The TrUtH According to Lisa

Yeasty Belgian Waffles for Wally on Father's Day!!

Today is Father's Day and we have spent the weekend having fun. Yesterday,y was a trip to Rockport to enjoy the town and to go buy Wally the lobster dinner he craved. We went to the Lobster Pound, north of Rockport and had a nice 1 1/4 pound lobsters...not the biggest but plenty for us...some chowder, and we shared some fried clams...okay, I know this was not on the diet plan, but sometimes you have to splurge. We later stopped at Bedford Farms and got Cherry Bomb ice cream...move over Cherry Garcia!!!

 

This morning, being the real day, I got up early and made the dough for yeast version of Belgian Waffles. Now, I don't know about you but I never noticed these were Belgiann and not Belgium. A man I know on Second Life told me that Belgiann means "of or from" Belgium. So, do note I still learn new things!

Here is a picture...the yeast over baking powder is amazing. Thank you again Brian for the wonderful Belgian Waffle machine!! We put real maple syrup on it and had it with crispy bacon..OMG it was amazing.

Happy Father's Day to all my friends who are father's or who put up with their spouses kids like Wally has done...he he.

Surprise! Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

According to this article on CNN:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1987568,00.html?hpt=C2

Scientist were surprised to learn that there are Neanderthal genes in modern day humans. I chuckled. As a woman, I have encountered a few Neanderthals while dating. I am sure other women friends of mine will concur, that Neanderthals are alive and well on planet earth. What do you think ladies?

Dinner with the boyz....

My ham club has some very nice people. A bunch of us meet for breakfast each week and the same group meets for dinner once of twice a month. Last night was dinner before the meeting. Erik called and appointed he and I as dinner chairpersons and we decided on the Emerald Rose in Billerica, one of my favorite places to eat. The guys love the bangers and mashed there. Many of us got that.

Here is a picture of Erik and Paul. I think they got the message from mom on wearing a lavender shirt:

Paul is a rocket scientist, so he says...but I grew up with real ones...ha ha.

Here are Art, Paul and Jim. They are all sporting Red Sox hats, so they cannot be bad!! Needless to say, we had a blast. I am lucky to have so many friends.

Bike to work month for my company. . .

Last year, I started to ride my bike to work and then we had horrible rains and Wally got sick. It is May again. My company does this bike to work deal. I am trying to commit to three days a week and the first few will be tough as I am sooooo not in shape!! Today is gorgeous and I wish I rode in, but I have a doctor appointment. It is the perfect type of warm spring day with clear blue skies. I love it! The rest of the week should be the same I am told.

Here is a photo of my office today. It is a beautiful sky. . .can you feel the sun?

Still Spring in New England

Back in February, a friend asked if the trees were blooming and I said no. Our spring begins rather late up here. Winter can be so long. My friend Dave in Winnipeg, he taught me something. He said they do not have flowering trees up there on the cold prairie. I was so surprised. So, today, I wanted to share spring with Dave as we do get flowering trees and LOTS of them. My favorites include these cherries, but I love the tulip (magnolia) trees, and PMJ azaleas we have...and the bulbs. This color, assaults my eyes after winter and wakes me from my winter sleep. Today, it feel more like winter coming than winter going...burr. So these two trees are in front of my office and I snapped them on my Blackberry as I came in this morning. Enjoy!

And here is the other one...

 Correction from Dave: He says they have a rare flowering tree here and there but he only seen maybe one. Recently, when traveling in the US, he saw many of them. I think of it as the fireworks of spring. They explode all around us in different colors.

Small World. . .

I was talking to one of our management team as he was stuck in Europe due to the Volcano and while waiting in the airport someone from his past found him and gave him a little punch in the shoulder. How strange it is  to have such encounters. It happens to me too and the most astounding case was back in high school.

I was a checker at a grocery store for my high school job. Some German teachers were coming through our store and I was taking German in high school and saving my pennies to go visit my cousin. I finally found the courage to speak to one of them, a man teacher. I said hello in German and told him I was going to visit my cousin there in a few months. He asked me which town. I said, " Andernach." He replied he was from that town. I was thinking he was pulling my leg. Then he asked me who my cousin was. I replied. He said, "She is my student." I was shocked. He waited until my grocery line was still and asked to take me to dinner. I was thinking this was a very creative pickup line...and I was young, only 17 and ill equip to handle it well. I said well I would have to ask my parents. So, I called them. They asked to speak to him. They approved of him. I think I picked him up and took him to the local dive for seafood. The one where we fed catfish through the floor of the pier upon which the restaurant was perched. HE loved it. I learned that prawns and shrimp were the same thing.

Later that summer, I went to school with my cousin. Sure enough he was her teacher. He was showing the students his slides. School goes longer in German than in the US. Students applauded by knocking on the desks and not clapping their hands...it was so surreal. What are the chances of me meeting someone like this? Turns out, they were more than teacher and student <grins>.

Last night, as I was working on my business in second life a fellow I know IM'd me and invited me to come sit with him and some friends. I was just finishing up and so figured that could be fun. When I arrived, three of his friends where three of my friends that I know from three different places in Second Life. I was blown away. I like all of them very much. As community gels in Second Life I am always amazed because it is a very large meta-universe. Part of my goal there is to build a community, as one that connected many of us closed a year ago and has been sorely missed. Connections in life happen in many ways. Have any of you stories of freak encounters?

94 Year Old Bungee Jumper!

OMG, look at this guy! My 50 year old frieds keep whining about being too old...and this guy is in his 90s and the OLDest jumper ever!! We are YOUNG!!

Read this CNN report and watch the video.

Flooding in Lowell, MA 2010

Wally and I get asked all the time if we are ok. If the floods have affected us here in Lowell, MA, as they know we are surrounded by water, both with the Merrimack River and the canals that lace through the City of Lowell left over from the mills that were in our area. We were once called the Venice of America here.

The answer is no. We are fine. Yes, there is flooding around us. We are on the 4th floor of our apartment, which helps and the canals around us are not even high. The Merrimack River however is. These are pictures from our walk on Easter Sunday taken by my Blackberry.

 
Typically, where these trees are is dirt. The water has receded and did cover this walkway, which is our bike path along the river.

This is one of the spillways from the mill canals where they are allowing the water through. As you can see, it it pretty violent and spilling over the walkway. The entry to this path from Boot Mills is blocked by the DPW.

Another view of the same powerful water system. It is amazing to watch and see the flooding we have had locally and in the last few years. We are thankful NOT to be harmed in this. Our benefit is a delay for us in paying our taxes since we live in a disaster area. Yippee!!

PS on previous blog

I forgot to add how my life is completely different because my father got transferred in 73 to the west coast. He was a lucky one. He kept his job. It cancelled my college plans on the east coast. I went to a junior college out in CA at the last minute. I did not finish college until later in life, at San Jose State. I was on the west coast from 73 until 97. While my folks have now returned to Florida, and I can get back there...my "hometown" does not exist really like normal hometowns.

Cocoa Beach has been around for a while yes, but growing up there was like growing up with folks from EVERYWHERE else. There was not much culture or amenities...I did find that later in life but I often associate growing up in Cocoa Beach as kind of growing up in the sticks. I loved the nature and the beach, BUT, I wish I had real roots in a community with family that goes back forever. I am a nomad now and home is wherever I am and I guess that makes me stronger...today there is a reunion back in Cocoa Beach and I am glad to see us babyboomers looking for our community there...it is beautiful to see. I am too far away to go to this party...maybe next time!!

Spacecoast in for another down turn...

I came across this article and it hit a sore spot:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100401/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1421

I lived in Cocoa Beach when the Apollo program ended and all those talented workers suffered such layoffs and financial harm. I cannot believe that our government cannot remember this tragedy and have avoided it with better planning. I cannot believe I am seeing it happen again.

I live in Lowell, MA...which is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. This city used to be the richest city in America and fell hard when that industry left this area.

As a high tech worker, I have no job guarantee, none of us do, but seems like we could avoid trauma in this country with better planning. Watching industries end is inevitable I know, but can we consider the people? Can we not see things coming and figure out a way to truly retrain and reuse the talent? This harsh reality is hard to bear especially in areas where no other jobs exist and folks have to walk away from homes as they did in the Space Coast in the 70s. It was harsh and horrible. I can imagine it is the same for those working in the car industry and other ones that have come and gone.

My father asks me why I do not stay in the same job and have a retirement. My answer is that does not exist for me. In my industry, I am lucky to stay in a job for three to five years. Then I have to retool and retrain an yet another technology. Yes, it keeps me on my toes, I am nimble. I know how to interview and find a job. However, I never expected to have these skills at my age. My mother was enjoying traveling to see her grandkids for long periods of time..this is a luxury I don't really have. I get a few days. Short of winning the lottery this won't change.

Anyway, reading this makes me sad. These people dedicated their lives to make the Shuttle a success, yet we do nothing to use their talent for some years to come.  Just stinks.