My Favorite Things

 Dungeness crab
 My microfleece house “uniform”
 A hot mug of Pero with Irish Creamer in the evening
 French-milled soap – Milk
 Sweet Amber Musk from Salt City Candles
 Filet mignon dinner at Magleby’s in Provo
 “Movie day” at home
 Homemade hot buttered popcorn
 Dark chocolate
 USPS’ Click-n-Ship

Gas Station Pet Peeve

Halfway to work, low gasoline warning.
Duck into nearest gas station.

Credit card slots don't work.
Pump handle locking mechanism broken.
Annoying!

I WANT FULL SERVICE GAS STATIONS BACK!

Oma, Can I Play Your "Ah-ped?"

In 1988, I marveled at the fact that Alexander could pop a cassette into the video player all by himself. Technology has advanced since then at lightning speed. Today, Sarah has no problem figuring things out on my iPad.

In 1988, I marveled that kids would sit quietly and watch Andrew play Nintendo for an hour. Today, I guess nothing has changed…

SuperBowl Sunday

We love football. We love food. We love being together. Put them all together and you have one fun afternoon!

Beth, Sue, Alex, Omi, and I had fun preparing the food.

Andy had fun (?) putting all of the cables back together so that we could watch the game on the big screen.

Tatiana, our neighbor joined the festivities, but I was so into my plate, I forgot to take a picture. We missed Grandpa Ed (went to Michael & Janine's) and the Romneys.

We were all routing for different teams. Tom Brady, NE Patriots QB, contributed to my winning the Leal family Extreme Croquet Fantasy Football League trophy this year. The NE Patriots was Bill’s fav team. So, it’s not hard to guess who I wanted to win. Beth is mad at Tom Brady, so she was rooting for the Giants. Omi always roots for the underdog. Mandy wanted the Giants to win.

To officially close the 2011-12 football season and, at the risk of gloating, I’m going to take this opportunity to show, again, the trophy that I get to keep all year.

What a Day . . .

How many weird things can you experience in a day?
• Wait in a doctor’s office for 1 ½ hours AFTER checking in…
• Avert your eyes from doctor with a 7-10 split…
• Be offered a free radial arm saw by a neighbor…
• Haul a radial arm saw around the corner to your home on a “dolly”…
• Find out via a returned Christmas card with a notation in Dutch that said “Overleden” that my dad’s only living brother passed away…
• Buy 5 boxes of Tagalongs…

And I haven’t even talked about what happened at work.

A Jury of Your Peers

Last month, Alex received an invitation . . . to Superior Court.



Today, he was invited to sit here:




Mum’s the word. He’s not talking; taking his juror-dom very seriously (as he should). I would want him on my jury, wouldn’t you?

Thanks for your good citizenship and service, Alex. Your dad would be proud! Enjoy the experience.

Fabulous, Faithful, Fantastic, Fit Feet

I don’t know about you, but I take my feet for granted. I expect them to hold me up and work for me from the moment I get up in the morning until the second I jump into bed, about 18 hours later. I am lucky enough to wear any shoe brand—Nordie’s Stuart Weitzman, Kohl’s Mootsie Tootsies, PayLess Shoe Source; high heels, boots, flip-flops—whatever, I can wear it.

My mom, on the other hand, has to be somewhat picky about shoes because she suffers from corns…..or so she thought. For years, she has used Dr. Scholl’s roducts—corn patches, corn removers. After a couple of months of wearing a corn patch without any relief, she went to the doctor. Turns out that she as a spur on her little toe and was told the pain will not go away; that the spur needed to be removed.

Today, she went to back to her doctor for a little in-office surgery. She went in with a foot like this…

…and, after an hour and a half of this...

...she went home wearing this:

When I got home from work, I found this:

In about a week, she can toss the post-op boot and put on cute little shoes again.