This is one of those destinations that I could only dream about a few years
ago. In fact my impression of Bulgaria is of a backward, poor 3rd world
country whose culture has been frozen in time for the past 50 years while
the country was under Russian communistic domination. I’m on ther plane in
Pocatello and we’re taxiing out to the runway for departure. This will get
sent once we land in Salt Lake City.

The say didn’t get off to a sterling start. I took the wrong set of pills
before I went to bed last night — rather than the evening set, I took the
morning set whuch includes a water pill. Consequently, I had to get up
three times during the night to go to the bathroom. Not a very restful
night! I did make it to the airport in plenty of time. Delta couldn’t check
my suitcase all the way to Sifia as there were too many coinnections. They
can only put in five connections (and I think the luggage tag can only show
5 connections). So, I’ll have to go through customs and immigration at
London’s Heathrow airport so I can pick up my bag and get it rechecked to
Sofia. On the brigjht side, however, I’ll know if my bag made it as far as
London. I’ve also got a small carryon with me that has my breathing machine
and a change of clothes just in case.

The flight to Salt Lake just crossed the Utah border and we’ve begun the
descent into the valley. The first leg of this 27+ hour trip to Sofia is
almost over.

The covenants for the neighborhood where our house is located require that we plant at least two Norway Maple trees on the tree lawn (the median between the sidewalk and the street). Since we live on a corner lot, two trees would look pretty sparse. So, Nina went down to the nursery yesterday and bought six trees. The young fellow from the nursery arrived this morning about 7:30 a.m. to plant the trees for us. Before we arrived, Nina and I went out and kind of judged where we wanted the trees to be planted. He then set each of the trees in about their spot so we could check out the "look" before he started digging holes in the ground. The trees are now planted and it looks great. We’re actually starting to have a yard! In this picture Nina and the tree planter are talking over by his truck and trailer.

I mowed the grass on Monday evening after work. It took a couple of hours to get everything cut. Of course, the weeds are growing faster than the grass right now and already it needs to be cut again. I’m headed to Belgium tomorrow (Saturday) for a two-week business trip, so the yard probably won’t get mowed again until I get back. The big debate is: to buy nor not to buy a riding mower. If we buy one, we can mow whenever we want (or have time) and either Nina or I can do the mowing. If we don’t buy, then we’ll need to hire someone to do it. It’d probably cost about $15 each time to mow the yard. How many times can we pay for the lawn to be mowed before we’ve paid for a small riding mower? About 60 times if we buy a Sears mower or about 87 times if we buy a small Toro mower. That’s about 4 or 5 years! Right now I think we’ll buy the mower as we don’t know anyone to hire…. Decision time will be when I get back from Europe.

The back yard is beginning to look better. Nina has been pulling up morning glory weeds for several days and I’ve put down some fertilizer. The grass has really started to grow wherever I managed to get the fertilizer down. In a month or so I’ll put more fertilizer down along with some weed control. The backyard is now becoming somewhat usable. The hot tub has been put in place and has been getting good use. The only problem is, a new development has started just south of us (this picture is looking south) and they are generating a huge amount of dust. Some of that is seeping into the hot tub and mucking up the water. The dust making should be done by mid-September when I’ll change the water and clean the filters, hopefully ending this problem. The fence guy comes the 2nd week of September to put up the fence around the yard. That’ll be time for another picture!

Nina has become wonderfully domestic this week. She’s made bread a couple of times, made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies (which I brought into work, much to the delight of the office), canned a bunch of peaches, and has been making raspberry, peach, and strawberry jam. The bread is wonderful — I love toast for breakfast made from homemade bread. I’m sure I’ve gained a significant amount of weight this week. Perhaps it’s a good thing I’m headed out of town for a while (at least from an eating point of view) to let some of this weight go away! The next posts should be from Europe. I’ll be in Sofia, Bulgaria on Monday and Tuesday, in Gent, Belgium for the next week, and then in Antwerp through September 3rd. Lots of picture-taking opportunity. TTFN!

I had an instant-message conversation this morning with a lady who used to
work for me in Colorado Springs. For a time Melissa was my admin (current
politically correct term for a secretary) before moving on to better things
with the company. When her husband took a job in Oregon, we were able to
move her job there so she could continue in gainful employment.

Just before moving to Portland, Melissa discovered photography. She started
with an old 35mm film camera with a pretty standard lens. Her images were
great and it seemed to me that she had some real talent. Once in Portland,
she was able to get a digital camera and then her photography really took
off. She’s now using Nikon’s top-of-the-line digital camera. I learned
today that some of her images have been published in a tourism magazine and
she’s been able to sell some other free-lance photography.

This is very exciting and interesting to me. I’m very pleased that she has
been able to develop a lovely talent and turn a hobby into soimething more.
I really enjoy taking pictures and making images.

A few years ago my wife and I went to Sante Fe to attend a basic
photography class. We had a wonderful time and really learned a lot. After
that we both upgraded our film cameras. We’ve got thousands of pictures
stored in boxes. A few of them have made it onto our fridge for display.
We’ve since both bought digital cameras as well. I’ve struggled with film
versus digital versus video. Using so many different formats making it
difficult to become reasonably proficient with any of them. While I’m not
looking to make money from my photography, I do want them to be more than
images stuck in a box in the basement storage room. It’s time to settle
into one format and get much better at it.

Melissa’s good success is a good motivator to get moving again in
photography. But I still have too many projects in flight:

– the video from the Alaskan cruise needs to get edited, burned to DVD and
deleted from the computer

– the trip to Florence, KY for the twins baptism needs to get loaded to the
website.

– the pictures of the new house needs to get to the website

– the web cam to get the daily / hourly pictures on the web.

And, with all this, the house needs to get finished, shelves installed, the
garage put together, and the office finished. Life is very busy!

Meanwhile, congrats Melissa! It’s very satisfying to hear about your
success with a delightful hobby!

We’re in the business meeting for this year. My cousin Merrill brought a CD
with a bunch of family pictures. That was a real treat. A group of about 25
are here. The food was good and I’ve enjoyed getting re-acquainted with
family members. The reunion for next year which will be in Hanna in the
second week in August.

The day is very lovely and the location, just below the Bountiful Temple,
is a good location. there is a nice bowery and plenty of tables for
everyone. It’s not too hot and there is a slight breeze.

So who’s here?
My mom and dad
My brother Perry and his wife Chris
Cousin Merrill and wife Jean
Cousin Perry and wife Linda
Cousin Kathy and husband Jeff
Aunt Bernita and Husband Bryce
Cousin John and wife Bobby
Cousin Judy and husband John
Several of John’s children and spouses

Two years from now its my mom’s family’s turn to host the Cousins Reunion.
The business meeting is over and we’ll be leaving soon to drive back north.
Nina will be driving and I think we’ll be stopping near Brigham City for
some fruit. ‘Tis the season!

The hot tub was delivered and installed on Monday and we’ve already made good use of the spa. It is bigger and quite a bit different than the tub we had in Colorado Springs. Although I’ve read the owners manual once, I think I need to read it again as there’s a lot of capability that I’ve still got to learn about. We’ve ordered the fence to be put around the back yard and need to get it approved by the Architectural Committee. Yup — covenants say that we have to get all of this stuff approved. We also have to plant at least 4 maple trees of a special variety, which will cost about $250 or $300 apiece. Lovely.

The yard is growing a reasonable crop of grass and a huge crop of morning glory. Nina has spent several hours out there pulling out the morning glory runners to give the grass a chance at seeing sunlight. I put down some fertilizer, but the couple of strips I missed are now quite visible. I need to fill in on a couple of strips of the back yard that are now looking quite anemic compared to the other parts of the yard. And then there’s the sprinkler system. Whoever put them in didn’t pay much attention to the contours of the yard. Every one of them around the outside of the yard are level — meaning that they spray right into the lawn where the yard slopes up from the sprinkler. I spent a couple of hours resetting sprinker heads tonight, raising and breaking a pretty big blister in the palm of my right hand. I should have been wearing gloves!! It’s now quite painful and will be worse tomorrow, I’m sure. What a pain in the hand!

The Relief Society Presidency paid Nina a visit this evening. As I’ve noted before, we are living in a very friendly ward and they’re doing a good job of pulling us into the ward. I’ve been asked to teach the lesson on Sunday in the High Priests Group. That should be a lot of fun. Saturday is the "Gillette Cousins Reunion" in Bountiful, Utah. Mom and dad will drive over here and ride down with us. We should be back about 5 p.m. that evening. My brother Perry and my sister Eileen will also be there for the event. This will be the first Gillette reunion I’ve attended in several years.

I had my three-month review this afternoon in my new job. The review went well and was very positive. I’m enjoying the work and it looks like the company is happy with me so far. It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve already been here for three months! As Kermit the Frog said, "Time’s fun when you’re having flies!"

I still have a couple of sprinkler heads to reset, but they’re on a different sized pipe, so I’ve got to make yet another trip to Home Depot for supplies. I’ll also get some lumber to put shelves in the closet in the office and in the closet in the back hallway near the utility room. Gloves will be part of this activity. I don’t need any more blisters!

We’re in Idaho Falls at a Pioneer League game: Idaho Falls vs Provo. It’s
the bottom of the 5th and IF has scored 4 runs in this inning to lead 9 to
3. In this league, a 6 run lead might not hold up! The company had a number
of tickets available so we bought a couple of them. It’s a lovely night to
be at a ball game.

I don’t have a connection here in IF. Hopefully, this will queue up and
send when we get back to Pocatello.

Today was spent installing wiring for the hot tub which will be delivered
on Monday. I rented a trencher to make the job easier. The machine turned
out to be a huge machine, one which I probably needed a license to operate!
While it dug a good trench, I had to dig up a large portion looking for a
sprinkler line. I found it, used the machine, and promptly cut two more
sprinkler lines. It took longer to maneuver the machine on to the trailer.
After that I had to make two trips to Home Depot to get parts to fix the
sprinkler and put the power cable in the ground. I would have been better
off digging the trench by hand, me thinks.

we had a Stake Temple assignment yesterday morning for the 5 a.m. Session.
We got up at 3:15 and left at 3:45. There were six sisters and about thirty
brothers on the session. We thought we’d get breakfast at the temple
cafeteria, but we learned it didn’t open until 9:30. Consequently,
McDonalds got our business. Ward Temple night is on the last Wednesday, but
I’ll be in Belgium that day.

Heather and kids are coming up tomorrow for a couple of days. Mom and dad
are also coming over tomorrow and spending the night. Dad will help me wire
in the hot tub. He has an appointment on Monday with the doctors in IF.

The summer is almost over and it seems we’ve had no time to do much that
would be considered summer fun. The house is consuming most our time. There
are still boxes everywhere but we can now move around in the house upstairs
with little problem. It’ll be a couple of months before enough stuff put
away that the whole house is useable.

The moving truck arrived on time last Monday morning and they took all day
unloading the truck. The overflow came on Tuesday to finish off the
delivery. Everything seems to have arrived, although a few things were
damaged. This is the first move that has had this much damage.

The cable guy has hooked us up and the web site is back on line. The Dish
Network is hooked up and we now have all the TV we ever wanted. The
electricians came back and moved the power to the other bedroom because the
office furniture wouldn’t fit in the room we had planned to use for the
office. We can now cook and eat in the house (or on the deck). Life is very
good.

Today is also my mother’s eightyth birthday. My sister Eileen and her
husband have driven up from Salt Lake and we’ll go over after church today.
We had a pleasant surprise yesterday when mother called and told us that
Delon, Nelma, and Kenny had just walked in. Delon is my dad’s younger
brother (and my Uncle), lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is about my
age. We visited them in Las Cruces a couple of years ago and they’ve
visited with us in Colorado Springs. We’ve always enjoyed their company, so
we left off from mowing the grass and unloading boxes and drove over to
Soda Springs for the afternoon.

Delon had come up to Utah for some training and brought the family. They
spent the weekend in Cleveland, Idaho in their trailer and did some
visiting with family. It was a fun visit.

Speaking of the lawn, I mowed it for the first time yesterday. It is much
more morning glory than lawn. The company that hydroseeded the lawn says to
mow it on a high setting and everthing will be OK. All I know is that it is
a big yard and this one of the last times that I’ll mow this yard by hand
with that little lawnmower. We also need to do something about the morning
glory.

So today we’ll take the RV over to Soda Springs as I’ve several large
pieces of lumber that I bought at Home Depot for dad. We’re also taking
over most of the dinner. Eileen anl Phil brought the cake, so it’s time for
a birthday party! August 1st is a very good day — my mothers birthday.