My Life in France by Julia Child

I don't really read bio's; so when I saw a special about Julia Child on Food Network I thought she was a very interesting person/cook and wanted to learn more about her. A few weeks later, I saw this book at the library and had to get it. It's a beautiful piece that starts when Julia and husband Paul move to France a few years into their marriage. The book follows through her first cook book, many moves, the beginning of her TV show career, and the death of her beloved husband. It has a few recipes in the book that I might try and this book has differently made me a fan of French cooking. The book also has some black and white pictures that her husband took. Overall, an interesting and inspiring read (specially since she didn't start cooking until while in to her thirties)

Square at Castle Rock

Columbine Memorial at Clement Park, Littleton

Wall at Columbine Memorial

Festival Park, Castle Rock

McKinley Carson Park, Greenwood Village

Changes on the Site

Recent changes:

• Probably the most noticeable change is the color scheme. I don't know if I'll keep it this way or not; we'll see. It was getting hard to figure out colors that looked good with the background in case I wanted to change the color of the text in blogs.
• I add hangman to the side bar. I've been trying to get him bigger, but at least my poor computer skills have caught up with me, and my attempt of improving this have failed.
• I changed the look of a list. Now the blogs that I read will show when they were last updated. I also added a few blogs I read outsider of blogger.
• I figured out how to schedule posts!!! This means easy picture posts will be popping up during the week.
• I added another site www.sspr.org to the 'About the Cities' list. It pretty much is a community hub site for Centennial, Littleton, and Lone Tree. Complete with recreation centers, parks, and trails that are in these towns and trust me when I say there's many parks to choose from.

That's pretty much it for now. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave them in a comment. You don't have to be a member of blogger to comment.

Statue at G.M. Wallace Park, Greenwood Village

Fire House, Castle Rock

Strength Finder 2.0

I read the first book (Now, Discover Your Strengths) in this serious about a year ago when my sister bought it for me. Both books Are Gallup Books and focus on building on individuals strengths instead of their weakness in business and school. Both books allows the reader to take an online test to see which traits are they're strength off of a list of 36. Since I borrowed Strengths Finder I wasn't able to take the test attached to that one which apparently more in depth then original. Since Strength Finder was small and short I decided to read traits that weren't my own and read the whole book. An Added bonus that Strengths Finder has that the Now, Discover didn't was actions one could take to help nurture/play on their strengths and actions one could take if they work with someone with those strengths.

Dock at Clement Park, Littleton

2 Do Before I Die

The book’s title kind of tells you all about this book. The aim for the book is for people to make a to do list of things they want to accomplish before kicking the bucket. They have short couple page accounts of other people doing things and how/why it was important to them. Some where big like sky-diving and deep sea diving-- others simple like growing a beard and donating money. At the end of each chapter the book has a list of questions to help the reader come up with a list of their own. AT the bottom of the pages the authors add another list of possible things to put of the list. Over all inspiring and I think everyone should make a bucket list.

Some of the items I have on my list are:
Donate Blood
Take a photography class
see the Taj Mahal
Go skinny dipping
Complete a novel in Novel Writing Month (November)

What are some of the items on your list?

Fred Factor

Mr. Sanborn spoke at one of my company's meetings. We all received 'You Don't Need to Have a Title to be a Leader' (One of Sanborn's other books). He did mention this book in his speech and I thought the story of Fred the mailman was interesting/inspiring. Sanborn has quick and easy reading style and give some wonderful examples of the Fred Factor or amazing customer service and the importance to apply this to everyday life in the work place and outside of it. But there's the thing I dislike about Sanborn's books the message in both of them is "Settle for the job you have and be happy about it.' Don't get me wrong, I believe that people should take pride in their work and try to be the best at that position and if they hate they need to quit. But Sanborn doesn't seem to get further than 'be a good, happy employee for your managers.'

The main problem I have with help books is the fact they have such a wonderful idea and the never really tell you how to apply it... they give you little acrostics to remember and vague tips like 'Give value to other people' (which is kind of common sense in the customer service world right?) Sanborn harps about 'being a Fred' for the right reasons (because you want to make people feel valued and you want a relationship with them) and don't try to do it for the wrong reasons like recognition and rewards because it won't work. But here's the thing if wanting to give value to other people isn't innate feeling/trait in someone this book wouldn't inspire it out of them or even convenience them that this was worth the read. It was just mediocre at best.

Buffalo Bill's Museum & Grave, Golden

Location: Take I-70 west to Exit 256 (marked Buffalo Bill Grave), then follow the signs. or take 6th Avenue West to Golden and turn left onto the Lariat Trail (19th street). Follow the scenic winding road to the top of the mountain.

Cost: $3 per grow up (cheaper for children and seniors).

It's a good price for this little museum. You watch a 30 minute film about the life and death of Buffalo Bill. and then they have a good hallway for a timeline of his life, a whole section of the Wild West Show, a small corner for Sitting Bull information, and an area for Native American lifestyle. They also had a few interactive area's for kids to play to make it a little more interesting to them. The two surprising information that I learn was a) Buffalo Bill was a poor business man with many great ideas-- he just didn't know how to get them going and he ended up in debt for majority of his adult life. b)We had to fight for his body. A town in WY named Cody was founded by him and they believed the body should be buried there and Buffalo Bill's hometown in KS thought likewise. The city of Denver actually hired a tank to watch the grave yard until the cemented it when his wife died and was buried with him. there was a plan to build a large building over/around the grave with a library about the wild west and other things; however, not enough money was donated and they did without.

They also had a large tourist shop full of wonders that any six year old would love. So if your family likes history, I think this would be a good spot. You can also hike up to the grave and place coins on it; however, we didn't do it since the weather was turning. This is a good little detour if you're in the area.

Golden Gate Park, Golden

Friend Rachel and I headed up to Golden Gate Park this last weekend. It costs $6.00 for a day pass And I believe it is well worth the money. We did the Raccoon trail which had some nice variations of sights (mountain views, tree paths, fields, and a most deforestation area at the end) And other than a little bit of walking up a hill in the middle (Which just reminds me that I'm truly am out of shape) an easy trail. Although it seems that this park isn't as big as the Rockey Mountain National Park Rachel and I visited a few months back, it does have a nice spread, friendly park rangers at the visitors' center, a shallow pond at the visitors' center with fish, and helpful marks during the walk to let you know what trail you are on and what way to other locations. Overall, a fun time.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Source of recipe: Recipes: Douglas Public Library District recipe's name: Shelia's Blueberry Coffee Cake submitted by Joyce Rovetta

Food course: breakfast or bread

Quantity: 2 9 inch pans worth (16 pieces if your cutting the traditional 8 pieces per pie).

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cups + 2 T sugar

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

2 cup well drained blueberries, canned, frozen or fresh (i found that frozen berries do better in this recipe than fresh)

Topping:

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup soft butter

1/2 cup sugar

Blend all ingredients except blueberries and tipping in mixer. beat vigorously about 1 minute. Carefully stir in blueberries. pour into greased, 9-inch, large cake pan or 8x8 inch or 9X9 inch square pan.

mix lightly the topping ingredients. sprinkle topping over batter. back in preheated 375 degree oven about 30 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.

Some side notes about this dish: first of all this dish does wonderful in the freezer so feel free to make the whole recipe and place one of the pans in the freezer for next Sunday's breakfast. If you don't have a mixer (which I don't) feel free to mix it by hand the results will not be affected by the smoothness of the batter. You may find this recipe needs a little extra flour in the batter if you're at a higher altitude; however, I ended up adding more milk to counter the extra flour I up it so play it by ear. also, the batter is not going to be like cake mix batter. It will be thicker; and when I tested it out for myself, it was cookie dough consistence-- and the end taste/texture was still perfect.

Pond in Williow Creek off of Dry Creek Road

Crowfoot Valley Coffee

Crowfoot Valley Coffee

The one thing I miss most about my college town is the Mom & Pops coffee stores. that's right were Starbucks is despise and the walls aren't covered with shiny merchandise that needs to be sold. Crowfoot (located in Castle Rock) is just the remedy for such disillusionment. Here the signs are hand written, local art is shattered across the walls and 'different' music/soundtracks can be heard. Even the shop has it's regulars. The Ice Chi I ordered was a little on the watery side, but tasted much better than the burnt gram cracker stuff they serve in Starbucks. If anything towns need more independent coffee shops and restaurants so the next time you go out think about going to somewhere that's more real then Starbucks.