rager

 I had big plans going into this latest weekend.  We were staying put in SLC once again, but I was fixing to hit the Capital City Antique Mall on my way home from work on Friday, then swing by the neighborhood* Catholic church's annual indoor garage sale Saturday morning, and even drive up to Alta for a non-Dimple Dell walk, since there's not really any snow lingering up there.  But when I cut out of work a little early Friday, I didn't feel like shopping - so there went the antiques place.  And on Saturday, after Milton's and my walk, I just couldn't face being with people - so there went the church garage sale.  I've got some travel coming up and so I just want to be home now.  

So M and I did our Dimple Dell walk, getting out on Saturday around 6:30 a.m., to take advantage of the cool morning; there were lots of other dog walkers and runners out there too.  Back at home, I washed windows, weeded a little, swept the patio and put out the patio furniture while (a) Milton basked in the sun on the driveway and (b) H worked on some bike repair, after his commuter RadPower bike blew an innertube on his way home Friday.

Bigger than a chickadee, slightly smaller

than a robin, loud three-note (short/short/long)

song.  Name that bird (because I can't)?

After doing all the prep work for dinner (Mediterranean lentil salad, sub sunflower seeds for pistachios), we turned the lawn sprinklers on finally (it's very, very dry, but we are determined to water only enough to keep our one shade tree alive) and tailgated for a little bit, keeping an eye on World Cup scores via the BBC.

* So many churches within walking distance in our neighborhood: three Mormon churches, a Lutheran church and the Catholic church.

more city livin'

 Another SLC weekend that was busy enough that it flew by, but nothing much to share.  It got hot-hot-hot for the end of the week into the weekend, too hot for M to accompany me on any after-work walks  Saturday was rather unpleasant, actually, getting up above 90F by midafternoon, with lots of wind.  Not a fan of hot, gusty wind.  But we all got up early and did our walks/road rides before the heat settled in.  

Smells so good

After that, it was chores, including stripping the leaves from a whole lot of oregano I'd cut from our disaster of a backyard.  Along with the weeds, there are a number of oregano plants that self-seed and spread (and I would be happy if it completely took over), despite the utter neglect we show it.  It's best to harvest oregano before it flowers - otherwise it can be bitter - so I'd done that the weekend before and spread it out to dry for a week.  I had enough to last us the year, plus give away four bottles of it so I felt very homestead-y by the time it was done.  Plus the kitchen smelled great.

At 4 p.m., we gussied ourselves up (Hawaiian shirt for H, Pride penguin shirt for A, and both of us with our FDT bracelets) and went to our friends' 2026 backyard Pride Party.  As always, it is super-fun: E and K run a good party and they have very nice friends.  We stayed for three hours, got to reconnect with some folks we know and talk with some strangers, patted a bunch of dogs, and were home before 8.   Happy Pride, everyone!

city livin'

 I'm afraid that outdoors activity content is a little thin on the ground around here these days.  We've been up in SLC for the last few weeks and while we're making sure to get active outside, it has taken the form of 3-5 mile Dimple Dell walks with Milton for me and trail runs/road rides for H.  Plus lots of weeding, which is technically an outdoor activity and one that leaves my back absolutely wrecked.  With the super-mild winter we had, it never got cold enough to shut the weeds down for the season and they are absolutely rampant; I have managed to get the north side of the house somewhat under control but the backyard?  Yikes.

No truer words

Anyway.  A couple of weekends ago, R, H's friend from high school, and his youngest son, M, were back in Utah for a soccer tournament.  They were playing teams from all over the country at the Regional Athletic Complex near Rose Park, in SLC.  H and I drove up there and watched M's last game of the tournament with R.  They were catching a redeye flight back to North Carolina and had several hours before they had to go back to their rental to pack up, so R suggested we go somewhere M could get some food and we adult types could get a beer.  To be honest, H and I were stymied as to where to suggest - we always go to bars, and M, being fourteen, can't do that - but R said they'd been to a place in SLC called the Woodbine Food Hall and that there was something for everybody.  The two of them didn't mind going back so off we went.

Not the Woodbine Food Hall

The Woodbine Food Hall, located in the Granary district, is in a wonderful, old, restored warehouse and is awesome.  It's got all kinds of vendors (pizza, sandwiches, BBQ, burgers, ramen, sushi/Burmese, Venezuelan street food and more), plus a separate bar (not yet open at the time we were there).  A number of the vendors also sell beer/wine but as they are "restaurants," you have to buy food to get booze.  That was easy: M got a fantastic margherita pizza and the others of us got beers.  It was really fun to sit with them and catch up, plus be surrrounded by a diverse group of people - something we don't really get day-to-day living in the suburbs.  When we left, all sorts of folks dressed in bowties and sequins began arriving at Woodbine on their bicycles: the Bike Prom was just getting underway.

A better look at that bike rack

After seeing R and M off with hugs, H and I thought, well, we've come all the way in town, we might as well try to find the reputed best dive bar in SLC.  We were looking for Willie's Lounge (1716 S.  Main Street) and we found it, and it was a great dive bar with friendly bartenders and a custom bike rack out front.  We also found Manny's (1704 S. Main Street), which is also a great dive bar with friendly bartenders - and it actually felt dive-ier than Willie's, due to the old school decor.   We love us a dive bar and now we know two new (to us) ones, should we ever want to make the trip downtown.

Does that not look like a dive bar?

memorial day weekend

 How the heck is it June already?  How are we halfway through the year and well on our way to the longest day of that year?  There's a saying that the days are long but the years are short and wow, is that the truth.

It's starting to get warm, even first thing in the morning

Surprising absolutely no one whatsoever, we three went to Moab for the recent Memorial Day long weekend.  We took a bit of a risk, deciding to go down Friday afternoon (chancing traffic heading south) but then returning Tuesday afternoon (avoiding the horrific holiday Monday traffic heading north).  Although there is a fair amount of road construction happening along Route 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon, the drive down Friday afternoon was no problem at all.  Whew!

Skies for days

The good thing about being in Moab for a long holiday weekend is that you're in Moab for a long holiday weekend; the bad thing is everyone else.  Keeping this in mind, we didn't stray too far afield, even going so far as to avoid Millcreek Canyon which usually gets hammered by visitors over this weekend.  Indeed, when we drove down from Sandflats on Saturday, we could see the Millcreek Canyon overflow parking extending to the new housing development out along the road.  Yikes.

New neighbor (about 12 inches long)

So we did these things: 

• Saturday: H and M did a Pipe Dream trailrun; then A and M did a Pipe Dream hike; then H and A did a road ride (25 miles for H and 23 for A); then we three had lunch up at the Slickrock trailhead, where M got peanut butter pretzels from a MTBer; then we went to Woody's; then we caught up with our neighbor.
• Sunday: H and M trail run; A and M hike; H and A road ride (H 25; A 21); then we met our friend C at Woody's where there was an intense discussion about how to rid one's home of invading raccoons; then A and M did a neighborhood walk to check out the vulture tree; and we learned we have a cute little gopher snake (bull snake?) in the irises in our neighbor's front yard.
• Monday: A and M did a neighborhood walk; H and A did a road ride (H 25; A 23); and in the afternoon we three went to the Spitfire dog-friendly patio where we were THRILLED to learn that our favorite bartender is back in town - it's been like a year since we've seen her.
• Tuesday: H and M trail run; H and A road ride (H 25; A 21) and it was very windy.

Then we drove home in the early afternoon and were sad that the holiday weekend was over.  But glad that we'd had a good time of it. 

Day drinking is exhausting