And We’re Off!
August 14, 2025
Peter’s Delta flight, direct from Detroit, was to land at 10:30am. It arrived a bit early, so we were a little late.. but no matter, collected him at 10:30, and off we went in a very loaded car. Happy fam.
First stop, a Starbs in the Pocket area of Sac. We then had lunch at Old Priest Station in Groveland, per tradition, a great meal served on the large deck with the sweeping view by Conrad Anker’s brother (Conrad = famed mountain climber), sullen, but efficient. All good.
We did one of Andy’s pub quizzes (I brought a bunch!), chatted with Maya, took in the views…
This has to be one of my favorites, and says, “you have arrived to the Yosemite high country!”
A small looking Fairview Dome behind Tenaya Lake there.
A nice view of Tenaya Peak, towering above the lake. We’ve hiked up there numerous times.
And a closer-up view of Fairview as we drive by…
We got to the TM Lodge at 4:30, checked in and were assigned Cabin #69. Our favorites were taken. I wrangled a little with the staff, hoping for a cabin with a shallower stoop and not as sun exposed, but that was not to be. We’ve been in #69 many times before and it’s fine (it’s just my knees that are older).
(Then I had to think… we’ll be climbing thousands of feet in the next week.. two feet should not be a problem.)
We made our dinner reservations for the week, and snagged a 6:15 for tonight. Ate with a couple from South Lake Tahoe and a solo guy from Danville. Pleasant enough. Then sat by the campfire for awhile.
Ahhhhh.
As Seen on Today’s Walk
August 13, 2025
Janet and I set off on our weekly Wednesday walk around the Arboretum. We turned the corner at A and Russell and who should we see? Jim in the Wild!
He was on the job… surveying at the Sigma Nu fraternity just one block from our house! It may be the closest-to-home job Jim’s ever had. He coulda loaded all his stuff in his silver wagon and just walked to work today (but he didn’t). It was fun to see him working. Look how happy (and cute) he is:
This is Jim doing surveying things:
We thought it best to leave him alone.
~~
Our next exciting sighting was this….
This was very sweet. It’s a dad and his two young kids. The dad has pulled a crawdad out of the creek to show his kids what crawdads look like. He pointed out to us a number of them, surrounded by hundreds of tiny fish. The crawdads were all fighting with each other — thus the loss of an entire left claw on the one in the tub. We talked about crawdads for a while, then were on our way.
For the record, the injured crawdad was returned to the water. There he was going to have to fend for himself against some worthy foes. I hope he fared well.
Back At It
August 12, 2025
Since returning from Europe 7 1/2 ish weeks ago, I’ve been super motivated to return to my full regimen of aerobics, stretching, strength and walking. Fitness has always been a priority in my life, but the routine’s fluctuated wildly over the decades — sometimes it’s uber disciplined, sometime less so.
When we visited with Marty in France in June, I learned that he is focused on a great goal: to be his most fit self as he turns 70 at the end of this year. Not fit like the 20-year-old version of himself, but the best he can possibly achieve as he turns 70. He totally hooked me on the idea! I love a goal. As I turn 70 two months after he does, we made it a joint challenge (not a competition). And, excitingly, we decided to celebrate the birthday milestone — and our success in achieving max fitness — in France sometime in early 2026.
We floated the idea among all the Frame cousins — many of whom also have 70th birthdays coming up or just past — and there was general enthusiasm. Not sure that’ll all come to pass (it’s going to be hard to get all the cousins’ schedules to line up), but celebration or no, I think it’s a super worthy goal.
Anyway, the very next day following our return, I recommitted to my daily practice. I have a fairly elaborate and carefully crafted set of routines that I’ve honed over the years. These routines vary day-to-day (that keeps it sorta fresh), but the week, taken as a whole, satisfies all the requisite levels of strength and aerobics (stretching and walking happen every day). And hip hip hooray for me, I’ve not missed a single day (minus the 8-day trip to Ann Arbor/Vermont a month ago… strict routines are hard to maintain on the road).
At today’s PT appointment with the brilliant, spunky Shanette, I learned that a strong back was especially helpful in maintaining healthy shoulders (she’s been chipping away at my stiff right shoulder for a few months). I do a whole bunch of exercises that target my back, but I decided to do a little bit of research to see if I was missing anything good… and found an article that suggested three exercises that are particularly effective in building strong upper backs. I tend to futz a lot with the exercises in my routine and may just experiment with these, or variations thereof. I won’t go into detail here.. I mean, TMI. But check out this photo.
I can’t take my eyes off those deltoids. My lord.
Let me just say.. this is not my goal (I’m a near-70 year old lady!). But let me also say wow.
25 Years of Yosemite
August 11, 2025
I don’t want to jump the gun and prepare a photo retrospective of our annual Yosemite trips before we’re done with said trips… as I know we’ll continue this tradition as long as Jim and I are mobile and Peter’s willing to join us. On the other hand, 25 years of Yosemite trips seems like a good milestone and worth taking a pause to look back.
[Peter sent us his flight info today so I’ve got Yosemite on my mind; we leave in three days. I did the math, and this will be our 26th year.]
We pose in front of our Toulumne Meadows tent cabin each year. I’ve assembled all of the takes from all of the years in a digital photo album that lives on my laptop. It’s a huge collection. I’ve also created a smaller album with a selected one best cabin photo … and that’s what’s below, in chronological order. (I’m a little embarrassed that more of these feature me with Peter than Jim with Peter, but that’s just the way the pictures happened. Down the road, I’m planning a large photo book with highlights of each year’s trips, including the hikes we took.. but, like I said, that’s down the road. In any case, it’s very likely to feature billions of Jim and Peter pics, since I’m the family photographer.. so no worries, Jim!)
Without further ado…
2000, our first trip to Tuolumne Meadows. We followed the suggestion of our friends Rick and Gigi who took their sons to TM and stayed in the tent cabins, also annually, for 25 years (as I recall). R&G joined us that year and introduced us to numerous hikes.. hikes we still do to this day. This first year, Peter had just turned two.
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005 Someone starts getting goofy.
2006
2007
2008
2009 Finally, Jim makes the scene! And Peter gets more serious.. or just older!
2010 Now who’s goofy!
2011
2012 Braces on.
2013
2014 Braces off.
2015
2016 Peter just graduated from high school.
2017 Finished first year of college at UC San Diego.
2018
2019
2020 Covid year, the tent cabins closed. We camped outside the park, but dropped by the unassembled tent cabins — sad — for the annual pic! Peter is now in grad school at U Mich.
2021 Same story, cabins still closed. We again camped outside the park.
2022 Same story! Cabins have not yet reopened! This time we stayed in Lee Vining.
2023 Maya joined us! Her first trip to Yosemite! Tuolumne Meadows Tent Cabins are still closed. Again, we stayed in Lee Vining.
2024 The tent cabins finally opened but Jim and I lost out on reservations. We were able to get one night, and we took it! Peter made the trip to Yosemite, but spent his Sierra time this year on the John Muir Trail (240+ miles from Mt Whitney to Yosemite Valley, passing through Tuolumne Meadows. It counts!)
Whew! That’s a lotta tent cabins, hiking, campfires, dining room meet and greets, family, friends, games, swims, marmots, storms, wildfire smoke, mosquitoes … wonderful trips, each and every one.
Looking forward to the next 25, starting with our trlp later this week!
Elusive Accountability
August 10, 2025
It’s probably important for posterity purposes to make sure my blog includes this artifact… a perfect representation of the trump-era version of America.. trump americana, if you will. If it’s filthy, amoral, illegal, unethical, ugly, vile, unprincipled, inhumane .. it’s a symbol of trump’s america.
He is one piece of shit, that tangle of pubic hair guy.
I know he’ll rot in hell and there is great satisfaction in that. But in the meantime, I hope this story just goes on and on and on and hope, especially, that it marks the beginning of the end for him.
I know. It won’t.
He’ll slither free, as he always does, escaping accountability. It should be a scandal as big as any other presidential scandal we’ve had. It should take him down. I mean, the President of the United States is best buddies with the most notorious sexual predator in US history. Who doubts that he was, at the very least, very well aware of what his buddy was up to all those years (it doesn’t take a cracker jack code cracker to decipher the above) and, at the very worst, partook of those heinous crimes himself. I have no doubt, I’ll just go on record with that.
I expect that at some point some incriminating information will come out and some men will finally be held accountable for the despicable crimes they committed and the lives they ruined. There has to be accountability. I don’t believe the public is going to let this one fade without that. But I do also believe that there is a very good chance trump will escape. Maxwell will lie, evidence will be lost or destroyed, the courts will somehow find a loophole for him to snake through. And his followers will believe whatever story he concocts, whatever fabrication his team serves up, and his media enablers will triple down on whatever that story line ends up being. Voila. Fake news. He skates free, changes the subject, returns his focus to Project 2025, continues his savage assault on our democracy, wins a Nobel Peace Prize, the world moves on.
But when/if those files are released — however redacted to protect him — do go ahead and imprison all the democrats who violated and abused one thousand girls. He’ll be the one to lock ’em up and throw away the key. And take all the credit for achieving justice.
(And absolutely, yes, do that!, imprison all who are guilty, whatever their political affiliation. But please, god, don’t leave trump behind.)
I’m So Hot
August 9, 2025
Meaning… Davis is hot right now.. we’ve hit three digit temps after weeks of incredibly pleasant (and unusually cool) summer weather. I am a sweaty Betty.
I’m also hot, as in angry. Enraged about literally too many things to innumerate at the moment. This is but ONE of those many horrific things: the cutting of 1.1 billion dollars of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity that oversees PBS and NPR. A few days after Congress voted on this rescission package, CPB announced on Aug 1 they were shutting down their operation. The fate of PBS and NPR is uncertain; the stations that rely less on federal funding and more on local viewer/listener dollars may fare better. But for sure this is an arrow to the heart for so many of us who rely on NPR for daily news.
The nerve of that asshole.
In The Heights
August 8, 2025
Carrie had a pair of free tickets to see the musical In the Heights at the Music Circus in Sac two nights ago. She offered them to a bunch of us in a text.. two of us showed an interest, and we decided — though we’d never met one another — to attend together… sorta like a blind date!
Here’s Liz and me.. having a great first date. Lol.
So says Wikipedia:
In the Heights is a musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is a romance as well as a celebration of community, culture, and aspirations. It is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York City. The score blends hip-hop, salsa, merengue, and soul.
What I really don’t understand is who these actors are and where they came from. Is this a traveling show, or did it originate in Sacramento? I presume it’s a company that travels around, because it’s only at the Music Circus for seven days, which would be quite an undertaking for a local company for so few shows. But is this a broadway show? THE Broadway show? Or.. is this a Music Circus company of actors who act in all the season’s plays at the Music Circus?
I’ve tried (lazily) to find the answer.. but I just don’t understand the business enough to even understand my internet search results. Not much of a musicals kind of person.
No matter. Enjoyed the show well enough and could even see going to another show. Hair, for example, is coming. That would be fun!
Rough Around the Edges
August 7, 2025
That describes both the look of this new potato recipe and the overall result. I’ve seen variations of this recipe for parmesan crusted roasted potatoes pop up in various of my social media video feeds for years.. reels, stories, Insta and god knows where else these addictive videos appear. Been wanting to try for a long time.
Yukon Golds (I had small white potatoes and a fingerling mix) are tossed in an olive oil, garlic powder, dill (was supposed to be parsley), s/p marinade. A paste of grated parmesan and melted butter is pressed onto a sheet pan. Then the potatoes are cut in half, scored and pressed cut side down in the cheese mixture and baked for 25 minutes or so.
While messy.. it was certainly tasty! The parmesan/butter mixture adheres to the potato (and beyond) and is crispy, salty and buttery.
They’re a bit deadly.. not sure I’ll make them again.
Kid in a Basket
August 6, 2025
There is little cuter than a kid in a basket. Here’a a picture of Maia’s daughter Diana.. sitting in a basket…
Any Guesses?
August 5, 2025
This is not frank and beans. I don’t eat beans, so no chance I’d go there.
This was tonight’s dinner. I’ve made it a couple of times before. Both times, we gave it our highest rating, which earned this recipe a place in the big binder.
Tonight, imho, it was a meh. A good enough meh.. just didn’t live up to its stellar rating of the past. I prepared it correctly, I have no doubts about my work…it seemed like there just wasn’t critical mass. I think it’s because I’d halved the recipe.. which yielded so little “sauce.”
So..give up? It’s Italian sausage and red grapes. You saute the grapes in a bit of butter, do a red wine reduction, then add parboiled Italian sausages (I went with both turkey and pork, mild). It then goes into the oven for 20 minutes, and finally, on the stove, you do a balsamic vinegar reduction. That’s it. It gets syrupy and sweet and goes really well with the salty sausage (better, prob, if we liked hot Italian sausages). Serve with ciabatta to soak up the sauce.. but there wasn’t enough of that.
So.. dunno.
I just found an Ina Garten video where she cooks this dish with the owner of a Providence, RI restaurant, Al Forno. The owner’s been cooking this dish for 30 years, and it’s one of the most enduring on her menu. I was gratified to see that I did exactly what she did. She had no more sauce than I had. Her grapes were bigger and she used both red and green. Her presentation was better (we served from the pot): she placed the sausages around the outside of a platter, piled the grapes in the middle and then surrounded the whole dish with pieces of focaccia (instead of ciabatta). Rustic Italian.
Here’s a screen shot from the video…
I’ll do that next time.
Life of Wry 