Our bathroom

For awhile now we have known that we have a problem with our shower. We joke that each day might be the day that one of us ends up in the garage while toweling off. I don't know how you decide that today is the day when you have been talking about the need to "do something" for months (or even years) but last night that moment arrived and we spent some quality time on demolition. We figure that if we have to replace rotting studs and moldy tile, we might as well just rip the whole bathroom out and get rid of all the dated and ugly gems the previous owners chose. Peach tile - going; hideous shower with fake stain glass decals on the door - going. We will also redo the whole sink area and the floor throughout the bathroom. One of my serious pet peeves was their idea that carpeting in front of the sink area was a good idea. Of course, being do it ourselvers... we expect to be showering elsewhere in the house for months....A satisfyingly large hunk of the peach tile.

two pictures

Catherine and friends trying to cheer themselves up during a crap day on the slopes. As the paper said today: "eastern snow conditions" which means icy.

I took this off facebook - one of Sam's friends snapped them on one of their evening rambles through the neighborhood. Snow is just a memory at the moment. We have been hit with positively balmy weather which feels odd.

A tale of two habitats

Last Sunday Daniel, Nancy and I went to Descanso Gardens and it looked like this. Temperate walking through camellia bushes and then koi ponds.
A few days earlier I snapped this picture of Ian and Judith trekking in Millcreek Canyon up the road from me.

Firsts

I realized yesterday that I have never actually rented a car by myself. Now I have. Also, I have never used a GPS, and now I have. I am loving that for LA driving. It is very reassuring to have someone tell me exactly what to do. As for LA, I know it is much maligned, but I am enjoying my visit so far. It is so temperate here. As I write this I am sitting outdoors in a courtyard at the Pasadena Hilton.

It must be a slow news day when....

all university employees receive and email that begins:

Meaningful and exciting changes have been made to the way W-2 forms
are now available to University of Utah Faculty and Staff.

Photo cop out

In lieu of an actual post, here is a lovely picture of Catherine last week in San Francisco.

Long time no blog

A few items to catch up on:

1) The kids left for California on Sunday and that evening Craig and I checked into a hotel downtown that features real tempurpedic beds. My little empiricist determined to try out a possible replacement for our perfectly fine bed. The next morning we awoke and agreed that we had had a legendarily uncomfortable night. But my little empiricist decided a second night was needed to be sure and we needed to bring our own pillows. I suggested we bring our own sheets and blankets for the best controlled experiment but we stuck with pillows only. Morning two after another uncomfortable night and I am safe in the knowledge that we do not have to invest a few thousand in that new bed.

However, at that point I noticed that we had been sleeping with these two folks staring down at us and began to wonder if anyone could sleep well under these beady eyes.....

2) We had a lovely new years eve dinner over at Dave and Val's and talk turned to the bed problem. Another guest and Dave introduced Craig to the idea that he should convert to being a back sleeper. So, he gave it a try last night and seems to like our bed better now.