Friday, November 13, 2009

week 1 - survived

I did it - made it through my first week of work at The New Job. Highlights: Day 1 consisted of being led around six floors and introduced to about 65 lawyers and 35 support staff, very few of whose names I actually retained. Day 2 - getting a crash course in the document management system and then saving approximately twenty documents in the completely wrong spot in said document management system. Day 3 was Free Doughnut and Bagel Day (doughnuts from Banbury Cross in SLC - mmmmmm). Day 4 brought lunch with four other paralegals at the Olive Bistro (my food was good enough - avocado, cheddar and roasted red pepper panino and a cup of tomato-basil soup - but my clothes smelled like the kitchen for the rest of the day). And today was Jeans Day.

Whew. Somebody beer me!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

feeling saucy

I try to do the "buy local" thing when I can - not eating at chain restaurants, patronizing independent coffee shops and bookstores, drinking local microbrews. I also try to "buy regional" when I get to a new place, unabashedly trying things that I've never tried before due to their not having been available to me before. In that vein, lately I've been exploring new condiments and, since H loooooooves condiments, this is a great way to get him to try new stuff too.

I like honey in my tea and on my Cheerios and last week I brought home a refillable plastic squeeze bottle of Miller's Honey. It is paler than the Maine honey I'm used to, with a lovely light flavor. Very nice.

I don't think I've seen many (if any) Herdez products back in Maine and so here I've picked up a couple: Bufalo Chipotle Mexican Hot Sauce, a thick, smoky sauce with flavorful heat; and the Herdez Salsa Verde that H used in his huevos H-os last month. Herdez also has a Dona Maria product line with several moles that I'm anxious to try.

We've also been using Valentina Salsa Picante which I really like a lot. It's a little bit thicker than Frank's Hot Sauce or Tabasco and it's got a wonderful, slightly smoky flavor with decent heat (not as hot as the red Tabasco but hotter than the green). I've been using it on everything lately - chicken, pork chops, rice, egg sandwiches - and it comes in a big bottle (for not much money) which is awesome.

Today's impulse buy: Some Dude's Fry Sauce, made right here in SLC. (They have a website, http://www.somedudesfrysauce.com/ , but it's down at the moment.) Some dude made some french fry dipping sauce and sold it at all sorts of burger stands, then decided to bottle it in squeeze bottles and sell it that way too. It's pretty much Thousand Island dressing without the pickle relish, nothing too original, but that dude's right: sure is good to dip your fries in it.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

house, hike and hops

Big day on Saturday, 11/7/09, my last unemployed Saturday. First we met with a real estate broker to help us buy our new SLC-area house. We’re focusing on the Cottonwood Heights/northeast Sandy/Holladay areas and not fifteen minutes after we met with Matt he had sent us an emailed report with 144 possibles. We then spent Sunday driving by many of these possibles and have winnowed that list down to, like, three that we’d want to see the inside of. Hmm. That’s okay – we’re just starting the process and I refuse to get discouraged at the outset.


After the meeting with the broker, we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to the White Pine/Red Pine trailhead, just before Snowbird resort. We hiked up to the Red Pine Lakes, Lower (elevation gain from trailhead of 1940 feet; actual elev. 9640 ft.) and Upper (actual elev. 10,000 ft.). We crossed streams several times, walking on a well-maintained tho' quite icy (in spots) trail, which went around the end of a ridge before entering the Red Pine Canyon drainage. Here we had great views down Little Cottonwood Canyon … and then it started gaining some serious up. High above us the rock walls were jagged and dramatic; we saw lots of moose sign –tracks and poops – but no actual moose; and we passed an old mine dump and missed having Captain Mike’s informative historical commentary … but were impressed with ourselves for recognizing it for what it was, at least.


We had water and snacks at the Lower Lake before pressing on to the Upper, about 400 vertical feet above us. It was really steep, with the snowy footpath having been packed into slick ice for most of the way, and for some reason I was really sucking wind, feeling like I was climbing Everest and having to stop every 25 feet or so to breathe. This was where the trail went from being "easy," per our book, to "intermediate." The spectacular scenery up at our goal made it worthwhile, however, and we made pretty good time on the decent, despite the treacherous footing. Couldn’t dillydally, you see, we had places to be.


The U of U football game vs. New Mexico (NM was 0-8 going into the U game) had a 4:00 p.m. start. We didn’t get tickets this time, instead setting our sights on Lumpy’s (formerly a “Social Club” but now just a sports bar at 3000 So. Highland Drive, SLC). Our fabulous guidebook told us that it is “an institution among sports fans. On big-game night hundreds of U of U boosters don their red clothes and head for Lumpy’s to root on the running Utes. They even run busses to and from games at the U.” Well, we missed the crowds, getting there around 5 p.m., but managed to score a couple of seats at the bar. There are two bars, actually, upstairs for the older crowd and their bottled Bud and downstairs for the young upstarts with their fancy draft microbrews. We sat upstairs and thus made the poor (giant and gruff) bartender go down to the other bar for our Full Suspension drafts - by the way, what sort of establishment only has taps in one of the two bars? that's weird, right? - but he warmed up to us when he read the back of H’s 420 IPA/Sunday River Brewing Company t-shirt and realized we were from Maine: his sister lives in Newcastle and he himself is a transplant from Massachusetts (“Came here for a year in 1992 …”).

We were starved after the hike and since our book recommended Lumpy’s food, H got a loaded pizza (11 inches with pepperoni, sausage, onion, olives and mushrooms for $8.00) and I got a chicken pot pie ($7.00: basically tasty chicken soup with a buttery puff pastry crust which, when broken up and pushed down into the pie/soup, was softly delectable, filling and soooooooo tasty). Now, I don’t want to endanger my Loyal Customer status but between the yummy and cheap food and the GIANT mugs of beer for only $4.00, Lumpy’s is in the running for new favorite place.

Oh: the Utes beat the Lobos 45-14. Next weekend: away game at #4 TCU … Lumpy’s is going to be a madhouse!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

competition for beer is cutthroat around here


As you can see, Becky likes Utah beer too. Do you think I could get Uinta to buy this photo for their marketing campaign? And heck no, that bottle was drained dry before we gave it to her ... you think I'm actually wasting good beer on a dog? Jeesh.

P.S. I've got a shot with her and an Emigration Amber (Wasatch/Squatters) bottle too, but the label showed better in this one.

P.P.S. For those of you back East, the title of this post is a pun as that's Uinta's Cutthroat Pale Ale she's after.

Monday, November 9, 2009

hiking the mayflower mine

In what seems to be becoming tradition, or at least habit, we joined Captain Mike for a hike a week ago Sunday (11/01/09 - @#$%^&* computer issues making me post late). He’d enlisted some additional recruits as well: Hope and Sanford, transplants from California who moved to Park City a year ago; Keith, a 76-year old (!) former superintendent for the Mayflower Mine (during the late 1960s); and Keith’s excellent dog, Stacy, a collie mix whom he adopted from the Atacama in Chile. (Stacy is a Chile-dog!) We picked up Captain Mike at his house and joined the rest of the group at the Mayflower Mine parking area outside of Park City, off Utah 40, at the entrance to Glencoe Canyon.


Before we could start hiking, however, we were thoroughly briefed on the area we were about to explore. Keith had brought handouts for everyone, spreadsheets showing the value of the ore extracted from the Mayflower (and other Park City area mines) updated for the closing of precious metal prices as of October 31, 2009. The handouts also detailed the various drain tunnels and vertical shafts for the Park City mines, including the elevation of the portals, the length and depth. H was in spreadsheet-geek heaven with all the data flying around; I confess that I gave up after a while and focused on scratching Stacy behind the ears.

We left the ruined Mayflower buildings behind and made our way up the canyon, pausing now and again for historical and anecdotal tidbits along the way (including at some impressive vertical shafts and a huge wooden baffle used to cool the water for the mine’s air compressors). Stacy moved up and down along the line of people, only stepping into the woods to rustle us up a decent sized young bull moose: she just flushed him onto the trail and didn’t chase or harass him at all, as though she just wanted us to see him. Of course we were too busy gawking to get our cameras out in time for a good photo.

Early lunch was up on top of the Star of Utah dump (a “dump” is an enormous pile of waste rock). We inspected the portal to the Star of Utah adit (now collapsed) and the Park Gelena ventilation shaft. Back in the day, Keith and a coworker used to inspect the shafts and tunnels, climbing under the ground from a lower adit up 800 feet or so and emerging at this Park Gelena ventilation shaft. I’m mildly claustrophobic and just thinking about that gives me shivers.


We kept hiking up (ultimately gaining around 1400 ft. from the point of beginning) under Deer Valley’s Mayflower chairlift, then bushwhacked down into a gulch in search of the Valero mines. We didn’t quite get to those mines – next time, promised Captain Mike – but got fantastic views of Heber City and the Jordanelle Reservoir, a huge man-made lake that resulted from the damming of the Provo River.


The last leg of the hike was an animal trail that started below the ridgeline and then broadened into a jeep trail back to the parking lot. On the way out we found a pile of big bones – probably a moose – that Captain Mike insisted was the remains of the last folks he’d brought out here. After that bushwhacking, such an idea wasn’t so far-fetched.

Ooh! I almost forgot: as we were hiking up through the Glencoe Canyon, through some shady bits, Captain Mike spotted an intriguing print in the snow. We know it wasn’t some big dog because we checked Becky’s paws when we got home – four toes and a pad – while this print clearly has five toes … we think it might have been a BEAR!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

loyal customers

On Tuesday (11/3) we went to the Porcupine to celebrate our One Month in Utah anniversary. Plus it was $2/pints. When we got the tab, we were surprised and pleased to discover a “Loyal Customer” discount of $0.75. Only took us a month to become regulars – awesome!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

gainfully employed

Holy moly, I can hardly believe it: I got a job and my first day is this coming Monday. It's with a large-ish law firm right in downtown SLC and I'm going to be the paralegal for the estate planning/probate group - so uber-thanks to my beloved and former boss Betsey for saying all the right things about me when they called her. The days of wine and roses (i.e., hanging around the apartment eating bonbons in my soft pants) are over.

catching up

Y'all, I'm soooooooooooo sorry for the long delay in posting. It's not that we don't have stuff to share with you, it's that the computer was in the spa enduring an intensive (and expensive) cleanse to rid itself of all the viruses and spyware and crap that COMCAST [stupid jerky @#$%^&* Comcast] exposed us to. But we're back. And lots of upcoming posts to bring you up to speed.

In the meantime, you all should really go check out this blog here. She's a Utah girl who loves the outdoors and who has parlayed that plus her love of writing into an actual career. Plus, she totally commented on two of my posts (!!!!!) so she deserves all the love you can give her. She's in the sidebar of links too.

Monday, November 2, 2009

bison and cowboys

We had a busy day Saturday (10/31/09) and none of it had anything to do with Halloween costumes. First we headed out to Antelope Island State Park for the first day of their annual Bison Round Up. The island is home to a herd of approximately 600 bison and every year volunteers drive them to the bison corrals at the north end of the island where they are inspected, ministered to and ear-tagged by a veterinarian. Some of the herd is culled and sold at auction so as to keep the herd at sustainable numbers for the size of the island; we were tempted to buy one but (1) don’t know if you’re allowed to drive your new bison straight to the butcher shop and (2) we didn’t want to have to pay our landlords extra for a second pet.


We got out there a little after 9:00 a.m. and, after a quick check of the bison corrals (empty), drove down towards the Fielding-Garr Ranch, stopping to admire pronghorn antelope, jackrabbits and a lone coyote on our way. The round up had started at 8:30 a.m. because we soon came across a sizable (although not nearly 600) herd of bison calmly walking north while a sizable number of volunteer cowboys ambled their horses alongside them. They weren’t driving the bison any faster than a walk and stopped occasionally to let the bison rest and graze; at the rate they were going it was truly going to take all day. Further south we found a smaller herd with just a few cowboys and these bison weren’t quite so biddable: one of them, I’m guessing a young male, decided that he wasn’t having any of this rounding up business and ran for the hills, gaining elevation quickly and soon disappearing from sight. One cowboy gave token chase but then returned to the rest of the herd; the escapee will only have gotten a short reprieve as the round up uses helicopters to spot stragglers and All Bison Will Be Rounded Up.


It wasn’t super-exciting but it was fun to see … which was also our experience at the Utah vs. Wyoming football game that evening. The Utes were playing the Cowboys at 6:00 p.m. so we tossed the dog in the car and drove up to the game, finding free parking at a lot halfway across the campus from the arena. Since it was a night game, we dressed the part: wool socks, long underwear, multiple layers, hats and gloves, and even stole a fleece blanket from B’s crate to sit on. Also, since it was Halloween, the game was a “Blackout” and so everyone wore black instead of red.

After a gyro (for me) and an Italian sausage (for H), and some sight-seeing at the base of the 2002 Olympic Torch, we took our seats and enjoyed the game. Although we’d hoped for big scoring and thrilling plays, it was really not to be until the fourth quarter when the Utes scored two touchdowns to win 22-10. The crowd was way into the game, however, which made it fun. It did take us a while to get out of the parking lot and back onto the beltway but even with the traffic jams, the roundtrip travel by car was shorter and cheaper than the trip on Trax last weekend.

Oh, and Real Salt Lake won their first playoff game 1-0. They play multiple games in this round with the aggregate goal leader moving on, so I wish they’d scored a few more.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

hog wallow

After a long day of [me not yet working and H having to be at] work, it was time for Date Night! We decided to try a new place, one that I’d read about in our trusty SLC guidebook and which had been recommended to us by some young Porcupine patrons: the Hog Wallow Pub (3200 E Big Cottonwood Canyon Rd.). Apparently it’s got a bit of history and used to be all notorious back in the day; perhaps it’s still notorious later in the evening – there’s live music Thursdays through Saturdays but Friday’s entertainment was still setting up his equipment when we left – but it was pretty mellow when we were there.

We sat at the bar and split a pitcher of Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale and while our guidebook didn’t say anything about the food (“The staff is friendly, the atmosphere relaxed and the regulars are interesting.”), we figured we’d give it a shot. They have a small smoker and serve barbeque on the weekends, so I had a half-slab of pork spare ribs. The bartender warned me that it was a LOT of food, but as the ribs didn’t come with any sides, I was able to finish with no problem. The ribs were super-tender and moist, the meat falling off the bones, although I thought they could have been smokier and were served with thin, store-bought sauce. H had a 10-inch “house” pizza (pepperoni, olives, onions, no mushrooms and about a field’s worth of garlic ) which he demolished in short order. I quote: “They sure like their garlic here.”

The atmosphere was indeed mellow with several large-ish tables settling in for the evening and the bar full of locals. There was an NBA game on one of the bar’s televisions but upon request one of the waitresses switched over to the PBR Finals in Las Vegas. That’s got to be proof that we’re way out west – when the clientele prefers bull-riding to basketball.