Fall Update

Well, we have had a very busy fall.  I believe I reported on going to the The Lady Gaga Enigma concert earlier in the year.  We returned to Las Vegas to see her Jazz & Piano show, the one I really wanted to see.  Let me start by saying that Lady Gaga is an amazing musician and singer.  I would love to hear her play and sing anytime, as long as she does not speak.  I understand she has issues, but I did not pay a significant amount of money to be her therapist.  I do not want to hear her go on and on about how difficult her life is.  I know it is a drag making millions of dollars a year doing what you love and to be cherished by adoring fans.  That can be really rough.  Even if your life is not what you want, share it with a friend, therapist or priest, but spare me. I want to hear singing and music.  That part of the show was fantastic but the drama that went along with it guarantees that is the last Lady Gaga concert we will be attending.  Oh, one more thing.  At the end of a song she throws up her hands as she listens to the adoring crowd cheer her on.  She eventually drops them as the cheering dies down only to quickly raise them again as everyone looks around thinking, um...should we clap again and then they do until she finally drops her arms.  Very weird.  We also went to see Sara Bareilles in concert.  It is her first time touring in over five years.  It was worth the wait.  No therapy necessary, just excellent singing and music.  I would see her again in a minute.  This weekend we are going to see Fleetwood Mac.  I know, we see a LOT of concerts...

Ok, time to change subjects to something a little more serious.  We are going vegan...When Julie broached the subject I really did not know a lot about Veganism.  I quickly checked Google and most alcohol is ok as a vegan so I said yes.  She had me watch a movie called The Game Changers.  It is a documentary on the benefit of going Vegan.  I highly recommend even if you want to remain a carnivore.  If you have ever tried becoming vegan, you will find it is very difficult.  There are so many rules to follow.  I thought it was no meat, but that only scratches the surface.  I would list the rules except I cannot type that much.  I have boiled it down to a few easy rules to remember.
1.  No meat, eggs or anything that has anything to do with an animal.  If an animal has even looked at it, you can't eat it.
2.  No milk, cheese or anything associated with dairy and or cattle.  No animal should have its private parts tugged on for your eating pleasure.
3.  Even the littlest things fall under the vegan rules.  For instance, no honey.  While bees naturally produce honey and are not harmed or harassed in anyway in the making of honey, it is not ours to harvest and enjoy.  Bees must not be forced into working against their will, even if they produce honey naturally.
4.  Lastly and most importantly, if it tastes good, it is most likely not Vegan.  SPIT IT OUT!!!

In order to start our vegan journey we went to the local Costco.  I have never read so many labels in all my life.  Long story short, we were able to purchase $300 worth of vegan approved food, although not enough to prepare a single meal.  Next stop the specialty grocer in town.  That should be a fun trip, not...

I know you must be thinking, Dave a vegan?!!!  What next, voting for AOC?  (If you are not a political news junky such as myself, you may need to look that up)  Here is why I am doing it.  While I love animals, I do not really care if they are part of my meal.  It is not a religious thing for me like it is for some people. (God Bless You)  It is about eating healthier for better results.  After you see the video you will see what I mean.  I have a torn rotator cuff ( yes, this time the left one) and have to have surgery in December.  With any luck, Veganism may heal my shoulder and not require surgery.  Ok, I'm kidding about healing my shoulder.  I just want to see how the new diet makes me feel and if it improves my blood work which is not too bad but can always be better.  I wanted to illustrate the improvements I expect from the new diet...

Dave before becoming a vegan

Dave after becoming a vegan

 If veganism does not heal my shoulder, I am having surgery December 20th.  That means no skiing this season as well as a long painful rehabilitation period.  I'm dreading it as my last shoulder surgery is still very vivid in my memory.  Oh, enough about me.  Julie is doing great.  We went to visit a college friend in Ohio. They took us to an Ohio State game. It was an amazing experience.  The Buckeyes crushed Maryland but the highlight for me was the Ohio State Band.  They did a tribute to Santana.  Their movements and configurations are the best I have ever seen.

One last thing....  Cookie did it again.  Remember how she sat at her airport gate sipping a Starbucks while everyone else loaded and eventually missed her flight?  Well, this time she read her boarding group B23 on her ticket and thought it was her gate.  She went to B23 gate, looked around for a while and eventually figured out she was at the wrong gate.  By the time she got to the correct gate, the plane was long gone.  Lesson learned, do not let her travel alone or even with Petey since he is not always watching her...

Best wishes,
Dave and Julie

Pictures of Ohio Visit below:

Summer's Half Over!!!!

It has been difficult finding time to blog with all that we have going on.  I would like to start this blog with an amusing conversation I had with Petey....

Petey - Here are some raw walnuts, try them.  They are supposed to help with preventing memory loss.
Me - How long have you been eating them?
Petey - I don't know....

I thought you might find that a bit amusing, as I know I did...

We have been busy attending concerts in Vegas.  We saw Michael Buble first.  He has an amazing voice and put on a great show.  Highly recommend it.  Next we saw Lady Gaga.  We asked Julie's mother to buy us the tickets as we were unable to go on line and get them ourselves.  This was a  mistake.  Instead of her jazz show which she performs on the piano, Cookie bought tickets to her Enigma show.  When we found out we immediately bought tickets for the jazz show, the one we wanted to see.  We went to Enigma and it was good except she kept interacting with a giant video game image of her alternate being.  At least that is what I got out of it.  Please, just sing and dance.  We do not require the other crap to keep us occupied.  I guess it was designed for gamers with short attention spans.  Anyway, the show was entertaining but what went on around us was even more interesting.  There was a lady walking up the aisle in a fur coat approaching the empty seat to my left.  Julie asked me why would she have on a fur coat in the summer in Las Vegas?  I said because she was naked underneath...and she was, at least on the top with the exception of the pasties.  Well, the jacket came off and the dancing started.  Needless to say I could not take my eyes off of the .... the stage or else I would be accused of gawking.  Cookie on the other hand missed the entire show, by that I mean the show on the stage.  She could not get over the fact that someone would come topless to a concert.  Enough about that.  If you like Lady Gaga, the show was good but do not take children.  She uses the F-bomb continuously throughout the show.  I started counting but soon lost track.  I can do without that at a show. I understand her jazz performance has no swearing.  Just this week we went to see the Hugh Jackman Show at the MGM.  What can he do you ask?  EVERYTHING!!!!  He sings, he dances, he plays the piano and he engages the audience like we are his friends.  It is a great show and you can take the kids!  No F-Bombs!  He truly is the Showman!

We left for our annual Western Spirit bike trip in late May which was going to have us riding on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The weather was raining and snowing on the North Rim so they diverted us to St. George. That is right, we paid good money to ride on the trails in our neighborhood and sleep on the ground just out of site of our wonderful home.  After day two, the weather improved at the Grand Canyon so thankfully we headed that way.  Before that occurred, Petey who has been on every one of our trips since we retired fell ill and could not go on to the Grand Canyon.  He complained of stomach pain.  I have no idea why.....

Round three of four!!!  The food on the Water Spirit ride is superb!  It is easy to get carried away and  Petey always does.

Eventually we made it to the Grand Canyon.  We were really anxious for this trip to go well as two of our good friends, Mike and Dana (not together) came along based on our recommendation.  The temperature at the North Rim was cool but fine for riding, that is until we actually started riding.  A few minutes into our only ride at the Canyon it began to thunder and lightening.  When they tell you to spread out so only one person dies if struck by lightening, isn't it time to turn around?  Well, that is exactly what 7 of us did. The rest of the group continued on.  As soon as we turned around it began to hail and pour rain and didn't stop until we were back at camp. Needless to say we were soaked and freezing.  We huddled in our tents and waited for the 'hardier' few in the group to return..  Hardier?  Huh!  They ended up getting a ride back in the van.

View from tent

Well, that was the end of that ride.  The following day we returned to the St. George area for another fun ride in our back yard.  I failed to mention that while we laid in the tent watching the rain and hail pour down, I turned to Julie and said "We could have been sunning ourselves on a beach in the Dominican Republic for what we paid for this bike trip....  Ok, maybe the rain and lightening are safer.  The rim was not a total disaster as the food was superb and we met a bunch of great people on the trip.  (You know who you are)

Trapped in our tent.  Game faces on.

Julie and Dana

Mike on the edge.  Don't do it!!!!  

We hope our friends accompany us on a future bike trip...please!

Julie and Dave

My grandson Jack (10 Years old) flew across the country all by himself to come visit us.  When I met him at the plane, people kept coming up to me to tell me how special, smart, engaging and polite he was.  I was swelling with pride over this young man.  I assured them he took after his mother, oh, and that she took after me!  We wanted to make the trip as special as possible for Jack so we started with a show in Vegas.  No, not Lady Gaga!  We took him to see LOVE by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage.  It is a great show with fabulous music.  If you can only see one show in Las Vegas, see LOVE.  He enjoyed every part of it.  The following day we drove him to Park City.  STG is just too hot to do much.  The highlight of the PC visit was the Olympic Park activities which included a ropes course, zip lines. tubing down the ski jumps and dropping from a 65 foot platform.  I enjoyed it as well perhaps with the exception of the tube ride which hits speeds of 40 mph.  I was okay for the first few seconds until it turned around sending me hurtling down the ski slope facing up hill.  Not good.  We also took him for a hike up the second tallest mountain at Deer Valley.  He charged up the mountain without a single complaint.  We then rode the ski lift down, for the "experience" of course.

Julie, Jack and Dave at Love!

Jack at the Mirage

Papa and Jack on the Ropes Course 

Hiking in Park City (Deer Valley)  

Jack playing in snow in July.  Can't do that in Maryland, or St. George!

Gorgeous view!  Oh, the trees and mountains are nice too...

Jack and Julie on the ski lift

I think that is all for now as I'm sure you have to get back to work, unless of course you are a government employee.  😀  I've also included a couple of additional pictures you may not have seen if you do not follow us on Instagram.  One is a picture of a beer can we found on the side the road.  It is actually a small storage tank that some talented person painted to look like a beer can. It is about a half mile off I-15 just outside of Las Vegas.  I have been wanting to go see it and finally Petey and I did.  The next picture is of Cooper in his goggles.  In the spring the trails here have a weed called Fox Tail all over the place.  He got one in his eye and had to have the vet remove it.  Now he will be sporting goggles at that time of the year. He also thinks they look dope.  (I just wanted to use that)

Warm regards,
Dave and Julie

Annual Trip to California for Wine Pick Up and Reminder Why We Left....

The winter was busy with trips to Park City for skiing and playing in the snow.  I bought an annual ski pass and I had to make certain I got my moneys worth.  The nice thing about having a place in Park City is that you do not have to ski when the weather is crummy or the slopes are crowded which is the case when you are only there for the weekend.  I took full advantage of this flexibility to have the best time possible while skiing.  Julie is not a skier so she took care of Cooper while I played.  Being a single skier you can jump into the lift line with waits seldom over a minute.  That means you can ski to exhaustion in just a few hours.  All in all it was a great season with only one bad fall which occurred in the parking lot on the first day of skiing when I stepped out of the SUV onto sheer ice and went down like I had been shot.  Not a good start but I recovered quickly looking around to make sure no one had seen.

Ok, the annual trip to California occurred in April  The purpose of the trip was to see friends, drink too much wine, participate in the Annual Hall Wine Event and transport case after case of wine back into Utah in the dead of night when no one is looking.  If you have not been to the Hall Wine Event, it is a fund raising event featuring local chefs cooking their specialties for the crowds and the consumption of way too much wine all the in the name of charity.  That way you get to feel good about yourself as you get loaded.  There was one unfortunate mishap at the event.  First, let me say, never wear a white shirt at a Cabernet drinking party.  I was carrying several small plates of food and my first glass of Cabernet when one of the volunteers commented on how amazing I was to handle so much at one time.  I replied that she may have just jinxed me when ten steps later a plate began to slip which was the start of everything going including the wine which found its way onto my shirt....

Not a good start to the Hall Wine Event .   A little like the first day of ski season...

Our good friend Stan saw the predicament I was in and bought me a wine event shirt similar to those being worn by the volunteers and staff.  The downside of the shirt was that I was asked directions and questions about the wine event by everyone that came by.  The good news is that I was able to access areas only open to the staff!  

Julie with the hired help.

We had a great time at the wine event and highly recommend it if you like a beautiful setting, great food and all the wine you could possibly drink/spill, all in the name of charity.  The tickets for next year are already for sale at a "discount" so hurry up as they go fast.  Over the course of the weekend we visited a number of wineries with friends before heading back to Utah.  Before I show you some of the pictures I want to spend a minute about California.  What a beautiful state that the politicians are destroying.  Gas was over $4!!! Keep in mind that Utah had not broken $3 dollars at that time.  The roads are terrible and in need of repairs.  The bridges are $6 to cross.  What in the world are they doing with all the money they get from gasoline taxes, bridge tolls and car license fees?  I guess it is going towards picking up poop in S.F..  Sorry, I had to vent.

Lt. to Rt.  Mark, Murlyn, Stan, Jen (Wolfie), Theresa, Julie, Dave and Kathy 

Jen and Julie

Julie, Laurie and Jen

Jen, Kathy, Wendy McLendon-Covey from the movie Bridesmaids, Julie

Dave, Julie and Kathy at breakfast

We had a great time and plan to do it all again next year, except the spilled wine.  

You know how there are some things that just make your head want to explode?  I have captured a few of them in photographs so you can see what I mean.  I will not try to explain them because I can't...

All of these cups were in Petey's car.
Seven total!!!  It does not end there...

Used cup stash

Two cups and a water
bottle while relaxing

Wearing two hats at the same time.  This occurs from time to time....

The Tortoise Whisperer and Rattle Snake Training

It is that time of the year when the Mojave Desert Tortoise comes out of hiding to consume all the food and water it is going to need to survive the majority of the year underground.  That means for a few months in the spring if you are lucky you may spot one while hiking or biking.  If you have the tortoise whisperer with you, you will improve your chances dramatically.

The other day while hiking, I turned to look for Cooper who runs loose on certain trails and he was no where in site.  I quickly called his name and I could hear him start barking.  I ran back up the trail and there he was just off the trail barking at a Mojave Desert Tortoise.  You do not want to scare them or pick them up as they will urinate, losing the "water" necessary to help them sustain the harsh summer heat and will likely die.  I quickly leashed Cooper and got him away from he tortoise, of course not before taking pictures.

Mojave Desert Tortoise.  NEVER call it a TURTLE as it offends some people! I had to learn this the hard way.


A short time later after taking him off the leash he discovered a pair of tortoise sunning themselves and enjoying a peaceful morning, at least until we showed up.

Please note, no tortoise were injured during these encounters.

Well, with this newly acquired skill, I could only imagine how long or short it would be until he found a rattle snake.  The very next day he was in school to learn to avoid rattle snakes.  They have a defanged rattler (it is painless and only lasts a couple of weeks before the fangs grow back) that they let the dogs "get to know".  Once the dog has discovered the snake they shock it before it gets too close so they can associate pain with the snake.  Cooper was right on the snake and had a great deal of interest.  Too much.  The handler gave him a jolt and he jumped in the air and screamed like he had been shot.  The handler looked at me and said it was only a 4 on a scale of 1-14.  I told him Cooper is delicate. Well, he learned not to go anywhere near snakes and graduated top of his class.  He is still a little spooked by anything on the ground 5 days later.  Lesson Learned!

Rattle Snake

Cooper in action right before the big shock

Cooper chilling.