PLEASE WATCH AND SHARE with family and friends.

Then disable your smart phone to protect your family AND yourself.  Easy to do.  

Settings/location services/camera/off.  

Even if you've already disabled the GPS on your smartphone, check again.  If you've installed recent updates, your settings may have changed.

Many thanks, Susie.

Joel Sartore, brilliant photographer

Follow this link for more remarkable photographs of animals in the Biodiversity Project. Click on the images to advance the series.

Simply spectacular. And sad, of course, unless we figure out a way to save these beautiful creatures.  

No more excuses!

If you have any doubts about tackling tasks that lie ahead of you, watch this amazing young man's journey.  

Then get out there and do whatever you came here to do.  Push past fear.  Persevere.

And share this story with others. 

THANK YOU, MARY!

PLEASE WATCH AND SHARE this informative and sobering video.

THANK YOU, SB:

Dear neighbors,
I wanted to share a quick tip I have received and a video clip (30-second, very short, dramatic) about how to deal with a common kitchen fire...oil in a frying pan. Hopefully, none of us has to deal with such situation, but this video clip is an eye-opener. You may share it with your families.

"At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with a deep fat fryer set on the fire field. An instructor would don a fire suit and using an 8-oz. cup at the end of a 10-foot pole to toss water onto the grease fire. The results got the attention of the students. The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. On the open field, it became a thirty-foot high fireball that resembled a nuclear blast. Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire ball hits the ceiling and fills the entire room. Also, do not throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One-cup of either creates the explosive force of two sticks of dynamite."

Here's a link to the video on Youtube to help keep our families safe:

Please forward this on to friends and family.  Well worth knowing.

How adorable is this feline footage?

Thank you, Mimi!

Foam roller: Your friend.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this video! Particulary since I, along with several other friends, have been dealing with HIP/IT band issues.

Our best guess?  We think that it's largely due to lifting and lugging the little loved ones in our life.

This is The Best Bit of Info I've seen on the topic.  

The exercises, while quite possibly initially painful to perform, help relieve the tension.  

Get a firm foam roller today!  I've found the travel size version at Sportissimo in Palo Alto. Perfect for packing.

Thank you, Judi, for uncovering this video for all of us!!!

What a voice!

Honey, you've come a long, long way.  Wow.  This Oklahoma girl can S I N G.

She's come a long way since American Idol.

Many thank, Kathi, for sharing this with us!

Make mine Matcha.

OK, cut me some slack.  You have to start somewhere, right?  Good.  If I waited for perfection, I'd be dead.  So here goes...

Additional info about the video that’s not communicated: 

Matcha sources:  Your local Japanese market or Amazon.  I ordered my first batch from Amazon.  It had a WONDERFUL SPRING GREEN COLOR and frothed well.  The one I purchased locally was less green and didn’t froth. Bamboo whisk, Amazon as well.

Stevia.  Google it.  Very superior alternative to sugar and sugar substitutes.  Research the benefits.  Pretty astonishing stuff well worth consuming.  I like adding it to what can taste a lot like FRESHLY MOWN, but incredibly healthy, GRASS.

Bottom line:  I want to try something new. Communicating information in a different, more challenging (sort of scary) format.  VIDEO.  EEEEEEEEEEEEK. Totally intimidating.  So far, I’ve steered clear.  Until NOW.  

What prompts these shifts?

So, while I might totally disable this link tomorrow, today I’m sending out TEA into the universe. 

My motivation?  I love learning and then sharing what I've discovered.  I want to let you know about potentially powerful shifts that could be helpful for you, too.  Today it’s about TEA.  Who knows what the next topic will be. 

I’m thinking SWEATERS.  Even though it feels a LOT LIKE SPRING.  Here and, apparently, everywhere. 

Where does all the precipitation go?  Where is snow falling?  Not in California.  It’s a closed system, right?  I’ve given up worrying about potential water regulations/allotments, etc., if we don’t have a Wild and Crazy Series of Spring Weather Systems.  Worry doesn’t not help. 

Trust me, Nana Banana Live (as opposed to dead).  I’ve been around for almost three quarters of a century. 

Speaking of tulips...

Look who I found!  Whatever happened to TT?

Fascinating flower facts

This may be more than you want to know about tulips but I found it incredibly interesting.

Watch Tulips - Web Extra with Michael Pollan on PBS. See more from Botany of Desire.

A great time was had by all.

I have no idea what they are doing (other than totally enjoying the tulips) but I'd love to be there, too.

Who, among you, speaks this language?

Fill me in.

Nationale Tulpendag 2012 - Brand Activation from Syndiqate on Vimeo.

How incredibly sad

Wildly wonderful

And quite possible quite very Valentine's Day like.  

Colorwise anyway.  

Who thinks up these things?

And then figures out how to make it happen?

I cannot clean my dining room table of misc debris, much less make a scarf dance.

This totally creeps me out, however...

this info could save a life

I’ve recently received variations on the following email from several friends. It is apparently written by a policeman. While I’m capable of conjuring up these horrible scenarios in my own mind, I think the following has some useful ideas.  Better to be aware and prepared.  I've modified it slightly to highlight critical points.

1. Remember this tip from Tae Kwon Do. The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do.   

2. Toss your wallet or purse away from you.  If a robber asks for either, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you.  Run like crazy in the opposite direction.
 
3. Kick out the tail lights.  If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. 
 
4. As soon as you reach your car, get in, lock your doors and leave.  Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc. and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc).  This is a perfect opportunity for someone to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head and tell you where to go.  

If someone is in the car with a gun to your head, DO NOT DRIVE AWAY. Instead, step on the gas and speed into anything. Your air bag will save you. As soon as the car crashes, bail out and run. It is better than having someone find your body in a remote location.

5. Protect yourself in parking lots or garages.  Here's how:

• Always look around you, into your car, at the passenger side floor and in the back seat before getting into your car.
• If you are parked next to a van, enter your car from the passenger side.  Most attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while women are attempting to get into their cars.
• Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle and the passenger side of that car. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, walk back into the mall or your office and have a guard/policeman to walk you back out.  IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better to be a bit paranoid than dead.) 

 6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at night. 
 
7. Run. Preferably in a zig-zag pattern. If someone has a gun and you are not under his control, always run. As a running target, the chance of being shot is greatly reduced. If hit, it most likely will not be a vital organ. 
 
8. Don't be stupid. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well-educated man who always played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane or a limp and often asked 'for help' into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim. 
 
9. Don't fall for phoney cries. Call the police. Some have recorded a baby's cry and have used it to coax women out of their homes. 

10. Beware of the water scam. If you wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of running water or what you think is a burst pipe, do not go outside to investigate. Some turn on all your outside taps so that you will go out to investigate/they then attack.

Well, this is a truly terrific Valentine's Day post, isn't it?  GEEZ.  Better to be safe and smart.

Thank you, Jill and Susie. 

Edible art

Handmade with love.  I can't imagine anything prettier, can you?  Queen City Cookies.   Expensive, yes. But perhaps not for that very special someone in your life.  Be sure to see the Easter designs.

 

Received these for Valentine's Day.  Lovely box.  Beautifully decorated.  Verrrrrry sweet.  

Just Jessie!

LOVE LOVE LOVE this dog!

Thank you, Joan!

Easter, perhaps?

Hi Lois,

I forgot to mention these FABULOUS croissants that I served on Christmas morning. You order in advance; the box arrives with croissants frozen on dry ice; place croissants in freezer until the night before you want to use. Set out to rise overnight. The yeast from the dough rising already smells great in the morning. Pop them in the oven, and your home smells like a French bakery. Wonderful for all holidays!  xxx Jeanne

What a wonderful world indeed.

Thank you, Jan.  Spectacular photos.

Gorilla Encounter in Uganda

Can you imagine???

Betty, thanks for alerting us to this phenomenal video.  wow.

Take better travel pictures.

It would be difficult to find a better teacher than photographer Tim Allen.  

Connect HERE for his tips.