A Mussel Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving gathering has now "grown" to just the 3 of us: Sparky, Wart and me. Nic and company went to her in laws. Sparky's brother and sisters all went other directions -- so it was just the 3 of us this year.

While planning the meal last week, Wart suggested "mussels, or something." And since it was just the 3 of us, cooking a whole turkey seemed like a lot of effort, especially when the girls aren't that big on meat. So we passed on the turkey we had received to the bishop to use, and proceeded with a different Thanksgiving dinner.


I shopped around earlier in the week and saw that Costco had mussels and so I said, "OK." Sparky, always the trooper, said "whatever", and we were on.
Mussels are alive when you buy them, kind of like lobster, you actually kill them during the cooking process. (The young oriental woman at the Costco counter didn't believe me as we viewed them, which I found surprising.)
In preparing them you need to wash them with a stiff brush to remove any grit or sand stuck to them.


Next you have to "debeard" them, by pulling or cutting off and moss-like matter that is sometimes hanging out of them. I was surprised at how tough this process was. Fortunately, these were farm raised and hence only a relatively few of them actually had beards.

In cooking them you first make a broth. We used a mixture of wine, butter, shallots, garlic, bay leave and pepper. After cooking the broth down a little and burning off the alcohol, you pour the mussels in the pan and cover them for 5 minutes to steam them.

Our meal was supplemented with sweet potato fries, green salad, a traditional fruit salad, and crusty bread, which we dipped in little bowls of broth.


In December 2001, Sparky and I were in Paris eating dinner at a sidewalk cafe; we observed a nicely-dressed business woman in a suit eating mussels and french fries. We were fascinated as we watched her pick up the fries with an empty mussel, tweezers style. It apparently was a regular meal for her.


Our plates were simple; not the bounteous spread of a traditional Thanksgiving fare. But the food was good and our stomachs were filled. And we are thankful of the many blessing that we do enjoy during these times.

I wonder what Thanksgiving dinner will be next year, since Dr. Z (Wart) has accepted a position out of state at NIH beginning in March. Life moves on whether you're prepared or not; so we just move with it, hoping and praying that what preparations and plans we do make will prove adequate. Hopefully we will continue to have peace and love in our home and family.

Quiche

The Fag's in the Kitchen!

Here's another post, and it just occurred to me that I have posted 3 now this week -- all having to do with cooking. The Fag's in the kitchen!

This afternoon I went to 3 stores grocery shopping for our Thanksgiving Feast? Then I came home and put up additional heat tape in the raingutters preparing for ol' Man Winter.

Next, it was into the kitchen and make a favorite quiche of mine. YES, REAL MEN EAT QUICHE! Although I have an entire book on quiches, I like a recipe we got one time from Questar Gas many years ago.

I rushed to get it in the oven while I went HT. They take 45 - 50 minutes to cook and so I figured that was just about enough time. Well, we were a little long so the pie is a tiny bit over cooked, but still good.

Quiche reminds me of the first time Sparky and I went to France. We had driven into the country from Netherlands and drove about two hours until finally reaching our destination of Rouan. (This is the town made famous by Monét for his dozens of paintings of the cathedral during different times of the day.) After doing some sightseeing we were getting hungry; we spied a little pastry shop and went in. There we saw these cute little quiches sitting in the pastry case. I said that would be good I wonder if the girl can warm it up for us. Sparky said, "ask." Remember this is the first day of the first time in France. Our language skills were/are not the best.

I said to the counter girl, "Can you make this hot?" She looked at me curiously, so I said again "hot?" and waved my hand in front of my mouth as if something were hot inside. She still gave us a curious look and then said, "sho?" It was then our turn to look curious. A little frustrated she grabbed a paper pad and wrote h-o-t. We smiled and nodded yes. We learned a new French word that day -- sho, or hot. She warmed it up in a microwave and we left with our first "hot meal" in France.

As we sat on a park bench eating along came a couple of missionaries. We yelled to them and they stopped and talked for a few minutes. They had an appointment and had to leave. (I guess we weren't golden enough.) But I remember one was from Idaho, and I think we called his parents and reported on him when we got home.

Fun experiences!

Triangle Faces for Priesthood

I was asked to give the lesson in Priesthood last Sunday. We did the talk by E. Steven Snow on Get On with Our Lifes. For a take-away, Sparky helped me make these cookies.

The four points of the talk were:
1. Listen to the Prophets.
2. Remember the Eternal Perspective.
3. Have Faith
4. Be of Good Cheer.

So to relate it, I drew a triangle on the chaulk board and wrote the first 3 points on the sides and helped the class discuss them. With the fourth point "Be of Good Cheer" I drew a face in the middle, hence the cookies.

It was fun, and a rarety for the High Priests to have treats. I was also surprised at how quickly the young kids found out about the treats. Julie G. was in the classroom begging within 1 minute of dismissal. Wow!

I also gave some to Brenda and company as we were leaving. It was fun!

German Pancakes

When I was a young boy and every other blue moon my family would go down to the local Pancake House for breakfast. I always ordered German pancakes. The waitress would bring out this pancake that was shaped like a thin bowl and place it before me; then she would take two forks and fold in the sides making it flat for me to eat. It was fun and tasted great. I was always amazed at how they made the shape.

So the other morning we had one at home. The batter was a little too much for the skillet, but as I pulled it out of the oven the sides had curled up, reminding me of my childhood experience. Served with powdered sugar and syrup it was great.

She's Runnin' Fine Now

We've been having some plumbing problems this fall. About three months ago I was downstairs in the basement and in the back of the house when I noticed a little water puddle near the back door. It appeared that water was running down the 3-inch drain pipe from upstairs. Unfortunately, the pipe comes out of the exterior stud wall right at the floor joists and I couldn't tell for sure where the water was coming from.

One day, while Sparky was in the shower I went down stairs and could see that indeed the water was running down the pipe from somewhere in the wall and wetting the little pieces of carpet we have at the basement back door to wipe our feet.

So I called in the expert, my neighbor Bruce, who also happens to be brick mason and general contractor. After some discussion and review of the house plumbing we agreed that his men would come and remove a section of brick to try and find the leak source.

So a couple weeks ago they showed up and gently knocked a hole in the brick work to try and find the source of the leak. My fear was that it was coming from the bathrooms on the second floor. We made a hole mid-way up the wall, but no leak. A good sign.

So then they knocked out brick towards the bottom, again I went upstairs and flushed the toilet and ran water. Sure enough there was a small leak in the drain pipe just as it entered the basement.

Somehow the joint of the 45-degree elbow (red arrow) had sprung a leak and every time we would use a sink, shower, tub or toilet a little bit of water would come out of this joint. A little gross!

With the problem exposed, I went to Home Depot and bought just about every pipe, glue and fitting that could possibly be needed to fix the situation. Then with the help of our neighbor Terry and later Bruce, we replaced the leaking elbow.

Then a few days later Bruce's men returned and put the brick back in.

Now the miracle of the whole thing is that I knew the approximate location of where there were some excess brick buried in the yard. Years ago when we were putting in the white vinyl fence, I had dug a hole for fence post. Enlarging the hole to dig out some concrete from the earlier fence post I accidentally ran into several rolls of brick that had been neatly stacked in the ground; kind of like the Terra Cotta solders of Xian, China.

Since taking brick out of a wall is almost impossible to do without destroying some of them, I was lucky to remember the approximate location of these "hidden" brick. Now 10 years later I had to dig a couple exploratory holes before I found the stack brick, which we used to replace the brick damaged during their removal.

So now it's all back together. Let winter begin; "She's Runnin' Fine Now."

The Bells of Europe

Flying by the seat of our pants Sparky and I returned from 9 days of traveling in Europe in September. Not long enough; too long!


We flew into Geneva Wednesday morning, where Sparky's girl friend, Gishlaine picked us up and took us to her home 10 minutes away and across the border into France. After a quick (not long enough nap) Gishlaine and her husband Jim drove us 45 minutes down to Annecy, a quiet little city with an old-town section that could give Venice, Italy a run for its money with all the canals and waterways.

The next morning Gishlaine drove us back to the Geneva airport where we picked up a VW Fox, setup the TomTom GPS on the windshield, said goodbye and headed off to see my ancestor's homeland.

We drove around lake Geneva and up the Autobahn, turned off and drove the back roads of Switzerland. Up and over Juanpasse we drove, exclaiming how beautiful the sights were. I think almost every other sentence out of our mouths was, "Oh, Wow!"

As we reached the high mountain pass, suddenly there in front of us were cows with bells around their necks, a tradition of Switzerland and a highlight for Sparky. We stopped the car and made this video.

We drove on to Zweissimen where my paternal grandmother was born, found the local church cemetary and were pleasantly surprized at how many Zumbrunnen headstones we found. Every grouping had one. (Zumbrunnen is our original family name, prior to Uncle Rudy changing it to Zumbrennen during WWII.)

Next we drove 4 miles to Reidenbach where my paternal grandfather was born. Again, another cemetary and more Zumbrunnen headstones. Someday we will have to come back and try to located some relatives. What beautiful country!

As the day wained, it was time to find a room to sleep. We found a "Zimmer" (B&B) just outside Interlacken in Niederried and on the shore of Lake Brienzer. The proprietor was an old woman who gave us the room up the steap wooden stairs on the second floor. We had two bedrooms, kitchen/dining, living room and bathroom all to our selves. That night we could hear cow bells ringing from the mountainside behind us. Sparky's eyes twinkled everytime she heard them.

In the morning we were, again, astounded by the beauty of this country. Lake Brienzer in front of us and the Swiss alps on the other side shooting straight up out of the water. Cow bells ringing in the back of us, what more could you want.

We drove on to Luzern, saw the sights, and then to Zurich where I had pre-arranged one of the few hotels for the trip. It was a Marriott Courtyard and the king bed was a far cry from the twin beds we had slept in the night before. That evening we took the tram downtown, saw the sights, had dinner and returned to the hotel and died.

In the morning I got up, dressed and walked across the street to the COOP market and found some fruit and pastries for breakfast.

(Why is it that Sparky and I can't get up and out of a room before 10 a.m.? We would never make it on a AARP tour, having to have your luggage outside the room by 6:30 a.m.)

Then it was in the car and driving northeast to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. We walked around the town center, paid €3 to have our passports stamped with the official Liechtenstein stamp as proof we were there, bought an ice cream cone and drove on up the road and into Germany.

Passing through Austria, we arrived in Fussen midafternoon just in time to retreive our reserved tickets, and the small bus up the mountain for our 3 p.m. tour of Neuschwanstein castle, another long-time goal of Sparky. (She was disappointed when Greg and I went there 4 years ago.)

That night we found Suzzane's Zimmer in Fussen to spend the night. We got the last of 6 rooms she had available, which was in the attic. The ceiling at the peak was probably six-feet high. I had to duck to pass through the bedroom door, and we had to lower the floor over the stairway so we could walk from the bathroom into the bedroom. The shower area is encircled with a shower curtain. The whole floor is tiled. It's definitely not the Marriott, but a room to remember.

The next day brought Sunday and we drove along the "Romantic Highway" to Oberammergau, site of the Passion Play put on every 10 years. We stumbled onto a local dairy fair around noon and I got my Bratwurst. Sparky had an authentic German noodle dish with carmelized onions, noodles and Gruyere cheese. It was great! Two bottles of "apple juice with water" to wash it down and we were set. Townspeople in traditional costumes walking by, while the Oompa band played. Everyone was having fun.

On up the romantic highway we drove stopping to see churches, towns and the countryside. The weather is beautiful. A couple days with a little bit of rain in the early morning, some mist for scenic shots but today is wonderful; blue sky is abondant.

I'm surprised at the number of farm houses and barns here in the countryside covered with solar panels. They say Germany's power is from 30% renewable resources and I can understand that.

The next major goal of the trip is Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Rothenburg on the Tauber River). This mideaval, walled town hasn't been counquered since the mid 1600's, and then it was the powder keg room keepers fault.

We had called a Zimmer while driving on the road, and the housekeeper said she had rooms available.

We took the large room in the back overlooking the garden and gold-fish pond. With our luggage stowed again, we headed out walking the town seeing the sights as outlined by our third traveling companion, Rick Steves. St. Jakob's church, covenant garden, castle gardens were just some of the many sight we did. That night we did the "Night Watchman" tour and followed him around the town hearing some of the colorful stories about this picturesque place. Although no visitor cars are allowed within the walls, I was greatful having our room in the back of the Zimmer since once in a while you could hear a car rumbling down the cobblestone street out front. Another curious thing was that the innkeeper didn't want to be paid the €72 until the next day. We did, after breakfast.

We are almost at the end of the trip, but still more places to see and things to do. Once again we packed and rattled our luggage along the cobblestone roads to our car parked outside the city walls in Lot #4. But before we could escape Rothenburg, a kindly old man stopped me taking photos and pointed out a better shot to take. It took a minute to understand his broken English with our limited German, but it was a good shot. One of dozens in the this town.
Next stop was the Rhine River Valley. We found another Zimmer in Bacharach and borrowed the Innkeepers two bikes and rode down along the Rhine 8 miles to St. Goar. Lots of people riding bikes; mostly our age. All most all the roads we have driven on in Germany have an accompaning bike path, country roads or autobahn, you name it. It would be fun to have them in the States. It would also probably encourage people to exercise more.

In St. Goar we rode around town on our bikes. We rode along the back streets checking out the way people live; ate more pastries and waited for the ferry to take us back up river to our home for the night in Bacharach.

In the morning, Wednesday, we drove down the river again past St. Goar to K0blenz, turned left and drove up the Mosel River valley. In Moselkern, the lack of sleep over took me. So we parked the car in the town park and I layed down under an apple tree and took a 45 minute nap while Sparky explored the town and riverfront, complete with its bike path and barges on the way to ports within Germany. I was lucky to not be Galieao; apples were dropping off the park's trees as I slept.

(You can take a boat, and they have them commercially available, from Amsterdam, to Frankfut, and on to Basel, Switzerland. All on the same boat; just cruising the river.)

With a little shut eye behind me, we drove through Moselkern, up the canyon, parked the car and hike 45 minutes to Burg Eltz, one of the premier castles of Europe. Now owned by four families, it has never sacked in its 600 year history. The owners now live in Frankfurt and also have large land holdings in Alaska, the tour guide said.

That night we slept in Beutig, a town on the Mosel and in the Weingut Zimmer. We ate dinner with two other couples at the same table and under the grape vines. Since we weren't in a touristy town, hardly anyone spoke English. One woman at our table and the young waiter a little. It was an experience ordering dinner, and they all laughed when we said, "No alcohol." They didn't have Sprite or Fanta, so we ended up with warm grape juice from a wine bottle, the house specialty, but with "no alcohol."

That night we again were in the attic room, up two flights of stairs. Our bathroom was up an additional 6 steps within the room and the window/skylight revealed the church steeple one half block away. Unfortunately, and contrary to most places, the bells tolled all night on the hour and half hour, and our beds were lumpy. Probably the worst night of all, but we were greatful to have the room as it was probably one of the last in town.

The next morning we again loaded our bags and rolled them down the cobblesone street to our car parked in the town square next to the river.

With the Mosel River on our right we drove 2 miles up the Beilstein, a town recommended by Rick Steves. It was now becoming common-place to have beautiful, idealic towns with photo ops everywhere. I've never seen so much beautiful country as we have seen on this trip.

After shooting a bunch of pictures of this little riverside town, a bus load of tourists arrived and suddenly the streets were filled with them. (Damn Tourists!) The oppurtunity was gone. We had had about 45 minutes relatively alone and then they were here.

We loaded the car on a small ferry; paid €3 and took it 136 meters across the Mosel and drove back down the river and on to Cologne, where we saw the Cologne Cathedral. This cathedral's claim to fame is having the skulls of the 3 magi with crowns of gold. We saw the miniture gold cathedral that supposedly holds the skulls, but who knows . . . We came out of the cathedral and were deciding what to do next when the bells started ringing. Oh, my gosh! They rang and rang and rang in the middle of the afternoon. Here's how they sounded.

Next we walked down a pedistrian-only street, stopping to get some more pastries (the food of the traveler in Europe) and hot chocolate, since it was a little nippy. I asked a young business man if he spoke English and then how to say "hot chocolate" in German. I find most people are generally helpful if you ask.

We had parked the car under the cathedral, literally, and after retrieving it, we drove to Dussledorf for our last night in Europe. With our trusty TomTom GPS leading the way, we drove right to the Hilton. They surprised us with an upgrade to the Executive level. That was very surprising since I had booked the room using my Hilton Honors points. That night dinner was in the Executive Lounge.

Early the next morning, we took a taxi to the airport. (I had turned in the car the day before.) Traveling light with only two carry-on bags each, we passed through Security, bought some chocolates for the kids with our left over coinage of €12.40, boarded the plane and flew home -- the worst part of the trip.

We decided this was my tenth time to Europe and Sparky's seventh. In all, we drove 1600 Kilometers this trip, traveled through 5 countries and slept in a different room each night, only 3 of which we had pre-arranged prior to our departure. Quite an adventure, and it was fun all the way! I never get enough of Europe.

Ireland's looking interesting! Never been there!

Park City Arts Festival

It was a perfect Utah weather day as all members of the Z family made it to Park City for the annual Arts Festival. (I don't think we have missed many times in the past 30+ years of going.) Bright and sunny, the temperature was just right for the first day of August -- hot in the sun and cool in the shade. During our decent down Main Street, we past by an open alley way and Wart suddenly had goose pimple and mention it was kind of cold.

But Sparky was in Seventh heaven to have all her posterity there, including grand kids. Tyler was a constant shadow as he explained everything to grandma. (He's definitely going to be an engineer of sorts when he grows up.) Frank was back and forth between grandma and his stroller. (Main Street is a pretty good climb for a 2-year-old.) Not a shopper, Kate was a little bored but Lou is starting appreciate the jewelry being offered by the craftsmen.

Slowly but surely we made our way past the booths and people. The people were as interesting as booths with vendors from all across the country, plus at least one vendor from Canada that I noticed. It's a different crowd from what we normally see in Happy Valley.

Half way up the long drag, Frank was hungry, so dad sat him down in the shade and bought him a hot dog. Mom had brought her usual half gallon of iced water in the bottom of the stroller so dad and son were set for lunch.

I was surprised at the number of photographers displaying their wares this year. Probably 10 were there, all with a different twist to the art. Some were colored, some black & white, while another one was sepia toned. One photographer had printed the pictures on canvas and then put a glaze other the image, making it appear to be a painting. Interesting.

Wart's favorite jewelry store is in Park City. They have a unique style in their work, and I admit I liked a lot of the merchandise. Sparky, naturally, picked out a ring that cost almost as much as our first house. The attendant was very surprised that her counterpart had allowed Sparky to wander the store with it on, as she came to show it to me. I guess it was a no-no!

We were (at least I was) disappointed when we made it to the top and the food court had only lite sandwich's to eat. It's been a little of a tradition to have a bratwurst with sauerkraut on a bun each year. But no luck this one. So we turned around and headed back down the street, stopping at the Red Banjo pizzeria for lunch. It was a long wait since we were part of the noon rush, but the pizza came piping hot, which made up for the wait. As my father used to say, "Hunger is the best cook." I think he had a good point.

After lunch we stopped at an ice cream stand and bought various sundry items. (Nothing like ice cream after a hot spicy pizza.) Then we spied the full-size cow standing out front of the creamery. We mounted the kids and got this shot just before Kate about wrestle the cow to the ground as she swung off of it via its horns.

After the festival we were off to the factory outlets for more fun as we spent money we don't have. Thank goodness for MasterCard.

Don't tell the Bishop, but we may head back up tomorrow since the pass is good for both days and we didn't finish seeing the lower half of the festival. Shhhhhh.

Summer Grilled Pizza

So, today's Food Section of the Deseret News reminded me to do this post.

On Sunday we had pizza cooked on the grill.

Last year I attended a local Williams-Sonoma, Saturday-morning cooking class and they gave us (as typical) instructions on how to make the food item of the class and here an easy pizza dough in the food processor and then build several pizza variations. We made a couple of these last summer when it was hot and again last Sunday we had another. In addition to making this outside on the grill, another fun thing was using the basil and cherry tomatoes from our own garden. (I've realized that most of my recipes using basil are for heavy, Italian foods; and hence more applicable for cold weather when my garden basil will be frozen. So it was good to use the basil now.)


I had bought this pizza stone last year, which came with a paddle to hold the pizza while making it and also a rack to hold the stone, but it occurred to me that when the pizza was finished cooking and leaving it on the stone would cause it to over cook; doesn't make sense. But maybe I'm just dense . . .

I thought about going out and milk a buffalo and make my own "buffalo's-milk mozzarella" cheese also, but couldn't find a buffalo nearby. I didn't want to drive to Antelope Island and wrestle a beast. I don't think I could even milk a cow as my mother used to do when she was growing up.

This is a woman's pizza since it doesn't have any meat on it but only veggies. (I think every man loves an all meat pizza, why is that.) Still it was fun for a hot, Sunday afternoon. Plus Sparky liked it! That's always a bonus. I discovered later that we have some pepperoni, so I could have added that to one half, but . . .

This is called a Margarita pizza in Italy. Sparky and I actually had the same thing there one time in Florence except that it also had an egg cooked in the middle, Fun!

But, back to the Deseret News. The food section had a number of articles on building your own pizza, either from scratch or preferably by just enhancing a store-bought one.

A fun, cooking idea that the kids could get into and make their own.

Shrimp Boil

I've stumbled upon a simple yet good, little dinner that Sparky enjoys--Southern Shrimp Boil.

A couple weeks ago I got out a bag of shrimp to boil and I read the "serving suggestion" on the back, southern shrimp boil. And as luck would have it, we had all the ingredients needed: cajun spice, new potatoes, corn on the cob and raw shrimp.

Per the package instructions:

Bring 3 qts. water to boil and add 4 Tbs. of Cajun spices (such as Old Bay seasoning).
- Place 1# of quartered new potatoes in the water and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add mini ears of corn to the boiling water (I add 2 ears cut in half) and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add raw shrimp (I do about 1/2#) and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Serve (I've been adding 1/2 cube of butter)

Very simple and yet good. Another great benefit is that we've been able to cook it outside on the side burner of our barbecue grill, saving the need to cook inside. We haven't, but you could easy add a small salad to round out the dinner.

Simple.

Summer Party

We had some friends and neighbors over last night for a summer backyard party. We were pretty laid back on the arrangements.

I told each couple to B.Y.O.M and a side dish. (We provided two grills.) Although we wouldn't make specific food assignments. It was interesting to see what we ended up having.

People brought two baked beans, two green salads with spinach, 3 pasta salads, rolls and chips & dip, and some cookies. Fortunately, Sparky had prepared a bowl of M &M's which rounded out the food, except for the Canuck, who doesn't like chocolate so I brought out some old Halloween candy just for him. He was happy!

Later Sparky commented how nice it was to have the guys to the cooking on the grills, which also proved a variety, from: beef filet, t-bones, to chicken to shrimp kabobs.

It was a easy party to through together: bring your meat and a side dish. Hopefully we'll do another later this summer.

But my most favorite part of the evening was stringing Christmas lights around the yard and turning them on as dusk hit. I was really surprised at how quickly they went up in less than an hour, the festive atmosphere they created, and how quickly they came down -- less than 30 minutes.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

Miss Julie is getting married in August and of course there have to be numerous wedding showers for her and fiance, Andy. One of those was a shower sponsored by some of the neighborhood women.

To help with the night's activities, Sparky was asked to make some cupcakes.

Now Sparky can make a good cupcake and her frosting is the best I've had, but she was asked to make a special chocolate cupcake using a new recipe. She followed the directions, adding chopped pecan to some and not to others, swirling the mixed just right. When they came out of the oven we sampled one and found it to be rather rich and gooey for our tastes.

I didn't particularly care for them and Sparky wasn't sure whether they were cooked or not. But she took them to the shower and everyone seemed to favor them over many of the other sweets. So, they were deemed a success.

Copper Trellis

Well, I completed another copper trellis this week. This makes 7, with one more to go.

When we put the white vinyl fence in years ago we didn't realize how much sun it would reflect during the afternoon -- pretty bright!

So the year after we put the fence in I went to the local nursery and purchased 8 wooden trellis to grow climatis and morning glory upon. This worked fine for many years, but then the wood started to rot in the ground and dry rot where exposed to the weather. In addition the nails started to come out creating a yearly maintenance issue. To keep with the idea of having a maintenance-free fence (vinyl doesn't rot or need painting; I'm getting too old for that), I struck on the idea of making maintenance-free trellis' -- of copper.

Copper seemed like a good idea since it would eventually turn green with oxidation and add to the character of the yard.

The first one I made was an idea I had in my mind and a series of sqares. I thought copper crosses were available from the plumbing store, but I was wrong, only ells and tees. But in keeping with my original idea, I made this trellis. Not bad for the first one, even though I remember Bert commenting about my soldering skills.

The next year I made a few more, but when the price of copper soared I had to lay off for a year and only made one last year.

Bubba from the office is a draftsman and helped me with some of the more intricate designed ones. This was great in that Bubba was able to move elements around on the screen until the looked just right. The only problem with Bubba's dimensions are accurate to within a hundreth of an inch, but don't take into account the fittings and their rough measurements. I keep telling him, "I'm not building a piano."

But here are some more designs we've done in the past.

Some people think I should start a business selling "Handcrafted Copper Trellis'", but I'd probably need $300 to be worth my time and effort. That's a little pricey for this market.

Another issue is if the plant takes over the trellis, you may not even see the trellis. as these older trellis' show. Accept in the winter when the leaves fall off.

Plus sometimes I can't remember what I'm doing, or what each tool is for. . .

The last one (yet to be built) will probably have tubing in it, which is bendable and therefore will allow for some circles and/or half-circles and possibly scallops. I have some ideas in my head, but I need to bounce them off Bubba. Who knows . . .

Buckwheats & Berries

The season is early and already we're seeing some great buys on fruit here locally. Yesterday I bought a pint of strawberries and blueberries at a great price, even though we still have a golden pineapple sitting on the counter from last week's trip the store.

This morning I made buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. As a topping I cut up some strawberries and added some of the blueberries to a mixture of sugar, water and maple syrup, which I heated up on the stove. Buckwheats can sometimes be heavy but I thought the combination of sugar, water and syrup was just right. Now that I think about it, some whipped cream on top would have been just right and very comparible to I-Hop. Oh Well!

Memorial Day Ride

Our annual Memorial Day ride was once again a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cool. The short people are getting older and can ride on their own, without mom or dad -- except Frank, who rode in a borrowed kiddie bike trailer pulled by his dad, Bert. Kate did much better this year and showed everyone she could do it. Instead of riding a bike Wart bladed. Below are (in order) Kate, Sparky, Wart, Lou, and Ernie.

As usual there are speed demons and those who enjoyed the ride. (When will they learn that after they beat their guts out being the first, they just have to sit an wait.) Here's a portion of our group in a shot by Bridal Veil Falls. The place was packed; on the way down I passed 250 people between the falls and the small park below. So we must have passed more than a thousand people along the trail. A zoo, but that's OK. It was the Memorial Day Weekend.

While waiting for the rest, and with the energy of a Gazelle, the 3 older short people climbed the rock slide until called back down. At 2 years, Frank's not quite into rock climbing.

Back at base-camp we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs with the usual trimmings. A little too cool, we didn't do water balloons this year--maybe next.

Dr. Wart?

After only five years, she's done with schooling -- for now!

Today, Wart graduated from the University of Utah's Department of Oncology with a Doctoral Degree in Molecular Biology. Huh?

So is it now Dr. Wart? Do we have to give her more respect, or is she still family. For sure, and to the best of our knowledge (and a quick check on Google) she's the first (and only) Zumbrennen to be awarded a Ph.D. So maybe she's not our little girl any more. With a half dozen professional scientific papers published with titles such as: A Novel IRP2-/- Mouse Model Displays Locomotor Dysfunction And Neuronal Iron Accumulation, or Hyperglycemia and Impaired Beta-cell Function Caused by Iron Regulatory Protein 2 Deficiency maybe she DOES deserve more respect.

The ceremony was held at Kingsbury Hall on the U's campus. 250 individuals were awarded degrees today ranging from a few Bachelors, to Masters, to 96 Doctorates to 108 Graduates of the U's Medical school.

It was a beautiful day; the weather was perfect -- not too hot, and not too cool. As the MC stated probably a few thousand photos were taken afterwards.

(Although her research is technical, and over our heads (what's an IRP2?), we still felt a need to give her a Graduation Card with sound, which she wouldn't have to read . . . SHE IS BLONDE!)

Afterwards all four of us (Nic spend the day with us also) drove up Immigration Canyon and had lunch outside on the back patio of Ruth's Diner, a favorite of Wart's.

With school overwith, she plans to continue her research at the U and publish a few more papers within the next year. In June she travels to Porto, Portugal to give two presentations and one poster.

What should we expect next from her?

What color is the Sky!

In the mean time checkout her blog to see the latest wedding cakes she made for friends during the last two weeks. http://kymmiescakes.blogspot.com/