Razzmatazlady

Category: Random Thoughts

  • The King of Rock & Roll

    Today is Rock ‘N Roll Day and Blue Suede Shoes Day in honor of the King of Rock ‘n Roll. Elvis Presley was born on January 8th in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi.

    I remember going to see my first Elvis movie with some girlfriends. I think it was “Love Me Tender.” I don’t remember how old I was but it was a Really Big Deal to get to go to a movie in the first place! Most of the girls in the theater were screaming and crying and although I was very excited, I just couldn’t muster up that degree of hysteria. I remember being totally fascinated with the whole scene.

    Elvis is mostly remembered for his wiggle, his military duty and his fast and furious lifestyle. And for his tragic dealth. But not very many people know that he was very philanthropic, as well. It has been reported that he frequently gave away cars, jewelry and even houses!

    According to one Elvis website (elvis.com.au) he performed a benefit concert in Hawaii that raised $65,000 toward the building of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. That was in 1961. Elvis raised money for other causes, too, and often helped friends, family members and total strangers who needed financial assistance of one sort or another. All without any fanfare or publicity. He was kind and humble.

    There will never be another Elvis, that’s for sure! Those were the days…

  • It’s 2008 – The Possibilities are Endless

    Well, here we are in 2008. It’s gonna be a great year, I just know it!
    My first quote of 2008 is this one by Eleanor Roosevelt:

    “Yesterday is history, today is a mystery, tomorrow is a gift.”

    I resolve to set small, achievable goals in 2008. I’m going to write them down. And then I’m going to do something each day toward those small, achievable goals.

    I usually go galloping into the New Year pledging all sorts of quixotic goals only to throw up my hands in defeat several weeks later.

    At the very least, I resolve to be more mindful in 2008.

    According to Wikipedia: Mindfulness is a technique in which a person becomes intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally.
    I know, I know…Wikipedia is somebody’s opinion and can be altered by anyone but I like this particular definition.

    I wish everyone a healthy, happy, productive, peaceful (and more “mindful”) 2008.

  • New Year’s Eve 2007

    Not doing much, tonight. It’s just a beautiful day, today. Sunny and 74 degrees. So maybe we’ll sit up on the roof and watch whatever happens below. Maybe there will be fireworks! That would be so cool.

    I remember when we were little and we got to stay up until midnight. I’ll bet that there were lots of times that we actually didn’t make it until midnight! But it was SO exciting,anyway! Now it’s a struggle to make it past 10 p.m.! Jack likes to watch the Boston Pops New Year’s Eve concert so maybe we’ll do that, too. Champagne gives me a headache so there won’t be any bubbly.

    Who knows what 2008 will bring. I’m going to make some resolutions and really, really try to keep them. One of them is to follow the Like In, Like Out principle. It works like this: if a new item comes into the house you have to make sure something similar goes out either to the recycling center, Goodwill, to a friend, or if necessary, to the dump. I don’t remember where I learned that but it’s sensible.

  • 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.

  • The Day After Xmas Stuff…

    It was a nice relaxing Christmas, this year. We loved that there was no snow. We loved that it was in the 70’s! It’s absolutely not true that life in California is over-rated. The only other place that I’ve been where the weather is possibly better (year-round) is the Hawaiian Islands. Maybe.

    O.K., maybe if you had to buck the traffic every day that would get old.

    O.K., the smog in the city is a turn-off.

    But here in the Beach Cities where the air is clear and it’s sunny and warm? I gotta say it’s pretty darned nice.

    I got really good gifts, this year. Jack gave me a pair of tennis shoes which I needed since I forgot to pack any. And he made a very generous contribution to my kitchen remodel fund. I got a great huge mug for my coffee. It’s a Los Angeles mug so it’s also a souvenir. Love it. No coal in my stocking.

    Got a JoAnn Fabrics gift card, too, which I love because I’m always working on a do-it-yourself project or two. I do spend a lot of money at that store. I should probably own JoAnn stock.

    Speaking of gift cards, I love getting gift cards but just in case you received some gift cards that you don’t want or can’t use did you know you can swap them or donate them to a worthy cause? One of my favorite websites is called The Ideal Bite. (It’s listed in my “Useful Websites” list. I subscribe to their Daily Tip which comes in my email. Today’s tip is about that very thing. Here are two websites to check out. Very sensible.

    giftcardbuyback.com/index.cfm
    swapagift.com/

  • 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…

  • A Trip to the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market and a Couple of Bargain Websites

    Today we’re going to the farmers’ market in Santa Monica. We’ll be getting fresh veggies for our Christmas dinner of Roast Prime Rib with Yorkshire Pudding. Jen tells us that there are all sorts of great offerings at that market so it’ll be fun. Will post more about that adventure later.

    I found two noteworthy websites while “surfing the net”. Is the phrase “surfing the net” even cool, anymore??? I probably should bone up on the lingo. (Lingo? Is that even cool anymore? Is “cool” even cool?) Got a lotta learnin’ to do…

    In any case, these both have to do with saving money and who doesn’t want to do that? The first one is CoolSavings and the second is CouponMom. Check ’em out! I think I’ll reference both of them on my “real” blog/website when I get it up and running. BTW, I’m still working on the domain name thing.

  • December 22 Happenings

    December 22nd is National Date Nut Bread Day. I couldn’t find any other information about that – not who started it or where. But I like date nut bread and haven’t had it for awhile so maybe this means I should make some!

    This is also the shortest day of the year. It’s the Winter Solstice. Winter starts in the northern hemisphere and summer starts in the southern hemisphere. It alternates every two yars between December 21st and December 22nd.

    Today is the also first day of Hanukah so Happy Hanukah to everyone.

    I read a cute story (in the Washington Post, I think) about a little girl who saw all the Christmas lights at the mall and thought they were so pretty. When she told her mother that she felt like she shouldn’t look at them because she is Jewish, her mother said she should just think of them as the decorations at somebody else’s birthday party and go ahead and enjoy them. I like that.

  • 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.