Razzmatazlady

Category: Pictures

  • A Little News Flash…

    A follow-up to my post about visiting the Titantic exhibit. I just found out that my grandfather, William Coburn, WAS one of laborers who worked on the Titantic!

    He was a brass fitter. I’m so excited about that! This is an actual picture of the Belfast dock workers – I can just imagine Grandpa Coburn – he would have probably been just a teenager – going to work on the ships in the Harland and Wolff shipyard.

    The brass fittings included the Titanic’s bells and Gothic patterned windows for the ship’s bars and dining rooms and much more, of course.

    Off to Sedona, today, with my sister and her husband who are here in Phoenix on business. But the “business” doesn’t start until tomorrow so we’re doing touristy stuff, today. Yesterday was a trip to Tucson and lunch at El Charro, the oldest Mexican restaurant in the country! We had a chance to see their son, Tim, who was in Tucson on business, as well. I’ll post more about our adventures

  • Night in Manhattan Beach

    The title of this post is a lot more promising that the post! I did walk down to the beach and I did take pictures. But as much as I like our camera, I’m afraid that it just wasn’t up to the task!

    This picture of the house at night is the only one that really turned out. It’s pretty good, actually. But there were street lights on, too. It was pitch black down at The Strand so not much help there.

    But just so you can see the task at hand, here’s a picture of the Manhattan Beach Pier during the day.

    And then another that I took tonight. Get the picture?

    P.S. It was a very pleasant walk. No wind and not at all cold.

  • A Lazy Day

    We had a very lazy day, today. Took a long walk with the dogs and then met Jen and some friends and had lunch at a very cool place called Counters in Santa Monica . It’s basically a burger joint but you get an order form when you go in and you build your own burger by choosing from several options. You could choose beef, chicken, turkey or veggie for the “meat”, one of a selection of cheeses, four toppings out of at least a dozen (like grilled onions, greens, cranberries, carrot strings (yes, carrot strings), and a bunch of other stuff. They were just delicious! Plus they had yummy onion rings, regular fries and sweet potato fries. Crisp and tender at the same time. One of the guys who was there said his only complaint was that he had no complaints!

    I was going to walk down to The Strand, tonight, and take some night pictures to post. But maybe I’ll do that tomorrow night. Lazy me. But here’s a picture of Jack with the dogs on The Strand. We’ve only been down there during the day. It goes for miles and miles. In fact, I think you can walk or ride your bike all the way from Palos Verdes (several miles south of here) to Malibu (several miles north of here). Manhattan Beach sits above The Strand so I think the view at night would be cool. O.K., for sure I’ll take pictures tomorrow night.

  • Christmas Eve 2007

    I took this picture of the sunset from the roof deck, last night. Looks like an abstract painting, I think. It was so calm and peaceful up there on the roof. No wind and not too chilly.

    We did go to the Farmers’ Market in Santa Monica. It was great! Bought vegetables for our Christmas dinner. There was a long line for omelets and a bit shorter line for crepes so I had the crepes. I ordered the “England” filling of butter, lemon juice, powdered sugar and coconut. It was delicious and not too filling. Quite likely that the Weight Watchers points were off the charts! Oh well.

    Our Christmas Eve repast will include cold shrimp cocktail, cocktail meatballs, clam chowder and a very nice hot artichoke dip with fresh vegetables and crackers. Snacky stuff. Tomorrow we’ll have our little Christmas away from home and probably make some Christmas phone calls. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night…

  • Life is Good!

    Ah, there’s nothing like a good night’s sleep and then waking up in Sunny California (or anywhere sunny, for that matter) to give a person a new perspective on life!

    I just read my post for yesterday – depressing. Sorry about that. But I was so tired and felt so crummy. It was raining when we got here Tuesday night and was a little drizzly yesterday morning which didn’t help my mood. Today is another story entirely!!

    We’re housesitting at what I call my favorite “gig”. Jack says it’s not a gig but it really is. I love the location; I love the house (newly remodeled – I love what they did to it); I love the dogs and I love the weather. And I love being able to see daughter Jennifer. This is a picture of the view from the street.

    I’ve set a goal for choosing a domain name for my website by Monday the 24th. I even posted it on the Dream Job Dialog website so I’m committed. Am concentrating on it, today – we’ll take the dogs for a nice long walk along the ocean which will be perfect for “thinking”. I might even ask Jack and Jennie for an opinion.

    It’s gonna be a great day!

  • Why I Will Never Ride The Train Again

    So we boarded Amtrak some time after 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night. It was already running a couple of hours late out of Chicago. Found a couple of seats together across the aisle from each other and settled in with our pillows and fleece blankets. Jack slept like a log and I didn’t sleep at all. Not a good start.
    Monday was fine. We both read books and I worked sudoku. We spent some time enjoying the scenery from the observation car. I took this picture of the sunset through the window. Had an o.k. breakfast in the dining car. Lunch and dinner were not so good.
    Then we stopped in Gallup, New Mexico. About 50 additional passengers boarded so I had to give up my seat and Jack and I had to share. Let me tell you, it is truly impossible to be more uncomfortable than we were that entire night.
    Then the unthinkable happened. The train stopped and the conductor announced that there had been an accident and that we would probably be there another four hours or so while it was being investigated. We mercifully fell asleep. Tuesday we learned that someone had decided to throw himself in front of the train. Since it was dark and we were traveling close to 80 mph, the engineer couldn’t possibly have stopped in time. Everyone was horrified, of course.
    So we were supposed to arrive in Los Angeles at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday morning. By 8:15 we still had another eight hours to go. We actually arrived at 4:45 p.m almost five hours late. I’ll need an awfully good reason to board another train in the future.

  • On the Road Again…

    Yesterday we had phone problems which translated to internet problems; therefore, no post.

    However, I took these photos from our bedroom window. We haven’t cleared a path in the snow around the house so I couldn’t walk back there. The trees and shrubs were absolutely magical looking. They were covered with a deposit of ice crystals so thick that it looked like snow. It’s called hoarfrost. Beautiful.
    Today we drove to Kansas City. There was a terrible ice storm a few days ago that spread from Oklahoma to Chicago. Driving south through Missouri we could see the trees heavy with ice bending toward the earth. Some were bent so low that they looked like large shrubs. Some of the bigger trees had branches that just snapped off. It was late afternoon and the sun behind them made them sparkle like diamonds. It was eerie but pretty, too, in a way. Mother Nature making a statement. Winter in the upper midwest.

  • A Fat Little Chickadee and a Woodpecker

    We took a few pictures through our kitchen window a couple of days ago. We have a cranberry bush outside that window and a birdhouse and a suet block hanging in it.
    The leaves have all fallen off, of course, but the berries are still there and the birds love them.

    A woodpecker and a chickadee were vying for a spot on the suet block so I had a chance to snap a couple of photos.

    Which reminds me of a wonderful website that I stumbled upon. It’s all photos of nature and wildlife. It’s called Focus Wildlife.

    The photographer’s name is Ilia Shalamaev and he is really gifted.

  • Winter Pictures

    It’s a beautiful sunny Wednesday. We got four or five inches more snow, yesterday. That makes about 15 inches in the past week. It’s about time. We really need the moisture.

    Here are two winter pictures – one of a birdfeeder that we have on our front porch. That’s a wisteria vine growing up the porch post. We planted it about three years ago but it has yet to bloom. We’re told that it will take several years. I was amazed that wisteria would grow this far north.
    The other photo is looking at the house from the lakeshore while it was snowing. That’s our dock which Jack hauled out of the lake until the spring. I love how the falling snowflakes were captured by the camera.

  • My Comfort Zone and Other Thoughts

    Mailboxes in the snowIt’s snowing, today, and it’s really pretty. Big soft flakes drifting down. I might go outside to take some pictures and post one or two. Here’s a photo I took a couple of years ago when Jack (my husband) had to dig out our mailbox. It’s one of my favorites because it really says it all about winter here in our neck of the woods. It also reminds me of the reason we like to get out of this neck of the woods for part of the winter!!

    Today I took a big step out of my comfort zone. I told Jack about my blog. After reading a few posts he said, “You’re something else…”
    Hmmm, I think that means he likes it. No more sneaking around to post! Very liberating.
    I’m going to make a big pot of soup on this very cold day and then wrap presents. Then I’ll spend some time gathering resources for creating a website.
    Sure do hope I’m one of the winners of that Dream Job contest. The prizes include a laptop and a consultant who will help the winners realize their vision. There are going to be six winners, I think. But even if I’m not a winner, I’m on my way to a fun and (hopefully) rewarding new experience.
    My sweet mother always said, “You can’t have a dream come true if you don’t have a dream.” I think that’s also a line from the musical “Oklahoma” but I like to think my mother thought of it first.
    12/04/2007