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Showing posts from May, 2011

Pizza and Wii Night

Several months ago, I worked a deal with my youngest brother to buy a Wii from him.  It's kind of a funny story actually, because the reason he was willing to sell it to me was because my niece had just won another Wii that same week that he purchased this one.  So he was willing to let me take this one off his hands, because really, who needs two Wii's? Segue to a couple of nights ago, when I had some of the girls over for "Pizza and Wii Night".  We ordered pizza, played the Wii, and had some birthday cake.  My system came with the Sports Pack (Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Baseball), and Julie and Janeen gave me a couple of other ones, Mario Super Sluggers (since I'm the ultimate baseball fan), and Neighborhood Games (Horseshoes, Bocce, Shuffleboard, etc.)  I'm very much looking forward to trying the horseshoe toss - my Grandma's cousin was a World Champion Horseshoe Thrower, and maybe that means I've inherited some of Cousin Red's skills.   It was re

Birthday Greetings

Celebrated another birthday this week.  I'm fortunate to have a family that is very good at remembering birthdays, and received cards and phone calls and gifts from everyone.  And considering the size of our family, it's quite a big deal that everyone is so good at remembering.  One of the cutest and funnest came from some pictures that my nephew and niece in Tucson made for me, which I thought I would share. My nephew told me to have a "flowering day" My niece dictated a note to her Mom for me, and drew me a Christmas tree "because she thought I would like Christmas trees", and some flowers.

First Sunday School Lesson

Taught my first Sunday School class yesterday, and lived to tell the tale.  I had only found out about the assignment a few days before, but it was probably good, that way I could just try and jump right in. I spent most of the weekend trying to prepare.  And by Sunday was kind of feeling like I do after studying for a big test - at a certain point you just need to stop preparing and go and get it over with.  So off to church I went, praying that all would go well.  I confess, I was pretty nervous beforehand.  And it didn't help that there was an entire row of people new to the ward who sat and yakked and gave me crusty looks (or what I interpreted as crusty looks).  But, eventually they all calmed down and so did I.  And the rest of the class went pretty well. People made inspiring comments and there was a good spirit there.  One of the other teachers even came up after and offered some really positive feedback, which was very kind of him. I sent an email to the Sunday School Pr

Container Gardening Class

Last month my pal Sidney and I spent a very pleasant afternoon walking around Red Butte Garden.  It's a Botanical Garden they have up at the U, and is really the only thing affiliated with the U that I like to spend any time at.  They have all sorts of plants, and we happened to catch them on their Bulb Show weekend, where they showed off over 250,000 daffodils.  On our way out, I picked up their community booklet to browse through.  During that browse, I noticed they were offering a Container Gardening Class.  Thinking of my gardening goal, I quickly signed up. This past Thursday I drove up the hill to the class, which was being held at their Greenhouse.  I have to say, I had an absolutely fabulous time, despite being on U of U property.  The class was taught by one of their Master Gardeners, Michelle, and I shared a work station with two awesome ladies, Elaine and Emily.  First, we went through a bit of a lecture and Q&A session.  Then, they sent us out into the greenhouse t

Garden Status Update

This weekend was supposed to be nice and warm (finally), so today's big goals were to get my plants in the containers, as well as to get an oil change.  So there I was this morning at WalMart, shopping for containers and soil mix.  Picked out some good ones on both counts, then headed home for some more chores, and lunch. After lunch, it was off to Burt Brothers to get the oil changed.  I don't recall when I got there, but I figure it took about an hour, judging by the fact that I made it through three "People" magazines.  Car service complete, I came home (brief stop at ShopKo for another pot), and ready to begin planting.  I was able to plant the Anaheim Pepper, the herbs, and a Begonia that the Elders gave us last week for Mother's Day.  Then the skies darkened, and the winds picked up, so I hurried and hauled everything inside just in time before it really opened up.  So the tomatoes have not yet been planted.  But other than that, I feel ok about what I wa

The Champagne Lady

When I was a little kid, back in the dark ages of the early 1970’s, there was really only one show that was ever on Saturday nights.  Every week, Saturday night bath all completed, and Styrofoam curlers in my hair (which never really worked because my hair was too thick), the TV would go on, the sound of the champagne cork would pop, and the strains of the Lawrence Welk theme song would begin to play.  It's probably where I first developed a love for the old standards. This comes to mind today because of the passing of one of the stars of the Lawrence Welk Show, Norma Zimmer, or as Lawrence used to pronounce it, Tzimmer.  Lovingly referred to as “The Champagne Lady”, she was THE  female star of the show.  She typically sang a big solo number, surrounded by champagne bubbles, and did commercials for Rose Milk, which was a lotion popular among grandmothers. Segue to a few years ago, when I attended the Swiss Days festival in Midway, Utah .  Among the entertainment that year was a

Plant Shopping

I've told you all about my container gardening goal for this year.  Knowing next to nothing about the subject, I've been doing a lot of reading, looking up articles on the Utah State extension website, registering at homefarming.com, and trying to figure out what it I want to try and grow this year.  Step 1 in the process took place yesterday.  I met up with Charlee and Rosann in the morning to do some plant shopping at the Wasatch Community Gardens plant sale.  They were selling plants, as well as doing a Farmer's Market.  Good thing we got there relatively early, because there were a ton of people there.  The thing we were mostly after were tomato plants, and the sale did not disappoint.    The focus was on heirloom tomatoes, so there were many different varieties to choose from, most of which I'd never heard of before.  But I finally settled on a BoxCar Willie, a Brandywine (both should produce good large round beefsteak tomatoes, perfect for slicing on sandwiches),

The Bike is Back!

Went to REI yesterday to pick up the bike, which they had finished a few days before.  And with it came the new fork, which is now silver instead of blue, but looks ok.  It also came with the new tires, and a thorough cleaning.  It literally shines.  It was all rather expensive, but so far appears to be worth it.  I can't wait to take it out on a trial run.  

I'm Home!

Spent most of the last week in Atlanta on a trip for work.  Atlanta is where our corporate office located.  It's a great city and I always enjoy going there.  I've been there several times now, and it's always great to go and visit with all my colleagues that I mostly only get to talk to over the phone or email.  The building is gi-normous, at least by Utah standards, with a beautiful lobby.  And so it's fun to have to take the elevator back and forth, rather than walk across the parking lot like I do here.  It was fun to be in meeting rooms that were at least 20 floors up, and fun to be able to meet downstairs in the restaurant for lunch (yeah, no restaurant at the office here).   Whenever I go to Atlanta, I try to stay at the Staybridge Suites by the office - really it's my favorite of all our hotels I've been to.  I usually have a living room and kitchen, plus they have breakfast in the morning and dinner most evenings.  And the staff is always so friendly a