Thursday Thirteen #2

Here's my second Thursday Thirteen! This week it's 13 places that I've visited or lived. I didn't count any in my home state of California and there are many others I've left off the list. Enjoy!

Thirteen Places I've Visited or Lived 1. Guthrie, Oklahoma where my dad grew up. 2. Paris, France with my high school show choir in 1994; we also went to EuroDisney! 3. Dallas, Texas for 8 months while working for Verizon from June 1998 to February 1999. 4. Oahu, Hawaii twice: once when I was 6 and again in 2000 for work. I climbed Diamond Head both times! 5. Switzerland on a family vacation in 2003 6. Belgium with my high school show choir in 1994 7. The Netherlands with my high school show choir in 1994. I love wooden shoes! 8. Irapuato, Mexico as an exchange student with the sister city program when I was 16. 9. Sylva, North Carolina for 2 weeks for work in 2000, but had some free time to explore! 10. Seattle, Washington for one week for work in 2003, but again, I had some time to explore. 11. Rochester, Minnesota for the AAU Junior Olympics as a discus thrower when I was 16. 12. Syracuse, New York where my sister went to college. 13. Costa Rica on a trip with the Stanford Alumni Association in 2003. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Stormy Sky Photos

I love stormy skies. The clouds look so neat and generally stormy skies make for a wonderful sunset (as long as the sun can actually be seen through the clouds).

Last Friday was one of these days. It didn't rain, but there were thunderstorm clouds in the sky. I'm including various pictures I took that day. My favorites are those at the end. The texture and color of the clouds just really intrigued me!
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I first noticed the sky when I stopped at the mall for lunch after taking my car in...I was literally looking straight up!

When I got home, I noticed that the clouds looked like cotton balls. I love it when they look that way:)

The clouds at sunset really intrigued me. The rest of the sky, not so much. I'm including a couple of wider angle sunset shots, but my favorites are the cloud close ups. As I mentioned above, the texture along with the color intrigued me. You may need to click on the photos to see a close up to get a somewhat better idea.

Weekend in Arizona

I'm off to Arizona for the weekend tomorrow. Have to check on my apartment and take over some things we didn't want to leave in the hands of the movers.

I'll be taking my computer, so I may post sometime this weekend (I have some pictures to post), but I thought I'd put up the picture of the Gila Bend sign again since we'll be driving by it tomorrow:)

It makes me smile every time I see it!

"Gila Bend Welcomes You. Home of 1700 friendly people and 5 old crabs."

My First Thursday Thirteen!

I've decided to start doing Thursday Thirteens! I've been reading them a lot on other blogs, and decided to join in! Hopefully those of you that find your way here to my blog learn a little something about me each Thursday:)

Today's topic:
13 things I'm going to miss when I move from Bonita, California to Avondale, Arizona in August...

Thirteen Things I'm going to miss when I move from California to Arizona 1. The sunsets from my parents backyard. 2. Knowing that the ocean is just minutes away (even though I don't go to the beach often). 3. Round Table Pizza. 4. The weather! 5. Boudin Bakery. They make my favorite Cesar salads! 6. My parents. 7. Ron, Cherie, and Sophie (our cats who live with my parents). 8. Living in the town where I grew up. 9. Having "Good Karma Lane" as my street address. 10. Having a California Driver's License. 11. The weather!! 12. The House of Nine Dragons which is a local Chinese restaurant that makes the best egg rolls ever. 13. Um, did I mention...THE WEATHER! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Jaynie R 2. Shiloh Walker 3. Amy 4. Lady Rose 5. Damozel at Buck Naked Politics 6. Jeremy (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Monday Music Mania: Rockapella

Rockapella is another group (along with Take 6 ) I discovered from Spike Lee's Do It A Capella. These guys are great! I especially love Flat Tire, which is even better when you see it (as I did on Do It A Capella). I'm including a video I found on YouTube of that performance so you can enjoy it too!

The group has gone through some changes (people coming and going). My favorite group has to be the original one I saw on the show, though I still love the music. I haven't really kept up since bass singer Barry Carl retired. It's really hard for me to think of the group without him! My one regret is that I didn't get to see the group live in person before Barry left...

Tempted


Blah Blah Blah


Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?



Up on the Roof/What a Wonderful World


Zombie Jamboree


Flat Tire

YouTube for Flat Tire

YouTube of Zombie Jamboree (plus another song)

Felicity, California: The Center of the World?

History of Humanity

In Trust
That this summary
of
Human achievement and failure
Will encourage
Study of the past,
Thought for the future
and
Resolve for virtue.
In Hope
That the human race
Will endure
Far longer than this stone.

--Jacques-Andre Istel

In driving back and forth between San Diego and the Phoenix, I noticed this odd church-like building standing on a hill all by itself just west of the Arizona-California border. On our last trip back to San Diego, I decided to stop to investigate the building and take some photos.

What I found was not at all what I was expecting! The church is still under construction and is part of the town of Felicity, California. Felicity is quite an interesting town. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere and claims to be the official Center of the World.

I didn't get to see the actual point that is the Center of the World since it's inside the pyramid that's closed (along with the other buildings in the town) during the summer months probably because it's hotter than Hades.

Once we drove into the town, I took a few photos of the church, but was quickly distracted by the "Museum of History in Granite." It's literally history in granite with a wide range of topics like the History of French Aviation, a Korean War Memorial, and the History of Humanity (my favorite). As you'll see in my pictures below, the history includes both text and pictures. It's quite amazing. You can even have your name engraved on the "Wall for the Ages" and leave your own mark on history.

I could have spent all day there! I'll definitely be going back. I didn't get to photograph as many of the landmarks as I'd like to (the sundial and the stairs from the Eiffel Tower) and more walls are being added to the museum.

If any of you are ever driving along Interstate 8 just west of the Arizona-California state border, be sure to look for the town of Felicity (exit on Sidewinder Road). Below are some of my photos (you can click on them to see a bigger version). I'm actually in some of them (well, my reflection anyway) because of the time of day and the reflective surface of the granite.

Enjoy the photos!

Here's the church behind the wall that has the History of Humanity:

History of Humanity
This first photo isn't the best, but what I really wanted to capture was the wording (which appears at the beginning of this post).

History of French Aviation

Did You Get Your Free Slurpee Today?

I learn such interesting things being a teacher. I found out in class today that since the date is 7/11, the store 7-Eleven gives away free slurpees! Of course, the slurpee is only 7.11 ounces (pretty small), but hey it's free. I hadn't had a slurpee in ages so it was a nice change. I tried to drink it too fast though and got brain freeze even with such a small amount.

I didn't get a picture, but I may try to get one of the 7.11 ounce cup in the next couple of days to post here...

You know you're a photographer when...

you surprise a skunk outside your classroom, narrowly avoid getting sprayed, and then wish you had your camera with you to capture the moment.

Monday Music Mania: Take 6

This week's group is Take 6, another one I discovered through Spike Lee's Do It A Capella. Oddly enough, after I saw Take 6 on the show, I found out my dad already had one of their CDs in his collection. That CD has ended up as part of my collection since I listen to it much more often than he does:)

Take 6 has had at least one members come and go (if I remember correctly) and they've tried various experiments with non-a capella music, but I must say, the earlier a capella stuff is my favorite!

Unfortunately, these are mostly 30 second clips because of copyright issues.

Some of my Take 6 favorites:

Spread Love


Goldmine


I L-O-V-E U



Something Within Me


I Believe


So Much 2 Say

Random Photos

I have quite a few pictures of various subjects to share, but I'll probably spread them out over the next week or two because some of them require some explanation that I haven't gotten around to yet.

For now, here are some pictures of the sky at sunset I took one night last week and of Ron in the backyard. Ron is always difficult to shoot; partly because he moves so much and partly because he's black so the autofocus doesn't always, well, focus.

Sky at Dusk

Ron

Look What I Can Do!

I found this via Kala at the Honolulu Daily Photo blog. I can turn my photos into museum/art gallery items. How cool is that?

Here are a few I created while I was playing around: