It's all in a name

I am going to change the names of my dogs. Otto is now Marley, named after the world's worst dog. Otto is probably the world's second worst dog -- actually we are probably the worst owners.

Daisy's new name is Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. I am naming her after the deranged seeing eye b (the movie's words, not mine) in the movie "Everything is Illuminated". She is deranged and kind of looks the same.

Eat My Words

I know I said I would never buy another Patricia Cornwell book, but in my defense, I was going to NYC for the weekend and it (Scarpetta) was on sale at Smiths. Not as good a price as Costco, but I wasn’t there. Anyway, I needed a brainless, quick read for the 5 hour flight to JFK. And that is exactly what it is. Actually, it is not half bad (which probably means that it is only half good). The Scarpetta books have been getting worse and worse since they killed off Benton, but made a decidedly downward spiral to awfulness since they brought him back from the dead with some lame story about having to hide out for some reason I can’t really even remember now it was so dumb. I do want to know who the poor stiff was whose face Scarpetta identified and they cremated.

However, this book does redeem the series somewhat. The characters are much less angry, pissy, and just plain unlikeable. Marino is on the road to rehabilitation and redemption. Lucy is still quite unlikeable. And I don’t think it has anything to do with her orientation. She is just a nasty, snarky woman who wants to be a man. I do think Cornwell needs to look for some new plot devices. How many stalkers and/or colleagues can Scarpetta have that want to possess/kill and or ruin her professionally before it all seems absurd? Also, how about those seemingly random crimes in a city of millions of people that somehow end up being related to each other and the stalker/colleague-killer/ruiner.

But if you are on a long plane ride and need a diversion, this is not awful. It’s not a ringing endorsement, but better than Trace, BlowFly, Predator and Book of the Dead.

Slow Death

We had the privilege of hosting judges from the Ukraine for a week (though it truly seemed like 2 weeks). As enjoyable as it was on one level, it seemed, on another level, like a slow and painful death. I am sure all of you know someone who has said, "Oh, I've always wanted to have a Bed & Breakfast!" While we are all grateful for those people, I am sure they are insane. This is not to say that I don't want people from coming to visit us, it's just that I don't want people to come and visit us. No really, only if you speak English, can get yourself around town, don't want to go out and party until 1 or 2 in the morning, don't expect me to make breakfast every day and I don't have to take you to the airport at 5 am. So, family members, Emily Jones, BFF's are all welcome. Please just note the rules stated above. I was going to give you a play by play, blow by blow run down of the week, but it was just too long, so here is a list of the high/lowlights.

1. Hopefully would go to be early, but wanted to have tea and chat 'til 12:30 am.
2. Hotel style continental breakfast, complete with hot cereal and coffee every morning. My coffee must not have tasted too good, because Judge bought instant coffee on Monday.
3. Monday, no one wanted to eat, only shop -- Gap, Barnes & Noble, Apple Store and Victoria's Secret. Very odd experience with Julia digging through stacks of undies while discussing things with Judge in Ukranian. He bought 2 bags of stuff. I didn't ask.
4. Tuesday Ukranian Dinner - a Pork Festival -- All the dishes had some sort of pork product in it. Borscht with spare ribs, potato salad with ham, pork shishkebabs, pierogies and polenta garnished with bacon. If a spot of your plate had not food on it, someone would dish you up some more.
5. Wednesday, a little respite, because everyone went to the Jazz game. They have a Ukranian player on the team and he posed for pictures and signed all their ticket stubs.
6. Thursday - dinner at the Sykes house with pot roast, rolls, roasted potatoes and salad. Made coffee but no one drank it. Must not be too good. Bob took the Judge and Julia shopping -- he was feeling better. Bought the judge a $175 tie!! and a bike helmet for Julia's son. Julia and one of the other judges went out for drinks later. Bob stayed up until 1:30 waiting for her because she said she would only be an hour.
7. Friday -- big huge dinner at the Jacobs house. Kathy, thank you so much. Lots of speeches and then we sent them off to a concert at the Conference center. Then they went shopping some more. We pawned them off on the Sorokins and the Johnsons. We're not very good neighbors.
8. Saturday, they were supposed to be on their way to the airport where we could just leave them. The coordinator overslept and called Bob and asked him to get them checked in as Julia had all the passports (I think a throwback to communism when you didn't want anyone to defect.) It took over an hour to get everyone checked in due to pictures, hugs, overlimit bags. I waited in the car.
9. Cleaned the bathrooms, washed the bedding and generally aired out the house. Kathleen said it smelled like coffee, cheap aftershave and cigarettes. I think it is just a little Euro-funky smell.
10. Monday, I took all the bedspreads to the laundrymat to try to get them smelling fresh again. I may have to throw the pillows away due to the stale cigarette smell, even though they didn't smoke in the house.
11. Tonight at dinner Bob said he missed them and didn't I. Honestly, no!!

Tell Me Its Not True

What is the world coming to? I just read that Days of Our Lives has fired Marlena and John. She's been possessed. She's had amnesia. She's been married to John 3 times and Roman at least twice. I think Stefano even held her captive for awhile. And John's been a priest and brainwashed by the Evil Stefano. He's had amnesia and been in a coma and missing for months at a time.

I guess the bad economy has even hit Salem. This is apparently a cost cutting measure by NBC.

I haven't watched a soap opera in a zillion years. But I always knew that if I started again, Marlena would still be there. I am so dissapointed.

It's all Relative, Part II

I was on my way home from Park City yesterday (I had gone to Provo to file a complaint with the district court -- not my own personal complaint, but a malpractice filing for a client) when I decided to take a side trip through Provo Canyon and Heber and have lunch with Sarah. I knew I needed to get gas, but wanted to try to get to SLC and buy it at the Maverik on 2nd West and north Temple for 1.999 gallon.

When I pulled out of Park City, I had 22 miles to empty -- SLC is 26 miles from PC. Anyway, I thought I could make it and then chickened out at Parley's Summit and bought 5 dollars worth of gas. That's a whole whoppin' 2 gallons at $2.25 at the Sinclair Station. I was up to 53 miles to empty.

Anyway, its a good thing I got that gas because I realized that I had errands to run before the $1.99 and 9/10's gas (why do they do the 9/10th thing anyway?). I got the lawn mower shoved into the back of my car and drove up Main Street heading for Maverik. To my surprise, the Maverik at 13th So. and Main had gas for $1.959!! I bought just a little less than 20 gallons (since I bought 2 gallons in Parley's Summit and used one driving around) for $39.01!!! Does anyone remember when gas was this cheap? Cheap is a relative term.

p.s. this picture is a Chevron Sign from google. I haven't seen Chevron this cheap yet.

God Bless America

After watching all the election coverage (that seemed to go on for a decade) and the historic election of Barack Obama, I believe, no, I know, the following is/is not true:

1. Barack Obama is not a terrorist
2. Barack Obama probably does say the pledge of allegience, salute the flag, pray, blah, blah blah. 3. He is not the devil or the anti-Christ and I am sure he is not the great satan that is discussed in the book of Revelations.
4. He is a natural born US citizen.
5. He is not a Muslim. He was not sworn into office with the Koran. That would have been some other person (in the US House of Representatives - who actually is a Muslim) and so what.

6. He is very liberal on issues that I am conservative or centrist about.

#6 is a perfectly legitimate reason to vote against someone. I am so glad the election is over no matter which way it went just because I was sooooo tired of the anti-Obama emails I kept getting. I checked out the first 2 or 3 on factcheck.org and snopes.com; but since they always turned up as false, or misleading, or doctored, etc. I just quit reading.

Now, while Senator Obama may not be my favorite president, I am also tired of people who say they are going to move to Canada. Please, go. The problem with these people is that they never go!!

America is the greatest country on earth!! My children probably think this is an outrageous claim, but it is true. I believe that God intended us to be great and good. America is bigger than one president. We will survive. We have survived other disastrous presidents. We lived through Jimmy Carter.

It will be OK.

It's all relative!

I'm no Einstein. So why is it that when I paid $2.89.9 per gallon for gas on Saturday, I felt like I did when I was paying only 38.9 (that's cents). That seemed like a ton of money in 1971, when I had to scrounge around on the floor of my Mom's car for enough change for 1 gallon -- because the gauge didn't work and I didn't know how much gas I really had. I was only able to come up with 35.9 cents, but the nice boy who pumped my gas (I must be old -- I remember when it was the norm to have an attendant fill your tank everywhere, not just Oregon) gave me the extra 3 cents worth. Like I said, I'm no Einstein, so I can't really tell you how much gas I got for the 3 cents I didn't have.

When I filled my tank yesterday, I only (?) cost $66.00. I am only filling it every two weeks and the last time I paid $77. Now Bob fills up every week for a cost of $67 (versus $88 at the highest), I fill up every other week for $66 now (versus $88 at the highest), and Kathleen fills up every 10 days (13 gallon tank) for $38 (instead of $47). This is saving me -----------. You do the math. The answer is: a bundle!!

That's Entertainment

I have been very disappointed in my entertainment choices lately. Some people would say that I should have known by the movies I have chosen to see, but in my defense I only went to some of these movies because Bob wanted to. He loves movies and actually is fairly easy to please. Bob views movies like he views food (his comment, not mine). He'll eat anything I make and thinks it is all great (with a couple of exceptions). Movies are the same way. Just entertain me for a couple of hours. It's all good.

We have seen the following movies for the past few weeks and included is my mini-review:

1. Babylon, AD -- I should have seen this one coming. Burned out future, Vin Diesel -- a recipe for a bad film. It was just stupid.

2. American Carol -- again, should have seen it coming. It was really dumb, and made me very uncomfortable. Now I do believe that there is a real liberal slant to Hollywood, but if the right is going to make a movie that is slanted in their direction, the least it could be is good. And funny. This movie was neither.

3. The Mummy 3 -- this kinda is a guilty pleasure. There is something about the Mummy movies that just make me laugh. However, it wasn't great. It actually wasn't even good, but passable.

4. Eagle Eye -- this should have been much better than it was. It was one of those movies where you kept looking at your watch wondering how long you had been there. I swear it was a 4 hour movie. With plot holes so large you could drive a really big truck through them.

5. City of Ember -- not bad. Actually you expect fantasy to be fantastical (not a real word). and it was. Just a little too long and the ending didn't resolve anything.

6. Errand of Angels -- loved this movie. Sister missionaries in Germany. Very sweet.

7. Forever Strong -- sports cliche'd, but really entertaining with a great Salt Lake City connection. The Highland High Rugby team! See it if you can.

8. GhostTown -- Best movie I have seen in ages. You will laugh and be touched.

9. The House Bunny -- I liked this movie probably better than I should have. It was silly but sweet. A little vulgar. Still, it made me laugh.

Overall, I guess it wasn't a total loss, movie-wise. There were some roses among the thorns. I would strongly recommend #'s 6, 7, & 8. Moderately recommend #'s 3, 5 &9; and thumbs down on the rest.

I'm only 50/50 on my book choices, also. I finished reading Yearning for the Living God, which I really liked. Once I brought it home from Huntsville, I finished it in no time. I have also been working on Nora Roberts latest book, Tribute. It has taken me 3 months; I'm 2/3 of the way through, I have already figured out who the criminal is and really don't care to finish it. I left it in Huntsville. I can usually bang out a mindless mystery in 2 or 3 days. I can't seem to concentrate. Maybe it is just bad reading choices. Perhaps I should stick to the classics.

I'm also 50/50 on Netflix. I loved Touching Evil - the BBC version. But the Forbidden Kingdom was so dumb, I sent it back without finishing it.

Perfection

Yesterday, I had what I felt like was a perfect day. I'm not sure anyone else would think so, but for some reason it just felt really good to me. Maybe it was because I did a little of what I had to do and a little of what I wanted to do, and got to bed before midnight.
1. I got up.
2. Worked on a quilt I am making for Robbie. It is kinda cool. It is made up of fabrics that remind me of Rob. It is a little off-square, but that reminds me of Rob, too.
3. Went to Weight Watchers with no loss, but I didn't gain either. Sometimes none is more.
4. Went to the office. Since it was a Federal holiday, there were no bills in the mail. It was cold there so I had to go home early before I froze to death.
5. Came home.
6. Fed the dogs, dragged up the garbage cans so Bob didn't have to. Didn't get any mail -- again a plus as there were no bills. The dishwasher was already emptied so I didn't have to do it.
7. Made a tasty dinner for my family -- baked chicken thighs & drumsticks and leftover mashed sweet potatoes and spaghetti squash. Oh, and the last of my zuchinni that I harvested this year. I had 7 plants and only about 6 squash.
8. Cleaned up the dishes, had scriptures and prayer, and it was only 8:15.
9. Since it was early, I got on the treadmill for 30 minutes, earning 3 extra weight watcher points. I was almost done with the current DVD -- Touching Evil from PBS (it is fabulous!) -- so I worked on quilting my quilt that I have set up in the basement. I am not very good. It would probably be better if I used an actual quilting needle and hand quilting thread.
10. It was only 9:15 so I made up a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough for Bob, Kathleen and to send to my nephew David who is in the MTC. I will bake them today.
11. I actually finished a book. I the final 3 chapters of "Yearning for the Living God" by Elder Busche. This is the first book I have finished in 6 months. I can't seem to concentrate.
12. Bob built a fire so I sat down in front of the TV and watched a little of the Phillys v Dodgers. Rob called and wanted me to pray for the Dodgers. I don't like the Dodgers, but since they hired Joe Torre after he was fired by the Yankees, I guess it is the least I can do. Actually, since the Yankees are out, I don't really care that much about baseball.
13. Soaked in a hot bathtub with lavendar bubble bath - my favorite sent.
14. Settled into bed and fast forwarded through Dancing with the Stars.
15. Lights out and asleep by 11:45.
My standards for perfection are pretty low. I'll mark this day on my calendar as the near-perfect day.

All Hands on Deck

Here is my new deck. Like Pandora's box (see post from last August/September), this turned out to be a bigger job than we anticipated. We moved the water spigot, rebuilt some of the benches, and got rid of some others. All in all, I would say that it was worth it. What do you think?

Conference Report

Every 6 months I look forward to General Conference. I need the spiritual feast, pat on the back, and reassurance that all will be well.

This conference's theme seemed to be that even though life is hard, it will be ok. All we need to do is center ourselves in the gospel and follow the Savior and we'll be OK. I especially appreciated Elder Uchtdorf's (sp??) talk about Hope. I seem to feel sometimes that all hope is lost and need a reminder that it is not. Perhaps my favorite moment in conference this session was when Elder Cook (I think it was him) told a story of a trecherous road trip taken with his two sons. His youngest son (about 4 years old), relating the event to his mother on the phone said "I hope you know, we had a hard time." Elder Cook reminded us that our Heavenly Father knows we had a hard time and he is with us in our hour of need.

I've been reading Elder Busche's memoirs, "Yearning for the Living God". I only read it in Huntsville so it is taking me a little bit of time, and to be honest, his writing style is dry. However, as I plug along, I am learning some great lessons. The last chapter I read, while in HV, was about his struggles with his business. He told of a time that he was in great despair and he heard a voice tell him that it was OK. The lessons that he learned from this simple response was: God hears us, Repent (he interpreted this to mean work harder), and Hope.

I am taking these lessons to heart. As part of my repentance, I erased Jewel Quest Solitaire from off my computer. I am wasting too much time when I am discouraged playing this dumb game. I think I will try to do one hard thing when I don't want to do anything. And I will hope.

Things I Can't Live Without.

I was told that people were tired of seeing the scary Barnabas Collins of my last post and that it was time to post again. So here is a list of things I cannot live without:

1. Netflix. I don't know what I would do without it. I currently have a list of 326 items consisting of classics, foreign, PBS, old TV shows. Anything to make the treadmill more enjoyable. I think I would never exercise without Millennium or Bro. Cadfael. Thanks to my good Netflix friends -- Rachel, Emily, Gordon and the Lewis's so I can keep getting good ideas of what to watch.

2. The NY Times Crossword Puzzle online edition. Bob steals the crossword puzzle every day and then has the nerve to ask me to finish it for him when he gets stuck. With the NYT I can do a puzzle online and then toggle back & forth to wikipedia or google to look for answers when I need help. Not that I ever need much help.

3. Spoilerfix.com -- I love to see spoilers for my favorite shows -- Bones, Lost, The Closer. I check it everyday.

4. IMDB.com -- to the uninitiated that would be the Internet Movie Data Base. It has all answers to who is in what movie, etc. This is especially helpful when doing the NYT Crossword Puzzle online. Many times, Bob insists that a certain actor is in a particular movie, and since he thinks that I am a walking encyclopedia of movieness, I sometimes have to go look up something to prove him wrong. I am only the walking encyclopedia because of IMDB and sometimes Bob is right.

5. Weight Watchers -- With 50+ lbs gone, I must say that I couldn't do it without WW. It has been a lifesaver. My heel pain is gone, I am no longer short of breath, I don't pee everytime I laugh, cough, sneeze, etc. (I know, TMI). I am still a little frustrated at how tired I am but that may have something to do with not getting enough sleep or having MS. Who knows.

6. My DVR -- I love to be able to record all my favorite shows (Dancing with the Stars, Bones, Criminal Minds, and Say Yes to the Dress) and then watch them while lying in my bed. I recorded the General LDS Women's Conference on Saturday and have been able to watch it all propped up on my pillows -- my favorite way to attend church.

7. Fabric stores -- this is really the only type of shopping that I truly enjoy. When it comes to clothes, shoes, etc., I just shop online or at Fred Meyer?Smiths. But fabric -- that is another story. I love the feel of fabric; the joy that comes from coordinating designs for a quilt project; Just possessing it, I don't really even need to make anything.

If I have to give up any of these things, I'm not sure I will survive. Please don't ask.

Dark Shadows

When I was in Jr. High School, I used to rush home from school to watch a soap opera. Not just any soap opera, mind you, but a soap opera with VAMPIRES!!! You see, I was hooked on Dark Shadows, the original Vampire-love story. I don't count those hokey Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee vampire movies, because no one really loved nor felt sorry for those guys. In Dark Shadows, although not physically attractive like the luminous Edward Cullen, Barnabus Collins had an attraction that could not be denied, not by the women of Collinsport, nor teenagers. He was refined, spoke with a British accent, and was so tragic. He spent his entire life, after being turned into a vampire by an evil witch, trying to bring back to life his beloved Josette, who flung herself off the cliff at Widow's Hill after she had a vision of herself as a blood sucking corpse (all because she had been tricked into marrying someone other than her beloved Barnabus by her maid who was jealous and who was also the evil witch who tricked Barnabus into marrying her but when he found out she was a witch, he shot her and killed her but not before she cursed him as a vampire!! Now Josette Collins ghost, which looks just like Maggie Evans, warns the Collins family of impending danger by appearing to a disturbed little boy named David and his orphan Governess Victoria Winters. Doesn't this just sound like One Life to Live? - Don't judge me, but I checked out the first disc from Netflix so I could catch up on what I had not seen before the vampires entered on the scene. It was just a dark run-of-the-mill soap opera with a dark brooding mansion, maybe some ghosts, and secrets and was almost cancelled before Barnabas showed up and shot new life into the story if the undead can shoot new life into anything. After that, there was time travel, parallel universes, werewolves, phoenix-like people who could burn up and come back to life, etc.

When we moved from Seattle to Ohio, our television set died and my parents wouldn't get a new one or get it fixed. My parents thought we were obsessed/possessed. My dad used to refer to my car as the BarnyBus. Thankfully, I befriended this red-headed girl in study hall, and she would bring me up to date every day on the happenings in Collinsport. It got really odd after that, not that you can get much more odd than vampires, etc.

Anyway, after watching episodes 1-9 on Netflix, I am hooked again. Maybe I do understand what all that Vampire fuss is about.

PS: I hear that Johnny Depp is being considered to play Barnabas in a movie!! He could redeem himself for the awful "Pirates of the Carribean III"

50 Lbs!!

Compare these pictures and say to yourself, "what is different about Rebecca?" I'll tell you what's different! There is less of her. I have now lost 50 lbs!! This is my 1 year anniversary at WW -- that's Weight Watchers, not World War or World Wrestling -- though sometimes it has been a war or wrestling. Anyway, I thought it would be faster than a year -- I was sure I could lose all I needed to lose, but I am told that slow and steady wins the race, so I am plodding along, only with less carcass to drag.

Summer

Back by popular demand, Rebecca Sykes in "What I Did Last Summer"


I can’t believe that it has been over a month since I last posted. That means that my life is either a boring wasteland of housework and office work and yard work and cleaning up after dogs or I have been so busy that I can’t find the time to sit down and update. It is probably more like the former statement. My powers of concentration seem to be faulty (refer to post on menopause for a likely explanation). However, I will give a brief rundown of the summer with pictures:

**Fourth of July in Huntsville

Starring Otto:
and Daisy

Went to Kennecott w/Kathleen, Aunty Kate, James & McKay

Where we stood in front of a giant Tire

Went to Sun Valley (I didn't take this picture -- I forgot my camera)

Sent my nephew, David Gordon, on a mission to Japan. That is him on the right. The old guy on the left is his dad, Dick Gordon. We will miss him a lot.

To wrap it all up, Bob and I drove down to the Grand Canyon. I had never seen it before. We stayed at the motel right there at the park. It was like the Motel 3.5. A little rustic, but not as rustic as the cabins that looked like there were directly out of the Grapes of Wrath. It was a great drive, we spent the night, ate, took some pictures and came home.

And that is what I did last summer.

One Woman's life in T-Shirts

I have finally finished my t-shirt tribute to my sister, Fran. All of Fran's life seems to be memoralized by the t-shirts she wore and kept (actually, I think she never threw one away.) Before she died, she asked me to make a quilt out of the shirts she thought were most important -- sort of a fabric scrapbook. Family history and journaling were very important to her. Of course, I said yes, and then she died. Her wonderful Relief Society president cut out all of the shirt designs and ironed on interfacing. All I had to do was to put them together. Well of course I was going to do it by David's 18th birthday, then his high school graduation, and then his 19th birthday. Those all came and went. But I did get it done in time for him to sleep under it for a few days before he leaves on his mission.

This quilt shows the many sides of Fran, personally and professionally.

Theater and books -- the very essense of her life, after her family and the gospel.

Her travels.

The shows she worked over and over again.

My Personal Favorite:

Passport

It has been a long long long time since I blogged. There is really nothing interesting going on in my life right now. We went to Sun Valley - the whole family -- but Bob took all the pictures and I never got any of them downloaded. Kathleen and I just got back from Girls Camp -- it wasn't really girl's camp -- it was an overnighter in Huntsville. Our stake did a handcart trek and thought the maybe that could count as camp. So, I got to sleep in a bed and use flush toilets and have my Diet coke. That is my idea of camping.


The really exciting part of my summer was that I discovered that my passport had expired!! It was a good thing that I didn't need to go to any foreign countries in a hurray. I sent in the application form, having heard that it takes 12 weeks to get a new passport!! What if a fabulous trip came up in the meantime. Well, three weeks later, this came in the mail:

It doesn't look great, but it looks a whole lot better than this one!!

I think that if you don't look really awful, they make you take another picture. Thankfully, I only had to take one picture.

Is anyone up for a fabulous trip?

Memory

I got this off Rachel's blog. It is kind of fun. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. :)

I'll post again in a couple of days.

I've been tagged again!

I must be so Popular:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Summer of 1998 -- vacationing with family in Washington DC, Gettysburg, Oswego. We were all stuffed into a sedan, because our rental company had run out of vans. Rachel finally got on the phone and called several car places (mind you, she was 16) and found us a van. Her brain may have been swelling, but she wasn't losing any brain cells. Sarah had just had several surgeries for her heart/ankle/knee.

2. Five Snacks I love. What snacks don't I love.
a. 100 Calorie Hostess cupcakes
b. Carrots/celery/radishes & hummus
c. toast
d. mini-pretzles
e. Yoplait Cherry Orchard light yogurt

3. Five Things On My To Do List: Who has a to-do list? But if I did, the following would be on it:

a. File taxes before 10/15/08
b. Balance check book for the first time since 4/1/08
c. Weed the flower bed.
d. Get David's quilt finished.
e. Do my genealogy back to Adam/Charlemagne.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: pay off all my debts. Buy a fabulous purse, get a hybrid car, totally remodel my house. do a huge vacation in England, France, Italy & Greece, & Turkey & Egypt and Petra & Australia, and then have money left over to just live on and support worthy causes. I would do all this after I paid my tithing, of course.

5. Five jobs that I have had.
a. Secretary for the air force
b. ironing
c. babysitting
d. teachingt assistant
e. Director of Research for Utah Public Employees Association

6. Five of my bad habits
a. watching tv when I should be sleeping
b. not taking my meds on a regular basis
c. watching tv when I should be working
d. Playing Jewel Quest I, II or Solitaire when I should be sleeping/working
e. starting projects and not finishing them.

7. Four places I have lived
a. Ogden, Utah
b. Salt Lake City, Utah
c. Seatle, Washington
d. Beavercreek Township, Ohio

8. Two People I Want to Get to Know Better -- Anyone & Don't know

9. 6 Random Things about me. 1) love to read; 2) afraid of flying; 3) love long car trips; 4) afraid of heights; 5) have only read the book of Mormon all the way through 2x [not counting the times we read with the kids]; and 6) never learned how to swim beyond the dog paddle.

Nothing to sing about!!

A few months ago, Menopause the Musical was playing in Salt Lake. People I know who saw it said it was hysterical. I'm not so sure what is funny about it. I was lying awake (laying awake?? I forget) one of those nights and all I could think about was how awful I felt and what I was going to post on my blog this last week. I'm not sure anyone really reads it so I am just going to write for myself.

As I lay awake, with the overhead fan, the air conditioning cranked up as high as it can go, the window open, a portable swamp cooler full of ice & water, a glass of icewater, a water bottle frozen solid so by morning I can have some cool water, and a squirt bottle just in case all of those other things don't cool me down. I should freeze the squirt bottle so I can hose myself off with ice water!! I take maximum strength estroven and hope that I can sleep a couple of hours before someone turns on the flame thrower that violently rocks me out of my slumber. If you ever wonder why old women look like dried up old prunes, it is because we are dehydrating from the inside out with our own personal blast furnace.

I am not sure I can live throught menopause. I was looking up symptoms and natural treatments (with Fran's death from breast cancer, I have chosen to avoid the Premarin, hormone replacement therapy route) and found the following quote: Given practical information, medical attention and a positive attitude, most women can expect to experience menopause as a time of change, challenge and new-found personal freedom. More and more women are finding the years of menopause and beyond are the best of their lives. I thought to myself, "What man came up with that idea?" Obviously no one who has ever lived through it. Anyway, this is found at the following website: http://www.jos-health-network.150m.com/menopause.html.

Down at the bottom of this page, after it has listed all of the symptoms, it also lists other medical conditions that have the same symptoms. Among them is Multiple Sclerosis. Lucky me, I got the double whammy.

Anyway, to get me through this terrible, hopefully wonderful, challenging, stage of life, Bob bought me a battery operated fan. He suggested I take it to church. He said no one would notice. I hope he's right. I'm going to be on the front row of church with my fan!

Cake Walk

I have found a new blog that I just love. It is my new favorite. Sorry Jones' and Porters. I still love yours. Every day, I check my email, Zions Bank to see how much money I don't have, log in my WW points (not so good these last few days/weeks), and then I check the blogs of the Jones girls, the Porter house, the less than optimistic Rob, and hopefully check Rachel's blog -- hopeful, because I keep thinking she will put something on it (zilch since Valentine's Day -- Perhaps her pictures from Disneyland will be posted, hint, hint.) Well now, this is where I go -- http://www.bakerella.blogspot.com/. It is so cool. She makes the cutest cakes you have ever seen. I am no baker, but I tried her Simple Sprite Cake and made it my own by turning the cake into cupcakes with pink icing. Here is what came of this experiment:

The cake uses an 8 oz. can of Sprite for the liquid with lots of eggs and oil, so don't expect health food. It is really tasty. I baked the cake for 15 minutes and that was not enough, so I baked for an additional 5. I think they would be more moist if I had only baked for 18 minutes total, but these lovely little pink confectionaries are still disappearing like hotcakes -- or cupcakes.

I found the blog by linking from somebody's link from one of the Jones girls or Amanda Porter. Thanks, friends. PS -- We had a great time tending Baby Dill Porter this week. It was so much fun.

Update

It has been forever since I have posted. Actually not too much has happened but I thought I had better say something (even if it isn't profound) before everyone stops coming to visit the blog.

Things that have happened since my birthday:

1. School's out -- Kathleen is out for a while. She has some summer work to do and has decided not to take dance (except for the adult classes). So she is taking some online classes to get stuff out of the way for next year, coming to the office to help me, and designing clothes (more of the latter and less of the former.)

2. Memorial Day, Father's Day, Rachel's birthday -- I think that these events are the cause of my weight loss downfall. Actually, poor choices are the result of my downfall which really isn't a downfall, I just keep hovering between .4 and 1.4 pounds short of a total of 50 lb weight loss. We eat out way too much and I make poor choices as though I am never going to eat again. Well, next week is Rob's birthday and then the summer celebrations are over until the 4th of July, 24th of July, etc. I love to make special meals for holidays and birthdays -- my inner Martha Stewart -- and Rachel specifically said "no Weight Watcher cake for my birthday"!

3. That's it. My life is so exciting.

Things That are Younger Than Rebecca Sykes

I celebrated my 53rd!!! birthday this weekend. I don't get to share it with Memorial Day very often, but this year I did so I guilted the kids into coming up to Huntsville for the holiday to have dinner with their old mom and play a game of super scrabble. Almost everyone complained but I had a great time and isn't it all about me (and those who sacrificed for our freedoms) this weekend. Anyway, we were discussing http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/ and I decided that I should see what is younger than I:

1. The country of Pakistan. Also the country of Bangladesh, which used to be East Pakistan.

2. The Snooze alarm.

3. The expression "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

4. The Frisbee.

5. The Cat in the Hat (which means that Green Eggs & Ham, One Fish Two Fish, Hop on Pop etc. are also younger than I)

6. The Peace Symbol

7. IHOP

8. Alaska.

9. Hawaii.

10. Barbie.

11. The St. Lawrence Seaway.

12. The Guggenheim

13. OPEC

14. The Peace Corps

15. 6 Flags over Texas, Georgia, California, etc.

16. The Berlin Wall (Although it is now gone)

17. The Fantastic Four

18. Ken, the doll.

19. Wal Mart

20. Zimbabwe

21. Zip Codes

22. Football Hall of Fame

23. Blimpee's

24. Shea Stadium

25. Martin Luther King Day

26. Disneyland (but by only a couple of months.)

27. Mel Gibson

28. David Caruso

29. All of the Ramones.

30. The Interstate Highway System

I was going to try for 53 (for my age, you see), but it got a little depressing, so I stopped here.

However, the following things are older than I:

1. John McCain

2. The Brooklyn Bridge

3. Guatamala

4. Sports Illustrated

5. IBM

6. Godzilla

7. The TV Dinner

8. Red Stop signs

9. The Marshall Plan.

10. James Bond.

Happy Birthday to Me! And a wonderful Memorial Day. My many thanks for those who have sacrificed and gone on before.

No Complaints

I take back all the complaining from the previous post. Apparentely the people of China (earthquake), Missouri (tornados) and Chile (volcanic erruption) had a worse mother's day than I did. Kinda puts it all in perspective doesn't it?

I Feel Strongly Both Ways

There is a fine line between reporting the facts and sounding like a bitter old woman. So I am starting with the things I truly love about Mother’s Day, followed by a list of the things I hate. I do love more things about it. Here’s to ambivalence.

Things I Loved About Mother’s Day:

1. I love being a Mom. It is the best job a woman could have and I would never trade it for anything in the world.

2. The adorable Primary Children. Singing songs in Sacrament Meeting about Mother’s while waving hand-made crepe paper flowers is the best! I miss those little gifts from Primary.

3. Sarah making a fabulous dinner of whatever I wanted, Rachel making cake, and Rob cleaning up after it all.

4. Bob bought me shirts at Cabella’s. They don’t fit. He over estimated how much weight I have lost, plus women’s sizings are so random so it is a bit of a crap shoot to buy clothes for women. In men’s sizes a 40" waist is 40"; in women’s clothes a L can range anywhere from a M to a XL, not to mention what 2, 4, 6, etc. are really from one brand to another. But that’s OK. I can return them and get something else. It is the thought that counts.

5. Sarah brought me flowers – I love day lilies. Kathleen gave me the necklace she bought for herself. It is adorable; I think she should keep it.

6. The girls all came to church with me. It was so nice to sit in Sacrament meeting with almost all my children. I really missed Robbie.

Things I Hate about Mother’s Day:

1. I miss my own mother terribly. I always felt that Mother’s day was for her, not me. Mom died when I still had really little kids and one on the way. Now, there is no one to ask about all those menopause questions I have and I ask my doctor about and he says "well, what was your mother’s experience" and I say, "I don’t know because she’s dead!!"

2. Aunt Stella died on Mother’s day 1991, ruining it forever (if it ever really was OK). Stella never married so was always really sad on Mother’s Day. We always had to make a big fuss over her so her sadness wouldn’t take over. Her sister, my grandmother (who died much too young also – probably one of the reasons my Mom hated MD), always felt that if you can’t be nice to me the other 364 days a year, don’t go thinking a big fuss one day will make up for it. Anyway, in her 101st year, Aunt Stella passed away. I always think about that every MD.

3. I don’t enjoy sitting in Sacrament listening to men tell stories of their beloved sainted mothers – even if I knew the women and they were truly saints. If you want me to have a great day, let me go home an hour early – or better yet, start an hour later. An extra hour of sleep would be one of the greatest MD presents a woman could get. However, Sacrament meeting did have a little comic relief when Bob forgot to announce the choir number and Elder Dave Stanley called out, "Bob, did you want the choir to sing?" Bob was just testing them to see if they were paying attention. And besides he is the new guy.

4. I had to clean up dog pee!! But how is that different than any other day. I hate that dog.

5. The morning after MD. I hate my dishwasher. It was really full and we rinse the dishes pretty well, and as usual while I wait for Kathleen to come down for school, I empty it. About 1/3 of the dishes were not really clean. Earlier this morning, Bob called after he left for tennis – I thought "Holy Crap!! Who is calling at this ungodly hour of 6 am!!!" It is never good news. Apparently, the wind knocked over the garbage can and it appeared as though some random animal dragged bags out of the can and spread it all over the parking strip. Bob told me to get Rob up to do it, but I can’t seem to do that. I’d rather do it myself and have something to bitch about all day long than make my kids do something. I deserve all my troubles. Kathleen did get to school on time today though.

Well, only 364 days until I have to do this again. There is my birthday on the 25th. Being 53 is always something to celebrate.

I'm Much Too Young for This

I am the mother of another college graduate.

Robbie graduated last week from the University of Utah with not one, but TWO degrees -- Linguistics and Middle East Studies:Arabic!! I know he thinks I was not paying attention when he told me that he had a double major, but in my defense, I didn't really know what he was talking about. I thought he meant the Arabic/Linguistic thing was one degree with an emphasis in something like Middle East Studies. Was I ever surprised when I saw his name in the program twice and it wasn't a typo!! Anyway, it was a great day. It almost slipped past us, which would have suited Rob fine. He really didn't want to walk, but as a mother I get very few paychecks for doing a really spectacular (or even a really crappy) job and watching my children graduate from college is one of those paychecks that I intend to cash!!


Rob was so low key about it, I didn't make him order graduation announcements or anything. When Rachel was getting ready for graduation, she was in France and I had to do a lot to get her stuff done and when Sarah was graduating, we sold her condo and had to move all her stuff to SLC, so there was a lot going on to remind me of graduation. I'm just glad we didn't miss it all though it seems that a lot of people did. The U had over 7000 graduates and I am sure that only about 3500 participated. The commencement speaker was Mario Cappechi (sp??), Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Genetics for 2007. Most people never remember who their commencement speaker was -- I think we will always remember this one.

If you look really close, you can see Robbie right in the middle of these shots


I'm very proud of my son!! What a great boy!!


3 Down, 1 to go. Will post again in 5 years!!

Help, please

I have just finished my books and am looking for more to read. I loved The Thirteenth Tale (for the second time). It is a book for people who love to read. I read Buckingham Palace Gardens (by Anne Perry) about a murder in Buckingham Palace, solved by Thomas Pitt and his spunky housekeeper, Gracy. I love Anne Perry's period novels. They are quite good. I also finished Pillars of the Earth, and while it is really good, it is really graphic. I think that everybody in middle ages was just awful. Too much pillaging and raping of peasants, too much consensual sex in most graphic and vulgar terms. All this about building a cathedral. Still, it was compelling.

So here I am trying to figure out what to read next. I would love suggestions from anyone about what I should check out. I am always a little leery of contempory fiction because it is so often salacious, simply for shock value. I was going to read Memory Keeper's Daughter until I saw that it was made into a Lifetime Movie of the Week. That is when I was sure I wouldn't like it. Other than that, I'm not real picky. It just has to be good. I've read the new Richard Patterson (7th Heaven -- good) and the new Patricia Cornwell (Book of the Dead -- not good).

Please, help me out. Make suggestions.

Good Morning, NYC

I’m not sure what it is about my memory, but I can’t seem to remember that the red eye to JFK is not the best way to start out a trip. The last time I flew overnight to New York it was for a whirlwind 24 hour visit to the Big Apple. I flew with Sarah and Emily for just a day. We went to the Manhattan Temple at 6:00 am (because it is the only thing open that early). Afterwards, we found a small deli/café and changed out of our dresses in the bathroom. I left my skirt in the trash, because I didn’t really like it and didn’t want to carry it all day. We then went to Canal street and bought purses, saw Ground Zero, wandered through the shops on 5th Avenue and finally dragged ourselves to Rockefeller Center where we decided that we would rather sit in the airport for 4 hours than try to make ourselves do anything else. At that point, I swore I would never do such a crazy thing again. Well, I haven’t, but I did take another red eye to JFK.

On Thursday April 17th (OK, just barely Thursday; it was 12:30 am) Sarah, Stacy, Kathleen and I flew to JFK. I was sure that I would be able to sleep since the plane wasn’t crowded and I had the window seat. That wasn’t going to happen. Kathleen managed to curl up with her head in my lap and sleep most of the way. I was left with trying to read in the dark and watch the map and flight info switch back and forth from English to Espanol. When you are watching, it seems that 5 hours is a really long time. I now know how to read about altitude, ground speed, tale wind, and air temperature in Spanish. El fin – we are at the end of the flight.

Since we are basically cheapskates, we took the train/subway into the city. While I thought I was booking us into the Time Square Courtyard by Marriot, which is a pretty swanky hotel, I was actually getting us into the 5th Avenue Courtyard, which was OK. We got off the subway too soon and dragged our suitcases 13 blocks down 5th Avenue to 40th Street. We later discovered that Grand Central Station was only a couple of blocks away. Anyway, we checked into the hotel, but could not get into a room until 2 pm. So being the righteous young women (and old) that we are, we went to the Temple and did baptisms for the dead. The Manhattan Temple is a marvel. It must be the cleanest, most serene, blessed place in the entire city. You leave all the hustle and bustle and noise and troubles at the door. It was great to be there.

Afterwards, we still had time to kill so we went to the Natural History Museum and went to a star show. I don’t remember what it was about because we all fell asleep. Back to the hotel, take a nap, get a shower and head out for Mary Poppins. Great stuff.

This was a fast trip – in the remaining 3 days we did the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moma, Chinatown, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue shopping, stake conference, and a fabulous Harbor Tour at night. We walked 100 miles and got caught up in the circus that was the visit of El Grande Papa (the Holy Father Benedict XVI not la grande papa - the big potato). We discovered Century 21, a department store that is like Big Lots for designer goods. Lots of fun. Kathleen had to see designer stores so she could figure out how to make the clothes at a lower cost. Really, a $6,000 dress with matching shoes for $1,950!!

Finally, Sunday arrived and we flew home on the longest flight I seem to remember. It is probably because we started out so tired and just never stopped.

I love NY!! But, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. Oh, and like before, I left some personal items behind in the trash -- my black dress shoes. They have holes in them. Maybe I should have bought those $1,900 ones.

P.S. This is strumpet Hello Kitty most appropriately found in Times Square (at the Sanrio shop)