Megan Ski Jumps (at age 11)

I found this video on my computer at work that a friend sent back when Megan was ski racing for BBSEF in Boise. Figured it was time to post before I lost track of said video. She went the farthest of the J4 girls. I think she was 11 years old.

Mom's 90th Birthday Party

My mom, Barb, turned 90 this October. Making it to 30 was an ordeal for me and many thought I'd never get there. Making it to 90 and still walking on your own most of the time and living with a minimum of assistance is an epic undertaking. Mom and Dad are moving much slower and live at a retirement complex with assisted living options. They have their own apartment and mom still putters in the kitchen and makes some breakfasts and an occasional lunch or dinner. Most dining is done in the dining room at Primrose, where they live in Illinois. Dad needs quite a bit of assistance and now uses a cart he drives through the hallways and can take to the elevator to go downstairs for meals. He's a real terror in that thing!
My brother and I fly home every October to check up on mom and dad, and to celebrate mom's birthday. This year, however, was more special. We asked her if she had a preference on cake and she said she wanted angel food with burnt sugar frosting. This was something my brother recalled more from his childhood, than I did. A neighbor in Missouri used to make burnt sugar cake with burnt sugar frosting so he was pretty excited to have me find someone who could do something similar. The onus was put upon me, my sister in law Virginia and my best friend Anne to find the perfect bakery to concoct said cake. Well, Anne put in a call to her mom, who happens to be one of my mom's best friends. Donna, Anne's mom, knew of a bakery called Lana's in Decatur that might be able to do this.
Next stop was paying Lana a visit, where we found out she could indeed make us the cake but she'd never made the frosting. An elderly woman who was 95 came in and heard us discussing the frosting and said she knew the recipe and even knew how to make burnt sugar cakes. Between her and an internet search, Lana knew she could deliver. And believe me, when we picked up the cake the day of mom's birthday and then had that first bite after birthday dinner party, we knew we'd been "done right" by Lana.
To Lana's credit, she had her bakery decorated with a pumpkin sporting potato head adornments, so you can imagine how delighted I was to do business with Lana. Plus, she made my brother a burnt sugar cake he picked up the day after I left.
The angel food cake was a real hit with mom at her birthday party, but the coup d'gras was the Tiara I picked up for her to wear. Anyone over the age of 50 probably saw at least one episode of "Queen For a Day" on TV growing up in the 60's. I don't remember who the host was. If it wasn't Bob Barker, it should have been (aka Truth or Consequences host). In fact he went to college with my mom. Another story for another day. Well, Jan picked up a birthday card with Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth on it. We got other folks to sign the card from Barry O, Shelly O and Liz as a joke. We gave her the card prior to the cake and then brought out the Tiara. Mom was beside herself, and enjoyed all this joking and attention with great gusto.
We had eleven of us at the dinner: me, Jan, mom and dad, my step brother Jim, his wife Virginia, my best friend Anne and her husband David, Anne's mom Donna, and lifelong family friend Bob and his new wife Mary. It was a stellar evening that capped a great day, all day for mom. We managed to dole out birthday cards all day long to her prior to the dinner.
Jan says I've created a monster with the Tiara as mom was prancing around in the dining area at Primrose the next day at lunch showing off her Tiara and even wearing her corsage we had made for her.
I guess we done right by mom.

Boise State vs Air Force

Okay, I'm posting long after this game occurred, but there is a small tale be told. While waiting in the Boise airport on Thursday October 20 to catch a flight to Denver and on to Chicago the plane I'd be going out on arrived. Coming off the ramp was most of the Air Force football team, slated to play the BSU Bronco team on Saturday the 22nd. Air Force had a 3-3 win/loss thus far and is a formidable foe. They always "show up" to play. While the money was certainly on the Broncos to win, there was no doubt this would be a great game. The de-planing cadets included this young cadet in casual blues with the team mascot resting on his arm. The Peregrin Falcon is the Air Force mascot, and unlike Boise State's man in a horse suit Buster Bronco, they bring the "real deal". The falcon had flown on the plane in the cabin with the cadet. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in public and certainly not expected at the Boise Airport.

Goodbye 14, Hello 15

Well, my daughter is a 9th grader this year and today is her birthday. The years have flown by quicker than I thought. Of course, there are those days when you wish they'd fly by slower, and others that go on forever.
Megan and her closer friend Brett are celebrating their 15th birthday together on Saturday with a huge party at Brett's parents house who are graciously hosting. I'm in charge of the cake and these photos will appear on that cake. Brett and Megan are dear friends at Junior High and also play club soccer for the same club, though different U-15 teams. Tommorrow nights shindig will include a dozen boys (who will be made to leave at 11 p.m.) and a dozen girls who will be sleeping over under the supervision of Brett's parents. They are having a big bonfired and will eat and giggle and enjoy themselves to the hilt, I'm sure.

City of Rocks-it Rocks Out!

Okay, so the short story is this. Last Friday it was raining cats and frogs in Boise. In Idaho Falls where Little Yonni and Susun reside it was snowing to beat the band, as they say in Midwestern parlance. Kind of reminds me of parlaying in Pirates of the Caribbean, but I digress. Suffice to say that Little Yonni was way stressed about trying to back his pickup and pop-up camper out from under a dearth of snow and branches; or finalizing his rigging to get he and missus to COR on Friday late afternoon for a rendevous.
I had already arranged for a dog and chicken sitter to tend to my hearth and flock so was inclined to get out of Dodge, as they say. I decided to call my brother and sister in law in Rupert at the family farm to see if they'd put up with for a night and they graciously and enthusiastically agreed I could come and hang out.
So, all packed up I left Boise and figured I'd meet up with Yonni and Susun at COR on Saturday around 11:30 to noon. An enjoyable evening was spent with Steve and Marcy at the farm joined by Willie, Waylon and Vanna the cats, and also the beloved 10 year old border collie mutt named Callie who squeals a whimper that is both endearing and annoying at the same time. But I adore her.
After a breakfast of fresh peaches and berries with cereal I headed off to Almo, the remote spot in MOAN country where the does and bucks are nervous. Much to my surprise Yonni and Susun had pulled in only about 60 seconds or less prior to me. They accused me of spying on them when I rolled in.
We headed on out after maps and a pit stop to look for a campsite. It would seem that despite the plethora of climbing clientele, that folks had quickly tired of three days of rain and snow. Campsites appeared full and we went up to a higher site only to find excess snow to the tune of 6 inches on the picnic table and drowning in moisture and snowy wonder at the tent location. I wasn't particularly enthused at this option. Yonni and I left Susun to hold this less than desirable camp and we headed back to below snow line to look at other options I'd identified previously. As luck would have it, the climbers were sick and tired of being cold and frozen and rained upon for the past three days, most of them without any kind of fire wood, so camps were being evacuated. That was good news for us as we snagged one that I'd identified as highly desirable. Well, it turned out it was more than that. We had 360 degree panorama vistas, shelter from wind, morning sun and a flat spot for Montezuma family to park their pop up camper truck. I was in hog heaven, actually. I don't typically camp in formal campgrounds and this was hands down the best developed campsite with a picnic table and fire pit/grate I'd ever been to. I kid you not!. I even went on video to proclaim this, but Yonni hasn't put it on U tube boob yet, so it might show up later on this blob of a blog.

Well, all I can tell you is we had 48 hours of the most incredible break in weather known to camping/hiking mankind and we made the most of it by hiking all around the place. Yonni had a better description and I'll try to link to his blog when I remember how to do that.
We saw climber on the Bumblie trail loop and we hiked up on an adjacent rock dome near our camp with amazing pot holes full of snow melt and we could see lots of snow on Independence Mtn and Cassia Peak along with Mtn Harrison near Pomerelle Ski area. Hiking was superb. Coyotes sang us to sleep and the full moon almost, came up on our Sunday evening under the night sky. Susuan serenaded us with her version of Dancing with the Susun and her hippie dippie lava light tubes. I brought enough wood from my firewood pile at home to keep us in good stead for the full two day of camping.
We met folks from Bozeman, Banff in Alberta, and Boise, Nampa and even Colorado who come to hang out. All of them by and large were climbers but they were appreciative that were hikers not climbers but loved what they do. We met horse people on the trail around Bumblie on Sunday.
The difference between COR and Great Basin National Park was the difference between night and day. I didn't see a single "ranger" with law enforcement authority, nor did I see rangers or personnel per se at all except at the visitor center. We saw some state of Idaho Parks Dept folks who all waved and were convivial and they never bothered or harassed anyone.This was in stark opposition to my experience at Great Basin where I was ticketed for supposed speeding within less than 5 minutes of crossing into the boundary of the park. The Visitor Center Park service employee at Almo was amazingly knowledgeable and helpful unlike the staff at Great Basin. This guy knew everything. But then again, he was easily 30 year older than the staffer at Great Basin. And even the older staff we met seemed clueless.
My experience here was stellar. The scenery was superior to anything Great Basin has to offer and far less hassle. I plan to come back again same time next year. I'd been here at least 6 times since it became a joint NPS/State Park venture. I think the NPS should consider this model more often. Great Basin doesn't deserve National Park status and should probably be a monument or reserve and they need to unwind all their regulations which are overkill.

All Work and No Play Makes a Girl Tired

Saturday was filled with soccer games for Megan and then doing starting the process of stacking green wood while listening to the Boise State vs Nevada Wolfpack game on the radio. BSU beat them 30-10 with one TD run for 92 yards that was called back. There was a lot of penalties for needless roughing and holding during this game, and the Broncos made mistakes they can't afford to make. Consequently when the polls came out on Sunday they dropped from 4th to either 5th or 6th depending on which poll. Of course, there are some surprise teams making headway like Wisconsin and Clemson moving up and folks like TCU out of the polls now, and big drops for Virginia Tech. I love watching who goes undefeated. BSU's hopes of a BCS championship game are probably not real viable this year with all the teams they play getting trounced by teams they shouldn't be losing to. So I'm betting on a Rose Bowl berth that they lost out on last year. We shall see.

Sunday was spent grousing over finding my sprinkler system valve boxes and electrical had flooded and shorted out. I'm guessing strongly the pipe that feeds them was crushed by the nimrods who cut my trees last week and appear to have rolled a several hundred pounds stump grinder within two inches of said boxes, which had been marked to avoid. So I've got a call into the tree cutters boss regarding this issue, though of course, they have an escape clause to not be responsible. And some other tree cutting work and stump removal was not done. Then it was time to clean out the gutters completely to get ready for rain, rake out all the yard debris the wood cutters didn't clean up, and water some places with the garden hose, which took quite a bit. Bush trimming and some other work took up 6 hours and I was totally whooped. A neighbor stopped by to help roll log rounds over to my wood pile stacking area where these new pieces will sit for a few years curing. I covered the wood piles with a brand new tarp. They usually only make it one winter. Then there was the issue of sufficiently cleaning up my garage to get the SUV in. I also recycled some little kids outdoor lawn chairs to a neighbor with one toddle and one due this Thursday. Figured they could use them.

So now it's back to work for the week and packing at O-dark Thirty this coming Thursday evening after Megan's soccer practice in order to leave Friday afternoon to meet Mr and Mrs Montezuma at City of Rocks for what hopefully will turn out to be sunny and crips fall weather after what's looking to be three to four days of rain and high elevation snow. Wish us well.