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COSTUMES IN A CLOSET

November 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

20121108-130037.jpgI was heading up to my God daughter’s 5th birthday party when something struck me. It was a costume party but surely just for the kids, right? Nope. A quick phone call to my friend confirmed I had to dress up too. Dammit! I’m never prepared!! So I turned the car around, stood in my closet and just stared. I had nothing, no costume. But I saw my cowboy shirt, my boots and hat and started grabbing these clothes… right off the hangers!! Not tucked away for special rodeo nights. Nope these clothes are hanging up right next to my suits and Banana Republic shirts. These clothes are worn waaay too often for my San Francisco self! On the way back through the ranch I stopped in the tack room to grab my husband’s chaps. I now not only looked the part but smelled it too!! So by the time I got to the party I was laughing at myself because my costume came from my closet. And the I saw my friend, Jeff, also from the San Francisco Bay Area, and he too pulled his costume out of his closet. Oh how Nevada changes you!

 

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WHERE HAVE I BEEN??

November 7, 2012 By 3 Comments

20121107-120012.jpgWhen I started this blog my goal was to write about 4 posts a week. I don’t want you to feel over burdened with updates from WENDY!!! Wendy all the time could get a little taxing… just ask my husband! But I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile. Yes life has been busy. Domi’s football team made it to the Superbowl!! So we’ve been planning for that this weekend. Eva has had cheer competitions and practices to get ready for the Superbowl. And yes there was a little something called20121107-120019.jpg Campaign 2012 that added to my workload. But those really haven’t been the main reasons to not post. I finally figured out what it comes down to is an overwhelming sense of anxiety caused by surviving the first year of holidays without my mom. It’s like I’ve been on a wave for the past year, paddling just to stay afloat, but the wave is growing and becoming monstrous and gigantic and threatening to bury me with an endless shower of tears. Forcing me under where I can’t breathe. Keeping me down in the darkness. I’m afraid of that wave crashing on top of me. But I know it’s coming, I sense it every day in the back of my throat as I gulp back tears. And sadness is not motivating. It makes me want to sit quietly and hope I don’t get noticed. And while I have lots of fun, quirky things to share with all of you from life on the ranch, my training, etc., suddenly it seems uninteresting. My sadness is dulling my sense of humor. And that’s why I’m writing this post. Because I have to get back out there. I needed to explain where I am in the hopes it will shed some layers of depression. I want to write funny posts but have felt like a fraud because deep within me I’m crying. So there it is. My purge. My crashing to the bottom of the ocean. My wave is on top of me… and I’m surviving it. I’ve taken the first small strokes to the surface by writing this post. The next two months will be about my slow swim back to the sunlight from the depths of my holiday sadness. And then I’ll start paddling out to sea in the hopes of catching another wave that I can ride for awhile. I know it too will crash on top of me but that’s ok. I’m surviving this wave and I’ll survive the next one too. Have you felt this way?  Do you know what I’m talking about?  Am I making any sense??  Man, grief messes with your mind!!  And now I’m going to go eat a bowl of ice cream!

 

 

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MY ITALIAN

November 2, 2012 By 3 Comments

Not everything about ranching happens outside, tromping around cow shit, cursing the storm that ruined an entire crop. Nope. Some things happen in the kitchen. Especially if you’re married to an Italian rancher like I happen to be. And this is what I came home to tonight. Darrin cooking up a storm… yes in his chefs hat. I’m kind of surprised he wasn’t in houndstooth pants, but he wasn’t. Anyway he’s making his family recipe spaghetti sauce. Spices are flying, the Cuisinart is whirling and onions are bringing him to tears. That’s tough to do. I once watched the guy accidentally stab himself in the leg while cutting the twine on hay bales. He just kept on working. The dude doesn’t break down… except apparently for onions. But check this out!! It’s a great Damonte spaghetti sauce secret!! Once all ingredients go into the pot, add a few pork chops… or even a small pork roast. It adds a little flavor to the sauce (I personally can’t pick it up but I’m Scottish, what do I know) but most importantly, it creates another meal. When the spaghetti sauce has cooked for about 3 hours, you take the pork chops out and… Waaahhhlaaaa!! Perfectly cooked meat for dinner tonight. Steam up some veggies and you are ready to go! Who knew cooking spaghetti sauce meant having pork for dinner!

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AFTERLIFE EXISTS SAYS A TOP BRAIN SURGEON, AND I AGREE

November 1, 2012 By 2 Comments

A prominent scientist who had previously dismissed the possibility of the afterlife says he has reconsidered his belief after experiencing an out of body experience which has convinced him that heaven exists. I know it does. I too have seen it first hand. When my mom was dying she saw my dad, who had died two years previously, in the window. She told us he was there to come get her. You can hear her for yourself on November 29th when I air a special about her battle with breast cancer. More details on that to come but for now, here’s the article from Mark Hughes:

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While in a coma the neurosurgeon says he was met by a beautiful woman in a ‘place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones.’
Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis.
During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion “shut down” and that he then experienced “something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.” In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a “place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones” and “shimmering beings”.
He continues: “Birds? Angels? These words registered later, when I was writing down my recollections. But neither of these words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms.” The doctor adds that a “huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above, and I wondered if the winged beings were producing it. the sound was palpable and almost material, like a rain that you can feel on your skin but doesn’t get you wet.”
Dr Alexander says he had heard stories from patients who spoke of outer body experiences but had disregarded them as “wishful thinking” but has reconsidered his opinion following his own experience.
He added: “I know full well how extraordinary, how frankly unbelievable, all this sounds. Had someone even a doctor told me a story like this in the old days, I would have been quite certain that they were under the spell of some delusion.”

 

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN CAKES

October 31, 2012 By 3 Comments

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You all know me as a TV anchor and now blogger (!!!!) but my close friends know me as a cake decorator. At least during special events and Halloween of  course qualifies! I always try to come up with unique, original designs. Because the LOOK of the cake is all that matters to me. But the TASTE is what most everyone else raves about… And here ya go!!! Here’s my secret for making the best tasting cakes around. Ok, at least by a home cook like me!  I follow the recipe on the back of the Betty Crocker box exactly… Except! And here’s the secret… I add a box of Jell-O pudding. I get a small box of whatever flavor the cake is and just dump it right in while my KitchenAid mixes it all up. This is a fool proof way to always get super moist cake!! Now my other secret for frosting the cake is to freeze it first. This makes it much easier to spread the frosting.  And then just let your imagination take over!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MAX

October 29, 2012 By 7 Comments

Never, EVER, will I be alone again as long as this cat is alive.

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Which is weird because I ALREADY HAVE A SHADOW!

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THE LITTLE TICKLE

October 28, 2012 By 2 Comments

Ok, this post IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. In fact, most of you should stop reading right now! I mean it. Especially all you men. This is not for the light of heart. TMI comes to mind. Ok, for those of you who can handle it, here ya go! You know that feeling, that little tickle, when you forgot to put in a tampon? SEE I TOLD YOU TO STOP READING!! Anyway, when you get that feeling, you hope you’re still at home, sipping that last Godly drop of coffee before rushing out the door. You hope no matter where you are you’re in a black skirt. And you certainly hope, when that little tickle comes you can get discreetly and quickly to a bathroom to stop the gush that is coming any moment. Well… that little tickle happened to me today ON LIVE TV! Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, was in Reno and right as he took the stage… tickle tickle tickle! Now, when that happens, you slightly freeze, right? You hope if you don’t move the situation won’t get any worse. So there I am trying to take notes, not moving from the shoulder down… for 45 minutes! And once he left the stage and we signed off, I had to pretend to stay busy until everyone else left the studio. No way was I going to risk walking in front of anyone. Finally, I was able to get to the bathroom where I took care of the business I should have taken care of before I left the house today. The one saving grace is I did have on a black skirt

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MAN FREE FALLS FROM SPACE

October 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ya know that feeling when you’re standing on the end of the high dive looking down at that little rectangle of blue water, your knees shaking, but you know you have to jump… wimping out is not an option?  This guy didn’t feel that.  BECAUSE HE WAS LOOKING DOWN OVER THE EARTH!  He had to be shitting his pants!   MY palms were sweating beads just reading this story.  They are sweating again just linking this article to my blog.  Thanks Nicholas Mott of National Geographic for this story… even if it makes me want to throw up!  And it does kinda make me laugh that he landed in Roswell, NM… just saying!

“Space Dive” Success: Baumgartner Breaks Skydive Record, Sound Barrier

From 24 miles over Roswell, sky diver fell farther, faster than any other.

Pilot Felix Baumgartner celebrates after a record-breaking dive.

Pilot Felix Baumgartner exults after landing on his feet in Roswell, New Mexico, Sunday.

Photograph courtesy Balazs Gardi, Red Bull Content Pool

Nicholas Mott

National Geographic News

Updated 5:02 p.m. ET, October 14, 2012

“I’m coming home,” Felix Baumgartner radioed Sunday just before stepping off his 24-mile-high (39-kilometer-high) balloon capsule and into the history books.

He wasted no time getting there: In the process of logging the highest ever jump, Baumgartner reached unprecedented speeds of 833.9 miles (1,342 kilometers) an hour while free-falling in a pressurized suit, according to preliminary data.

Video: Watch Highlights of the Skydive That Broke the Sound Barrier

Though he appeared no worse for the wear during a post-jump press conference, Baumgartner had, officials announced, broken the sound barrierduring the free fall, reaching Mach 1.24. Asked what it was like to go supersonic, he said, “It’s hard to describe, because I didn’t feel it. You know, when you’re in that pressure suit, you don’t feel anything. It’s like being in a cast.”

After several postponements, the so-called Red Bull Stratos Mission to the Edge of Space had begun shortly after 2 p.m. ET, when he opened his capsule high above  Roswell (map), New Mexico.

“Be sure to duck your head real low as you go out the door,” warned retired U.S. Air Force pilot Joseph Kittinger, who set the previous height record in 1960—19.5 miles (31.3 kilometers)—and was the only Red Bull Stratos team member with a direct radio link to Baumgartner. (See classic pictures of Kittinger’s skydive.)

Soon after, Baumgartner dived from beneath history’s largest helium balloon—55 stories tall and as wide as a football field.

After a 4-minute, 22-second free fall—not the longest duration on record, as he’d hoped (that record-breaking speed may have had something to do with it)—the Austrian sky diver opened his parachute at about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters).

“Couldn’t have done it any better myself,” Kittinger said over the radio, and to the millions who watched the live Internet feed of Baumgartner’s skydive.

Baumgartner safely touched down at 2:17 p.m. ET after roughly ten minutes total in the air—the picture perfect desert landing punctuated by an apparently elated Baumgartner falling to his knees before being whisked away by a recovery helicopter.

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