Springtime Weather

April in Utah is spring painted on a brick wall; You reach in to pick the flowers and you bust your knuckles.

We enjoyed a beautiful week of gorgeous spring weather--but got hit with a snowstorm this morning.

It's Spring!

Jared had this Friday off, so we spent all day yesterday and much of today enjoying the lovely spring weather. Elizabeth loves being outside--her new favorite activity is watering the flowers (and the sidewalk, and her shoes. . .)



To the untrained eye this may look like a mere pile of dirt. . .but in reality it's much more. It's a pile of HOMEMADE DIRT! Heh heh. . .Last spring I convinced Jared to build some compost bins, and through the summer and fall we added our yard waste to the pile. I don't know why I wasn't expecting it to work, but I was so surprised and PROUD when I hiked out to the piles yesterday with a shovel to find that the wood chips, leaves, and such had *gasp* actually turned to "dirt"! Jared says he's expecting prize-winning tomatoes from the garden this year. After last year's garden, I'll be happy just to get SOMETHING besides the big healthy crop of weeds we ended up growing last year.



Jared put a fence up on the north side of the front yard. Elizabeth, of course, was right there to "help" him every step of the way. Daddy can't do anything on the weekends without his little shadow right behind him!

Mmmm, yogurt facials

Elizabeth is learning to "eat" with a spoon. . .I use the term loosely, since maybe 2% of the contents of the bowl will actually make it into her mouth.

The pause that refreshes

You Are Root Beer

Ultra sweet and innocent, you have a subtle complexity behind your sugary front. Children love you, but so do high end snobs... when you're brewed right. Your best soda compatibility match: Dr. Pepper Stay away from: Diet Coke

What Kind of Soda Are You?

A "cafe with a conscience"

Tonight for Mutual we took our Young Women downtown to eat at the One World Cafe (41 South 300 East). I'd heard about this place several years ago when it first opened, and I've been meaning to check it out for some time. Tonight I finally got to experience it. . .and I will definitely go back!

There's no set menu. . .The cooks get to work preparing new and unique dishes each day. All ingredients are fresh and organic. Tonight the menu included tofu with pesto sauce, a simple cold pasta salad with tomato sauce, rosemary chicken, and my favorite--scalloped potatoes with a red pepper sauce.

There's no set portion size. . .You take as little or as much as you'd like, and second and third helpings are welcome.

There's no set cost. . .On the counter is a small chest into which you place whatever donation you feel is appropriate, depending on how much you ate. As you can imagine, there were many skeptics who predicted the cafe would be run into the ground by this policy; but 3 years after opening its doors, the cafe is still open and turning a profit.

The cafe also has a work trade program: give an hour of your time wiping down tables or washing dishes, and they'll give you a meal.

Coincidentally, the same day we decided to take our Young Women here, the Salt Lake Tribune ran a story on this unique restaurant. The owner, Denise Cerreta, is establishing a foundation to help entrepreneurs across the nation create a "One World" cafe in their own cities. Sweet.

Beauty, eh?

Don't turn your head back over your shoulder. . .

For Valentine's Day we left Elizabeth home with Nonny and Poppa (that was HER present--a whole evening with her two favorite people!) while we went to hear the King's Singers perform with the symphony. If you've never heard the King's Singers--well, good, then you won't be purple with jealousy. ;) Imagine six British men in tuxedos, singing 4- and 6-part arrangements of songs dating as far back as medieval times. Okay, fine, when you put it that way it doesn't sound like anything special--but I promise, they are truly amazing to hear! (Or else I was so desperate to get out of the house that I would have gushed about the concert had it been a hobo banging on a garbage can. Actually, I think we *did* hear that as well, in the parking garage on our way back to our car.)

For this particular program they sang everything from sea shanties to English folk songs to my personal favorite, an arrangement of Harry Connick, Jr.'s "Recipe for Love". They don't get the credit for the lyrics in the title of this post; those belong to dear old James Taylor. . .but they delivered the most stirring performance of Taylor's "Lonesome Road" that I could ever hope to hear. (Sorry, James, I promise I still love you!) And who could forget their encore--an arrangment of "All You Need is Love", accompanied by the orchestra. . .and the audience chiming in on the chorus.

What a marvelous night. Jared scored some major bonus points with this one--he'd never even heard of the King's Singers when he bought thie tickets for a surpise. . .and apparently he doesn't understand the depth of my love for a cappella men's groups. Or for Paul Simon, James Taylor, and the Beatles--all artists whose songs were featured in the program (and who I first heard on records I gleaned from my parents' collections)