Late Spring

While I am really excited for Bubby to see Holland, and to hang with Aunties Nell and Barbara, I had to take some photos of the evidence that late spring/early summer has finally arrived in Cedar City. These images are for Bubby to at least vicariously enjoy the wonder of this time of year. She can then better enjoy her time in the Motherland! The vinca minor is starting to bloom under the dining room window. It looks so bright and cheerful in its shady home.

The pansies did, in fact, tell me when they were thirsty, and it was way before Friday! They are doing quite well, but miss Bubby's attention to their needs.

We have been systematically reducing the amount of "red hot poker" in our yard since we moved in. It used to be in every flower bed in the back yard. Since we are also trying to drain the roof away from the southwest corner of the house, the last remaining patch does not thrive the way in could for lack of abundant water. Anyway, here is the first, and perhaps only, red hot poker bloom of the year.

I told Bubby the iris were in bloom before she left, but I don't think she had a chance to go out and enjoy them. It was just too cold. Here are the purple ones . . .

. . . and the yellow ones, which have been blooming a little longer. The flower bed could use some weeding, but that is not really my department. I have a tendency to weed chemically (Roundup and the like) so it is better for the flowers if Bubby does the weeding.

For some reason, we didn't get any lilacs this year. Must have frozen at just the right time. I haven't seen any lilacs on campus, either. The snowball bush, which Bubby planted to satisfy her nostalgia, is in bloom and doing very well. I wanted her to see it at its peak.

I promise I will stop with the flower/yard photos after this one. This is proof that it has been a great year for moisture, and it came at just the right time. This is new growth on our spruce trees, and the only time a person wants to reach out and touch them. This new growth is supple and inviting but will quickly stiffen and become as lethal as the needles from succeeding years.

Summer school has started, and one week (10 total) is complete. I gave the class an exam yesterday and when I graded it this morning, the class average was a little low for this, the easiest exam of the term. I am not sure how committed the students are to their homework. Could be a long nine weeks.

I went phishing yesterday at Sand Hollow. I got a great sunburn on my arms and the back of my calves. It was Friday, and the water was pretty churned up, but I still caught a lot of fish. I missed even more. I used the Senko technique again, and I really like it. Fishing that way is slow going, but tends to produce quality fish.

I have mowed the lawns, been to the cleaners, am doing my laundry, and will clean up in the kitchen. I wish I could have been in SLC for Jasper's birthday and Ted's blessing, but I have a presentation in Bishops' Council tomorrow morning at 7:00. I didn't want to drive home from SLC alone late tonight. I may slip out to Newcastle tonight, if the wind doesn't kick up.

Missing Bubby,

Poppy

Memorial Day Weekend

So, despite the cool weather (high 50's), we decided to try and fish Newcastle. It was sunny in Cedar City when we left, but blowing and raining when we got to the reservoir. We were being blown around so much, we couldn't position the boat to fish. Jake is working on his fishing activity for Cubs, so he threaded his own rod, tied on his own jig, and while his Dad and I were setting up our gear, made a cast, caught a fish, took it off the hook and released it by himself. What a guy. He loves this stuff, but he was sure cold. It was too hard to hold the boat in position so we clambered onto the shore and fished from the rocks. It was a good choice, and we caught a few nice fish like the one Jake is holding in this picture.

We were really getting whipped by the wind and having a hard time, but were smiling in spite of the challenges. Jake loves to handle everyone's fish and gets really mad if someone else releases one. He took his Dad to task when at the last second a nice fish he landed flipped back into the water.

We tried to find some shelter in the rocks, but when Bean caught this one we had both anchors out and were still be dragged along the shore. We hung it up right after this shot. Lots more fun ahead this summer.

Buboppy

Family Home Evening

You might guess from the pictures that Poppy gave the FHE lesson, but in fact, it was Bubby's night. She caught both of these beauties while Poppy watched.

We are mostly posting these for Jakie and Bean, so they can get stoked about going to Newcastle Res on Friday. The bass are biting.

Buboppy

New York #3

Saturday was a fill-in day while we waited for it to be time to go home. We walked from our hotel to Radio City Music Hall and to 30 Rockefeller Plaza. We also stopped at a street fair and wandered around a little. There was cool ethnic street food to be had and we all sampled a little bit.

This is the front of "30 Rock". It is quite an impressive building. They give tours but they are long and we didn't want to take the time. Lots to do and see on our last day.

This statue is part of the Plaza. Rockefeller believed in putting art in places where it could be enjoyed by the public. So the Plaza was an amazing sight. Flags from every nation encircle it. In the winter they ice skate on the Plaza.

Here we are in Little Italy enjoying a wonderful meal on the side of the street. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. I even found a bakery and bought some biscotti to eat and take back to Barb and Rhonda.

Our final image, taken after our ride on the Statten Island ferry and our Italian lunch is the Manhattan skyline taken in Central Park. It was amazing to see the City enjoy their one major green-space on a Saturday afternoon. Every square patch of grass was being utilized. It is a beautiful park.

We flew home uneventfully but didn't arrive in Cedar City until almost 4:00 AM. Sunday was long, but it was a great trip.

Buboppy

Manhattan Temple

It is a rainy day in New York. We caught the subway at about 10:00 AM and headed to the Temple. It doesn't look like much from the outside. I guess it used to be the mission headquarters (it might still be) and they have a couple of wards that meet in the same building for Sunday services. It was really pretty on the inside and we enjoyed our session. It was quite international in flavor, just like the rest of this city.

Following our session we posed for this photo. There was another family visiting from somewhere and we traded photos (they took ours, we took theirs). We also met a man that works for O. C. Tanner in SLC who was in New York on business and took a break to attend the session with us.

Because we had purchased an unlimited ride pass on the Subway, today was our Subway day. We rode over to Grand Central Station after the temple and found something to eat. This is a huge station and there are shops and restaurants everywhere. Bubby and I went to a Jewish deli called Mendy's Kosher Deli and had a pastrami sandwich with the coleslaw right on the sandwich. We couldn't agree on dessert, so we wandered extensively until we found a pecan bar at the big Grand Central Market. It was really good. It was a rainy miserable day, so following the temple and lunch we came back to the hotel and holed up for a while.

We checked the weather forecast and went to the Yankees' website to see if the game was going to be canceled because of the rain, but the decision was not made that far in advance. So at 4:45 we caught the subway out to Yankee Stadium and hung around in the concession area waiting for the rain to stop. We had a Nathan's hot dog and I can honestly say, I don't need to do that again.

It was raining steadily while we waited and I took a photo of the covered infield.

They finally announced postponement at about 7:30 PM. Of course we could exchange our tickets for any other home game, but that won't do us much good. I guess we will have to eat them. I will contact StubHub, who sold them to us, and see if their guarantee covers rained out games. This was a greater disappointment to President Wilson than anybody else. He is enough of a Yankee fan that he had to buy two fitted caps at the stadium (and nowhere else) and was willing to pay $40 each for them.

Jan was disappointed that she didn't get to eat her $6 bag of Cracker Jack, but we caught the Subway and headed back to Times Square. We visited Roxy Deli for soup and a piece of New York cheesecake and that was the end of this rainy and disappointing day.

Buboppy

New York, New York

After a "red eye" flight from Las Vegas to JFK, we arrived safe and sound at our hotel on Times Square. I think nearly everyone was able to sleep on the plane, I even dowsed off for a minute or two. After breakfast at the Brooklyn Cafe, we jumped on to a City Sights bus and headed out on the town. Our first stop was the Empire State Building. Of course it is so surrounded by other buildings that the opportunity to photograph it is pretty limited while you are there in its shadow, but we did pay the stiff fee and ride/walk to the observation platform (along with several hundred other tourists). The photo above was taken from that deck. I don't remember which direction I was facing (kind of hard to tell without mountains or a map) but its a view looking one direction or another.

We jumped back on the tour bus and headed to Ground Zero. There isn't much to see, except a furious amount of construction activity behind a big fence, but it was sobering to think about what had occurred there and how it has changed all of our lives. Those acts of terrorism not only changed the Manhattan skyline, they serve as a constant reminder of how vulnerable our nation is to this kind of attack.

Following our quick tour of Ground Zero, we wandered around until we found the Brooklyn bridge. It was originally designed as a walking bridge, so walk we did. It was fun to stretch our legs a little and, except for the hordes of people, it was a pleasant stroll. Really an interesting landmark with a great story.

We saw it again from below when after we caught our tour bus and headed to South Port. This was an important stop on our tour of the city because there is a 1/2 price play ticket outlet there and we were able to get tickets to see the "Phantom" later that night. We found a river tour and killed a little time waiting for an opportunity to go our on the East River sight-seeing.

Our tour guide on the river was extremely enthusiastic and had developed his schtick to the point that there were several rap stanzas contained in it. I was able to catch him rappin' and tour guidin' in this video. It really was fun and he was workin' "hard for the money". He also took the photo below.

It is inspiring to be in the shadow of Lady Liberty, and Bubby started a spontaneous applause for her when we got close enough for photos. It was a touching moment. The river tour was one of the really fun things we did yesterday. That one I would pay to do again.

Once our bus tour had come full circle to Times Square, we cleaned up and went to dinner at Carmine's. Of course this is what our "foody" readers have been waiting for. It was very authentic, New York, Italian. Our host is not very adventurous, so we had to settle for spaghetti as our pasta, but it was good (although New York prices are high). We had a nice salad garnished with roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes, a stuffed artichoke appetizer, chicken scallapini, veal parmesean, and our pasta. For desert, all ordered something different and ours was a chocolate bread pudding. This is what it looked like AFTER Bubby and I had had our fill. What a huge dessert. Enough for six. After the shock of paying our bill, we headed to the Majestic Theater to see the "Phantom". It has been playing there for over 20 years, and although Andrew Lloyd Weber is not my cup of tea, the production was amazing. Bubby's comment was, having seen this production she never wants to see it done by St. George Musical Theater. It was really breath taking and the whole experience worth the price of admission. After the all night flight and full day of sight seeing I am amazed we were able to stay awake through the play.

When the play ended, I told Bubby to "stick a fork in me, I am done". However, we couldn't go to bed without looking at Times Square at night. Quite a sight. We did get to bed about 11:00 PM and didn't even roll over until after 8:00 AM. Lots more fun planned for today. Stay tuned.

Buboppy

A Surprise Arrival

Daniel called Sarah's house at 6:30 this morning. Sarah was a little irritated until he announced that a baby arrived at 2:48 AM. We know she is Evelyn, but are not sure about a middle name. She was 5 lbs. 3 oz. and 18 inches long. We are so happy we were present for all of the excitement.

As soon as we found out we jumped in the car and ran down to Provo to see what we could do to help. "Helping" consisted of taking Andrew home to Sarah's house so that Daniel can get some sleep.

I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Miss Evelyn yet (I have a cold), but all reports are that she is beautiful from head to toe.



Rosalyn is doing very well and we hope that she gets some well deserved rest while she is at the hospital. Fun times await when she brings little sister home to Andrew.

Buboppy

Commencement Weekend

Daniel and Sarah came down on Friday evening with Jake and Andrew in tow. We started out with dinner at Bruno's (which kind of got broken up when Andrew decided that the root beer he loved so much didn't agree with his tummy and he spewed some serious chunkage at the dinner table). I had to attend institute graduation so I separated from the family and rejoined them about 8:30. We had some serious printing to do (both Daniel and Rosalyn's dissertations) so we spent a fair amount of late night time at the office.
Saturday morning dawned clear a cool and the graduation processional was quite spectacular. Bubby got to her favorite vantage point and brought everyone with her. She captured this great image of Tony as he marched by. He is now the official holder of an MBA degree from SUU. We are proud of him.

Andrew was amazed by the pipe band and contrary to earlier reports he was not frightened but truly enthralled. He talked about the event repeatedly that afternoon. It was fun to be able to take him to see all of the pomp on campus.

Following the march, we slipped back to the Science building and did a little elevator riding. Of course the major issue was who got to push which buttons, and Bubb wanted to capture her boys at the scene of the competition. Jake wanted to look at some rocks, and since we have a few, I took him down stairs to have a look. Of course, he didn't want to leave but Andrew was ready after a few minutes. Jake likes all of that science stuff. He had a great time looking at rocks under a microscope. Maybe he will be a science nerd, too.

Sarah and I went to Tony and Nate Wells' commencement exercises while Andrew had a nap. The festivities seemed unnecessarily long, but that was my second "sitting" so I am probably not a fair judge. We all gathered at UP's afterward for dinner. I was taken with how much Marcus looks like Uncle Dave at the same age. They share the same face shape, skin and hair coloring. It was uncanny, so I had to take this photo. Raymond was telling me they have noticed the same thing. Genetics are really a funny thing.

Of course, one of the stars of the show was Mr. Vince who is so large and very much in charge. He is cute and sweet and doesn't complain much but is so big I am sure he wares his mom out. I got several photos of him and this one is not the best, but it was pretty cute anyway.

Mikey was in charge of the BBQ and cooked some nicely marinated chicken. He posed for this photo while slaving at the grill. We had a lovely dinner of Dutch oven potatoes and beans, salad, and grilled chicken with graduation cake for dessert. It all tasted grand to me and we had a great time visiting. Jason, Mike, Cindy, and of course Tony were there along with Jaye's sister and family, Melissa's parents, and Jaye's Mom and Dad. It was lots and fun and a wonderful way to enjoy the post commencement let-down.

Bubby got a chance to get close to "My Ted", actually "Jasper's Ted", and had a fun time showing him around the garden. He is a really cute, but rather unsmiling, little friend. Since he is a favorite of Sarah's girls, Bubby wanted a photo-op with him.

The final photo is one of purple tulips from our front yard. There is a story associated with them, but I will leave it to Bubby to tell and not post it on the internet. You will just have to ask her.

Buboppy

New Mower

I have no photos to accompany this post, but I thought you ought to know that Bubby and I purchased a new lawnmower yesterday. It is a Honda. You might wonder if a purchase of this kind is blog-worthy, but I maintain that it is. I spend more time with the lawnmower in the summer than I do with my grandkids (that is terrible, but true).

Anyway, got it out the box, put some fluids in, one pull on the starter rope and I was in business. You have to love the technology. It took a couple of tries to get the height right, but we are good. If any one wants the old one, I will donate it. It needs a trip in for a tuneup (I'll pay) but it also needs a new back wheel (part of why I decided to buy new) which I am not spinning for.

If any of our readers are interested, let me know.

Buboppy