All Alone

For the last week I have been alone, just me and my kittens. I am quite use to these solitary bleeps in my life. The hubby, both a military reservist and airline pilot, finds himself gallivanting around the globe weekly. Being alone here in Salt Lake is much better than in my previous state of residence (Florida). There is so much to do here. Yesterday after work, I went to City Creek Canyon, which starts just a few blocks from downtown, hiked for 5 miles, came home, nuked some leftovers, and snuggled in with my recent arrival from Netflix, the latest installment of my British who-done-it.
To many this may sound like a boring way to spend an evening, but I love it. My hubby, with his never ending ambitions, can drive me crazy with his ADD. He is always going a million miles a minute. I relish these pauses in between the fast forwards of my life with him.
Of course, I do have my "list of things to do" before he comes home. I think I have one thing nicked off, and he comes home tomorrow. Oh well, there's always the next trip.

A day in the woods

Today I went hiking in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Brighton area. I took this picture looking out over Silver Lake. It was a cloudy day, but beautiful nonetheless.
I think Albert Einstein said it best.....

There are only two ways to live. One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is.

Soap to Go

After spending 15 minutes rummaging through crap in my bathroom cabinets trying to locate a missing contact container, I decided I needed to spend some much needed time cleaning out our supplies in the bathroom.
"Supplies" such as 5 year past expiration antibiotics, 2 year expired Tylenol, and bath soaps that were once "organic" have now returned to their original state of oil and some sort of fruit by-product, both of which have gone rancid and would be the last thing I would smother all over my body.

My sister, with her good intentions, went through a soap making phase where every attempt at a nice foot scrub, face mask, and latest interpretation of a patchouli handmade soap has ended up under my sink. Every time I open that cupboard, I enter a hippie like trance with faint reminders of my days at college in San Diego when half of my philosophy class would blow in on a cloud of patchouli scented pot. I digress...

I began cleaning out and tossing the stuff gone bad into the trash, and the good stuff back into the cabinets. I also developed the "not sure" pile. After about an hour, I realized that what was forming in the "not sure" pile were stacks of small travel shampoos and soaps.
My husband travels for his job, and has apparently taken it upon himself to make sure we never run out of sample size shampoo.

I decided to pile up a portion of what we have and take a photo.

I asked my husband about this new found love of small soap bars. His response was a look of confusion combined with "well...it's good stuff. I figured you might like it." Now I am stuck with all these products taking up much needed space. What to do?
As in all good households, if you don't know what to do with something, take it from one pile and put it in another. I decided to take the bars, bottles, and potions and put them in the guest bathroom. This way whenever we have a guest over they too can feel they have spent the night at the Doubletree, Hilton, Holiday Inn, or if they're really lucky..... The Red Roof Inn.

House Remodel gone wild!

I bought this house in late 2004 with the idea that we would do a little "fix up" on it, and that would be it. Two years later, we are still finishing what we started, and starting new projects. I have to remind myself daily that I am not insane, just slightly stupid. Don't get me wrong, I love the house and everything that we have done to it, but there are moments where I just want to toss in the towel and say enough is enough. Let's just sale the beast, take the money and buy a nice condo downtown.
Today is another one of those days that is being spent planting trees and vegetation for both function (shade) and beauty. Another $300 on plants and supplies, and another afternoon that could have been spent in the mountains. I guess I just don't know when to stop. Please Help!!

One slobery miracle

Yesterday on my way to the hospital where I volunteer, I was impatiently stuck at a red light. I hate this light. It's one of those lights that always manages to get you no matter how you time yourself. Knowing I was going to be there for at least until the next epoch, I flipped through the crap on the radio and began to observe the people around me.

I peered down to the vehicle next to me to see a young women doing her make-up. She stared into her rear view mirror glooping on her mascara and kissing herself as she added the last touches of her shiny lipstick. All the while oblivious to anything going on around her, and appeared completely content that this stop light was an opportunity to finish what she didn't have time for as she rushed out for the day.

As we sat at the light, her vehicle drifted forward slightly. Just enough for me to see that she has a small child in the back seat. It was in one of those crazy contraptions called a car seat which was facing the back of the car window. Thank God they didn't make us sit that way when I was little. Puking would have been a daily occurrence!

Still sitting at the red light, I sat and watched this child. He was maybe 7 months old and just figuring out how interesting his feet were. He seemed almost in his own world, and for a brief moment, I entered it with him. He would look down at his feet, poke his toe, then his knee, stretch his neck as much as he could to see anything outside the back window, and then go back to his toe. His ability to amuse himself made me laugh. Then as if to hear my laughter, he tried to look out the window next to my car. Unfortunately, the sun was directly in his eyes. He would squint, and then rub his eyes as if he was ready for a nap. Then back to the toe. Meanwhile, the spit forming on and around his mouth was beginning to pool on his T-shirt. Again, he attempted another look out the back window, still no luck.

As the light turned green, I was almost disappointed. His mother moved the car forward, and as I kept watching, he once again looked over to me. With the bright sun in his face and squinting eyes, he produced a wet, slobery smile that made me laugh and smile back. He clapped his hands and was gone.

I turned left and proceeded about my business, amazed at how just a few minutes of wonder can completely change you.

Sunday Morning Scones

This is my first Blog experience. I decided to enter into Blogdom for the purpose of organizing my thoughts and ideas. At one time I was a journaling nut. Every little thought, feeling, and experience would be scribbled down on a piece of paper every night. As time has passed, I have found myself allowing less and less time for the things that I love. I decided that this whole Blogging thing might be the route to take to get the creative juices flowing again.


My first entry (today) is a Sunday morning in which I decided to bake my homemade scones and jam. Normally I wouldn't document such a trival event in my life, but every day counts for something, even if it is just enjoying a sweet, warm slice of scone (or two).