My Water Post For Today.
On the last day of 2018, I celebrate the fact that the sunsets on the Pacific Ocean are always so stunning.
I hope to see many of them, as I travel up the West Coast, in May of this coming year.
This one was taken by a friend, who lives up in Oregon, a beautiful part of the Country.
I hope you enjoy and try to stay safe tonight.
My Son will be pretty busy, the next 2 days, driving back and forth to the airport.
So we decided to talk Saturday.
He said that the week was quiet, with him, his guest and the 2 cats.
They did not go anywhere, due to the fact that it is winter and he does not know much about his area yet.
I did manage to get a photo of the Christmas tree that they put up in his room. Note, you can actually see piggy on the bed. :-)
He did say they got a dusting of snow yesterday, otherwise, just rain and gloom
He returns to work on Wednesday, like I do.
Happy New Year.
We are counting down to the end of 2018 and the end of the Holiday Season here at the angel house.
As I walk around our living room and dining room, I am already mourning the loss of one of our trees and the fact that next year I won't have 2 of them making my house so beautiful.
Oh well, good things don't generally last forever.
It really ended up being quite lovely and I am glad we bought the new one and tried it out.
Goodbye old tree, you served us well.
It is Christmas week again and my Van Pool is not operating.
So I am on the train, trying to get into work as fast as I can...which means standing in the cold (yeah, yeah) weather.
It is always an interesting time when I get to do what I spent years doing.
I also got to see my favorite Conductor.
I don't know if I feel safer with Positive Train Control, but it definitely can't hurt having something else watching what is going on and trying to stop the train, if there is trouble ahead.
They have a sign on the engine mentioning it, too.
Maybe sometime I will get a photo of that.
The place where I get picked up and dropped off for my Rideshare, has a trail next to it. Which is probably why they do not bother our making us move our Van.
So the other day, there was a bike rack and 3 bikes parked right there.
From what I hear, the Pace app will give people a free first ride. I would have to sign up for the app, to find out how much it costs, unfortunately.
If I find out more information, am thinking of trying it sometime.
When it gets light in the evening, but definitely not now.
Christmas came and it seemed like a win for Makenna.
We went to Bed, Bath and Beyond on Sunday afternoon.
I had fallen in love with the comforter that My Son bought for Michigan. His is a brown color and I was figuring that I would have to have that and just learn to live with it.
When we got to the bedding section, what do my eyes see? Navy Blue UGG bedding!
I grabbed it, right off the bat, not knowing that it also had 2 pillow shams in there.
So that is what we got, a real soft comforter and 2 pillow shams.
We were not sure what Makenna would think, but she is so unbelievably happy with it.
For her normal gift, we replaced her banana, that was her gift from last year.
In addition, they had carrots, so I got one of those, too.
We will see which one she loves more.
So the male human got 2 pairs of jeans and an Anchor Bar tee shirt.
The female human got 2 pairs of sleep jammies and a bottle of Red Wine. We both shared a box of See's Candies...yum.
That was Christmas at our house.
Here I bring you 2 views of Christmas Eve, one on the West Coast and the other in Michigan.
Mine, which is the traditional dinner on Christmas Eve.
Calamari with Pasta, Mussels with Pasta, Floured shrimp and breaded shrimp and then fried Calamari rings. A late addition of day old bread, made into garlic bread.
Over on the other end of the family, here is what my Son made for himself and his girlfriend, for Christmas Eve.
She is not able to eat shrimp, so he compromised and made meatballs and sausage for the pasta.
He did fry up shrimp for himself, as you can see.
In addition, he made stuffed mushrooms and garlic bread, also.
He definitely showed off that he was keeping track of what Mom was making, all those years.
I am so proud of him.
Happy Christmas Eve! Yes, my family will have fish on our agenda today and so will my Son.
Something new has been added to my Holiday celebration, this year and I thought I would mention it.
We went to Vallarta Grocery Store the other day, to get a gift card and while we were there, we saw a table filled with Rosca De Reyes rings.
For those who do not know, they are a Hispanic tradition that has moved north.
Note that it is from Europe and so it is more than a Spanish Tradition over there. It is Kings Bread and it is to be eaten on the 12th night (aka: The Epiphany), when the Wise Men came to bring gifts to the baby Jesus.
Inside the cake is a baby Jesus and according to tradition, the person who gets the baby has to host a party on February 2nd (which is Día de la Candelaria).
I was worried, since I bought it the week before Christmas, if it would last until the 12th night. So what we decided to do is to eat half of it now and freeze the other half, for the Epiphany.
So what does it taste like...
Sweet, but not too sweet.
I liked it and will enjoy it again in 2 weeks.
It's the final week of Advent, back to purple (ignore the fact that the priest is wearing pink in this photo).
It's the day before Christmas Eve and I figure I will be cooking, (to a point) and then more cooking on Monday and more cooking on Tuesday...a cooking weekend.
Glad I went out for Chinese on Saturday. :-)
We did pick up our fish at the Asian Market, so we are set for Monday and as a matter of fact, I got some lobster tails for a good price. I am going to make a New Orleans recipe called Eggplant Pirogue. We will see how that goes.
We don't have any other plans, except to talk to our Son on Sunday.
It is not much, especially since it is not fluffed or decently decorated, but this is our new tree.
Since we bought it at the after Black Friday sale at Lowe's, we already had our tree up and decorated.
But we didn't want to wait an entire year to check out the condition of the tree and the lights, so we opened it up.
Once it was up, I decided to keep it in the dining room, for this season.
So there it is.
It has a few candy canes on it and a couple of Missions from a nearby shelf (I was dusting the shelf and decided to put some up on the tree, to get them out of my way).
I almost feel like it is the Charlie Brown tree...but next year, look out.
By the way, it was half price and in addition, my Husband got his Military discount, too.
Sort of our Holiday gift to each other, the humidifier has arrived at our house and we are finally adjusting to it.
The instructions say that we should keep the house around 46% humidity and so I set it for 45% (because it goes up in increments of 5).
That ended up being a useless exercise, because it hardly went on and we would drop to 43% before it would even go on. I had the same water in the unit and that is when I moved it up to 50%. Now days it goes down to 47%, before it goes on and I feel like it is making my house a bit more humid.
My skin will definitely appreciate it.
Oh and check out Makenna under the tree. A free cat fix.
While I was walking to work on Monday, I passed this part of the hospital.
In case you have forgotten, it is next door to us.
I could not believe how many leaves had fallen that past weekend.
Yes, we are late, but Fall has arrived (at least in front of the hospital). :-)
I thought it looked quite nice and I was glad I did not have to clean it up.
By Tuesday, it was gone.
Many of you have seen this photo on either my Facebook page or my Twitter feed.
But I know that there are some who do not subscribe to either of these social media platforms.
For those people, I give you our Holiday Card. The Public Media Group of Southern California (which consists of KOCE/AKA: PBS SoCal, KCET and Link TV).
These photos were taken at our first meeting as a combined organization, in October.
They were supposed to be made into a Staff Directory.
Still no Directory, but the photos ended up here.
I am on the far left area, 3rd row down and 3rd one in.
The boss man, Andrew Russell, is on the far right top 5 from the end.
This is us, about 120 full time staff.
Have a very Happy Holiday Season, from all of us.
The first thing we found out during our weekly call is that my Son is officially on vacation, until after the New Year.
His housemates are in Taiwan and so the house is his...along with the cats, Dorrito and Lulu. :-)
He actually has been calm, since he is getting things done and doesn't have to rush back to work.
He said that there is still no snow worth talking about and that makes us happy.
He filled up his car and it only cost him $16. He pays just over $2 a gallon. I hate him!
He got some of his gifts that we sent and a friend of his will be visiting and we gave her his stocking, a few ornaments of his and a box of See's Candy...Dark Chocolate. Yum.
Minus the quiet, he seems to be enjoying a little downtime.
We will talk again on Christmas Eve.
My Water Post For Today.
Back to the Lake Champlain area between Plattsburgh and before Saratoga Springs.
I can't get more specific than that.
The day was not bright, but the calming water was always to our left side, out our window.
Some boats were hanging out at the lake, too, so it brought us some extra sites to view.
Glad we chose that side.
I hope you enjoy.
Week 3 of Advent is particularly special.
It is Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete meaning Joy.
It is a happy Sunday, celebrating the imminent arrival of Jesus and the candle that is lit, is pink.
The Priest also wears Pink (or rose) vestments, which only happens one other time during the Liturgical year.
The other time is the 4th Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare (Rejoice) Sunday.
It is always my absolute favorite Sunday of Advent.
====================================================
Added later:
Here is my Church on Gaudete Sunday.
Our new Parish Administrator is serving Mass, dressed in his Rose Vestments. We have a Deacon, too.
The candles are over on the far right, under a "Joy" Banner.
Nice to have acknowledgement of what I wrote earlier. :-)
My new company had their first Holiday Party back at the LA84 Foundation in West Adams.
Being I had been there once before, I decided to bring my Olympic Arts Flag from the '84 Olympics along with me and get a photo.
We decided to do it right off the bat and even though it is a kind of gray day out, I thought the photo came out pretty good.
One of our programmers helped me hold it up the flag and I thank her very much, for that.
In case you initially missed it, The Olympic Flame from the '84 Olympics is behind us.
It's like my flag came home, after all these years.
I had some bad news last week.
My art teacher for many years, passed away on November 24th at 91 years old.
Mary Lou Carraher was my teacher from the late 80's until around the early 2000's.
As a matter of fact, she taught my Son a bit about watercolor painting, while he was a elementary school student.
She was always happy painting and whenever we had a problem, she would pick up a brush and show how to make it happen. I remember having such a hard time with rocks and I learned how to make them three dimensional...via paint.
My life changed and it became harder and harder to get to the Monday night class. Especially since it takes awhile to get yourself set up and get your paints together. By the time that happened, it was 7:30PM and the class ended around 8:45PM. You were just getting into a groove and then had to shut down.
But I did miss it and I always wondered if she was still alive.
I am glad she had a long productive life.
Your legacy lives on, Mary Lou.
HERE are a few of the paintings I did with her. The flowers were definitely partly her work.
The photo that accompanies this post, is the Santa Clarita United Methodist Church, where she was a member. The paintings around the front of the altar, are hers.
I always love when my building at work, gets this unusual look to it.
I consider it the mottled look and it beats the normal "one color" blue I usually see.
I give the builder of The Pointe some credit for the way the light hits the building and changes it.
Enjoy.
We lit the candles for the last time on Sunday evening.
All was quiet, etc..
Then we saw that Makenna was stretching out her paw and it looked to us like she was trying to touch them (which of course she wasn't).
We both thought it was pretty funny, but she obviously didn't, as you can tell by the scowl on her face. :-)
Our call this week was about how the Holidays will be shaking down.
My Son's house mates will be flying out on Friday for the trip to Tawain.
My Son is on drop off duty and then pick up duty for another GM person who is coming back from Minnesota.
Hopefully the weather is good for his travels to the airport.
We got presents out in the mail for him, so there will be gifts for Christmas. I am also sending a present with his friend, who is flying out for Christmas week...since I bought it at my Church.
Otherwise, all seems to be going well, snow isn't sticking and it is cold but not too frigid.
Always good to talk to him.
My Water Post For Today.
It is getting cold here in Southern California and it reminds me how much colder it can be in Oswego, NY.
They are in finals week there and on Friday they will be off for the semester break.
The Lake never takes a vacation, it just keeps churning and making waves...just like these.
Enjoy the end of Fall on Lake Ontario, just as I remember it.
Maybe someday I will check in on this blog, to find out where I am on the current Icon. :-)
I sort of figured out that I had just done the first coat of paint on the different areas.
So yesterday I added the first lights, to the different areas.
The photo has a lot of reflection, that makes it hard to see what is going on, but the face has its first coat and also, the hands. No more green roskrish, which is a huge improvement (IMHO).
I am trying to remove some of the blue in her veil and did succeed, to a certain extent. You can see what I am talking about, HERE.
5 years ago, I was a part of a zombie movie called, "Brunch of the Living Dead".
It was an interesting experience, having almost no time to put a 2 minute movie together, during Thanksgiving week and before the end of the semester.
Add in the fact that the first cemetery that we wanted to use, threw us out, it became even more critical to us and so we sneaked into the second one, on a cold and rainy day. Perfect for a zombie movie.
We had to do pick ups during a snowy afternoon, just before we edited it.
All, in all, we made it happen and we won an award of Easy Cheese: American. Yay us!
My teacher put up the best of 2 Minute Theater the other day and I was amazed to see we were there on the list.
So check out all of the Cheese of Distinction HERE.
My original post regarding Brunch of the Living Dead, is HERE.
When I accompanied my Magic "Son" to the Union Local the other day, they have a museum of mostly audio equipment.
The stuff is OLD and I mean OLD.
The piece of equipment that spoke to me, was this 1/2 inch video tape machine.
My brother-in-law can chime in if we used it at Nassau Community College, but the place that I seem to remember using it, was Oswego NY.
We used to rent 1/2 inch tapes to play to the students in the dorms via our "Club" called Videovisions.
It was strictly volunteer and we had set times that we advertised and scheduled the different playbacks.
I remember airing things like: The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, KC and the Sunshine Band and such important docs, like Pink Flamingos. :-)
Seeing the Sony machine, made me want to grab a tape and thread that machine one more time.
Ah, the memories...
Another year has passed and it is December, once again.
Hanukkah came early, so we definitely got our credenza display going, on Saturday December 1st. Ouch!
Christmas decorating took a back seat to that and it finally got finished on Wednesday.
Considering I no longer have my Son here, I thought we kept up our traditions for another year.
We are definitely going to retire our tree, after this Holiday season. It is falling apart.
Wish us luck on that front.
My Son in Michigan will be keeping the house going, while the other two people who live with him, spend 2 weeks in Taiwan with some of their family.
He is on cat duty for this holiday, though he will be celebrating Christmas at the same place he celebrated Thanksgiving.
That definitely makes me feel better about him being absent from us.
A happy Holiday Season to all who celebrate.
Last month I accompanied my Magic "Son" to my old Union.
We thought he would get initiated into the Union, right then and there, but the paperwork had to be approved by the International.
So we called THIS visit, a dress rehearsal.
He was sworn in by the Business Agent, Scott Bernard.
Hopefully, he will manage to get benefits like Health care and retirement contributions, as he works Union.
I spoke to my Son on Sunday and we asked about his thoughts on the plant closings and what are his chances of being laid off.
He is pretty sure all is well, in that regard. There is always the chance that he might not make it through this round, but 20 percent of his Team took the buyout, so that bodes well for him staying.
In other things, he made Stuffed Peppers last week. Something I have occasionally made, but not in years.
I am pretty impressed with his cooking skills.
Next up, if his housemates like it, is Eggplant Parmesan. It is a complicated dish and he bought some from Costco and will try it out.
If they like it, he will go to the effort sometime.
As always, it is so good to talk to him.
My Water Post For Today.
A Year ago, we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.
One of the water pools on the property, is the pool at the front of the student's classroom.
I highlighted it HERE.
I decided to show off another angle, with more of the mountains that are behind the property.
It is so cooling, even in the midst of December.
I hope you enjoy.
It's the Holidays at The Pointe, in Burbank and this is my 7th year spending them here.
It has become an annual tradition for me to show off our current building "Theme".
This is what I walked into on Friday morning.
It is not as wonderful as some of the first few years, but it is not as bad as the last few years...all of which you can revisit HERE, HERE and HERE.
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season from The Pointe. :-)
Due to circumstances beyond my control...I ended up taking the train home on Friday afternoon.
We got to the station just before the sunset.
I had about a 45 minute wait and so I got to experience the entire sunset.
It was spectacular and both my work partner and I were glad to be able to watch it.
The train station is right next to the steam generating plant and so it is not all that attractive...but those palm trees make the photo.
Pretty cool.
