Tamara's Blog

Flying High at the Royal Gorge

Ever hear of the Royal Rush Skycoaster in Colorado? It's one of 87 skycoasters in the world, and just recently was tagged the scariest of them all. Adventure seekers are hoisted 100 feet up in the air to swing 1200 feet out over the Arkansas River at speeds up to 50 MPH...now that's an adrenaline rush! I know.

In April, my friend, Julia Dane, and I took a day trip to the Royal Gorge in Canon City. When Julia had suggested that we go to the Royal Gorge, it didn't take me long to discover this park "ride." Julia said she would go on it with me, but then muttered something about also needing to wear a pair of Depends if she went.

When we arrived at the park that morning and she saw "the ride" - I quickly realized that it was going to take more than Depends to get her on that thing. So I flew solo...while Julia took some great pictures (click image to enlarge):

There's Julia on the right. And then the bottom center picture was taken after the ride. You can see the Skycoaster setup in the background. It is clearly not for the faint in heart.

Dining at the Broadmoor Resort

On our drive back to Denver, we stopped at the Broadmoor for lunch. Neither one of us had ever  been, but it's a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. The experience was absolutely divine. We could have stayed there for days, but we had to scoot back to Denver to meet all our Noetix buddies for a night out on the town. Good times!

ConversantLife.com: Connecting Faith to News and Culture

I want to invite you to check out a very kewl community site called conversantlife.com. It's a great place to read up on and respond to real conversations about stuff we face every day - in our culture, in the news - whether we're Christian or not. Everyone is welcome to submit their own content and ask the "hard" questions.

I was introduced to the site by Bruce Bickel, a good friend and co-founder of the site. Bruce is a great, one-of-a-kind guy! He's a stand-up comedian who pays his bills from the money he earns as a lawyer. His wife, Cheryl, is an absolute hoot! I don't know which one I like better. Probably Cheryl. No, Bruce...

Back to the site...here's a blurb about conversantlife.com from the website:

ConversantLife.com is a blog and social media hub that delivers engaging content on faith and culture. Our site is a free place where people can access content and connect with a community of believers and spiritual seekers on a variety of culturally relevant topics such as Creative Arts, Film, Music, Spirituality, Global Concerns, Relationships and more.

A Shameless Plug for My New ConversantLife.com Blog

Awhile back, the folks at conversantlife.com invited me to become part of their expert blogger community because of my interest in blogging and everything technology. I finally took the plunge this past weekend and built out my microsite (blog) and profile. Thank you to the folks at conversantlife.com for your humbling offer and your great patience!

A big thank you also goes to Henriët for coming up with the blog title: Never a Dull Moment. Is that not perfect?! She even gave me the idea of a clock to use in my banner, and fortunately, I had a picture in my library begging to be used. It is very fitting on many different levels. Let me know what you think.

What to do now:

• Check out the blog - Never a Dull Moment. My first post is about the American Express commercial with Ellen Degeneres and Beyonce.
• Check out my profile. You'll see that I need a few good friends and fans. ;)
• If so inclined, join the conversantlife.com community. If you have a Facebook or Yahoo! account already, you can log in with those credentials.

See you on the other side!

About You: My Noetix Friends

Exactly 3 months ago today, I was in Denver enjoying my last hoorah with my Noetix friends. In two days, I would be starting my new position with Baseline Consulting.

One of my friends, Julia Dane, flew in to meet me on Friday, while the rest of the gang flew in on Saturday. Julia and I had a great day trip adventure on Saturday - but I'll save that fun story (and pictures) for another time.

In the picture below, I am joined by Sally on my right, Julia on my left, and Shannon, Chris and Rene behind us. Not pictured is Jill, a friend and Noetix customer, because she's the one behind the camera. Great shot Jill! We're at the Samba Room in downtown Denver. Great place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Noetix, Chicks Rule!

As a parting gift, Shannon and Julia had this special plate made for me that captures some of of our more memorable experiences over the years...actually, some I would welcome forgetting...

It was an amazing gift and one I will cherish for a long, long time. Right now, the plate is proudly displayed on top of my desk hutch in my office. I love looking at it every day (click on image to enlarge).

Thank you Shannon and Julia!

And Tamara, Don't Forget...

The Noetix folks at corporate also bid me a very nice farewell. Besides the kind words and well wishes, my boss, Daryl, demonstrated that he knew me well with gift cards for Starbucks, the Mariners gift store, and Cold Stone Creamery. I loved it! And yes, most of it is spent now...

As if that wasn't awesome enough, the marketing and sales folks walked in with...you'd have to work with me to understand the kewlness and cleverness behind this gift...my very own SOAPBOX!! I had no idea it was coming, but the instant I saw it, I knew exactly what it was and just started laughing! OMIGOSH! How perfect is that!?

Click on the image to check it out. It's a solid wooden box, and I learned later that one of the sales person's wives made it. Again, this is another lifelong keeper - and a gift I will always cherish!

Thank you Noetix for all the opportunities I was given, for all the fun experiences, and mostly, for all the great friendships!

At Noetix, Chicks and Dudes Rule!

About You: John Torres

"That's right! I don't see visions. I see vision statements!" John exclaimed. I was truly baffled as John tried to explain how he can't envision an image in his mind (like a vision of what the future could look like), but he can envision words (like a vision statement). I didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or laugh. I mean, how does one get excited about a bunch of black-&-white words in one's head? So I resorted to laughing because I could hardly relate...

Meet John Torres

I met John a couple of years ago at my church. He comes up a few times a year from Los Angeles - Mosaic LA, in fact - to share with us his phenomenal gift of singing, and more recently, acting. When he sings, his voice penetrates the inner vibrations of your soul. He is truly loved in the Pacific Northwest.

Listen and judge for yourself: SE. [Link from John's Web site.]

See John in Action

In December, John performed at Tangier, a premiere lounge and cultural hot spot in downtown Los Angeles. Here he is performing Rocket Man.

Just Stopped In to Say Hello

Remember me? Yup, that's right - the one who' peeking through some hole at you. One of these days, I'm going to change this picture...

Many of you  have asked, "Where are you? Is everything okay?" I mean, gee whiz, I spend months gently persuading many of you to simply insert the word "blog" into your vernacular...and then - poof! - I'm gone. But not really, it's just been a couple of busy months with work, school and church. It's all good though. Thanks to all who asked. I'm back now.

Even though I've been MIA, I've been collecting some kewl ideas and things to tell you about:

• Events like Scribble 4.0 (performing arts) and Off the Map Live 2007 (conference)
• People like John Torres (artist), John Smulo (blogger) and Richard Twiss (Native leader)
• My divorce from Microsoft
• And much, much more...

Until we meet again. Probably tomorrow. Or the next day. But soon. Stay tuned. That rhymed. Oh my.

100 Bottles of Wine on the Wall

What do you do when your team hits a Grand Slam? Don't you go wild with excitement? Don't you jump up, scream & shout, and High 5 everyone around you? Okay, maybe you don't do all that, but I certainly do.

And what do you do when someone you know and care about "hits a Grand Slam" with a great performance? Right. You go wild! Well, my friend Henriët had a Grand Slam "moment" at church today. Did I jump up, scream & shout, and High 5 everyone around me? No, but it doesn't mean I didn't want to.

It all began with 100 bottles of wine on the wall. Literally.

A Wedding Without Wine?

This summer, Timberlake Christian Fellowship has been doing a series on "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Moments." Today, Pastor Henriët concluded the series with the story about the wedding feast in Cana where Jesus performed his first public miracle of turning water into wine.

To help us understand how much wine was involved, Henriët had a display set up with over 100 bottles of wine, along with a sample vat to show how big a container was needed to hold all this wine. The Cana wedding feast had 6 of these vats, holding the equivalent of roughly 2400-3600 glasses of wine! That's a lot of wine.

Besides the great visuals, Henriët shared several stories about how God uses "invisible" ordinary people (like us) to participate in behind-the-scenes opportunities (read "extraordinary moments") to serve others.

Think about it: Who at the Cana wedding feast witnessed this miracle first-hand? It was most likely just some of the servants, the disciples (there were only 5 at that time) and Jesus' mom. It wasn't the master of ceremonies, the wedding party or the invited guests.

Henriët reminded us that we need to (1) be who God created us to be (and not try to be someone we're not) and (2) be available and willing to show up when God is beckoning us to join him on another kewl opportunity to serve someone. What a great message to end this series!

Thank you Henriët for a job well done.

Day 10: Eric Bryant

Oops! I forgot to post Day 10 of my Caleefohneea adventure. The kewl factor of that day (Tuesday) was having Eric Bryant from Mosaic LA join some of us for lunch.

Many of the folks in my cohort had heard about Mosaic LA. This was an opportunity for them to learn up-close-&-personal about the church and about Eric's new book, Peppermint-Filled Pinatas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love. [I also wrote about Mosaic in May.] Everyone really enjoyed Eric's visit. Thank you Eric!

Eric does a lot of fun videos. One of my favorites (so far) is this 1-minute promo video for his book. Check it out!

Days 5 and 6: Ghiradelli's, Hollywood Stars and Wicked

I'm a bit behind in my posting, but I wanted to point out a few highlights from last Thursday and Friday...

In Search of Ghiradelli's

On Thursday PM, Henriet and I headed to Old Town Pasadena to find the ol' time ice cream shoppe called Ghiradelli's. Yes, that's the chocolate folks. We ate lightly for dinner so that we could enjoy this ice cream feast.

We strolled up and down Colorado Blvd. trying to remember where the shoppe was. No luck. We Google mapped it on our BlackBerries and found the address and phone number. But when we got there, we found a parking lot instead. We called the phone number listed in Google Maps. Disconnected. Apparently, Ghiradelli's moved from Old Town since last October.

Plan B? Can you say Cold Stone???!!! Those of you who know me know that I love this place.

Walking with the Hollywood Stars

On Friday PM, Henriet and I headed to Hollywood to see the musical Wicked.  We arrived early, so we strolled along the Hollywood Walk of Fame to soak in all the stars. That was a first time activity for both of us. Sort of odd for me considering I'm California-born and raised.

"It's Good to See Me, Isn't It?" Says Glenda

After "walking on" the stars and eating dinner, we headed over to Pantages Theatre to see the musical Wicked. I had tried to get seats when it toured through Seattle last year, but it was sold out almost immediately.

The acting, singing and staging for Wicked were absolutely phenomenal. We were so blown away by it that we didn't really talk about it until the next day.

Henriet kept entertaining herself by quoting some of Glenda the Good Witch's hilarious lines. Click here to read Henriet's post about our wicked good experience in Hollywood.

Update #2: Kirk and Kay Carver

On Sunday, Kirk and Kay Carver were commissioned for missionary service at Calvert Grace Brethren in Maryland. (See previous posts about Kirk and Kay here and here.) Following the service, an authentic African meal was served - including a live chicken!

The Carvers will be heading to France on August 29th for a year of language training, then onto Cameroon, Africa. Please pray that God will continue to bless them and protect them as fully commissioned missionaries.

Does Your Name Set You Up to Be Bullied?

I read a great post on the Mental Floss blog the other day about this kewl Oxygen Media Web site called BabyNamer.com. You may be tempted to quit reading at this point because you're not in the market for the perfect baby name, but I encourage you to read on...

Drawbacks (a.k.a. How You Could Be Picked On If You Have This Name)

As with most baby naming sites, Babynamer.com offers up the standard background information for over 23,000 names. It also provides brief profiles for Namesakes (famous people with the same name). The real feature, however, is the Drawbacks. This is a list of all the "friendly" nicknames you could get called if you had the name.

Tamara's Drawbacks

I know I have many, but let's stay focused on what BabyNamer.com has to say:

• Tambo - I have been called this now and again
• Taminator - Me and Ahhnold
• Tampon - Ummm, don't even think about it
• Tomorrow - I can't tell you how many times I've heard this one!
• Tam Tam - Yea, another "favorite"

My Friends' Drawbacks

Here's a quick list of "drawbacks" for some of my friends I've written about on this blog:

• Eric - Crouton, Eric the aardvark, Earache, Hysteric
• Evan - Ebby, Evan Deven, Evian
• Henriet - none
• Jennifer - Jennifurball, Jen-nay, Jennibean
• Jill - Jelly Bean, Chill Pill, Jilly Vanilly
• Julia - JuJu, Jules, Julabean
• Scot - Scooter, Scotty Potty

Check It Out

Click here to go to BabyNamer.com. Feel free to share any of your favorite discoveries. Have fun!