A Great Spring Weekend

Friday, I had my semi-annual board meeting with the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association. Bubby and I drove over early, in order to be present for the 9:00 AM start. The meeting ended much sooner than anticipated, so we had some time to goof off on Friday afternoon. We drove to Antimony, Utah, and shared a piece of coconut cream pie at the Antimony Merc. We stayed overnight at Ruby's Grand Hotel, courtesy of the NHA, and then drove on over to Escalante where we joined up with Lloyd and Myra and the Kenneys. We did a hike to Calf Creek Falls on a remarkably beautiful day. The leaves on the oak brush were bright green and tender and the ambient temperature was about perfect. On the drive over, Bubby confided that she would like to walk in a 5 K fun walk sometime. I made her smile when I told her that because a K (kilometer) is 0.62 miles, or daily 3.2 mile route constitutes a 5 K. Heck, we walk 5 K every morning. It doesn't get any more fun than that! Buboppy

Just Catching Up

A quick update from here in Cedar City. We really enjoyed a nice President's Day weekend last week. Bubb and I went down to St. George to finish up our latest batch of names and complete the sealings. We then enjoyed some quality condo time that included some minor shopping, some good food (Pizza Factory and Ichiban) and even a bike ride to the library. We went to Dick's Sporting goods and I bought Bubby a second bicycle for her birthday. Now she can decide which one she wants to have in Cedar City and which one will reside in St. George. I have done the same thing with the purple Schwinn that has hung in our garage for a decade. Maybe I can have a new one for my birthday, too. Oh, wait, that is what I did last year! We had to be home for church on Sunday, but we enjoyed a relaxing President's day. We walked to the Main Street Grill early Monday morning, arriving shortly after they opened. We shared an everything omelet and a side of bacon, and walked home down Main street. We worked hard to get the taxes ready for the accountant, Bubb worked on the grandkids' books, and we even went to the movies to see the latest Nicholas Sparks film. We capped it off with a trip to Alberto's for nachos and sopes. It has been a busy week, including a scripted visit for Bubb from Uncle Bill, Aunt B, and Auntie Nell. Bubb wanted Aunt B to assist in the decorating of the purple room, which is now totally "teacup". After the consultation, Bubby fixed them dinner and they had a nice time. I was awol most of the time, because Tuesdays are my HP meeting and visit night. We did discuss the September trip to Capitol Reef. It turns out that we got the group campsite for two weekends. We needed to decide which one we were going to use. In selfishness, we encourage the later date, because we expect to be in Oceanside during the earlier one. That was the decision. Last night Bubb and I concentrated on hanging the new quilt rack in the teacup room, so she could display her teacup lap quilt. I will admit she has found a much cheaper alternative quilt rack source. If any of our readers need to have one, she has the hook up. It is the weekend again, I am in my office early, listening to Pay Donohue, "The Road to Kingdom Come", grateful for a weekend, and thinking how fast the semester is moving. Already talking about commencement plans. We have tickets to go to Dallas in May, and Booty and Laur are bringing those cute kids to Cedar City very soon. Can't wait. Got to hear Miss Clara recite her ABC's on Skype the other day. Absolutely amazing. We love our lives, the gospel, and our family. Buboppy

A Long Absence

When SUU switched over to Google mail, there came repeated requests to consolidate all my Google accounts. I tried to follow their directions, but landed in one mine field after another. I had given up, thinking that I would never be able to add to this blog again, but low, and behold, here we are! We just finished a very busy week. The College is undergoing what we call "program review", an process mandated by the State Board of Regents to take place every seven years. We have been preparing for it for about 18 months, and we had three external reviewers visit campus just last week. There were several really busy days there, lots of meetings and conversations, but they left campus late Friday afternoon. One of the reviewers was my good friend, and colleague, Larry Davis. He and I have been friends for thirty years. His skill set and experience set him up to be a good reviewer, and my central administration agreed to have him. He came early (last Monday) and we spent some time together. While here, in typical fashion, Dr. Davis cooked up about three publication projects, one of which will include our Dan. We worked hard each day, and played some serious Five Crowns each night. Lots of fun. We concluded the week by taking him down to the condo on Saturday night, and then on to catch his plane on Sunday afternoon. That gave us a chance to enjoy some unstructured time, and even included breakfast at Weiss Deli (love that place). Dr. Davis is home packing for a couple of semesters abroad, and he has officially retired from his university teaching position. Amazing to think about. Everybody here is well, and Bubby and I are excited to head out on our own adventure in a couple of weeks, a ten day luxury cruise! We will (finally) be celebrating our 40th in appropriate style. Who would have thought we would ever be here? Buboppy

Fun In Dallas

We got a chance to run to Dallas and visit Booty and the family a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to post something, but I got sucked into a fancy new Blogspot interface and just barely figured out how to revert to something I could better manage and post to. The other look was very fancy, but you had to do a fresh login each time you wanted to post. Too much trouble. We arrived in Dallas on Thursday afternoon of General Conference weekend. Our flight out was a little iffy, but we weathered the delays well in Houston, and were able to celebrate National Taco Day with Booty and family at their home. It was our first introduction to Charo beans, and if you haven't ever had them, you owe it to yourself. We made them for Daniel and family yesterday and they were a hit.

On Friday morning, early, Matt and I drove south to Corsicana, TX to hook up with our favorite Texas fishing guide, Mark Parker. We were into the "hybrids" (aka whipers) within a few minutes. Caught eight or so. Nice fish, but we put them all back.

We spent the rest of our time on the water catching white and yellow bass and catfish. It was lots of fun. Saturday and Sunday, we watched all the sessions of conference between playing with the kids and naps. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and so much fun to reconnect with Leo and Clara. They are so cute and full of energy. We came away pictureless, however. Flew home to our real lives on Monday afternoon. Thanks to Matt and Laur for hosting us. It was too much fun. Buboppy

In Route to Fantasy Land!

Babsy and Entourage stopped by on Saturday afternoon for lunch and some catch-up. They are on their way to a long planned for vacation in southern Cal. It was great to see them all, have some lunch, and even convince Bean and Jake to help me with a neighborhood move-in. Of course, the ladies got to do a little quilt store work which makes them very happy.

Bubby decided to take some dress up photos of the girls. She particularly liked these two, although I know she got photos of all of the girls.

I guess there really is a reason to have a coat/hat rack in the hall covered with retro-looking hats.

Great Summer Harvest

Bubby just sent me this photo of our first picking this past summer. It represented our first beans and our first tomato. We have had such a wonderful garden this year. With all of the rain that we had, the plants are beautiful, the harvest has been plentiful, and I doubt we will top the total package in the foreseeable future. Bubby has bottled plum jam from Dan's tree, gallons of tomato soup (too bad she is the only one who likes it), and we have had lots of produce to share. We have learned that five Armenian cucumber plants is way too many! Buboppy

Tea Party

Yesterday afternoon, Rosalyn had a meeting on campus and so Bubby had some visitors for a few hours. OB was fast asleep and stayed that way throughout the visit. Bubby placed his carrier underneath the quilt she is stitching for him, to be out of harm's way. Drewf and Mevie wanted to have a tea party, so Bubby launched into it. You can see from the photo is was a proper affair with sweet and savory snacks, peachy tea as the beverage, and lots of please and thank you, proper tea party etquette. My favorite part of the retelling was that Mevie wanted to wear a girly hat to the party, and Bubby put one on, too. Drewf wanted one, but since Bubby doesn't have any male proper tea party hats, she settled for a ball cap. Too funny. Bubbopy