The Falcon

Flickr is an amazing photo web site that you should check out. Spectacular and breathtaking will be words you'll need when you view it.

**** PODing *****

The world of iPods turn me on. I just like the name, the look and the technology of it all. Podcasting, there’s another cool term. Doesn’t it just roll off your tongue like you’re an in the know Gen Xer? Don’t you want to podcast just to say you do it? I’ll bet some of you are wondering what the hell podcasting is? Well the definition is here

Will iPods take over the world? Well probably not that far but they’ll certainly replace your stereo soon enough. Soon we'll just have iPod docking stations around the house and just dock as we go, or, better yet, have speakers around the house and dock when we come in the door. Did you ever imagine 5 years ago that Apple would be saved by what is essentially a MP3 device? Have you seen the iPod Nano? OMG! It’s so cool, why would you buy any other music device? This is not just for the hip or in the knows, this is for everyone that listens to something in their cars or in their ears. You can upload podcasts, ebooks (aka books on tape), music and who knows, probably soon, TV. It’s all right there at your fingertips, literally.

We've come a long way baby

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when opening my hotel room door I saw a picture of Melissa Etheridge on the cover of the USA Today. She had a teaser spot on the front page for a story in the Life section. I quickly flipped to the LIFE section, careful not to let anyone see me in the hall.......and there she was, on the cover of USA Today's Life section. I thought how enjoyable, I'll read that later. You can read it now at this link.

I had thought this would be an article about her breast cancer and perhaps a new album; what I was surprised about when I did read the article was that it was mostly about her wife (self described by Melissa) and her family and her breakup and her new outlook since the cancer. Her lesbian relationship and her family were prominent story features.

If you happen to pick up the USA Today you should also note that the article below it, "stop if you've read this before" is an article by a fellow about reading glasses and getting older. The surprise in the article is the male author's casual mention of his partner as if it was normal. Don't you love being normal. It's been a long time since gays and lesbians were normal, ok, never...... I've always wanted to be just another person in the scheme of things and not someone who has to fight for rights. Hopefully this mainstreaming trend will allow people (the normal ones) to think of us as just like them with lives, loves and sorrows.

You ever wonder.....

I wonder why my urine smells after I eat Asparagus. Don't you? Well, I've found out why and thought I'd share it with all of you. Asparagus is considered one of the most nutritionally balanced foods out there. It's filled with sulfur-containing amino acids that break down during digestion into six sulfur-containing compounds. These can impart a unique smell to urine as they are excreted. "It's the same sulfur group that makes skunks smell," said Barbara Hodges, a dietician with Boston University's nutrition clinic, the Evans Nutrition Group.

Why don't I smell it you ask? Scientists remain divided on why people have different urinary responses to eating asparagus. One camp thinks only about half of the population have a gene enabling us to break down the sulfurous amino acids in asparagus into their smellier components. Others think that everyone digests asparagus the same way, but only about half of us have a gene that enables us to smell the specific compounds formed in the digestion of asparagus.

The unusual smells are nothing to worry about, though. According to the Dictionary of Medical Syndromes, which includes an entry on the urinary excretion of odoriferous components of asparagus: "The syndrome does not have any pathological significance

Johnny Carson memories

Tonight's Emmy award's tribute to Johnny Carson brought back many memories for me. I remember in the late 80's taking my gramma to see him. We stood in line at NBC and it wasn't really that hard to get in unless he had someone really quite famous as a guest star on. I really wanted to take gram there because she watched him every night. It was a lot of fun seeing Johnny even if we were in the cheap seats....

Then I remember taking my sister, mom and brother-in-law Ian to see Jay Leno. We were not early enough to get a good place in line. Jay Leno was very popular and we were pretty near the cut off for what the studio could hold. Krystal really wanted to sit in the coveted "woody's". These are/were seats that Jay puts all the good looking girls in and they are at the front of the studio. You see, Jay wants good looking women in the front row seats for him to look at. As they were letting people in and the flood was turning to a trickle, they started counting empty seats, we were next.

The seat filler took one look at Krystal and put her in the woody's. She later said they were quite uncomfortable. Ian and my mom got a seat and they said I could have a seat later in the show after the gorilla vacated mine. Isnt' that wierd, "oh me, well I have to sit in the green room because a gorilla is in my seat". Yeah, there's a wierd statement. However, how many people can say they have sat in the green room of the Jay Leno show? For those of you not in the know, the green room was made famous by Carson and is traditionally where guests wait before being called to the stage.

Pony Rides.....

Off we went to Griffith Park to try out hand at the Pony rides. Mom decided to put Grace on the Pony that goes around in circles because Krystal could walk beside her. She thought Grace would be nervous. No way! After that little ride Grace wanted to go on the other horses, the ones where Mom couldn't walk beside her. As you can see by the picture here Grace did perfectly fine and seemed to completely enjoy herself. A well spent $2 investment.

Building a bear with Love

Gramma, Auntie Dawn and Grace went off to Build-a-bear while Mom shopped. Here is Grace warming & kissing a heart to go in her new bear. The bear is called Beach Bear Bob. He has a nice red hawaiian shirt and matching red hat and some stylish Californian sandals. Hang loose baby! It's hard to believe Grace is only two.

Grace our little Hollywood Star

Our little Hollywood star is here in her new Barney shirt and hat that Auntie Dawn and Dena bought her. Mom is a little mad cause she won't take it off! I love being an Aunt!

Landscaping the Backyard - AFTER

After a long series of small but significant project in the backyard, it's finally finished. I highly recommend 4sod.com as a source of extremely reasonably priced Marathon sod. We purchased the IIe variety as it is specially bred for Southern California. The backyard now has a richer feel and inviting alure to it. When's the next party you ask??

Landscaping the Backyard - BEFORE

After we put in cedar chips around the flower beds, added lights & the scalloped edging, we were ready for the sod. And there it was, 5:30a it was delivered. How exciting. I can't wait for the after pictures!