Bolimasa Blogarama...

Light time..

2011-12-04T01:34:00.007-07:00

Am I becoming the "Daffy Dog Dame", or do all single women take their dogs to the bar? Ok, I didn't really take her to the bar, but when I head downtown to play bar trivia with some friends after our Wednesday night run, Daisy often comes along with me. Since Christmas season is upon us I decided that after trivia I should take Daisy for the four block walk up Main Street to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square.

I have walked Daisy many places, but I think this was the first time in her 11 years that I've walked her through the heart of the city. She was quite curious about the chirping sound the crosswalk signal made, and she was momentarily frightened when the Trax train rumbled up the street. I don't think that she realized that it was kind of tacky to try to beg food from a homeless guy who was sitting on a planter eating a snack...Oops.

I'm not sure when I last went downtown to see the Christmas lights. It was a favorite thing to do an snowy December night when I was a married person, but since becoming single I haven't bothered. Judging by all the young couples walking the square, it is still the romantic December thing to do. I have to say I felt a little dorky that my hot date for Christmas light stroll was my four legged pal, but hey, she is the one in my life who is happiest to join me.

My big amusement was finding baby Jesus in the water. The most unusual nativity that I have ever seen - Joseph, Mary and Jesus in middle of the big reflecting pond on Main street surrounded by pretty floating lights... made me wonder if that is when he started walking on water?

Autumn in Utah ...

2011-10-15T20:23:00.007-06:00

... Autumn has been spectacular... Some photos from a couple of weekends ago, when I took a couple of hikes and a great mountain bike ride which was as my friend Joe says, "Riding the leaves and shooting the yellow tube"

An unusual day...

2011-10-07T00:19:00.008-06:00

Yes, after a glorious, warm beautiful fall weekend (pictures to come!), mother nature was up to her old tricks and dropped the temperature about 30 degrees and gave us our first snow for the season! Not yet sure what it will do for my weekend hiking/biking plans, but I love the snow anyway!!!

And my other amusement for the day... It was another interesting horoscope day.

"Flap your wings, you sweet and sassy social butterfly, you! More than ever before, you are able to relate well to other people from all walks of life. So get out into the world and make sure you have a smile and handshake ready for everyone you meet. Your inner politician is coming out in full force, minus the canned answers and boring hairstyles, of course! You'll get a huge rush out of finding out what people think about everything from the weather to the world."

The interesting part was relating well to other people from all walks of life. Like most people I have my routines and people I spend time with. The nerdy science folks from work, the artsy people at the pottery studio, the fun loving folks In my not really a singles group, group. Well, today I actually went to two different events with people from other walks of life.

First was a financial seminar put on by Charles Schwab, a luncheon at a swanky, or I may say "stuffy" downtown hotel. I rushed out of work to get there on time, only to end up late because there was so much going on at the Grand America hotel that I got within a block of the building and then it took me 20 minutes to get into the parking garage. I walked into the banquet room and felt instantly out of place, and for a change, young. The talk was about retirement planning, but most everyone else looked retired already. With only a couple of exceptions,like the 2 gray haired pony tailed guys , everyone looked kind of preppy, like the folks I went to college with. It definitively seemed like the country club set. Being that "sweet and sassy social butterfly and all" I did try to chat up the folks at my table, but having arrived so late there was not much time to talk before speaker gave their talks. I can't say that the talks were terribly informative, it seemed more like a smooze up to well to do clients, to make them feel better about the crappy stock market of late (LOL), rather than a genuinely educational event. Lunch was good though, and I have to say the Grand America makes a really yummy angelfood cake. I didn't get that excited about retirement planning, but I think my next culinary adventure may be to make an angelfood cake.

Fast forward to the evening. I was invited by my neighbor to join her for a meditation type group meeting. Now this was a group from a different walk of life, for lack of a better description, a group of new age energy seeking types. Now these people are much more my types, as they are casual and not stuffy and very friendly, yet I'm still out of my element a bit a because I am not a "believer". I believe that positive thinking is a good thing, and good intention, living in the moment and learning to relax and not worry things are good skills to live by, but I just can't get behind this notion of putting energy out into the universe to get things back in return. It goes against my scientific brain. I just can't quite believe that somehow telling "the universe" that you will get rich, or healthy or find love will set forth an intention that will be returned to you. ("The Secret" sort of thinking). Granted, good attitude and positive thinking is going to help, not hinder your quests in life.... but I think that if things worked the way the speaker suggests all the folks in the room should be rich, beautiful and happy in about a week... and I just don't see that happening! Despite my skepticism, I do find what others to believe to be interesting, and I met a lot of really nice people. So as my horoscope says, it was a good day to meet people form all walks of life! Now of course, not being a believer means I don't really believe in my horoscope, but I do get amused when it seems so fitting for a day!
Yup,lots of snow on Mount Olympus!

Last of the flowers?

2011-09-20T23:06:00.006-06:00

I did manage to get a few nice wildfower shots on our trek to Cardiff Pass. I thought I should share them as they may very well be the last of the good flower shots this year. Fall comes quickly. Oh, and a cool mushroom shot too! We don't see a lot of mushrooms here, so it's always exciting to stumble upon a really nice one!

A most adventurous hike... or my life as mountain goat!

2011-09-20T01:03:00.012-06:00

We were not the only mountain goats!

Our 9/11 hike started as a low key event. We hadn't made a real plan, but met early at Susan's, our normal rally point, where those who studied their hiking books tossed out a couple of ideas. We decided to head up Cardiff Fork, an area none of us had hiked before. This hike starts at the same trailhead for Donut Falls, an extremely popular short hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Anyone who hikes at all has probably been to Donut Falls, but I've not really heard of anyone hiking up past the falls, perhaps because there are no lakes or "easy" summits up that drainage? Or perhaps because it was a more "industrial" area of the canyon. While we enjoy the wilderness of our canyons, we tend to forget our rich mining history, and that during the late 1800's the canyons were not pristine recreation areas, but heavily mined and deforested.

We headed back along the Donut Falls trails, and then the adventure began... our choice of trails and mining roads, with no clear indication of which was the trail to Cardiff Pass. We chose the trail rather than the road, and found an obstacle course of fallen trees to climb over, a few interesting creek crossings, and eventually found ourselves on a road anyway. As we approached the old Cardiff mine there were plenty of forks in the road and plenty of "No trespassing" signs. We kept chosing the high road and ignored the signs. The roads disappeared into a trail which continued past tailings piles and open mine shafts. We eventually found ourselves in a large cirque surrounded by rocky ridges, and we located, by virtue of the telephone pole on top, the one that must be Cardiff Pass.

The trail pretty much petered out at that point and we started picking our way up the steep hill. Rebecca kept saying "There have to be mountain goats up here somewhere". The goats are rare, and not easily seen so it would be quite the coup to spy some. Suddenly Ron, her husband, stops and points. Up ahead on the rocks there is movement, closer attention reveals a whole herd of mountain goats, meandering up toward the ridge. We carefully head up in that direction so that we can get a closer look. There are at least 7, bucks, does and kids. It is amazing to see how easily they climb the rocks.

We find ourselves close to the base of the near verticle rock face, and need to traverse quite aways across to the point we can ascend to the ridge. It is really steep, steeper than you can really tell in the pictures, and the slope is full of lose rock and scree. We pick our way carefully across, practically on all fours at times, as staying low with our hands on the rocks felt much more stabil, and none of wanted to slip and fall. The final ascent up on to the ridge was even steeper, with a fallen tree to cross over to add to the fun. At one point a big rock was dislodged and went tumbling, barely missing Ron. A fun little challenge for sure, but we made it, on all fours, up to the top where we had an incredible view of Alta Ski Resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon, as well as the view back down Cardiff Fork to Big Cottonwood Canyon.

From the ridge we found an actual trail down in the other direction, a good thing, as none of us wanted to go back down the very steep way we came up. That trail eventually petered out and we ended up making our way down a steep vegetated slope. Not as steep as on our way up, but still challenging as the dense vegetation hid all the loose rocks, so you had to gingerly step and make sure your were on solid footing and that the rocks weren't going to roll before transfering your weight. As things flattened out we eventually made our way back to trail we came up, and from there we followed the the old mining road down.

At one point there was a nice meadow on the left. I looked up and said "There really ought to be a moose up there" as I thought it really looked like moose habitat. Not a minute later Susan spied a big bull moose up the hill in the trees.

What a great hike! 6.5 miles round trip, 2400 foot elevation gain, an adventurous scramble throught steep, rocky terrain. And mountain goats!!! Lots of mountain goats. And a bull moose!!! We really could not have asked for more exciting day.

Cardiff Mine

The narrow trail is up the hill on left side of this open mine shaft. Would not want to slip off the trail here!

Still a bit of snow!

Picking our way across the cirque

On Cardiff Ridge

Alta

The view back down to Big Cottonwood Canyon

Yeah, we came up that!

Hello Bullwinkle!

Rebecca took this shot... it almost shows the steepness of our climb... you can see why we didn't want to fall as we climbed to ridge near the fir trees!

I have to have at least one wild flower shot...right? Parry Primrose,a lovely alpine flower from just below the rocks.

Treats and Trips on the Trail...

2011-09-08T22:37:00.010-06:00

From high on the trail towards Lambs Canyon Wednesday night

The days are getting shorter so last nights hike was a pretty fast hike up to the ridge that separates Millcreek and Lambs Canyon. It is the second time I've been to that spot this week, on labor day we hiked up to the ridge from Lambs Canyon. Yesterday we hiked from the Millcreek side, so I was able to take my Daisy dog. The hike was only 4 miles round trip, but like most Millcreek trails it was pretty steep, so it was a pretty good work out for my poor 11 year old dog.

Since tonight I figured she would be a little stiff and sore I decided to take her up the canyon for a nice easy stroll along the Pipeline Trail. Unlike most of the Millcreek trails, which head straight up the mountains, the Pipeline Train is fairly flat trail cut into the hillside kind of paralleling the road. As the road descends into the valley the pipeline trail stays high, clinging to the uphill side and dropping off on the side that heads down the hill to road. The trail starts in the woods then heads out through open hillsides interspersed with wooded areas as it crosses various drainages. I don't do this trail often, as it's not much of a workout, and not quite as scenic as many of the other trails. But I was glad I took it tonight because I found a wonderful treat along the way.

Dragonflies. Dozens and dozens of dragon flies. Darting and flitting and swooping all over the hillside on the open part of the trail. I have never in my life seen so many dragonflies. I love dragonflies and they were quit entertaining to watch. It certainly made taking the boring, easy trail worthwhile.

After the treat I had my "trip"... Here I am on the easiest trail and I manage to have hiking accident. Like I said, the trail drops off on the south side, and is fairly narrow in places. No big deal to a hiker, but a little more unnerving if you are on a mountain bike. It is a very popular bike trail, and when bikers pass I usually let them pass on the uphill side of the trail because I know how scary the drop off are from a bike. As I headed down one of the drainages I saw some mountain bikers approaching. Having biked the trail a few times myself I knew that after rounding the tight turn at the creek bed they would want a bit of speed to pedal the short hill out of the draingage, so I wanted give them clear berth to climb the hill. So I stepped to the downhill side of the trail, and yanked Daisy's leash to pull her toward me.

Well, Daisy is not too bright, and doesn't "get" that she needs to step aside. She always leaves her butt hanging in the middle of the trail. So I reach down and grab her hindquarters to pull her to me. Her sore hip collapses and she falls toward me. I'm standing on the edge and as she bumps into me I feel the ground crumble underneath my feet. Next thing you know I am tumbling down the hill, with Daisy tumbling down on top of me. I manage to twist my feet forward to try to dig in and stop sliding but the branches from the shrubs make it impossible to get a grip. Daisy rolls over me, and I grab for her, because I am worried she will twist and break or tear something, or strangle by her collar since shes on lead. It sure felt like quite the tumble but in reality I had managed to to arrest our fall 6 or so feet down the hill. After we untangled from the branches and each other we were able to stand up and gingerly make our way down to the bottom of the creek bed and up the other side to the trail. So much for us stepping aside so the bikes could speed up the hill, because they of course stopped when they saw us tumble.... I think they were pretty relieved to see us stand up.

Poor Daisy! Here my plan was to let her have an easy walk to recover from the big hike, and now she's probably more sore than when she started. I am really thankful she was not hurt. I have a few good scrapes, a slightly tweeked back and perhaps a future bruise or two...(and panties full of dirt LOL, but nothing to worry about. I'm laughing about it as I'm sure it was quite comical, and I'm enjoying the irony of having fallen on the easiest trail. I guess even an easy stroll can be an adventure.

Sadly I didn't have my camera tonight, and likely couldn't have captured the magic of the dragonflies anyway, so my pictures are from previous 2 hikes up to Millcreek/Lambs Canyon divide.

Overlooking Millcreek on Labor Day

Around the same place on Wednsday.... fall is clearly in the air as things have died back quite a bit in a few days time.

Wildflowers are being replaced by seeds and berries.

Meet my new friend Katy

2011-09-01T23:27:00.003-06:00

Katydid that is. I came downstairs this morning and found this fellow up in the corner of my dining room. I thought he was pretty so I let him hang out. I like Katyids, they are pretty cool looking. The funny thing about bugs...what makes some bugs friends and other bugs foes? I have to admit, had I come downstairs and found a 2 inch spider lurking in the corner of the dining room I would have been freaked, not amused, and that spider would likely have seen an untimely death. But Katydid? He was more than welcome to stay.

I was pleased that he was still around when when I came home tonight. I liked watching him. Unfortunately, Oreo, my cat, was also pleased to see him...and stare at him, and wait for him to move, then chase the poor fellow as he flew ... We had quite a bit of "psycho kitty" going on tonight as he chased the Katydid around the house. Eventually the Katydid lost altitude and got within Oreo's reach, and I felt compelled to to intervene and rescue the poor fellow. So back out the window he went. I was bummed, as I had enjoyed having a new friend in the house and hoped he would get to stay a little longer.

Bushwacking Wednesday...

2011-09-01T01:12:00.006-06:00

OK, it is supposed to be "hiking Wednesday", but sometimes a good trail is hard to find. Today was one such day. It was mystery hike night. We had no plan, except to meet at Susan's and make a plan. Someone suggested Grizzly Gulch, up near Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We weren't exactly sure where to find the trail though. Jess thought she knew, so we parked and headed up a narrow trail, straight up the mountain... into the willows, where it sort of disappeared. We bushwacked our way up to the cabin road, but once there, couldn't find the trail. We headed back down through the aspens, an easier route, and then found a trail alongside the gulch's creek. Alongside the creek, through the creek, scrambling over rocks and up steep creek beds. I wasn't entirely sure it was really a trail either, except for the deer, but after finding a tiny car wreck in the creek we knew someone besides deer has traveled that route. Finally, after scrambling up the steep hillside along the creek, we came over a ridge and found, ta-da, the old mining road that led to grizzly gulch.

From there finding the way was easy, a steep rocky road that wound through old mining areas, then narrowed into a trail, that took us to Twin Lakes Pass. The trail ascended about 1200 ft in a couple of miles, but seemed harder than it was, as we were hiking quickly since we knew that our slow bushwacking start meant we were racing the sun. We made it up to the pass, took a quick photo op, and headed down in the setting sun. A beautiful setting sun, which more than made up for the slow bushwacking and scrambling start of our hike.

Scrambling through the creek.

Up the gulch

A small car wreck!

Remnants from the mining days.

Twin Lakes Reservior, from Twin Lakes Pass

Desolation Lake

2011-08-30T23:57:00.004-06:00

Another picturesque local hike. Desolation lake from the Mill D trail head in Big Cottonwood Canyon. 7 miles round trip, but only 1900 ft up, so it was a slightly more moderate hike than many we've taken lately. The trail was wet and smelled lovely from the thunderstorm the night before. I was really glad we started the hike early so we could enjoy the cool dampness, as well as have the trail, and the lake, mostly to ourselves. And I love taking pictures in the morning light!!!!

Another fabulous Wednesday hike.

2011-08-25T23:23:00.008-06:00

Yesterdays hike was not only to a place I'd never been before, but to one I'd never even heard of.... a place in Big Cottonwood Canyon called Willow Heights. One of my hiking buddies knew of this spot, driving the canyon you would never know it was there. This area, which was saved from development in 2001, has no parking lot or turnoff. The trailhead is marked by a carved boulder that says Willow Heights Conservation Area. You have to know what you are looking for;I know I've driven by many times and never known the trail was there.

The trail heads straight up hill through aspen forest for about 3/4 of a mile, where it takes you 600 ft up to Willow Lake. It's a pretty little lake surrounded by wetlands and willows, and looks like perfect moose territory. We found a trail and headed around the lake and up the drainage that feeds the lake. It was not much of trail, more of a steep goat trail that was quite lush with vegetation, so we kind of bushwacked our way up. The trail led up behind the ridge to a dry lake bed, that wasn't terribly scenic, but the view from ridge made the trudge up the hill worthwhile.

On the way back we headed around the lake and through the most amazing aspen forest. I have never seen aspen so big, they must have been really old. We were speculating on the age of the trees, and next thing you know we came to a section of the forest where the trees had been scarred by names and dates carved in the bark... some carved back in 1937. These trees must have been been 80 to 100 years old, which I think is pretty old for an aspen grove.

Of course I had to take some pictures the interesting carvings which are now ancient raised scars on the bark. As I snapping pictures, suddenly my friend are screaming. I jump and turn quickly, thinking we are about to be charged by a moose or something, but what I found were my friends in a panic, one having grabbed the other in a choke hold when she was startled, and two guys in camo carrying weapons. Elk hunters, apparently it is bow season. Scared the bejeezus out us. They said they wouldn't shoot us, but it sure felt like scene from Deliverance.
What an odd moment.

And as I said before, it seemed like prime moose territory, and sure enough as we headed back we spied a moose across the lake. What a lovely hike, one I'm sure I will return to, as it will surely be amazing there in the fall when the aspens turn.

Bushwacking the way up to the ridge above the lake.

Dry Lake

Willow Lake, with Solitude Ski resort behind, from the ridge.

Wha a verdant spot I was amazed at how tall the blues delphinium flowers were....

White Pine Lake

2011-08-21T10:13:00.008-06:00

This weekend's addition to the places I'd never been collection... White Pine Lake. About 9 miles round trip and 2400 ft up to the lake. So a long hike and up hill for sure, but for the most part not horribly, hatefully steep. This winter's record snow fall was still evident as we got above treeline and a good section of trail was snow packed. Climbing up the snowfield and then picking our way through a boulder field added to the adventure. Of course what goes up, must come down, and it is the gingerly trek down the snow field on the way back that I find a bit unnerving. I was amused by the spider I found walking across the snow, for the life of me I can not figure out why a spider would be out traversing the snow.

Utah is a desert, so even in the mountain trails tend to be fairly dry, except at sporadic steam crossings. This trail surprised me by crossing numerous, presumably spring fed, boggy areas. So we were treated to moss, ferns elephant head flowers and even some liverworts. You all my think I'm crazy but I was thrilled to see liverworts. I studied botany in college, so of course I had a class where I had to learn all about these primitive, non vascular plants. It felt good to reach back into my botanical knowledge, kind of like going back to my roots (pun intended). Yes I am a nerd, but I thought it was nice to get to do little bonding with some bryophytes!

And while I am on a botanical bend I have to mention something about the Indian Paintbrush plants that I am so enamored with. The pretty colored "flowers" aren't really flowers, they are bracts, specialized leaves, that in this case are colored. Colored in beautiful shade of pinks, oranges, magentas and reds! But on today's hike the paintbrush was really in flower. See the yellow petals nestled among the orange? Those are the actual flowers. Thanks for enrolling in Botany 101!

Oh, and while we are in botany class.... yes, it's called White Pine Lake, but the "pine trees" are actually firs! (Same is true at Red Pine Lake)

It sure is hard to get a picture that really gives a feel for these steep snowy spots.

Indian Paintbrush

Elephanthead - another favorite of mine.... genus Pedicularis, just had to say that because I like how it sounds, almost as much as I like how the flowers look!

Liverworts!!!

Perhaps it's easier to traverse the snow if you have 8 legs!

Wednesday hiking...

2011-08-18T00:14:00.006-06:00

More from the "I can't believe I never took this hike" series. Today after work we headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon, where we hiked up to the Brighton lakes... Lake Mary, Martha and Katherine. These were the lakes we could see from our Katherine's Pass/Sunset Peak hike a few weeks ago.

The trail starts at Brighton ski resort, and that section of the trail is bit of trudge. We headed up the trail or what my hiking partner had thought was the trail, because it is the way she has always gone before. They were re-vegetating the area, but since we didn't know where else to go we headed up. Suddenly some guy appears, and he is yelling at us "That is not the trail, that is not the trail" we turn and look at him and he starts ranting, and ranting, about how people keep using that trail and how it's "not the trail". Eventually he tells us where the real trail head is, and continues ranting and yelling at us things like "Don't enjoy, just destroy" and spewing about how he lives there has worked at Brighton for years and "That is not the trail!" and other weird stuff. We are standing, staring, dumbfounded, not really understanding why this guy is being downright RUDE. We eventually retreat back and head in the direction where he said the real trail started and are just reeling at how rude this guy was. All he really had to do was nicely ask us to walk back to where the not very well marked real trailhead was. You know the old lesson from my Grandma "You catch more flys with honey than vinegar"

The weird episode with bizarre, rude guy really got my friend Rebecca going. She bombed up that hill, proving to me that I really need to get in better shape, as I was having a hard time keeping up. Eventually the trail headed up over the ridge and off of the ski slope and up to the lakes. The lakes of course were beautiful, but the amazing thing about today's hike was the wildflowers. The flowers were absolutely stunning today, making us quickly forget the odd start to today's hike. I wish my pictures did them justice!!!

Trails again.... can you tell how I've been spending my summer?

2011-08-14T10:49:00.006-06:00

Better late then never... some photos from last weeks hike. We headed up to Red Pine Lakes in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Another place I've heard of over the years, but have never hiked to. Another butt kicker of a hike, about 3 miles and 2000 ft up to the beautiful lower lake, and short hike and another 400 feet to the upper lakes. From the lower lake you look up and see a bouldery ridge, presumably the upper lake was some where above the rocks. We saw no clear path to the top, and decided to make our way up a snow field to the ridge. It was careful walking up the snow, as it was of course slippery, and much steeper than the pictures make it look. At the top it was a scramble over the huge boulders lining the ridge and down to a huge flat boulder near the lake where we had lunch.

The landscape at the upper lakes was far more surreal. The rocky cirque in which the lakes lay was mostly devoid of vegetation, and still covered in a fair amount of snow. There was still ice on the lake. It looked like a cross between frozen tundra and alien landscape.

We decided not to try hiking down the snowfield, since hiking down the slippery slope seemed a little too dangerous, so we carefully picked our way across the slope and found our way down through the trees.

Being a winter kind of girl, it always makes me happy to hike up to the snow. So when I found a a good patch of snow, I stopped and made a snow angel. A snow angel... in August!!!

Lower Red Pine Lake

My friend Rebecca, hiking up the snowfield

The upper Red Pine Lakes

More from the trail....

2011-08-04T00:16:00.006-06:00

Tonight I took yet another hike that I can't believe I had never done before... I went with the gals from the pottery studio up to Catherine's pass and on up to Sunset Peak. It's just a couple of miles and 1200 or so foot elevation gain up to the 10648 foot peak, and worth every step. Especially this time of year as the wild flowers are beautiful. The Albion basin, where the hike starts, is world renowned for it's wildflowers, and for good reason. How lucky I am that can take a great hike like this after work on a Wednesday, and lucky to found such a great group of people to share an adventure with!

Indian Paintbrush

The view of Lake Catherine from Catherine's Pass.

The view from the top.

More from the top.

Everyone who knows me knows I love snow.... we spied a little snow love on the mountainside!

Why I like where I live...

2011-07-21T00:36:00.005-06:00

What do you like about where you live?, or a similar topic, has been brought up a few times in recent months on my lampwork forum... I have to say that I am lucky in that I live in a place I like really well, so there are always many things I can answer in such a thread. Things like the skiing and hiking in nearby mountains, wonderful neighbors, great weather, my great location with nearby shopping an easy access to anywhere in the valley, and wonderful neighborhood parks. I could go on and on about what I like about living here.

Tonight I can add another.. all sorts of great, fun, free, entertainment. There are lots of free events in the summer; concerts, movies, street fairs and festivals. This is a hard place to by bored, even on a budget. Last week I got to see a free Utah symphony and Opera Concert at the Gallivan Center, tonight I went to a Sundance Film screening at Red Butte Gardens, tomorrow I may take in the Decemberists at the Twilight Concert Series downtown in Pioneer Park. We really have a lot of entertainment options here.

Tonight's movie was "The Music Never Stopped" I would give it a thumbs up if you have a chance to see it. Not only was the movie good, but the setting spectacular. My picture does not do it justice. Sitting in the grass, watching the movie, the sun setting over the valley and mountains to the west, turning the sky pretty shades of pinks and blues. And we get such lovely blue skies here, due to the lack of humidity. It is rare to have the muggy, gray hazy summer days like I grew up with in the midwest. And then there is the temperature. Red Butte Garden is up the mountainside, next to a canyon. Canyon winds blow most every night, making the venue breezy and cool. Even in the heat of the summer, it's jacket weather as the sun goes down and the breeze picks up. Cool weather, fresh mountain, air a lovely sunset and a good movie. What a nice way to spend an evening. I'm definitely spoiled... just a little.

Random...

2011-07-20T00:34:00.007-06:00

Some random photos, observations and weirdness from my trip to Wisconsin.

Beer, look at all this beer! Good beer! And wine and liquor! In a grocery store!...Hey, I'm from Utah, where the only booze you can buy at the grocery is 3.2 beer, so I was really excited and awestruck to see this amazing selection at the grocery. And yes, being the tourist I am, much to the embarrassment of my friends, I took pictures! (That's right, you can't take me anywhere!)

More interesting shopping... a few finds from the local consignment store. Someone please tell me what what these things are, why they exist and who would want them. A caped dog with an industrial looking artificial leg, wearing dog food on it's collar... why?? A giant mouse lamp? Why? again. It would be interesting to know the provenance of these items... I'm sure there are stories to be told. I think Tom, he resident english major/comic book writer of our group should write a story about the super hero dog...

And look... more interesting things followed us around. This blimp kept flying over Heather's house, welcoming us to Wisconsin... How often do you see a blimp!

And what party would be complete without junk food and booze? Somehow we bought a lot of chips... which seemed to follow us everywhere, from the dining room, to the beach, out to the back yard. Overindulgence for sure...they were eventually banished to this lonely spot on a chair. And just like in the old days, we had a few drinks. Our hostess with the mostess put her best bar forward, she broke out the leftover Mount Gay rum from out last reunion. And the bar came complete with binoculars... and floor cleaner... hmmmm... how did that happen? But it gives me an idea... perhaps drunk cleaning makes house work more fun..

My last bit of amusement... from the hotel where we stayed. A pancake machine! How cool is that? I didn't even know such things existed!!!

Random...

2011-07-20T00:34:00.006-06:00

Flashback....

2011-07-16T23:27:00.005-06:00

Flashback to the early '80s...Oxford, Ohio, the Miami University Botany Department. Graduate school. Classes to take, classes to teach, research to do, oral exams to pass, theses to write and defend. There's nothing like struggling through a graduate degree to make you bond with your fellow classmates. And bond we did. Those were some of the best years of my life. All these years later we are still friends and despite being spread across the nation we manage to gather now and then for a reunion. This time in Milwaukee, where Heather, our resident over-achiever with a PhD directs the electron microscopy lab at the university. The crew... Heather, me from Utah, Dean from California, Riley form Tennessee, Lola from Maine, Kathy from upstate New York. Along with my school friends came a few wonderful spouses, Heather's husband Tom and Riley's wife Sue. I am so happy that my friends all married well, and that despite their spouses not being "one of us" (I think Sue used those words), they have all really become "one of us".

Upon descending at Heather's we discussed when were last all together. We think it was 2003, entirely too long ago. But you know, we the minute we got together it was as if we had all been all together yesterday! Let the fun begin.

Heather lives just a few blocks from Lake Michigan... We stopped at a consignment store as we strolled over the lake. Riley found a great Native American family that he wanted to adopt.

And Dean found a great new potential addition to his wardrobe...

And at the lake, why not crash a wedding party?

We also had an afternoon at the beach... there was talk of swimming, but the water was COLD, and the bath house closed, so we just had a beach party instead. Chips!! Yum!

After the beach we went and grabbed lunch... talking and eating... some of the things we do best! Isn't this how we got through grad school? Eating, drinking and talking... Friday night pizza parties, dinner parties, crazy theme parties. It is a wonder we all graduated!

And the universe must have been watching us. As we ate lunch, what showed up in the parking lot? The Joy Farm bus!!! We were all for a ride to the "Joy Farm"!!!

Heather, our entertainment director, all decked out in the beachware she provided for us all.

More things I've never done....

2011-07-07T22:42:00.006-06:00

And this time the thing I should of done was one I should have done sooner. I went with some friends out to see the Spiral Jetty, an earthwork sculpture that was built into the Great Salt Lake back in 1970. During much of my time here in Utah the Spiral Jetty was under water. The Great Salt Lake is a big catch basin. Runoff flows in from the mountains, but there is no where that water leaves the lake, besides through evaporation, so rain/drought cycles control the level of the lake. I moved to Utah in '85 after the big flood years, so the lake was very high and the Jetty submerged. After the droughts of recent years, the lake has receded and 2010 was supposed to be a great year to see the jetty.

But I never got up there in 2010 like I wanted to. I meant to, I really did, but never seemed to find anyone who wanted to join me at times I could go. It's a 100 mile drive, and the last bit of road was purported to be pretty dodgy, and I didn't want to find myself stuck in the boonies by my self, so I never made it out there.

On Monday my friends wanted to go, as they heard it may be the last chance to see anything. It turns out the bad road had been redone, so getting there was problem. But the jetty was, for the most part under water, the water was about knee deep over most of the rocks.

It was still beautiful. The water in this part of the lake, which is extra salty, is pink due to all the halophilic (salt loving) bacteria in the water. A nice contrast to the black basalt rocks lining the beach. The vistas from this far north end of the lake are magnificent. Definitely worth the drive and the looksie, even if the jetty was mostly submerged. Next drought cycle though, I'm going back for sure!!!

My picture postcard for the day....

2011-07-04T17:48:00.005-06:00

Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak

Lucky that I live in a place with so many wonderful things right in my own back yard. I can leave my house, hop in my car, and in less than 20 minutes, I can be at a trail head in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and in a 2.75 mile hike be here, at Lake Blanche. Now granted, it's a butt kicking 2.75 mile hike with a 2700 foot elevation gain, but it was well worth every step to stand at the top of the world next to an alpine lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. Pretty as a postcard for sure!

Now the embarrassing thing, is that I've lived here over 25 years and this was the first time I've done this hike. I moved here, site unseen, from Ohio in 1985. Other than flying in to Denver to travel to our research field site in western Nebraska, I had never been to the mountain west. When we moved here we spent a lot of time exploring Utah and surrounding states, but somehow missed some very local adventures... partly because we always had a dog who wanted to hike with us, and dogs are not allowed in many canyons for watershed protection reasons. Then we eventually had kids, and well, everyone knows how that can slow down the adventuring. So somehow, in all these years, I have never done this hike. Shameful really. But now that I'm single, unencumbered by my grown kids, and have found friends who like to hike, I am really going to make it a point to explore all the local places I've never been. So much to see, so much to do!!!!

Lake Florence and Dromedary Peak

The view back down to the trail head

Lake Lillian

Oh how I adore the tiny alpine wildfowers!

Now for something completely different....

2011-07-02T14:58:00.008-06:00

My social life. I'm 50, divorced, and this year became an empty nester. A year and a half ago I joined a social group through meetup.com, which has greatly enhanced, errr, actually given me, a bit of a social life. One of the more frequent group activities is dancing. I am the first to admit that I can't dance. I've never been a dancer, despite taking lessons (ballroom, country swing, belly dance) over the years. I swear that I am rhythmicaly impaired and up until 18 months ago I was a complete and total dance-a-phobic.

A year ago in March the group went on a St. Patty's Day pub crawl. At the 3rd bar there was dancing. I got a drink, I chatted, I enviously watched the smiling people dancing and having fun, but I could not get up the nerve to join them. You know, because I can't dance, I look stupid, and am sure somehow everyone will be staring and laughing. All probably not exactly true, but it is what goes through the mind of a dance-a-phobic. At the next stop on the pub crawl there was more dancing, and it was here that I had an epiphany:

The only thing that could possibly by more awkward than my poor dancing abilities, was the fact that I was the only one standing on periphery not dancing.

I felt like a dork and finally stepped out onto the dance floor. And guess what? Nobody laughed. Not out loud at least. So now I go dancing. Nearly every week, and while I'm still not good at it, I have fun dancing with group at various places.

Last night we went someplace new, the Skybar. A nice place, with great views from up on the 13th floor of a downtown hotel. But the crowd was young, really young, mostly kids in their young 20's. My little group was mostly people over 40 so we may have been a bit out place, but we still danced and had fun.

My amusement for the evening was really kind of weird... the dance floor had disco lights which shined big, like 4 inch in diameter, colored spots on everything. The spots were even more interesting when they landed on some people, like the gal wearing the zebra striped mini skirt. Those zebra stripes were much more fun in all the pretty colors. The lights reminded me of the children's book "Put Me in the Zoo", that was all about polka dotted leopard who did amazing things with his colored spots and thought that was reason to be put in the zoo. It was a favorite book of mine and my kids. So as I a danced all I could think about was lines from the book... like.... "and now I put my spots on you!"

Silly I know, but my silly thoughts amused me all night... and I like being amused. I was also amused, after posting something about this on facebook, when a friend retorted "I think that book would hve been appropriate reading material for most of the people at that place last night."

The canyon called again

2011-07-01T00:03:00.006-06:00

And it was not even an odd day. But when I came home tonight I remembered that the gate is scheduled to open tomorrow, so tonight would be my last chance to do my new favorite evening hike- Burch Hollow to Elbow Fork and back down the road to the car. I took Daisy, although I was a little worried because last time she did that hike with me we got back to the car and she couldn't jump in. I had to pick her up, all awkward 80 lbs of her, to get her in the car. She will be 11 next month (77 in dog years), has a bit of arthritis and (just like me) is a bit "fluffy". It makes me terribly sad to see my favorite hiking body slowing down and unable to go the distance. Especially since she really wants to accompany me. So tonight we took it easy, more of a saunter up the hill, meander down the trail, with lots of stops for me to enjoy the wildflowers and use my camera. The flowers were really lovely tonight. The Wasatch Penstemon, one of my favorite wildflowers, was in full bloom.

And Daisy did well. When we got down the road to the parking lot at the winter gate I could tell she was scoping out all the cars looking for ours. She was ready to be done and I'm not sure she was happy that ours was a half mile further down the road at the Burch Hollow trail head. But she trooped along, and, luckily for me, managed to hop up into the car on the third try. Poor baby. She had a hard time getting out of the car when we returned home. It's so sad to see my baby get old.

I just adore this rocky section of the trail and all the lichens on the rocks.

Ah. the penstemons... I just love them!

Summer Solstice Hike...

2011-06-21T23:54:00.005-06:00

Another lovely hike tonight, the same as last week on the Pipeline Trail, but this time I brought my friend Rebecca, who had given me crap about never inviting me.

It was another cool, beautiful, night on a lovely trail with a great friend. There were two marvelous findings along the way. First, the penstemons were out in full force. Last week I saw a single penstemon, this week there many along the rock band towards the end of the trail. That section of the trail, with with it lichen covered rocks is already beautiful, but all the beautiful blue penstemons made it even more lovely tonight.

Our second treat for the night was super cool. As we sauntered down the road we encountered a bat, a lone bat, that put on quite a show for us, darting back and forth across the road and hovering just over our heads so we could get a really good look at him. Eventually he landed on a tree and seemed happy to pose for a photo op. Not easy to get a picture of, he was small, the light getting dim, and we couldn't get too close for fear of him flying off. I did manage to get one fairly clear shot, that zoomed in and cropped it wasn't half bad.

The call of the odd....

2011-06-17T13:18:00.007-06:00

Last time I posted pictures from a hike I kinda got a hand slapping from a friend, who commented about how I'm always bragging about my hikes but never ask anyone to accompany me. So why is that? Am I anti social? (maybe LOL), a jerk? (I hope not), or just a bit intimidated by people who are in better shape then I am? (yes, cuz I hate the thought of slowing anyone down). Maybe a bit of all those things, although I think the real issue is more the "call of the odd day".

Millcreek Canyon, is one of the few places with good hiking that you can take a dog. Dogs are forbidden in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons for watershed reasons. It seems silly to me, but that's the law. Consequently, the "dog people" of the valley all descend on Millcreek Canyon, which has caused it to have it's own set of dog rules. While dogs can be in the canyon any time, they can only be off-leash on certain days... the "odd" days. To remember this, my mantra is "Dogs are odd." When I get home from work Daisy usually looks at me and says "let's walk mom". Should I happen to remember that the day is odd, I will choose to take her up to Millcreek for her walk. A nice walk for me, a nice walk for her... I call this the "call of the odd day"... it is often a very spontaneous event, a "why walk the neighborhood streets or the park when in 10 minutes I can be on trail" moment.

I didn't plan on a hike Wednesday, but weather was so nice and the house so quiet when I got home from work that I heard the call of the odd day loud and clear. I had thought I had done all the shorter after work type hikes, but the other day a friend had mentioned hiking at Burch Hollow. I've hiked and biked the Pipeline trail west from there many times, but realized that in all these years I'd never hiked it east to Elbow Fork. Now is great time for that hike because the road is still closed at the winter gate, which means I can hike the 2 miles to Elbow Fork, and then walk the 2 miles back down the road to my car. A great option for evening when you don't wish to be caught out in the darkness, as the road would be fine to navigate should you hike late and lose the day light.

It proved to be a very pretty nice hike. I can't believe that in all these years I had not done it before. Uphill, like all the Millcreek hikes, but not super killer uphill. The trail wound through deciduous forest, through a few pretty creek drainage's, past a nice overlook or two and then followed a very pretty cliff band of lichen covered rock up near Elbow Fork. The birds were singing and the wild flower abundant. Only downside was having to play chicken with the mountain bikers coming down the trail, as the Pipeline trail is popular with the bikers.

For those paying attention to the snow melt and out raging creek, Millcreek is moving along pretty well. At one spot just below Elbow Fork the water is nearly lapping over the road.

To the snow zone again...

2011-06-05T22:23:00.005-06:00

Took another little hike up the Millcreek road today... wanted to see how much snow melted since we finally had a few warm days. Quite a bit of the road cleared the last five days, so I walked a bit further than last time, enjoying the sunshine and taking lots of pictures of the little things along the way....

One of the bigger snow banks...

The same spot 5 days ago... quite a bit has melted

Don't spill the beans!

2011-06-04T10:52:00.009-06:00

I'm not a "morning" person, especially when I am up late, which being a "night" person is a lot of the time. Last night I decided to head out to 10:30 movie, so I was a bit bleary eyed this morning. I stumbled down the stairs toward the kitchen, to brew some coffee of course, and I spied something brown on the floor. A coffee bean. Hmmm... that's weird. I did buy a bag of coffee last night, maybe the bag had a leak I did not notice when I carried it into the house. I turned the corner into kitchen and there are more beans on the kitchen floor. On the counter I find the bag of coffee I bought last night, laying there open with more spilled beans.

I am a little confused. Has our ghost been busy? Did Sarah have a late night party? I walk back upstairs to ask Sarah if she knows why there is coffee everywhere, but she is not in her room. Perhaps she got up early and made coffee? But why would she have left such a mess??? Besides, the grinder wasn't out and the coffee pot was cold.

I follow a trail of coffee beans into the den, where I find Sarah buried under a blanket on the futon couch. On the coffee table next to a dirty ice cream bowl is a pile of coffee beans. In the bowl is a small pile of chewed up beans. I asked Sarah why she made such a mess with the coffee. She mumbled that it wasn't her, it must have been Daisy, our dog. Then she sat up and I saw that the couch was also littered with coffee crumbs. It appears that Sarah must have been in the mood for a late night, sleepytime snack! Yum... (Eek)

She did occasionally sleep walk as a child. The time she tried to brush her teeth with peanut butter is a family legend. But I did not know she was still a sleepwalker, although apparently this is not news to her college roommates. I think the coffee bean incident is one more for the family story book.

Her burning question this morning.... She says she goes through life doing her best not to embarrass herself while she is awake, but how the heck can she keep from embarrassing herself while she is asleep?

Reaching the snow zone...

2011-05-31T22:04:00.011-06:00

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A Tuesday night with no plans, other than the need to do yard work, but since our spring monsoon season has left the yard wet and muddy I decided to take Daisy up the canyon for her walk instead. About half way up the canyon the Millcreek Canyon road gets closed for winter, becomes a cross country ski trail and is not scheduled to open to cars until the first of July. Tonight I decided to drive up to the winter gate and walk up the road a bit. We had an big snow year and a cool spring (it actually snowed at my house on Memorial Day), so I was curious how the snow melt was doing this year.

We walked the mile and half or so up to Elbow Fork. The road turns sharply there, and around that bend is when we first encountered snow on the road. It wasn't much past there that the entire road was snow covered. I ventured a quarter to half mile past Elbow Fork, and found the road covered with anywhere between one and three feet of snow, and I imagine it only got deeper in the next few miles. It will be interesting to see if the upper canyon road really opens on July 1st this year.

Daisy was a little sluggish walking up the road tonight. In all fairness, she is old for a big dog(10 1/2) and overweight (just like her "mama" LOL) and it is an uphill trek. I kind of wondered if Sarah may already walked her today and wore her out. But as soon as we hit the snow zone I got my puppy dog back. She was totally thrilled to be able romp in the snow and play a little "snowball". She really is a "mama's dog", a lover of snow just like me.

Just past Elbow Fork

My happy doggy!

The next big bend in he road.

Snow getting pretty deep...

Bead bouquets!!!

2011-05-30T23:32:00.010-06:00

No, I never gave it up, but between taking up pottery last year, and finding a social life, my bead making time has been more limited and sporadic. And I swear, every time I want to make beads I don't have any mandrels prepped and I have a hard time rounding up any, straight ones at least, to prep. Time to sing my least favorite song... "Where have all the Mandrels Gone?" For I have no idea where they all disappear to. Some where, out there, I am SURE there is a black hole filled with my mandrels.

Knowing I had a long weekend coming up I decided to round up and prep mandrels. A bunch were in use holding beads I'd made about a week or two ago that had yet to be annealed. Other than that I could find just a few. So Friday I booted out of work a few minutes early so I could make it the welding store by 5pm (or in my case 5:01) to purchase some new rod for mandrels. On Sunday I got out my bolt cutters and am now the proud owner of 40 new, shiny, STRAIGHT mandrels, with plenty of rod to spare for future mandrel shortages.

Now that I'm beyond the mandrel crisis, I can work on my creativity crisis. I'm feeling a little technically rusty, and creatively stymied. A week or so ago I was feeling the same way so I asked a friend for color inspiration... he said "turquoise" and so I did a bunch of turquoise themed beads. I had no one to ask yesterday, so I decided to just to play, and work on things I can't do well, like raised florals. It was not a terribly productive day, but I did get some good practice in.

Later that evening I opened the kiln to start a new game of kiln-jenga with the few sessions worth of beads to be annealed. (Kiln-jenga is arranging all the mandrels full of beads in such a manner that the beads don't touch each other,or anything else.) Imagine my surprise when I found a kiln full of beads... I had completely forgotten about a whole kiln load of beads I'd made a month or so ago.... I think I must be losing my mind... or at least my memory. But now I know where all my mandrels were!!!

Looks like I have some serious bead cleaning to do... and that's a chore I don't look forward to... I guess thats my penalty for being sporadic with my glass melting fun.

But meanwhile....some bead bouquets!!!

The forgotten bouquet... I can't believe I had forgotten all about these!

The recents... happy to finally be annealed

Yesterday's, nothing notable, except my need to practice and get my mojo back!

A single long stemmed hollow... a product of my "turquoise" day. I decided to practice hollows as they are alway hard, especially when I am feeling rusty. After the first one I decided to get tricky and make a bead inside a hollow... it took a few trys, but woot, woot.... I have success!!!

First Hike of the Season

2011-05-29T02:30:00.004-06:00

My first hike of the year was with the meetup, a social hike followed by a barbecue up Millcreek Canyon. We hiked the Desolation Trail out to the Salt Lake overlook. It's a nice hike, about 2.5 mikes out to the overlook, and perhaps not quite as steep as many of the Millcreek Canyon hikes. A perfect first day of the hiking season hike.

Arriving at the overlook is always a little bit of a PTSD moment for me. The first time I did that hike was with cub scouts... imagine all those young boys scampering over all those rocks. Imagine me as one of the responsible adults on the trip. Imagine me being a Nervous Nellie worrying that one of kids would fall off the rocks. It was nicer today, not having anyone to worry about. An excellent start to the hiking season, hopefully the first of many more to come.

As nice as the view of the valley is, I admit I prefer the views of the mountains. And, of course, me being me, for me the real treat for the day were the Glacier Lilies that lined sections of the trail.

The view from the overlook

First wild flowers of the season

Mouths to feed....

2011-05-28T11:56:00.009-06:00

Another handful of pictures from my stop at Aprils house the other days. Her 19 year old daughter is a bird rehabilitator, and she and April are founding members of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. She has been doing this for many years, so I am never surprised what I will find when I stop by their home. A duck in the sun room, an imprinted, now pet, house sparrow flying a round the living room, a box full of chirping motherless baby birds. There is always something interesting.

Spring is baby bird season, and one thing about baby birds is that they eat all the time... like every 30 minutes to an hour all day long. So it is not uncommon to find a box of baby birds on the dining room table and container full of mealworms in the kitchen. This time it was baby starlings, mouths agape waiting for momma to provide their next snack. I was pretty amazed at how wide their mouths open. Certainly a big yellow sign screaming "feed me, feed me"!!!!

Random memories...

2011-05-27T00:58:00.007-06:00

When I stopped by friend April's house to pick her up for gallery stroll last week I got to meet a few of her daughters pets. Corn snakes. Four of them, in an assortment of colors, inherited from a breeder who died. So very pretty. I guess I am kind of fond of snakes, so I was happy when she let me hold the gray one, who she thought was the most friendly. I love they way feel, sort of cold and soft and silky as they slither through my hand and over my arms. I always enjoy playing with snakes when I get the chance.

Of course not every one shares my sentiments, and many people are downright scared of snakes. Which reminds me of something that happened way back when I was in high school. My high school zoology teacher had a snake, a boa constrictor, about 4 feet long, named "Baby". She let us handle the snake in class, and it was a treat if you were the lucky one who got to listen to lecture with baby slung around your neck. Of course not everyone was thrilled with Baby, there were always a few people who were scared to death of snakes. Ron was one of these people.

The class room was arranged in 3 arcs of lab benches. Ron was sitting in the middle of the middle bench. On this day the guy in the row behind Ron was the lucky guy who got hold Baby that. He decided to get comfortable, leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the lab bench, with Baby hung around his neck. Baby decided go exploring and started slowly working her down way his torso and onto his leg. Then down his leg. She didn't stop when she reached the end of his foot, but stretched her head forward into the air, right in poor Ron's direction. The way the classroom was set up, most of could see, and were watching Baby and her travels. Of course we all knew Ron was deathly afraid of snakes, but kids being kids, we all sat, watching silently, because knew what would happen would be amusing. Amusing to all of us except poor Ron. So Baby's head stretches further and further forward, her tongue darting in and out, until her head entered the space of Ron's peripheral vision, just inches from the side of his head. My classmates and I remained silent. Then there was the scream, and poor Ron leaping from his chair, doing a dance in the middle of the classroom, shaking. Everyone, except Ron and our teacher, thought it was hilarious. High school kids... lets face it... are mean!

Needless to say, that was the last time, for a very long time, that any one was permitted to play with Baby during zoology class. So I guess we spoiled our own fun, at least for those of us who enjoy holding snakes. Silly kids I still enjoy the chance play with snakes (friendly snakes at least) when I can.

Up for Anything....

2011-05-24T21:58:00.007-06:00

Yeah, that's me - "walking on broken glass"

UFA as in "Up for Anything"... that's the name of Facebook social group I belong to... a group that spawned from one of my Meetup social groups. It's also a motto I embrace... I am pretty much "Up For Anything", with caveat that it doesn't land me in jail or cause irreparable damage to my health. (Disclaimer added for my friend Joe who always raises his eyebrows and asks if "anything" really means "anything". So I guess in my case UFA really means UFAUIIIOU "Up for Anything Unless it is Illegal or Unhealthy".)

Tonight I had an interesting UFA experience. One of the groups I belong to (SLC's Liberal Minded Culture Seekers) held a Confidence/Empowerment seminar. Both sounded like things I could use more of so I decided to attend. The seminar was run by one of the group organizers, who is a hypnotist, so I figured it had to be interesting. The evening started with chat, and hypnosis exercise aimed at building confidence, then we moved to the really interesting event of the evening, an opportunity to walk across broken glass.

That's right, walking across a bin of broken wine bottles, as a "mind over matter" sort of exercise. Elias, the organizer, said he would demonstrate, and offered the opportunity to anyone who wanted to give it try. Wendy said she'd give it a try, and I figured, that since I'm always walking on glass in my glass studio anyway, I'd be game, besides, after all, I am UFA. So we signed our lives away on the legal waiver forms and took off our shoes.

Elias went first, carefully moving through bin of shards. The cracking of glass under his feet was quite audible, after all, it was a bin full of real wine glass bottle shards. Wendy went next, and she too walked through the glass unscathed. Then my turn ... my first though was that I'm not a skinny little thing like Wendy, I have some extra force working against me. This might not be easy. But sure enough I walked through the glass with out even a scratch. After seeing our success, most of the rest of the group decided to give it a try. Not a single cut among us.

The hardest part of the exercise was getting out of the box... standing on one foot, on a bed of broken glass, trying to balance while wiping stuck glass off the other foot, in order to not leave any shards behind on the floor. I'm not sure it really did much in the way of building confidence or empowerment, as it really was more of a party trick, but it was an interesting experience, that definitely gave new meaning to the "Anything" part of UFA!

Pretty and amusing....

2011-05-21T10:30:00.009-06:00

The pretty.... a few spring photos. Usually I would have taken lots of pretty spring pictures, but since we have had a total monsoon spring, I have not gotten out with my camera very much. Heck it even snowed here on Tuesday.

But here is my amusement for the week. My horoscope again. As I have said here before I am always fascinated when I have the "accurate" horoscope coincidence. And no, I'm not really a "believer", I don't even regularly check my 'scope. But when I do, I prefer to do it backwards. That is, look at my horoscope for previous days and see if they actually match the days events. Much more interesting then reading the prediction for the day and potentially biasing the result. I also have a strict never read ahead rule, for exactly the same reason.

So yesterday I opened up my horoscope and then read Thursdays horoscope:

Your gift of gab is greater than ever today, so do the world a favor and talk to as many people as you can. Conversations about anything -- from the weather to your deepest hopes and dreams -- are going to keep you interested, intrigued and popular. This is a great day to talk to strangers, too, so don't limit yourself to the folks who are already listed in your address book. Shock a stranger by asking what his or her favorite Rolling Stones song is.

On Thursday after work I had to drop my car off for an inspection. My mechanic is not far from home, so I let Daisy hop in the car with me, dropped my car off and then we walked home. As usual we meandered through the park. It had just rained so the park was quiet, not many dogs friend for poor Daisy. Leaving the park we ran in to Layla and her owner. This ended up being my moment to use my "gift of gab" with a total stranger. Daisy's dog friendly moment turned into a 20 minute conversation between me and her owner, a flight attendant, (for my single girlfriends, a really cute flight attendant!) who had just returned from visiting his family... in Paris! Interestingly coincidental, as my son is currently living in Paris, and I spent 2 weeks there at Christmas, so it turned we had plenty to talk about. So it seems that my horoscope was right on for the day, it was a good day to talk to strangers. It even solved a mystery for me... I had always wondered who owned the house by the park with the golf green for a front yard... and now I know.

And back to the amusing... here's view from my window at work Tuesday... yup, snow on May 17....

Could I have found religion????

2011-05-06T00:54:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm sure anyone here who really knows me realizes I am quite content as a "Seventh Day Recreationalist". But sometimes things happen that give you pause and reason to consider other options. Like this week at work, when jimmy,the catholic guy in the lab, came to me and informed me of a miracle: He found the Virgin Mary in our -80 degree freezer. Not in the freezer exactly, but formed in frost on the interior door. So is this a sign that I should find religion? Somehow I kind of doubt it, but if she wants to bless our freezer so that our lab experiments go smoothly I would be thrilled!

Just a small kitchen disaster...

2011-04-30T00:17:00.003-06:00

I wasted most of the evening out running useless errands, shopping for nonessentials and such, then realized what I was supposed to be doing was baking brownies for an event tomorrow. On the way home remembered that I was low on cocoa, so I stopped at the grocery to replenish my supply. By the time I got home it was pretty late so I immediately set forth on my brownie making adventure. I put the butter in the microwave to melt, then started measuring out the dry ingredients. That's when I found I was low on sugar too. But, drats, the store was now closed. I raided the sugar bowl and still came up a tad short. So I made up the difference bit a little brown sugar. That shouldn't harm my brownies much. Measured out the last of cocoa from the can in the cupboard, then grabbed my newly purchased can to finish the job. I pulled off the plastic lid, then grabbed the metal pull tab and BOOM, cocoa explodes out the can, streaming across my kitchen counter. What a mess.... cocoa everywhere; on my appliances, my kitchen tools, all over the wall. Ugh. I guess the can was overfilled, and/or packed at lower altitude(higher pressure) so it was essentially pressurized when I opened it here at high altitude.

Physics aside, it was quite a mess.... there's no better way to spend a Friday night than wiping down walls and counters and scraping cocoa out of tile grout at midnight. I sure hope my friends enjoy the brownies tomorrow!

One more ski blog...

2011-04-22T01:08:00.010-06:00

Over the edge

Just to make my son jealous....Perhaps my last for the season as Brighton closes on Sunday, and I don't know for sure if I'll head up this weekend or not... kind of depends on the snow report. But last weekend was another great spring ski weekend. I skied with the girlfriend who is my normal Brighton ski partner. We usually ski Sundays, but this week, because we wanted to hit the good snow, we skied Sat. Her husband is a ski patroller, and since he works Saturday we were able to hook up for a couple of runs.

One thing about ski patrollers.... they are good skiers. My friend is a quite an excellent skier. His wife, my friend, not near as good, and she has a bum knee. Of course we should be safe out with a ski patroller, right? Problem is, for a great skier everything is easy. And my friend figures if it's easy for him we should all be able to do it, and that the best way to learn is to just go for it. So he is happy to entice us to go challenging places, maybe a bit more challenging then my girl friend needs or wants. Occasionally hard for me too, so I always get a bit hesitant when he says "follow me" unless I'm sure I know what I'm getting into. It's been this way for 10 years or so... He suggests a route, and his wife gives him this look. The "are you trying to kill me" look. He responds with the "it's easy, really it's easy" look. Sometimes we follow, sometimes we say see you later. One thing for sure, it's never "easy", but varying degrees of "more difficult". I'm a decent skier, and know I can get down anything, albeit slowly if it's tough, and am usually up for anything, so I usually defer the decision to my girlfriend.

Last weekend he said lets head out to Desperado, which looked pretty decent from the chairlift. She acquiesced and we skied off... past Desperado to the resort boundary.... where "the snow was great this morning, and it's wide and smooth".
Ha, ha.... you would think after all these years we'd know better, especially my girlfriend. Wide? Ha Ha, maybe 15 feet. Smooth? Chunky spring snow. From the top it looked like the edge of the world. My patroller friend bombs right down. I follow, no problem, just slower and not nearly as elegantly. My poor girlfriend has to slowly pick her way down and manages to to take a tumble or two. Maybe cursed a little. So much for wide and smooth. I think she may have wanted to kill him. Then back to the lift, and up again, and he suggests a slightly different route... and she agrees.... and we get more of the same, although this time it is wider. I really enjoyed challenging myself a bit, but at this point I think my friend will be asking me for the number of my divorce lawyer. You'd think by now, after all these years she'd know better... LOL ... but she, bad knee and all, is a great sport. I think now I know why we usually ski on Sundays, his day off.

Funny thing, the those runs didn't prove to be the hard runs for the day... Our last run down an easy cheesy blue run was the hardest. By late afternoon the day had warmed considerably, into tricky snow. The melty spots get really slow and sticky, but the cooler spots, like where it's shady stay a little more frozen and your skis glide faster. That last run down was weird, you'd get a little speed, then hit a slow patch and your skies would nearly stop. With all the built up momentum the slow spots are killer, skis halt, and you get abruptly thrown forward. A thigh killer for sure. Fast snow, slow snow. Start, stop, nearly wreck, all the way down the mountain. I call this "Donkey skiing" because in the fast spots the voice in my head is going "Eeeee" and in the slow spots it says "Awwww".... so in my head it's Eeeee-Awwww, Eeeee-Awwww, Eeeee-Awwww just like a braying donkey, all the way down the mountain.

Challenges and weird spring snow... still a great ski day! Maybe the last for the season, maybe there will be one more... and then again Brighton may close Sunday but Snowbird will have lifts running through June,,,,

Not wide or smooth!

My friends!

Art and music

2011-04-15T23:23:00.006-06:00

Third Friday of the month is gallery stroll night here in Salt Lake. "Stroll" is a bit of a misnomer, as gallery stroll is at various galleries all over the city, and there aren't many with in walking distance of each other. So, for the most part gallery stroll is more like gallery drive, and since there are way too many locations to peruse in 3 hours of the stroll, I have a fairly set list of favorite galleries I like to visit. One of my favorites is the Michael Berry Gallery, where I go not just for the art, but for the music. Michael has invited a great band to play for stroll nights; the Quintento Noir and I make it a point to go listen when ever I can.

The music is kind of tango style, sort of european gypsy sounding, lyrics often sung in foreign language. They also have an interesting mix of sounds: guitars, violin, bass, flutes, accordion, and vocals. Tonight they brought out some new instruments, some familiar, some new to me. A kazoo... when was the last time you heard someone in a band play the kazoo? Then there was a soprano banjo. I'd never seen such a tiny banjo before before... it looked kind or like the 'ukulele' of banjos. The there was another small unfamiliar instrument. I had to ask the musicians about this one. It was a Bolivian instrument, a charango. I really, really enjoy the Quinteto's unique style of music, stopping in to listen during gallery stroll has become an monthly addiction for me.

And for another dose of unique music...
On the way home from gallery stroll I made a quick stop at Dan's grocery. I heard music as I got out of the car and was surprised to find a band playing outside of the store. A bunch of high school kids, one on guitar, another playing harmonica, a third using wooden spoons to play percussion on a bunch of buckets and boxes, and a fourth, the most unique, was using his wooden spoons to play a longboard. I have to say, I have never seen anyone play a skateboard before. Despite their young age and unconventional choice of instruments, these kids were quite good. A really fun late night shopping treat.

Stellar Spring Snow Season!

2011-04-15T00:48:00.010-06:00

The view down to the Salt Lake Valley from Snowbird

Well I have been a bad blogger again.... funny how time flies when you are having fun. And I have certainly been having fun. We have had a great snowy spring, and I have been having a great time out on the ski slopes... Yes, I am a very, very lucky girl. In addition to the great snow, I've also have new ski buddies, who have stolen me a way from my beloved Brighton for a few days at Deer Valley, a magnificent powder day at Park City Mountain resort and bluebird day at Snowbird. April skiing is not a given, some years April gets warm, slushy and even muddy, this year we've had constantly replenished, fresh, fluffy snow, followed by long spring days and sunshine. It could not be better!

While at Snowbird we had to take a trip through the tunnel over to Mineral Basin. After riding a chair nearly to the top of the mountain, you can ride a rubber conveyor belt through a tunnel in the mountain to the Mineral Basin side of the resort. It's kind of unique Snowbird thing, so we had to ride once. Getting on was a little weird, partially because I was paying more attention to my camera then the grip of the rubber on the bottom of skis, so I got quite off balance and momentarily had a vision of being sprawled and dragged through the tunnel. A few expletives from my friends as they embarked made me realize I was not alone in my clumsiness. Fortunately we all regained our balance before wiping out. Then, half way through the tunnel the belt stopped, lurching us forward, once again I thought it was going to be my big wipe out for the day... but again, recovered... and laughed and laughed.

Two of these stellar ski days were when my friend Joe's friend Mara flew into town for a ski vacation. Having an out of town guest turned an ordinary ski weekend into a ski vacation.... or should I say "stay-cation". Our powder day at Park City was extra special, because we got a private powder tour through the trees and powder stashes by Joe's friend Joe, a stellar skier, and Park City regular who knew all the best places. The next day we cruised all over Snowbird, and at the end of the day headed up to to spa on the roof of the Cliff Lodge, for a soak in the hot tub. The views there are beautiful and the water delightful, especially after 2 hard days of skiing. After our soak we headed downtown and met a few more friends for sushi dinner. As a "local" I usually ski and go home, getting the luxury ski/spa/dinner out treatment was a real treat for me. A total vacation! A good time was had by all... especially me!!!

Like mother, like daughter...

2011-03-19T09:56:00.007-06:00

Let me start this by saying that I am not much of a shopper. Now I admit, that back in the olden days, when I actually thin, I did enjoy a bit of clothing shopping from time to time. But now that I've come to hate the the dressing room mirror, clothes shopping is more of a depressing thing that I mostly only do when I have an event to go to, or a vacation planned, or I realize that my clothes are literally falling apart. And shopping for other things, like household items? I don't do much of that either. At this point in my life I mostly need to declutter and rid myself of things, not add to the mess. So no, I'm not much of a shopper.

But.... every now and then I have what I call "shopping savant" moments. Moments like driving down the street and passing TJ Maxx and thinking "I think I need to shop" and low and behold they just got in ski clothes, and I scored the perfect pair or ski pants for $40. Or when Ross beckoned me in and I found those great leather boots for $20. There have been many such instances in my life. I love these moments, moments when I'm not even thinking of shopping and some how get compelled to stop and shop anyway, and stumble upon the perfect item or better yet a perfect bargain.

Apparently, my daughter has my gift. Sarah has always been a girl of original style, enjoys having things that aren't the same as everyone else, therefore she's always been drawn to seeking the "one of a kind" at thrift stores. She's home for spring break this week and yesterday after work I found her and a friend in the kitchen busily baking. We are all chatting and suddenly she blurts out "OMG mom, you need to see what I got today. I was driving down 33rd to the bead store and suddenly thought "I need to go to Thrifttown" and so I did". Then she shows me the jean jacket and perfect (for her) funky shirt she found. "and they were even having a 1/2 off sale." Clearly she was pleased to have been drawn into the store on the "good day".

Then she pulls out the real prize for the day... a purse. She LOVES purses. But this purse is not any purse, but a handmade purse made from an old psychology book: "Psychology and Life". She LOVES handmade and she LOVES funky, and more importantly, she LOVES psychology. She is majoring in psychology in college, and is quite passionate about it. She is also quite enamored with concept of "life", embracing it, enjoying and making the best of it. I can not over-emphasize how much this highly unusual find is so perfect for my girl. And... even on sale.... for a whopping dollar. So yeah, I think she got the shopping savant gift too. Like mother like daughter!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2011-03-17T00:04:00.005-06:00

I admit it I'm not Irish, or if I am, I am only a tiny bit Irish. The family lore is that my great, great, grandfather, who immigrated the the states just in time to get conscripted into an immigrant battalion fighting for the north in the civil war, came from a well-to-do family. Well-to-do enough that the there was supposedly a family castle somewhere along the Rhine river in Germany. No one seems to know exactly where, except that it might be in what was once East Germany, and that the castle was supposed to have had 365 windows and 52 doors. The story is that my great-great-grandfather fell in love with and wanted to marry the Irish parlor maid, and since marrying beneath your station was frowned upon at that time, he immigrated to the United States.

The part about my great-great-grandfather coming here and fighting in the civil is well documented, but the rest of the story? Who really knows. But if I'm at all Irish, this where my little bit of Irish comes from. But does it matter? They say that everyone is a little bit Irish on St. Patty's day. But since my history includes a castle, and since I became enamored with the princess gig on my birthday, I think I will be and Irish Princess for St. Patty's day this year.

St. Patrick's Day is shaping up to be quite the holiday. The party started last Saturday night when my social group went to see the Young Dubliner's in concert. I'd tell you all about that, except my friend Susi already posted pictures and wrote up a great review of the festivities in her blog. And this year I have my choice of parties to attend, and even more importantly, my (by virtue of her father's side) "more Irish than me" daughter is home for spring break. Should be a great green day!

To be young again...

2011-03-15T21:18:00.005-06:00

Yeah it would be great to be young again.... really young! I get to be involved in lots of interesting projects at work, and for one of them we are studying Rhinovirus (the common cold), so one of my jobs is to pick up snot samples at daycare centers that are participating in the study. Today I had to wait a minute for the director to fetch the samples so I stood and read what was written on the white board in the centers entryway. It was a note to parents talking about the kids day. I know it's hard to read in the picture so I'll type out what it said:

Today we explored the bottom of the ocean in our submarines. Then we flew through the sky with our magic wings. At the end we were alligators and made waves with the parachute!

Doesn't that sound like a totally stupendous day? Reading that just made me smile... and it makes me think I wouldn't mind being a preschooler once more!

Fun Food...

2011-03-15T00:08:00.009-06:00

Or small things that make me smile...
My daughter is home from college for spring break. In an attempt to be a good mom I asked her what she wanted me to cook for her when she was home, and one of the things on her list was black bean chili. Monday nights are my normal pottery studio night, and after Saturdays "Bowl-a-thon" for Empty Bowls I have plenty (13!! new bowls) to be working on. So I figured tonight would be a good chili night, as I could cook it in the crockpot all day, come home to a ready to eat dinner, and scurry off to the studio. But as they say, the best laid plans..... I came home to find that I didn't turn the crockpot knob quite to "low", so instead of cooking, my chili just sat all day. Sigh.

So rather than have a quick chili dinner we headed off to Cafe Med as that is another favorite that Sarah wanted when she was home. We ordered the spicy green curry, and a cup of soup. Spinach lentil soup, a favorite, guaranteed to be totally yummy. I was surprised when it came to the table and it was beautiful too, all artistically decorated with yogurt sauce. Such a small thing, but it really made me smile!

Ahhhh...

2011-03-13T19:21:00.005-06:00

Another gorgeous SUNday-Funday on the slopes. Could not have asked for a nicer day, sunny warm spring skiing weather. I have the sunburn to prove it. Weird thing, despite all the abundant sunshine and no storms on the horizon, a weird foggy cloud crept over the ridge at the Snake Creek lift, and stayed for quite some time.It was kind of eerie at the top of the lift, but a handful of turns down the hill it was the most amazing blue sky day.

Took a lift ride with a ski instructor... who gave me the complete meteorologic explanation for the funny cloud. Not that I could repeat any of it except that if had to do with temperature and dewpoint and condensation. I asked how he knew all that, and it turned out he was an ex-commercial pilot. I'm still not sure why that particular ridge was the only ridge with the weird cloud phenomena, but it was fun watching the cloud.

Video taken from the top of Great Western. Can you tell by the audio that I rode up with a ski school class?

Pot Parties...

2011-03-11T19:35:00.005-07:00

Oops, make that pottery parties!! I'm not sure I've mentioned it here, but I took up a new hobby last year - pottery. Now the cool thing about my new pottery obsession, is that I get to take classes and do all my work at the Red Kiln Pottery Studio. So not only is pottery another marvelous outlet, but it is a social one as well. The studio is home to many really awesome artists, who are helpful, friendly and fun. Some of the fun includes pottery exchange parties and last weekend they had a mug exchange. For me these exchanges are both challenging an intimidating. Challenging because being relatively new to the art my skills aren't quite "there" yet. Improving all the time, but far from professional. Intimidating because really awesome potters also attend these parties, so I really want to bring something that doesn't scream novice mud musher.

When I first started pottery my goal was to make the perfect coffee mug... right size, right weight, right feel to the handle. Well this turned out to be a difficult goal. Coffee mugs are hard! Clay shrinks, so what seems like an ample mug when thrown often ends up more like a tea cup. Handles are not easy to "pull", shape and attach. So after 3 classes, a year of classes, and about 40 practice mugs, I was still worried about creating anything "good enough".

Pottery is kind of slow... to make a mug you throw it on the wheel, allow it dry for a period of days, them trim it and add handles. I usually allow mine to dry slowly (more days) then it gets fired in the bisque kiln. Then I get to glaze, after which the piece gets set on the shelf awaiting the final firing in the big gas reduction kiln, which only gets fired once every week or two. The big kiln takes a day to fire, and at least a day to cool.

My entries for the mug exchange came down to the wire... my six mugs came out of the kiln the day before the party. Lucky for me, for the first time in my year of pottery, I was pretty happy with what came out of the kiln, I actually had a hard time deciding which two to the party. With a little help from friends I picked the green floral mug and the fish mug. And, thankfully for my fragile ego, my mugs were not the last picked.

Now the cool thing about the party is I got to bring home other artists mugs! I am know the proud owner of one of Susan's Teli-kokopelli mugs. Teli = telemark = skiing. Kokopelli, the flute player of ancient indian rock art. A skiing Kokopelli! Totally cool. My other choice was Lara's computer mug. She took all sorts of computer parts and made stamps to texture the clay for her decorations. Totally unique and totally cool.

Next up on the pottery party circuit is a stein party... a stein is just a big mug... right?

Flip flop

2011-03-11T18:08:00.002-07:00

Flip flip of the weather that is.... to nearly flip flop weather. So you saw all that snow on Tuesday... well 3 days later ***poof***, aside from a few patches here and there, it's gone. The weather was in the 50's today, sunny and spring like. And look what I found in my front yard when I came home from work this afternoon! My first crocus!

Mother nature came to visit..

2011-03-08T11:21:00.005-07:00

A quick drive by post this morning mostly to share with my far away kids (and anyone else who's interested) what mother nature bestowed upon us last night. Between living in Paris (Matt) and coastal northern California (Sarah) neither get to see much fluffy white stuff... and I know they miss it, since they are snow lovers like their momma. So here are a few shots from home for my kiddos....

About 10 PM last night... my tree doesn't normally block my sidewalk...

Fishy Stuff...

2011-03-04T00:19:00.010-07:00

I did a dreaded chore this week. I cleaned the fish tank. I am not a great fish mama. My intentions are always good when I set up the tank, but over time something happens, and next thing you know the algae is overtaking the tank and the fish start dying and I feel like an aquarium failure.

Needless to say I don't purchase expensive fish, mostly things like tetras and mollies and of course a beta. Before you say "You can't put a beta in a tank with other fish", I will assure you that "yes you can!". I always put a beta in my tank, and he's always happy, and clearly enjoys having the freedom to cruise the whole tank rather than a cup or little beta bowl.

Anyway I posted something on facebook about cleaning my tank, and a friend posted this link to a scene from Finding Nemo... a funny scene where the fish are suffering in a scummy fish tank. I have never seen the movie, but the movie sure depicted my tank prior to it's recent cleaning... right down to treasure chest!

The love theme continues.....

2011-03-01T21:40:00.003-07:00

Yeah, more love, more French love. Because even in Paris, the city of romance, some folks must need to buy love. And this is the place to buy it... the Love Store!

If you need to find the love store it is not to far from Moulin Rouge, in the Place Pigalle, the red light district located at the base of Montmartre. Monmartre is the artistic center of Paris, home of the famous french artists we've all heard of. I have to wonder if it's a coincidence the artist district and red light district are in the same place...

While we are talking about love...

2011-02-27T22:11:00.007-07:00

Back to Paris, the city of romance. After visiting the Louve we took a stroll across Pont des Arts bridge, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river Seine. This is the love lock bridge, where couples symbolize their love by padlocking engraved padlocks to the bridge, then toss the keys into the water. Judging by the number of locks adorning the bridge Paris really is a romantic place. Interestingly, while doing a little googling to find the name of this bridge I found a news article from last year telling how Paris officials stripped the bridge of locks, or at least most of them, in May of last year. So, for the, most part we were viewing about 9 months of love. I wonder what the bridge looked like before they culled the locks. I am glad though that they left many of the quaint antique locks, it would have been a shame to remove all the history.

Notice the combination lock... it that the lock of a commitment phobe?

I love all the antique locks!

A Mickey Mouse lock?

Is this one Asian?

Not quaint and perhaps not fitting, but I liked the snake lock!

The loves of my life, my kids!

Love is in the air.....

2011-02-22T00:01:00.004-07:00

It is, it really is. Love is in the air... at the dollar store. I stopped there late last week to pick up a couple of my dollar store standards. The dollar store is my favorite place for a few cleaning products, my favorite lavender scented soap, wrapping paper, and whatnot. As I was checking out with my few sundry items, I looked up and spied this huge mass of Valentine's Day balloons. I've never seen so much love floating about. Problem is, is there a market for Valentines balloons several days AFTER Valentines Day? I guess some manager or buyer overestimated the need for love in Salt Lake City. I thought they looked pretty though...Makes me wonder how many balloons were in the store ON Valentines Day... that must have been a sight. Who's to say "you can't buy love". Clearly you can, and it's only a dollar.

Why I'm the luckiest girl in the world....

2011-02-06T19:15:00.007-07:00

Because I can get up on a Sunday morning, leave the overcast, gloomy, inversion caused smog that blankets the Salt Lake valley in the winter, and in half an hour be at Brighton, where the air is cool and crisp and not polluted and the sun actually shines. And once there I can strap on skis and fly around the slopes. Today started out cold and overcast, the corduroy stripes laid down by the groomers last night were frozen solid and and covered by a skiff of new snow. Skiing the frozen corduroy was kind of a tactile experience for the feet, not scary icy, but oddly rumbling underfoot. The trees on the upper slopes were where frosty and beautiful, frozen and flocked in new snow. Eventually the sun came out and it was gorgeous day. A winter wonderland for sure. Not enough new snow for a powder day, but a perfect day for cruising. I love to ski fast, feel the wind bite my cheeks, feel the exhilaration as I fly down the slopes. I was skiing solo today, so it was easy to push myself, so aside from a potty break, and a trip to my car to grab my camera, I didn't stop all day. I skied 26 runs, surely a record for me. Had some interesting ski lift conversations... met an Aussie that lives in London, a strip club owner from Tennessee, a nice woman who owns a cute Salt Lake store that I've driven by a zillion times but haven't stopped at (but now I will), a guy who drove here from New York, and many others. Last ride of the day was with a cute little 15 year old boy, who was up by himself and seemed thrilled to have someone tell his snowboarding stories to. Such a nice, nice day.

I am not from here, but even after living here for 25 years, I can't spend a day in the mountains without thinking "Wow, I am so lucky, and so thankful, to be able to enjoy this every weekend" Oh regarding the top picture.... just a fumble fingered moment, trying to use my camera while riding the lift, holding my poles and wearing ski mittens, a total inadvertent snapshot I really liked... my happy legs!

Museums... The Pompidou Center

2011-02-01T23:51:00.009-07:00

A trip to Paris would not be complete without visiting the many art museums. The first on our list was the Pompidou Center, Europe's largest modern art museum. It was quite fascinating, collections included the works of famous modern artists such as Picasso, and some very recent, interesting, provocative modern art, some shock value pieces designed to really make you think, and other strange pieces that make you think "hmmm...this is art?". Besides the artwork itself, I was rather impressed my how it was displayed, the placement and spacing of the art and utilization of negative space on the walls and floors, as well as the use of lighting and shadow really accentuated the pieces.

The following photo was taken by Sarah

Picasso's

a Kandinsky...

The following photo was taken by Sarah

I think this was my favorite, painted by Sonia Delaunay in1954. I love the subtle imagery. Do you see the dancers?

Paris Potties....

2011-01-27T21:50:00.013-07:00

So this may be an odd topic, but I thought I'd talk a little bit about the bathroom experience in France. Not that it was that odd, or much different than here in the US, butwe did have a few interesting bathroom experiences and observations. First, I guess we are dumb, as we didn't really know how to use the automatic bathrooms that are found on the Paris streets. On one of our excursions Sarah needed a potty stop. We spied one of those sidewalk bathrooms, but a man had just gone in. Finally the door open, and Sarah dashed in. It was a good thing she didn't drop her drawers too quickly, as the automatic door barely shut then opened right up again. She shut the door (I think there was a door close button) and it opened right up again. After few cycles of this, with all of us laughing hysterically about the bathroom conspiring against poor Sarah, we finally realized that she had to step out so the bathroom could self clean, something that didn't happen because she dashed in so quickly after the last user exited. It was a comical moment, and I managed to catch one shot of Sarah laughing as the door opened on her. After we figured out that she needed to step out and let the bathroom properly finish it's cycle, all was well.

Another "we must not be too smart" moment, was the bathroom latch situation. Here in the US, more often that not, the the bathroom stall door handle is also the latch. Slide the latch, the door opens and you're out. In France they are more often separate. While exiting it was easy to grab the the door handle, but not remembering the latch and consequently walking in to the door that would not open. Thud. Our first few days there Sarah and I had many a mother daughter bonding moment as we exited bathroom stalls... laughing at our inability to actually open the door.

Other silly bathroom trivia... don't look for paper towels, as you will not find them. Don't expect to find hot water, or heat in the bathroom. And the electric hand driers? More often than not they blow for about a microsecond, I don't know how anyone dries their hands. They might not care if your hands get dry, but they must want you to flush, as many bathroom have really big toilet flush buttons mounted on the walls. And then there was our favorite... the pink toilet paper we found in several public bathrooms!!!

One of my favorite bathroom experiences was not in Paris, but out in in the countryside in the little town of Blois. We stopped for a snack at this little coffee shop, and upon leaving figured we should have a pit stop. Restaurant bathrooms often seemed to be afterthoughts, tiny affairs tucked into some odd location that you practically need a map to find. This restaurant bathroom was no exception. Through a narrow hallway, then down rickety steps to a creepy basement fit for a horror movie. But back under the stairs was the cutest little bathroom. Marked by an adorable "water closet" plaque, a tiny skeleton key opened the door, into the tiny pink tile bathroom with tiny pink sink and matching pink toilet, with a tiny pink waste bin sitting on the floor. It was all much pinker and more feminine than my pictures show, and a delightful juxtaposition to it's scary basement setting. If the basement wasn't creepy enough, as we headed back up the stairs, the lights, which I think where controlled by a motion sensor or timer, turned off, so we had to feel our way up in the dark. Another interesting bathroom experience for sure. It was also another moment for me to embarrass my poor son. I got such a kick out of delightful pink bathroom that I made him tell the shop owner how cute I thought her bathroom was. He wasn't amused, but knew he had to humor his momma. I might not know French, but I know the convo started with my son saying; "I know this is really, really, weird, but my mom asked me to tell you......". Weird maybe, but the shop owner looked happy, and she and my son had a good laugh.

Sainte-Chapelle

2011-01-24T23:48:00.007-07:00

I left Paris with a cold, and after returning home and getting back into the work and home routine, while busily sniffing, coughing, sneezing and trying to rid myself of my cosmopolitan French germs, I realize there are many things from my trip I still want to share.

A favorite place we visited was Sainte-Chapelle. Any one who knows me knows that I love stained glass, and this gothic chapel built 8 centuries ago has the most amazing stained glass windows that I have ever seen. Definitely a challenge to photograph, and I'm not sure that any one photograph can capture the ambiance and scale of this fantastic space. It was almost like stepping into a kaleidescope! More than 6000 sq feet of stained glass.... I wonder how many individual pieces make up these windows!!!

Castle Country

2011-01-01T14:06:00.011-07:00

Our trip to France was supposed to be a vacation for Matt too, and he wanted to get out of Paris for a while, so we boarded a train for the town of Tours in the Loire Valley, a place Matt had been on one of his school excursions. The Loire Valley is home to quaint, little, old towns with winding cobbled streets and stone buildings with slate roofs. It is also the home of many, many castles. Having lived in in such a young country all my life it was so interesting to be in place with such a depth of history.

We spent three days in Tours, and rented a car so we could tour the countryside and visit a few of the many chateaus. We took the "lets get in the car and go see what we can find" approach and were not disappointed anywhere along the way. We spent time in Tours, of course, as well as Amboise and Blois. We toured the castles at Amboise, where Leonardo de Vinci was interred, as well Chambord, the massive estate, now national monument, that was built as a hunting retreat for nobility. I think our favorite castle was Chateaux Langeais, as it had a really neat drawbridge. Each of these places is worth a blog of it's own, which I may do at a later date.

I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend 3 days out touring the French countryside with my own personal tour guide and interpreter. Matt has been taking a French history course in college, so he was able to provide a history lesson as well. Wandering the streets and quaint alley ways was a treat, interesting architecture was every where you turned. I could spent countless hours in these towns examining the cobblestones and sculptures, and even the door handles and knockers! I also have to say, visiting all these castles was a great way to end my princess month!
Chateaux Langeais

Chateaux Langeais

The view of Amboise from the castle.

Yet another castle, in a town who's name I forgot.

Blois alleyways

Old meet new - "Disco Music" in Blois

Chateaux Chambord

Chateaux Chambord

Tradition Loire river boats

Joan of Arc statue overlooking the Loire from the town of Blois

The princess visits Chateaux Amboise

A doorknocker in Blois

Cold Duck on Ice

2010-12-29T15:30:00.007-07:00

A Paris highlight... the ice skating ducks at Le Jardin du Luxembourg.

Paris in the Pink...

2010-12-28T15:08:00.005-07:00

A few random window shopping moments... This crazy pink Christmas tree.. if it is a Christmas tree, it was kind of bizarre, and had a structure all in black hanging below it that looked like an inverted tree, so I'm not exactly sure what it was meant to be. It was in a window display near the Champs-Elysees which was showcasing cars... like this life size Barbie car. My photo does not show the Barbie car detail, and it was trimmed with tons of little rhinestones. What girl wouldn't want a hot pink bling car? You could drive it to the plastic store, where you could buy just about anything you wanted made of pink plastic. Our favorite pink moment of the day... a public bathroom in a park equipped with pink toilet paper!!!

Lest you think all we do is shop, Matt took us over to 5th arrondissement to see where he goes to school at the Catholic University of Paris. Colleges are different in Paris, big city buildings with out a real campus. His school actually has a small courtyard which, unfortunately was closed for break this week.

Matt gave us a history lesson by taking us to the Arènes de Lutèce, the remains of a 1st century roman arena. We also went by the Pantheon although I admit that we didn't go to visit the dead philosophers in as we were enjoying the sunshine!

He also took us to a very quaint restaurant area, where were were able to fulfill one or Sarah's Paris wishes, a crepe dinner in an adorable cafe.

My college boy, in front of his school.
Arènes de Lutèce

The Pantheon, decked out for Christmas

Restaurant Row

Shopping in Paris...

2010-12-26T16:49:00.010-07:00

No, not upscale, fashionable, tourist shopping, but ordinary "student on a budget" shopping that my son does... Paris street market style. Twice a week, just a block from sons apartment they have a street market. The market is sort of a combo farmers market/flea market, with vendors selling just about anything you might need. Food items, household items, rugs, shoes, leather purses, and of course cut flowers. My impression is that they have these all over Paris, even in the more upscale areas. Unlike the farmers market back home, which seems yuppy, upscale and often more expensive than the grocery store, the Paris street market is the more affordable place to purchase fresh food. Matt says he buys much of his food there, and judging by the quality of the produce I don't blame him. Interestingly, it is not a seasonal thing either, as here we are in middle of winter (and Paris is cold in the winter!) and the street market goes on and is very well attended. I much enjoyed seeing all things we don't find in the US, like the bins of olives, and piles of dried fruits, and even the dead pigs hanging from the awning. Back home I would have no idea where to buy a pig for a pig roast, but they appear easy to come by here. And the salami's... I'm finding myself wanting to try all the salami's. I'm going to be tempted to bring home a suitcase full of cheese and salami!

I would love to know what these bobbins of thread are for....as I have no idea... they are pretty cool looking though.

After breakfast we headed off to a decidedly untouristy part of town. It was Amos's last day here and he wanted to check out the "thrift market" that's near one of Matt's friends homes. This was essentially a big flea market, just like in the US, with a mix of new clothing, funky designer knock offs, junk sellers, used clothing sellers, all sort of crazy stuff. Is it weird that I kind of like flea markets?... The treasure hunt aspect of them is kind of fun. I think if you were patient there probably were interesting vintage gems in the piles and racks of clothes, but the shear number of sellers and goods was pretty overwhelming. Sarah, my girl of original style, loves thrifting, but I think it was even too much for her. We did find, (new) a package of bulky over the knee socks that she's been lusting after... all for the bargain price of 3 pairs for 7 euros. I was quite fascinated by the fabric sellers, who had beautiful, fancy fabrics, for just a few euros/meter. Made me wish Sarah was still little and I was still designing belly her dance costumes. My favorite find of the day, was the clown shoes. It's really hard to find a nice pair of clown shoes!!!

Right next to the flea market was a regular shopping mall, which we dashed into for a minute to find a bathroom (thank you McDonalds). It was pretty much like an american mall, except for the "rampelator"... OK, I don't know the proper name, but it was an inclined moving side walk, rather than escalator. Having never seen one before we had to play tourist and take a ride!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T16:34:00.010-07:00

How do you like my Christmas tree? I thought about buying a little tree for Matt's apartment, but we've been running around too much to find the time, so after the kids went to bed, I went to work... so this is my kitchen drawer Christmas tree... a Perrier bottle, some aluminum foil, cling wrap and grocery bags... plus a few ornaments the kids grandma sent with their gifts. Being so far from home, I didn't do much in the way of gifts, but I did fill a small stocking for the kids I knew would be here Christmas morning... it's how funny exciting things like a new toothbrush are, even to college kids, when they come in a stocking from Santa. My kids also had some gifts from their relatives, so it was much like a "normal" Christmas, even though we were far from home. I really enjoyed having all 5 "kids" here, eating and laughing and watching skateboard videos. Now that my kids are off at school, I miss the buzz and activity of a house full of kids, this mornings full house was a pleasant Christmas gift to me. (Can I call them kids when they are 18-23?)
A Christmas tree in the metro...

After Matt made us a nice breakfast, we headed out on the metro to Eiffel Tower. The weather had cleared up so it was sunny, but it was really, really cold, especially when you have to wait in line forever. The wait was entertaining, we had about million opportunities to purchase little Eiffel towers in a myriad of colors and sizes from any number of illegal merchants. Every now and then you would here someone yell "Police" and dozens of merchants, being chased by officers on bikes, would scurry off the premises. Unfortunately, we were not able do ascend to the top of the tower, as it was closed due to ice. We also never walked the grounds, because after waiting in lime and ascending the tower and enjoyed the view it was dark and cold and everyone was frozen solid. We may have to go back another day.

Sarah and I kinda liked the Eiffel Tower lollipops!

The sun sets early here, it was dark by the time we left.

My kids and I.

After the tower we had a nice Christmas dinner, delicious ham from the butcher, vegetables, and wine Matt had purchased on one of his school excursions wine country. Matt's friends surprised us by going for walk finding and open boulangerie and returning with a couple cute little yule log cakes for dessert. They must have read my mind because as I had been totally fascinated by the Christmas cakes I saw in the case at bakery next door to Matt's place, so I was glad to get to taste one!

Yum!!

Christmas Eve...

2010-12-24T16:29:00.009-07:00

I went to mass... catholic mass. Kind of unusual for a non religious girl like me, but as we walked into the Notre Dame Cathedrala Christmas Eve mass was starting so we stayed and watched. Mass was in French so of course I could not understand, but I enjoyed the music and the chanting and the feeling of being momentarily connected to a bit of religious and cultural history. Of course I was also awestruck by the immense size and architectural detail of the building. It is so hard to perceive how it was ever built in the pre-industrial era 600 years ago.

Christmas surprises... Last night Matt and Amos were out all night at a concert. In Paris the metro quits running at 1 AM or so, but the clubbing and concerts often go past that time so it is not uncommon to simply stay out all night and catch the morning metro home. Since Matt and Amos were dead to the world, Sarah and I planned to explore alone. First stop was out for coffee. On the way back we heard a loud "Hey" and who was standing on the sidewalk but Matt's friend's Nate and Ben. Nate lived with us for a semester last year so he is like family. He's doing a study abroad in Spain, and came up to Paris to stay with his friend Ben for Christmas. I sure didn't expect to run into him on the street!!! (Que up "It's a Small World") So after hugs and coffee and breakfast we went downtown to shop, adventure, and see the cathedral. And throw a few Paris Christmas snowballs!

We later caught up with the now rested boys, and went out for Christmas eve dinner. Who would have ever thought I'd be spending Christmas Eve in Paris, eating Moroccan food with my kids and three of my sons college friends. It is a small world, and a fun one!!!

Grocery shopping...Paris style

2010-12-23T13:54:00.006-07:00

One of the things I looked forward to about this trip was that my son has actually been living on Paris, so he would be able to to show us real living in Paris, rather than just tourist Paris. This morning we went out shopping for food for Christmas dinner. First stop was the butcher shop... Yes, I said butcher shop, something that is virtually non existent in the U.S.. The case was full of meats that all appeared to be high quality as well as interesting looking sausages and things you never see in the U.S., like fois gras, and tiny pressed meat ducks. I sure can't think of the last time I saw a real butcher, the guy's in our grocery store hardly count. But here in France apparently they are common place, and the butcher was happy to recommend the proper ham for Christmas dinner. We also left with one tiny duck, because I couldn't resist, and a laugh, because even at the fancy French butcher, you could find breaded chicken nuggets that looked like the icky things my kids loved when they were little. Who knows, maybe they are better in France, but I'll never find out. I suppose they are the testament to kids being the same everywhere.

From the butcher we headed to the supermarket. Matt said this was the "rich person" store, as opposed to the tiny market nearer his apartment were we stopped the other night. The piles of fresh foods were pretty impressive, especially the sea food! I am also amazed at all the french cheeses, and how positively inexpensive they were. A round of Camembert, that would easily cost $6 at Smiths marketplace back home is only about $3 here in Paris. Same for the wedge of brie. No wonder my son is living on baguettes and cheese! The salami selection was pretty impressive too. Many different types, unlike anything in standard grocery back home. Of course besides the fresh and (by American standards at least)artisan food, there were plenty of canned goods and even Uncle Bens rice, so I suppose this means not everyone here is a fancy fresh chef.

This store was also a super store (although not nearly the size of stores back home) so we were able to get Sarah a warmer pair of socks to wear with her rain boots, and we could have even bought a Christmas tree.

Christmas in Paris

2010-12-22T12:04:00.012-07:00

If your son is studying abroad and living in Paris, how else can the family be together for the holidays? The sacrifices we make for our children! Sarah and I arrived this morning, and considering the global winter weather, widespread reports of airline delays, departing Salt Lake in a snowstorm, landing in Cincinnati in a snowstorm, it was surprising we were only about an hour late arriving in Paris. After fumbling our way through Charles de Gaulle airport and out to our shuttle, we arrived at Matt's place. We were greeted by 2 sleepy young men who had stayed out way too late last night. Matt's room mate at Ft. Lewis is also here for Christmas, so they have been out doing Paris partying. They were as tired as we were jet lagged, so after a quick trip to the market for cheese, baguettes, and, well, toilet paper(I don't think Matt was too concerned about preparing for our arrival LOL), we all took a nap and then headed off to the Christmas market at the Champs-Élysées... Sadly it was raining, not snowing, but it was beautiful and festive none the less. Adorable little shops unlike anything I've seen in the states, cheeses, dried fruit, piles of chocolate, bakeries and mulled wine sellers(yum!).

I'm a little too jet lagged to want to write much so I'll let my pictures speak. Not my best photographic effort as it was hard to take the time to get the perfect shots and mess with camera settings in the rain while trying not to lose the kids and not make Matt too embarrassed that his mom was (gasp) playing tourist!

After all these years.

2010-12-21T01:32:00.005-07:00

My first Christmas in Utah was spent in Ogden, about an hour north of where I live now. I really enjoyed the downtown Christmas display, a Christmas village of tiny cottages with windows exposing the cute Christmas scenes within; busy elves and jolly Santa's, sugar plums and teddy bears. I'm such a sap for the cute Christmas things that remind me of my childhood, like the ice skating animated puppets at the Oakbrook mall in Chicago, and the fabulous Santa's workshop in the downtown Shillitos department store in Cincinnati, so Ogden's Christmas village was just my thing, a perfect but of Christmas magic.

Well, 25 Christmas have come and gone since then, and I often expressed interest in seeing the Ogden display again. I'd suggest that heading up there would be a perfect birthday present for me, or that it would be fun for the kids, but somehow in all these years it never happened. We were always too busy or the weather was bad, or nobody wanted to take the hour drive.

When my sister(a fellow sap) said she was coming out for my birthday I knew I had the perfect partner in crime for such an excursion. So finally after 25 years, I experienced those magical lights and displays again, and they were as goodg or better than I remembered. It kind of made me sad that I never took my kids there when they were young, as they would sure have liked it! This big kid sure did!

The Princess Diaries

2010-12-19T23:27:00.012-07:00

December is a month of festivities, and I get an extra one, as it is my birthday month. A big one this year, turning the big 5-0.
The Saturday prior to my big day was the December birthday celebration with my singles group, two of us turned 50 and the other gal arranged a party prior to dancing with the group during which we were both gifted with tiaras. I'm not at all bothered by turning 50, to be honest, my 40 sucked. (Marital hell and a divorce) So I was happy to don my tiara and dance my way into my 50's!

I had actually planned to let the event slide by unnoticed but a few weeks before my big day my sister called and asked "What are you doing for your birthday", and I answered "it's Wednesday, so pottery class", and she said "How about I come and spend it with you? You should't have to spend you 50th alone,"... so wow, my birthday quickly went from non-event to "Princess Week".

On my birthday I wore my tiara to the coffee shop, where I was gifted my morning beverage, and also to work for a short time before heading to the airport to pick up Donna.. I wore it to the credit union and up to and into the hot springs, and to dinner at Roosters and wandering the Ogden Christmas village. I was digging the princess gig!

My princess day turned to princess week...When I found my sis was coming I wanted to do something special and arranged a spa night for us on Thursday. We had massages and facials and a lovely dinner out. And if those princess activities weren't enough, my sister came with a surprise. When my cousins heard she was flying out here, they decided to do something nice for us and arranged a Friday night stay for us at a swanky Deer Valley hotel(in-room fireplace and all), where we had a lovely dinner and played in the outdoor hot tub and pool in falling snow. Saturday we checked out the galleries and shops on Park City's main street, and then had a dinner party and merriment with my friends. Sunday, after running Donna to the airport, I went skiing with two girlfriends, one who actually had free passes for us that day.

So I really had a week fit for a princess and I feel so blessed by my family and friends. Special thanks to Carolyn for gifting me the tiara!!! I think my 50's are off to a really good start!!!
Picking up Donna at the airport.
Soaking at Crystal Hot Springs
Dinner at Roosters Brewpub
Ogden Utah's Christmas Village
The Chateaux at Silver Lake
Donna, soaking at the Chateaux
A little winter swim!
Wandering Park City

Fail!!

2010-11-30T02:24:00.006-07:00

After geting up this morning and shoveling another 5 inches of snow I headed off to work. Upon getting to my favorite parking lot this is what I found. See that huge pile of snow? See that yellow parking lot stripe? See that that stripe is the last stripe on the right?.... Yup, that means they left that huge pile of snow right in the middle of the road! FAIL!!!!

Of course parking being as tight as it is at the "U" when I left work I found cars parked on either side of the pile, essentially adding 2 new spaces to the parking lot. I wonder how the parking nazi's handled that one. Tickets? No tickets? Hmmmmmm.

And another huge fail. My daughter called this morning to let me know she arrived safetly in Arcata. She arrived, but her luggage did not. After the flight nobody on her plane's luggage was found at the baggage carousel. Apparently the baggage handlers forgot to load the entire plane's worth of luggage before departing from Sacramento yesterday... Epic Fail!!!!!
Not my street, but the pretty tree lined street that leads out of my neighborhood.
Yeah, just a wee bit of snow in the front yard this morning!

Let it Snow!

2010-11-28T21:20:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving week ended the way it began... snowy!
Sarah wanted snow while she was home, and she got it on both ends of her trip. I had to shovel the driveway before leaving to take her to the airport this morning, and the snow kept falling all day. After shoveling again tonight I decided it was a great time to walk the dog... I just love walking on a snowy night and so does Daisy. As we headed out onto the street, Daisy's friend Miley ran over to greet us, so I invited her along for the walk.

So the two happy dogs and I wandered the snow covered streets down to park, where I was able to let them off lead so they could really enjoy themselves. Turns out I'm not the only one who enjoys getting out in a snowstorm, the park was pretty busy for a dark snowy night, the dogs got to have a romp with a few new dog friends. I really enjoy watching the dogs play in the snow, they are just like joyful, happy children. I wonder what it is about snow that makes a dog so happy? You would think that from an evolutionary biology perspective snow would be a sign of hardship to a dog, I can't imagine winter is an easy time for an animal in the wild, yet many domestic dogs seem to really love the snow. It certainly brings out the puppy in my 10 year old dog.

My Daisy is the black dog, Miley is her yellow younger twin!

Wishes...

2010-11-21T12:40:00.003-07:00

Sarah came home from school yesterday... no small task, since she lives in the middle of nowhere in far northern California. Something about picturing my sweet daughter and "Donner Party" in the same thought made me think that flying was the safest bet to get her home. Unfortunately, I should have planned more than a month ahead for Thanksgiving travel, as her itinerary was terrible. A 7PM flight out of Arcata, only to spend the night in the Sacramento airport waiting for her 8AM flight to Salt Lake. All for the bargain price of $671. Her return flight is 12 hours as well. (It's a 15 hour drive) I guess she will learn to like the Sacramento airport.

The good thing is that she is here!! Apparently flying out of Arcata in sketchy at best. The rainy and foggy coastal weather causes many flight delays and cancellations. Her flight ended up being delayed a few hours, no big deal with a 9 hour layover. The flight was so bumpy she actually said prayers... and she is not religious. Unfortunately, some of her friends flights were canceled, with a 2 day wait until the next available flight. So as I said, I'm glad she arrived!

She must be lucky in more ways than one. Her one hope for Thanksgiving break was that it would snow when she was home. Judging from the foot of snow we received last night, I think she was granted her wish!!!
How do you like the gift the snowplow left for me? Positioned strategically right behind my car. I guess he didn't think shoveling the foot of snow would be workout enough for me. so I was tasked with glacier removal as well!

More from my last adventure.

2010-11-17T00:37:00.003-07:00

While out adventuring with my relatives we discovered a cool place I'd never seen before; Cascade Springs. While driving the Alpine Loop my uncle spied the sign to Cascade Springs and asked "Where does that go?" and my answer was "I have no idea, I've never been down that road" so we decided to investigate. The road headed down a long hill out of the forested mountain into a valley of barren Utah scrub land. About 7 miles and a 1500 foot descent into the valley we came to the Cascade Springs parking lot. A short walk through the woods and there we were, looking at the most amazing spring. This was not a trickling little spring like others I know of in the Wasatch, this spring gushed water, creating an lush green oasis in the middle of dry range land. It was quite an amazing site, a little googling an I discovered that 7 million gallons of water pour out of the ground at this spot, a real oasis in the desert!

The last of fall...

2010-11-10T23:54:00.005-07:00

I had a nice treat a week ago. My Aunt Adele and Uncle Edward, who live in Indiana, decided to take a big western road trip. After touring the southwest and a few of Utah's national parks they came and spent a weekend with me. They had not been here before so we spent a few days touring all the local scenic areas. One day we drove the Alpine Loop, a scenic mountain drive that is best known for it's fall color display. We were a little late for changing leaves, in fact, we caught the beginning of winter, but it was still a spectacular drive.
Mt. Timpanogos 11749 ft... Many years ago I hiked to the top!

A lone stand of aspens yet to loose it's leaves... I good lesson in micro-environment I think!

Weird Happenings....

2010-11-06T11:50:00.008-06:00

From last weekend's adventures, a lone stand of aspen that still thinks it is fall. A lesson in micro-enviroment I think!

Last night I was out late dancing with the singles group, got home and of course couldn't fall asleep. No big problem, as today is Saturday so I could sleep in this morning. And I really wanted to sleep in! But no such luck. At 8:30 AM I'm awakened by buzzing....not my alarm clock, I never heard my alarm even though I'm sure it was set and went off. I never remember to turn the darn thing off on the weekends. I then thought it was my smoke alarm, but that's not it. The smoke alarm is right over my bed and quite obvious and obvious when it alarms. I wander, confused and bleary eyed, into the hallway where I realize it's my carbon monoxide alarm that is buzzing. The CO monitor has never gone off in the more then 10 years I have owned it, so I don't even recognize the sound. I stare at it blankly, thinking there must be a reset button I can't find, all the while wondering if I'm feeling so confused because I was out late last night, and am tired, or if in reality I am fuzzy brained because I had been poisoned by noxious gas while I slept.

And then, across the room, my computer printer starts printing. Well, not really printing because a while back the darn thing decided it would only print blank pages, but making all the sounds an machinations it makes when it's going to print a page. Now I'm really confused... It it my friendly ghost again? (I will have to tell my ghost stories sometime.) I now stare blankly at it, confused. Then I realize I hear another weird noise drifting up from downstairs. I head down to investigate, and find the buzzer on my stove going off. How very weird, since my stove is an old one, with a mechanical timer, you know, the kind where you need to pull out the knob and turn the dial to set it. All so weird and in my groggy, sleep deprived state, king of freaky!!!

I am starting to wake up a little bit now, and look around the house to see if anything else weird is going on and make sure nothing is on fire or fuming somehow. Everything seems fine, so all I can figure is that something must have gone wacky with my electrical service. Out my living room window I notice my neighbors are out their yard in their robes. Maybe there is something weird going on in the 'hood thins morning? As I walk out onto my front porch their dog Miley, one of my best dog friends, runs over to greet me. I walk her back across the street and ask them about their power. Apparently theirs had just gone on and off a couple of times. So mystery solved I guess.

Momentary power outages are not terribly unusual here, but I can't say I ever remember having one mess with my electronics like that. I always try to find rational cause for the weird stuff around my house, but sometimes I can't. I suppose today I can blame the power company, but maybe I should blame my "ghost". I like to blame the ghost for the unexplained happenings at home.... as you never really know.

Talking about the weather...

2010-10-27T12:45:00.004-06:00

The seasons sure can change fast. We went from a taste of winter on Monday to a full course meal last night. This is what I woke up to this morning. A perfect storm! Pretty snow, no need to shovel! Daisy has always loved the snow, but I think now that she's a 10 year old she actually notices that it's cold. Unless you are tossing a snowball of course!

The seasons change...

2010-10-25T20:21:00.008-06:00

Is Daisy ready for the snow? I'm not so sure!

The seasons change and so do I.... yesterday was my big fall day, the day I needed to get over my pantsaphobia. Pantsaphobia you ask?? It's my phobia of wearing pants, an illness I get every year around May, when the weather warms up and I start wearing shorts. Once I make the transition to shorts, I can't bring myself to start wearing pants again until the weather cools off in the fall. I think it has literally been years, perhaps even a decade since I've worn pants in the summer. It's shorts and skirts and dresses for me, the only exception being occasionally pulling on a pair of sweatpants if I'm camping in the mountain and it gets cold at night. Eventually fall comes, the weather cools, and I have to break out the pants again. This weekend the the weather turned and yesterday I realized it was the day I had to buck up and get over my pantsaphobia and actually dress appropriately for the weather. And so I did... and, thankfully, the pants still fit.

My pantsaphobia day was not a day too soon, as despite that the leaves are just turning down here in the valley, this morning we woke to the first snow of the year. Just a little at my house, but it appeared the mountains got quite the dusting. To go along with my pantsaphobia, tonight I had to rummage through my closet to find my running tights and a long sleeve shirt to wear jogging, andI was still ended up being a little chilly. After my run, when I came home to a 54 degree home, I realized it was time to conquer the next fall milestone... closing my remaining open windows and pushing the 'on' button on the furnace thermostat.... I think winter is on it's way!

At the park this afternoon.

From the parking lot at work this morning.

Sign, sign everywhere a sign

2010-10-24T20:50:00.007-06:00

As I said in previous post my trip up north to the springs was a fall family tradition. Well I said family and now I'm a empty nester, so as I did for the state fair I decided it would be great opportunity for a photo safari. There are some place in Ogden I always wanted to take pictures of so I decided to stop there on the way up to the springs. One of my favorite Ogden places is Historic 25th street. Ogden was quite the turn of the 20th century railroad town, and 25th street was the center of bawdy action, drinking, brothels, gambling, all very un-Utah. Things were still fairly bawdy when I moved to Ogden in '85. The old hotels were home to lonely old men, Angelos was the big biker bar, prostitutes were recognizable on the street. It's a street of character, and I always enjoyed stopping there for dinner or coffee or a beer or a trip to an antique store. Over the years the street has become more gentrified, many old buildings replaced with new, which has lessened the interesting character of the street a bit; I kind of found the mix of high class and low class interesting. I guess I like diversity, and I certainly like old historic places.

So I headed to 25th street with my camera. One thing I always wanted a picture of was the cool neon dragon sign outside the Star Noodle restaurant. Sadly I found the sign gone, but you can see some pictures here. I decided to snap shots of the other old historic signs. My disappointment over the missing Star Noodle sign made think that that I'd better go take a picture of another favorite Ogden spot; the huge big bellied Buddha that sat on top the roof of the China Nite restaurant on Washington. I ate there once, back in '85. The food was terrible, I recall egg rolls that were battered and fried and served with ketchup and yellow mustard, but I liked the my Buddha buddy. Sadly, when I went to snap the picture, I found it was also gone. You can catch a glimpse of him here. I guess things change and you can't go back. All the more reason to carry my camera and get pictures of favorite spots while I can.

So it looks like there was a time where coke, which "relieves fatigue" and beer were both the same price 5 cents!!!

I miss Buddha!

Not 25th street, but nearby, another cool Ogden sign... although I think it is a strip club.

More Produce...

2010-10-21T21:47:00.008-06:00

Of course my favorite farm stand had more to offer besides the incredible selection of squash. Most noteworthy was their incredible cabbage. I have to say that I have never seen such big heads of cabbage before. The small ones were the size of volleyballs, most were even bigger. They all looked fresh and delicious, and I was very tempted to purchase one, as I do like cabbage. But what would I do with that much cabbage? That is the one big problem with farm stand shopping. Everything looks sooooo good. But everything is perishable, and there is only one of me to prepare it and eat it, so I have to use some self control,that way I avoid purchasing veggies that end up in the compost bin because I don't find time to cook them. Thankfully winter squash keep a long time, so they were safe choices, but I decided that maybe I should pass on the cabbage.

Apparently the nice woman who checked me out was psychic, because as I headed toward my car with my bags full of squash she said "Do you like cabbage?" To which I replied, "Yes I do, and yours are magnificent." I guess she read my mind and knew I really wanted one because she piled one into my arms. "How much is it?" I asked and she relied "Nothing just take it".

So what should I do with my big cabbage? I decided to make stuffed cabbage, something I love but never have cooked because I've always lived with cabbage haters. Well, that took a bunch of the outer leaves, leaving me a cabbage that is still huge compared to anything I've ever bought at the grocery store. So what next? I'm toying with trying to make homemade sauerkraut; I've scoped out some recipes and it look surprisingly easy. Maybe cabbage soup? Or coleslaw? Any ideas?

Squash Madness

2010-10-19T23:33:00.006-06:00

Sunday I headed up north for my fall tradition, a trip to Crystal Hot Springs and a stop along fruit way to buy Halloween pumpkins. My favorite farm stand, conveniently the one that is also open on Sunday, has always fascinated me with it huge display of winter squash. All sorts of squash in a myriad of colors and textures and sizes. Huge boxes brimming with the biggest squash I've ever seen. Unfortunately, nobody in my family likes squash, so I've rarely cooked it. But since I just cook for myself now I decided to bring home a few new squash to try, not the standard acorn or butternut varieties but some I've never had before, like a sweet potato, buttercup and banana squash. Well, I thought I bought a banana squash. I searched and searched for a small banana squash and finally found one that was only about 15 inches long and 4 inches in diameter so I bought it. Believe it or not that was a small one. As I carried to to the car the bag broke and it slid to the ground. I picked it up and set it on the hood of my car while I juggled my pumpkin and other squash into the back seat. When I got home and went to carry all treasures into the house, it wasn't there. I must have driven off with it on the hood of my car, where I must have lost it the parking lot. Poor baby squash. Poor me, because I really wanted to try that variety. The lady at the farn stand said they were delicious. I'm wondering if this means I should splurge and enjoy one more fall trip to the hot springs, just so I can get another one.

Fairies do exist!

2010-10-13T00:45:00.002-06:00

Looky what I found! A lone tomato perched upon my front porch railing. I think perhaps the garden fairy has paid me a visit! A nice surprise as I didn't plant any tomatoes this year, and not much beats a luscious homegrown tomato. Now if only she would do some weeding!

Falling

2010-10-08T00:05:00.004-06:00

There's a nip in the air tonight. Perhaps fall is finally really here. Leaves have been turning in the mountains for a little while, unfortunately they seem to be going more green to brown... I think it has been too dry this fall. Nevertheless, I did find a little bit of good color on a recent Millcreek canyon hike.

One more carnival ride...The Octopus!!

2010-10-05T23:06:00.001-06:00