No-mountain-day!

No MOUNTAIN-DAY

Jimmy's Beef Jerky

Banana Chips!

Today was no-mountain-day! Yup, the dust hid them, silly dust obscuring those large, very prominent objects! Nope this wasn't inversion, just some very dusty and dry weather.

But onto the real reason I am writing. We are dehydrating fiends. We have dried apples, kiwis, strawberries, bananas, green beans, red peppers, fruit leathers, and even some beef...yes we made beef jerky! Not only are we getting lots of yummy dried food, but the dehydrator is sending waves of heat and good odors throughout our apartment! Today's scent of choice, barbequed beef jerky! It was Jimmy's own recipe. I don't even know what he put in it, all I know is that it is tasty.

Unmotivated

Do you ever have those days were you just don't feel like doing anything?!

Oh, yeah, it is one of those days. I went to two meetings this morning, sent out some e-mails, stared at my computer a whole bunch, and I still don't feel like I have done anything useful. I suppose staring at my computer really isn't productive, but that is what my research mostly requires. I am working on a paper for my Stellar Interior class, but it is not giving me astronomy gumption, like astronomy sometimes does...and it being Thursday kind of reminds me that I still have one more day until I get to the ever-so illusive weekend.

So let's think of the good things that have happened today. I got a 96% on my Stellar Interiors test. I found out that there is a community college in Buena Vista, VA (15 minutes from Lexington) that has a physics teaching opening. Jimmy and I experimented with our dehydrator last night and this morning we woke to another fantastic batch of yummy dried food.

Okay, so life isn't that bad...I just have to get out of this unmotivated slump......hmmm, maybe I should find some chocolate :)

Dutch oven - Spring is HERE!

This weekend, we went Dutch oven cooking with our friends Davis and Melanie. The weather was brisk, but beautiful! The food was hearty and delicious. Basically, it was a fabulous way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon.

The menu was as follows:

Tennesee Beef

Dutch oven potatoes

Baked Potatoes

Wheat rolls

*Marshmellows as an appetizer

Hot fire, good friends, and good fun! A great way to start the Spring!

Melanie's rolls

Potatoes and the meat!

Davis and Jimmy watching the fire

The Dutch ovens in action!

We would also like to send a very Happy Birthday out to Grandpa Bob! We love you!!!!

37 days....

Yesterday Jimmy said that I could commence with the end-of-the-semester countdown. This is a big one for him, since he is graduating at the end. Day by day we are making it closer...but until tomorrow, the countdown is

37 days

For me the countdown is a little more distant:
1 more class to finish
Lots of researchin'
30 bazillon drafts of my thesis to go through
1 big ol' thesis defense
and...157 until I graduate

ugh...

But who's counting?!

Happy Birthday Jimmy Dear!

Ragnar Relay del Sol

We made it through the weekend!

And let me quote Jimmy, just so you can get a little flavor of the fun we had...
"I feel so good, I think I could do another Ragnar this weekend!"

What?! Did he say that he would do another one?! Well, well, well my friends, it seems this weekend was a success :)

So, let me give you a little bit of a summary. And for those of you who know nothing about it, well I hope this will fill you in a bit.

This past Friday and Saturday, Jimmy and I ran what is called the Ragnar Relay. This one was in Arizona, but actually the first Ragnar was run along the Wasatch front here in Utah. Our friends Davis and Melanie invited us to run, and we accepted. So we trained and trained in hopes of not being the slowest people there.

On Thursday we left to drive down to Arizona to meet up with our group early Friday morning. Our team was made up of 12 people, 2 vans and 200+ to run.

This is how is goes:
Each team has 2 vans with 6 people in each van. The first van starts the relay and each person in van runs and hands off to the next person, until the last person hands off to the first person in the next van. While the other van is running through its people, everyone in the first van gets to rest.

Van 1 started at 7 am, and after running all of its people through their legs, our van, van 2 started around 11 am. This rotation of people and vans is done 3 times, meaning each person runs 3 different legs throughout the race.

And that is precisely what we did. It lasted about 30 hours, which meant we were running through the night, on very limited sleep. In the rotation, Jimmy ran before me. He did a wonderful job!

**Note: Ragnar Lingo- If you pass someone, it is called a "kill"

Jimmy was able to "kill" quite a few people and not many people "killed" him. He did a great job of maintaining our place. He had some pretty hard runs, with some steep hills, but I know that he was proud of finishing and doing his best.


As for me, my first let (the longest one...) was pretty awful. I was extremely tired, and it was a lot hotter than I expected. I did pass a few people and I did it in fairly good time. My second one was at 3 am, and I felt 100 times better. And the 3 leg, I got stuck at 4 traffic lights, but it was only a 3.5 mile leg, so I was pretty happy!
Our team did fairly well in the end. There was an accident that happened behind us, so several teams had to restart the race further up at another exchange. We were one of the only teams that ran the pretty much the entire race. I think everyone was happy and excited to accomplish something so difficult but worthwhile.

And that is the report. We had so much fun we may just do it again. There are even Ragnars on the East Coast. Watch out! We may ask you to be on our team!