Happy Bastille Day!!!!

I just realized today was Bastille Day and although many people think it's trendy to hate the French...I love them. Yahooie for France and its independence day! (Although, I don't follow much of their politics and I'm sure if I did I'd like them less. I did hear that the current President Sarkozy discontinued some of the presidential traditions for Bastille Day, what a stick in the mud.) I've been to Paris twice but never in summer and never on Bastille Day but I'm happy for them all the same. All the pictures from my first visit are in shoe boxes or albums and I don't have a scanner. Most of my pictures from my second visit have an unwanted face smiling at me in them. I did manage to scrounge up some good ones to show just a few of the great things in Paris. (There are so many more!) You should all go, or go again. Paris is marvelous and it's a place where once you go, you just know you'll be back again. It's just so full of...of everything! Paris is full of museums... (this is The Louvre) And those museums are full of art. The most amazing art too! The museums aren't just full of art, they're surrounded by art. (this is The Rodin museum. I can't remember what it is, but it looks to me like there's a bottom in that fountain...)Paris is full of churches...famous ones!And the churches are full of art too...(actually they're usually covered in art) Paris is full of history... and there's a view of it every direction you look. (This was taken out of my hotel window. The one at the very top was taken off the top of Notre Dame) Paris is full of life...even the homeless people look like they're having a good time...I think... or maybe just the birds are. Paris is full of food you love... (this was before my obsession with photographing my meals but you're crazy if you think I never took a picture of the CHEESE!!!!) Paris is full of food you've never tried before...like horse meat... (no lie there is horse meat in this picture)And Paris is full of good memories... Thank You France for storming the Bastille all those years ago, being independent and letting tourists in your country to see all your cool stuff! Especially in Paris.

An outdoorsy kind of weekend...the best kind there is!

It was Jake's last "off shift" over the 4th of July weekend. He's working his last week at work now and will be leaving for Oklahoma at the beginning of August for grad school. (99% sure he's really going) When he gets back things will be all about getting ready to move and everything that goes along with that. There aren't any mountains where he's going so it's been fun to spend so much time with him taking them all in before he goes. We spent the weekend and the holiday trying to get outdoors as much as we could. (It was nice to finally have some sunny days so we could.) When he was busy with school stuff it was badminton, frisbee, playing catch, feeding horses, watching thunderstorms, riding the cruiser, lighting fireworks, or just sitting on the porch. When we had more time to get away we managed to get in some climbing in American Fork Canyon, hiking with Andy's family in Millcreek Canyon, a little impromptu bouldering in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and just plain relaxing by Blood's Lake up on Guardsman's Pass. The pictures are better than me listing it all so...

Monster Clematis

When I first bought my house, my brother-in-law gave me a clematis plant for my new yard. I let it sit too long and thought it died but out of guilt I hastily put it in the ground anyway and watered it. I even remember a neighboor coming by once while I was watering, looking down at the plant and saying, "It looks like a lost cause"...but it wasn't dead and it sprang to life with a vengeance...and then some. It's little yellow bells are blooming and even the truffula tufts are starting to come out. It does such a fantastic job covering the fence that I'm tempted to plant more of them all along the walkway...except it's a monster. Last year it took over the walkway completely and when I was cutting it back a little boy told me he fell off his bike because of it. I felt terrible. It just keeps getting bigger, then on Saturday I was out riding my bike (um...Jake's bike) and I almost fell off trying to get past it...so it was time to trim the monster again. I'm sure it won't be the last time this year. Here's the before and after pictures.

Raining in West Jordan

Nevermind how fast I was going when I took this picture, doesn't it look cool? I couldn't resist taking a picture of this as I was driving home from work yesterday.

I was hurrying home to mow my lawn......but as I went around the next bend I saw this and realized it was probably raining at my house......and it was, it was a real thunderstorms. But that neighbor who killed my herb garden, the one I still haven't gotten around to telling to stay away from my yard, was at my house when I pulled in just emptying the last bag of grass into my trash can from mowing my lawn for me.

So I baked some banana blackberry bread instead.

Sweet Sweet Science

I usually say that half my life is Science and the other half Religion. Then I also say half the time I'm thinking of sugar and the other half of the time I'm thinking about cheese. Once in awhile though, I get those two categories mixed up and I end up with something like this. Sugary Science. Is it that I love sugar and science too much or am I just a big nerd? Or all of the above... This is starting to sound like a multiple choice question isn't it? Maybe I should go back to my original plan of being a biology teacher. It's obviously in my blood if I'm doing things like this at home in my spare time.

Anyone at my work would see these 3 pictures and know exactly what is going on and roll their eyes at me, but then I work in a genetics lab. Can anyone else figure it out? Let's be more specific.

Pink is dominant(X)/White is recessive(x)

Normal Sprinkles is dominant(Y)/Too Many Sprinkles is recessive(y)

The parents in this example let's say are xxYY and Xxyy.

You can see the resulting phenotype, but what is the genotype in their offspring in the photo?

How many other phenotypes and genotypes are possible from the cross of these two cookies?

If that was too easy, try it if the parent cookies were xxYy and Xxyy. What are the chances you would get the phenotype of the cookies in the picture? What other outcomes are possible?

I won't even get into how much more complicated it get's when you start using camels... And then if you start crossing the camels with the other animals and it becomes a problem for AP Biology students. If you add in a little bit of Darwin and evolution then you get a circus... and they are so delicious! This is college level genetics stuff below. Don't even bother trying to figure it out.

This post has been brought to you by Darwin and Mendal. Thanks guys! We wouldn't have circus cookies without you...well we would but we just wouldn't understand them as well.

(I did actually work out the answers to the questions above if anyone wants their quizzes corrected. Andy- you should use this as a geocaching puzzle)

A case against charity AKA massacre in the garden

I like to do stuff myself because I like things done a certain way. I'm not a perfectionist or anything, I just don't like my stuff ruined. Some of you may have noticed this if you've been to my house for dinner and I say "No thanks...no, really, no thank you.." when you ask to do my dishes. I'm not trying to be nice, I really don't want you doing my dishes. It usually means more work for me later. After everyone leaves I usually unload the still dirty dishes and the glasses loaded into the bottom rack and the ice cream scoop that clearly says on the handle "do not put in dishwasher" out and redo all of it. My dishwasher can't get large amounts of food off the dishes and if glasses go in the bottom they'll crack. Stuff breaks then I'm mad but I feel like I'm not allowed be mad because people were just trying to help...etc. But this isn't about dishes. This is about my garden. My very nice neighbor stopped by the other day as I was mowing my lawn/dandelion forest and said if I wanted him to he'd come and whack the weeds around the edge of my yard. I have a weed whacker but I just don't know how to use it so I eagerly said YES Thank you that would be fantastic! He was really quick about it too. The next day I came home from work late and could see in the dark that the weeds along the driveway were gone. Wow that looks great I thought. In the morning I noticed it was whacked around my tree in front too. I checked on my day lily and shasta daisy and they were still there although most the daffodils were chopped down and all the snap dragons were gone. Oh well I thought, the daffodils just won't look as good next year and the snap dragons were really for Bryan so who cares. My neighbor didn't know those were plants I didn't want cut down. I was a little sad to see the long tall grass gone next to the horse pasture. It looked so wild back there I hadn't been cutting it on purpose. Oh well, it's not important, he's so nice...Then this morning I went out to water my seedlings and my herb garden and I actually screamed out loud... ...all my new herbs were gone, plus a few old friends. Oh the horror! The herbs I waited in line at the Red Butte Garden sale to buy. The one's I'd fought off old ladies in swine flu masks to get. Assassinated. Massacred. Annihilated. The strange thing is, these didn't look like weeds, they even had labels in front of each one, and they were in the middle of a garden, all weeded and in nice neat little clumps of plants waiting to be picked and used for cooking. Why did he kill my herb garden? Why?

Can you not see the labels here? Lime Thyme... Maybe that one last sprig can bring back the plant...Obviously this is...or was some marjoram.

This English Thyme even got it's label attacked.This was my old "well established" thyme plant tucked away behind the sage. It wasn't safe.There used to be a tarragon plant here so big it blocked the pipe and most the wall... There was a mint plant there too on the right. You can see it's label lying there in the carnage as a casualty like a dead carcase. I had a nice Utah native white flower that was in full bloom growing in this terrible clay spot right here blocking the ugly window well...gone. If it does recover it will be too late for new flowers.

What do I say to him? Do I tell him he killed at least 10 nice plants and please stay out of my yard? Do I tell him he owes me 50 bucks? Do I tell him I figured out how to use my own weed whacker so I don't need him to commit anymore murder in my garden? Do I put up a fence and lock him out? Or do I just go cut down some of his plants and not say anything? I'm just glad I've procrastinated planing my new lavender plants along the fence and they were still safe in my garage window. I'm sure they would have been toast, just like this large chunk of my clematis plant.

All morning I could only think of this story I'd read on ThePioneerWoman website last year. I'm glad I decided to plant all the ornamental grasses I'd bought in my containers this year or I'm sure they would have been part of the bloodshed as well. Thankfully they made it out unscathed... except for the emotional scares of seeing their fellow transplants murdered in cold blood.