Shedding in the Rain

This weekend has been pretty busy for us. Saturday morning was spent putting more of the shed together. This included installing the gables, trusses, and roof, or at least most of it.

Then it was off to Saratoga Springs to attend the blessing of both Andrew & Kim's baby James and Todd & Jeni's baby Owen. As the day proceeded, the weather decided to turn a little weird. Firsts, it was raining then it started to snow. Hey, it's only September but the drivers didn't care!

After we left Saratoga Springs, we headed north for our weekend away from the animals. We stopped at the new IKEA store and were amazed at the sheer size of the place and the variety of merchandise they carried. Then we went up to Salt Lake City and checked into our hotel, Little America. Our room was beautifully decorated in a French motif.

The views of the downtown were nice, even though it was still snowing.
After a dinner at the hotel, we decided to take TRAX, the city's light rail system up to the University of Utah Pioneer Theater where we would spend the next 3 hours enjoying the sights and sounds of the play Paint Your Wagon. Fortunately, it stopped snowing by that point. After the performance, we made our way back to the hotel.


The next morning showed a little snow on the top of the mountains.

It was off to TRAX again, this time it was to Temple Square to enjoy the live broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There is something indescribable about watching the choir in person in comparison to the television broadcast.

After the broadcast, we hopped back on TRAX and back to the hotel. Little America is famous for their Sunday brunch, and we were not disappointed. There was an omlet station, pasta station, meat carving station, crepe station (one of my favorites though their selection of fillings was not half as good as the Grand America's we enjoyed last Christmas), bread, pastry, cheese, fruit, breakfast items, and dessert items.

Then it was home to meet and greet the neglected pets, an afternoon nap, and updating the blog.

Sunrise, Sunset

This mornings sunrise was a pretty one. Since some of us had to go to work, the others stayed behind and took pictures! The first picture is looking southeast towards the Wasatch Mountains and the second is looking southwest over Utah Lake.

Review - Ten-Cow Wives Club

The title for this book, Ten-Cow Wives Club by Joni Hilton, is based on the old BYU film, Johnny Lingo where he offers ten cows for his future wife, thought of by the villagers as the ugliest woman on the island. Yet he sees the beauty and worth in her. She blooms under his love and they live happily-ever-after.

This book is about a group of girls that meet as youngsters, grow up together, marry, and begin their families. They meet often, relying on each others advice and help. When things are down, they have someone to turn to. When the joy of marriage or new babies is announced, the others are there.

It's a story without too much of a plot, extending over a period of about 15 years. There is a little character development, some tender parts but mostly just a typical feel-good LDS story. It's something that I would recommend to those that want to read something light and uplifting. It is available on CD (this is what I listened to).

Now it's on to listening to Ella Enchanted.

Review - Grave Secrets

I finished another book on CD a while ago, Grave Secrets by Marlene Austin and just realized that I need to write a review about it.

Bethany Carlisle has recently lost her grandmother and discovers how little she really knew about her. It seems like clues about her are always popping up. As this is going on, she is trying to research and write a book. But when she receives threatening messages, she really wonders what is going on.

It was an okay book. It is definitely and LDS book, full of references to the church and morals it teaches. I'm not sure it would be the first one I would recommend, but if there is nothing else, it would be acceptable.

Review - PassPorter

Preparing for our Disney trips is just as much fun as going on them...well almost. In the past we have used Fodor's Walt Disney World (library copy), The Everything Family Guide to the Walt Disney Resort, Universal Studios, and Greater Orlando, and Birnbaum's Walt Disney World. Our web sites to refer to have included All Ears Net, Mouse Planet, Blue Sky Disney, Mice Age, Disney World Information, and Small World Vacations. I recently discovered PassPorter and Magical Mountain.

We have also added the 2007 PassPorter Walt Disney World Resort to our collection. This book has been excellent. There are tabs both along the top and sides of the pages that direct you to parks and activities. There are sections on planning, transportation, the resorts, sections on each park, dining, and special events. It is indexed (librarians love this). In the back of the book there are special "PassPockets" that have special pockets where you can store maps, brochures, or envelopes. There are pockets for "Our Journey," "Our Room(s)," each day (10 of them), "Our Special Day," and "Our Magic Memories and Trip Report." It comes with a spiral binding, and laminated covers that allow you to fold and tuck the cover to protect pages, plus a built-in elastic band to mark pages or to keep the book secure. The covers include maps of Orlando area, Walt Disney World Properties, and spaces to record important phone numbers or addresses, and personal information in case you lose the book.

The book has handy hints that the other guides do not have. I especially liked the large, well illustrated maps printed on heavy duty paper for each of the parks. Each resort has three pages and includes room diagrams, dining, activities, transportation, and hints for making the most of the resort. There are ratings for quality, accessibility (how fast and easy it is to get to attractions), Theme, amenities, fun factor, and overall value and magic. It also includes reader ratings and ratings for younger kids, older kids, teens, young adults, mid adults, mature adults, families, couples, and singles.

It is much skimpier in covering individual rides at various parks than the other guides. Birnbaum's is much better than PassPorter when it comes to this. The description and ratings for restaurants and eateries is about the same as other guides. I was disappointed in their coverage of disability issues, but given the fact that Disney is extremely good to their disabled guests, I can overlook the missing information.

Even with the few flaws they have, the PassPorter is an excellent personal planning guide to Walt Disney World. Updates are available through their web site. Obviously they want you to purchase annual editions, but you could get away with purchasing it every 3 years or so unl;ess you are a dire hard Walt Disney World visitor (or at least more than we are).

Review - Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants

DeeAnn and I have become fans of Monk (we even have all 5 seasons of the series on DVD). When I discovered a Monk book series I couldn't wait to read it. It was well worth the wait and I am sure to buy the others in the series. The book moves quickly, is well written, and involves hilarious images of Monk being...well Monk. The book, Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants is written by Lee Goldberg.

This story involves the reemergence of Sharona, Monk's first assistant. Her husband has been accused of murder and she wants Monk to investigate. Natalie, his current assistant does not take this well, since solving the murder may mean Sharona returning to be Monk's assistant. Monk could not be happier at the prospects of having two assistants (such a balanced number). When he is not rearranging the fans in the bleachers to sit evenly, or complaining that a bag of M&Ms should be all the same color, he is also called into investigate a mysterious murder in San Francisco.

This involves a naked man that has washed up onto the beach and has mysterious teeth marks, which Monk determines to be alligator teeth marks. As the story goes on, both Sharona and Natalie are accused of murder and end up in jail, waiting for Monk to prove their innocence.

As I said before, the book was well written. It moved fast, allowing me to easily ready 50 pages a day. I looked forward to reading the book and look forward to reading others in the series such as Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii, Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse, and Mr. Monk in Outer Space. All books in the series are written by Lee Goldberg who also writes for the TV series.

Now it's on to Justice Denied by J. A. Jance.

Review - The Navigator

Kurt Austin takes time from lassoing giant icebergs to save the world again in The Navigator by Clive Cussler. This time it involves a Phoenician statue that has ties to King Solomon and stolen out of the museums of Iran during the beginnings of the US occupation. Apparently, the Phoenicians were the first visitors to the North American continent, given their maritime navigational skills. Later on, the treasure appears and while being delivered to Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis is murdered. International villain Viktor Baltazar, who believes himself a direct descendant of Solomon, will go to any lengths to protect the statue, even if means murder, sabotage, or getting in the way of NUMA and Austin - not a good thing.

I always enjoy Cussler books and quickly recommend them to readers looking for a fun adventure. Unfortunately, his books are becoming very similar. The plots are becoming predictable and the characters are becoming somewhat unbelievable.

Shedding Pounds

Okay, now that the weather is cooling off, we have started on putting up our shed. With the help of one of our neighbors, the walls are up.

Fortunately for James and I it started to rain. What better excuse to stop? We still have another few hours to go, but it's good exercise.

How Many Days to Go?

Now that we are preparing for another Disney trip, here is a little information to set the mood.


Tiki Room War Chant

Haunted Mansion Library (how appropriate!)

Splash Mountain (click on the play button to start the video)

Guacamole

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Our Weight Loss Plan

We have a new weight loss plan. Even though it does not seem to be working, it is delicious nevertheless.

First, bake a peach pie. Eat it.

Next, bottle several pints and quarts of peaches and tomatoes. Eat a few along the way (otherwise they may not all fit in the bottles).

Then make potato pancakes (found the wonderful Perkins Family Restaurant recipe). Eat several.

Make tasty guacamole. Eat (if you use low-fat chips the conscience feels much better).

The animals reaction? Lexie says "scratch my tummy" while Chester and Abby...well, from the looks of things, they may just want some privacy.

Shakes, Rattles and Rolls

You may have heard, Utah had a small earthquake yesterday. It was in the northern part of the state and we did not feel it. And speaking of rattles, Check out Jennys Blog for current pictures of Owen (and Lily).

Meanwhile, we found a recipe for the Cheesecake Factory's avocado egg rolls. We made three tonight for dinner. They were not too bad!

For dessert we enjoyed some of our peaches in a milkshake. Again, not bad!

Shedding Before Sledding?

I finally laid the final stones for the shed and started on the floor of the shed. I quickly discovered this is definitely a two-person project! The instructions say it is a 3 person project, two to assemble and one to read the instructions. I have a feeling it is a four person/3 creature project, with DeeAnn and Abby supervising, Lexie investigating our work at all times, and Chester being suspicious of anything new.

Because it was so hot this weekend (98 degrees), we decided to forgo our scheduled help and wait until things cool off. Hopefully, we will get it up and ready to use before it's time to go sledding.

Just Peachy

Even though we were going to wait until the weekend, we decided that we would try to find some peaches locally, rather than driving up to Brigham City, about 1 1/2 hours north. The "fruitway" up in Brigham is great, but they are also having tons of people there for "Peach Days." So, we found a local orchard, South Ridge Farms, in Santaquin, about 15 minutes south. We bought two small boxes, for a total of about one bushel.

We discovered the peaches are not yet ripe, but still put up 2 quarts for dutch oven peach cobbler figuring the peaches would cook in the oven for a while anyway. We also put up 8 half-quarts for eating, hoping that the peaches will soften up over time.

We are going to can the remaining peaches either Wednesday or Saturday, depending on our energy.


Meantime, we decided to go to Costco today (discovered it was closed for the holiday), and at lunch at Mi Ranchitos in Orem. Pretty good, but their salsa is not near as good as ours!