The Bathroom Sink

The bathroom sink.

Did I mention it has a clog?  Yes - it stopped draining well a few weeks ago.  And after two applications of liquid plumber, it still backs up regularly.

Me and home appliances and repairs.  We have such a great time together.

I mentioned this to Gloria, my now friend who owns this house and who lives below.  This morning we spent some time trying to unclog it.

When us two get together to try to do any "around-the-house" stuff we usually get along just fine and figure things out.  It's fun and I like to learn about this type of stuff.  But sometimes you just need a man around.  There is a third tenant to this house.  He is male.  But...not the man a woman needs when her sinks are clogged and the dishwasher is broken and the pipes are frozen, or the snowblower won't start.  He just resides and is.  That's about it.

This time we were not successful in our Saturday morning fix-it's!  In fact - we made it worse!  Lol.  Now the sink is full of standing, dirty water and won't drain a bit.  Before it took only a couple of minutes to drain.  We tried plunging it.  Worse.  We tried unscrewing the pipes (Kim, did you get my voicemail?).  Worse.

Eh, we'll get it figured out one of these near days.

I am very grateful I am friends and live in the same house as Gloria.  She makes me feel like I don't live alone.  We like to keep tabs on each other.  It's always nice when someone wants you to know where they are at.  It makes you feel needed and wanted.  Yes, I am glad we are friends. 

This past week has been full of grey days. Very overcast. I'm afraid that some of those grey tones have seeped inside. I've lived in my place since last November. Since then I let a really nice AC unit fall out of a second story window, the vacuum fried up on me while I was using it - kaput, it started smoking and everything, and this week I might have broken the dishwasher due to my stupidity. What's next? I have laughed at all these mishaps - but today I have become tired of laughing at myself. It's getting expensive. I was suppose to hear back on a bid today - a job I desparately need. I didn't hear a word. Maybe Monday. Until then I'm crawling into bed and staying hidden under the covers until the sun decides to come out. Besides, then I can't break anything.

Transcript

I stumbled upon my college transcript the other day while I was working on my student's grades.

I graduated with a Bachelors of Science: Horticulture with an emphasis of Landscape and Urban Horticulture.  As I was going through my grades for the major, I had to laugh.

Living with Plants: B-
Residential Landscape Design: B+
Interior Landscapes: B
Landscape Bidding and Estimating: B+
Principles of Accounting: F (and that's not for "Fantastic")
Spreadsheet skills: F
Soil Science: C
Soil Science Lab: B+
Autocad/Drafting: W
Arboriculture: B-
Field Botany: C+
Floral Design: C-
Plant Material : B+

(Did you get any A's????!!!)

Yes - a few:
Plant Community Design: A
Landscape Design Graphics: A
Landscape Structures: A

(All of the above courses were taught by the same professor, take note)

Oh - I also got an A in:
Fly Tying
Violin Lessons
Basic Equestrian
Tennis
Canoeing
Bluegrass Ensemble

It's funny - my professors remember me as an "A" student - never mind taking off school for two+ weeks to go to Brazil during competition.  I don't think I'll remind them that I likely pulled a B or a C in their class (I did that the other day - eeehhhh....)

Well - four years later and I am running my own business in my field, and back at BYU...teaching.  So yeah, grades are overrated.  Just love what you do.  Unless you are going to grad school and want to get into a great program....then yeah - you probably wouldn't want any "F's" or "C's" your transcript.  (Although I was more or less verbally accepted to a program for an MLA if I wanted to get a graduate degree, meh).

Big Horn Sheep Tracking

Last Saturday I drove out to Tooele to track Big Horn Sheep.  My good friends dad tracks them as a part-time job and he was gracious enough to let me come along for the adventure.

We headed out - probably later than a Big Horn Sheep Tracker would prefer.....(10 a.m.)...me, Brooke (7 months pregnant) Mr. White...the owner of the tracking device, and their dog (oh my I forgot his name, but he eats icecream cones in record time). 

While we were driving out to the Stansbury (?) Mountains I was able to ask any question I wanted to in relation to the Big Horn Sheep.  It was very educational and I was delighted to learn more about these amble creatures. 

Once we got near the mountains we pulled out the tracking sheet and the tracking device.

I got to be the record keeper for the excursion and write down where we found the signal for each BHS, and the strength of the signal.  All the sheep have collars on them with a tracking device, each programmed to a different station.  We scanned through the stations until we heard a beep that would come every second.  If it was double that, the sheep may be dead. 

We never heard a double beep.

This is where we found a bunch hanging out.  It took me a second to adjust to being able to find them through the binoculars...

Brookie and her pops.

These BHS were transported via the air from Antelope Island - they spread them out to avoid inbreeding, diseases and the like.  There are basically two different phenotypes, and the "type" a sheep ends up being is dependent really on the environment in which they live.  I think the first type is considered "Maintain" (Oh my - if you are Brooke's father and you are reading this I am embarrassed that I forgot).  Basically this sheep lives in a place of little food.  Therefore, he adjusts his habits and "lifestyle", if you will, to these conditions.  He is more conservative.  He lives within his means.  As a result he may live to be a ripe 16 years old!  The other phenotype is "Varied" (I could be making the name for this "type" up too).  This sheep lives in a land of abundance, more or less, and is pretty carefree (except predators of course).  They are more rambunctious, liberal, and roudy.  These guys have a shorter life span - maybe 12-13 years.

All Big Horn Sheep have yellowish eyes.

We went to the East, North and West sides of the Stansbury Mountains - and found all but a few of the sheep that were on the list.

Compost in action!  Always a fun sight to see.

When we got back to Brooke's, there was a delicious lunch waiting for us - then we talked about bees.  Brooke and her dad are bee charmers!  I got to see their hives and learn more about bee keeping.  Something that I would love to take up as a hobby.

Maybe

I haven't wanted to post in a while....I guess since February 09th.  I am always writing in my head - I post a lot there...but whenever the thought of sitting down to tap tap tap (tapioca everybody!) it out on the keyboard, I become like dredge.

DReDGe........blaaahhhhhh.

I am really tired of dark colors.  I walk into my closet and find a lot of cold blues, cold browns, cold greens, cold purples, cold blacks.....those are my staples and I want to throw them all out!

But then I would be like the emperor.  Although, I am sure being an emperor he could afford some new garb.

My blog template was a reflection of my wardrobe.  Dark.  Cold.  Deep.  Sometimes a bit too reflective.  You know what I mean?  It's like - okay already!  You've thought long enough!  It didn't make me happy anymore when I logged in to write something.

So I switched.  (But there's green and brown and blue in your template still!)

Ya ya.  But there are monsters!  And there's a heart, and birds, and stars.   And it doesn't feel gloomy.  That's the main point.  We'll see how long this template lasts - I might look for something a but sunnier.  But for now - I love it.  And I hope you love it too.  And that the little red devil reminds you that sometimes when we are not our best selves, it's really just a costume and not the true us.  Because really, we are an awesome blue monster underneath that red devil suit.