I posted this photo on Facebook, for a Throw Back Thursday (TBT) post. Look at me!
I was at the station in 1991, when KCET decided to use its staff as the open to the local news and public affairs show, Life & Times.
Many of us posed for the chance to be chosen for that open, but I did not make the cut. I was actually kind of happy about that.
What it did do on a personal level, is get me a sort of nice photo of me, shortly after I had my son.
I was young and cute in those days. :-)
Happy Memorial Day.
Enjoy the day that the men and women who served, gave to you.
I took this photo at our Veteran's Memorial Plaza, a month ago. Remember THIS water post. The statue is right next to it.
The statue is Willie the Drummer, from The Civil War.
He was a Union soldier, who received the Congressional Metal of Honor.
Click the link above, for more on him (and more water to view). Enjoy.
My youngest nephew just graduated from UMASS Boston with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
He is the last of my brother's sons to graduate and all are engineers. :-)
I am very proud of him and wish him well, moving forward in life.
Hopefully, my son will follow in two weeks...please lord make that happen.
Photo is left to right, Paul, James, Matt and his wife Andie.
My son is home and my house is back to almost normal.
His team ended up last, this year. I am heartbroken, since I know how much work went into these past few weeks, but that is life.
The team worked very hard and got the car out of the garage and into the outside (for 1 hour). That was not enough time to get tested in stage 2 and so they ended up not driving their car this year. Actually only 4 cars out of 16 made it onto the track. It was a tough year.
I thought I would highlight a few photos that I found in the Flickr stream of the competition.
There is the team photo taken at the Yuma Proving Grounds, up at the top. The second photo is the San Diego Hornblower dinner cruise, (if you remember right, we have mentioned that the last time my son took this cruise, he piloted the boat). :-)
Finally photo 3 is of my son and Frank (the man on the right) working on the Camaro. I have no idea who the man on the far left is.
My son mentioned at dinner that the competition costs GM almost 1 billion dollars to make happen. That is quite a huge, 1st rate competition and my son is learning a ton of things. I hope that translates to a job eventually.
Let's hope year 3 is your year, CSULA.
My building, The Pointe, is special.
The building never ceases to amaze me.
Its latest trick was reflecting a pretty decent dark cloud, as I walked to work.
I have seen it get mottled before, but never quite as striking as this image is.
As I walked, it felt like the cloud was following me, getting higher and higher, the closer I got.
Kind of creepy and yet, cool too.
We have lived there 4 years and a month. Sometimes it feels like forever and sometimes it feels like yesterday.
Our building decided to throw a party for the tenants.
This happens twice a year, during the traditional holiday season and then a second one around the end of spring.
Last year we had a theme of The Kentucky Derby and this year it was Alice in Wonderland.
Being the Johnny Depp movie Alice Through The Looking Glass is coming out today, I thought that might be why Worthe Real Estate Group chose it as a theme.
I don't think I will be privy to the reason why, but it would not surprise me, if they are both connected.
In honor of the occasion, I wore a pastel colored outfit and actually did kind of blend in to the tables and decorations. Yay me!
Unfortunately, we had exactly 1 table for drinks (which was fine), but the table with the goodies, had a line that stretched out for a good 15 or 20 minutes. There was no way I was going to wait that long, for the treats.
I did sneak back around 2:40PM and got 2 of the little parfait cups. They were only fair, oh well.
I totally skipped the gum, cotton candy, taffy and other assorted children's snacks, that were out on the table. So not my thing.
So, the bottom line was: an "A" for the beautiful decorations and a "C" for the set up and content of the food.
I almost forgot to mention this. A Happy Towel Day to any who celebrate. Don't know what it is, check out my post, HERE.
Burbank has the only Ikea in our area.
I remember when we needed a table in my breakfast nook, we made the trip down that way.
Well, after almost 30 years in the same location, they are building a tremendous replacement store, just down the street.
When it is complete, it will be the biggest Ikea in the entire US. Check out THIS article and see what is planned.
The photo, which you really need to click on in order to see how the building looks now, was taken from our van. Sorry Mike. :-)
Chi Chi's Pizza sits at the corner of Soledad Cyn Road and Bouquet Cyn Road. Truly one of Saugus' biggest crossroads. It has also been around for decades, long before we came on the scene.
So to say that we have been dining there for the better part of 30 or so years, is no exaggeration.
Not often, but as an occasional treat, yes.
There pizza is a bit on the salty side, so I do try to limit how much I eat, when I am there...but it is great pizza.
Their pasta is first rate, too.
My son ends up with pizza quite often and so the last thing he wants on the weekend is...pizza.
That is why we decided to go this weekend. My son is still dealing with week 2 of EcoCar3.
It was nice to come back to something we both enjoy.
The fact that it is family owned, instead of a chain, is the final plus.
One of a kind food, in Santa Clarita.
My Water Post For Today.
San Francisco, boy am I jonesing for that city on the bay.
I came across this old photo from the early 2000's. It was when my son and I left my newly employed Husband at home and took a trip to the bay area.
As usual, we never go visit without a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge.
I still have that Hawaiian shirt, by the way. :-)
Hopefully, my jonesing will be appeased shortly, since we will be Amtrak training through the area in late June. I hope we get a glimpse of the bridge, while at the station in Emeryville.
I hope you enjoy.
I am going to start this post off by saying that these cookies are not the absolute best cookies I have ever eaten...but for the amount of work involved, they are a win.
I saw this recipe link on the box of Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake Mix.
I was looking for something to serve for dessert, last Sunday evening. I took out this cake mix, thinking to myself that I would have to make homemade frosting, since I didn't have any. I looked on the box and there was this reference to cookies. I called it up on the computer and within 5 minutes, those cookies were baking in the oven. I did not have to make that frosting after all.
There is a bit of graininess to them, but otherwise, a good fast recipe that works out well in a pinch.
Duncan Hines Devil's Food Fudge Cookies
1 package Classic Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 large eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease baking sheets.
Combine cake mix, eggs and oil in large bowl. Stir until thoroughly blended. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. (Mixture will be stiff.)
Shape dough into 36 (1¼") balls. Place 2" apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake at 350°F for 10 to 11 minutes. (Cookies will look moist.) Do not overbake.
Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets. Remove to cooling racks.
Cool completely. Store in airtight container.
Week one of EcoCar3 2nd year competition is finished.
Today they will move over to San Diego.
In the case of Cal State LA, some team members go home and others join the team for round two...the presentations.
News has been scarce coming out of the proving grounds.
One thing that my son posted about was that their gas tank was too low to the ground and GM made them put a plate over it (they chose AR400 body armor), so that rocks and other debris, do not puncture the tank. My son said this material is what the military uses to up-armor vehicles, in places like Iraq.
Considering they were in Yuma, they got the material the same day and had it onto the car the next day. Good job, team.
Friday night, I managed to get a copy of the team photo, from Yuma.
Obviously, you can't see much in the first photo...but when I detailed into the back end, there (up on the lift) was CSULA's Ecocar.
Click the second photo, for a better view.
I think that they are in grey shirts, to the right of the car, but I can't be sure.
I am hoping for a better update from my son, when they get to San Diego.
He should have more time then.
Today is the day!
We have lived in Southern California for years and in all that time, there was no real way (minus a bus) to get us to the beach, without a car.
To say the least, we never go.
That changes, with the opening of the Expo Line extension to Santa Monica.
Once that ribbon is cut, the beach is our oyster. :-)
Can't wait to ride it and take a walk around Santa Monica, without worrying about our car.
...and yes, we will be able to celebrate Hanukkah in Santa Monica this year (if we so desire).
Photo is of the Gold Line Extension that opened in March (a busy Metro year).
I have no idea if I am the only one who goes through this, most weekends. Tell me if I am an idiot.
When I cook (usually on Sunday), I make things that I know people will eat.
Some things I know going in, my Husband won't like and so I have to make sure that something on the table will interest him.
Otherwise, it is sulking Hubby. :-)
So this particular day, a month or so ago, I went into uncharted territory and made Butter Chicken with white rice and Naan. Hubby is not into spicy Indian food, so I hedged my bet with Veal Scallopini (yes, I know this part of the dinner was Italian), with egg noodles and gravy.
It was not a perfect meal, but it made both my guys and me happy and wasn't that the result I wanted.
Not like I am a fan of NCIS, but after all the years of seeing it on our TV constantly, I know NCIS.
To say the least, my big moments were with Ziva and Tony (I know, it's the romantic in me).
So to say I was heartbroken when Cote de Pablo left the show, was an understatement.
Hearing that the other half of the Tiza team was now leaving, I (of course) was hoping to get a final closure with Ziva and Tony.
Well, it seemed that Cote was not even asked to be in the finale, but they did manage to bring closure to the relationship and at the same time, prove that it was something real.
Since some people have not seen it yet, I won't go into detail as to how they closed it, but I enjoyed the plot twist.
I happened upon Michael Weatherly's Twitter Feed and on it, were 2 photos of he and Cote as they watched the show together in NY.
I felt that this was really, the final tying up of lose ends. :-)
Good luck to them both, moving forward.
As you can probably figure out, I am still walking over to St. Joseph's Hospital, most days.
On my way back to my building, I pass this view of The Pointe, the building I work at. Being it is so blue, it really sticks out, in this photo.
It amazes me that I see it so clear and yet the workers in the hospital have no idea we are right there.
By the way, on the level below me is the maze I showcased a few weeks ago and just past the corridor you see in the air (they have lots of these) is the pond where the ducks were.
By the way, the ducks are long gone.
I am so sad.
My Water Post For Today.
High Falls has been showcased on this blog before, which you can see HERE.
When I visited my friend in Rochester, her office building is right there, by High Falls. Well worth the time to explore and I am glad I did.
Yesterday, a friend of mine shared a link from Morgante Photography, with this wonderful sunset showcasing High Falls.
If you look close, you can see the Kodak building in the background and if you care, off to the left of Kodak, the white WXXI building with their microwave tower on the top.
The water and the sun and the colors, make an unforgettable sunset water photo.
I hope you enjoy.
We spent the afternoon on Saturday buying our son stuff to bring on his trip to Yuma and San Diego. Thankfully, he is in a van and so luggage is not quite so tight for him. We got 2 new dress shirts and a vest for his other suit, at The Men's Warehouse. He loves the one he has on his charcoal grey suit and we decided to give him one for his black suit, since that gives him a choice between suits. They told us that we got a second vest free and so we let Thi pick one out for himself and he he is now the proud owner of a pinstripe vest. A totally free birthday gift...win!
We also stopped by LA Police Gear and got my son a new belt, 2 pairs of shorts and a camelbak water pouch.
I got myself a new bag to bring to work. Mine is so wide and heavy, that it drives me crazy. This was only $19.99 and it is called, (of all things) a Zombie Hunter bag. I thought it was going to be too small to fit everything I carry in my messenger bag, but that turned out not to be the case. It fit it all!
Since Thi was with us on our shopping trip, I decided to buy him a slightly pre-birthday dinner. He turns 25 on the 19th and since my son will be gone for 2 weeks, it was the only time we had to do this.
We went to La Cocina for a Mexican dinner and had a good time together.
All in all, a good last day. Especially since we won't have our son for the next 2 weeks.
Yes, it is Makenna and I am sure I have shown photos of her before. :-)
The first photo is of her sleeping one evening. Seriously sleeping, which is evident by the fact that she did not bother to stare at me when I took this photo.
I like the fact that she can feel comfortable on our ottoman. When she goes to the other room, I am never as happy...which brings us to the second photo.
Makenna laying on my Husband's side of the bed.
There is a deep depression on his side and sometimes she is totally into the nesting feeling that she gets laying in it.
I love the bright color of her fur, in this photo and her paw sticking out at me.
It took us forever to finally get her and yes, we enjoy every minute of it.
I mentioned my newest rose, Ketchup & Mustard (2012) before. Last week, as a matter of fact.
I love that the rose is a florabunda and so it will have lots of roses, throughout the growing season. My roses are mostly hybrid tea roses, so I get a few at a time. This one is just full of roses.
I also love the fact that I chose it to honor both my Husband and I and the life we share together.
Ketchup is for me, the Italian girl from NY, who can cook with tomatoes and make sauce with no effort at all.
Mustard is for my Jewish husband from Chicago. Back in the day, his family owned a deli in Chicago and his Mom was known for her potato salad.
Yes, this rose seems to make a perfect blend of who we are, here in the angel house.
Do you want to see the rose's parents?
Here is:
City of San Francisco Rose (2003)
I think the combination is striking and thanks to both their parents, for making it, so I can have it grow in my garden.
My brother-in-law is currently recovering from an illness and so I am traveling down to the San Fernando Valley, quite often.
His girlfriend and I were on our way to see him on Wednesday and we were both hungry.
Just as I mentioned that maybe we should get a bite to eat, before getting to him, we went to make a left turn onto Vanowen from Vineland.
There off to the left, was this hole in the wall BBQ place that I had JUST read about in Westways (Auto Club) magazine. It is called Swingin' Door Texas BBQ.
It shares a parking lot with a Shell gas station and so when I mentioned the place, my partner in crime said "let's go there, can you do it?"
I snuck across the gas station and yes, we got a parking space and went inside.
It wasn't very crowded, but there were people there and orders were going out, too. So all in all, the place was hopping.
The food, excellent and there was plenty of it.
We got brisket, chicken and sausages and all were good, though the chicken was just a bit dry. They gave plenty of BBQ sauce, so that helped.
We will return.
I took a 4 week break, after the 2 weeks straight of boxes and so my home was ready for this. Here is what came.
1 bunch of Basil
1 bunch of Chard
1 bulb of Fennel
1 bulb of Garlic (already gone)
1 bag of Green Beans (already gone)
1 huge bunch of Kale
1 small head of Butter Lettuce (already gone)
Squash (1 zucchini 1 yellow and 1 small round yellow one)
1 container Strawberries
2 Sweet Potatoes
10 Tasty Rich Apriums (an Apricot Plum hybrid) (I ate 2 right off the bat, they are great!)
This is the only week where we will have apriums and I am so glad I managed to be on the week that gets them. They are a hybrid that seems to be more apricot than plum, but they are bigger then an apricot and delicious.
As you can see, some of the produce ended up being eaten for Mother's Day, the green beans and butter lettuce went real well with the spaghetti I made for Mother's Day dinner. In other words, I did not cook on the day itself, I made the spaghetti on Saturday. It was yummy. There will be pie for dessert, so I win on that, too. Yay Hubby.
Otherwise, things will be eaten, over the next few weeks.
See you next time.
Friday was a wild and wacky day, storm wise.
I had no rain in Burbank, but my home had some fierce weather.
It took an hour and a half to get home, not that there was any rain by rush hour but I assume it was residual slow down, from the earlier storm.
Here are the cloud formations, as we traveled out of the Newhall Pass area.
Pretty dramatic and of course, the sun going down gave them more definition.
Other areas, including the Ontario area, had it much worse.
My Water Post For Today!
On the day after Mother's Day, what is more appropriate than watching motherhood in action.
Here is a screen capture of a video I just uploaded, of mama duck taking care of her children.
There are nine of them all in all and as you can see in the video, one or two were having trouble getting up and over the lip of the pond...but don't worry, they came over to me and it is lower there so they got in just fine.
I don't know what's the deal with the men trying to chase them out of "their" pond...but whatever.
You can watch the video (over and over) HERE.
Ingredients
CORNBREAD
½ cup cornmeal
⅔ cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3-4 tablespoons oil
⅓ cup milk
1 egg
1 small can diced green chiles (4.5 ounce can)
1 can of corn or creamed corn
MEAT
1 lb ground beef
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
TAMALE PIE
1 ¼ cup enchilada sauce
2 cups of shredded cheese
OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
Salsa
Guacomole
Sour Cream
Shredded Cheese
Cilantro
Lime wedges
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add oil until soft crumbles form. Whisk in milk and egg.
Gently fold in chiles and corn.
Pour into greased baking pan (9x9, 9x13, large cast iron skillet).
Bake until set (a toothpick should come out clean), about 20-25 minutes.
While cornbread is baking, combine beef with spices and sauté in a skillet over medium heat until fully cooked, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Once cornbread is done baking, reduce oven to 350 degree F. Poke holes in cornbread with a fork and pour enchilada sauce over it.
Top with ground beef and shredded cheese, and cover with aluminum foil.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and back until cheese begins to brown, about 5-10 minutes.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving with desired toppings.
This is angel speaking.
I did not use the enchilada sauce, I used a can of chili that I mixed in with the beef. I also added the corn to this mixture and so no cumin was used. I added a layer of re-fried beans on top of the cornbread, to add a bit of protein. I used Mexican 4 cheese on top, figuring it went with the Mexican theme. I did not add chiles to my corn bread, but I did add some Hatch Chili salsa to the meat mixture. In other words, do what you like, it is the assembly that makes this dish different, having the cornbread on the bottom, instead of the top. No matter what, enjoy.
When they bloom, they just take over the sky.
They tower above most trees and so you have a purple canopy, high above the Southland.
It was quite a beautiful day on Thursday and as I went to take a photo of the building, with some puffy clouds reflected in it, I noticed that the Jacarandas were blooming away.
I couldn't resist taking a few photos and posting this particular photo.
The tree is so purple, compared to the blue of The Pointe.
Pretty impressive bright colors.
Enjoy.
The drought (which is still ongoing) has taken a toll in our yard, especially the trees and plants we have had for 30 odd years.
In the back we took out the palm tree last year (which I wrote about HERE) and another bush that died. You can see how the wax leaf privet is weird at its end, it is because of the loss of that bush. I had dropped buckets of water on it, when the drought was announced and even that did not help. We pulled it out, last fall and put in bark, to make the area look better. My Husband mentioned that he would like to try to plant more of the wax leaf privets and so last week, we did so. I think they came out nice, though 2 of them are going to have to fight some of the palm tree roots. Hopefully, we gave them enough growing room, to at least give them a fighting chance to grow decent roots around those from the late palm tree.
Next up, on the side of my yard that has the lilac tree, we had planted 3 grape vines, 2 Thompson Seedless and 1 Red Flame. Over the past 2 years, they have all died. In addition, my forsythia bush (an East Coast bush) finally died. It has never done well, but it needed more water than it was getting. I pulled all of them out, during the winter.
So my decision was that I would plant a few miniature bottle brush bushes. I originally picked up 2 of them, but when I put them in place I saw that I needed 2 more. On Wednesday we bought 2 more, along with an heirloom rose called Ketchup and Mustard. Sort of in honor of me and my Husband. I will let you figure out who is who. :-)
Well, we planted them all and immediately one of the bottle brush bushes died. I took a photo of it and brought it to Green Thumb on Sunday. It was a goner, according to the nurseryman. he said to re-pot it and bring it back and they would give me a replacement. So we did and it was planted and as you can see, things seem to be going OK back there.
Of course, for a few weeks or so, I plan on hitting them with extra water, until they get established.
I am sure that Donald Trump will not be celebrating this holiday, but for the rest of you...Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Obviously a big holiday here in the Southland.
Olvera Street is the main area where the people congregate and celebrate. This photo of the bandstand, was taken in 2009.
Have a margarita...and enjoy.
My son left on Sunday. He was packed up for a 4 day final stretch of working on the Camaro.
The car leaves at around 9AM today, for Yuma, so I hope to see him tonight.
Obviously, they want to get as much done to the car as they can, so he has been living there.
Before he went, he sent me a going away present in our message inbox.
A photo of him and his sister, Makenna.
It broke my heart and filled me with love.
Enjoy.
After all my complaining yesterday, I thought I would acknowledge the fact that the mama duck had hatched her eggs on Sunday.
It looks like she has between 9 and 10 baby ducklings in her brood...though the woman I was talking to seemed to think there may be 2 mamas and they share baby duty. I don't spend enough time there, to figure these things out.
What I did learn is that the ducks with the green plumage are the males (what a surprise) and the females are the ones that are shades of brown.
No matter what, cuteness abounds by the pond.
My Water Post For Today.
Where are my babies!!!!
It has been a month since I mentioned the two ducks sitting in the pond at St. Joseph's Hospital. In that time, I was sure that a bunch of babies would turn up.
Here they are, last week. There is another duck sitting with them, but no babies in sight.
Hope springs eternal...so I will keep looking for them.
I could think of worse things, than looking at the water in a pond.
Enjoy.
May 1st has arrived.
The school year is starting to wind down for another year. Mostly college kids, but the younger ones will be following shortly.
The end of the school year reminds me of that famous summer activity...summer camp.
Every time I drive Upstate New York, as I pass the exit for Kingston, I think of the years I attended Westdale Camp.
The camp is long gone, but the roads linger on.
We would take the NY28 and then NY42 and turn right here.
What a wonderful highway turn-off. I have never seen the area at Christmas, but it would be great if they decorated this majestic spruce tree with holiday decorations.
Just a few short miles up this road and we would get to our camp, which encompassed 2 mountains, one on the left side of the road and one on the right side.
I have mentioned the camp before and you can refresh you memory HERE.
If you wondered, these are photo captures from Google Maps. What a wonderful day it must have been, with the sun and clouds.
They make it look like I did visit it. :-)
