was one of the priests who do not want the mic on his ear and so we had to talk to him, because he had it laying on the front of his vestments. We warned him that the priest the day before had the mic pointed out and away from his face and there were some minor feedback issues. If that occurred, the priest agreed that he would then put the mic attachment on his ear, as it is intended to be worn. Thankfully for him, it did not feed back.

Bride number two was just as married as bride number one, by 3PM that afternoon and my son was out of there, $150 richer.

We would be honored to do more work, if needed.

For Your DJ Cat

Rap Master Jethro became the proud owner of one of these fabulous Cat Scratch DJ players last week.

My work partner got Jethro from another work friend, who found him abandoned a few years ago. He is the pampered, spoiled, micro chipped pet you would expect from a friend of mine. :-)

I heard my work partner and the person who rescued Jethro, looking at something on his computer a few weeks ago, but thought nothing of it. Fast forward a week or so and a large box arrives in our office and out pops this record player.

I was stunned, but couldn't stop myself from taking photos of the entire process of setting it up and then posting a photo on Facebook.

My friend said once he got home, he put cat nip onto the record player and that finally got Jethro to do things that remotely look like he is DJ-ing a party. Why do I feel a Christmas card photo coming... :-)

You can buy the Cat Scratch DJ, HERE.

A word of warning, it is not cheap and it will probably not last the week.

Sunrise, Moonset

Here was yesterday morning's full moon sunrise. I woke up 15 minutes early, which is probably why it was like this.

The fact that I went running inside at 6AM to get my cell phone, tells you it must have been extra nice.

I loved the delicate pink sky. Not too brilliant, just a touch of pink, to make you know that it was still sunrise. Another 5 or so minutes and I am sure I would have missed it.

Enjoy.

In The Waiting Room

We have "Liked" Amtrak on Facebook. One of the things that Amtrak is asking us about, is if we have ever experienced waiting in one of their Waiting Rooms.

We did wait in a special area, when we took the Acela train from Penn Station to Washington, DC, but I thought it was special. As it ends up, that is not the case.

We found, by pure accident, a waiting room in the Portland, Oregon Station. It is a hidden area, for the passengers who had booked a room on the train. It is a little perk that they give to us. There are refreshments, newspapers and computers with printers, to make your wait time more pleasant. Considering we spent the first hour waiting out in the cold, windy and noisy main waiting area, this private one was a godsend.

When we went to board at St. Paul, Minnesota, for our continuation trip to Chicago, we were just in Coach and so we did not get the combination to the room they had in their Station. We were kind of disappointed, but hey, you get what you pay for.

Oh well, it was nice and so worth it, the first time. :-)

Look for it, if you have occasion to travel by train.

NBC And The Olympics

Day 4 of the Olympics just finished and today we begin Day 5.

A few thoughts regarding the first Olympics totally intertwined in Social Media.

There is just no way to miss the results of the Olympics, especially here in America, so just get over it Tweeters. :-)

As usual, NBC holds the best events, for Prime Time. Can you seriously blame them? I can't. This is a bad economy and any money they bring in via ads, is money paying for those 50 million cameras shooting the right nostril of the athletes. :-)

I heard at work yesterday that they are basically holding a 20 rating. Normal NBC Programming...a 2 rating.

My station is actually holding its own in Prime Time. I am shocked.
Of course a .5 is not that much of an audience to begin with.

Does anyone else feel that woman's gymnastics is missing something this year? I am not sure what it is, but I miss the old days.
Good job on the Gold Metal, though. :-)