Girl's Relaxation Day, Part Deux

Much, much too long ago (nearly two years) my sisters and I had a Girl's Relaxation Day in Park City, where we retreated from our lives and painted our toenails and stuffed ourselves with brie, which we could technically have done in our own places of residence but felt (rightly) that it would be better to do it somewhere else.

This fall we decided that it was time for another much-needed Girl's Relaxation Day, and since Park City had treated us so well last time we made that our destination. The nice thing about Park City, I think, is that even though it's not that far away it still feels like a different sort of place. This is probably because they have coffee there.

Spitfire booked an amazing spot for us to stay and treated me and Jen to an evening of luxury. For, lo, she is awesome. We were at the Westgate Resort, which was just beautiful and perfect and wonderful.

Resort highlights included:

A full kitchen and living room.

A hot tub in the bedroom. (Aw, yeah. Except, you know, not so much, since I was there with my sisters. No Victoria Secret bubble bath parties here, sorry.)

A huge stone shower with both a regular shower head and a waterfall shower head (the kind that comes down from the ceiling.) The shower also has a bench built in and functions as a sauna. (So, um, all other showers can kind of eat it now.)

An outdoor heated pool (lovely) and two outdoor hot tubs. We chose the one that came with the Speedo-wearing European man. As you do.

In true Girl's Relaxation Night style, there was toenail painting and brie-eating and pumpkin-pie-eating and TV-watching. No no-bake cookies this time, probably because my sisters remember almost being gassed to death last year. There was also much sighing at the catalog of spa services offered downstairs, which sighs then turned to chokes and seizures upon the reading of the prices. We watched the TV channel advertising the spa for a little bit but then had to turn it off because it was just too tantalizing (ahhh, spa porn). Our new plan is that one day when we're all quite rich we are going to book ourselves into a spa for a weekend. It's gonna be great. We then piled into the king-sized bed, which fit all three of us easily, and slept soundly. That is until my cell phone alarm went off at 7:00am, please do not ask me why. It seems that I am alarm-challenged.

For breakfast Jen made crepes. I would have helped, but I was Experiencing the Shower. She did Julia Child's crepe recipe with a savory chicken-bacon-mushroom-leek-pure-crystallized-crack-cocaine filling. And for calcium we added slabs of warm brie. Women need calcium, you know. My bones start to deteriorate this year--gotta stave that off. There were also nutella crepes with fresh raspberries, real whipped cream, and sauteed apples. Because we know how to party.

Once we got cleaned up and I'd done everyone's eyebrows and eye makeup (remember, girlie weekend) we hit the outlet stores. And yes, I'm sure there are some friends out there right now thinking, "Wait. YOU were the one doing people's eye makeup? Uh . . . " But what they do not know is that I've totally figured out how to do one really nice-looking smoky grey-blue eyeshadow thing. So that's what we all got. And we looked hot, I tell you.

Jenny took in the biggest shopping haul as she was on a mission to buy new church-going clothes. I got two nice tops and mentally purchased an entirely new wardrobe for GH at Banana Republic. As a heterosexual male, he would probably object to most of my choices. One day, though. One day.

So yeah. We've decided this needs to be an annual thing. And maybe we should spend two nights instead of one. And we need to check the closets more carefully when we leave because if we don't then the housekeeping staff will steal the black J.Crew shirt Jenny accidentally left hanging in the closet and then the hotel will just pretend like we maybe imagined the black shirt and that possibly Jenny did not actually wear it to the hotel but just turned up to check in wearing nothing but a bra. (I'm kind of glad now that I forgot to leave a tip for those stealers. Except . . . maybe that's why we're in this situation now. Huh.)

Every day should be relaxation day

Spitfire and I had Monday (Veteran's Day) off, so we decided to commemorate the sacrifices of veterans everywhere by treating ourselves to a day of debauchery. We grabbed Jenny and drove up to Park City in order to temporarily escape from our lives. Not that our lives are bad, because they're not, but we're pretty much all going through crazy stressful times and we figured a bit of a Hen Night was preferable to one day snapping and buying some kind of high-powered rifle and climbing the nearest building with it. I'm sure you agree.

At the hotel we sat in the hot tub, did pedicures and manicures, gave each other back rubs, and ate dangerous amounts of Brie, focaccia bread, apples, hot chocolate, and no-bake cookies. I told Jen before the trip that even though I love her nobakes, I always get a gastrointestinal complaint when I eat them. Her response: That's because you're not supposed to eat seven at a time.

She's a jerk.

Her solution was for me to only eat two and see how my gastrointestinal system dealt with it. Only this did not seem a good plan to me because it would mean I only got two cookies. So I tried to cut back but apparently I failed. And it turns out that the windows in our hotel room don't open. Which is too bad.

During the pedicures the three of us wedged ourselves onto the side of the bathtub so we could keep our feet in the tub for the rinsing. It was kind of precarious, and I'm sure from the back we resembled three hippos at the watering hole.

The next morning (after the alarm on my cell phone went off, which Jenny says is one of the worst things she's ever heard and which I claim is the reason why I'm in a bad mood every day--if anyone knows of any precious, gentle, kind alarms do let me know) we hit the Outlet Mall, World Market, and downtown Park City. The weather was sunny and beautiful and everything was just relaxed and perfect.




At the World Market I got holiday crackers for Christmas dinner, real Whole Nut Cadbury bars, a bag of French lavender for cooking, two vanilla beans for $2.99, and two more sets of chopsticks to replace ones which have either been stolen or have simply run away to find a home where they'll actually get used. I love that store. I could wander around in there all day long.

My new favorite Park City bookstore is called Dolly's and is right next to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. This store is cozy and wonderful and so are the people who work there and they keep live cats sleeping in a basket. Jenny discovered this cool new edition of Pippi Longstocking, which I had not even known about but must buy immediately for the library.


We wanted to have lunch at Bistro 412 (turn your speakers off if you don't want your mind polluted with the sweet singings of French men, Dad) in keeping with our weekend of Estrogen and The Finer Things, but it was closed. Jerks. So after roaming the street for forever (lots of places are closed right now) we decided on Bandits' Grill and Bar. The only problem with this place is that it's right next the Hungry Moose Grill, which is awful. Last year when my parents were visiting we accidentally went to this place for dinner because I mistook it for Bandits. Do not make the same mistake.

Spitfire and Jen split a guacamole burger, and I got the Kobe Black & Bleu, which was an American Kobe beef burger with bleu cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, and tomato. It was amazingly good. We had a tiny bit of room left for dessert, so when our server listed brownie sundae as one of the options we ordered one to split between the three of us. And then she, assisted by a forklift, brought it out to us.


And yes, that is a full-sized skillet underneath it and a full-sized waterglass next to it. Other people in the restaurant stared and asked what unholy thing we'd just done. We did our best but couldn't come close to finishing. Which, okay, I get that for presentation's sake that's a really clever thing. But we didn't need that much dessert. We couldn't eat that much dessert. They don't put the desserts on the menu but instead list them at the table, so that you don't see a price to tip you off about the size. I'm just saying. It was good, but unnecessarily (and somewhat deceptively) huge. I'm just warning you for when you go.

Seriously, people

So I'm thinking it would be a LOT better if life could just be normal and uncomplicated. There are some things happening with the job and I'm not sure what the outcome will be. And there's another job opening now nearby that would pay me loads more and is at a library that I already love. So, yeah. No idea what I'm meant to do there. I did apply for the nearby job, though. Because who knows.

On a happier note, I had a good weekend. I went out with BDG (blind date guy) and had a great time. We accidentally ended up eating at a really, really nice restaurant on Main Street in Park City. It was so cold outside that we sort of ran into the first place we came to. Not a good idea in Park City, turns out. But when you're freezing to death you don't think straight. I almost died when I opened the menu and saw the prices. I'm sure BDG was a bit stunned as well but he was cool about it.

I have to say, though. That was some of the best food I've ever had. Ever. Here's an example menu, but be warned that those prices are lower than the real ones. So add a bit more volume to the "Gahh!!" and you'll have it.

Everything was beautiful. We sat in this booth that had curtains you can pull closed if you want. The server came out with steaming hand towels. They brought us fried wonton-wrapper chips to dip in a mustard curry sauce, and then after we ordered they brought us each a nibble of skate in a Thai basil-coconut sauce, compliments of the chef. I wanted to close the curtains so I could lick the sauce off the little dish, it was that good. But I was trying really hard to be couth. I ordered these huge scallops with tarragon and garlic and I don't even remember what, but they were set along the border of a circle of marinated shittake mushroom and a center of this creamy cauliflower puree. They were amazing. I really wanted to to take a picture to show you, but didn't have my camera with me. Also, the couth thing.

Seriously, it was so, so great. I think BDG really enjoyed it too (that or he's good at disguising an impending heart attack and/or sobbing). This helped keep me from feeling bad about bankrupting him with my dinner. Not that it was my fault. But you know. Next time we go out I think I'll suggest something a bit easier on the wallet--like free hot chocolate in bank lobbies. Or free hot dogs at RC Willey.

How to do Sundance . . . or should we say FUNDANCE!

Don't blame me for the FUNdance line, that was courtesy of Nick Cannon who is now a dj or something.

Did anybody ever read The Stupids when they were little? They were very funny books about a very nice, stupid family.

I'm pretty sure the title of our day could be summed up as The Stupids Go to Sundance. At certain points of the day I also felt we could identify with these two:



So. Here's the recipe for spending your day at Sundance in the manner of The Stupids:

Spend too much time on your hair that morning in preparation for your photo op with John Krasinski. (See? And we thought I wouldn't have anyone to lust after!) Assume that your husband is still getting ready and so do not go any faster even though that will turn out to be not true and that he was actually waiting for you but didn't want to say anything for fear you'd bite his head off because that's kind of the hormonal place you've been in lately.

Go into a tizzy just as we're leaving about how you can't find your iPod and oh my gosh what will you even DO if you don't have your iPod with you during a film festival. Tear home apart and make wife help you look. Wife will finally say, "Are you sure it isn't on you somewhere?" Locate iPod in your pocket after all of this. Look sheepish.

On the way to the Broadway Theatre in downtown SLC, read the fine print on the back of your ticket which says that you must be in your seats 15 minutes early if you don't want to lose your seat to the waitlist b@$&^(*s.

Arrive 10 minutes early and lose your seat to the waitlist b@$&^(*s. Kiss $30 goodbye. But hey, one of you has great hair and the other has a 60 GB iPod with a plastic nipple attached. And since you were BOTH latemaking, neither one can in fairness be angry with the other. Which is really what it comes down to in life.

Drive to Park City telling yourself that this is nice because you will be there while it's still light outside, which will work better for your camera. And for Jim Halpert.

Catch the recommended free shuttle bus from Kimball Junction, 6 miles from Park City. Spend 120 minutes on this bus. Pass much open parking along the way. Arrive after dark.

Arrive too late to catch Zooey Deschanel's entrance into her movie theatre.

Grab dinner at the site of last year's Relaxation Day Lunch. Dinner will be excellent. Treasure that.

Catch shuttle up to theatre where Michael Cera's movie will be playing in an effort to become waitlist b@$&^(*s yourselves. Arrive to find that they've been handing out waitlist numbers for the last hour. Your numbers are 163 and 164. If you had gone to that theatre first thing, before dinner, you too could have been sashaying your way up to the front of the line waving your ticket in the air like Little Miss Jeans Tucked Into My Boots 11.

Ponder tucking jeans into boots. Remember that while this may make you look stylish, it will also make you look like a very disproportionate dwarf. Or cowgirl.

Finally give up after the movie starts when they've only let in about 20 waitlist people. Find out afterwards that the theatre seats 650 people, so maybe you would have still gotten in. Console yourself with the thought that your tickets might go to the three nice girls from Orange County behind you, who haven't seen anything yet either. Because then it's noble.

See absolutely no famous people. Instead, walk through a cloud of weed so thick that it make you woozy. Because that's almost as good, right?

At the end of the day, even though you got to do none of the things you hoped to, and even though it turns out that you are both marginally functioning adults who will probably have to check yourselves into a care center sooner rather than later, it is a comfort to know that there is no one else you would rather waste a day with.

At last . . . my lu-u-uv has come along

Went to the outlet stores at Park City on Monday with Jaime, Foodie, and Kristee. I showed admirable restraint in the fiscal department, I feel. I had a hard time in Banana Republic, though, because they were having this massive sale where everything was an additional 50% off. Sigh . . . I settled on one pretty shirt. And a pair of $40 exercise pants for $8 at Aeropostale. And a set of 6 beautiful white ramekins for $8. Now I can make creme brulee at my house!

The love part happened when Kristee ushered us into the Mikasa outlet and I saw these.


It's their Pure Red design and my heart kind of lurched out of my chest when I saw it. And there may have been angels. It was all very fuzzy. I can do without the tea cups, but I want to bring the rest home and give names to each piece. Problem is, I don't actually need china. Nor can I afford it to buy it myself. And I'm not getting married any time soon so it's not like there are people lining up to buy it FOR me. And I'm supposed to be cutting down on my consumer spending.

But seriously, SO pretty.

Maybe this is one of those things that Kelly was talking about when she wanted to start the registry club. Girl has a point. The premise is if you're not married by a certain age you can just go ahead and register because if you're going to be freaking celibate for all those years you might as well have pretty dishes for your cats to eat off of.

Am having relaxational Girls Day OutI

I'm in Park City with my sisters today, playing Refugee from Real Life. We're about to hit World Market and the Outlet Mall and Main Street. Expect pictures and stories tomorrow!

Ooof. Tumbled over.*

When I check on the sleeping Lord Voldemort, I can sometimes tell that he fell asleep while sitting up in his crib. I have never watched this happen, but I wonder if it looks a bit like cow-tipping.

Pic courtesy of Aunti Kimi in Pittsburgh

In the next room right now

While he naps my big plan is to put a shirt on and maybe, maybe get another inch knitted on this neckwarmer for Spitfire so that I can send it to her before the Kansas winter is already over. And maybe I will watch Guy on a Buffalo #2 again.

Tonight we are going to Park City to watch other people drink coffee and be Democrats but mostly to visit with my in-laws who are spending the weekend there. Looking forward to a night out.

Happy Friday, friends!

*not that am comparing TDL to drunken English Singleton, but I mean just look at him.

Sooo much chocolate

I went to that Chocolate Show over the weekend with my Jenny, Hannah, and HT. They are good people to spend an evening with. Also HT told me that my hair inspired her to get a perm (which looks really nice on her, btw.) I was kind of floored, though, because I have never, ever, in my life, ever, been One Whose Appearance Inspires Emulation. Ever. I am glad that you were able to witness this day with me.

We got off to a late start because of all the BYU football game traffic and then the really freaky on/off ramps when you're trying to get on I-15 coming from the west but the on-ramp is all curvy so you can't go more than 25 mph around the curve but then BAM it spills you out onto the freeway where people are trying to kill you. Plus it was dark and I'm still getting used to driving again. I found finger-grip marks left in the upholstery after we dropped the girls off.

The Chocolate Show had much, much chocolate. There were flavored chocolates and chocolate fountains and truffles and fudge and chocolate popcorn and hot chocolate and chocolate milk and every good thing. There were also some people who I didn't think really needed to be there, as they did not add to my chocolate consumption:

• This very weathered and adversarial lady pushing the Salt Lake Tribune on us.
• A guy who wanted us to come test some luxury condos in Park City but took it back when he found out that we did not make the minimum required income. I'm not sure what part of "Sorry, we're too poor for that" he didn't get when I first said it.
• Wedding photographers.
• A company which peddled diet chocolate. I steered clear of them.
• The jewelry people. I swear, wherever there are booths, there will be jewelry people. I don't love the jewelry people.
  

Getting there near the end turned out to be a good idea because the vendors just wanted to get rid of stuff by then. The See's Chocolate rep shoved handfuls of chocolate lollipops at us. I got a caramel & chocolate dipped Granny Smith apple for $2.50 instead of $6.50.

Alan Osmond was there auctioning off the chocolate sculptures to support a children's charity. They auctioned things like "this chocolate sculpture and a Donny Osmond tour jacket" and "this chocolate sculpture and two Marie Osmond dolls which will come to life while you sleep and grow claws and kill your children."

Come tooooo my gaaaarden . . .

Sorry, having a Secret Garden: The Musical moment. Ahem.

In an effort to rack up the number of plants I've killed in my life, I decided to try a garden again this year. I've got some good east-facing exposure and figured I could do some container plants. So I started seedlings and housed them on my dryer, where I nursed them with eye-droppers and bed-time stories and lullabies and found them babysitters for when I was out of town and every other thing.



Death toll: All the parsley, most of the basil, and all but 3 of the tomatoes (1 Early Girl and 2 Jelly Bean).

Turns out that "hardening off" does not mean "go stick your tomato babies outside for 18 hours on the first sunny hot day of the year." As I now know, this does not agree with them. Also tomatoes can get sunburned. Did you know this? And when they do get sunburned, it's much better if you can recognize this for what it is and get them back inside to recuperate, rather than shrugging your shoulders and leaving them out for another day of to-a-crisp-burning. See how I'm learning?

Planted sweet peas inside until a coworker told me you're supposed to just put them outside from the beginning. Thanks, coworker! My sweat peas thank you too:



Did y'all know how pretty sweat peas are? And how great they smell? Now instead of catching whiffs of Dumpster when I walk out my back door, I get to smell these fragrant little babies. It is a vast improvement.


After receiving my Mother's Day flower at church I got smart and Googled "How to not kill an innocent petunia." The Interwebs came through for me and look how great mine is doing!


The biggest thing happened once I thought I was done. Was chatting with an upstairs neighbor about the disgusting state of the landscaping around our complex. I mentioned that if I were here next summer I might think about digging out the small area on the back side of the building that is currently growing rocks and hip-height weeds and turning it into a garden.

Neighbor: That's a good idea! We'd need to ask the manager for permission, though.

Me: Seriously? You've seen the spot I'm talking about. Nothing I do could possibly make it look worse than it already does.

She liked the idea of turning the rock/weed/bush bed on her side of the building into a garden, though, and the next thing I knew, my neighbor spoke to the manager, who spoke to the owner, who said we could have gardens if we want. His caveat, which just goes to show how long it has been since the sweet man has visited, was this: Please ask them to take good care of the area because we wouldn't want it looking like a big weed patch at the end of the summer.

Ahem. You mean something like this?



Not lying, there are some parts of the complex where the weeks are the size of small trees. They come up to my shoulder and have probably ensnared and digested a few stray cats and/or children. But this is what it looks like now, after a butt-load of work, compost, and fertilizer:


I went to Cook's Farm & Greenhouse in Orem on my neighbor's recommendation to get the plants, and oh my gosh I could have spent all day wandering around in there. A sleepy Dark Lord was with me, though, being hauled around in the little red wagon they provide, so I had to be speedy. I got starts for roma tomatoes, basil, zucchini, squash, cantaloupe, pumpkin, and mint. The prices were good--from $1.00 to $2.50 per plant, which I'm sure would add up if your garden was big but in a tiny one like mine it was pretty great. If I'd known about this place earlier I might have chosen to just skip the 12 weeks of intensive seed-coddling and just let someone else do all the eye-dropper work.

The mint is so I can replicate this fresh limeade I had at a Farmers Market in Park City a few weeks ago. It was $4 per glass, so my s-in-law and I got one to share. When it was gone we ran back and bought another one, it was that good. Watch this space for the recipe once I get it figured out!

Have to say, though, the best part of the whole plant-buying expedition came when we got back to the car and I opened all the windows and fed Little Lord Voldemort in the back seat next to our new baby plants. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze blew through the car, and I had my sweet contented boy in my lap, who looked up and gave me milky little grins even though his diaper was so full it was probably disintegrating. Like I said, it is not the life I've been used to, but moments like these remind me of just what a sweet little life it is.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go Google "tomato leaves curling brown." Has anyone else decided to be brave and plant something?

Blogging CiL 2007, Day 2

I've been wondering what I should say about the shootings in Virginia, and all the memorials and moments of silence being held today. And maybe it's inappropriate of me to talk about my sightseeing and my conference in light of what else is going on. But the thing is, I did have a really good day today, even if I did spend part of it being sad about what happened and praying for the families of the students who were killed. So I'm going to talk about some of the good things that happened.

This conference is great and I want to keep coming back every year. Not sure how likely that is, but I'll push for it. Today I learned more about Web 2.0 and how to create a library website specifically for teens and how to successfully implement change & help people transition into a new way of doing things in the workplace. I went to one session planning to learn about how to bring about innovation in libraries and instead learned about falling asleep in my chair. Which was really too bad. But at least I stayed in my seat rather than walking out like a bunch of other people did. Only maybe they had a point, because they probably slipped into a more interesting session and enjoyed the next 40 minutes rather than hallucinating through them.

Then I went shopping.

The Crystal City Metro station

I took the Metro to Foggy Bottom and then walked over to Georgetown. I didn't have a lot of time, which is not even fair because I could have spent hours in Georgetown. I loved all the beautiful red brick buildings and the parks and the Old Stone House. I loved that they have all my favorite stores there even if I only had time to go into H&M. (I found a very cute skirt there that makes me think of Cicada. Maybe this means she will try to steal it from me. Must be on my guard.) I also loved that it was Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. I got the peanut butter swirl one, on account of peanut butter & chocolate are hands-down the best flavor combination on Earth.

Foggy Bottom Homes

More Foggy Bottom homes

Park at the beginning of Georgetown--I guess I lied about all the blossoms being blown off. Just most of them have been.

Sorry there aren't any real Georgetown pics, but I had to book it to get back in time. Part of me wanted to just forget the rest of the day and stay there, but I figured I'd better be Responsible. And it's a good thing I did go back, because not only did I learn cool things but after the sessions there was this exhibitor reception where people walked around with even more trays of goodies, like artichoke aioli and real crab cakes and mushroom dumplings. Heaven, I tell you.

Met up with Abby for dinner at the Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon City. We had:

• Fatayer B'sbanigh (fried pastries filled with spinach, onions, pine nuts and sumac)
• Kibbeh Yoghurtlieh (kibbeh balls topped with toasted pita and warm yogurt sauce and pine nuts)
• Lamb Kabob (marinated lamb grilled and served w/rice and grilled veggies)

Turns out I love me some Lebanese food--everything was great. I got to use my per diem money on that because it was food. Afterwards we went to World Market next door and guess what else is food?

• 1 container Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cocoa--chocolate hazelnut flavor
• 2 100g bars Cadbury Whole Nut chocolate
• 3 packs McVitie's digestives in milk chocolate, plain chocolate, and chocolate caramel
• 2 160g jars Double Devon Cream for putting on scones

Yep. Totally counts. Per diem is my favorite.

After World Market we drove around Old Town Alexandria & some of the nearby neighborhoods. Could not stop gawking at the beautiful old buildings and multi-million dollar homes. I really should be living somewhere with old buildings because clearly it's in my blood. And no, disintegrating barns do not count, Logan.

But the odds were so good!

So it turns out I didn't win that trip to Paris. I know--weird, right? Having been prompted (probably by the Spirit) beforehand that this might be the case, I went ahead and booked myself a little alternative.

It's not Paris, but I'd been watching tickets like an obsessive person and yesterday I bought plane tickets to . . . drumroll . . . Pittsburgh!



Yeah. Try to keep it together, people.

GH's sister and her family are living there while her husband finishes his last year of dental school, so we're going to fly out in September and take advantage of their hospitality. We're excited to hang out and see the city with them, and they have a little boy who is 9 months older than The Dark Lord (who will finally be old enough, I hope, to play with his cousin).

I'm actually quite glad to be going to Pittsburgh because I have some unfinished business with that place. I spent a week there for work in another life, but I was alone (and, you know, working) so I didn't get to see much. I tried to go to the Point State Park once after work but I turned out not to have any cash on me and they wouldn't let me park or go in. So I spent every day driving around the greater Pittsburgh area (beautiful) and every evening at IKEA (also beautiful). It's time for a do-over. I'm hoping for a day trip to Kirtland and maybe trying to visit some Amish country.



We're also going to drive to Washington D.C. and stay for a couple of days. GH has never been and is looking forward to his first visit. Since it's a great place to walk around and the monuments and museums are free (as in, we can leave if our kid starts freaking the heck out and not have just wasted $50), we're hoping this will be a good traveling experience with little Lord Voldemort.

So, let's have it. Favorite things to do in either Pittsburgh or D.C.? Tips for traveling with 9-month-olds? Vacations you've just booked that you're dying to tell someone about? Something that has nothing to do with any of this? Bring it on.

So many of cowboys!

Because the city of Logan does not have a 4th of July parade, we went to the one in Lewiston, a town about 20 miles north with a population of 1,750. GH's Grammy lived in Lewiston for twenty years and so this is the parade his family goes to.

LDS Chapel along Main Street. 

There were many Future Cowboys of America in attendance, as well as their Future Rodeo Queens of America siblings. Check out the pictorial evidence. 

Note: not cowpersons, do not be fooled by the hat

cowboys

cowboys and their sisters--don't miss the hair on the two little girls!

cowboy men, including one with a lasso, you are welcome

zoned-out cowboy on a float--precious!

We accidentally angered some cowpersons at the start of the parade. Turns out that in Lewiston, to some people, parking a truck next to the curb on a parade route is meant to indicate that you have reserved not only the space the truck is on but also all the space between the truck and the parade, and maybe all the grass behind the truck, and possibly the entire universe.

The rest of us did not know this, and so filled in with our camping chairs and blankets and what have you. Then all the truck owners and their families showed up after the parade had begun and were dismayed to find that there was no room for their chairs, and then we got to pretend not to hear a bunch of passive-aggressive remarks made to each other about how, "Gosh, you'd think that when somebody sees a truck here they should rillize that this whole area is saved!"

Actually, Princii, it doesn't work this way. If you have a spot in mind, you need to create a perimeter around it. The truck was the only thing you put down, and you'll notice that none of us are touching it. So have fun watching the parade from the bed. Or hood. 

Again. Perimeter.

One thing that may be unique to Cache Valley parades are the treats. Kids come carrying plastic grocery bags because the people on the floats throw candy. It's usually cheap stuff like Tootsie Rolls and saltwater taffy, but sometimes you'll get a frozen Otter Pop lobbed at your head, and that's fun. 

Check out the Dairy Princesses distributing taffy for throwing:

All the royalty from the different towns come out on their floats, like they've been doing every time one of the towns has its summer festival. (Brigham City has Peach Days, Richmond has Black & White Days (cows, not races, because then it would just be White Days), Smithfield has Health Days, etc.) Then all the floats packed up and went south so they could redo the whole thing at noon in Hyrum, which is where my sister Jenny and her family were celebrating. 

Here are the girls from Wellsville:

The local high school marching bands and color guards were there, and a bunch of people drove through in really old vintage cars. Sometimes the "float" was really just a van with people throwing candy out the windows and a company logo on the side for carpet cleaners. There were also lots and lots of horses, mostly with Rodeo Queen/Princess riders from the different towns, which leads us to my favorite moment.

Troops of Cub Scouts came behind the horses with shovels and a wagon to scoop up the horse poo. The young cowboys pictured above started hooting and teasing the Cub Scouts as they marched by, and in response one of the scouts filled his shovel and launched its contents directly at the cowboys. It was kind of like poetry, watching this arc of horse manure sail through the air and splatter all over the boys' Wranglers and boots. The parents of the cowboys just laughed, which was awesome, so I guess the kids learned a valuable lesson that day about what happens when you tease people who possess shovels and lack impulse control. It's a good lesson for us all, I'd say.

After the parade was over they had a carnival set up in the park with craft and food booths and a band. The Dark Lord loooooved the music and kept running over to dance (read: gallop in a circle) in front of the stage.

We hung out there for a while, and then stopped in at Big J's Burgers in Richmond for lunch on our way home. The Dark Lord caught on quite quickly about what to do with the ketchup, as you see. Also? The food is good, but do not get the Big J burger. I made that mistake and ended up with a sandwich the size of a dinner plate. Just get a regular cheeseburger and you will be fine and happy and your innards will thank you by not rebelling later.

Other highlights of the day included afternoon naps and a big taco dinner with GH's extended family. My contribution to dinner was a big bowl of buttercrunch lettuce from my garden that I grew because I am now a gardener who grows. And then it rained all the next day, which was an Independence Day miracle. 

Happy Birthday, America. 

Did anybody else have any highlights they care to share?

Pick up the pace here, Spring

My daffodils and crocuses (crocii?) are up, and yet. It keeps snowing and being cold. I like this not at all. But hey, I'm going to San Francisco next week, so suck on that, Spring! I realize that the weather in San Francisco can be cold and windy and rainy, but by Grabthar's Hammer, it won't be snowing. This week their forecast shows 70s and sunny. I can definitely take that.

So yeah, I'm kind of excited. I went with my family a few times when we lived at Travis Air Force Base in the early 1990s. Am going to go ahead and spare you the pictures of thirteen-year-old me at Fisherman's Wharf with frizzy(er) hair and light pink sweatshirts with sailboats on the front from Coldwater Creek or whichever old lady store supplied my clothing. You are welcome. I haven't been back since a brief trip in 2000 for Lady Steed and Theric's beautiful wedding. (How beautiful? Click here.)

What's even more exciting is that my sister-in-law offered to watch the Tiny Dark Lord for us while we are gone. Spitfire is also going to get in on the babysitting action, and I am trying to think of really nice thank-you gifts for both of them. I will miss my baby's sweet face and his spirited rendition of "Yellow Submarine," but I am kind of beyond thrilled to be taking an adults-only sort of trip.

We leave Wednesday morning and come home Sunday night, and I wanted to be sure to float my itinerary so that wise people can weigh in and make suggestions that are not on here but will send me into the depths of despair if I miss out on them.

Here are a few of the things on my list of must-dos and maybe-dos. We bought the San Francisco CityPass, which gives us public transportation passports (not planning to rent a car, and our hotel is decently central--kind of between Nob Hill, Union Square, and Chinatown).

Other things from the pass that we hope to do:
Alcatraz Cruise
California Academy of Sciences
Exploratorium
the SMOMA, unless we decide we don't want to be cultured

One bummer (for us) about the pass is that the price barely went up because it now includes the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is 2 hours away & we aren't planning to go there. Oh well.

Oh! Has anyone been to the Disney Museum at the Presidio? We are looking into that.

GH is beyond thrilled because we snagged tickets to see the premier of Joss Whedon's new Much Ado about Nothing at the San Francisco Film Festival. You may remember that I married a rabid Joss Fan. The theater is in Japantown, so I will be shopping for bento boxes and Japanese dishes beforehand.



I am beyond thrilled at the possibility of getting together with Lady J and our good friend Skip, who both live in the area. Also GH has a delightful cousin who is even now looking at her schedule to see if we might be able to work out a meet-up.

The other thing I'm most excited about is the food. Now that I don't spend every evening lying on the couch while holding my stomach, gurgling, and hating everything, I kind of want to eat the whole city, especially all the stuff I've been reading about on everyone else's blogs of hipness.

Lots of what I want to try is in the Mission district:
Tartine Bakery
Bi-Rite Creamery, with ice cream flavors like salted caramel and honey lavender and I know not what
La Taqueria
Dynamo Donut: They have a maple donut with bacon on top. Ron Swanson would approve.
And then I will take those foods to that Dolores Park Playground everyone recommends and eat them. I might check out the two yarn stores in the area as well.

And a lot more of the stuff I want is at the Ferry Building:
Cowgirl Creamery
Boulette's Larder
Miette Bakery & Candy Shop
Plus the olive oil stores and the salt stores and the bread stores, oh my!

Then there's Chinatown:
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
Golden Gate Bakery (The people on Yelp are losing their minds over the egg tarts. What? New forms of custard to ingest? Don't mind if I do.)

Seafood:
Chowders on Pier 39 (a family tradition)
The Codmother Fish & Chips (British food truck with deep-friend Snickers and Oreos, awesome )
Am trying to decide on a sit-down seafood place that moves up from the $ to the $$ category but does not get all $$$ crazy. Yelp has recommendations, but does anyone here have any favorites?

Also, I've never tried oysters. Is anyone else a fan? I realize that pregnancy is probably not the best time to go for the raw seafoods, but wouldn't you think you could find some pretty fresh, reputable ones in SF?

So. Anybody else have any good things to add to the list?

source

Taylorsville Dayzz

Have discovered a new tradition, friends. And I'm almost reluctant to share it here because I don't want everyone to show up and take all the parking next time. But last weekend GH and I checked out a local summer offering. Lots of Utah towns have annual festivals (many revolve around agriculture in some way, such as Brigham City's Peach Days and Pleasant Grove's Strawberry Days). The festival in Taylorsville, UT is known as Taylorsville Dayzz. (And, yes, the "zz" concerned me initially, but it turned out to have been a needless concern. The "zz" is, in fact, how you know it's good.)

The festival lasted for four whole days, but we just went on Saturday evening. Here were a few of the things we experienced:

Free, on-site parking with ushers to direct you to empty spots and tell you which direction to park. Niiiiiiice.

Decent-looking carnival rides, which we did not take advantage of, and many food booths, which we did. Five bucks got me a big ol' funnel cake with powdered sugar, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, slivered almonds, and peanut butter chips on top. AW. YEAH.

Petting zoo complete with sweetest tiny baby goat ever seen in life. I stood by the fence and whimpered, begging GH to let me take it home with me. He said we could take home the pig instead. "But I don't want the pig, I want the precious baby goat *squeak whimper whine squeak burble*" I don't remember much after that; I might have blacked out.

Porta-potties called "Honey Pots." That is a gross name. What was not gross was that they had anti-bacterial gel dispensers inside each one, so that germophobe GH would continue to hold my hand and be near me after I used said pot in my desperate need to empty the whole 1.5 ounces of urine that were causing my bladder to darn near explode. (Thank you for that, small one.)

Beatles Tribute Band, backed up by the Taylorsville Symphony Orchestra. There was a huge crowd there for the concert, all sacked out on blankets and chairs. We sat behind the Family That GH Wants to Be in Twenty Years. Not only did they compliment him on his Captain Hammer Tshirt, but they and their teenaged kids were huge Beatles fans who sang along to all the songs. Was glad to have another friend with us so that she and I could nicely make fun of GH's Beatles fervor. (Also she showed me where the fist-pumps belong during Neil Diamond's "America," which leads us to . . . )

Thirty-minute long fireworks show, complete with music. We know how long it lasted because we timed the thing--which we will be doing forever now after the 8-minute travesty known as the crap fireworks of last year's Stadium of Fire in Provo (alternate name: Here's Hoping Carrie Underwood Will Be Enough to Distract You From How Much Our Fireworks Might Suck.) The Taylorsville fireworks show, though, was really impressive--they had a few things that I'd never seen before. And the music was great, too. They'd alternate between patriotic songs and then big crowd-pleasers like "Mamma Mia," "America," and "YMCA." One mistake I noticed was that over the course of the show they played the marches for the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines, and . . . the Marines again. Not quite sure what happened there.

And? AND? Best part ever, when the fireworks were over we stood up, gathered our blankets, walked briskly to the car, started it up, and were out of that parking lot and out of town in about 4 minutes. It was the cherry on the sundae, I tell you.

So. Anybody out there have any local festival recommendations, or reason why your town's ------ Days is the best?

With that discussion question thrown out there, I'll just go ahead and wish everybody a Happy 4th of July weekend, with hopes that your foods will be plentiful and tasty and your fireworks will not suck.

So I'm officially it now, I think

After being tagged 3 times, I'd better just go ahead and do the thing.

Four jobs you have had in your life:

Sandwich Artist at Subway--and I was an artist, because it said so on my shirt
Custodian @ BYU--because cleaning urinals at 4am makes you more righteous
Student Editor/Proofreader--because it's a good day when you get paid to point out other people's mistakes!
Travelling Sales Rep--because I thought it might be fun to have my soul (and will to live) drained slowly from my body for a coupla years

Four movies you could watch over and over:

BBC Pride & Prejudice--"And your parents are in good health?"
Ocean's Eleven--"Been practicing that speech?"
Horatio Hornblower--"[something something about setting one's manly jaw and doing one's duty For England]"
Cold Comfort Farm--There'll be no butter in hell!"

Four places you've lived:

Bitburg, Germany
London, England
Eagle River, Alaska
Provo, Utah

Four TV shows you love to watch:

House
Friends
Lost (when it isn't being stupid)
Pretentious British stuff like Masterpiece Theatre

Places you've been on vacation:

Smoky Mountains National Park
Paris
The Isle of Capri
Cedar City, UT

Four of your favorite foods:

Cheese, all kinds
Chocolate, all kinds
Pasta, all kinds
Thai food

Four places you'd rather be right now:

On a tropical beach, sipping pina coladas and not burning my pasty white skin off
On a Mediterranean cruise, sipping pina coladas and not burning my pasty white skin off
In Paris, wandering down by the Seine while eating a crepe filled with Nutella, banana, and coconut
In bed with my down comforter (Oh wait! Hah! I totally am!!!)

Four sites I visit daily:

My blog friends
IMDB
Google
Dollars2Pounds, because I am a freak who checks the conversion rate daily

Four Bloggers I am tagging:

Savvymom
Spitfire
Uncle Dave
CBH

These are my brothers and sisters, but only Savvymom updates her blog regularly, and she has a new baby right now. So this is probably a futile exercise.