Good Things to Come

I love Elder Holland--and this message is so classically "him".

One Year Ago

One year ago (June 28, 2009) we were here:

Tea at Kensington Palace on our 23rd wedding anniversary.

Today (June 28, 2010) our 24th wedding anniversary we are here:

Modesto, California--first 100+ day.  102 at 5:30 pm!

It's no mystery which year I wish it were!

The cyclemeter app leads to this....

I got a new app for my iphone on Tuesday, it is called cyclemeter and I am quite fond of it.  In fact, because of it, I have been riding everyday this week.  It tracks how far you have gone, your average speed....It even has a calendar to track which days you did which routes and compares your rides against each other.  So I decided that I needed to leave dear old Modesto and give my cyclemeter a try in a different location-- Monterey, San Francisco, or Yosemite; I didn't care as long as I got to use my cyclemeter.  So I left the decision to Steve and Michael.  They chose San Francisco and I was happy with that because I'd always wanted to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

So off we went on our adventure.  According to the on-line maps, you can ride from the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero to Sausalito and it is "about 8 or 9 miles of relatively flat riding".  Apparently relatively flat means different things to different people.  The people who made this designation must live in the Swiss Alps because there were 3 large and imposing hills to climb along the way.

Then there is the bridge itself.  It was a beautiful day in San Francisco, some wind but all sun.  All sun until we got to the bridge which was shrouded in thick fog with gale force winds. 

There are no pictures of us actually on the bridge, because I didn't want to be blown off the bridge for a photo opp.

In the end the ride was totally worth it, because we got to see things like this ...

Fun times with the family!

The "Real" Splasher

We've lived in Modesto for 18 years now and, as are all those who hail from Modesto, we are well acquainted with Splasher the frog.  Splasher is the MID mascot, who regularly warns children to stay out of the canals.  In fact he is the canal safety frog. 

In his mascot form he appears at various functions about town and makes the rounds touring schools for assemblies during the spring months.  Seeing what gets dumped in canals is enough to discourage me from going into a canal, but I digress.

This morning on my bike ride I was riding along the canal banks when I saw several "splashers"!  Not the tacky mascot form, but the real hopping thing.  Unfortunately they were too quick to get any photos, but I could have reached out and picked up their big slimy selves had I been so inclined (which I wasn't--got enough of that with Jessica's 3rd grade habitat project).  It reminded me once again of my darling nephew Cameron--"what's up with all the frogs?"

Toy Story 3

Seeing Toy Story 3 on Friday night was bittersweet for me.  You see, I have an "Andy" of my own going off to college in the fall--and he too loved Woody with all his heart.

Too Many Apricots

This is what happens when you have too many apricots given to you by a friend!

Apricot White Chocolate Scones--YUM!

Recipe from the new Betty Crocker Cookbook App on my Iphone--Love it!