'tis the season for making good things

i love these people.

trick-or-treat, fools

this year Ash and Tom learned a Halloween song i used to sing as a kid:

"H, A, double L, O, W, double E, N spells Halloween!"

it's sung in a minor key and stuff so it's spooky. plus, it helps you know how to spell Halloween!

Ash showered her subjects with continuous pink, English had trouble with tribbles, and Tom pitied all of the fools.




p.s. thanks to modern technology, i can post about Halloween on December 19 and no one is the wiser... until i tell you, wah ha ha ha!

N | M | A

it's been four weeks now, so i think it's time to post about this new big thing...

museum school director, and i'm diggin' it. of course there is so much to learn and i remind myself regularly that it's all about pacing - one thing at a time - but i can see a little glimmer of the future and it looks awesome.

huge thanks to my lovely little family who wholeheartedly support this new adventure. and you are right, Ash. it is so fun to work in an art museum!

what a beautiful pear

what do you do when life gives you a 40-pound box of ripe pears? make pear juice.

no, wait. scratch that.

what do you do with the 40-pound box of ripe pears that you ordered through the ward? core and peel a few halves to bottle (they are as beautiful as they are tasty), then make pear butter out of the rest! here's the new recipe i tried out. no need to peel the pears (yeah!) and it's so delicious!

it's so terribly satisfying

to witness a car that's driving way too fast (especially on a residential 25 mph street) get pulled over by a cop. sweet justice.

a (sort of) short rant about smartphones

i know smartphones are the way of the near future (not necessarily the far-future when no one will have cell phones, but that's a topic for a different post). anyhow, i know smartphones are the way of the near future and to be honest half of me would really like an iPhone. if it weren't so expensive to buy the phone and pay monthly for the data plan i'd probably have one by now. but the other half of me is bugged by smartphones. maybe it's because i don't have one. but it's definitely because of the "data plan required" business. if you're in the market for a new phone you have to buy the data plan. why can't i get a smartphone phone and just use it on my regular dataless plan? the folks at Verizon told me it was because smartphones update themselves and need the internet to do that. uh, that doesn't sound very smart to me. my dorky phone get updates and i don't have the internet on my phone.

now you may say to yourself, why would you want a smartphone if you couldn't really use all of its features? good point. but the thing is, when the time comes that i am in the market for a new phone if i don't want to buy a data plan my phone choices are quite slim. and i hate to say it but the non-data phones don't have the sleek design of the new smartphones. and i know they're doing that on purpose. of course i'm going to want great design. so i have to choose between great design + expensive data plan or an affordable plan + a dorky phone. and that, frankly, is really annoying.

a personal question

what do you do with the extra frosting after the cake is finished? of course i'm talking homemade frosting. sorry folks, but the store bought stuff is not really frosting. sure it looks, even smells like real frosting. but it is not real. i know, i know. cake snobbery. but the fact remains.

anyway, back to the question at hand. do you toss it? spread it on graham crackers the next day for a poor man's sandwich cookie? keep it in the fridge for a few days because it is such good stuff but then finally toss it once you realize there will always be another tasty treat in your life? what do you do?

that was one awesome, butt-kickin' vacation

Newport Beach, CA 2011: seven days of pure Johnson fun complete with loads of beach time, boogie boarding (riding froth, real waves, and tandem with Ash), singing at length about riding the froth, vacation 'staches for the guys, tide pools, a birthday party luau, SPF 15, Balboa Bars, Red Vines, Oreos, and the Vista Cruiser.

i ain't goin' in to work
gonna take the day off
we can stick it to the man
when we ride the froth...

we ride the froth (we ride, we ride the froth)

3 lovelies that caught my eye

on a hike up Hunter Creek this week.

the Black Rock Desert (an overnighter)

two hours northwest of Reno lies the Black Rock Desert. in the center of everything is a dry, flat lake bed larger than Lake Tahoe. it's home to land speed records, amateur rocket launches, and the infamous Burning Man event.



it also happens to be a great desert camping spot (bring lots of water). we arrived just before dusk. it was just cooling off and the light was phenomenal.




we parked the car on the outskirts of the playa near some dirt mounds. they were just the thing for exploring and playing. we also checked out the railroad tracks nearby.







the night was still, calm, and sublime with a huge sky filled with countless stars and a beautiful view of the Milky Way. Ash and Tom were thrilled looking for satellites and shooting stars. plus, we heard Tom laugh a genuine laugh in his sleep. the weather was perfect.



in the morning we chilled until the temperature started rising then we took off. we stoped to check out Guru Road, a little side stop with a bunch of sayings carved on rocks. most of them were pretty dorky but Tom found a happy one.



several times during the quick trip Ash said, "i like this place!" and we all agreed.

dial-a-temp

when i was a kid there were a few times my mom made us wait until it was 100° outside before we could put on our swimming suits and fill up the mini pool (or run through the sprinklers or get out the slip n' slide). it was most likely a tactic she used to keep us from making a big mess or save herself from dealing with the whole shenanigan but i remember thinking that while it was frustrating, it was legit. this was back when you would "call the temperature," as we would say. yeah, you would dial a 7-digit phone number (from your yellow phone in the kitchen) and get a recorded voice saying, "the temperature is, ninety-seven degrees." we would call over and over getting more and more antsy as the temperature slowly crept higher. the anticipation was excruciating. let's call again! then finally... "the temperature is, one-hundred degrees." wah-hooooo!

here in Reno, after a rather drawn out cold and rainy spring, we've been long awaiting summer. but it's arrived and it's splendid. here's proof:


Tom's improvised bib will soon be all the rage in toddler fashion. keep your eyes peeled.

this week it hit 90° and the inflatable fish pool once again took its place in the back yard. so, keeping in the spirit of things, we check the temp on the computer and when it's 90° (or close enough - i can handle these two small kiddos) we throw on our suits and head for the fishy pool. we'll save the 100-degree days for chillin' at the Truckee river.