Flipping The Bird

Not like I am immune, I get yelled at by my ex-boyfriend, about this whenever we get together...

I guess he forgot over the 35 years since we spent any substantial time together, that I have a tendency to do this. :-)


I see this all the time in photos, it seems to be a very "Male" thing to do.

I admit that I get it from my being Italian, no maleness involved. Well, not much maleness. lol




When I was growing up Mom would flip the bird (aka giving you the finger) and she would say something in Italian that sounded like Afongoul. I looked it up and amazingly, I found it via Google and gee, what a surprise, my phonetic spelling is no where near the real thing. It's a miracle I found it...Vaffanculo.


You can see the explanation of what it means below. A definite warning, it's VERY GRAPHIC!!!!!!!







So don't scroll down to the bottom, unless you really want to know and you don't get offended by some very course language.


I am the FCC dirty word gatekeeper in my day gig, so I tell the truth. :-)




You have been warned...carry on.













*Vaffanculo! (vah-fahn-KOO-loh)



It’s the Italian equivalent of “f off” or “go f yourself,” but literally means something vaguely like “go do it in the ass.” “Culo” on its own (meaning “ass,” but in a much more vulgar way than the English can really translate) has many, many uses in Italian, but this is the one non-Italians can latch onto quickly - which is both entertaining and a bit dangerous! The accompanying gesture for “vaffanculo” is the same as it is in English - the middle finger.

Photos:
============
First photo: My real son is doing
the honors, ruining an otherwise
beautiful photo with my other 2 sons.

Second photo: My oldest nephew.

Third photo is other son #3, with
my son and my shoe polish son.

Fourth photo: My Marine son
with much help. I know my Magic
son is there, but many of those
fingers are not known to me. :-)

Lilac And Iris: The Garden Contines To Grow

All hail the fact that I didn't have to kill off a Pope!

The first time my lilac tree bloomed, was the day that Pope John Paul II died.

I have had moderate success since, but this year they are not big, but I have a lot of them.

Good to see them, because it's my favorite bush.



Here are some of my iris bulbs.

These are the ones I have on the side of my house. I have younger ones that I planted in January. I am hopeful to have some of them bloom in a month or so.

I love iris bulbs.

By the way, my daffodils are still going strong, out in the front of the house.

It's been a good year for bulbs and things.

TechCon 2010

I just made a quick trip to Las Vegas to make a presentation at an Engineering Conference, called TechCon.

Obviously, the Engineers do the bulk of the Conference, but within TechCon there are development sessions just for people who do what I do. We totally choose what sessions to do and we produce the sessions and then present them. When not doing those things, we are room stewards, blog writers and newsletter article writers. It never ends...and then we try to learn something along the way. :-)

This is the committee, with reps from such places as Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington State, Wyoming, Maryland, Washinton, DC and oh yeah, California. :-)

We also have 2 advisers from PBS (Virginia) and 3 distributors. APT (Boston), NETA (South Carolina) and Westlink (Albuquerque). They up-link shows to the system and act as advisers to us, too.

The Committee was formed and headed by my former boss and I am honored to be a part of it.

The Church Courtyard Fountain

My Water Post For Today.

I was traveling around my Church's campus the other Sunday, to check out the crowd in the old Church building (now called Slattery Hall).

They have put a lovely water fountain in the common area between the buildings. It's a serene place, with gently dripping water.

Nothing too loud, due to it's location near the entrance to the Church...but very nice.

I hope you enjoy it.

The First Los Angeles Aqueduct

My son has been doing some research on the aqueducts that cross our Santa Clarita Valley.
There is one that is a VERY visible reminder of the fact that our little corner of the world carries not one, but three aqueducts to the northern Los Angeles area, via The Van Norman Dam. The one you are seeing is the First Los Angeles Aqueduct.

The one built by William Mulholland, almost a hundred years ago.
There is also a Second Los Angeles Aqueduct and you can read the why of this fact, here.

This particular aqueduct passes within feet of the end of my cul-de-sac.



At that point it is totally underground, with only gauges sticking up to allow monitoring of aqueduct water levels. When we first moved into our development, we walked up there several times, to check it out. One time, even with my sister and brother in law. We can't get to it anymore. 9/11 made things like this, much harder to get close to.

I did mention 3 aqueducts pass through Santa Clarita, back at the beginning of this post. Any idea what the third one is?

The California Aqueduct ends at Castaic Lake, just north of Santa Clarita. From there, an underground aqueduct brings some of the water down to "Surprise" The Van Norman Dam.

LA is one thirsty city.

================
Photo Credit:
My Husband took these
photos, when he went
to the road opening
a week or so ago.

Gilmore Oil Company

When we are at the Farmers Market, we passed a display for the Gilmore Oil Company.
I had heard of a baseball field called the Gilmore Ball Field, but never oil.

I went to my favorite place, Google, and found one of the most interesting links, belonged to a friend of mine. Debbie lives right in that area and she wrote about Gilmore House and the Gilmore Oil Company. You can read about it here.

The Gilmore's had many firsts here in the West Coast and the shadow box display shows off some of it. They have both the Red Lion and the Blu-Green grades of oil in a gas station display. Interesting that the pumps have colors above the actual pump, to show off the grade. I never saw anything quite like that.




As mentioned in articles they had the first Gas-a-terias, they had a race stadium and the ball field I remembered. They were quite the thing, in the day.

Being an East Coast girl, I remember nothing of this...but I did see that ball field on a show we air on my station, called Things That Aren't Here Anymore.

Besides the Farmers Market, the fields now house the infamous CBS Television City lot.
On a personal note, it has the distinction of being one of two studios I have picketed in my TV Career. :-)

I enjoyed my time exploring a almost forgotten part of LA. It's always a nice thing.

Presenting A Power Point Presentation - My First One Ever!

Today my husband and I are driving across the desert as this post goes up. I will be presenting a session at around 10:30AM called Transitions In The Workplace. It will be dealing with working smarter, in the face of workplace challenges. I will be presenting another person's powerpoint presentation, due to the fact that he was not able to attend. The infamous, no financial help from his station.

I too have the same challenge and so I am driving on the final day of the Conference, so that I do not spend almost $1,200 of my own money to go.
The reality of this economy is that many people face the problem of trying to keep their job and grow with it, while not being given the financial help to do so. I compromised and will attend on Friday and Saturday. It's the best I can do this year. I hope to keep my expenses in the $400 range. Wish me luck.

Hopefully, things will get better for the next TechCon.

===========
Photo is of an
actual slide from my
presentation. That
is the lobby of my
station, with our 5
channels (2 are pass through)
and our website page.

Pretty cool.

Loving Frank

I admit this freely, I love Frank Lloyd Wright.

As I have mentioned before, I work within a mile of one of his homes, Hollyhock House. I have only been up there one time, but walking though a house that he built, is an experience never to be forgotten. I will state for the record that I agree with the assessment, that living in one of his houses might be a bit of a challenge. :-)

My boss at work gave me this book a few weeks ago, called Loving Frank.
It is about Frank Lloyd Wright and his love affair with Mamah (Martha) Borthwick Cheney, one of his clients in Oak Park Illinois. I knew nothing of his private life, the fact that he had six children or even that his wife's first name was Catherine. I cared only for the results of his work...the beautiful designs and the way that whatever he did, came to life in an extraordinary way.
The book was interesting, as it is written from the point of view of his lover, Mamah. Through her eyes, you see Frank from afar and see some the demons that drove him to be who he was. She did not have an easy time of it, being the "Other" woman, but you could see the love that was there between them and that the love manifested itself in things like his home in Wisconsin, Taliesin. He designed it for her.

I loved the book. It wasn't perfect and it's end is a shock, but it was a very worthwhile endeavour.

Check it out, if you are interested in Frank, or his architecture.

Visiting The Cat Doctor

As with all who turn a year old, as my cat did last month, it was time for her first yearly exam. Here is a photo of her waiting patiently in the exam room. She does very well with that, actually.
When I brought Makenna to the vet the first time, the owner of the practice, was not there that day and so I had a wonderful other vet. I have no complaints at all on her new assistant, we felt totally welcome and cared for.

This time, I scheduled the appointment so that we got the vet we have known through 2 cats, The Cat Doctor herself.
This was the first time we got to comment on her "new" digs. New to us, but not to her. It's a wonderful frilly girly space, where owners of cats feel just so welcome. Especially female owners. :-)




There is not a space in the office, where cats are not celebrated and honored. I don't know how my husband feels, but frilly works so well for me.

Up in the front of the office are not only chairs for waiting, there are cats who are waiting for that special someone who will love and adopt them.
We picked up our second cat, Flower, that way.





There are donor stars on a wall and exam rooms that are named for the big donors. The Cat Doctor says that each room is a different color and that if you look close at the exam table, each of those room colors can be found on it. I have only been in the Yellow Room, so I am no expert on this.

The Cat Doctor is a truly unique person and its been an honor to know her.

She rocks!

I Wonder If There Really Is A Worm In The Bottom Of The Bottle

Somehow or other, (see my "Other" son for details) a bottle of the Cuervo Gold ended up at my house a few weeks ago.

It's a first for me...I don't really drink at home and just about never is it a mixed drink. Wine or beer with dinner on Sundays is usually the extent of my drinking.

Well, this bottle kept calling to me. It could have been because it was sitting on my counter. I grabbed my camera and posed it with a shot glass. I couldn't resist and then here I am posting the photo because whenever I hear the name Cuervo Gold...I think of the Steely Dan song, Hey Nineteen.

The Cuervo Gold
The fine Colombian
Make tonight a wonderful thing

My sister wanted me to post a link to the song and that reminded me that I have a link posted over on the left side of my blog. It is actually Janie Runaway and Hey Nineteen together (great transition between the two songs, btw). You can go check those links out, or you can click HERE.

Super Bridge

My Water Post For Today.

The year was 1997. My son was 7 years old, when a show called Nova aired a program on the building of the Clark Bridge over the Mississippi River. We got totally caught up in the trials and tribulations of building this bridge. I swore that someday we would visit the bridge, but had no idea how. Little did I know that within a short amount of time, I would have to attend a Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The bridge is only about 10 or so miles north of that city. So I cut out of a session early and we set out on an adventure. My family took a ride to Alton, Illinois and crossed "Superbridge". We were surprised how small it was in real life. Everything in LA is so big because we have to deal with lots of traffic. This bridge was a 4 lane bridge. It's bright yellow in color and it is a cable-stayed bridge. Something we had never seen before.

It was a wonderful time and such an unexpected thing, because being an East Coast native, we rarely get to the middle of the country, when we go on vacation.

I hope you enjoy a look at the mighty Mississippi, from below Superbridge.

Easter Morning 2010

Here it is. Easter things ready for Easter Sunday Morning at my house.

My son and my "other" son, my Marine son will hopefully be here for breakfast this morning at 9AM. The child has audio to run at 10AM, though he went out with his friends on Saturday night, so who knows if they make it. :-)

I figure if it doesn't get eaten at 9AM, he will eat it when he finishes up the audio for Church.

As he said to his friend. It only happens here once a year, so come on over.


The Pizza Rustica.

Filled with lots of meat and cheese. I even got prosciutto this year. A first for me. You should have seen the guys picking at the bowl of cut meat and cheese. I hadn't blended in the uncooked egg yet, so it was safe to eat and so picking went on, over the course of the day. Thankfully, not too much picking. The pie came out perfect in size.




The Easter Egg Bread.

I only managed a 4 egg braid this year.

I had to make an extra basket for my Marine son's real Mom, who may be eating dinner with us this year. I hope she does.
My brother in law and his girlfriend are also supposed to come to dinner this year.

It should be a good day.

A Treat For Passover - Matzo Brei

I asked my Husband if he could make some Matzo Brei during Passover this year. We have nice new Matzo and he has more time then he used to, when he worked. He decided to make some today, since it's Saturday. I am good with that, especially since then I didn't have to make breakfast. :-)

Matzo Brei


1 cup raisins soaked in orange juice
7 matzo broken up and soaked in water
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon vanilla
salt and pepper to taste

When you remove the matzo from the water, squeeze out all the excess water. You want it moist, but not water logged.
Drain the raisins and discard (or drink) the orange juice.
Combine the eggs and spices and then add to the bowl with the matzo and raisins.

Stir until combined. Heat a fry pan with some oil and then using a 1/4 cup measure, drop the batter into the hot fry pan, pushing them down a little, until they lie flat. Cook on side one until brown and then turn and do the same for the other side. Place on a paper towel to drain and then eat, plain or with maple syrup.

Yum!

This recipe makes approximately 18 matzo brei.

Good Friday 2010

Good Friday to those who (I am not sure if celebrate is quite the right word to use) honor the death of Jesus today. I am not sure why it is called "Good" Friday, (to me it is just so incredibly sad) but that's what it is.

Since Easter is just around the corner, I just wanted to mention that Easter Egg Bread and Pizza Rustica recipes are over on the left side of this blog. If you were thinking that you might make it this year, check it out.

I got some of the ingredients and in between taking my cat to the vet, I will hopefully get my bread and pie done. It's always a challenge.

Just to make your life easy, the Recipes are Here.

Spring Bulbs Are Making Their Apperance

I mentioned my bulbs were coming along.


Well, here they are, as of 2 days ago.


I am still waiting for the bearded irises and the tulips, but the daffodils and ranunculus bulbs are doing their thing very nicely.


It gives me such joy.