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/

Race Day

It was race day: so Sparky and I got up early and drove to Salt Lake to watch Wart and Leslie run the Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon.

Bert & Ernie had been up there with their tribe since Thursday. Worried about being able to get to the Hilton where they were staying we dutifully tuned the radio to 1300 AM to listen for marathon traffic updates. Unfortunately, the powers-to-be did a better job of promoting the station on the I-15 traffic signs than they did with transmission power and we could barely hear a voice above the static. With the radio off, we flew by the seat of our pants. Luckily the traffic was minimal, early-Saturday-morning traffic. We drove right to the Hilton and parked in the underground parking.

We called Nic again, announced our arrival, and sat down in the lobby to wait for the tribe to come down. Shortly thereafter, Nic brought Frank down, dropped him off with grandma and went back up the gather the remaining tribal members.

10 minutes later we were all gathered and walking the six blocks to The Gateway and the race finish line to await Wart and Leslie. We stood in the cool morning breeze and helped cheer the runners as they made their last, one-block effort to improve their time.

After a while Sparky decided to check her phone and saw she had missed a call from Wart announcing she was already finished and was waiting for us at the north end of the shopping center. So we walked up and found her and Leslie, who apparently had just finished the race while we were walking to get Wart. So we missed both of them.

Dr. Z had apparently run by our earlier race-watch-position just prior to our arrival and then Leslie went by without our seeing her. Bummers all around!

We then walked back to the hotel for a quick potty break and then we walked another 3 blocks to a local diner for breakfast -- good simple cooking. I was surprised how well the kids did walking and nary a complaint from them -- surprising for today's youth to have to walk that far, probably 2 miles by now. (Good for you mom & dad.)

Next it was back to the hotel where we split up; the tribe went home, and we worked our way around the marathon boundaries and up the U to drop off Dr. Z and Leslie.

Next, Sparky and I decided to drive to Park City for some shopping at the outlets. Unfortunately, we had only started shopping when the power went out. So it was off to downtown Park City where we parked the car and walked the street, window peeking and people watching (my favorite pastime).

A fun day even though not everything happened the way we had wanted it.

Buds & Snow

She wasn't yet complete!

Ol' Mother Nature had another thought last night as today we awoke to 9-inches of snow in the yard. The plum tree was really bending under the weight of snow. But still no sign of Mr. Bee (see earlier post.) which I will still classify as good.


Neighbor Dave was out with his plow pushing snow to the side up and down the street. I got in the act by following my immigrant neighbor's earlier lead and used the snow blower so Sparky could pull out of the driveway make it to the office. Who would think that on April 16th I'd be blowing snow. But I guess it was my own undoing since last Saturday I had awaken the neighbors as I ran the gas out of the blower in preparation for next winter. Good thing I hadn't dumped the remain gas out.

In the back yard the Robins were lining up on the snow-covered branches to get in the bird bath. "Rob" has this daily ritual thing, but snow around the rim made a splash difficult (not to mention the bath heater power was out again leaving slush in the bowl; someday I'll . . . ).

It's a cruel trick Mother Nature plays on the plants when she entices them to awake and shrug off ol' Man Winter, show their budding flowers and leaves, and then she dumps snow on them. But they generally seem to shrug it off year after year, ignore her game and get ready for a re-birth with spreading leaves.

Still, it was a funny morning to awaken in mid-April to both Buds & Snow.

Welcome Spring!

It's 3 O'clock in the afternoon and there are probably 3-inches of snow on the plum tree.

Welcome Tax Day, April 15th. On Monday I went blading on the Provo River Parkway and today, Wednesday, I'm needing a snow shovel. I'd say welcome to Utah's weather but I have found almost every place I've visited, the locals say the same thing. (Although I don't remember them saying anything about snow in Hawaii.)

Cynically, I say the good thing about this snow is that it is keeping Mr. Bee in his hive and not pollinating my plum tree. Hence, I hope there will be fewer plums to pickup later this summer. Let's not, however, keep Mr. Bee from the fruit orchards. (No reason to add to the current economic problems.)

Welcome Spring!

Easter Preps

The kids were up to Granma's to help with the preparations for Easter, and five dozen eggs were humiliated as they were given a new look that only a human could appreciate. One can only imagine what a self-respecting hen would think if she understood what had happened to her potential chicks.

Every year the short ones do better waiting for the transfer of color. And every year more unigue designs are revealed than the previous your. A lot of work and patience, however, paid off when after more than two hours all five dozen eggs had been morphed into beautifully colored icons that Faberge, and Czar Alexander III, would be jealous of.

What a fun time we had, preparing for Easter. Now we just hope all the eggs were cook. Bert reportedly put one raw egg into the mix to keep everyone alert. Hopefully we'll remember this in the week or two to come, and won't be surprised when a runny yoke comes pouring out onto our lap. Yuk!