Tracie's World

Pardon me while I rant a little bit, but have any of you noticed that going shopping anymore is a study in extremes? Granted, I've never been much of a shopper. I'm not one to spend hours and hours out looking in stores and not deciding on something. If I don't find it fairly quickly, I'm usually out of there. But even so, the shopping experience has gotten even worse than ever. Case in point #1: Say you decide to go shoe shopping, and you walk into a DSW, just to browse. You are immediately descended upon by employees, acting as if they work for the NSA. Right to browsing privacy? Not on your life. It's "finding everything ok?" every 2 seconds, helpful to the point of intrusive and stalking. You find yourself stuck in an episode of "The Prisoner", where no matter where you turn, you're caught in an endless flow of staffers who won't let you out of their sight, let alone out of the store. Heaven knows what would happen if you really stopp...

Birthday celebration day 2, the actual birthday, found me and the brother's family at a Salt Lake Bees baseball game. It was an afternoon game, and a gorgeous, although very warm day. We spent the first half of the game roasting in the sun along the first base side, but smartened up and found seats in the shaded upper level for the second half. The game was a free-for-all, each team giving up runs left and right. Most exciting! After the game, we went home and awesome sister-in-law #1 made a fabulous dinner of salad and veggie burgers, and then we topped it off with ice cream and fruit. Yummers! Totally fabulous day!

Another birthday is nearly upon me, and this year it's a mini-milestone. Yesterday I kicked off a weekend of celebration, first with the Triple D Divas. And as is our customer with naming our foodie adventures, this year's celebration will hereafter be known as the "Busy Bees Birthday".  Day 1: Now, I don't eat a lot of meat anymore, but I had a craving for a really good garlic burger and milkshake. As much as I enjoy being a foodie, I have to say that a really good burger, fries and shake will get me just about every time. So the girls and I met up for a late lunch of Garlic Burgers at the Busy Bee Bar and Grill. It's a dive bar on State Street, but well-known for it's garlic burgers. And I have to say that we were not disappointed. We ordered garlic burgers and fries all around, and washed it down with what had to be a liter of Diet Coke. We had a great time, and our server/owner/manager Marci was fabulous. Totally made our afternoon, and the fun was ...

Speaking of church, look who was spotted outside the door today, nesting away. At least, I can only assume she is nesting, as she had what appeared to be the makings of one, and she didn't move at all whenever anyone walked by, or stopped to take a look at her. She just kept her head down. Which would tend to make one thing she was sitting on an egg. Poor thing - she didn't set up in the best of spots. Hopefully we don't get any rain this week, or that downspout will be mighty uncomfortable. But see, even animals want to be close to the Lord.

In the category of don't mess with Tracie, let's just say that I take my Family History responsibilities perhaps a bit too seriously. Today in Family History Library, several of my committee members were there, working away and being anxiously engaged in their calling. A couple of nice-looking gentlemen came in, I think to read their scriptures beforehand, but it ended up turning into more of a flirt-fest. Now, I know our ward exists to encourage people in this endeavor. But NOT in my Family History Library. We have important work to do there. So - rather than keeping my mouth shut, I proceeded to interrupt and question them, asking if there was anything we could help them with, anything they wanted to work on, if not I needed everyone to be working. We had the work of salvation going on there, and it was important. Or something to that affect. I scared one of the poor fellows to the point that he right away dropped what he was doing and jumped on a computer and logged into Fam...

I've been pondering the creation for the last few weeks. This may seem like an odd topic for a blog post, but I guess being in the temple regularly probably does that to you. There's a lot of argument these days about the "Creation", how it happened, what caused it, and pitting people of FAITH against people of SCIENCE. As if there needs to be a competition, and as if it's an either/or proposition. I think a major misconception is that people of faith can't or don't believe in science, and vice versa. In my mind, there is room for both. God is the author of truth, and all truth comes from God and the Savior. They want us to understand and not be threatened by science. As we learn more about science, we learn more about Them.  So, with that in mind, here's what I believe about the creation. Note that this is not a statement of LDS doctrine, but a statement of my own beliefs. 1. I believe in the Big Bang, and that it caused the Universe to begin, and...

After finishing the garden yesterday, I met up with my friend Cyndee and Robin at the Adventure Gear Expo. For some reason I was thinking it would have more to do with hiking and camping and trekking and the like. And while there was indeed some of that, it was probably more slanted towards adventure sports. Snowboarding and skiing, paddle boarding, motorcycles, and rock climbing and such. Not really the types of activities that would normally be on my bucket list. But we did find plenty of fun as we were walking around at all the exhibits - there were plenty of things to try, and I'm happy to say that I tried some. Courtesy of the Utah Olympic Park, we got to sit in a bob sled. If you go to the Olympic Park, you can take a ride on the bob sled run - for the low introductory price of $75. Something I've yet to do, but totally would. Who cares about my balance disorder?! Jumping on the energy bar bandwagon was this local company that specializes in energy bars ...

Yesterday I made my annual trek to the Wasatch Community Garden plant sale. It was a beautiful early morning and I met up with my other gardening groupie pals Charlee, Rosann and Richard, and Richard's folks. We were there pretty much by opening time, which ended up being a good thing, because as we were leaving, a hail storm arrived, and I made it back to my car just in the nick of time. The thing I love about this particular plant sale is that they sell heirloom varieties. This means the plants are not genetically modified, and that it keeps variety in the vegetable food chain. Cost is relatively low, $2 a plant, and since it's a non-profit organization, I feel like my money is going to a good cause. I picked out 3 types of tomato plants, 3 types of peppers, strawberries, basil, zucchini, cucumber, and eggplant. I am excited to try them all.  I said goodbye to the groupies, left the sale, and after a quick stop at Smith's Marketplace to pick up some marigold plants an...