Music - What's on Your iTunes?

I got this idea from a friend's blog and tweaked it a bit.

Make a list of all the artist's (not album names) that start with ("A") on your ipod or any MP3 player. Make a short comment about the artist or one of their songs. Then, tag someone to do the next letter ("B") and hotlink their blogspot. Obviously, they then do the next letter...

I'm tagging Jessica because she is the most likely to make it take off! I'm also tagging my friends Thea, and Claire because I know their paths don't intersect... And, if any of you can think of a way to improve this, go for it!

A

Aaron Keyes- I have just a single of this artist, "Psalm 62". It's a really touching rendition.

Aaron Shust- Again, just a single, "My Savior, My God".

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields- A stirring collection of classical Christmas songs.

Adam's Road- this group of ex-Mormon missionaries have surprising talent and equally surprising stories about how they left Mormonism behind and embraced the freedom of Christ. My favorite? Stone Temples, but I couldn't find a good rendition to link to.

Doing My Part!

~~~

If you read the lid of this egg carton, it touts the merits of recycling and gives some factoids about how many cartons the average American household consumes each year.

For those who are truly green-conscious, this egg company offers the option of mailing the carton back to the packaging company.

In an effort to be a globally responsible citizen, I thought I would comply. Being an online merchant, I have the means to easily package and weigh.

When I bring it to the Post Office, I will ask for a Return Receipt Requested to make certain it is received.

I feel so good now.

Oh, but I do wonder one thing. What will they do with the plastic mailing envelope I sent this in? Not toss it in the trash, I hope!

~~~

Cool Geography Games

A friend of ours, Ron Tagliapietra, is an avid mountain hiker, published author, and a professor who has created several on-line geography games. Here is the email he sent us... give his games a try!

"Dear friends,

I now have 22 geography games on the website, http://purposegames.com . Links for games appear below. When you are done playing a game, you can hit the back button to rate the game and/or to post comments on its strengths or weaknesses. My games need players, so I hope you will check them out.


The most popular games on the site are identifying the 50 US states and identifying the countries on 4 continents. I made country games for 2 other continents.

N. America (23 countries, 4 territories):


Oceania (14 countries, 3 territories):



City games are also popular. I have contributed 5 of these.

Capitals of North American countries (23 capitals)


Capitals of Oceania (14 capitals)


Cities in California (18 with populations of 200,000)

Largest city in each state
(question format)



While nowhere near as popular, hikers may be interested in these 8 games.

22 Cascade Mountains

40 Southern Sixers

Highest waterfall in all 50 states

National Parks (all 58)


50 state highpoints

13 Canadian highpoints

5 county highpoints in HI

14 islands in Hawaii

Counties
Every state has a county game except NY, VA, and maybe NC, just search the site for the state. To find WV, you must search for "counties". I stumbled on MS (and maybe NC) and don't know how to find them. The CO and AK games are not up to date (missing newest counties). I made the 7 county games listed below (in order of popularity):

RI (5 cos.)
OR (36 cos.)
VT (14 cos.)
MA (23 cos.)
SC (46 cos.)
MN (87 cos.)
MT (56 cos.)

I am working on a game for the most powerful waterfall in each state. I will probably also eventually do county games for the 3 missing states.

Finally, there is a worldwide prominent mountains game (made by Wentu).


Please try out some of my games!
ron tag (my nickname on purposegames.com)"

Just For Jessica

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:

1. Seeing Rebecca, Josh, Caleb and Annabelle in about two months.
2. Dinner with Yvette tomorrow at Olive Garden.
3. The Haiti Dinner this Saturday.
   
4. The Living Room Concert (Jon Troast) at the Fletchers next week.
5. Summer, in general (love those long days).
   
6. Feeling better soon (new medication).
   
7. My next long talk with Debbie.
   
8. Sleep - always excited about that!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Drank coffee and talked with my man.
   
2. Went to church.
   
3. Went for a yummy frozen yogurt at a new place we found.
   
4. Finished listing the rest of the bicycle parts on ebay.
   
5. Talked with Rebecca on skype for her birthday.
   
6. Sniffled a little because I miss Caleb and Annabelle so much.
   
7. Watched "John Adams" (a documentary mini-series)
   
8. Took a hot relaxing bubble bath.
   

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Go to Singapore.
2. Go to Minnesota with my man.
   
3. Sell our house(s).
4. Move to the coast.
   
5. Thoroughly clean my house.
   
6. Figure out how to market Rick's Art Lamps successfully.
   
7. Get a pancreas transplant.
8. Memorize portions of the Bible (I try, but I ain't as sharp as I used to be...)
   

8 Shows I Enjoy on DVD:

1. The Office
   
2. JAG
3. NCIS
4. Law & Order (1990s)
5. Law & Order (CI)
6. Numb3rs
7. Lie to Me
   
8. John Adams
   

I love you Jess!

In Honor of My Nap-Loving Niece!

When I saw this car, I looked all around for you, then realized; if you were in California, you probably would have told me you were coming!

New Location, New Name

Now that Hershey's has relocated their operations to Mexico,
they've adopted a new name and a new look.

You Get What You Pay For

This was posted on a blog by my friend, Thea. Take the 45 seconds to head over there... (click on the title of this post)

This Home Could Use a Decorator!

But, at least the occupant is pragmatic.

Or maybe, he likes the all-white look?

Where Will It End?

Wow! How words morph! I received the following alert from my online banking site. Notice the latest technology term.

To help ensure your accounts remain safe and secure, G******** Bank wants to make you aware of a new type of Phishing scam that uses mobile phone text messages to solicit a response via the phone or Internet. This technique is called Smishing, short for SMS Phishing. SMS text messaging is the technology your mobile phone uses to send text messages. In a typical Smishing scam...

Do ANYone really use these?

When you buy a good quality sweater, blouse or pair of pants, they always give you an extra button in case you lose one. I've NEVER used one of these.

What are you supposed to do with them? Label them? File them?

I have a jar of them in the laundry room. They're going into the trash can tonight.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest

I DARE you to find one uglier!

Jessica is hosting a contest... the more the MERRIER!

Bring 'em on.

(I was going to photoshop my face into the picture, but I have my limits.)

For Rebecca!

I don't know anyone who loves brownies more than Rebecca does. Personally, I like the centers of the brownies, with no crust, but for those that like the crunchy edges, here's a recommend!

I must also tip my chef cap to "Mrs. Dean", a friend whose brownies are renowned around the world thanks to Yvette's delivery of a sampling when she went to Singapore in October.

I can't wait to bake some brownies for Rebecca at Christmas time. Somehow, I think Caleb will appreciate that as well.

A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words!

Name That Female Vocalist/Musician!

Listen and then, guess.

Don't look at the other guesses in the comments until you are ready to make yours!

I'll confirm or deny in a while....

<<< TAKE MY POLL!!

Putting my money where my mouth is. I sent these to Rebecca for the new baby, with 21 days left until her due date!

Thought of the Word...

Hi Barb; thanks for dropping in! Feel free to leave a comment. ;-)

SPRING FANCY GONE MODERN!

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

Lord Tennyson Alfred (1809–1892)

Thank goodness for camera phones.

I was at a local discount store today (I'm not admitting which one in case Jessica or my bro reads this). In the greeting card aisle, I saw three guys. At first I couldn't figure out what they were doing. Then, it dawned on me and I could hardly keep from laughing out loud!

They had chosen a mushy "thinking of you" romantic card, and were TEXT MESSAGING the poem on it to one of their girlfriends! In typical guy slang, they were discussing how she would react, and wondering whether she'd be able to tell he didn't actually make it up himself.

I angled around, and snapped the photo, hoping they wouldn't hear the "click" and grab my phone.

Success!!

Congratulations, Jessica!

My niece, Jessica, is graduating in the morning from CSU-Sac. We're so very proud of her! Tonight we celebrated with a few family members and friends at Red Robin in Turlock.

I know she will go far. In fact, too far. She's moving to Minnesota after graduation!

CONGRATULATIONS, Jess! WOO-HOO! You did it!

(above) Dan, Jessica, Yvette and Jordan. My parents were there, too.

(above) The Band. Well, they should start a band. They already have their first album cover.

Skype Birthday Party for Rebecca!

What do you do when your daughter turns 30
but she's 9,000 miles away in Singapore?

Throw a Skype Party, of course!

(Yes, that's the Taj Mahal, in India. Josh took her there for her birthday, and made her wear the goofy tee-shirt and mask. As you may notice, she's carrying her next child, due in August.)

First thing was making sure she got her favorite cake! For as long as I can remember, Rebecca asked for cakes with strawberries on her birthday. I got online and found a place in Singapore, 7th Manna, that delivers fresh strawberry cakes at a reasonable price! They were so easy to work with.

Next, we invited about 30 local people to come (and Jessica from Roseville who is in frequent contact with Rebecca). I prearranged with Josh to have Rebecca home and ready on Saturday morning, when it would be Friday evening for us. The time zone difference is 15 hours, so we set it for 6 PM here.

A couple of weeks ahead of time, we mailed a box full of small gifts, paper party goods, and a couple of decorations to Josh at the school where he teaches. He did a great job of hiding it from Rebecca. The day before the party, the cake was delivered to Josh, also at school, and he took a taxi home to keep it fresh (it gets pretty hot in Singapore, and he usually rides public transportation).

We had a sketchy start; we lost internet connection for two hours before the party started. I was pretty stressed knowing the party couldn't happen without a connection. Dan was on the phone with a tech at our provider's, then Dustin came and helped complete the fix. We came back online FIVE MINUTES before the start of the party! Soon, we had a room full of well-wishers.

Yvette and I had told Rebecca we would be calling. Ever since they moved over there, we talk frequently by Skype. It's a FREE internet video calling service, requiring a webcam. For the party, we set up Dan's Mac laptop in my kitchen. We had it turned so that she could just see Yvette and I. Everyone else was waiting a few feet away, quietly, in the living room.





We chatted a few moments, then told Rebecca that her Grandma and Grandpa had come in and wanted to say hi. As we turned the laptop, everyone started singing "Happy Birthday". I think Rebecca was TRULY surprised! I hope she'll comment about it here...




One by one, everyone from the party came up to the monitor to speak a few minutes with her. She was online for about two hours!




Dan (above) explaining to Rebecca that he was bummed when she turned 16 before him, but now...






Then, it was time for Cake! Josh had gone to get the cake from their refrigerator (he'd told Rebecca that she couldn't look in the fridge that morning), and I was off-screen lighting the one we had here. Simultaneously, she had cake coming from behind and on-screen. Once again we sang, and she blew out her candles in Singapore. Rebecca D. blew out the candles here!


As Rebecca continued to speak with all her guests, Yvette, two of the D. girls and I handed out cake here. Then, she opened her gifts.




All in all, it was the next-best thing to being there! I only wish I could have given her a big ole birthday hug and kiss. I can't believe it's been thirty years since that wondrous day when my life was blessed with this beautiful daughter.

Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

*for some reason, the photos are pretty blurry.

New Post

Hey 3-peas-in-a-pod (Lori)... here is the new post you asked for!

I don't have any fresh ideas right now, being impaired by a low blood sugar. Rick is taking me out to dinner in a few minutes. For now, scroll down to the very bottom of this page, and see our GrandBaby Ticker!

More Later!

;-)