No Easter Bunny - but Orchids

Happy Easter.  Drew is on the road again, so I tried to make today special by going to the Utah Orchid Society spring show held at Red Butte Garden.  Here are a few of the exotic blooms.

 This was my favorite.  It has a cool pouch and the wild colors caught my eye.

After I took in the show, I wandered out in the Garden.   Most of the blooms are bulbs and flowering trees. Daffodils cover the hillside.

Because I was feeling all lonesome for Drew, I went back to the Herb Garden, where we got married almost 6 years ago.  I can almost picture Drew standing under the pergola at the far end of the garden, waiting there with all our family and friends for me to join him and tie the knot.  It looked rather bare today.

 But back in July 2006 it was beautiful.

Ah, fond memories...

2012 Science Fair Judging

For a few years now I've been coordinating judging and presentation of special awards at the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair for my local Salt Lake Chapter of the Association for Women Geoscientists. I had help from several of my fellow AWG members judging 3 age divisions. This year I actually got to judge two divisions, the 5th and 6th graders and the 11th and 12th graders. 

There were some typical projects and some unique ones.
 

Our chapter president awarded the prizes with me.

It is super rewarding to interact with girls who are getting interested in geosciences.  I encourage everyone to judge a science fair!

Great ride

Stephanie called for an Epic ride on Saturday.  Six of us started at the zoo at 9:20 AM.  Stephanie, Sally, Rachel, Rhonda, Jennie and me.  We rode the BST with every diversion I could think of.  They were good sports about that.


Here we are after the climb out of the roller coaster.  First glass of wine earned!

The wind was picking up but not enough yet to obscure the gorgeous view of the Salt Lake Valley.  This is why I bike!

We continued on past Huntsman, up Dry Creek, and over to the drop in to Bobsled.  This is where crazy Sally suggested, no insisted, on a small cross training session.  She thought it would be a fun to run up to the top of the ridge.  We were game!

It was so crazy, crazy windy we had to lean into the wind to stand up.

Sally showed us if you look at the world from a different view point, it looks all brand new. Crazy Sally.

Then back down to the bikes.  Second glass of wine earned.

From here, the group split up.  Sally, Stephanie, Jennie and I went down on Bobsled (not dry yet) to a trail crossing, then back up the super steep singletrack to BST.  Jennie's pedal came off, so Stephanie and Jennie headed back, but Sally and I persevered all the way down into City Creek and up to the saddle at the radio towers. 

From there it was down the singletrack to City Creek and back to her car/my house via pavement.  Big day of 30 miles and 4700 feet of climbing in 3+ hours of riding.  Lots of glasses of wine earned!

Crocuses mean SPRING!

Just thought I would share a picture of our front yard taken on March 23.  The crocuses and forsythia are always the first to bloom. 

We had such a mild winter and it seems like we have had a warm spring, but in fact, the crocuses are no earlier than in other years. 

March 10, 2011

March 17, 2010

March 16, 2009

I am pleased to see that the bulbs have been naturalizing. Since 2009, the clumps have gotten quite a bit bigger.  My annual treatment of bone meal is working!

Deck skirt from recycled wood

This weekend was one of the first nice weekends of spring.  Yesterday I rode with my teammate Alison for a long hard ride on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  It was awesome.

In the afternoon I thought I would finish a project I had started last fall. As always, things take longer than I expect. I worked until dark last night and all day today - just finished the last two deck skirt panels to match the one I made last fall (hanging on the right in this picture). When Drew gets home I will have him help me hang the two new ones under the sides of the deck that need skirting.

All of the little lattice work on the inside is recycled cedar strips leftover from when we built the pergola two years ago. The strips were destined to be kindling but I saved them! 

I got to use the table saw, compound miter saw, two different types of nail guns, cordless drill, and electric drill. Power tools make a woman feel, well, powerful.

But now I have to clean up the garage because last week Drew cleaned the garage. He even washed the floor! Now there is sawdust from door to door.  :-0   Cleanup is not nearly as fun as playing with power tools!

Quick trip to Las Vegas

This past week we went to Las Vegas for some sun and to have a look around. 

The riding was excellent. Drew and I rode around some of the trails out at Blue Diamond on Wednesday afternoon.  Due to a flat tire (no tubeless tires on Scotty yet :-( ), we were out almost until sundown, which made for some pretty light.

We found our dinner, complete with tasty beers, in the Whole Foods Market.  They were even handing out wine samples at this Whole Foods.  I wish we had that in SLC!

We rode Blue Diamond again on Thursday morning, this time with our personal guide and friend Erica, who showed us some fun side trails. 

We flew back to SLC that afternoon.  I love the window seat on this flight.  Just after take off you have Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam.

You can't really see the dam in this picture, but you can see what a "good" place it was to put a dam - the canyon gets narrow downstream (top of the picture) of the damsite.

But the real cool part is flying over Saint George, where we go to ride the Zen trail and Race Course, which I could easily pick out from 35,000 feet.  I could also see notable geologic formations and hydrologic features.  

The geologic map of the Saint George area is available in two really cool interactive formats on our Utah Geological Survey website.  Check it out if you want to geek out for a while.

Virtual geologic map overlay in Google Earth

Utah Vector Geologic Map

Another brush with fame and a nice little visit

Seems our previous fame was not enough, and we are on to new exposure.

Drew's brother and his coworker, Mike, were passing through Salt Lake City so they stayed with us last night. In return, Kirk treated us to breakfast at our favorite breakfast joint, Eggs in the City. ABC channel 4 just happened to be doing a spot on their morning show from the restaurant, so we became extras on the show. Plus we got free cheese blitzes - famous ones that had been showcased on TV!  The week is starting out pretty good.

Oh, yeah, that is not me between Drew and Kirk, that is the manager at Eggs in the City.  She is a sweetheart.