Tracie's World

Yesterday was the Wildflower Festival in the Albion Basin up Little Cottonwood Canyon. The ward went for a hiking activity. Other than it being incredibly hot yesterday (even in the mountains), it was a gorgeous, sunny day. And the sky was as blue as you would ever see. We hiked the Cecret (pronounced Secret) Lake trail. It's a fairly steep trail, but the wildflowers were fantastic. Colorful and really on display in all their glory for the occasion. The trail takes you to a small lake, in a bowl area right on top of the mountain. Being as it was the festival weekend, the trail and the lake were plenty crowded, but it was really cool that so many people were there enjoying the beauties that Utah offers.

In the last few years, I have taken up golf. I have my own clubs, and have begun getting all the accompanying accessories that go with the sport. I even took some lessons through Community Education. In the summer, I try to play a couple of times a month. Mind you, I'm by no means good at golf. I'm probably somewhere in-between Bill Murray and Charles Barkley. The minute I think I should be able to make a particular shot, it takes me three shots instead. There is no more frustrating, contradictory, stress-inducing and aggravating game than golf. But there are few sports as fun, exhilarating, challenging and fulfilling as golf, either. It fools you by making you think it should be easy. But actually it requires a tremendous amount of skill, technique and coordination. So today I went golfing with a couple of my golfing buddies, Debbie and Janeen. Other than being a little too humid for us Utahans, it was a great morning. By the time I walked 9 holes and pulled a cart...

I have to admit - one of my guilty pleasures is People magazine. I buy one a few times a year, mostly if I'm in an airport somewhere. Or if it's the Sexiest Man Alive issue (hello, that's a no-brainer). If I happen to be on my way home to see the family, I'll take one to read on the flight and then pass it on to my sisters after I get there. We all love it. So I picked one up today that happened to have been put out for recycling at work. I just couldn't help myself. There on the front page was a huge headline THE REAL STORY. Something about Brangelina. Followed by a photo of Jon and Kate. Followed by a photo of David Carradine. Well, ok, moment of truth here, but let's not kid ourselves. There's no REAL STORY in People magazine. If it were real, it wouldn't be a guilty pleasure now, would it? The point is to enjoy the photos of celebrities who are too stupid to go out without make-up, and to revel in the gossip. And of course, it's th...

Good news (hopefully) for Dodger fans. Manny Ramirez finished serving his 50 game suspension, and rejoined the team last Friday. No hits in his first game back, but he did have a solo home run in Saturday's game. He only played through the 5th inning, then was pulled and replaced by Juan Pierre, who has been filling in for him (and doing a mighty fine job of it). Yesterday the big guy didn't play at all. Something about his legs being sore. But I'm wondering how, if you haven't played for 50 games or so, your legs can be sore? The only thing I can think of is that maybe all the estrogen he was taking is causing him to retain water or something. Just to caution any other guys out there who think a female fertility drug is the answer, you might want to think twice about that. As women, we're more used to it - the mood swings, the cramps, the bloating, the emotional meltdowns. I'm just not sure the male legs or psyche are up to the challenge.

Yesterday was the 4th of July, otherwise known as Independence Day. It's one of my favorite days of the year, and for me, almost as sacred as Easter and Christmas. I believe that America is a blessed place. I love hearing stories of the American Revolution, and George Washington and John and Abigail Adams are definitely heros of mine. I usually spend at least part of the day watching something patriotic, ranging from PBS and History Channel documentaries to the "John Adams" mini-series, to the musical "1776". So yesterday was a good day for me. I didn't do a whole lot - a bit of shopping at REI (a fave store), watching the Dodgers play the Padres (and getting grouchy when they lost), and watching several hours worth of "The Revolution" on the History Channel. Later in the day, I went down to Draper and spent some time with my brother's family. I watched the kids do fireworks and sparklers, then after they went to bed, sat out on the ba...

After arriving home from our excursion yesterday, I had a couple of hours before leaving again. My friend Jenny was housesitting for her brother, and had invited several of us for a barbecue and to watch the North Salt Lake fireworks show. I ran a couple of errands, then Angie and Angel rode with me to North Salt Lake. Not having been there before, and knowing that the area up there can be a little confusing, I used the trusty Tom-Tom GPS that I received for my birthday. It totally worked great. It was a terrific evening. Good food, great conversation, fabulous friends. Around 10 PM, we went out in front of the house to watch the fireworks show. Before the fireworks started, we saw an amazing display of thunder and lightning out over the Oquirrh Mountains. I must say, after all the rain and thunderstorms lately, that made me a bit nervous. But then the show began, and it was fantastic. It went for probably 30 minutes, and we were in a great spot above the golf course where we...

Yesterday was a great day. I met up with my friends Inge, Angel, and Max, and we took a drive up Ogden Canyon to the little town of Huntsville. Huntsville is known for a few different things. First, for Mormons, it's the birthplace of one of the Presidents of the Church, David O. McKay. Second, there is a bar there that has been in existence since the 1860's-70's, and they serve a well-known burger. And third, it is home to a Trappist Monastery. Thus, this little excursion came to be known as our Saints and Sinners tour. The real object of the trip for me was to get up into the mountains, and of course to try the burger at the bar. This may be an appropriate place for me to interject that one thing we all enjoy doing together is looking for little dive-y and out of the way places to eat. We arrived in Huntsville right at noon, and started of with the Sinners, by stopping at the Shooting Star Saloon for lunch. They are known for their Shooting Star burger - 2 all-be...