Red Letter Days

What Did We Do BG?

2012-01-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

I am having a hard time remembering how I researched things before Google (BG). We used to have a set of encyclopedias and used them a lot. Published in 1984, the information was old as soon as we purchased it. Annual update books were expensive and cumbersome.

Enter Google (after several other search engines paved the way) and research became instant. No opening a book. No having to take it to a photocopier to get a print. No purchasing of annual updates.

My mom doesn't use a computer, doesn't know computer terminology, doesn't even know the concept behind a computer, let alone the internet. However, sometimes when I come home from work, she will ask me about something and often says, "Let's look it up on Google." I love the "Let's" part. So, "we" do and find more interesting information than we can read in a night.

Since I use Google at least once each day, I learn about all the fun trivia Google sometimes posts instead of its logo. Today is the 125th anniversary of the largest snowflake. Hilarious!

I love Google!

Who Needs a Name Brand?

2012-01-26T23:18:00.000-08:00

In 2004, I called my brother, Bart, on Thanksgiving Eve. He was shopping at CompUSA and told me that they were having a killer of a sale. So, I sped to our local store and he was right. One of the items on sale was a Protron DVD player for only $19.99. The player was a nice slim design, had a ton of features, and was "progressive scan," whatever that means.

Could a DVD player that cheap be any good? Whoever heard of Protron???? I hesitated for a nanosecond and then asked a salesperson what the limit for purchase was. He said that there was no limit.......whaaaat? Although slightly worried that CompUSA was trying to dump a bad product, I bought four of them. We gave one to my dad; one to Mandy and Mark; we kept one; and brought one to a Christmas party with a couple of DVD's attached where it was "stolen" over and over and over.

Protron is a little hard to say and we always laughed about the name. When getting ready to watch a DVD, P r o t r o n displays all the way across the screen until the DVD is inserted. It's funny.

I am one of several movie-holics in my family, so our DVD player takes a LOT of abuse. On Monday evening, after over SEVEN years of faithful service, the Protron bit the dust. Sad.

Bacon

2012-01-25T21:45:00.000-08:00

I love bacon. Who doesn't? The saltiness, the crunchiness....yum! Bacon and eggs, BLT's, bacon tots, spaghetti carbonara.....double yum! Today I saw a picture of bacon and my mind immediately went back to 1970. One Friday night, after playing cards at a former sister-in-law's house, we were hungry. She said she'd make a quick breakfast for us before we left. Out came the bacon, eggs, and a cast iron skillet. She quickly fried the bacon until it was crispy. Then, shockingly, she didn't clean out the pan to cook the eggs. Instead, she cracked each egg directly into the bacon grease and began spooning the hot grease over each egg, cooking the eggs on both sides at the same time. Whaaaat?

I had never seen such a thing. She toasted the bread and soon we were ready to eat. It was the most delicious breakfast I'd ever eaten. I can almost feel my arteries clogging up thinking back about that time.

Good Night and Good Luck

2012-01-24T23:56:00.001-08:00

If you haven't seen this movie, about Edward R. Murrow, it is an interesting film done by George Clooney. Shot in black and white on 16mm film, it makes you feel like the entire thing is real and not a recreation of that era or radio, television, and reporting.

Check it out on Netflix.

Good night......and Good Luck!

What's Up with These Migraines?

2012-01-21T23:45:00.000-08:00

Yet another migraine today. I'm starting to feel like a hypochondriac. Migraines are really disruptive. Today I missed a breakfast with friends and a fun wedding. And, it’s hard to do the 30-minute required daily exercise of the Resolutionary Challenge.

The only upside is that I was forced to take it really easy today. When I felt better, I read most of this:

I’m wondering if there a connection between my horrible sinus congestion and my migraines. Will be asking the allergist on Friday.

Ugh!

2012-01-20T22:35:00.000-08:00

Monday

Tuesday

Friday

Okay, that's ENOUGH!

All in a Day's Work

2012-01-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

In a 24-hour period:

• Student expelled
• Student expelled
• Student expelled

Sad!

Bye. Bye, Bear!

2012-01-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

30 years ago, Bonnie and I would hit practically every Christmas boutique in Concord and Walnut Creek. The problem was that we couldn't afford most of it. At one boutique, we saw the cutest bear tree topper, but it might as well have cost a million dollars. The next best thing was to take a really good mental picture of it and with some inexpensive things and a lot of hot glue, re-create it. For almost 20 years, this little bear sat upon the top of our tree and the kids loved it. This year, I decided to do some real purging of old Christmas ornaments and, because my kids are FULLY grown and the topper was falling apart, this made the list. Norma no longer does the annual ornament/decor "burning," so I had to throw it into the garbage, but not before I took a picture of it for posterity(???).

Thanks for the years of fun, Bear!

We Are the Champions.....

2012-01-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

No WE are not. I am! We Leals (Andy, Beth, Mandy, Mark, Alex, and I) participate in fantasy football. Our league is called the Extreme Croquet League and Mandy is the manager. Each year, we choose a date in August when we can all get on our respective laptops and computers to draft our teams in a frenzied, online, activity. Here are a couple of pictures from a prior year's draft:

Each year's winner is taken out to dinner paid for by the rest of the league (by the way, this has never happened). However, a coveted trophy is given to the winner and that person gets to keep the trophy until the next football season produces a new winner. We are actually on our third trophy because the first two broke. This is what the latest one looks like:

We started the league in 2005, so have six years of fantasy football behind us.

The winners so far include

2005 - Mark Romney

2006 - Beth Leal

2007 - Mandy Romney

2008 - Mandy Romney

2009 - Beth Leal

2010 - Beth Leal

2011 - Me, I mean I; it is I! I'm the winner this year! Yippee! I get the trophy.

I want to thank my great team:

Tom Brady

Adrian Peterson

Ray Rice

Gregg Jennings

Larry Fitzgerald

Percy Harvin

Jimmy Graham

John Kasay

NYJ Defense

and my bench backups: BenRoethlisberger, Jeremy Maclin, Jermichael Finley, Robbie Gould, and the NO Saints Defense

I'm going to love displaying the trophy! AND, I'm going to insist on dinner this year, too!

Dinner and a Movie

2012-01-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

Alex is in Utah to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday. After we dropped him off at the airport, Mom and I decided we didn't want to cook, so drove to Walnut Creek to see about dinner and a movie.

First, Walnut Creek is just fun! Second, there are hundreds of good places to eat. We decided to eat at Cheesecake Factory because it is directly across from the movie theatre. The waiter suggested the Chicken Bellagio and said that not one of his patrons has ever said that they didn't love it. Picture this stack:
-Basil pasta
-Parmesan cheese sauce (light)
-Pounded (flat) chicken breast
-Prosciutto
-Arugula salad
It is seriously a stacked meal in a platter big enough for two and, as promised, was absolutely delicious!

We then walked to the theatre and saw the great Meryl Streep in:

Busy day, fun evening, and still met all of my Challenge goals. Yippee!

Resolutionary Challenge

2012-01-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

So, here is the daily Challenge list:

1. Exercise for 30 minutes
2. Drink 48oz of water
3. 2 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruits
4. No unhealthy food or drink (soda, coffee, "bad" fast food or snacks, etc.)
5. No sweets, candies, chocolates, etc.
6. No eating after dinner, or 8pm (whichever is later)
7. Read 15 minutes of scripture or other spiritual text
8. Devote 15 minutes to accomplishing a written personal goal
9. Go out of your way to help someone else
10. Write a journal entry (of any length)

2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are pretty easy for me. The rest...not so much.

Wish me luck!

Waiting for Sunday...

2012-01-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

I'm getting older.
I'm out of shape.
I'm a workaholic.
I'm a night owl.

I, like my friend, Lanette, want to be around for my grandkids...

When I was in Seattle last week, Mandy told me about an annual activity in which many of her friends participate called the "Resolutionary Challenge."

The premise is to create or recommit to good habits by achieving a set of goals each day for 12 weeks. There is a competitive component to it as each goal is worth a point for 10 points per day, 70 points per week, a total of 840 points for the 12-week challenge. And, there are prizes at the end; what's not to love about that?

Being somewhat competitive and a bit of a gambler, I joined the challenge.

When I received the list of goals and finding out that Sundays, Valentine's Day, and my birthday were free days, I thought, "easy peasy!"

I just completed day 3 and I am counting the hours until Sunday! Yikes.

Two-and-a-half-Years? No Way!

2012-01-10T22:50:00.000-08:00

What happened to the past 2 1/2 years? More important, what actually HAPPENED during those past 2 1/2 years? Starting with the last blog post, here's a recap:

June 2009 - Keuning Family Reunion aboard a Carnival cruise ship to the Bahamas.

August 2009 - Sarah Katherine was born to Andy and Beth in Concord, California.

September 2009 - Sietze(Sy, Dad, Papa, Opa) passed away in Mariposa, California.

It was interesting to note that Aronson Edward was born in December 2005 and a month later, his Papa, Edward William passed away. Four years later, Sarah Katherine was born in August and a month later, her greatgrandfather/Opa, Sietze passed away.

September 2009 - Ilse (Mom, Oma, Omi) moved from Mariposa to Ceemar Ct.

October - December 2009 - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas

January 2010 - I bought a house.

January through June 2010 - with help from special family and friends, lots was accomplished on "the money pit."

May 2010 - Holland trip with Mom.

June 2010 - Greyson Merlin was born to Mandy and Mark in Everett, Washington.

July 2010 - Andy, Beth, Aron, Will, and Sarah moved to 47.

September 2010 - Labor Day in Mariposa (Annual Fair)

December 2010 - Friend, Jon Aikele passed away unexpectedly.

January 2011 - I turned 60!!!!!! What??????

February 2011 - Leal Family trip to Disneyland (it was not "the happiest place on earth" for Cohen Romney...

March 2011 - busiest schedule ever for WC Stake YW Presidency (Stacey, Lisa, Joann, me), Mandy came to visit (and attend Heather's wedding).

April through July - A big blur of events: Easter, Seattle trip, Rucker Lake pre-trip, Opera with Mom, Girls Camp planning, and more.

August 2011 - Girls Camp - Rucker Lake, Alex 1/4 century old (what????), one of my BFF's moved half way across the country, road trip with Bonnie.

September 2011 - Labor Day in Mariposa, road trip with Alex and Andy to Rexburg, Alex starts school at BYU-I.

October 2011 - Seattle (Amanda and Tim wedding), completed 28 quiet book pages!

November 2011 - Thanksgiving in Mariposa

December 2011 - Breakfast with friends, primary baptism, dental appointment, bi-annual plumbing problem, Andy birthday, Aron birthday, Broadway Plaza ornaments and Starbucks, service dinner, annual friend luncheon, slept through Christmas (sick), trip to Seattle.

Phew, that was a fast 2 1/2 years!

Happy 2012, everyone!

2009-06-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Using most of Mandy's words . . .

Beginning tomorrow, I will not:
• Go to work
• Worry about budget cuts
• Clean the house
• Cook
• Wash dishes
• Do laundry
• Get gas
• Pay bills
• Set alarms
• Grocery shop
• Take out garbage

Because I will do this:
• Relax
• Have fun
• Eat great food
• Play bingo
• Lay by the pool
• Play Phase 10
• Work out
• See places I’ve only read about
• Dress up for dinner
• Read a book
• And best of all – spend time with family

Yippee!!

Oh, my cockiness!!

2009-06-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

When humility goes out the window, so does the Flex Plan! I was so cocky about doing well over the last couple of days and then today happened. I was fully prepared for my visiting teaching appointment at Best Burger. This morning, I had a 1-point omelet; 2-point cereal; 2-point milk. At lunch, I ordered the chicken sandwich, cheeseless and dry so that I could just add mustard. I ordered extra lettuce and tomato for veggie effect. I even ordered the extra small fries so that I wouldn't be tempted. I figured it was at most a 10-point meal. Alex took a class today to get certified to be a security guard (Brenda said she could get him a job at John Muir). His class ran until 6:00 p.m. For dinner, Alex and I were going to have a very lean pork loin meal with lots of veggies. And, because I earned 6 activity points from Lanette's class this morning, I was going to be in great shape today even with French fries.

WRONG!!

I was blissfully answering phone calls and emails at work when, at 5:50 p.m., the elders called to remind me that they were coming to dinner. TRIPLE YIKES! They asked if they could come at 7:00 p.m. I thankfully told them 7:00 was great. I texted Alex to alert him because I was sure that he forgot, too. Lucky for me, his class was in Walnut Creek by our old Weight Watcher's meeting so he didn't have to travel far. I racked my brain to think of something to cook that a) I had at home; 2) was fast-cooking; and d) was enough to feed four people. I was busy thinking when Alex called and told me he HAD forgotten, that he was on his way home, and was it okay that Jessica stays for dinner. I said yes, of course, and came up with the brainy idea to order food out saving me the hassle of pulling it all together. What was close and not too crowded? Yanagi's. Yes, you read that right, YANAGI'S. So, I ordered a bunch of food, Jessica helped me present and serve it all and it looked wonderful on the table. Elder Folsom was so excited because he has lived in Japan for the past 8 years. We ate all of the food and then topped it off with our traditional missionary dessert: Dove Bars.

I ended up with 30 points ;-(

All I can say is that I am glad Lanette kicked my butt this morning! I don't want to get on the scale tomorrow morning because of the sodium bloat.

Mariposa Fun

2009-06-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

On Memorial Day, Alex and I went to Mariposa to spend some time with Mom and Dad (Oma and Papa).

Here are some of the things that we did:

Alex got a cooking lesson. We cooked together and ate a ton of yummy food!

Played Phase 10, Uno, and Wii

To our chagrin, Alex won Phase 10 and Uno!

Went to church and took some after-church pics. Note Mom standing next to her thriving "hot" cactus.

Helped with clearing brush for fire season

Saw deer getting some snacks on the "peninsula"

Walked the trail and saw some beautiful flowers

I had never seen these on the trail before

If we hadn't stopped to look more closely at this . . .

. . . we would have missed this

and this

We really did WANT to miss this

And, finally, you never know what you will find on the trail

Maybe Arie rode this down the trail one day . . . hope he wore a helmet!

Thanks for a great time, Mom and Dad!

SOS Relieved - and Thanks, Lanette!

2009-05-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Rain or shine - every Tuesday and Thursday morning, Lanette leads a group of women in a workout that exceeds any gym workout I've attended. She does this at no cost (other than a little pain at first) to those who attend her sessions. She has said on many occassions that she wants to be here for her grandchildren and so she works out to stay fit. That is a goal for many of us but if you are like I am, you may need a little help in the motivated-to-stay-fit department. That is why I am so grateful to Lanette for generously sharing her fitness training talents with any and all who have the desire and the early-morning time to become and/or stay fit. This morning I made it through another workout, phew! Obliques were sore from Tuesday's workout and I am sure that other muscles will feel it tomorrow, but my brain didn't scream what my shoes were displaying ("SOS") as loudly as on Tuesday.

Thanks, Lanette!

SOS

2009-05-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

I love my new New Balance shoes. Although you can't tell on the picture, they have my favorite color (red) on them and they fit perfectly from the start--no hot spots. I've walked with them around the Lafayette Reservoir with Diane and even up KILLER Hill, no hot spots. The "model" number is 505.

On Tuesday this week, I rejoined Lanette's early morning workout. This month's workout is "Boot Camp" and my body felt it. At one point, when I thought I couldn't breathe anymore and wanted to call the paramedics, I looked down at my new shoes and from my vantage point, they were showing the message that my brain was sending . . . SOS. See for yourself.

I'll be back at it tomorrow morning and hope that my stamina is better!

Frazzled

2009-04-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

I'm a new blogger and feel some pressure to add a post . . . this is hard when you're already frazzled. I just returned from a fabulous trip to Seattle, but my house is in dire need of cleaning, my Dutch cousins are coming for a short visit beginning on Sunday, and I just found out that tomorrow is Administrative Assistant Day (aka Secretary's Day). YIKES! Luckily, my mom and dad were here last week and helped Alex and me clean out the vast majority of the garage and Bethy cleaned all of the windows so those things look really nice. In a minute, I'll be off to the store to pick up something for AA Day so that I don't look like an uncaring boss. Then tomorrow evening, Alex and I will begin the deep clean for the visitors! Wish us luck...

Finally Here!

2009-04-19T21:23:00.001-07:00

I'm the person who made sure that microwave ovens were in use by consumers for five full years before using one and the same person who would not expose her unborn babies to ultrasounds and the same person who used a Commodore64 until it died before getting a real pc. It should be no wonder, then, that I'm finally entering the blog world, but here I am. Now, let's see if I have the time to keep it updated.