35 Years of Utah Women's Basketball

A fabulous weekend in Salt Lake City. The University of Utah Athletic Department threw together a reunion for all of the women who have ever played hoops at the U. That is 35 years of women's basketball. It was fantastic. Friday night we had a big dinner. Saturday there was an alumni game, a tailgate party and tickets to the football game. I started laughing when I got off the airplane on Friday morning and was still smiling when I headed home Sunday night. Ya, you can say it my face hurt...:-)

The Dinner Party!

Alumni Game
Fascinating that everyone still pulled out the same moves. Impressive! OK, they may have been a step or two slower and asked for subs sooner, but really, they were the same moves!

36 Years of Head Coaches at the University of Utah

Fern, 8 years. Elaine 31 years. Anthony, year 1.

Tailgate Party

So fun to hang out with gals I haven't seen for 15 years. It was like we never left off.

Outdoors

Well, it has been a long summer of surgical recovery. We finally decided to get out of the house and try our hand at a sport that my body would allow me to do, fishing. Sara, John and I had a great spot on the river. All the people floating by on their boats were pulling fish in as fast as they could cast out. We on the other hand had a lovely evening eating a delicious picnic I had packed and practiced casting for a couple hours. I may not have even got a bite, but I will go back. I loved it. Not really even sure what I would have done if I would have actually caught something. But sitting on that rock, listening to the water rush by and enjoying my surroundings has me hooked. Fishing anyone?

Another weekend outing took us up the McKenzie river as well. This time in search of a rock climbing wall. Unfortunately we never did find that wall but Susie, Adam, Kaia, Sara and I had a lovely drive in the woods. Once we figured out where we took a wrong turn we decided it was too late in the day to set up a climbing adventure. Thank goodness we had a rockin' game of Monopoly waiting for us at home.

Norma

Norma, who has kindly been named for her enormous overbearing size and huge personality is another few steps closer to being finished this week. It's actually beginning to look and feel like a livable space.

Sara installed the toilet and sink, which I must say makes working over there much easier. The shower is next. She found the cabinets for the bathroom on Craigslist (of course). Word is that they were actually cabinets removed from Jerry Garcia's wife's house, located only a few acres away, on a few hundred acres just to the west of us.

Sara's dad was visiting this last week and was eager to lend a helping hand with projects. He single handedly installed all of the blinds upstairs and did some serious organizing downstairs (everything that was under the gigantic blue tarp from the last post had to go somewhere and Warren was game.)

Sara got both fans installed while Warren and I played the "hold the ladder steady and hand important things upward role."

Then we started the floor. Brazilian Cherry to be exact! I organized and cut to fit. Sara nailed them in. The process was seamless and....oh....25 hours later...late on Sunday afternoon...we were done, oh no wait, not done? Short by half a box? That's right 14 square feet! Of course the flooring store was not open on Sunday so the celebration and brazillian cherry floor dance was delayed by another day.

Yep, those are my shoes in the last 14 square feet of subfloor showing.

Today, I can officially say, the project has been completed! Here are photos from either corner of the same great room.

Chickens and Major Guest House Progress

Major progress on the guest house over the weekend.


Actually this part happened a two weeks ago. Every thing got moved out and covered with gigantic tarps so that the dry-wallers could get it done....

...and they did. Dry wall with texture upstairs and smooth in the garage. Fast forward to this weekend. Here is Sara Saturday spraying the entire joint with primer.

Me prepping the windows and Sara spraying primer upstairs. Noticed the amount of paint floating in the air, hence the sexy masks.

Sara did the cutting and I did the rolling. We knocked it out on Sunday.

A finished product by Sunday night. Sara had Monday off so she installed the bathroom cork floor and the entry way tile.

After all that we still had time to have a little fun this weekend as well. Sherry and John had us over for a Sunday night celebration BBQ. Bingo celebrated by meeting their 28 chickens. Apparently meeting that many chickens is exhausting for a dog because she slept ALL day today. She couldn't even bother to get out from under this annoying pillow.

Major Progress, Mini Vacation

Mom and Dad came to town for their annual Spring Break Celebration. There were no bikinis, beach volleyball or blended drinks with little umbrellas but good times and good food were had by all. With a crazy work week I was only able to take one day off but we made the best of it by going half way to Sisters and then turned around due to winter weather road conditions and no chains. We did find this beautiful dam and had a photo opp. The rest of the week we ate a lot of really good food and watched season 1 of Weeds. Hmm, I wonder if watching that show was why we ate so much.

On our trip to Sisters I found "One Tree Hill." Dad and Gabby spent some quality time on the couch.

Major progress was made in the downstairs bathroom. Toilet installed, sink and bathtub installed, cork floor mortared, grouted and sealed.

The carpet has officially been installed. Here is a shot of how good the dogs were during the process. Looks good, eh!?

Living room & upstairs bedroom.

Downstairs from a few different angles.

The insulation is done in the guest house. Drywall is slated for later this week.

We spent last weekend prepping Big Blue to put on the market. From these pics I am reminded of why we bought her in the first place. So, that was two weeks worth of work and one mini vacation. Expect pics of an almost completed guest house on the next blog.