For me it is. The last of the holiday gifts i have to share were given to me, by SOP. “All i want for christmas is for the bookshelves in the basement to be finished”. You see, we finished most of the darkroom/office space last fall (read 2005) but there were still no shelves in the cabinets or bookshelves in the corner. The darkroom was usable, but the majority of my books were still in boxes because i had no place to put them and my darkroom gear was piled in the cabinets to the best of my ability, but there is only so much you can do without shelves.

Luckily, SOP took me seriously on my christmas wish and now we (i) have these:

Haben wir noch Weihnachten?

Bei mir schon. Die lezte der Weihnachtsgeschenke die ich zu zeigen habe hat SOP mir gegeben. “Alles, was ich zu Weihnachten moechte, ist die Fertigung der Regale im Keller”. Wisst Ihr, wir haben das Buero / die Dunkelkammer im Herbst 2005 ‘beendet’, aber es gab immer noch keine Bretter in den Schraenken und auch noch keine Buecherregale. Die Dunkelkammer war brauchbar, aber die Meisten meiner Buecher waren noch in Kisten da ich keinen Platz fuer sie hatte. Zudem war meine Dunkelkammerausruestung in den Schraenken hoch gestapelt, aber das geht nur so weit ohne Bretter.

Gluecklicherweise hat SOP meine ausgedrueckten Wunsch ernst genommen und jetzt haben wir diese:

you may be interested in these cards from moo.

Choose your images, get them printed, share with friends*.

*well, that is the plan, at least. I need to upload some better-quality images of some of my favorites before i proceed with this.

last friday night, we went to the opening of The Face of Utah Sculpture exhibition Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City. A variety of work with some truly good stuff in the mix. Here is a sampling of things i liked, as well as a couple i found, well, interesting.

spheres (i didn’t note the name) by Chris Coleman

Cradle of Life and Death by Shawn Porter

Custom Continental by B. Clark

Dream by Sylvia Davis
beautiful tones in the patina on this one

Fetal by Mark Degraffenried

Flame by Ryoichi Suzuki
i wish i could have had better light for this. The patina was fabulous. It looked like stone.

Gratitude by K. Miduch

Haute Coutre Torture by J. Lucius

Hybrid Seed by N. Johannsen

Jack Knife by D. Holz

La jeune Femme by J. Young

Michelle (something) by Dan Gerhart

Penguin by U. Brodauf

Gypsy Woman by P. Pobil

Recombinant Michelle by Dan Gerhart

The Standard Works by B. Fairbanks
Moses, St Peter, Nephi and Joseph Smith, Jr

Tree People by Greg Raglan
This is so beautiful in person.
The forms carry a real sense of the organic.
they turn their heads up to the sky,
their lips pursed,
waiting to kiss

The Better Man / Wrong End of a 45 by S. Rogers
some of the best western sculpture i’ve seen

If you happen to be in Utah before Aug. 24, 2006, try to check it out.

and i am so very happy!

As of Saturday evening, the Utah MS150 ride had earned $1,060,000 to help fight MS and support those with MS.

I ended up riding 100 miles on day one and the remainder on day two. Let me just say, that i really should have put slicks on for the 100 miles. I have a touring bike and the tires are wider and more nobbly than a regular road bike which gives you more resistance and i was definitely feeling that at the end of day one. Luckily, i hooked up with my friend Carol’s team, which i have ridden with a couple of times, and got to do some drafting. Thank you Janet and Beth for pulling the last 15 miles!

Sunday had an open start, so i headed out at 7:15 and hooked up with two other brighton team members, Zita and Jay, to do the last loop. The volunteers on both days were fantastic. The route was beautiful and the people were great. How cool to be riding along with someone who was grateful to be the 6th top fund raiser last year. His wife has MS and both he and his son were riding the 150. She was hoping to join them for a few miles at the end.

Sunday, when we got back to camp at 10:00, sop was waiting for me (he had not been able to come up with me because we had Dogie) with beer and sandwiches. I finished breaking down my camp and we headed out to a reservoir on the bike route to hang out for a while. Perfect wrap-up to a fantastic weekend!

Oh, yes, pictures:

Team Brighton – Lifts for Life

Joanne and J

on the route

Carol and Hugh

Blakemore riders (saved my butt)

even hand-huts deserve a name

the only blurry picture i ended up with!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the MS 150 ride! Thank you Spider Woman for spreading the word! I am heading up to Logan today, looking forward to riding 150 miles over the next two days. My butt may not be looking forward to it so much, but it’ll get over it.