Been a long time since I've posted, so here's a quick recap of the last two weeks.

First up, a visit to the Bishop's Storehouse with the stake youth, where as a final cap to the four hours of service, we have a barbeque, complete with a Danger, No Open Flame sign just behind the open flames.

These grain silos are on the property, although I doubt they are used anymore.

On Easter, Chad and Kristen and family came over and we dyed eggs out on the patio.

Alex should audition for the Blue Man Troop in Las Vegas, given he's got a head start on the hand.

Alex really got into the swing of this thing, grabbing all the white eggs one right after another to dye colors. He really got a reaction from the grown-ups when he grabbed one from the last row in the carton--they weren't hard-boiled. We let him dye one of them, which could make for an exciting bag lunch moment for someone.

Here I am, some fifty years earlier, dressed up in my Easter finery. (I'm the toddler at the far left.) Apparently my sister (just to my side) still has that Easter basket. I never had a basket like that however, I do still have that Easter bonnet.

Then, on Tuesday, we had Young Women (a church group) and taught them how to make a pillow--first you sew the four squares together (we recruited members of my quilting group to bring their machines), then bond the heart on with an iron, then sew around it. Add backing, stuffing, then sew closed. A few finished. It was a nice evening--good feelings were plentiful as they chatted and worked.


Brittney's proud of hers.

A quick trip the next weekend to see my parents. We grew up with this chair--a momento of my father's time at Harvard.

A visit to my sister, who has a fabulous older home with stained glass.

Spring flowers were everywhere. I couldn't resist.

A beautiful flower in a pink shirt up on the balcony--my mother.

Saturday's Post: All Things Redland Temple

Saturday's Post: All Things Redland Temple

Had to do a little housework this week, so thought I'd post a picture of me, working around the house.

Although it is a little hard to vacuum the stairs while holding the shield, there's nothing I wouldn't do for the family, in the struggle to right the wrong.

On another note, here's some shots of the garden in bloom: fat and fragrant wisteria, and a lovely blossom that we refer to as "the orange flowered plant."

Saturday's Post: All Things Buzz
We went to Disneyland last week for Spring Break (along with the rest of Southern California) and went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. At a critical juncture, a photo is taken. Riley was in the car with Dave and I, busy trying to eat the blaster tool. Ours didn't turn out, but here's the rest of the gang.

Spring Break. If I were of a younger persuasion, I'd spend the week sorting clothes for a community of farmworkers (in the newspaper recently) or galavanting in a skimpy bathing suit on a stretch of white beach (I didn't even do that when I could!), but being the age and stage I am, I view this as a Get It Done Week. The list is shorter than in years before, the pace I am moving at is glacial as compared to a thirty-year old, but still, it feels to good to get some things checked off my list.

I bought flowers at the nursery and plan to get them in the ground, this first day of spring.

Alexander and his father are keeping them watered. They came by on Sunday evening, and even though I should have been doing taxes, we played with the boys, ate a meal of grilled chicken, pasta dressed with a creamy pesto (basil from last year's harvest) and baked asparagus. I had scored some of Lara's wedding cake from the previous night--a friend's reception--and Kristen and Chad savored the delicious cake as well as delicious memories of their wedding.

Barbara and family arrive on Thursday--time for getting done comes to a close--yet we hope to celebrate Dave's 51st birthday on Friday at Disneyland, if his work load permits. Otherwise it will be cake and ice cream on Thursday night.

Time's pace is slower this week, a welcome drift.

Fixated on those burnt banana leaved plants, I took some more photos on Sunday.

Saturday's Post: All Things Green
Happy St. Patrick's Day

(P.S. I already finished my See's Candy Irish Potato.)

Question Man
Washington DC

Flavin's Green Light Hallway

Resting Scouts

Peacock Ceiling

Gaze into the Future

Leaf Waterfall

I needed a laugh. . .

Yesterday the Washington Post wrote about Nikolas Schiller, a man who works with maps and contorts them to make an interesting sort of urban art.

Early in January 1995, he created an interactive web map of the Inaugural Parade Route in DC and blocked his site from search engines. He kept track of who found and who visited his site, and like Edward Tufte, translated that dynamic web traffic into a static map. His is an interesting proposition, and an interesting site.

I remember being taken on a trip to Santa Cruz by my mother's sister, Aunt Jean, because "I was good with maps." I carry this idea with me to this day, although I was undone in Austria trying to make sense our of the German maps while my newly-wed husband drove the main streets, frantically calling out "Here? Turn here?" I scanned the green lines and the orange lines, while trying to flip back and forth between interminably long street names and trying to find the strasse name on the maps. Finally I hollered back, "Pull Over!" After that, he navigated and I drove, which wasn't always a good combination either. ("Take a left when you get a chance." (and then) "Why didn't you turn left at that street like I told you?") Several of our most spirited interchanges have been on interchanges.

So, I envy this language that Schiller traffics in, and his ability, like Tufte, to leave flatland behind, understanding the idea that these orange and green squiggles have a corresponding relationship to how you get through town, how you navigate the world.

There's a place in Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, where her main character, an old preacher working on living gracefully as he's dying, muses on his choices in the face of his physical discomfort: "I have decided the two choices open to me are (1) to torment myself or (2) to trust the Lord. There is no earthly solution to the problems that confront me. But I can add to my problems, as I believe I have done, by dwelling on them. So, no more of that."

At times I envy the stoicism of age, the willingness to go around that which is in the way. When younger, the motto is confront! solve! do battle with! Yet as I age, sometimes more world-weary at the end of the day than I like, I like this man's solution of dwelling less on earthly troubles, a challenge for a born ruminator.

Daylight Savings Time (from our college's Help Desk):

For Apple Users
1. Choose Apple Menu, go to System Preferences and then lick on Date & Time
2. Click the Date & Time button
3. Deselect the “Set date & time automatically” checkbox if it is selected
4. You can drag the hands on the clock an hour forward or you can set the time by using the up arrow.
5. Click on “Save” to set the time

Questions
If for some reason you experience a problem adjusting the time on your system, you can contact the Help Desk.


Heavens, That's Tasty.

Need some reminding?

And for Saturday Morning: Pancakes.

Burned Banana Leaves

While waiting for Enrichment Night to start, I time-lapsed photographed the burned (from the freeze) leaves on the banana plants/trees in the parking lot.

I had gone there right from work, where the freeway was like a parking lot.
Slow Go. Mostly Stop.

Here's the tree/bush with the flash on. The burned parts look some ruching along the flapping leaves, trying hard to decorate an unwieldy creation.

And Now from Milan. You too can dress like. . . like. . .

. . . like a jukebox?

Photos from the New York Times Fashion Week Review of the Milan shows.