Funny Posters

An ode to Pinky (who ♥'s her iPhone, cats and crocs):

... and here's the rest that got me laughing:

"Try to Remember"

I've not ever seen The Fantasticks (an off-Broadway musical from the 60s). In fact, the first time I heard of it was when the show's run ended in 2001, soon after 9/11. NPR ran a story about it and played the song as tribute. I cried like a baby as I listened to the story with the context of 9/11 in my mind.

As the anniversary of 9/11/01 approaches, I "try to remember" the lives lost on that terrible day, the heroes who gave their lives to save others, and how the event deeply touched us as well as the hearts of so many Americans and the world ... I hope that we can then follow these fine examples and do our best to restore what was lost that day to a time "when life was so tender ..."

Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Neopolitan Cupcakes

The domestic fairy bumped against me the other day when I saw a facebook friend's photo of rainbow cupcakes she made.  Basically, it was cake batter that she had separated and added various food coloring to. A few spoonfuls of different colored batter and voila ... it's like tie-dye and baking collided and you've got this awesome looking cupcakes. So that gave me an idea ... I don't want to dye white batter into eight different colors, so why not just go for the basic flavors of chocolate, white and strawberry (like neopolitan ice cream), bake it in a waffle bowl and serve with whipped cream and topped with a maraschino cherry or two ... hmmm ...

The first batch FAILED! Apparently the batter softened the waffle bowls and the result is this awful looking mess.

With the second batch, I decided to just make regular cupcakes, in a muffin tin with liners and then put the finished products in the waffle bowls. Much better and more of what I had hoped it would look like ... here they are fresh out of the oven and nestled in the waffle bowls.

With only cherries on top, without whipped cream.

With whipped cream and cherries.

 

I think next time, I'll use white frosting instead. The whipped cream just didn't hold ...

What a find!

Ladies, here's something I found while shopping for some "foundation wear" at Victoria's Secret a couple of weeks ago -- bra extenders! Love the idea! It "adds inches of comfort for half size bras" and "perfect for weight gain."

Pictured above on the left is the first one I purchased from Victoria's Secret, $12, three 2-hook extenders in black, white and nude.  Unfortunately, my bras have 3 hooks. Last night I found at Target 3-hook extenders, which retail $6.99 AND in the same colors in pairs! Six extenders for a little more than half the price = WIN! Two-hook extenders are also available at Target for $5.99. Needless to say I am returning the extenders from VS.

Shakespearean Festival, Part 2

It was a gorgeous weekend to attend plays in the outdoor theater. Julie accompanied me this time around and we saw two plays.

"Much Ado About Nothing" was much ado. Perhaps it was because I had just finished watching Kenneth Branagh's version and the cast of the play just didn't do it for me. The pace was slower and I think they may have had some audio problems as I couldn't hear some of the dialogue. Don Pedro is too old, Claudio isn't as handsome as I had pictured him ...

Macbeth, however, was AWESOME! The witches seemed to have gotten some acting hints from an exorcism movie and Lady Macbeth's scream wasn't quite as blood curling as I had expected, but the pace and direction was so much better than "Much Ado ...". I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. Add to that the intensity of the play and the gorgeous stage and setting of a beautiful evening! Oh, I'd see it again in a heartbeat! Yeah, I gave it a standing ovation.

On the way home, we stopped by Cove Fort for some church history.  It was a windy day, but it was still a lovely visit and a great way to get some religion into our Sunday.

Here I am on the look out at the fort.

 Before heading back on the road, I sat under an apple tree. Very pretty ...

We stayed at Crystal Inn in Cedar City, based on a recommendation of our friend, Kristen. It was a MUCH better accommodation than my stay last month at the very ghetto Travelodge.  About an hour into our travel home, I realized that I had left my favorite (as in I don't sleep well without it) pillow at the hotel.  It was a total bummer! Julie called several times and we finally got confirmation halfway home that they found said pillow and will mail it back to me. Phew! I don't know how I'll sleep until I have it back, but I'm glad that I'll have it back.

Oh, Maxine!

Maxine is one of my favorite cartoons around and these couple of things I found on her facebook page gave me a good chuckle.  Enjoy!

Love is like a roller coaster—when it’s good you don’t want to stop and when it’s not you want to throw up.

What if ...

What if a virgin is artificially insiminated and gives birth to a child ... would that make her a virgin mother?

Oi, I need to go home and get some sleep ...

Bucket List

I've decided to write down my bucket list, so this what what I came up with last night. Not in any particular order and omitting the ones I've accomplished, here is my current bucket list. If anyone is up for an adventure with me, let me know ...

• Visit ALL 50 States (Minimum 24 hours in the state)
• Eat sushi in Japan
• Travel through Europe
• Fly First Class
• Fly in a hot air balloon
• Grand Canyon Train Trip
• Great Wall of China
• Orient Express (Paris <=> Istanbul) while reading Agatha Christy
• Pyramids of Egypt
• Ride a Camel
• Ride a Donkey into the Grand Canyon
• Ride an Elephant
• Sail around the Greek Islands
• Size 6 ... Again
• Stonehenge
• Taj Mahal
• Take Cooking Class
• Take Flying Lessons
• Take Photography Class
• Take Tai Chi Class
• Train Trip to Denver in the Fall
• Tuacahn Festival
• Visit Ancestors' Graves in Indonesia
• Write Personal History
• Cherry Blossom Festival
• Attend a Chinese Opera
• Retire to a little hut on a beach ...

Overwhelmed

A couple of weeks ago, I was notified that I will be taking on a fourth attorney at work.until the end of the year. The secretary who left will not be replaced and her three attorneys reassigned to different secretaries at the firm. I was told that attorney D had not given her former secretary X anything to do in about two weeks and I can expect the same light load added to my current duties.

It has now been a week and a half since the arrangement was put in place and I have been averaging 1-2 hours of work daily for attorney D (a week of which attorney D was on vacation). The foot-high stack of files and documents secretary X brought to me at 5:30 PM on her last day was confusing and a HUGE mess! Did I also mention that she had left a cubicle full of unfiled documents? Luckily, most of those documents belong to the other attorneys, BUT ... how was it that she kept her job for so long and what did she do all day during her work hours? The other secretaries who inherited her attorneys and I feel like we've just inherited our very own Pandora's boxes. Then again, all this would explain secretary X's multiple facebook status during work hours.

Kitchen Nazi

There's an attorney here at work who by her own volition have appointed herself the "Kitchen Nazi".  Despite not EVER eating in the lunchroom, she insist that the thermostat must be on -2 or -1. Once upon a time, when we had some really awful vending machines and keeping the room cool was necessary as the  warm temperature would melt the candies in the machine.  We have since gone with another vending company and the machines we have now are actually temperature controlled.  But never mind all that, we are to freeze while we eat our lunches and the Kitchen Nazi would lecture us if we turn the setting to zero or off.  We were so cold one day I turned it to +1 ... Oi! She wouldn't shut up about it for days! Another thing she is very passionate about are the number of plastic cups placed on top of the ice machine. She prefers that no more than half a dozen be placed on the tray next to the ice scooper.  Once upon a time, she had even asked me to run an article (repeated about three times, if I remember correctly) in the firm newsletter stressing this preference and stating that the firm loses "hundreds of dollars each year in cups that fall behind the ice machine." It was the biggest joke! Do you know how many cups it would take to add up to "hundreds of dollars" worth? Being the Paper Product Coordinator at church, I have a good idea on how to answer this.  A bag of 240 plastic cups from Costco cost about $13 so it would take about 16 bags (3,840 cups) to get $208 worth to make that statement true. That's an awful lot of cups and I know for a fact that they don't clean out the fallen cups more than once year around this place and they have not found 16 full bags of fallen cups behind the machine. So ... WHATEVER! Earlier this week, a metal shelf was installed on top of the ice machine to cover the gap between it and the wall.  My guess is that it is a way to prevent loss of more cups and thus saving the firm "hundreds of dollars" each year.  Today another attorney (who shall remain nameless) decided that he would put three tall stacks of plastic cups on the ice machine to exaggerate this unspoken rule the Kitchen Nazi had imposed and really just out of spite for her.  Not an hour later, the extra cups were put away in the cupboards. When he saw that they were put away, he decided to put two smaller stack on top of  the ice machine, just to see if this was a bit more acceptable. Ha ha ha ... shouldn't the Kitchen Nazi be more concerned about doing some billable work if money is an issue? Talk about a CONTROL FREAK!