Cub Scouts

Chris and I are the wolve den leaders in our local scout troop. Last night we had a pack meeting and gave away 47 awards. Our kids are doing great - and we finally figured out how to do this whole award thing!

At the end of the pack meeting, we had a raingutter regatta and raced vegetable boats. Chris and I both made a few boats in case the boys didn't make one or forgot or didn't know or whatever. Turns out it was a good idea. Chris's was a good idea anyway. One of mine was too wide, and the other sank! So here's Chris with his amazing cucumber boat. He was so proud! Then we were done and he tossed it in the trash. He's not the most sentimental person in the world.





Remember my Zucchini post? Well, I found another use for zucchini from the garden. Boats. Unfortunately, the zucchini I used from my garden became the boat that sank. They definitely taste better than they race.

All American Outing

Last friday night, Chris and I were at a loss for what to do. We didn't want to go spend any money, but didn't want to just sit at home either. So we jumped on our bikes and rode around the nightborhood for a little bit, then continued down the street towards Main Street. When we got there, we saw lights on at the park and rode down to see what was going on. There was a baseball game going on, so we took some time and enjoyed the game on a perfect (and beautiful) night. I felt so American. It was awesome. I love my little town.



Shanny reminded me of the sign outside a motorcycle bar on Main Street. We rode past and saw it and I had to tell someone... so I called Shanny. It says "Now beer is cheaper than gas. So drink, don't drive." I don't agree with it, but it was creative. I say drink water because it's cheaper than beer and gas. And ride a bike so you need no gas (see the hobbyhorse post below). :)

Oh, and here's an eggplant update. Eggplant amaze me.

Gitcherself a Hobbyhorse

If you know me at all, you'll know that I go through phases of rediculous obsession with things. Right now, I am currently obsessed with (the word seems a little strong, but can't thing of anything more appropriate) biking, my garden, reading, and, as always, cool pens and notebooks. My mom always teases me about the pens and notebooks, but hey... I'm an artist/graphic designer. What do you expect? And when I am obsessed with something, I like to learn all I can about it. So... today you get to hear a little bit about the bike.

Last year, Chris and I got new mountain bikes and spent a lot of time riding and finding cool places to go. We even went to Zions and biked one of the funnest trails ever (I forget the name of it!)



My first bike was a hand me down from Joel... who got it from Nate. With each hand me down, we got to paint it the color of our choice. (Can't remember my choice of color. Red? Or was that what it was when I got it from Joel?)

Da Vinci sketched an idea of a bike out in the 1400s but it never left the paper. The first bike (1800s) had no pedals. It was like a Flintstones bike. In France, they made the "velocipede" which had the pedals on the front wheel. They called it the boneshaker because it was made of wood and had metal tires and the streets were paved with cobblestones.



One of the first models of the bike was called the hobbyhorse. I found a site that showed a group of men in the army in Montana (Fort Missoula) that rode bikes. Their longest trek was 1,900 miles to St. Louis, Missouri. On bike. 1,900 miles? That's a lot of gas saved. Thus, a lot of money saved. Maybe even enough to buy my dream bike.

So anyway... living in Magna has really helped Chris and me use our bikes more often. We ride them to the track to go running, to the neighbors, scouts, Nate and Shanny's, etc.

There's a program on Trekbikes.com called One World Two Wheels that advocates riding a bike and keeping your car parked when you travel two miles or less. They say that 40% of all car trips are two miles or less.

So that's my goal. Jump on my hobbyhorse for anything less than two miles away. Except church. Nylons and a skirt on a bike is something I've already chosen to pass up. Otherwise, I'd ride to work. No thanks. Oh... and an FYI to any Magnitas wanting to ride their bike to the store: Smith's has no bike rack. I found that out the other day.

These are my dream bikes. Dream because they are $3,500+. Like I said, you've gotta save a lot of gas for that.





drool

Garden Update

My garden has been growing, and we've started using vegetables out of it for dinner. Mostly zucchini, yellow squash, herbs and even some strawberries. I have an eggplant and cucumber that's about ready to be used, too. Here are a few pics of how it's growing. Tomatoes: not so good. Spaghetti squash: real good.





The carrots are growing well, too. I had to thin them the other day because I just scattered the seeds when I planted them. So some were really close together, and here's how they look now... only in the ground.

Bad Mouse!

A friend of mine introduced me to Avalanche Software Artists' blog. I've been marveling over their talent pretty much all week and I'm sure continue to marvel into the coming weeks. I've been inspired to break out the pencils and (aah!) the imagination for myself. Considering I have done basically nothing for the past 8 years or so, I'm a little rusty.

I decided to pull out my sketchbook and one of the first things I attempted was a cute little mouse. Here's how the sketch turned out.



The mouse didn't turn out very cute. Or nice. He looks kind of bitter. Like he was created just a little too late and missed his big chance at fame. As if there are any famous cartoon mice out there anyway, right? Maybe I'll stick a wedge of cheese between his little paws and he'll brighten up a bit. At least it looks like a mouse. Doesn't it look like a mouse? Kinda??

Zucchini #1 of X

Who ever said you'll never use algebra? I just used it on my blog. Ha! So last night, Chris and I ate the very first of the who knows how many (X amount!) zucchinis from our garden.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with this first zucchini of the season... which worries me a little bit. I'm in trouble if the first one gave me a hard time... cuz I'm going to have to figure out what to do with X amount of zucchinis all season!



I decided on making a pizza with this first zucchini. Enter a short story: Last summer, Chris and I went to Zion NP and ate pizza at that little pizza joint in Springdale. We ordered the "Good for You" pizza and loved it. So we've attempted to make it a few times and it's turned out super rica. So that's what we made last night. For anyone who might want to know... I used a boboli crust, bertolli mushroom spaghetti sauce (it has real chunks of mushrooms in it), put artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and sauteed zucchini and onions. I topped it with just a little bit of parmesan and muzzarella cheeses. MMM... so good. We added the cheese on top... which kind of kills the "good for you" idea, but it only helped the taste. Trust me... it tasted as good as it looked. :)