Cookies

Audrey and family are in town. Audrey left to run errands, and the boys and I made cookies for our upcoming trip to Yosemite.

The boys:

Watched me mix the dough

Tasted the dough

Dipped the cookies in cinnamon and sugar

Tasted the dough

Austin declared: when the cookies are cool, we will have a few for a treat!

None of this batch is going to make it to Yosemite.

But isn't that what G'ma's are for?

Practice Might Make Perfect

Audrey is my tutor in all things creative. She is teaching me how to make collages in PhotoShop. I practiced here with some pictures taken last April. We were at Thanksgiving Point with the Pecks and took some pictures. Some of the pictures aren't great, but it's the process here that counts.

Troubadour Reunion Tour

That's right: two concerts in two days. Unheard of. In fact, the last rock concert we attended was the Eagles in 2002.

CaroleKing.com

Ray's done some work for Carole King's website. A couple of months ago he mentioned to them that he was disappointed that he hadn't been able to get tickets for the concert in Salt Lake - they sold out too fast. (In the meantime he's been trying to pick up some tickets online, like he did with McCartney).

Tuesday he got a call from Carole King's website person: Do you still want to go to the concert?

We all know the answer to that one! So she said she'd have tickets waiting for us at will call. We were ecstatic. We didn't care where the seats were, we were just happy to be going.

We had amazing seats - only about 10 yards from the stage. The stage was in the round, and rotated one full turn about every 15 minutes.

We've seen JT in concert several times, but the last time was Seattle in 2001, just a few days after 9/11. I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Rain was given a whole new meaning then. We saw Carole King in 1993 in the Summer Nights on the Pier series. She played on Pier 62/63 in Seattle, right over the water. It was festival seating--we waited in line for a long time, and scored seats right in perfect sight of her at the keyboard. One of the best concerts we've ever been to.

We fell in love to James Taylor's music, and have loved both James Taylor and Carole King since we can remember.

Our song is How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You. (It's even our doorbell ring.) Yes, they sang it. Together.

How sweet it was.

McCartney Mania

My first Beatles album:

I alternated between lying on the living room floor listening for hours, and grabbing a broomstick and pretending I was playing guitar with the band.

I always wondered if I had the chance to see them if I would have been one of the screamers:

On Monday Ray scored these tickets:

And last night we were at the Paul McCartney concert,

in what I believe were the ideal seats in the house. We were at the front of section B, about 26 rows back, with an unobstructed view of the stage whether we were seated or standing.

I resisted the urge to scream hysterically (it was there occasionally, but I maintained some dignity). The concert was fabulous - two hours and forty-five minutes solid, no opening band, no intermission. All McCartney all the time. Just the way I wanted it.

Paul (is that too familiar??) was cute with the audience. Here's a small clip of some personal remarks to Utah (only a few seconds long):

I have to say, the Golden Boy of Rock 'n' Roll is still hot. Seriously.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

I stayed up much too late finishing this book last night. Consequently my mind is in a fog today. It was worth it. I really enjoyed the book.

This is the second book in the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. Flavia is an eleven-year-old who loves chemistry, poisons, and is fascinated by death. She zips around her English village on her trusty bike, observing and talking to people, and solves the latest mystery. Very fun, witty, and captivating. It sounds like it's juvenile fiction, but it's not.

I look forward to the next book. I hope Bradley can keep up the quality of the series - it has a lot of potential.

It's Official

Our lovely, cool, rain-dappled Spring is only a memory in the recesses of my mind. Summer is here, and I am officially overheated for the season.

I read about lovely women in the South who are always so cool and seemingly unaffected by the weather. Is it all fiction?

I consistently have little droplets of perspiration across the bridge of my nose - like my children have freckles.

Friday Night Date

We used to have Friday night set aside as our sacred Date Night time. We had a permanent sitter arrangement - every Friday night, rain or shine. We needed it to get away from the kids, and just be together. Almost nothing got in the way of our Friday night dates.

Our needs are different now. In fact sometimes it feels good not to have to go anywhere, and just be at home. But it is important for us to get out once in a while. Our typical Friday conversation goes something like this:

"What do you want to do tonight?"

"I don't know, any ideas?"

"Whatever you want, I'm up for just about anything"

Those are the Fridays we usually stay home due to lack of imagination (sad, but true).

Last Friday we started out with that same conversation, then Ray said, "Let's go up the canyon and listen to the river."

Up Little Cottonwood Canyon we drove. We stopped about halfway up to Snowbird and pulled over at a spot where the river runs pretty close to the road. We got out of the car, walked around, and just enjoyed watching and hearing the water.

Now I know where I can get a small "water fix" close to home. When I can't get to Seattle soon enough I can just dash up the canyon.

After that we drove up to Snowbird and walked around there for a little bit. We wandered into the big tent they have up by the lodge - it turns out this weekend is the Mountain Music Festival. Friday night they had a band scramble. We missed most of it, but came in on the final three bands playing. Pretty fun. It was a little bit bluegrass, which I really enjoy when it's live. There's nothing like watching a bluegrass band really get into playing their instruments. I just love a good fiddler.

I was going to post some pictures, but somehow I've had a visual aids breakdown. I can't get the photos off my phone to post correctly (not usually a problem), but I do have this video.

Now I can have the soothing sounds of water right on my computer. Thank heavens for technology.

Next time we're going to venture up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and maybe walk around Silver Lake. I'll take the regular camera.

The Utah Solution

Said by a friend visiting Utah who is not used to the heat:

What you need to survive here in Utah is a lot of water and a lot of deodorant.