The Spam Lady Dazzles A Really Tall Man

I met this guy in the break room at the studio the other day. He's a bit older and he was wearing a suit and I saw him from the chin down standing out in the hall talking to someone much smaller about golf.

When he came into the break room and fixed a cuppa, I said, "So, are you a golfer?" (Actually, when I saw him out in the hall, I had said under my breath, but still outloud without really realizing what I was doing, "Dang, that man's a giant!" ) He smiled and said, no, he was just covering the game yesterday when a man won a million dollars for sinking a hole in one, or something really outlandish that never happens.

So, then I chatted him up about various and sundry topics and decided he should know my name since we were such good friends now. I was still thinking he was just some Joe with a growth hormone issue. I said, "I'm Penny the Spam Lady, by the way. I'm here to strut my SPAM. I won 3rd place at the state fair, but really mine was the best--shouldda taken first. ." He grinned and said "Of course!" and reached out his humungous hand saying, "Hi, I'm Mark Eaton."

I thought, "I know that name. Is he an anchor on this show or something? Probably I've seen him and he just didn't look so huge sitting behind a news desk." But I didn't really want to show my ignorance, so I said knowingly and funnily--you know--litote, "Oh yeah, I've heard that name, before."

But still not a word about basketball. I hope he thinks I knew and he didn't have to explain, so instead we talked about his two high-end restaurants in SLC, and other food-related topics (this is where I shine, remember!) and then I asked him, "So, do you have a life, or is this your life?" And he laughed--at me, not necessarily with me, I know so you don't have to say it--and told me he had some good managers working with him. Then they called him in to do his golf segment on air and I watched it in the mean-messy break room, which looked like a break room in an industrial factory rather than a television studio, and saw the caption on the screen explaining he was a former Jazz player.

This is what he looks like now:

So tell me. Would you have recognized him? (The tall one.)

Lovely Lady In My Car

Meet Eleanor, my 92 year-old Montana tour guide. She showed me around Helena without even being able to see where we were going.





Eleanor moved to Montana sometime in the '20s. Told me stories of gem-gleaning in the streets as a child after a heavy rain, JFK's visit in 1960, Helena wildfires, and even a crazy story about a pilot flying his plane through the double spires of the cathedral. She showed me where Helena's Chinatown used to be and explained that it's not like what you would expect from a Chinatown...it was just where the Chinese mine workers lived. She said that not being citizens, they couldn't stake claims but worked very hard on other people's claims. When the area was razed in the '70s, they found underground tunnels that led to the mines from the homes. The citizen-owners of the mines would take their day's findings and go spend it on large living and never really get rich. While they were out carousing at night, some of the Chinese workers would sneak through the tunnels, do their own mining and sock away their "earnings."

Eleanor rode with me down gulch roads, marveling at progress and change and I mentioned more than once to her that "I could live here!" (She's written to me since I've been back, giving me the name of a good realtor and some information on some properties for sale in one of the area's many gulch developments. It would be like having a nice house in a campground!)

She showed me around all the old buildings...Gary Cooper's childhood home, Montana's Children's Home and Hospital, Crippled Children's Hospital built in '37, old lime kilns, and well so many places and things that fascinated me to the point of having to throw my car into park, jump out and snap a picture or two. The places we visited are not the topic of this post, however interesting it all is. And it is very interesting and of course, I have pictures which I might post later. I took this picture of Eleanor waiting blindly and patiently for me on one of those times I had jumped out to take a picture of something else.

I'm just missing a cherished friend.

Don't Tell Me The Lights Are Shining Any Place But There

Black currants in my aunt's garden in North Ogden.

It took the two of us two hours to get most of the currants off four bushes. We ended up with about a gallon currants which steamed down to 2 quarts of juice. Very unsual flavor, by the way. I can't describe it, but think tangy and intense. Maybe a bit woody and grapey. Ish.

I made black currant jelly and entered it in the Weber County Fair with my crab apple jelly and white seedless grape syrup.

I also entered a couple of loaves of bread,

and some photography.

Jasper, my pretty pink pig pal didn't win any ribbons, but I don't mind. I know she has a winning smile and that's what really counts, right?

"Short Days Ago We Lived..."

Travelling Viet Nam Memorial Wall Replica in Ogden, Ut weekend July 31- Aug 2, 2009 with 2600 American flags in the Healing Field to pay tribute to fallen soldiers.

Be It Ever So Crumbled And Tumbled Down

Chaco Canyon National Historic Park Northwestern NM

We visited these places during our Easter trip to New Mexico to visit my mom in Roswell.

Chaco Canyon was a major center of Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. The Chacoan sites are part of the homeland of Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest.

"...pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture."

Here's an interesting side note: William Henry Jackson; a famous photographer of Western landscapes and railroads visited Chaco Canyon in 1877 with the U.S. Geological Survey. Because he experimented with a new photographic process, all the photos failed. If you've seen this place, you would know how disappointing that would be.

Aztec Ruins National Monument (Anazazi site--not really Aztec) Farmington NM

Grand Kiva Looks like they're considering the place for a wedding reception, doesn't it? Hmmm. Where would you display the cake?

Well, good thing they're already married.

Merry Montana

Quirky and surprising.

Right down to their pork chop sandwiches.

Yep. That is mustard you see on these sammies. Royce makes them like chicken-fried steaks.
And Johnny makes them with fish and chips batter.

But they are pork chop sandwiches, both.