Pasadena Chalk Festival 2012 Part I

Here are some shots from this weekend's chalk festival.

Boys!

OK here is some video I shot a while back. It features Elias, Mason and our friend Teo.

The Best Birthday Cake Ever

Mason had his birthday party a little early this year, since we thought it would be fun to have the party with the SLC crew. When asked what kind of cake he wanted he said he wanted a pirate cake, and Michele indulged him with the best birthday cake ever. Look at the execution of the concept! Look at the attention to detail! It tasted good too!

A walk with the boys

Some shots I took today while on a hike with the boys. I took these shots with my new Canon 60D which I am learning how to use. All of the pictures except for the first one were taken with a 40 year old Nikon 50mm manual lens. I am really liking mixing old lenses with the new camera body.

Statistical Analysis

Spring Break! Yeah, no middle-schoolers for an entire week. So why do I feel so stressed? And why am I wondering what the statistical probability of two people having the same birthday while writing a paper about the history of discrete mathematics meeting on a train traveling 75 m.p.h towards New York City could possibly be?

Oh yeah, I am in a Master's Program! I am not actually on spring break, instead I have a whole week to read, write and compute for my program. It is bitter-sweet my friend, bitter-sweet indeed.

All is not lost though. Douglas and I enjoyed a fabulous date night last Saturday evening. I was completely surprised. He arranged for a sitter and everything. We drove down to Hollywood to listen to live music at a little place called the Hotel Cafe. It was one of those, someone he knows at work has a band, and was playing, and there we were, surrounded by twenty-somethings in fedoras. It was a lot of fun. And I learned that I need to get me some skinny jeans and some hot boots! Boo-yah!

Happy Spring.

I Blame It On the Cat

When the cat kneads me for food at 3 am

Is he surprised when he is tossed out the door?

The restless dreams that follow my rude awakening

transfer my anger at being awoken to

my poor sleeping husband.

When I wake, I am determined to continue

the argument in real time.

The poor bewildered man cannot know that he is

Fighting a battle he has already lost.

Hey, Whatta Ya Know!

Look at me. Writing for two weeks in a row.

Being Mormon, we don't observe Lent in an official way. But I do love the idea of Lent. I see it as an opportunity to become spiritually prepared for the celebration of Easter. I love the story of Jesus fasting in the wilderness for forty days, preparing for His ministry and mission. Certainly, one take home lesson in His story, is that we could all use more spiritual preparation in our lives.

So with the idea of spiritual preparation, I spent a few days asking myself what spiritual need did I have. The answer came to me suddenly on the morning of Ash Wednesday. I had already decided what I thought I should give up for Lent. But, as we gathered for family prayer, the thought came to me that I waste my time. Not only do I waste my time, but it bothers me that I am not spending my time as wisely as I should. And I knew that one huge time sucker for me was playing games on Facebook. So I gave it up. Cold turkey. I let all my crops die, my buildings go unbuilt, and my game missions left uncompleted. And guess what? I am okay.

It turns out, that I can get a lot more done with my time when I am not frittering away precious hours on frivolous, virtual realities. Of course, you who are so much wiser than me knew that already. But this is my life and I am slowly learning my own lessons! Thank goodness I am learning.

This quote seemed appropriate to me:

The prophet Brigham Young said: 'We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do. We should set them an example that we wish them to imitate.' Each of us can start today by being that good example” (Mary N. Cook, “Be an Example of the Believers,” Oct. 2010 general conference).

Today

As I sit down to update our blog the Crosby Stills Nash lyrics play through my head, "It's been a long time coming."

Regularly updating a blog is a force of habit that, once you let slip, is hard to regain the necessary momentum to start again. One week turns into a month, turns into several months and before you know it, you don't remember your blog password!

A few months ago, I started a Masters Program through Western Governor's University. The degree I am working on is called the Masters of Arts in Mathematics Education (5 - 12). The program consists of a mix of pedagogy classes and math classes. I just finished Trig, am working on Probability and Statistics and will start a Calculus class in a few months. Am I crazy? I am beginning to think I might be.

Between working full-time, family life, church life and now school life, things are very busy. Thankfully, Douglas has been very supportive. His current lack of work has been a blessing in disguise. Since Douglas returned from the East Coast, he has finished writing his second Self-Coach Climber book. Even though he is constantly looking for work, he just hasn't found anything yet. In the meantime, he is able to bless our home life immensely!

Douglas is currently the axel that keeps our crazy wheel spinning. He takes the kids to school and picks them up. He plays with the boys at the park so I can study. He makes dinner several times a week. And of course, the apartment is cleaner than it has ever been under my rather lackadaisical efforts. He is a good man and I am grateful!

The National Zoo

While on the East Coast we are taking some trips to enjoy the resources of places like Washington DC. So today the boys and I went to the National Zoo with Elizabeth. It was a good day to go, it was sunny and warm, and since its November 9th it was not crowded at all!

The boys had a blast and really enjoyed the bird house, and the pandas, and the otters, and everything else. My only disapointment was not getting a better shot of the pandas. The spent most of the time with their backs to us.

Here are some photos from the day.

Images from the VIneyard

Just a few shots I've taken in the past couple of days.

Harvest 2010

I grew up in the wine business and didn't really notice that I missed it until this summer. This has been an amazing year for wine grapes in the mid atlantic region, the conditions have been perfect for creating a great vintage. This is espically the case here at Seven Valleys Vineyard where we are having the best crop in over a decade. My father would be proud. As For me I am feeling more than a bit nostalgic, The smell of the grapes as they are being picked, the nightly ritual of walking up the hill and tasting the grapes, the way the arms of the vines sway in the wind, the physical work of picking and loading trucks, the smell of fresh pressed juice; at moments it feels as if I never left this place. So for folks who don't know how it all works here are some photos.

Here is a view of the vineyard looking down the right hand side of the hill at our fields of Seyval (Brix of 23.8, Ph of 3.49, and tartaric acid of .61- yes those numbers rock) and Cayuga. If Americans were smart they would stop drinking all that Chardonnay and drink some wine made from this stuff!



Here is the Cayuga on the day we picked it, beautiful!




The picking crew at work.





As we pick the grapes are put into lugs.


Then the lugs are loaded onto the truck and delivered to the wineries. The photos below were taken at Boordy Winery in Maryland. They are a big operation selling hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine a year, so the three and a half tons of grapes we delivered to them was a drop in the bucket, so to speak.

The guy in the white shirt is Ron Wates, the vineyard manager at Boordy who is the most friendly guy you could meet, I really enjoyed working with him. We unloaded the truck together, but I stopped to get up on the cab and take a few pictures. The day we unloaded there were hundreds of people at the winery enjoying a concert and a farmers market so we were on center stage. As we worked, tourists sat a few yards away munching on snacks, drinking wine, and watching the fever pitched work on the crush pad.



The grapes are unloaded into large bins holding about 900 lbs each and then put into the stemmer / crusher seen here behind the bin. Also in the background is Tom Burns, the winemaker at Boordy, and a great guy.



As the grapes go through the stemmer / crusher, the result, called "must" is pumped into the press, this one holds 9 tons.



As the juice leaves the press it's pumped into setteling tanks and the wine making process has begun!

How to Make Apple Sauce on a Rainy Day

Find two happy boys and take them to the orchard near the garden.




Have the boys pick the apples.







Put them in the pot.



Carry them back to the house.



Slice them up.



Cook them until soft.



Mash them as the boys would say.



Enjoy.