Kristie & Eric's California Adventure!

After weeks of planning, Eric and I packed up the dog and our luggage and hit the road to California! It was his first time there since we got married in August 2010 and it was our plan to make the most of this trip. Bailey (the dog) stayed at my mom's house while we were there and we settled into our luxurious room at the Best Western in Pasadena.

You know you're in CA when Mount Shasta makes its appearance!

We did the drive in 2 days each direction--1000 miles each way.

It was great to see family and very reassuring to see my brother looking so good after his horrible health scare 4 months ago. He's back to work as an RN, will be driving again soon, and he and his wife and kids just took their first family vacation. All good things!

The night Eric and I pulled into the ol' neighborhood, we rounded up Jonathan's family and all met for sushi at Zono Sushi, our favorite place to eat in Pasadena. It was a little chaotic and we were tired after being on the road for 10 hours that day, but it was fun to see the kids and eat something other than fast food, which is our only option while on the road with a dog!

The next day was Christmas Eve, and, believe it or not, I didn't get any pictures that night! What was I thinking?! We had it at my mom's house and enjoyed watching my niece, nephew, and little cousin open their gifts. We're still adjusting to new traditions on Christmas Eve after years of always having it at my grandparents' house. It's hard to believe that this is our 4th Christmas without them.

On Christmas Day, Eric and I decided to go to DISNEYLAND! It was Christmas, so no one will be there, right??? Wrong. We got there at around 10am and stayed for about 12 hours on one of the busiest days I've ever seen at the Magic Kingdom. I'm actually surprised that we accomplished as much as we did, because that park was jam-packed!! Live and learn! Now we know.

The next day, the 26th, we had a Christmas morning and breakfast with my mom and Jonathan, Quyen and the kids. They had spent Christmas Day with her family, which is why we postponed it a day. But you know? In the right setting and with the right people, Christmas can really be on any day you want. We had a nice time and then they took off on their family vacation to San Diego. That afternoon, Eric, my mom and I had another sushi lunch with a friend and made it an early night.

On the 27th we had a pretty open day, so we decided to go to our beloved Arboretum. On December 1st, a fierce and unexpected wind storm swept through Arcadia, Temple City, Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, and Alhambra and a few other local cities and a lot of people went without power for days. There was debris everywhere and we still saw a lot of the results of the storm while we were there. There was a lot of damage at the Arboretum.

We have such a special feeling towards the Arboretum because my mom used to take us there when my brother and I were kids (and it was free admission!) The day we went was only the 2nd day it had opened since the storm and there were crew workers everywhere.

Sitting on the veranda of the Queen Anne's Cottage (Site of the show Fantasy Island.)

See the worker up on the waterfall? He was one of several who was clearing away accumulated debris by hand. Eric and I have a soft spot for this waterfall, as it is the site of one of our first pictures together during his CA trip in December of 2009.

Lots of workers, lots of chainsaws grinding away at the hundreds of trees that sustained damage from the heavy winds. We also noticed very little wildlife that day. Only a few peacocks, and most of them were not even in the Arboretum grounds, but loitering around outside the entrance. Could be that the noises from the saws scared them. Both big fountains were empty and closed too. A sad sight to see.

So, even though it wasn't the most fruitful Arboretum trip, it was interesting to see what had survived the storm and what didn't. Clearly, the cleanup is going to take months.

While on our way out, Eric had the idea to buy some of their little cacti. Yesterday he came up with this little arrangement. Pretty creative, I think!

That evening Eric stayed at the hotel to relax, my mom went and did her weekly receptionist job at Weight Watchers, and I spruced up a little to join some ladies for dinner at Mimi's Cafe in Monrovia. It was a mini Girl Scout Troop 498 reunion and there were only 3 of us! There are 12 of us on Facebook that have found each other, but 6 now (including myself) live out of state.

We were hoping to have at least 6-7 of us that night, but circumstances prevented it from being so. Despite the small size, Becky, Cathy (who was one of my closest friends growing up) and I had a nice time. Becky left at 8:30 to go and care for her baby and Cathy and I kept on chatting until 10pm. We've known each other since we were 5 years old, so there is a lot of history there!

Becky, Cathy, and me

Where are we now? Wednesday, the 28th! That is the day we went and saw my cute grandma, who turns 94 in June. She's still as sharp as ever, though! Eric, my mom, and I drove out to see her in San Dimas and went out to lunch at The Peppertree (lots of eating out on vacation.) Again, I didn't get any pictures. Just imagine a cute grandma fawning over my cute husband and you'll get the idea!

That night Eric and I went to Starbucks (I got their over caloric peppermint hot chocolate) and then I took him up into Hastings Ranch in Sierra Madre where the neighborhoods get together to put on some pretty great Christmas light displays.

Then the trip took an unexpected turn that night.... (cue ominous music...)

We don't know if it was the Starbucks, the Taco Bell we had at the end of the night, a flu bug or what, but Eric started getting sick around 11pm and was miserable in every way for the rest of the night and the entire next day. We had planned to go spend the day in Long Beach, but that was definitely not going to happen. Poor baby. He was really, really sick.

I went and did laundry at my mom's and did a little shopping at the mall (it is amazing how living in a small town for a year has made me less and less happy to be around hoards of people.) Every few hours I would check in at the hotel room and just see my poor husband sleeping fitfully and not feeling well.

He continued to be sick the next day, but vastly improved. I felt like I could leave him for longer stretches of time and didn't want to lose another day, so, after Googling "Things to do alone in Pasadena," I decided to visit The Gamble House.

The Gamble House was built by the son of "that" Gamble of Proctor & Gamble.

It was perfect outing for those circumstances. I had a tour time for 12:45, which I waited for about half an hour. The weather was ideal, so I just sat on the porch with my Kindle and enjoyed the sun and relaxed.

The house itself is a sprawling 9000 square feet, but not ostentatious and luxurious. Everything, including the furniture is practically original and done in the craftsman style of the 1920's. No pictures allowed inside, but here's one I snagged off the web of the inside view towards the front door:

Very pretty! I love the craftsman style of architecture.

The next day was Saturday, New Year's Eve! Guess who felt sick that day?! ME.

I was supposed to take my nephew to Kidspace that morning and I woke up feeling so, so lousy. I felt bad having to cancel. Eric was actually feeling a lot better, but still needed another recovery day. So we pretty much had the most uneventful New Year's Eve ever! I slept all day long and still slept that night. My symptoms were not as bad as his, thank goodness!

On New Year's Day we decided that we had to go out and do something together. It had been 4 days since we'd been out at the same time, thanks to that lovely bug we caught. So we decided to drive to the Rose Bowl so that Eric could see it and also see a few of the Rose Parade floats that were being finished up for the parade the next day.

Eric in front of the Rose Bowl. Is that a California shot, or what?

Me in front of the one of the floats. Good day to wear a bright color!

The float that caught our attention the most was the one dedicated to the memory of old time western star, Roy Rogers. It was Eric who first said, "That looks like a real horse!" He was right. Roy Rogers famously had his horse, Trigger, and his dog, Bullet, stuffed, and they were actually ON the float. There used to be a Roy Rogers Museum outside of Los Angeles, but I heard it shut down. I'm not sure how I feel about seeing his stuffed horse and dog on the float, but it was certainly original. And the float rules do say that everything has to be covered in natural materials. I guess these qualify! Ugh.
After staying at the Rose Bowl for about an hour, the 2 sickies (us) were ready to bring our post-bug adventure to a close. After all, the parade was the next day and that was going to take a lot of energy!!

Rain or shine, my mom goes to the Rose Parade every...single...year. She doesn't care if she has someone to go with or not, she goes. Of course the Rose Parade is partly famous for the thousands of people who camp out overnight (sometimes days ahead of time.) I've camped out one time and vowed never to do it again. You end of with loads of stuff to haul. You're dirty, exhausted, and have to walk blocks and blocks to the car. No thanks, not for me.

The thing is, it is easy to see the parade without camping out and without paying $90 for a bleacher seat. The parade starts at 8:10am and goes for 5 1/2 miles, so if you park a few blocks south of Colorado Blvd (the street on the route) and set up at the end of the route, you're good. We got to my mom's at 7:30am, caravaned to a street about 3/4 mile from the route and walked the rest. We walked until we found a family in chairs and just stood behind them. There were bleachers behind us, but the seats are so high up that we didn't block anyone.

It was fun! Eric had never seen the parade before, not even on TV, so this was a momentous occasion for him. We had also followed the past season of Dancing With the Stars (first time ever) and it was cool to see JR Martinez as the Grand Marshal. He was a ham in person too! We also saw Kenny G and Dick Van Patten (Mr. Bradford from Eight is Enough,) and some of the hosts from HGTV, don't ask me their names!

The opening of the Rose Parade

Kenny G

Grand Marshal, DWTS champion and veteran JR Martinez
We like him!

This float was very touching. It was dedicated to organ donation. Each of the faces on the float is someone who lost their life but donated their organs and gave the gift of life to someone else. Many of the people riding the float are alive because of organ donation. There were also the parents of the little 9 year old girl who was shot and killed the day Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was attacked. She was also an organ donor. Eric and I are both big supporters of organ donation and really loved this float.

This was a beautiful float by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Taylor with the words "Our Champion."

Here are a few other random floats from the parade. And can I just say, "Look at that gorgeous blue sky?!" We almost always get incredible weather for the parade:

And, I didn't take a lot of videos this trip, but I had to take a video of this marching band from Japan. Definitely the hardest-working band I have ever seen!

I'm so happy with the way the colors turned out on the parade pictures! The colors that day, including the blue of the sky, really were that bright and vibrant. It was a tiring day, but fun. Eric and I ended up having lunch at Claim Jumper (I was dying for a salad and some lemonade! The temperature was a record-breaking high for parade day,) and then took it easy for the rest of the day.

The plan was to leave the next day, but after watching the sun set and thinking about the days we lost because of illness, we decided to extend by one more day. We would cap off our trip by going to Long Beach and visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific and enjoying the gorgeous weather for an extra 24 hours.

I hadn't been to the Aquarium since they first opened around 12 years ago and was pleasantly surprised at the way it has evolved into a very neat place to visit. We bought a ticket to the aquarium and for their 45 minute harbor cruise. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful day!

The Aquarium of the Pacific (Jan. 3, 2012)

View of downtown Long Beach from our boat during the harbor cruise. A very relaxing 45 minutes!

The lovely Queen Mary. I look forward to taking Eric there on another trip.

Two buddies hanging out on a buoy in the middle of the harbor

And there's my sweet husband and travel buddy! We ate at Bubba Gump's after the harbor cruise. Cute place, good service, cool gift shop.....very over-priced and unspectacular food! You're pretty much paying to say you ate at Bubba Gump.

I took a ton of pictures at the aquarium but, let's face it, you had to be there to really appreciate it. Here are some of the best of the bunch:

This spider crab was enormous. Probably 4-5 feet from tip to tip.

I think I see Nemo!

The Aquarium is very kid-friendly and not so big that you get lost. This was a cool Q&A that we saw with one of their divers. She was hooked up to a microphone and would take the kids' questions.

See the seahorse? Isn't nature amazing? I think I'm more fascinated by undersea creatures than the ones who walk above ground!

A little known fact about me...I love sharks. I think they are one of the coolest creatures. When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to read about was sharks.

Another favorite undersea creature is the jellyfish. I love watching the way they pulsate and pump their incredible bodies through the water. How do they do that when they have no brains or eyes?

I am SO glad that we extended our trip by one day. I really have to thank Eric for that one, because he knew it meant a lot to me and I knew that he was giving up a day to relax at home before having to return to work. The day we spent at Long Beach was ideal and the perfect way to cap off our vacation.

What a great, great day!!
The next day we headed back to Washington! We picked up a grateful Bailey who was very ready to go home after 2 weeks. Maybe he was just excited to go in the car, who knows?

We said goodbye to my mom, our hotel room, the warm weather and hit the road once again.

Some great shots of Mount Shasta on our way home:



Somewhere in Oregon we were greeted by a double rainbow:


We had to laugh, because the sunny weather changed to gloom and overcast almost IMMEDIATELY after we crossed the border from California to Oregon. We were definitely back in the Pacific Northwest!
Still, we felt very lucky that the weather was very kind to us during our drive. We never ran into any major issues, the snow chains were not needed, and the car functioned 100% all the way.

We had a great trip! And it is good to be home.

We're home!

Two weeks and two thousand miles later...we're home from California!

We had a great trip with few bumps and I'm excited to share more and post pictures. Today has been all about decompressing, doing tons of laundry, and enjoying being in our own house after 2 weeks in a hotel.

Hope everyone had a great new year! More to come!

Holiday Hiatus...

I will be taking a break from updating my blog for a couple of weeks as the holiday adventures begin. All of the shopping, wrapping and planning is about to pay off.

May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous and Happy New Year!! May your 2012 be the best ever, full of love, laughter, blessings, and gratitude.

Here are 2 of my all-time favorite Christmas songs. They aren't traditional ones, but I think both of them are just gorgeous. Enjoy, everyone!

CANDLELIGHT CAROL


WHEN A CHILD IS BORN

Christmas is About the Christ...

This week has been a series of delays in all of the things I've wanted to accomplishment. My Relief Society lesson isn't done yet, the house isn't as clean as I would like it to be, the presents were only bought today for the kids in the family and still aren't wrapped, and all of the upcoming obligations are a little overwhelming to think about.

Last night, though, while working on my lesson, I took a few breaks to watch parts of the Christmas Devotional. I was especially moved by a part of Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. His words helped to bring me back to what is important and why we celebrate this season. If you haven't noticed, I tend to focus on the unimportant things more than I'd like and often need reminding.

I'm going to post the section of his talk here, with links to the entire devotional. It was so beautiful--both the words and music--and relaxing to listen to:

CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT THE CHRIST
by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Christmas Is about the Christ

In these precious moments we realize what we feel and know in our heart—that Christmas is really about the Christ.

Christmas and some of the cherished traditions of the season remind us that we, like the Wise Men of old, should seek the Christ and lay before Him the most precious of gifts: a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We should offer Him our love. We should give Him our willingness to take upon ourselves His name and walk in the path of discipleship. We should promise to remember Him always, to emulate His example, and to go about doing good. ¹

We cannot offer Him the gift of perfection in all things because this is a gift beyond our capacity to give—at least for now. The Lord does not expect that we commit to move mountains. But He does require that we bring as gifts our best efforts to move ourselves, one foot in front of the other, walking in the ways He has prepared and taught.

And what are the Savior’s gifts to those who are willing to bring these gifts to Him?

This may be the most one-sided gift exchange in the history of the universe. The Savior’s gifts to us are breathtaking.

Let us begin with immortality. Because the Savior overcame death, all men and women—both the just and the unjust—will live forever. ²

Then, forgiveness—even though our sins and imperfections be as scarlet, they can become white as snow because of Him. ³

And finally, eternal life—the greatest gift of all. ⁴ Because of the Atonement of Christ, not only are we guaranteed an infinite quantity of life, but He offers the possibility of an unimaginable quality of life as well. ⁵

Some of His divine gifts are reserved for that glorious future day when we return to His presence.

But He extends many gifts and His grace to us every day. He promises to be with us, to come to us when we need comfort, ⁶ to lift us when we stumble, to carry us if needed, to mourn and rejoice with us. Every day He offers to take us by the hand and help transform ordinary life into extraordinary spiritual experiences.

I just love the way he expresses himself in these paragraphs. They really spoke to me on a personal level. To see the entire devotional, or just specific parts of it, click HERE.

A great Christmas flash mob...

As I said before, there just seems to be an abundance of great videos that people are sharing during the holiday season. I'm reserving the best ones for my blog.

This is the best Christmas flash mob I've seen, partly because of the way the shoppers react and get involved. I love how these fun musical moments make everyone stop for just a few minutes during the Christmas craziness and remember what it is that we are really celebrating:

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies on the Glass Harp..

This is beautiful to hear and to watch...turn up those speakers!

Live! From my new iMac...

Well, it is official. I'm the owner of an iMac. Yesterday my Toshiba laptop started acting up again. Windows did one of their fun updates and the computer restarted by itself. When it did, the graphics on the screen went all crazy. It had been only 8 days since the last time it did that.

I took it to the local computer store where they tried to work their magic--last time they were successful. This time...nothing. So, instead of spending the day working on my lesson for church, I spent the day transferring things to my external hard drive.

When Eric came home I got to give him the good news--not! The sad truth is that these days, a computer is essential for so many things. My sweet man told me to get whatever I wanted, although we had already discussed the transition to an Apple. I assured him that I would get the most basic, inexpensive one. And that is what I did.

Setting it up has been a little time-consuming, but not bad. A lot of my installation CDs for things will not work anymore, which I was prepared for. Not only because of transferring to an Apple, but because they are just too old. Thank goodness for online drivers! Installing my printer was my biggest concern, but only after a couple of minor hiccups, I did it. Whew!

Other things will not be possible to transfer over, mainly my music from my Zune player, which uses an Mp3 format, while Apple uses an Mp4. Tricky! My Zune player is nearly full anyway, so I can live with not adding/subtracting anything from it.

I do love having a big 21" screen to look at. The resolution is amazing and bright. It makes everything look beautiful!

Everything that needed to be done to make the iMac feel like "mine" is essentially done. This and all of those changes on Facebook on the same day!

I just feel blessed that when something happens, like my laptop becoming unusable, that we can just say, "go get a new one." That in itself is something to be very grateful for.

The BEST Christmas Light/Music Display I've Seen...

It is so fun to stumble across cool videos of people doing fun and creative things, especially during the holiday season, when things can get a little crazy and it is easy to lose sight of what the season is really about.

These videos are courtesy of R. Holdman of Pleasant Grove, UT. You can visit his website at: www.holdman.com/christmas/video

Turn up those speakers and enjoy!

Carol of the Bells

Carol of the Bells - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

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Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle from 34th Street - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

P.S If you are one of those people that just has to know how this is done, you can get your answers at HERE. It takes a lot of patience!

The Spirit of Christmas

There have been so many great videos put out by the church this Christmas. And, no matter what your faith, the messages speak to all of us. Here's another one:

What are your thoughts?

This picture has been making the rounds on social media sites lately and has been getting a lot of attention. Some people see it at face value. Some see it as a metaphor. Some find it offensive. Some find it extreme.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section....

Christmas at Arlington National Cemetery

I was sent these images in an email today. For many, Christmas is the time to remember those who are no longer with us, especially those whose lives were cut short while defending the rights of others.

"Readers may be interested to know that these wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine . The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. A wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one of the poorest parts of the state."

The Coat: A Story of Charity

Lovely...

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Christmas decorating--for me--is all about the tree. Here are some trees that have crossed my path lately, including one very unusual one at the end:

Our tree

Walters tree

Mori tree

Thornton tree

Enders tree

Cortez tree

Telford tree

And first prize for originality goes to the house on Kessler in our neighborhood for their upside down Christmas tree! The current owner did this in homage to the eccentric lady who used to live there. It catches your eye, that's for sure!

Christmas Desktop

If you are like me, you like to decorate your desktop. I'm always changing mine! Obsessive, but fun, especially during the holidays. I'm posting 15 of my favorite holiday desktop wallpapers for you to have too.

All you need to do is click on the picture, then right-click and hit "save as desktop background." The images are big enough to transfer clearly to your screen. Enjoy!

(All of these images were taken from free wallpaper sites. )

Time to Convert...

Just to clarify, this is not a religious post. But it deals with something that people feel strongly about anyway, and that is the PC vs. Mac decision.

After years and years as a PC user, mainly because a good family friend and computer guru got us started on them, I think the time has come to change to a Mac.

Like any big decision, I've thought about it a lot. And the thought came to the forefront even more yesterday when my nearly 4 year old Toshiba laptop went all "stretchy graphics" on me when I started it up. And then I did some calculating...I've had this laptop since February of 2008 and it has had 7 repairs. Most of them I didn't have to pay for, luckily, courtesy of our computer-savvy friend, but still...7! That's a lot.

It didn't help that the lady I spoke with on the Toshiba tech support line yesterday knew very little. OK, almost nothing. I almost laughed when she asked me to rate the quality of help I received after the call resulted in, well, nothing.

So I went to the local computer store and took my laptop with its messed up screen and, while the store manager was tinkering with it, I started looking at the Macs. Yes, they are expensive and yes, it will be an adjustment, but I think the time has come. I'm tired of dealing with viruses and updates and quirky operating systems (my laptop came with Vista...yuck.)

I did the math and by the time you add up the cost of my current computer, plus Word, plus the Microsoft 7 upgrade, plus what I've spent on repairs, it comes out to almost as much as the iMac, which is the one I'm seriously considering.

So get ready, world, because in the next few months this will probably be my next computer. Pretty, huh?
P.S. My Toshiba is working OK right now, but for how long? After 3 repairs in the last 4 months, my hopes are not very high.

Update 12/7/11:
I just landed accidentally on a post I wrote from November 2008. In the post I described how I was having problems with my Toshiba and had just taken it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy for repair. Everything had frozen on the screen and it wasn't even allowing me to do a "force quit." At the time, the computer was only 6 months old. Yikes.

A Spiritual Uplift for Your Monday...

Yesterday I encountered an incident of rudeness that I have had a hard time putting behind me today. It happened at church, unfortunately, and I'm hoping it is a one-time thing. While visiting Facebook today I landed on the Mormon Messages page. I think I was led there so I could see this short video.

No matter what your faith or situation, this are words we all need to hear:

Unbroken, By Laura Hillenbrand

I have had the opportunity to read a lot of books this year. A lot. But in any group there is always the one that rises to the top and stands out singularly because of its power, resonance, and quality.

Of all the books I've read this year--some for my book club and some for pure enjoyment--the best of the bunch is Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. As I told my mom while describing this book, "Whatever you're reading right now, this is better."

Laura Hillenbrand, who is also the author of Seabiscuit, suffers from a debilitating form of CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,) which forces her to stay at home most of the time. She's devoted the last 7 years to researching Unbroken, including conducting about 50 interviews with its subject, Louis Zamperini.

Louis Zamperini, who is now a spry 94 year old, has lived a life few of us can imagine--partly of his own doing, like competing in the 1936 Olympics-- and partly as a victim of circumstance. The circumstances that were not of his choosing happened while he was a bombadier during WWII. The plane he was in was shot down, and the 3 survivors drifted for 47 days until being picked up by the Japanese.

What followed then was 2 years in 2 different POW camps in conditions beyond our imagination. What made the conditions even worse was a particularly sadistic guard, nicknamed "The Bird," who singled Louis out and attempted to victimize him in every way possible. The army's pursuit of this guard after the war ended is another element that makes this book so captivating.

I say "attempted," because one of the interesting things that the book focuses on is the issue of dignity vs humiliation. The authoress describes the importance of dignity in ways I've never read before, making it a thing as tangible and necessary to existence as food or air. In other words, no matter how bad the conditions are, you are only a victim of you allow yourself to be.

Even if you know the basics of the story, there is something else that makes it worth reading, and that is the series of odd coincidences that seemed to pop up here and there throughout Louis's life, and usually during his darkest moments. I don't want to give too much away, but these oddities certainly make the story even more compelling.

For those with weak stomachs who may be worried about the way the war violence is portrayed in the book, I would say this: It is "realistic," but not "gratuitous." In other words, the authoress tells things as they happened, but doesn't overdo it.

The important thing to remember about this book is that not only is this a story of "Survival," but also of "Resilience and Redemption," just as the tagline reads. Louis's POW experience is definitely the grittiest part of the book, but there is so much more than that....there's his adventurous childhood as the town rascal and thief, his foray into becoming a world-class runner, his family, his post-war trauma, and the experiences that finally brought him peace.

This is a book about a man who has experienced the full circle of life and has lived to tell about it. Laura Hillenbrand writes with such amazing quality, you feel like you're seeing everything as it is happening.

I won't say anymore about it, except to implore you, again, to read it. I found a video from the Today show to include that will, hopefully, whet your appetite. Some of the other videos about it give away too much.

I recommend this book HIGHLY...for everyone. I also recommend that, if you are planning on reading it, to avoid the videos that tell a lot about it. The less you know, the more powerful the book will be when you read it.

(Be sure to pause the music below before viewing the video...)

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