Special Talent

I have a secret talent that I don't think many of you know about. I've kept it secret all these years because I don't like to brag. But I think it's finally time to go public with it. Ready? Drumroll....I can walk really fast. When I worked downtown, and then in DC, I would race the other commuters after we got off the train. I'd pick one or two people each day who were going in the same direction as me, give them a little headstart, and then blow them out of the water as I caught up and passed them so fast they only saw a flash of color go by. I can't remember a single time the other person won the race. And, one of the rules of the race was that we had to maintain an appearance of just walking to work. We couldn't look like we were trying to run down the other walkers. As you can imagine, this required an astounding level of concentration to maintain a steady walking rhythm and upright posture, but I mananged. I admit, it probably helped my position that they didn't know we were racing, but I'm the clear winner regardless.

Springtime in Caroland

Here are a few pictures from my garden. I've put them in chronological order, so you can see how it's progressed over the last couple of months. The latest bloom are white daffodils with peach centers, but I haven't taken any pictures of them yet, so you'll just have to imagine them scattered through the last picture. And sorry some of the pictures are sideways. I've spent an hour getting them to this point. I tried rotating them before I uploaded, but my computer wouldn't let me. Apparently it takes real technical skills to manage photos.

Okay, one of those is actually a picture I took of the Temple Square gardens. Can you guess which one?

Coincidence?

I'm starting to think I live a charmed life. Very often, if I think about something, it'll happen. Here are some recent examples: 1. If I think about a song I'd like to hear, that song often comes on the radio within the hour. Tonight on my way home from work, I wanted to hear a Mumford and Sons song, and bam- I changed the station and that song was playing. That happens a lot with GreenDay songs, too. 2. A few weeks ago I was sitting at work and suddenly wanted gummi bears. It's been ages since I've had gummi bears. But they sounded really good to me right then. That night I was hanging out with one of my friends, and she bought a bag a gummi bears (with no hinting from me). The next week I was with another friend and she had a 6 lb. bag of gummi bears! We were popping them like there was no tomorrow. 3. I decided a couple of months ago that I want to see Les Mis this year. I saw it once 10 years ago and really liked it, so I decided I was ready to see it again. A few days later I was browsing KSL.com, and on the home page there was an announcement that Les Mis is coming to Capitol Theater this year, for the first time in years. Weird! The tickets are super expensive, so I'm planning on winning some off a radio contest (I'm assuming there will be a radio contest with tickets as the prize). 4. Now, if I could just get some good potato chips.

It's Here!

My first flower has bloomed!

With many more to follow!

My New Toy

Last week I bought myself a new toy. It's something I've been thinking about getting for a while. Last week I walked into a store, and the front display was this item at more than 50% off. So I had to buy it! Would you like to know what it is? It's...legen... (wait for it... I hope you're not lactose intolerant because it's)..dary. Okay I stole that line from a tv show. But it fits the situation so well. I got an ice cream maker. I already have one, but it's a hand cranked type. It works well; it just takes a while. My new ice cream maker is electric and doesn't take ice or salt. You just freeze the canister for 24 hours, then dump in some ingredients and turn it on. 30 minutes later you've got ice cream!

So far I've only made one batch. It was a mixture of plain homemade yogurt, milk, vanilla, and honey, and it's wonderful. I'm pretty sure my next batch will have to be chocolate. Maybe with cherry pie filling. That sounds good to me. Does anybody have any other suggestions? Sorry the one picture is on its side. I don't know how to rotate it in here.

Sidenote: I saw True Grit today and thought it was wonderful. Besides the really gross parts.

The Nightmare Before (During, and After) Christmas

As most of you know, I had a rough Christmas this year. I won't go into all the details, because I'm sick of thinking about it (and really, the best part of this post is the pictures- yes, there was actual mud slopped around my floor and on the walls; good therapy for a clean freak), but two days before Christmas, I woke up to a wet floor around my bed and a wading pool in what had been my storage room. Over the next four days my family and I vacuumed enough water out of my basement to run my household for weeks (shouldn't I get some sort of discount on my water bill this month for putting more water into the system than I took out?) and kept four fans running constantly to dry out my carpets. The following week, my dad and brother and I jackhammered a hole through my bedroom floor to get under the foundation. Then we (okay, mostly they) dug a 26" deep hole and put in a plastic basin to hold a sump pump. The sump pump is now going strong and my basement is dry once again. I just hope it stays that way until spring when I can reslope my yard and maybe add lawn drains and trenches running to the gutter. In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to keep the water out of my house by shoveling the snow out of my backyard. And, because I guess this wasn't enough fun for one holiday season, I broke my pinky toe yesterday. It hurts like the dickens and is blue and puffy. Sigh...here's to a new year. (And thanks a ton to everybody who's been helping with my house! I appreciate it more than I can say!)

The day I bested Martha Stewart

I haven't had a lot to write about lately. Work, sleep, repeat. That's about it. So instead, I'm going to make an entry that I would have made a few years ago if I'd had a blog back then.

When I worked at Chrysler, they had all sorts of clubs and organizations. And they weren't just dinky little clubs. To put it into context, the Chrysler headquarters building is the second biggest office building in the country, after the Pentagon. There were about 9,000 people working there. So the clubs were a pretty big deal.

Anyway, there was a women's organization that had events every now and then. I wasn't an official member, but I could still go to the events. For one event, Martha Stewart came to speak to the women of Chrysler. The day of the event, a lot of ladies were all a flutter. They were just so excited to see the actual homemaking diva. Everybody was carrying her book around, planning what they would say to her when it was their turn to get an autograph. About an hour before it started, people started trickling into the auditorium where it was happening. They were savings seats for friends and chatting it up waiting for Martha. I had actual work to do that day, so I didn't end up getting there until about five minutes before it started, and by then, the only obvious seats remaining were in the very back.

But, since most women travel in groups, I had the advantage. They were all looking for five or six seats together, but I just needed one. I ended up on the second row, right behind Martha's personal assistant. When Martha came out and started talking, I think she picked me as one of her focus points in the audience. You know how speakers are supposed to pick a few people out of the audience so they can look around and act like they're talking to everybody? That was me.

For the next hour or so, she kept making eye contact with me. A few times, she held the eye contact for a really long time. I turned it into staring contests. She was pretty persistent with her staring, and I caved a few times, but at least twice, I managed to hold the stare longer than she could. And that's how I bested Martha Stewart. Even if she didn't know it was a contest. It was a good thing.