Winter Walk in the Spring

We had another snow storm this weekend. Yesterday it snowed steadily until about 4:00pm. I got off work at five, so Michelle and I took advantage of the fact that the snow had stopped and went on a walk. We stuck to the road since it was plowed, we weren't up for tromping through a few feet of snow. 

Fiberglass

 We had a group project our second day in Modesto, fixing the fiberglass on the van. There was a crack at the top that was letting in water when it rained, so the van had to live under a tarp for a few months. But no more. I had never been involved in a fiberglass project and it was fun to see the process. First, they had to sand the area to rough it up. Then they cut the pieces of glass (it was woven in a cloth, so weird) to fit and mixed the resin with the catalyst; the resin gives fiberglass its rigidity and the catalyst is added to the resin so that it hardens. After mixing the resin and catalyst together, they had to apply it quickly before it started to harden. Since Joshua's Grandad was the resident expert, he did the first batch to show us how it's done.

Joshua helped along the drying process with a heat gun. The crack was on the top of the van, so they had to stand in the window to reach it. After the first layer dried, they sanded it down and repeated the process, covering a larger area. With the first layer, they just covered the biggest part of the crack.

When the second coat had finished drying, the whole area was sanded smooth and the crack was repaired. Later that day, Dave and Josh bought some white spray paint and touched up the paint. Good as new.

Easter Jamming

 Joshua and I were in Modesto for Easter. We started the day by going to sunrise mass, then breakfast, then the traditional service at Trinity. It was great, particularly since we usually work on Sundays and hadn't been to church in over a month. We had a big Easter dinner at Josh's parents with ham and lots of delicious food. After we were full and happy, the girls, Joy, Bethany, Laura, Gayle, and I, made strawberry orange marmalade. It was a fun project.

Continuing Birthday Celebration

Rachel took me to Miller's Landing on Bass Lake for ice cream and onion rings as a belated birthday hangout time. It was delicious and we had a great time together.

Maki Making

Josh and I made sushi for dinner tonight. It was fun and tasty. We started with plenty of clean counter space and our ingredients.  

 Then to we laid out a nori seaweed sheet, smooth side down, and spread our sticky sushi rice on it. Next came the vegetables. For our first time, we kept it simple and stuck with veggies rolls. 

 Then it was time to roll it up and cut it. That was a bit tricky, but turned out pretty well.

We made three rolls, then ate them with soy sauce. It was really good. We have some nori sheets left and are already thinking about what we want to do next time. 

Shopping and Sushi

Joshua and I are working on getting back into the swing of wedding planning this week. It has been a slow month for us in that respect due to the fact that one or both of us were sick and/or out of town during all of March. But we are both recovering now and have some time off, so we are getting going again. Yesterday was a big day. We went down to Fresno to go ring shopping and found a wedding band for Joshua. We also got all you can eat sushi for lunch, which was delicious. We ate seven rolls between the two of us, plus seaweed salad and green tea ice cream. It was so good, but we were stuffed and didn't eat again the rest of the day. It has been really good to get back into wedding planning; it is finally feeling like things are moving and the wedding is getting closer. We are both so excited.

Cider Tasting

 We finally got to try our first bottles of apple cider on Monday! We sampled one of each kind; the dry cider that we left plain and the sparkling one we added sugar to. The dry cider was pretty dry, but had a good flavor. The sparkling cider had some carbonation and was a bit sweeter, but needs more time to mellow. Neither of them are amazingly delicious, but it was a fun process and we are pleased with the results. It will be interesting to see how the flavor changes as they continue to age. 

Snow Pictures

 I finally got some good pictures of the snow. The previous times it has snowed this year I have been sick, working, or off the mountain and by the time I get out to take pictures, it has melted from the trees and it's not nearly as pretty as fresh snow. This morning I wasn't working and felt recovered enough to head out and finally take pictures before the snow melted. It was satisfying. 

Happy First Day of Spring

 While Mom and I were enjoying sunny weather in the 70s in Pennsylvania, there was quite the storm hitting California. When I got back to camp on Monday, there was over 2 feet of snow on the ground. So here are some pictures I took from the patio today.