Community Education VI

Sometimes I get a little jealous that everyone else's community education options are so much better than ours. I thought they would never get past computers, cooking, dance, and photography classes.Well folks, UVU community education classes kicked it up a notch this fall. (There are still plenty of computer, cooking, dance, and photography options.) Here are some of the options in the Hobbies & Special Interests section. Anyone in the Provo/Orem area is welcome to take a class with me.

Gold Prospecting for Fun or Profit
With gold currently trading at over $1500 an ounce, panning for gold has made a real comeback. Only 5% of the world's gold has been discovered. [How in the world do they know that? How do they know there is 95% left if it hasn't been discovered?] This class will focus on new methods of panning for gold that you can use all 12 moths of the year. Fee includes prospecting equipment to take home with you.

How to Raise Chickens I
Achieve the freshness you have always wanted by raising your own chickens. This class will focus on information to help you acquire chicks and raise them with proper diet, health and regulations in mind.

Wild Edible Plants
Identify native, edible plants growing in and around a river ecosystem to satisfy your curiosity or prepare for an emergency or natural disaster. This course will be taught on-sire at one of the local rivers, and teach how to identify poisonous and toxic plants. You will be emailed the exact location of the meeting place prior to the beginning date. There will be moderate hiking involved.

You're on the Air (How to Make it in Voice Overs)
Discover an exciting new way to get around the competition and actually turn voice-overs into a thriving full or part-time business! This class will focus on  voice-over techniques, available opportunities, potential income, and producing a demo. Then you'll step up to the microphone to do some practice recording of your own.

Foundations of Fly fishing
Build your fishing foundation with knowledge of equipment, casting, entomology, reading water and all the skills necessary to have success no matter where you fish. Then take a field trip to a local river.

Technology and Stakes by the Same Name

So, for young men’s next week, the boys wanted to play ultimate frisbee. The biggest field nearby is over at the stake center, where there’s also a pavilion. The young man in charge tasked me with reserving the field. So, I went to the calendar tool on lds.org, found that there was a listing for the stake center pavilion, and sent an email to the three people listed as being in charge of reserving it. Here’s our email conversation, with locations removed, for our own privacy. Keep in mind two things: the grass field I’m trying to reserve is almost 3 acres and is on the same lot as the stake center.

ME:
I am checking to see if the grass field next to the pavilion at the stake center is available on Wednesday August 22^nd, from 7pm-9pm. We need a field to play some games with the YM that night.

RESPONSE:
No one has reserved the "grass" by the pavilion with me....nor have they reserved the Pavilion for Aug. 22.  I didn't know there was grass by the Pavilion. I'm a little confused by your message.  What I think of as the Pavilion is not next to the _____ Stake Center building.  When you say "at the Stake Center" do you mean by the Pavilion itself or by the Stake Center Building? Do you want to reserve the Pavilion and just use the grass?

ME (at this point, I’m wondering how they don’t know about the grass field at the stake center—it’s huge):
I'm referring to the large fenced-in grass field directly north of the stake center (separated only by part of the parking lot). I wouldn't need to use the pavilion...just part of the field.

RESPONSE:
The ______ Stake Center is NOT next to the Pavilion.  There are two chapels near the Pavilion, neither of which is a stake center.  Go ahead and use the grass area.  I have no way to reserve the grass area for you or anyone else.  IF someone else is using it, you'll have to solve the problem. 

ME (now I’m really confused at what’s going on here):
Where is the stake pavilion located? I assumed that it was located next to the stake center. Maybe I'm confusing it with a different pavilion. I'm thinking of this <grass field>(link removed to google maps). How would I go about reserving that field?

RESPONSE:
The address for that grass field is in Provo, UT.  I live in ______ Stake in St. George, UT.  I think that is our problem.  What Stake do you live in?  Try them. :-)  Nice visiting with you.

Ha! That would have been quite the drive to go play frisbee. Kind of funny how our stakes have the same name...and how I got contact information for them.

Olympic Fare

I had a whole menu of Olympic meals planned out, but due to a few things (the dairy elimination diet, not wanting to use the oven in the 97 degree heat, and having Camille around) I didn't get all the things made I wanted. But here is what I've done so far:

Olympic Rings Pizza

Bangers and Mash
The bangers are sausages and the mash is...mashed potatoes. The  salad is my addition since none of these meals seem to have many vegetables.

Cornish Pastie
This was surprisingly not very good. But I learned all about the history of the pastie (pronounced pass-tee) while I looked at recipes. And this isn't authentic since I used carrot instead of rutabaga.

I also wanted to do fish and chips, cottage pie (fun fact: shepherd's pie is made with veal, cottage pie with beef), Yorkshire pudding, a whole slew of English desserts, and a day of Michael Phelps' diet, but those meals haven't gotten made.

And for those of you here for pictures of Camille, here you go.

Photography Ideas

Next week Camille is having her pictures taken. I was looking at some infant photography for ideas of what I like (plain and simple), and I found some ideas of what we are (hopefully) not going to do.

I'm not a huge fan of babies in things. Maybe if Brian were in the NFL or I were a master gardener we would do this.

I prefer to be able to see the baby, preferably the face.

I don't want Camille to look like a hooker.

Maybe I'm a little picky, but hopefully we'll get some good pictures of Camille.