Africa Baby!!!

Oh yeah - that's right... I am back home from an absolutely amazing trip to Tanzania!!  And you'd think after spending 40 plus hours in airports and on planes (including an unexpected trip to Twin Falls, Idaho) and taking a lovely hot shower and having a nice soft bed with clean sheets waiting for me that I could sleep.  But alas, a week of convincing my body that 1 am in Salt Lake is 10 am in Tanzania seems to have taken a stronger hold than I expected!  So a couple of the over 700 pictures I've taken during the last 10 or so days!

More to come!!!  But I now feel the urge to go curl up under the covers...

Are you kidding me?

It was 70 degrees yesterday... and the day before...  seriously Mother Nature, this is getting down right rude...

One of THOSE days...

Let me start by saying that one of my goals this year is to run a half marathon - not just finish, but run the whole 13.1 miles.  It's hard for me to run during the winter, and this winter has been harder than usual - fighting constants colds and sinus problems and then it has been way, way cold.  I've been trying to get back to running at least 3 times a week and for many reasons, it just hasn't happened.  One of my road blocks has been the showers at work - last year it took 10 to 15 minutes for the water to warm up, and this year it's just been cold.  I've started turning on the shower as soon as I get back in the building with great hopes for warm water, only to be disappointed.  So yesterday, I struggled to get up and get to work and get things going and then go running.  Then I almost took an asphalt digger while running.  Then I get back to work and turn on the shower, close the door and go into the lab to do what I need to do and get my stuff.  Back to the shower room, only to find that I locked the door, with the shower running mind you.  Back to the lab to find my friend Ashley and see if by any chance she knows how to pick a lock.  We decide that it shouldn't be that hard to pick a lock, so we get what we think are tools of the trade and head to the shower.  Picking locks is not as easy as they make it look in movies and on TV shows - I would love to learn how to pick locks (solely for the purpose of picking locked shower doors, of course).  The closest I got was almost breaking off one of my paper clips in the lock.  So Ashley heads upstairs to look for Bart, one of our building maintenance people, while I continue to attempt picking.  Bart, I'm sure loving that he has something else he can give me a hard time about, breaks into 3 offices looking for the master key.  We, meaning Bart, finally get the door open and I finally get into the shower, only to find the water temperature is room temp - which at least is not cold, right?  I then discover that I forgot to pack a towel.  Drying off without a towel is not easy.  Later I discovered I'd left my lunch at home.  Arrrrgggghhhh....

Coincidence or not??

A few years ago I got to go to Peru with these lovely ladies - it was one of my favorite trips.  I know B from work and got to meet her sister C and cousins L and L on this trip and I just had so much fun with them (swedish fish anyone? cards? how many flights can get cancelled during a single trip??!).  I was talking to B today at work and a few things started to fall into place.  If I remember right, we were all single on this trip with few prospects...  at one of the cathedrals in Cusco, a resourceful guide took us to an alcove and introduced us to a patron saint for single women.  I forget who it was and a google search comes up with St. Agatha and St. Catherine and St. Andrew and St. Anne and St. Emily and... and... and... so maybe she was telling us the truth, maybe not.  Anyways, if memory serves, B and L and L all jokingly stepped up to this saint's statue or made remarks about leaving the saint an offering and C and I kind of stepped back.  One of the L's got married not so long after that and B got married a few months ago and just told me today that the other L is engaged and getting married in a few months... and C and I are... not.  

Hmmm.... coincidence or not??

Holly Jolly Season...

This Christmas was a little different for me.  It was the first one I've spent without family.  I am grateful for the good friends who adopted me and let me share in their family Christmas traditions!  I spent Christmas Eve with a dear family - and enjoyed a wonderful meal, sharing favorite Christmas traditions and memories (mine - the Monday before Christmas my family would always go Christmas caroling - more about that further down...) and worst Christmas memory (mine - Christmas when I was in 6th grade - I had the chicken pox... bad and then I got a staph infection in my pox so they didn't scab over, which resulted in outie chicken pox scars, which a doctor later tried to convince me were really cigarette burns - nice, huh?), reading the Christmas story from the Bible, and singing Christmas carols accompanied by the piano and trombone, all accompanied by much laughing and caring - it was really a lovely evening!

On Christmas morning, I made my way across the street and opened presents and had breakfast with another fun family - I got a kick out of watching the kiddos open their presents:

And Benny the cat really enjoyed the curling ribbon on one of my presents:

And sweet little girl had to come back to my house and help me finish opening my presents here!!

All in all, while different and quieter than my usual Christmas', it was still a good day!!

On another topic... the last few weeks, for various reasons, have been tough.  First I tried dealing with it by eating therapy - only encouraged by all the lovely, delicious treats that magically appear on my doorstep

It is only with a tiny bit of shame I admit that this is only a small bit of the goodies that occupied my treat drawer that is now just about empty....

Next, I tried retail therapy

which then led to baking therapy

These are loaves of Cinnamon Orange Bread - now let me tell you about Mom's cinnamon orange bread.  Simply, it is one of the best things on the planet.  Period.  I love this stuff.  So much that when my first 4 (yes, that is correct - FOUR) batches didn't turn out (bad yeast - you know the sugar test?  where the volume is suppose to double in 10-15 minutes?  Yeah... try way over an hour - which made me feel better that I wasn't completely clueless in the kitchen), I had to consult with the fount of all wisdom - Mom, because I was determined to get it right and share some of this lovely, delectable treat with my neighbors and friends.  Mom always made this for neighbors and friends during Christmas.  In fact - back to the Robinson Christmas caroling tradition - people who let us sing Christmas carols to them... and we are not good singers, we have enthusiasm and desire, but in all reality, we are just not singers (how many people have had their choir teachers ask them to please only mouth the words?  More than 1 Robinson...) would be rewarded for their patience and endurance with a loaf of cinnamon orange bread.  When I was packing up the house for the big remodel, I found a loaf in the freezer that even once thawed, was hard as a rock - we're talking serious freezer burn.  But this is so good that to waste it would have broken the 13th commandment (Moses just never had the pleasure - didn't know what he was missing!)... so I got out the electric knife and carved off pieces and toasted them and ate every last crumb.  So now I have some to share - or not ....

weekends and snow?

People often eagerly ask me on Mondays what I did over the weekend - like I have these amazing and exotic adventures on the weekends just because I'm single.  This cracks me up because I probably have the most the mundane weekends of anyone I know!  Seriously, weekends are my try-to-get-caught-up days - housework, yardwork, laundry, and if I'm feeling really wild and crazy, grocery shopping.  Just to prove my point - I recently spent a Friday night cleaning up and organizing my garage so I can actually park my car in the garage (so nice not to have to scrape the windshield in the early cold morning!!)

And so now that my car is in the garage and my new snowboots arrived (how cute are these??!!)

I figure this means it's not going to snow anymore this winter in Salt Lake!!

I'm alive... promise...

Do you ever go through those phases where you just don't want to deal... with anything?  I have been stuck in one of those ruts - just haven't even wanted to look at the computer when I'm at home, let alone blog or post anything on Facebook or email or anything at all... And so not to overdo it and exhaust myself in a return to social media - just a few pictures from the last little while...

Yeah, this poor dog has a rough life... no one ever wants to pet her, she always gets ignored... just no love at all (this was at the state cross-country meet and was not the first or last group of people who stopped us!)

Kirk, Luci and the boys were in town on my birthday - we'll skip how old, but apparently I needed help blowing out the candles!!  And I just have to add, this is the little twerp who was dying for bunk beds and now won't sleep on the top bunk!!  Good thing the twerp is so much darn fun!

And finally... it snowed... a whole bunch this weekend...  I always think of my sister Sara when it snows like this and how she'd have us out sledding or tubing or doing something in the snow!!  Now if I could just find my snow boots... 

And can I just say I live on a great street... all day I was dreading shoveling snow when I got home from work - I shoveled twice yesterday! - and I got home and a kind soul had shoveled my sidewalk and driveway, and later I came home and yet another kind soul had shoveled the huge pile of snow left by the snow plow on my driveway... so very grateful to the good people who look out for me!!

New vs old house pictures

Okay... maybe a final house post?  I make no promises, but now that most of the boxes are "put away" (i.e. hidden in the closet if I didn't know what to do with all the precious treasures inside...) and there's curtains up and rugs out and books and movies on shelves, so I thought some before and after pictures were in order...

The front room looking to the back:

BEFORE

AFTER:

The master bedroom upstairs:

BEFORE

AFTER:

Front room looking to the front:

BEFORE

AFTER

Front room looking toward the kitchen:
BEFORE

AFTER

Kitchen:
BEFORE

AFTER

And the bathroom they kindly finished for me...

Stairs down to basement:

BEFORE

AFTER

Basement looking towards the bedroom:
BEFORE

AFTER

Basement bedroom:

BEFORE

AFTER

Storage area/new bedroom:
BEFORE

AFTER

More storage and furnace/new bathroom:

BEFORE

AFTER

Basement looking towards stairs and laundry room:

BEFORE

AFTER

Basement...
BEFORE

AFTER

Old laundry room/new utility room
BEFORE

AFTER

 And that about covers the inside...
A guy was here a week ago taking pictures and kept telling me how clean and organized everything was... I finally had to open a closet to show him it was all just an illusion!

Open House on October 5th from 6 to 8 pm... feel free to drop in!