It has been raining on and off for a month or so and I took a quick look out my window on Monday and saw the daffodils blooming.
They are the most consistent flower bulb that appears in my garden, year after year.
I also see a few freesia's making the presence felt, too.
Next up will hopefully be my iris flowers.
It's not much, but it is mine.
I normally do not watch Huell on TV, since I have so much work to do.
On Friday I glanced up and Huell is in a very nice blue jacket and a contrasting magenta shirt underneath.
It caught my attention, immediately.
My thought is that he must be in Northern California and as I found out later, he was about 45 minutes north of Sacramento, in Marysville.
The Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad settled here, making Marysville the location of the 3rd largest population of Chinese American's in the United States.
The temple that Huell visited, is called the Bok Kai Temple and dates back from the 1880's.
Pretty cool information, for a glance at a blue jacket. :-)
California is a pretty cool state and I totally enjoyed riding the section of the Transcontinental Railroad, that these workers built.
My friend Gina, from Belgium decided to send me some presents.
I believe she went to Amsterdam a week or so ago and so the other day, I received 3 presents.
One is a very adorable box that normally holds mints in it, but due to our ongoing problems with customs, she decided to take the mints out.
To utilize the box, she put a lovely map necklace in it. A bonus.
The other present is a grocery bag that has a cute street in Amsterdam depicted on it, along with a bike.
I truly did not expect this and thank her so much for her kindness.
My Water Post For Today.
It's the middle of winter, snow, rain and gloom...we are tired of it!
To brighten up our day, I give you a different view of Northport Bay from the Vanderbilt Museum.
Once again, courtesy of my Brother-In-Law.
The very blue of the water and sky, contrasting with the very white fence, just brings me such happiness.
No gloom in sight.
I hope you enjoy.
This was another of the photos we took from our friend's loft, just south of Downtown L.A.
What drew us upstairs to the roof of their building, was this unusual rainbow that appeared right at sunset.
We also got the sunset itself, over to the west of this photo, which I showed off HERE.
The neighborhood has gotten a little bit better then it used to be, but even with the spectacular view, I would not choose to live there.
Nice to visit though.
We haven't been by the U.S. Bank Tower since it lost its title of tallest building west of the Mississippi.
Now days, that title belongs to the Wilshire Grand Center. By the way, the Wilshire Grand used to be a hotel that my brother-in-law stayed in, back in the 80's...The Los Angeles Hilton.
Back to the U.S. Bank Tower. One of the reasons it is so tall, is the fact that it is right across the street from the L.A. Central Library. The Library sold the air rights above their building, to the developers of the building.
It was first called the First Interstate Bank building, but when they were merged with Wells Fargo Bank, the name reverted to Library Tower (due to this combined entities situation). Now days it is owned by OUE, a company in Singapore.
Though definitely it has a different look on the ground floor, it is the most recognizable part of the Los Angeles skyline.
It was good to see it again.
I had 2 meetings on Tuesday.
One was with the COO of the new Public Media Group Of Southern California.
I officially resigned (retired) whatever, from KCET.
Being my job is so complex and that my boss is also leaving this year, I figured I would give them plenty of time to reorganize our Traffic and Ops area.
So the date I am leaving is December 20th of this year.
I will use this year's vacation to cover the month of January and I hope to have a few days to cover the week between Christmas and New Year's.
I am excited about this and can't wait.
The second meeting we had on Tuesday was a celebration of birthdays for the months of January and February.
Portos cakes and people singing to us.
It was very nice.
One of the staff took a few photos of us and I am glad they did.
All in all, it was a good day.
On Sunday afternoon, we got together with several people who worked at KCET during the 90's.
The location was a loft in the Toy District of L.A.
As you can see, the view from the roof of the building is totally spectacular.
Downtown all laid out for you to admire...and admire it, we did.
There was also a rainbow off to the far right, that did not get into this photo.
Not to be outdone, even the almost full moon made an appearance.
Good friends, good food and spectacular scenery.
You couldn't ask for a better reunion.
First off, I want to acknowledge the fact that today is the late Walter Becker's Birthday.
Walter, you are missed by this fan.
==================
Onward to today's post subject.
Our delivery of wine came this week.
That makes 4 years of us supporting Tom Seaver and his wife, Nancy.
As a matter of fact, this year we were offered a bottle of NLS Wine. Which is named after Nancy Lynn Seaver.
It was slightly less than the normal bottle of GTS wine.
We will probably check hers out, this year, or next year.
It makes my Husband so happy to support a long ago friend, who in his old age, decided to follow a career that many in Fresno have done in the past.
Things have indeed calmed down over by my Michigan Son.
GM survived the layoffs and now things are getting back to normal.
He says there is still no measurable snow going on in his area of the world.
Though my Husband still reports to me that he should have lots of snow.
Who is lying? Probably the weather man. :-)
Glad to hear he is doing well and I think I will stop reporting on him, unless something important comes up.
Happy President's Day! Enjoy a cherry pie. :-)
My Water Post For Today.
This photo is taken out behind our favorite restaurant, The Saugus Cafe.
There is a small river in the back, called the South Fork Santa Clara River.
It can, on seriously bad winters, do some extreme damage. Right now is is flowing, but pretty calm.
You can walk along this river utilizing the South Fork Trail, which is what I did.
It was so nice to hear running water!
I can't tell you how exciting that is for us.
I hope you enjoy.
My Church had a Italian Dinner on Saturday and we decided to go, since it is only a half mile from our house and it sounded like something fun to do.
My Husband saw several people who he goes to Aquafit with, so he did not feel alone.
I knew several people, including David, who taught my Son audio, back in the day.
The dinner was good and my Husband put us into the raffle, which we lost, of course.
Our table mates were interesting long time residents of the SCV and they came from places like Ohio, Michigan and Buffalo.
Definitely things that we had in common, to talk about.
As we left the event, I mentioned to my Husband that this was good training for our upcoming cruise.
The Last time I wrote about the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, was 2013.
We passed by the side of the hotel, as we walked down 5th Street in Downtown LA, on Sunday.
I managed to get just one photo of the incredible interior of the hotel and thought I would share it with you.
Here is what Wikipedia says about the interior.
The interiors of the Biltmore Hotel are decorated with: frescos and murals; carved marble fountains and columns; massive wood-beamed ceilings; travertine and oak paneled walls; lead crystal chandeliers; cast bronze stairwells and doorways; fine artisan marquetry and mill work; and heavily embroidered imported tapestries and draperies.
Most notable are the frescoed mural ceilings in the main Galleria and the Crystal Ballroom, which were hand painted in 1922 by Italian artist Giovanni Smeraldi, known for his work in the Vatican and the White House. Smeraldi and his team famously painted the ballroom's colorful, seamless fresco over a period of seven months, decorating it with figures of Greek and Roman gods, angels, cupids and other mythological creatures. It was meticulously restored in the 1980s by Smeraldi's apprentice, Anthony Heinsbergen. The imported Austrian crystal chandeliers that adorn it are 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter.
When I pass it by, I still can't believe my Husband and I spent the night there one December evening. The company he worked for at the time, The Union Rescue Mission, had their Christmas Party at the Biltmore.
It was an unforgettable experience.
Wednesday, I spent most of the day visiting my Doctor (yearly check up) and other appointments. Adding to the madness, my husband made a late afternoon appointment with our travel agent, finalizing our cruise.
This did not give us much time to make dinner. So I decided to make a pizza with the extra dough I bought for Superbowl Sunday.
I got 2 packages from Trader Joe's and had part of the first package left to use, on top of the second one.
This gave me more of a deep dish type crust.
We got some nice Italian sausage (in bulk) from Stater Brothers and some shredded mozzarella cheese from the same place. A bottle of sauce and we were set.
The pizza came out fantastic and felt like we bought it from a store.
It went together in a few minutes and cooked for about 20 minutes.
Dinner in a decent time. What more could I ask.
If you couldn't figure it out, these are the leftovers.
Check out my pizza screen, which I posted about back in 2008, HERE.
Back in the 80's, when we were first married, we would send our Valentine's Day cards off to Loveland, Colorado.
There, they would get a stamp, similar to this one and it would get sent back to you, or to someone else.
I haven't thought of it in decades but a reporter I follow, took a trip to Loveland the other day.
So there on his Facebook account...was the stamp for this year.
It definitely brings back memories.
Happy Valentine's Day!
We managed to connect with our Son on Sunday.
He said that everyone we knew, made it through the GM Layoffs.
Big sigh of relief from this Californian, who knows of around 20 former CSULA students who got work in far away Michigan.
My Son also heard on Friday that the layoffs are over...except for a few that were out of town or couldn't be reached.
This family is happy to know that our empty nest was not going to be repopulated. :-)
Otherwise, all is well, as winter trudges on.
We read on Facebook that there was going to be a seminar about Huell Howser and that 3 of his people, Luis Fuerte, Phil Noyes and Harry Pallenberg were going to be speaking.
I hadn't seen Harry in years and so my Husband and I decided to brave the cold and wet and drive down to North Hollywood.
We got on the subway and it dropped us off just 2 blocks from the Central Library.
We were last HERE in 2013 and I was glad to see it again.
We made it to the library with 10 minutes to spare and sat down after saying hi to the 3 guests. All good friends of mine.
There was a host of the event, who led the talk and then after about 90 minutes, they took questions from the almost full house.
At one point they mentioned that Huell Howser was not big into doing a national show, because he did not like having to stick to PBS lengths.
They looked over to me and I shouted out to them that PBS Standard lengths are 26:46.
So then they mentioned me several times, which I got a kick out of.
After the talk, people came over to me, to ask questions. I was floored.
All in all, it was a fun time and great to see the guys.
(Photo at top: From the left, Harry, Phil and Luis.)
Before the Panel photo (Many thanks to Amanda Martin for sending it my way).
Hubby, Luis, Me, Harry and Phil.
My Water Post For Today.
They say it is the most chaotic that Lake Ontario has been...ever?
I have a problem believing that, but it is definitely a mess in the harbor.
I don't know how that lighthouse survives the winter.
Enjoy the snow, the waves and the lighthouse...in Oswego.
This was the sun, when we went to dinner last night.
We go to dinner sometime after 5PM most Saturday's.
The past few months, we have left in the dark...but that is changing.
You can feel the fact that the time change is coming soon.
The sun goes down around 5:30PM, here in L.A.
What a beautiful sight to see.
Beats the dark, that's for sure.
On my Husband's Birthday last November, we booked a cruise to Alaska.
He went on an Alaska Cruise, back in the 70's, before I knew him.
He talks about it, all these years later and I got the impression that he would love to return.
Alaska is one of the states that I have never traveled to and I keep trying to book a fast trip to Anchorage type thing. Fly in, spend 3 days and fly home.
Cheap and get it off my list.
Well, there is a cruise that starts and ends in Los Angeles and since it did not need flying to get to the port, we decided to go for it.
It is not cheap, but it is not expensive, either (considering how many days it is).
So on Monday, our final payment is due.
We set up the payment for today and that locks us in. No backing out except for medical problems.
We don't have a room yet, or a deck for that matter...but whatever happens, happens.
Oh, while she was locking us in, she found a slightly cheaper rate and so we get more on board credit and $64 less. Not a fortune, but we will take it.
Wish us luck and (of course) more, when the cruise date gets close.
The big news at our station is that the Production and Web Development area of our company moved down to the 4th Floor on Monday.
They now share quarters with Outlook Amusements (aka the Psychic Network).
If you remember my area of the 5th floor, we had white desks with small separations between desks.
These desks have higher walls and glass at the top.
I like it, even the grey color and red in the carpet.
So after all that rain on Saturday and Sunday, this is what we got in the river bed.
Yeah, I know, not too impressive.
If you look all the way to the other side of the river bed, you can see there is mud flowing down there.
That's about it for Santa Clarita.
Yes, I am thankful and if the weather reports are correct, we should get a few days to dry out now.
The big news from our call on Sunday was that the layoffs that I have been hinting about, were about to become real.
My Son was driving to Lansing Michigan on Monday, so he figured he would not know anything until Tuesday.
We got a text message from him on Monday afternoon, that told us that he made it through the layoff and his team lost just one member.
Others we do not know as of yet...like his house mate.
Otherwise, he also survived the Polar Vortex and said things did not get too bad in Wixom.
Good news, at least for now.
I don't know if I have mentioned this collage of photos before. Probably once or twice.
When I get Christmas and Holiday cards, I take the old ones down and put up the new ones.
It is so wonderful to see how the kids grow in the many family and friends photos.
I finally got around to doing the taking down of the old and I got the wall reorganized, this past weekend.
I guess the January cleaning bug got me and just in a nick of time, it is done for another year.
Pretty cool to look at, as we sit watching TV.
My Water Post For Today.
Wow, has it been raining!
They told us that this storm that began on Friday night would be the biggest of the three storms coming our way, but I didn't totally believe them.
Not only was the rain coming down hard, for something like 6 hours.
Along with it, came hard winds. Like upwards of 65mph winds.
They blew out the time and temperature sign in Canyon Country. The place where reporters normally tell people how hot it is.
Nothing to see here, the sign is gone.
Anyway, sorry it is not too interesting, water wise, but it is water.
I hope you enjoy.
Good Luck to the Rams today.
I took this photo from the front of Red Lobster on Saturday (when we went out for my Birthday dinner).
Not the best view of Magic Mountain, but not too bad, since I can't get into the park.
That is the sky tower on the right and one of the coasters (I am not sure which one) on the left.
A really wonderful sunset and view.
I hope you enjoy.
I had a cake hanging around in our cupboard and it was on expiration. So being it was my Birthday Weekend, I decided to make it.
The thing is, I have no frosting and hate the frosting in the stores.
Checking the trusty Internet, I found this great one. My Thanks to Tracy Larson and All Recipes.
My humble opinion...it was great. Creamy, but not too chocolatey.
"I've been using this chocolate frosting recipe forever, and several friends now use it as their 'favorite frosting!' It's smooth, creamy and not-too-dark. I just wanted to share it with chocolate lovers everywhere! It will frost, but not fill, an 8 or 9 inch layer cake."
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla.
Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.
Yes, he is still alive, though he said the weather at Costco was windy and frigid on Sunday.
No layoffs yet, but he again thinks this might be the week for them.
Otherwise, still busy at work and I am sure it will get even busier, when the layoffs hit.
In good news for him, they are still testing cars for GM and so his car doesn't get out much at all.
