The Hooding Ceremony

On Friday, June 15, 2007 the Portland State University School of Fine and Performing Arts held their first official hooding ceremony. This event featured all the Master's candidates receiving their Master's hood. It was a really nice event - not too long, with plenty showing off of each department. Part of my duties as the Research Assistant was to create the department slide shows - the hardest part? Picking music for the Music Department slide show. In the end we used classical guitar for each department - and they actually worked!

After the ceremony, Mom, Dad and Aunt Karen and I rode the streetcar down to the Restaurant Bleu at the Western Culinary Institute. We had a great meal and it was a wonderful capper to a great day.

Then we came home and fluffed pom-poms until almost midnight!

Graduation Preparations

Here are all the pictures of the Taylors getting ready for the all pink graduation party:Aunt Karen flew up from SoCal to help with the party and join in the festivities!
Dad and Chanel fold tissue paper to make the pom-poms for the canopy outside
Mom trims the edges to a nice point.

Dad positions the hooks for the pom-pom garlandsThe six dozen roses that will make the centerpieces - Mom did an amazing job!

After folding, we then fluff out the one hundred pom-poms
And we just keep fluffing...
Until the floor looked like this...

This is my visual DNA

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A new arrival

Hooray for Reagan Berg - born on June 8, 2007 to Brent and MaryKate Berg in Boise, Idaho!! Way to go, Mom!! You look so great!

Bring on breakfast...

I'm making these in the morning...

French Toast Kabobs from MarthaStewart.com

Ingredients

Serves 4

* 8 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 2/3 cup nonfat buttermilk
* 1 salt
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 (one-pound) unsliced dense white bread (such as pullman), crusts removed and cut into 1-inch cubes
* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1/2 pint fresh blueberries
* 1/2 pint fresh raspberries
* 2 bananas, sliced
* Maple syrup, (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place a rimmed baking sheet in the oven to warm. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, salt, and vanilla. Stir in bread.

2. In a large saute pan set over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Place half of the bread mixture in pan; cook, turning occasionally with a spatula, until browned on all sides. To keep warm, transfer to the oven. Cook remaining bread in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter as before.

3. Thread bread cubes onto skewers alternating with blueberries, raspberries, and banana slices. Serve immediately with maple syrup, if desired.

Image from Hostess with the Mostess Blog

Hey Mr. Postman!

I have had so many wonderful things come in the mail over the last few days - cards, shoes, make-up...but I'm most excited about one package that is yet to arrive from Amazon.com. It will contain my copy ofLest you think that all I do is watch television...

CBS, CBS...

The final moments when Charles tries to get his cigar back?!? Hold me...I'm crying I'm laughing so hard...

Sha Na Na?

Today I have discovered a new person that I really admire: Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, the former lead singer for Sha Na Na. As I've been watching various shows on the Game Show Network...I was watching some "Password Plus" - where he was one of the celebrities. Not only is he a great player, he's SO polite and always stands and shakes the hands of the new players. He's so impressive as a person. To learn more about Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, visit here.

A new way to find coolness...

You may have noticed the new button in the right column of the blog. Yesterday was the launch of sk*rt - which is the new, female version of Digg. sk*rt is amazing exept for the fact that now I get NOTHING else done. So, be warned - don't visit sk*rt unless you've got plenty of time to spend.

More info...

I realized that after my last post I didn't more fully describe the National Bingo Night(NBN) experience.

From ABC.com:
"In each episode, three high action Bingo games are played in-studio, with the viewing public invited to play along for a chance to win tens of thousands of prizes...n each game, a contestant will try his/her luck, racing against the studio audience as balls numbered from 1-75 are randomly selected from a giant sphere set in a high-tech "Bingo Plex" arena. The studio audience will track the numbers on their own Bingo cards for a chance to win cash and prizes and send the contestant home empty-handed.

Millions of viewers will also be able to play along at home by printing out free cards via ABC.com. Viewers can log on and print out game cards. Each time a person prints, he/she will get three pages, one for each game that is played per episode telecast (a Red, White and Blue card). Each game card has three Bingo grids on it, allowing the participant three chances to win per card. Online winners are not competing against the clock; those who get a Bingo from the numbers called for each Red, White or Blue game on the corresponding cards can log on to ABC.com after the broadcast and enter the serial number from their card to verify their winning card. Viewers at home who get five numbers up and down, across or diagonally will be eligible for the grand prize drawing for that game.

Ed Sanders will host and Sunil Narkar ("Commissioner Sunil") will serve as co-host."

Now - the best part isn't the playing along - which is great. The best part is Commissioner Sunil - who makes it look like he's some Bingo official...but really - he's just saying "NO BINGO!" and being awesome. You can see him in action at this site.

Get your daubers ready - only three more days to NBN!

OH MY HOLY SMOKES!!!

I'm just telling you all right now - if you're not playing National Bingo on ABC...then I don't know why you even read my blog. It took one night - and I'm hooked. Because I'm a grandma and I loves me some BINGO!!

Better get back to the game!!

Knob...check

So, I ordered my new gear shifter knob this morning - and I'm pretty excited. I went with this shape - only in red...no engraving, no embedments. It should be here in two weeks. Yee-haw!

The new cable...

All things worth having come with work and challenges. The cable guy was over 20 minutes past his 2 hour window. Good thing I have a gazillion other things to be doing while I waited! But once he arrived he got our cable boxes installed and off we went. Except for the snag of having the cable box talk to the TiVo (or really, take orders from Marfa, our TiVo). Fortunately, Dad doesn't throw anything away - it's just a trick of figuring out where that one little cable is in the massive garage. At one point during the installation a head lamp was involved - but my Dad is always looking for excuses to wear his head lamp - so there you go.

Finally, it's all good. And I'm sure you're asking yourself - what did you watch first? And I'll tell you what I watched: GUTS on Nick GAS. That's right...the competition for kids on Nickelodeon. It was hilarious to watch it again - since, yes, I totally watched it back in the early 1990's. Sad and Awesome at the same time!

I've also set the TiVo to record two other old time faves:Finders Keepers - anyone else remember this one?

You might remember Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple. Even as a youth I loved me some game shows!

Something to check out...

I don't know if this kind of thing interests you - but I think it's very cool. Check out Learning To Love You More and see if you can do one of the assignments. I think I'm going to be working on number 30, number 45, and here is my submission for number 50 to start...

Big News!

Today is such a big day! The cable man is going to arrive any minute with our new upgraded digital cable. For some reason we'd just been content to have regular old cable. But with all the beauty blooming around us in the warm Spring weather - we need a better reason to stay inside! So I called "the man" and we're getting all those channels that will be keeping us cool in the hot summer sun!

Once we attach this bad boy - there is no telling what we'll watch! Bring on the Bravo! Bring on the Game Show Network! Bring on the BBC America! HURRAH!!!

Swaps...!

I've been very remiss in not thanking my swap partners of late...but I'd like to show off the happy mail I've received lately!

First was the "Box Swap" at Create A Connection. I got this beautiful box, with a gorgeous picture of some orchids and then the box was filled with all the goodies you see here:

Thank you so much, Sara!

Then was the "Favorite Mints and Gum Swap" at Swap-Bot.com where I got not only some great Orbit gum and some Starbucks Peppermints - but some really cute stickers...

Thanks, Michelle!

Decisions, decisions

So, my car needs a new gearshift knob (yes, laugh now...it out of your system...) and I've been trying to find a nice replacement. I ordered a brochure from the E. Parrella Company in Medway, MA. But right now I'm trying to choose between two:The silver one in this picture

OR

The purple one in this picture

What do you think? I'm really leaning toward the silver one, as the whole rest of my car is silver and I think the silver would look good with the disco ball.

Now I have a reason...

I never thought I'd want to move to the South. But DayJet may actually be a reason to move there. Also - this would be when I have plenty of funds...but we have to dream, right?

A plea for help...

Dear friends -
As I am getting close to graduation - I'm no longer interested in my school work (bad) but I'm really trying to compile a list of books to read once I can read for fun again...

So please send a long some book recommendations - I'm making a list! Gotta be organized about these things...

Sadness...

Today I discovered that my SuperDrive will no longer keep any kind of disk in it. It makes bad noises and then spits them back out. After diagnostics...it's a broken drive. And they'll need to send it away for repairs. I honestly don't know if I can be without Trusty Rusty for any real amount of time. It's just part of who I am now.

The good news is that it doesn't effect the other wonderful things my iBook does. So, once I've finished my final projects - I will send him away. I guess it's true what they say - if you love something...send it to Tennessee for repairs...and if it comes back...it was meant to be.