charleston

this summer, s and i are traveling to charleston for the wedding of my college roommate. it will be s' first time in the south (save two days attending meetings at an airport hotel in raleigh). i'm in the process of finding things to see and places to stay. i've managed to find ONE hostel - charleston's notso hostel - it actually looks pretty cool. and they even rent bikes there!

another place that looks awesome is the inn at middleton place (but totally not close to downtown charleston). the architecture is beautiful and you can rent kayaks!

pigs

These must be some of the world's cutest pigs.

chrome

I was having some computer problems at work and when my computer was rebuilt I installed Chrome instead of Mozilla. I love Chrome!

But, I tried to install it on my Mac at home, and there isn't a version for my Mac OS!

without s

whenever s goes back to europe, i always feel like i'll have so much time on my hands and i begin to make plans to tackle all the sewing and baking projects that i never normally have time to do. except, it never happens like that. but today i stayed resolute and baked! chocolate yogurt snack cakes are currently baking in the oven and should be done any minute. yum! the disappointing thing about baking when s is out of town is that, well, s is out of town and there's no one to share what i make.

now, to find a craft project to finish (and there's plenty)...

if i had a garden...

and about $900 to spare, i'd get one of these:

Pouf has solid sheet metal top with a photovoltaic panel filled with five LED lights. LED lights collect and store solar energy to illuminate the under structure at night.

crocheting

This makes me want to learn to crochet.

shelf cloud

this is the photo of the day from wikipedia. it's a much more beautiful picture than this one of salt lake in the winter:


i don't remember how often inversions like this happen, but this one is particularly gross. hopefully, the clear the air challenge will have a positive effect on our air quality. more details about that soon...

weekend plans

last night was our monthly fish & chips tour date. july was archibald's. s and i rode our bikes to trax and to the restaurant. the two most notable parts of the whole experience last night were
1. a petting zoo next door with the CUTEST baby piglets and
2. the restaurant was formerly owned by a polygamous with 11 wives, 48 children, and 270 grandchildren!

i can't give away the results from last night since the tour isn't over, but i recommend one take it easy on the raspberry lemonade refills.

this weekend s is going solo camping. it's the first weekend since he got back from europe that i've had a weekend at home. i'm looking forward to it. i have four projects planned:
1. make cherry brown butter bars for s
2. help j paint
3. sew the curtains for the dining area
4. sew this

the book seer

the book seer is a cool website i found. it seems pretty interesting, but not sure how well it works yet...

Son of Rambow

Today was a really good day. I got to sleep in - which was much needed but then again I also missed Pilates. I biked, then Traxed up to the U (the University of Utah) to play air hockey with Brian and Sameera. The puck was a little light and we spent a good third of our time chasing after the puck as it flew off the table. Afterwards I biked down the library (which is totally cool!), got my library card, and checked out four books. Then I biked home - which was definitely not the highlight! It was about 100 degrees outside!

Later I went to dinner with Jen and Brian at the raw foods restaurant in Sugarhouse. It was pretty good - a little expensive.

The highlight of the day, however, was watching the "Son of Rambow." IT WAS AMAZING! Plus, I got to spend time with two great friends, that was before the sprinklers came on...

Pioneer Day

Today is Pioneer Day, a state holiday here in Utah. It also happens to be Jenny's birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't get the day off work, and instead had to watch kids slip-n-slide down one of the hills in Sugarhouse Park from my office.

After work, I met up with Jenny, the Millers, and Sameera and walked around Liberty Park, where the main festivities were happening. Today is probably the one and only day I regret living a half block from the Park. It's been really loud all night and last night. Fireworks are going off right now, but live bands have also been playing all day (although I was at work for most of the day). And there's a TON of people - which is good that they are all walking around and biking. But a lot of them also drove, so there's a lot of traffic and a lot of cars parked around the neighborhood.

So I gathered from talking to a few different people, that there's not one exact explanation for what Pioneer Day is. One guy, who has lived in Utah his entire life, thought that it was a holiday celebrating Utah becoming a state. However, that's not what it is. Roughly, it is the day Brigham Young arrived in Salt Lake and declared near what is currently the University of Utah, "This is the right place!" However, Young was not the first Mormon to arrive in the Valley.