GOP Convention Preparations Time-Lapse Video

The Tampa Bay Times Forum is undergoing a face-lift for the 2012 Republican National Convention.
The GOP Convention has released this time-lapse video to show the work done during the month of July. 

From a Press Release, Tampa FL:  Convention organizers gained access to the Tampa Bay Times Forum July 15 and work must be complete in time for the August 27-30 event.  The project involves 200 to 300 workers on any given day - who will work an estimated 50,000 total man-hours.

The high definition video, taken within the Tampa Bay Times Forum, is photographed at the rate of one frame every 30 seconds (approximately 124,000 individual photos during the convention build-out).  The footage shows workers removing seats to make room for construction of the stage that will hold the podium.  Above floor level, viewers can see carpenters making modifications to skyboxes being transformed into television anchor booths that will beam the convention to a worldwide audience.

The 2012 Republican National Convention will be held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum August 27-30, 2012.  Nearly 50,000 visitors are expected to come to the Tampa Bay area for the event, including delegates, alternate delegates, media and other guests.  For more information about the 2012 Republican National Convention, become part of the virtual convention at www.ConventionWithoutWalls.com, visit the website www.GOPConvention2012.com and check out theofficial blog, Conventional Wisdom, at www.gopconvention2012.com/blog/. 

The Cheap Sr. Citizen has an A-ha! Moment

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

Don't wash your hair in the shower!!

WARNING TO US ALL!!     Shampoo Warning!

I don't know WHY I didn't figure this out sooner! 

I wash my hair in the shower. And when I wash my hair, the shampoo runs down my whole body.

Printed very clearly on the shampoo label is this warning, "FOR EXTRA BODY AND VOLUME." 

No wonder I have been gaining weight! 

Well! I have gotten rid of that shampoo, and I am going to start showering with Dawn dish soap instead.

That label reads,  "DISSOLVES FAT THAT IS OTHERWISE DIFFICULT TO REMOVE."

Problem solved!

If I don't answer the phone................................I'll be in the shower!

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...and one more thing......
uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.
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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who occasionally shares helpful hints she has learned through her experience.

   

The Hypnotist's Love Story, Liane Moriarty

I was thrilled the day I saw that Liane Moriarty had a new book out.  Thrilled with the secret of knowing that the minute I finished working, I would curl up on my new summer pool float and begin reading.  Moriarty's style of writing is like bread and water to a Myers Briggs ISFP person such as myself -- one who experiences the world through one's senses and intuition.

"I moved carefully and slowly, because I was in a million pieces and any tiny movement might have made me disintegrate like a special effect in a movie."

Two unlikely people fall in love and navigate their way through a minefield of human behavior that runs from routine family abrasions to the panicky and frightened heart of a stalking ex-girlfriend, harmless really, poor thing. The hypnotist wrestles with personal ethics as she learns secrets from her hypnotized boyfriend. The boyfriend grapples with parenting his son on his own after his wife dies. The stalking ex-girlfriend struggles with letting go, forgiveness and shattered dreams.

The Hypnotist's Love Story explores humanity in a loving way like a gentle breeze, revealing all the hidden flaws of the human psyche while restoring faith in the goodness of the human heart's core.  These characters are real.  You'll recognize yourself, your family member, your friend and forgiveness, love, understanding will shed a new light on your relationships.

This is the kind of "good" good book that makes you take your time reading, makes you spread it over a few days so as to savor the time spent with interesting characters.

"She seemed to Ellen like someone who had lost everything in a natural disaster, someone who was trying to grapple with the fact that the entire framework of her life no longer existed."

Get the book.  Read it.  Pass it on.

 

My review of What Alice Forgot, also by Liane Moriarty

It's a Whole New Ball Game

You need a few players.

And a toughened pitcher with a bright, new idea.

And some chicks on the sideline.

Everybody knows the old game wherein one tries to catch the ball in mid-air when one is jumping off the diving board.....

Patti Danyoo Sikoo

My daughter turned 26 this past weekend.   I was thinking back to when she was little.  I can still hear her high pitched voice mis-pronouncing her name, it always sounded like her last name was Psycho.

All she wanted for her birthday was a maternity swimsuit and a sewing machine.  Easy to please, right?

As I went through her kindergarten and first grade journals, I saw that she was always very clear on what she needed to be happy.  "I'm happy when I go swimming... I'm happy when my brother plays outside with me..... "  Read on...

P.S.  If you're a menopausal, empty-nester mom, that's probably not the best time to go through old papers.

Joie de Vivre

"Just don't seem to be no color no more, E. Saul,"

she paused,

"except 'round your house."

She studied him hard, like reading a book.

"You sure enough got the colors over there.

They fall from your fingers and it's a gift."

~ from The Arms of God by Lynne Hinton

Swimming Holes of Linville Falls, NC, Upper Creek

Scroll to the end for Linville Falls Travel Info

So we returned to Linville Falls for the July 4th holiday and we found something new.

Something spectacular.

Two new swimming holes.....

"... not knowing what just happened

... thought she heard a rock fall

and land somewhere near her heart."

~ from The Arms of God, by Lynne Hinton

Denali National Park

A Day in Paris

Travel info. and extra photos at the bottom of this post.

We arrived in Paris just days before a new President was to be sworn in. There was great excitement and hope-for-change among the people in the French countryside, but less so in Paris. Paris was too thug for all those warm, fuzzy political promises. Paris had a shrug-of-the-shoulders feel about it – this President or that President, no difference, they're all schmucks.

We walked right on past the crowded Louvre and began to stroll down the Champs-Elysees. We by-passed the high priced stores, pushed through the touristy crowd and found an outdoor table at a cafe'. The King George V cafe'. Even the layout of the tables was crowded, just inches apart. We decided to make this our big meal of the day. I got beef bourguignon and Marj got steak and fries, poor thing, she was really missing her American food.

The Europeans get their coffee after the meal and drink it leisurely. I studied up so I would know what to order, they don't seem to have coffee like I drink here in America. Here's the chart I studied up on:

• Cafe' = always an espresso, always about 3 Tbsp. Worth.
• Cafe' American = espresso with hot water.
• Cafe' crème = espresso with hot milk
• Cafe' noisette = machiato – espresso with steamed milk

Unfortunately, at the King George V, as you see in the photo above, I forgot and ordered my cafe' with my meal. Very obviously a tourist, but actually everyone in that area was a tourist, not a big surprise.

Fruit Smoothie with Peaches and Kyo-Green

It's still peach season around here and my brother-in-law walked in Friday with a big basket of peaches.  Three remain on my counter and this morning I will use them in this fine Fruit Smoothie recipe.  However, I will add my secret ingredient:  KyoGreen.

1/2 c plain milk
1/4 c plain yogurt
1/2 c frozen peaches
1/2 c frozen raspberries
1/4 peeled apple
1 Tbsp honey
1 (or 2!) Tbsp Kyo-Green
 
If you are trying to add kelp, seaweed and various grasses to your diet, but hate eating such things, you might want to try Kyo-Green. I've found I can tolerate Kyo-Green in water if I drink it from a water bottle.  I think that's because it isn't exposed to my nose and I don't smell it as I drink it.  If you smell Kyo-Green in your water, it smells like freshly mown grass. 

How to Keep Pictures on the Wall Straight (and 6 other uses for sticky shelf liner)

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

SHELF LINER

You know that rubbery, sort of sticky, plasticky type of shelf liner you can buy? Love that stuff. It's really cheap, considering all the ways you can use it.

 Never have used it on a shelf, mind you! I do put it in drawers to keep things from sliding around.

 BUT! There are oodles of other uses for the stuff! Get creative with it.......

Birthday Pancakes

How to Start your 21st Birthday.

1.  Don the tiara from your best friend.

2.  Admire the Birthday Pancakes your mom made and cousin presented, pancakes that are covered in Royale Sauce from The Log Cabin Pancake House which is over 300 miles away.....

Linville Falls, NC: Beyond the Falls

Pictured:  Table Rock, NC

We returned to the Linville Gorge for July 4th weekend and took the "kids" with us.

It's been a family tradition for many years now to take a family friend -- Grayson -- with us on these camping/holiday trips:

In Which the Boys Play Nothing But a G Chord for 12 Miles

In Which the Boys First Discovered the Rapids of "Bad Baby"

In Which Grayson Thinks Brevard is Like Wagener . . . On Steroids

He looks so much like our son, in fact, that in one family photo from the year my son did not go, many people thought it was my son in the photo, not Grayson. My son himself thought it was him....

Pisa, Italy

Pisa surprised me.

When I remember Pisa, I smile a Mona Lisa smile.

A smile of secrets.

A you had to be there smile shared between two friends across a crowded room.

Pisa is full of secrets of her own, then visit her and throw in your own secrets and, well, you've got...