Thanksgiving Day

When I came into town, I brought with me a loaf of rainbow bread--it's a sweet bread made by King's Hawaiian. The kids love it. I was happy to know that it didn't get squished during my travels. Erika made sandwiches and cut out turkey's from the bread:


My sister, Heather, visited Erika and her family while I was there. It was nice to see everyone--my nephews Nate, Brodie and Asher are getting so big! The two oldest are young men already!

Here is Nate on the couch:
Here is Brodie playing with Rebecca:Heather and her boys are on their way to Iowa, where Heather accepted a midwifry position. Because they were traveling as a family, their dog Fiona came along too. You can't get a good idea of how rotund she is until you see her lying down! Heather has her on a strict diet.


Here I am playing on the carpet with Kaylen. At one point, she flipped right over my legs--that's why I am holding her! She's such a happy baby.
When I grew up, we always had an artificial Christmas tree due to the Christmas fire my family experienced in the '60s. Because my mom wanted to keep us busy on Thanksgiving, we decorated it while she cooked the Thanksgiving meal. Since Rebecca is allergic to pine needles, Erika and Brian's family has to have an artificial tree, so we began decorating it, continuing the tradition.

The kids were ancy when Erika and I were putting on the lights. That's the "grown up's job".



It was Rebecca's turn to put the angel on the tree. The angel that Erika and Brian used was actually made by Heather. I have a blue one that she made me that I use at Christmastime as well. She is quite talented at all things crafty.
Heather gave me a cute candy cane shaped package of Christmas-themed socks! It's a good thing, too, because I discovered earlier that I had a whole in my sock.

It started snowing on Thanksgiving day. This picture is of Erika's house. I'm standing there in the doorway. Erika isn't completely satified with her lights display. Her vision isn't complete, as she likes to say. I think it's great! Much more than I would probably do!
The meal was delicious! I made Waldorf Salad (my specialty) and helped here and there in the kitchen, while Erika made almost everything for the meal. Everyone enjoyed their dinner:
Here is Brian, Erika and Heather:

Here's Erika, Heather and I:
All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

While I was visiting Colorado, I went with my sister, Erika and her kids to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. The drive was a very scenic one, with the crystal clear view of Pikes Peak to the north of us. The houses along the way were also very picturesque, little storybook houses.

After going through the admission line, we went almost directly to the giraffe arena. Cheyene Mountain Zoo has the largest number of giraffes in any area, except for the herds in their native Africa. I went and forked over $3 for 9 crackers so that the kids could feed them. The giraffes are located in two pits with our walkway at the height of their neck--their upper necks that is! Just below their long heads.

These giraffe were very excited to see us, no doubt because of the crackers Lauren, Rebecca and Sebastian held out to them. One giraffe stood there, sticking his foot long tongue out waiting for his treat. Lauren was happy to oblige. I worked up the nerve to feed one of them myself. You'd think that I would have no problem with this since my nephew, Sebastian, age 3 had no problem with it. But I was more repelled by the slimey tongues than afraid.

Rebecca's eagerness to get a wipey just proved that the tightness in the back of my throat at the thought of the wet, slimey tongues on my skin was a reasonable response.
After the giraffe's feeding frenzy, we took the shuttle to the top of the zoo, which was created out of an old ski resort, aside the Cheyenne Mountain. We walked down the trail and visited several exhibits. In between one, we came upon a wood sculpture of a grizzly bear. Erika made a comment about how mammoth and intimidating the bear was. Rebecca then, quite decidedly, marched up to the wooden creature and began to hit the statue's crotch area over and over again. Erika and I looked at each other with perplexed expressions. Erika then asked Rebecca what she was doing. Rebecca's elementary response being "He's a baaaaaad bear. So I was hitting him in the privates." Apparently, Erika had many discussions with her children about bad strangers and that if they ever did anything that Rebecca, or any of her other kids, should kick and scream and hit them in their privates. Erika and I chuckled at how Rebecca had so loosely interpretted "stranger." I doubted Erika thought that it would encompass a bear made out of wood.

Erika trying to make amends to the bear after his assault.

We saw the bears in their living area and then it was off to the lion's den. It's no wonder lions are considered the kings of their domain--the air about them is one of majesty. As I met their gaze, it was as if they were asking what one of their subjects had wanted.

The zoo had a fun tunnel for the kids to run under (it was much too small for us adults to venture into). The kids giggled as they entered the mouth of the cave, but were serious when they were in it's dark walls. I could hear Lauren talk of their adventure, as if some ominous thing were to happen. Instead, they came out the other end with glee in their voices and through their smiles.

Next we went to the pony corral for pony rides.

From the excited conversation with her pony guide and the ear to ear grin that Rebecca gave as she rode the pony, it seemed that she enjoyed herself the most of the three kids.
Sebastian, being only 3, had to concentrate a bit more to stay on firmly.

Lauren is completely enamored with horses (and unicorns to be more accurate) so she also had the time of her life, enjoying the ride with giggles and her infectious smile.

We brought our lunches and ate at the eating area provided by the zoo. I got the drinks and the cotton candy that I had promised the kids (personally, I hate the stuff). While we were sitting there, both squirrels and peacocks were scurrying and strutting around us. A woman at the next table alerted us to the fact that a squirrel had jumped right into Kaylen's stroller! Thankfully, it was on the bottom of the stroller, so Kaylen was safe! Erika shushed it out.

After lunch I went on the carousel with the kids. Later I learned this carousel was the 2nd oldest running carousel known to exist!
The last stop was the gift shop where I had to contend with the grifters, i.e. the kids. They scammed me into getting them two things, not just one! I was taken for a ride, man! I'm a big softee that's all there is to it.

We all agreed that we had a wonderful time at the zoo!

Mutant

Apparently, I am a mutant. I am here in Colorado Springs visiting with my sister, Erika. My sister, Heather, a registered nurse, is here visiting as well. The subject of sleep apnea came up and we were talking about weight induced apnea (when you get it when you are excessively overnight) and how my brand of apnea has nothing to do with weight.

Several months ago I went to an ENT doctor that told me I have an extra flap that is most likely the cause of my sleep apnea (it covers the airway while I sleep). Heather's medical curiosity got the best of her and she used Erika's odoscope (it is the thing that doctors and nurses use to look in your ears) to look down my throat. The words out of her mouth: "You're a mutant!" Gee, I knew there was something....

After year end, I will most likely get a surgery to remove or snip this flap.

I would include a picture of my throat but I wouldn't want you to run screaming from the computer. It's not everyday that you come across a mutant.

Food Drive Results

The Food Drive is over! My team won with 1,222 cans out of 7,014! I was excited to see that we surpassed the goal of 5,000 food items! The results are going to be announced on Monday during the Thanksgiving Luncheon. I won't be there since I'll be in Colorado. Here I am in the storage room with all the food items.
Here's more food that was collected:

I hosted a celebration for my team and gave out the prize for the most cans collected in the Cranberries Team. Oscar (probably the most competitive person in the company) won--he collected almost 600 cans! He won a 2 night stay in a hotel (donated by my sister, Erika).
Today I also prepared the prizes for the big contest. It is a Blockbuster gift card, a bag of microwave popcorn and two candy bars.

I am bummed I'm going to miss out of the luncheon, but I am glad everyone can get together and celebrate giving to charity!

No Strep Throat

I've had a sore throat the last couple of days and yesterday I had the same cottony feeling in my throat that I had when I had strep throat a year and a half ago. You may not know or remember, but what started out as strep throat for me turned into a re-infection of strep throat, laryngitis, ear infections in both ears and bronchitis (all at the same time!).

I went to the doctor this morning to nip this in the bud, if in fact it was strep throat. I was even willing to go through the test (which involves a throat swab). I have a very strong gag reflect (runs in the family) so it is a difficult test for me. I learned today that doing this test while lying down is much more manageable, although uncomfortable just the same.

The doctor came in to give me the great news: I don't have strep! I do have a viral infection, nothing big. It will go away on it's own. The doctor started talking (very passionately) about how you can't treat a viral infection with antibiotics. Okay, I said. He really made me feel like I had to defend the fact that I came in early to check on my throat! I told him just that. I told him that I am normally the type of person that waits until it's really bad (like the last time I had to force myself to leave work to go to the doctor even though it was like swallowing knives every time I swallowed). I did not appreciate being made to feel bad because I came in early--I am not a hypochondriac and I am not the type to want a prescription if I don't need it. He gave me one to treat strep just in case I get worse, although he said I didn't have it. I just don't get it--he seemed very passionate about the fact that doctors over prescribe, but that's exactly what he did!

I decided to stay home today just in case. I'm still working from home as I'm not too bad, but at least I won't deal with the stress of work and potentially getting someone else sick or worse--be a grouch around the office (mainly because of that argument with the doctor).

Food Drive

Last year, I organized a food drive contest for the accounting department at work. I came up with the idea when I noticed that very few people actually contributed cans. I figured it would be successful since most people at work have a competitive nature. I was right--last year we collected over 1,700 food items! Not only that, but everyone really got into it and had fun with it.
This year, my company reluctantly agreed to do the contest company-wide. It was a VERY hard sell. This year there are 9 cross departmental teams. Each of the teams have a Thanksgiving related names. Most teams created team signs and they got really creative with them:

For my team, I gave everyone a can of cranberry sauce because my team was called "Cranberries".



The team captains also put effort into decorating their offices. This team captain's girlfriend is a kindergarten teacher. She had her class say what Thanksgiving means. Tom's team is "Pumpkin Pie" so he put "Put Your Food in Pumpkin's Pie Hole":

This is my boss, Arcy's team window. Her team is the Indians:

Mark Domash is Team Gravy's captain. His office had this tower of food displayed:

On the front of his window, it says "Top This!" As you can see, Team Gravy will "Top" the competition!

Almost everyone is having a great time with it--and we've already collected over what we collected last year! The contest ends on Friday...we'll see which team wins. My team is in the lead, but not by much!

California Fires

California is again experiencing a group of wildfires. Montecito (near Santa Barbara) was the first area hit and hundreds of homes have been destroyed. The storching heat we've been experiencing aided in starting the Corona fires down in the Southland. The Corona fire has spread to familiar places to me: Brea (I lived there from 1994-1997), Diamond Bar, and Anaheim (home of Disneyland).

There was even a fire in Palos Verdes, only a few miles from where I live. Saturday I met my friend Angie, who lives in P.V., so that we could go for a walk. We actually walked pretty close to the fires, geographically anyway, but there was a hill between us and the fires. Our breathing was a bit labored as we took in the smoke filled air. Probably not the brightest thing I've ever done, but what do you do?

This morning you could smell the charred embers in the air and you could see the white pieces of ash fall through the sky and land on your skin. Each one of those fragments of ash represents a piece of someone's home. These fires are the most devastating when you look at the number of homes that have been lost. Thank the Lord that no one has lost their life.

Sharefest Fundraiser 2008

Friday I left work early to help set up and work registration at the Sharefest Fundraiser. Every year they have a dinner with silent and live auctions. Sharefest is a non-profit organization that does an annual workday throughout local communities (I was helping our South Bay organization) and our Sharefest also puts on youth camps.

The evening was a lot of fun, although registration can be a bit stressful! But I always feel that I've made a difference by the end of the night. Sharefest is a great organization that helps thousands of kids (as the community help generally focuses on schools) by showing that the community cares. Here is a link to a video that shows last year's work day: http://www.sharefestinc.org/media_and_publications/video/1

National Politics and 911

Well, most of you know I am not a big fan of Obama and was not very happy to hear that a socialist was voted in as president. However, I am trying to look at the bright side--although I may not like it, a good number of Americans seem to crave new leadership direction. Even though the stock market went down after hearing the news of Obama's election, this hope that some have in our next president may help encourage them to have faith in the economy and pull us out of the recession.

Don't get me wrong, I do not think that is the only thing that needs to be done to help boost our economy. Those citizens that find themselves in a housing bind need to seek legal counsel to make sure the loans that they signed do not go against regulations that were already in place. If they find that the lenders were using illegal loan requirements, they may be able to stay in their homes. For others, I believe they need to tighten up their spending and those others include our own governments--local, state and federal.

Another positive outcome of this election was the turnout of more voters. I pray that the new voters remember the pride they felt when including themselves in the process. I pray that these same people realize that they have a role to play and for some, I hope it encourages them to have an even greater role--local school boards, council members, etc. I know it's encouraged me to get more involved (not sure how just yet!). Of course, I would also encourage these new voters to really look and see what the democratic and republican parties really stand for. At this point, most are immediately claiming to be democrats without really knowing what that means.

Now to the reason why I have 911 in the subject line. Last night at exactly 2:43am I was woken up by a blasting car horn that gave out a continuous ear-drum popping sound for 8 minutes before I decided to call 911. I had never heard a car alarm sound like that and I was afraid that someone had come home late and collapsed in their car, slumping over and putting their weight on the horn.

Police car #671 was dispatched to investigate the situation. The officer found the offending car, which was parked in the driveway of a house right across from my bedroom window. The police officer took out his flashlight to check the cabin of the vehicle to discover it was empty. I was astounded when he knocked on the door of the house and there were people in it! How could they not have woken up? Well, the only thing I could think of was that the speakers in the car were pointed in my direction and therefore the horn sound was muted a bit for the residents. Thankfully they figured out how to turn it off so that the whole neighborhood could get a good night's sleep!