Dreamy

Last night I met the man of my dreams. He was super cute, witty, charming, smart, and clearly smitten with me. And then I woke up. By the time I went to the bathroom and fell back asleep, he was gone. So I guess the secret to holding down the perfect man is to drink less water before bedtime.

Michigan

Aaaaahhhh.....Michigan. What more can I say? Except that is was a dream vacation. Catching up with great friends. One week in a condo with cable tv and no facebook/email. Fireflies. A two-mile walk through home-towny neighborhoods and a forest to get to the beach. 85 degrees and blue skies all week. Warmish, clear lake water. Clean, soft, sandy beaches. The fourth picture down was one of my favorite views. The walk to the beach takes you through a neighborhood with nicely manicured lawns and people doing standard yardwork, etc, and then suddenly you turn a corner and there's Lake Michigan in all its splendor!

Special Talent

I have a secret talent that I don't think many of you know about. I've kept it secret all these years because I don't like to brag. But I think it's finally time to go public with it. Ready? Drumroll....I can walk really fast. When I worked downtown, and then in DC, I would race the other commuters after we got off the train. I'd pick one or two people each day who were going in the same direction as me, give them a little headstart, and then blow them out of the water as I caught up and passed them so fast they only saw a flash of color go by. I can't remember a single time the other person won the race. And, one of the rules of the race was that we had to maintain an appearance of just walking to work. We couldn't look like we were trying to run down the other walkers. As you can imagine, this required an astounding level of concentration to maintain a steady walking rhythm and upright posture, but I mananged. I admit, it probably helped my position that they didn't know we were racing, but I'm the clear winner regardless.

Springtime in Caroland

Here are a few pictures from my garden. I've put them in chronological order, so you can see how it's progressed over the last couple of months. The latest bloom are white daffodils with peach centers, but I haven't taken any pictures of them yet, so you'll just have to imagine them scattered through the last picture. And sorry some of the pictures are sideways. I've spent an hour getting them to this point. I tried rotating them before I uploaded, but my computer wouldn't let me. Apparently it takes real technical skills to manage photos.

Okay, one of those is actually a picture I took of the Temple Square gardens. Can you guess which one?

Coincidence?

I'm starting to think I live a charmed life. Very often, if I think about something, it'll happen. Here are some recent examples: 1. If I think about a song I'd like to hear, that song often comes on the radio within the hour. Tonight on my way home from work, I wanted to hear a Mumford and Sons song, and bam- I changed the station and that song was playing. That happens a lot with GreenDay songs, too. 2. A few weeks ago I was sitting at work and suddenly wanted gummi bears. It's been ages since I've had gummi bears. But they sounded really good to me right then. That night I was hanging out with one of my friends, and she bought a bag a gummi bears (with no hinting from me). The next week I was with another friend and she had a 6 lb. bag of gummi bears! We were popping them like there was no tomorrow. 3. I decided a couple of months ago that I want to see Les Mis this year. I saw it once 10 years ago and really liked it, so I decided I was ready to see it again. A few days later I was browsing KSL.com, and on the home page there was an announcement that Les Mis is coming to Capitol Theater this year, for the first time in years. Weird! The tickets are super expensive, so I'm planning on winning some off a radio contest (I'm assuming there will be a radio contest with tickets as the prize). 4. Now, if I could just get some good potato chips.

It's Here!

My first flower has bloomed!

With many more to follow!

My New Toy

Last week I bought myself a new toy. It's something I've been thinking about getting for a while. Last week I walked into a store, and the front display was this item at more than 50% off. So I had to buy it! Would you like to know what it is? It's...legen... (wait for it... I hope you're not lactose intolerant because it's)..dary. Okay I stole that line from a tv show. But it fits the situation so well. I got an ice cream maker. I already have one, but it's a hand cranked type. It works well; it just takes a while. My new ice cream maker is electric and doesn't take ice or salt. You just freeze the canister for 24 hours, then dump in some ingredients and turn it on. 30 minutes later you've got ice cream!

So far I've only made one batch. It was a mixture of plain homemade yogurt, milk, vanilla, and honey, and it's wonderful. I'm pretty sure my next batch will have to be chocolate. Maybe with cherry pie filling. That sounds good to me. Does anybody have any other suggestions? Sorry the one picture is on its side. I don't know how to rotate it in here.

Sidenote: I saw True Grit today and thought it was wonderful. Besides the really gross parts.