San Francisco!

This weekend Kevin and I took a mini-break to San Francisco to visit my Aunt Voni and Uncle Len. For a 48-hour trip, we got an amazing amount done, the most important being introducing them to Kevin and having some wonderful conversation and excellent food.

Voni and Len are such amazing people, and I blogged about them previously here. They have been very important figures in my life and those of my siblings, and they have always been so attentive to us, treating us like we were their grandchildren. It was wonderful to spend this time with them, and for them to give us their whole weekend!

Here are a few highlights in pictures, video, and quotes:

Trolley ride: "Pedestrians always have the right of way, except in front of trolleys."

Skyline: "They built that tower to look like... a firehose."

Pier 39: "Seven dollars? That's a great price for salmon fish and chips."

The Bay: "There's a cargo ship from China, hauling a bunch of crap to sell at Walmart."

Sunbathing: "I just called because one of the sea lions says that he misses you."

Chocolate Heaven and Ben & Jerry's: "He's already got three kinds of chocolate. I think he'd find the strawberry very refreshing."

The house: "A beautiful neighborhood, with the best-tasting tap water."

Sunday Brunch: "The calamari salad needs more squid!"

Returning the Blogosphere Shoutout

Look what my friend Rachel made for me.

Poll Results

Thanks to those of you who voted in my news poll from this post! Some results surprised me:

1. I guess leaving TV off the poll wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be (I got two votes in "other")
2. While I'm not surpirsed websites were the most common source of news, they were used much more than I thought they would be. I understand the blogging world is an Internet world, but since most of my readers are friends and family (and not huge Internet junkies), I was surprised at the large margin on this one.
3. It also appears I have one other kindred spirit in the realm of magazine news.
   

Got Rockstar Power?

I do.

Grafton Street Review (with bonus U2)

This has been a great weekend for me and Irish music. The first event was a concert last night that D'Arcy invited me to at The Depot with Swell Season, who won the Oscar for best song for 2007 and stared in the Sundance Film Festival movie Once.

This concert was amazing! I have never been able to experience such passionate art that up close. These people are the real deal: Glen Hansard, the main singer, quit school at 13 to play music on the streets of Dublin. He's got this ratty guitar, a ton of passion, and a very approachable style. He did a great job of working the crowd. (Thanks, D'Arcy, for the photo!)

The opening act was even so cool with this total hippie Irish guy by himself who sang and sometimes beat the drums or played the penny flute while the audience provided a drone. Just a great, real experience. You can also check out what D'Arcy and Stina had to say about it on their blogs (we ran into Christina and Dave after the concert--it was definitely the place to be on a Friday night if you are into cool Irish music stuff).

And speaking of Irish music, tonight Kevin and I got to see the much-anticipated U2 laser show at the Clark Planetarium. This is a show that takes me and Kevin back a ways, as we used to go to the laser U2 show at the old Hansen Planetarium back when we were kids. We hadn't lost our touch, and were able to get our traditional back-row seats, which, just so you know, are always the best seats in a dome planetarium theater.

This show was great. Laser technology and imaging has come a long way in the last decade, and the screens were multi-dimensional and cinematic. The songs didn't vary from the usual U2 lineup: Where the Streets Have No Name, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, With or Without You, Bullet in the Blue Sky, The Fly, Mysterious Ways, I Will Follow, Desire, Beautiful Day, Elevation, and Vertigo. As a lover of U2's music, I would have loved to hear something that's not commonly played on the radio, but these were all good song choices. I give them props for making me sufficiently affected during "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Bullet in the Blue Sky" with their imagery and symbolism of warfare, as it takes a lot to shake me out of the comfort zone of these songs I've heard over and over. Even though "I Will Follow" isn't on my list of top 20 U2 songs, I loved the abstract dance of lasers on the globe-shaped canvas on this one. I also love "Elevation," but suggest they ditch the winged dolphin featured throughout the song flying in and out of canyons for something less awkward. Overall, very much improved from what the show used to be, and very well done.

Red Butte Garden Plant Sale

Every Christmas my father-in-law gives everyone in the family a membership to Red Butte Garden, and every spring we make it a tradition to go to the members-only plant sale. Kevin and I loved this opportunity to round out our flowerbeds and gardens with plants today at the sale.

Here are "the bummies" looking at a butterfly:

And me staring into the sun, holding my newly-discovered chocolate mint plant:

And at last, Kevin checking out with our cart:

My plants:

• chocolate mint
  
• oregano
  
• rosemary
  
• lamb's ear
  
• firewitch
  
• echinacea/coneflower (one feathery, one double)
  

Kevin's plants:

• penstemons (several sorts)
  
• apache plume
  
• desert sage
  
• bleeding heart
  
• lily ("some red one")
  
• desert four o' clock
  
• "some mystery plants"

Poll: Where do you get your news?

I've been a New Yorker Magazine subscriber for a little over six years now. I believe it's a 46-issue/year magazine, so I very often have more to read than I possibly can. I love this magazine. I like its cartoons (who doesn't?), I like its snooty weird little advertisements, I love "The Talk of the Town," and the reviews of movies, books, plays, etc. I like seeing what is going on in America's biggest city.

But I also like it because of the way it reports news. I'll tell you, they don't claim to be "fair and balanced." They search for a new, odd angle to every news story. The writers analyze, rationalize, opinionize and provide innuendo. The news stories have themes. That's why I like it.

I used to subscribe to either Time or Newsweek, but now I can't even remember because both seem so similar. I hated them. I thought they were bland and boring. I thought they reported badly. But, on the other hand, doesn't it seem odd that I like to get my news from The New Yorker?

Before you start labeling me a total wacko, I need to explain that magazines are not my primary source of information. I wake each morning to NPR, and its "Morning Edition" is what I listen to for a full hour before I arrive at work. On my commute home, I listen to NPR's "All Things Considered" and "The World." And then, on weekends, there's always "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" which is maybe another embarrassing source of news, but it's a sassy, hilarious way to poke fun at what goes on around us.

But, to balance that out, I actually subscribe to a physical local newspaper, The Deseret News (yes, they dropped the lame "Morning" from their title in the last month). I read that every day too, but mostly the front page, the world news page, and the front page of the local section. Then I read what I like to call "the crazies" on the Opinion page. I confess that I find this newspaper the least informative between NPR and The New Yorker. Isn't that odd? Instead, my poor dear husband has to listen to me when I have on my editor's hat slamming the terrible, terrible way things are written in that newspaper. After that, he'll usually sigh and remark on how the writer probably got C's in college. Oh man, the snobbishness that ensues, but hey, it's all in good fun.

So, after these confessions, admissions, and allegations, I want to ask you, where do you get your news? Look up to the top right of this blog: there's a poll (first one on Bristlecone Pine!). I'd love to see how you learn about your community and the world. Feel free to leave a comment as well.

Celebration

Today is a day worth celebrating. I've submitted the semester's grades, so I am on summer break for four months where I only work my day job. I love teaching, but it's nice to take some time off.

Oh, and my crab apple tree is in bloom.

O Fortuna!

Last night Kevin and I went to see our friend Christina perform in the Utah Symphony's production of Carmina Burana as a soprano in the chorus. They did an amazing job, and this is such a rousing piece of music. I found it interesting in its nihilistic lyrics and how those work with the strident, but ear-pricking harmonies.

My favorite part is the most famous refrains that stand as bookends to the piece:

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are constantly changing,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate - monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me

And here are a couple of mobile phone pictures (hence, the quality) we took in in the lobby of Abravanel Hall. I was inspired by that evening's performance to make all sorts of remarks about this beautiful, intriguing sculpture, but I'm too discrete to mention them here. Christina and Dave have a family connection related to this sculpture and keeping it here in the Hall for the public of Salt Lake City, so that's pretty cool!

Also, on the way home from the performance, Christina and I discovered we have a previous connection in that we both sang in the Salt Lake Children's Choir in our youth. I sang from 1991-1995, and Christina sang in 1995-1996, so we must have song together for at least one concert season. See, I knew we were kindred spirits!

As Sweet Flowers: By Popular Demand (and also very naughty kitties)

OK, I'm a sucker for suggestions. By popular demand, here's the "in-between" picture of the flowerbed by our covered porch. Had I snapped this picture 30 seconds earlier, you would have seen two very naughty cats in the flowerbed: Aja parked right on top of a coneflower, and Phoebe nibbling on the ornamental grass. I hope this garden can take it and lives to maturity.

As Sweet Flowers: Covered Porch Flowerbed

Even though this weekend was insanely windy, Kevin and I got a lot done in the yard. We planted about 70 of our mail-order perennials, including two of the pre-planned gardens I ordered online. In order to do that, I had to finish weeding the beds, then Kevin rented a tiller from Home Depot and we mixed in compost with our flowerbeds to get the soil ready to plant.

So this is the bed I'm most hopeful for, and it also took the most work. This flowerbed is important because it's in our backyard next to our covered porch/patio, so that's where our new bistro dining set is, and that's where we'll spend a lot of time this summer when we're outside.

Here's the "before" picture:

This is before I weeded the bed. It was full of tiny blue flowers that spring from pea-sized bulbs (that's not grass you see in there--it's bulb flowers, about two strands per bulb). In order to weed it and get the bulb, I had to dig in all 120 square feet with a little trowel and sift the dirt away from the bulbs. My advice--never plant little tiny bulb flowers.

Here's what I hope it looks like when we're all done. This garden is called "August Afternoons," because it will bloom through August (longer than most flowers in the desert), but Kevin and I like to call it the "Afternoon Delight" garden based off of this Arrested Development episode.

This garden didn't take up the whole bed, so I planted some additional coneflowers. We're also going to add a little rock path and two dwarf lilac bushes. Really, I have high hopes about this one.

Just Like a Dog, Except for Going on Walks

So they say that Maine Coon cats are the dogs of the cat breeds. This video is proof. And yes, I'm using my special "cat voice," which is how I command the mighty creatures.

The Plants Have Arrived

And now I feel like I can open my own online nursery.

Methodical Miscellany

A few goings-on that I'm interested in:

A precious new arrival:

Christina's thoughts on attending church with me today:

In all my years of living in Utah I had never been to an actual Mormon church service before, so I am so grateful to have had this experience and especially with our good friends who made it such a comfortable situation for us. They even brought extra Books of Mormon and Bibles for us to use!

And a very interesting literature review in the New Yorker about the faith of our founding fathers:

The four books achieve a kind of consensus in four related lines of argument. First, the United States was founded neither as a Christian nation nor as a secular one. Second, by the standards of Evangelicals of both their day and ours, Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison were not Christians; they wrestled, often profoundly, with religious questions, but, as Church points out, “they all doubted the divinity of Christ.” Third, the disestablishment of religion is itself responsible for Americans’ unusual religiosity, which (these writers all believe) is something to celebrate. Fourth, notwithstanding the Founders’ own remarkable secularism, the liberation of religion from government as much as the reverse was their aim. “The separation of church and state has greatly benefited religion, as Madison and Jefferson predicted that it would,” Wills writes. Nussbaum argues that because “the separation of church and state is, fundamentally, about equality, about the idea that no religion will be set up as the religion of our nation,” in the end “separation is also about protecting religion.” Waldman writes, “Madison, I suspect, would . . . be delighted by surveys showing that, compared with most developed nations, Americans believe in God more, pray more, and attend worship services more frequently.”

As Sweet Flowers: Front Flowerbed

This one is Kevin's pet project. Last week we took a couple of trips to Home Depot to buy 100+ bricks to lay in the front. Kevin dug a wonderful-looking trench, and we're getting all set. We're also going to get rid of that nasty-looking juniper bush. I like junipers out in the desert, but not here at my house.

Kevin has a great lineup of flowers he ordered online for this bed. My favorite is the yellow Columbine called "little treasure."

The Road [That Was] Taken

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

As Sweet Flowers: The other south-facing bed

The other south-facing flowerbed in my yard is in a lot worse shape. Dandelions cover it along with all kinds of noxious, yes noxious, weeds. What's worse, as this is right by our back door, our kitties always jump around in this bed, getting dirty and tracking it into the house.

The first remedy I have for this bed is to plant a couple of Jose Lilac bushes there. These bushes bloom from April to September (extra long!) and are mini-sized, only reaching four feet. I hope that they'll help keep away unwanted bugs.

And the last thing I'm going to do is place in a pre-planned garden. I ordered the "Xeric Aroma Garden" from High Country Gardens, and it comes with all the plants and design work done.

I am so excited for this garden to come to me!

As Sweet Flowers: Coneflower Bed

This is the first of a series of posts about the flowerbeds Kevin and I are redesigning all around our yard. There is so much to do, and blogging about it makes it a little more fun, like I'm actually making some progress. The line for this series, "As Sweet as Flowers" comes from the "Song of Solomon," chapter 5, verse 13. I can't think of any line more appropriate than spending this time with Kevin, investing in our yard and making it a peaceful place to be.

The first flowerbed is a south-facing one that houses our early-blooming daffodils featured last week. This bed has been overgrown with weeds because of its old and ripped weed barrier and nothing of substance growing there for most of the year (the weed barrier wasn't even cut for the daffodils! The daffodils just pushed their way through). It's been covered in small landscaping rocks. I spent yesterday ripping out most of the rocks (many, many small rocks).

Here I have planted three coneflower plants, which are my new favorite flowers! I love how they look like daisies in vibrant colors, with a wildflower and natural look to them, which makes them so much more romantic. They are actually very hardy native plants, and they'll need to be strong because with a yard this big, I can't pay a ton of attention to each individual plant. They also make great flowers for cutting, which is important to me so I can bring their beauty inside my home.

Here are the one's already planted:

Purity Coneflower

Tiki Torch Coneflower

Sundown Coneflower

I have room for a couple of additional coneflowers, so I ordered a sampler of these additional coneflowers online. I especially love the pale yellow one on the top right.

After I get all my coneflowers in, I'm going to put in new weed barrier fabric. Then, I'm going to add small red sandstone landscaping rocks in the bed to help keep out the weeds (you can see the huge bags lined up in the first photo). With any luck, I think this will make a very happy, colorful, and easy-growing flowerbed.

Someone Wants to Come Inside

As documented before, Phoebe is quite the little climber. Here she is letting me know she really, really, really wants to come inside.

And with this kind of treatment awaiting her, who can blame her?

When Something That Makes You Happy Goes Away

I love this lamp on my work desk. It's new. It was inexpensive. It's a red shade with pink, red, and yellow beads. It's fancy and feminine. It emits a soft, home-like glow. It makes me relaxed and happy while I work. When I got it, I showed it off to everyone who came to my desk and told them how happy it made me.

This lamp has been difficult for four days now. That is this entire week. It won't work. I've unscrewed and screwed the lightbulb probably over 100 times, this lightbulb that is two weeks old. I've checked its connection to my powerstrip. I keep flipping the switch off and on. Off and on. It won't work. I work in a dark cave. I am not happy.

How My Garden Grows

Despite the snow and rain this week, my garden will grow.

Daffodils:

The first sign of tulips:

My new lovable 7-gallon bendable buckets:

My glow-in-the-dark whimsical flowers in the raspberry patch:

And my first attempt at lawn ornaments so I can fit in with all the 70-year-old ladies in my neighborhood. Funky chickens (to be transplanted later):