G Is For Guinnesian #AToZChallenge

If you have the distinct honor of being a Guinnesian, you are indeed in a very select group. You are a Guinness World Record Holder and have been listed in one of their annual almanacs! You'll have to agree that they are an odd lot, many of them having very bizarre talents and abilities!

Using conventional things in unconventional ways:

Building Strange Contraptions:

Serving Record Time In  Curious Occupations:

Eating And Drinking Crazy Things:

Amassing Curious Collections:

 One doesn't need to be human to qualify:

Just Extremely Talented:

Do you think you have what it takes to be a Guinnesian? Here is a list of criteria used to qualify potential candidates!!

1. Measurable - Is it the fastest / longest / heaviest / most?
2. Breakable - Can the record be broken or repeated by someone else?  All our record titles must be open to being challenged.
3. Standardizable -  Can the record title be done universally? For example, it cannot be related to something restricted to a region. 
4. Verifiable - Can the claim be proven? For example, a claim such as ‘the man who never drank water’, can never be verified unless the man spent his whole life from birth under surveillance by a witness.
5. One Variable – We can verify the Largest painting but would not consider the largest painting by the most people.
6. Absolute records not categories - For example, Fastest 100metre sprint but not the fastest 100 metre sprint by a Fireman
7. Universal - The proposal must be something, or about something that is known to the world’s majority. It cannot be too specific / regional.

Thanks to the Guiness Book Of Records Site for the photos. Click on the photo for the link!

F Is For Fajita Moment #AToZChallenge

 Have you heard the expression "She had a 'Fajita Moment'"? It's basically a very embarrassing event, something that usually happens in front of a lot of people. It became an expression when observers noticed shy people ordering fajitas in a restaurant. They become embarrassed when the waiter brings them in. The fajitas generally come with lots of steam emanating from them, lots of plates with extra add-ons, which attracts lots of attention. Shy people don't like attention.

 A Fajita Moment isn't necessarily humorous. It can actually be mortifying at the time. I can think of one such fajita moment. It wasn't so much fun!

As I have stated before, I work at a remedial high school in a self-contained classroom. I was on a field trip with my gang of high school, SpecEd, Mild-Moderate, Self-Contained boys and my 2 other male co-workers. It was toward the end of the school year, in May. The weather was starting to warm up very nicely and fashion diva that I am (not), was wearing knee-length peddle pushers, my first foray into summer attire. My legs are neon white until they get a bit of sun and so I thought I'd be considerate and put a little self-tanner on that morning. I was in a rush, as usual, but thought I had done a fairly thorough job applying it.

Apparently not! As we were walking back to our bus after the activity, I noticed that the tanner hadn't soaked in very well in some spots and was a bit blotchy. I mentioned, casually, that my tanner was rather blotchy to one of my co-workers. He started inspecting my legs and blurted out, "Wow, Helena's blotchy!" I couldn't believe he threw me under the bus like that. Now I had  8 males checking out my less-than-perfect self-tanned legs. Definitely nothing I wanted attention drawn to! Sure enough, they all start making comments like, "Orange you glad it's Friday?" "She may be blotchy, good thing she isn't b*tchy too!" It was humiliating, but I lived through it!

So with that experience and several others in mind, here are my suggestions for getting through a Fajita Moment:

1) Now that everyone's attention is on you, make the most of it. Laugh and smile as if it is the least of your concerns.

2) Is there something you'd like to bring to everyone's attention? Now that you have everyone's attention, it's the perfect time to have the floor. Request a General Pay Raise, more food in the break room, reminder that it's your birthday next week, request your favorite meal, etc. Always have something ready to pull out of your pocket for opportune moments such as this!

3) Create some fun conversation. Divert people's attention from yourself by asking about others' Fajita Moments. Everyone has had one or two and they could prove to be very entertaining!

4) Acknowledge that this was indeed a Fajita Moment and store it in your 'Fajita Moment Story-telling Bank' to draw out for future re-hashing. It may not seem funny now, but later on, it may prove fun to reminisce on. You just need to have it ready to serve up - like a steaming, hot, plate of fajitas!
What Fajita moment comes to mind for you? Care to share?

E Is For Eggshell Art #AtoZChallenge

I don't have a lot of time to do art, but when I do, I'm going to do some eggshell art! It looks so fun, cool, and certainly no two art pieces are ever the same. So I've decided to do a collection of references to some really cool sites that feature eggshell art!

Here is a really great way to make a pendant simply from a domino and eggshells and some clear drying glue! You can 

make some really gorgeous pieces with this technique!

If you have a surface that needs decorating or salvaging, why not do an eggshell surface? It resembles old marble!

If you are searching for a fun and interesting children's craft project, here it is! Use clay as the adhesive for the colored egg shells!

Finally, this looks so fun! An eggshell mosaic! This is actually done as a craft for kids, but this would make anyone feel like a crafty person! 

Now that you've seen some basic ways to use eggshells, take a look at a pro's work, it's not just the novice that works with eggshells! This is some eggshell art by RedHongYi, a Chinese artist living in Shanghai, who creates amazing art out of ordinary things! This is from her '31 Days Of Food Creativity' Series.

D Is For Downy Chicks! #AToZChallenge

Tomorrow is Easter and little downy chicks are part of the celebration. So cute and sweet! Lately I've been watching some other kinds of downy chicks...little owlets of the Great Horned variety. Technically not chicks...but close enough! They were born about 22 days ago in Arizona!

When I lived in the country in Virginia, many nights I heard the at first haunting, but over time, familiar and comforting "Hoo, H'Hoo Hoo Hoo" I didn't know what kind of owl I was hearing, but now know it was the Great Horned Owl, the most common owl of the Americas. Living in Utah I live very close to a large equestrian park and in the evenings, when walking, I'll hear that call as well. But to see them in real life, raising a nest of young ones is really fascinating. 

From what I understand the owl cam has been up for a couple of years now. Last year the mom laid 3 eggs but only two made it. 

This year all 3 owlets have survived so far. When they first hatched, they were all white, and the most downy things you ever saw. Unfortunately the camera decided to malfunction soon after that and was down for about 2 weeks. The babies are almost a month old and wow, have they ever grown! 

I like to check back periodically and see what's happening at owl roost central. Before long, the babies will be venturing out on their own, helping in the huge task of feeding themselves. Mom and Dad have been so good, taking turns bringing in food. It's a 24 hour job! I haven't yet seen a feeding time and I'm hoping to catch one.

Facts About Great Horned Owls:

• The most common owl of the Americas. 
• Have tufts of feathers on the head, resembling horns
• Monogamous parents take turns feeding their young
• Fiercely protective parents - have been known to attack humans in defense of their young.
• Female lays 2 -5 eggs. 2 is typical
• Efficient night time hunters. Strike from above with powerful talons that kill and carry animals several times their size.
• They regularly eat skunks and may be the only animal with such an appetite.

If you'd like to join the fun, here is the link to the Owl cam!

The CAT Scan That Told It All

 
 I was at work on a Thursday in February. It was unseasonably warm, temperatures in the 60's. My husband, who works from home, decided to take a lunchtime bike ride through town. He has biked for awhile now, about 10 years. He doesn't do cold, but when a warm day comes along, he revels in it and that day was one of them. 

He hopped on his bike, after pumping up his tires, and took off. It was a little unusual because that day he had an ominous feeling, like something might happen. So, he changed his route and he let some air out of his tires that he had just pumped up. And then off he went, enjoying the day. 

Meanwhile, it was almost time for me to be off work when I received a phone call from the Fire Department. I was told that my husband had been in a biking accident and that he was waiting for me at Emergency.  He assured me after my questioning that everything was fine and he was just there for observation and check-up, standard procedure after one LOSES CONSCIOUSNESS!

Long story short, dear husband was probably thrown off his bike when going over a curb. He has no recollection of what happened but he had sustained multiple fractures on the left side of his face, along with the concussion.  

Thanks to the CT Scan, the doctors were able to put together a team to get his face back together again. If they were to leave his face the way it was, the left side of his face would cave in and he would be disfigured for life. It is amazing what these modern medical devices can do and in turn, allow the talented physicians to do their jobs, which included putting 3 titanium plates in strategic places to stabilize the bones.

Check out the CAT Scan of the damage that was sustained to my handsome husband below!  You can definitely see the damage in comparison to the unharmed right side of his face. Basically the left side of his face had a section that was detached from the rest of his skull! Plus his left cheek bone was smashed in, with multiple fractures and crushed bone.

It has been about 6 weeks since the accident and my husband has been back to get his post-surgery check-up. The doctor's were beyond pleased with the success of the surgery and stated that he is one of their top 2% of successful surgeries. 

I can't go without acknowledging all the prayers that were offered up in his behalf and how thankful I am that he came out as well as he did. Aside from a few forgetful moments as he is still recovering from a concussion, he is back on his bike and will be enjoying the warm weather once again!

B Is For Bacon #AtoZChallenge

Today I saw a fun meme and shared it on my Facebook page. The word that came to me instantly for today's subject was bacon!

Then, as I am wont to do, I got busy hopping around the net and came upon the A - Z Bloggers Challenge. Oh not another blogger challenge, I muttered to myself. But then I got to reading some of the great posts and the topics ('cause it started yesterday and of course I'm always a day late and a dollar short). There are almost 2000 participants and from many different countries! So of course, now I want to participate too and throw my keyboard into the ring!

So bacon, huh? I have a few things to say about it. 

My Grandma lived until she was 92 and every day for breakfast she had bacon and eggs. She loved her breakfasts, being from Tennessee and all. Do they make bacon differently today? Maybe, maybe not. But I think, were she alive today, she would be happy with the recent fad of making everything with bacon, from bacon donuts to bacon muffins to bacon-wrapped hot dogs. 

Back to my Facebook page, a few weeks back I posted another post that I thought was epic! It's Kevin Bacon, finally doing a video 'mercial about, what else, eggs!  If you haven't seen it, you need to! I like Kevin Bacon! I guess most everyone in America does. because everyone has a direct line of association that can be traced back to him. It's called the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon!




Even still, bacon gets a bad rap in a lot of circles. It's just too indulgent and it's contributing to the heart attacks and obesity of millions of Americans, or so they say.  Why can't they pick on something else, like diet Dr. Pepper, or Diet Coke? I've heard that stuff will dissolve gunk off a car engine!

I was driving the other day, behind a large pick-up truck. I wasn't really paying attention, but the license plate caught my eye. It said B4CON. Upon further inspection, I saw decals for the Local Fire Department and the Local Sheriff's  Office. This was the heat in front of me! I had to chuckle that the guys who are called by a very similar derogatory name actually have the processed meat form of it on their license plates! Good for them!

One of my all-time favorite movies is Charlotte's Web, and the cute relationship between Charlotte and Wilbur, the pig. I'm afraid that if I thought too long and hard about where bacon comes from, I might not have quite the appetite for it, especially if I had a pig for a pet and that pig was as cute as Wilbur!

But alas, I'm my Grandma's Granddaughter, and like her, I love my bacon. Am I wrong? Share your thoughts with me!