Anne Carter's Blog, page 14
July 5, 2011
Porch Lights for the Lost Child
I'll try to make this brief. Enough has probably been said already tonight, in the wake of the shocking acquittal of Casey Anthony. Facebook friends are furious, and the echoing challenge questions the justice in the verdict. Of course, many are harkening back to the 1995 verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial, drawing the similar conclusion that the jury is just plain wrong. Our disillusionment is exceeded only by our outrage.
A few small voices have piped up, gently reminding the angry that the jury was given a circumstantial case. Defense attorneys point at "character assassination" and act as though the prosecution tried Anthony in a kangaroo court. But honestly, that circumstantial evidence was pretty damning.
Aside from all the obvious reasons, I am also concerned about the future. Casey Anthony is clearly a very troubled young woman, and she just may have gotten away with the supreme crime. What has she learned? What have other would-be child murderers and abusers learned? That they can drug, suffocate and discard an innocent toddler, then go on about their lives?
I will turn my porch light on for Caylee tonight, but it won't make me feel any better. It won't fix the problem.
June 10, 2011
Sharky's: Simply The Best!
My delightful lunch companion!
No further comment necessary. Click on the burrito above for a link to this fab eatery!
June 7, 2011
Welcome to Beacon Street
June 3, 2011
Photos: April/May 2011
These were all taken with my Blackberry phone, so on the fly. No rhyme or reason to what attracts my attention, but it's all fun. The picture of the bicycles was taken at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, University of Southern California. Theresa's is near Burroughs High School, where my daughter performed with her show choir–her dad and I stopped here for breakfast. The mural at the Burrito Factory is especially eye-catching. Now, those vegetables… wow. This was taken at the College of the Canyons during their reception for scholarship winners. And the helicopter? Go figure. Rumor was that a deranged guy was barricaded in his home nearby, and the Sheriff's Department was taking part in surveillance.
Bikes at USC. They don't all drive Beemers.
Helicopter Lands in Newhall Park. Huh?
Veggie Art at COC
Theresa's Family Restaurant in Burbank. Two Thumbs Up
Wall Art at the Burrito Factory on Soledad
I'm not very good at photo placement, so bear with me here – I could figure it out if I was so inclined, but I'm not.
More to come.
Now that I am out of school, blogging should become more consistent!
May 26, 2011
Like Sands Through the Hourglass…
You know that saying that goes something like… the day you die you probably won't look back and say you wished you had spent more time at work? I keep thinking about that concept, of looking back and evaluating what I've done. Doesn't seem particularly important until you put that finality on it, that point where you realize you have little or no more time left to do other things.
So I started looking back with a different viewpoint. Back to the time when I first discovered and became a part of the online world. It was Prodigy, I believe, and Compuserve and a couple of others. It had to be around 1991. Even I can do that math in my head—twenty years. Twenty years of sitting in my chair, while my parents have passed on and my children have grown up around me. Twenty years of checking for new email, reading, learning, socializing and spending gawdawful amounts of time. It's a wonder I don't have calluses on my fingertips after TWENTY YEARS.
What has it got me? Well, lots of good things. A writing career and publishing contracts. Access to new clients for my business. Online classes putting me closer to my degree. New friends and a world of knowledge I'd likely not have come across otherwise. It's kept me current and abreast of new technology. Kept me connected in more ways than I can count.
But I can't help but wonder sometimes: how many hours have I spent in this chair? What have I missed? What could I have done with even half of those twenty years' worth of hours? Times when my eyes were focused on the monitor when they could have been focused on my now-grown sons as they played on the floor. Hours when I could have learned a new skill I'd wanted to try, complaining that I didn't have the time when really, I merely chose to spend that time surfing or chatting.
I don't mean this reflection to sound too much like regret. I do, however, want to be sure I don't spend another twenty with my face bathed in the glow of this 23" LED screen before me. On days when I remove myself from the chair, I am amazed at what I'm able to accomplish, with time left over to read, sit in the garden or actually clean out a cluttered cupboard or two. It's quite liberating. It's almost like waking up from a drug-induced haze.
Of course I don't know how much time I have left. Forty years or forty days. Hell, it could be forty minutes. But whatever it is, I don't want to go wishing I hadn't spent so much time floating around in cyberland. So beginning today, I will be vacationing in the real world more often.
Will my absence be felt? Will Facebook be able to continue on without me? Will my 304 friends miss me and chat about where I might be? Do you think I'll be chastised for not answering an email or text within 30 minutes?
May 23, 2011
Plan Your Family Vacation with Goby
by Mimi Slawoff.
With our Oahu trip just a month away, our family of five is happily researching island activities. We're using Goby, a downloadable app for iPods, iPads and iPhones to help plan our itinerary.
We're also turning to Goby.com as a search tool from our home computer. Goby allows users to find activities, lodging, dining and events anywhere in the U.S. Using the site's categories – what to do, where and when – we found fun things to do in Oahu.
Manoa Falls – the highest waterfall on Oahu – sounds like a great choice for us. It's just two miles round trip and takes hikers through a rainforest to the falls. We'll also visit Pearl Harbor, take a stand-up paddleboarding lesson and book a snorkeling tour. Of course, we plan to get in lots of beach time. I was pleased to find that Goby even provides a long list of beaches with descriptions of each one. Lanikai Beach sounds ideal and we'll be sure to check it out.
It's nice to find a search tool that's so easy to use. And as an app, it goes everywhere with us. Click here to find out more!
March 22, 2011
Photos of the Week – March 22
Fajitas in the making!
(1) I love photos of food. My daughter is a foodie, and a photographer. Maybe she'll end up doing spreads for Gourmet.
The calm between the storms
(2) Taken at Granary Square yesterday late afternoon. Looks like unstable – but beautiful – air.
Ironwood Court, Pine Mountain Club
(3) This is the street where our cabin is almost finished. No work going on today.
(4) The fireplace is almost done!
(5) My lazy cat, Moesha.
Enjoy your week.
Interior, fireplace in great room
She is due to be "groomed" [read: anesthetized and shaved] soon. I can't wait. She is so matty and uncomfortable. Just waiting for a little warmer weather. Although, since she's an indoor cat, it really doesn't matter…
March 21, 2011
Welcome to Lake Valencia
Clogged drains. Torrential rain. Disaster narrowly averted.
Around 7 pm – 4-5 inches deep
Photo is blurry, but then so was I. And soaking wet. Beyond the fence in the back is the Summit Park arroyo.
Working offspring. Not her best look.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He bailed for 4 hours.
The Mechanical Hero. $169 at HomeDepot.
The aftermath.
Remember this. In May.
March 18, 2011
Can Wine Cure Cancer?
What is it about wine?
Is it just me, or does just about everyone salivate at the mention of a glass (or three) of wine? Personally, I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. I can take it or leave it. But then, I don't have a good history with it. When I was in my early 20′s, I freely drank whatever—including Scotch—and it didn't bother me. Until one night I really poisoned myself on Cutty Sark and passed out in the bathroom at the Summer House in Woodland Hills. Yeah, it was over a guy. What a waste.
From that night on, and we're talking thirty-some years, I haven't been able to drink more than a few ounces of any kind of alcoholic beverage without getting ucky. Not lucky, ucky. Not enough to get a buzz until it's buzz-into-nausea. Today, I notice a lot of folks around me have a love affair going on with the fermented grape juice. Most, if not all, social events include or are centered around wine and other spirits. We tend to celebrate. A lot.
All that being said, wine can be good. At least that's what they say. Red wine, in particular, is supposed to be good for your heart. I don't drink red, it usually gives me a walloping headache. I do like Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc.
Wine is also good for cancer. Yep, it's true. How do I know? Well, it must be, when the drinking of it at a backyard party can raise over $5,000.00 for the American Cancer Society…which is exactly what we will be doing on May 7th of this year. POP A CORK FOR A CURE is in its fifth year now, and we are full steam ahead with determination that this will be a banner year. This year, we'll add a local slant: proceeds from the auction of our famous (or infamous!) novelty cake will go to the Circle of Hope, providing badly needed support to courageous women and men battling breast cancer.
But you don't have to be a wine aficionado, or even like it to join in the fun. There'll be desserts, hors d'oeuvres, live entertainment, auctions and raffles and lots of joyful people to mingle with. There will also be that great feeling you get when you know that even though you're having fun, you're doing something good and right that will help someone else, someone with cancer who can't help themselves.
Now that's worth celebrating!
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Date: Saturday, May 7, 2011, 2 pm to 6 pm
Minimum Donation: $25.00
Click on the link above for more info!
March 11, 2011
Friday Potpourri: March 11
Anything I might have planned to say has been trumped by the devastating earthquake in Japan. But as I can't really add anything new, I'll leave that to the journalists already on it. I will add that I was very, very moved while watching the "home" videos taken during the shaker. Too close to home. Too many scary memories of 1994 and 1971.
SONG OF THE WEEK: "Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel. Got stuck in my head on Monday and didn't leave. All week. Funny song about a boy unsuccessfully trying seduce a Catholic girl.
The song was released in 1977 and banned by many radio stations. Of course, you can't BUY that kind of publicity, and the song shot to the top of the charts.
"I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints… the sinners are much more fun." Ahh.
Here's a great live version.
Not pretty but just delicious!
RECIPE OF THE WEEK: Baked Macaroni and Cheese by Alton Brown. Yep, culinary god Alton knows how to cook comfort food, my friends. Big time. Don't waste time reading all the comments, just make this dish and wolf it down and smile. Recipe is here.
PS – The only change I made was using dried onions (2 T) instead of the fresh chopped ones. I was lazy. Don't forget to try frying the leftovers as Alton recommends. I couldn't; we had no leftovers.
A RANT ABOUT SHOPPING CARTS: I drive my daughter about 4 miles to school every morning. As we get close to her high school, we enter into a neighborhood that is a little more socio-economically challenged. My daughter pointed out an abandoned shopping cart forlornly occupying a corner we passed. It caused us both to notice more carts along the way, until we'd counted eight or so on sidewalks, lawns and alleys. My daughter asked about them, and I explained that when people don't have cars they walk to the grocery store. They push the carts all the way home, and then just leave them. Sometimes the carts are retrieved by a cart service, other times they are vandalized or stolen for personal use. She was surprised and a little troubled. "Can't they just buy a cart for themselves?" I told her many of them probably could – they sell the kind you drag along behind you fairly cheap at the swap meet – but they choose to use the "free" ones instead. After she got out of the car, I counted eleven more across the street from the school.
Why is that? Is it just a sense of entitlement? Or a minor sort of rebellion? Surely it costs the supermarkets money in retrieval, damages and flat out loss of carts, which affects us all.
I'll stop now before I start sounding like Michael Josephson (for whom I hold the deepest respect) on Character Counts.
NO COMMENT PHOTO
AND WHAT THE JUDGE SAID…
He said it to Lindsay Lohan, but he meant it for Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen, too, and anyone else who seems to think their notoriety gets them some special privilege in this world: "You're no different than anyone else. So please… don't push your luck." Hear, hear.
