Some Favorite Pics of SLC

What Will We Remember about the Summer of 2010?

This is shaping up to be a strange summer with lots of head scratching events at work and oil gushing in the gulf just to name a few. I’ve tried to turn the focus somewhere else, with A and I starting a regular workout routine at our rec center. It’s been good for us.


Salt Lake City has a summer farmer’s market in Pioneer Park. It started two weeks ago and because they only carry seasonal items and it was the beginning of the season, it was slim pickings. Every week there is more and more there so H and I go ever Saturday morning as A sleeps in. Today we picked up some local plum syrup and some tomato plants. Oh I hope they do well as I’ve been missing homegrown tomatoes for the past few years.

Park City Resident

What a cutie!

Foundations

I’ve been picking up some local travel books when I go to the library. Interesting fact about Utah, you can tell by the way the city has been laid out if miners or preachers founded it. If the Church of Latter-Day Saints founded the city, it will have a temple in the middle and the streets will be laid out on a grid like Salt Lake City. If miners founded it, the roads will be haphazard with no church in the middle, like Park City.

Blood Atonement

Am I the only one who was surprised to learn that death by firing squad was still an option in states that allowed the death penalty? The story had made international news that Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death here in Utah this week and he chose this option. A few weeks ago in the Salt Lake Tribune there was a very long article that described the Mormon belief in blood atonement and connected this belief with why it is still an option here in Utah.


Check out this article for a succinct discussion of the issue.

A Disturbing Trend

Don't know if this is a Utah thing or an American thing but I've seen one too many fetal photo businesses in the area.  These pictures look totally creepy in my opinion.  It reminds me a lot of what it used to look like when as a kid I'd turn on the oven light and peer in to see if the cake was done yet.  Let's wait until the cake is done to break out the camera people!

I'm not even going to comment on the belly sculptures, LOL.

Moving Into Someone's House

So we lived in a house arranged by a corporate housing agency for two months that was furnished and now we’re in this furnished house for a year at least and I have to say, moving into a furnished house is interesting. It’s as if the woman who lived here packed her clothes in a suitcase, got in her car and never came back. Everything else is here, from Tupperware to laundry soap, to flower arrangements and pictures on the wall. I don’t have the desire to make the space my own because inevitably it would look worse. While I like walking into a room that’s been decorated, it won’t be by my hand, that’s for sure. There are some things in the house that I would never go out and buy that are actually pretty nice. Black velvet-flocked duvet cover at the foot of the bed, I love it! Makes me wonder, do I really know what I like at all, LOL.


We’ve been missing UK television a bit for it’s lack of commercials every 5 seconds and it’s after 9 uncensored programming. Watching Gordon Ramsay with a bleep ever other word is just not as entertaining. But to soothe the longing for UK television there are some remedies. The biggie for me is the new internet capable blu-ray player we bought which has the ability to play downloaded material from Netflix right to the television. I’m in love! I’ve been catching up on the last few year’s SNL episodes which is kind of funny since there are many cultural references of events that have happened in the last three years that we obviously missed.

He Didn't See It Coming

We've been laughing about this picture painted on a local Chinese restaurant's window.  Does it not look like that very happy panda is about to get whacked?

New Place

I’m blogging from the window seat of our new house, rental house that is. Yes, we’re settled for at least the next year in a new place. It’s a furnished place which has been really great, allowing us to accumulate big ticket items slowly instead of all at once.


I knew once we took a look at the kitchen, this was the place. It’s close to mountains and the views are beautiful. As I drink my morning coffee and stare out the window or sit on the couch and stare out the window as the sun goes down, I feel like I’m on vacation just a little bit every day and who doesn’t want that?

Good Morning All You Breakfast Lovers!

I’ve always loved going out for breakfast and have enjoyed starting back that weekend tradition. There’s something so satisfying about the morning paper, the endless cup of coffee, the waitress calling you “hon” that feels like home.

We’ve been trying out some of the local places and one that’s mighty popular is a place called Ruth’s Diner in Emigration Canyon which has been featured on Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives. They are known for their biscuits, which I thought were pretty tasty but different than a southern biscuit. While the location and the restaurant were charming, we weren’t blown away by the food. H has become pretty particular about the way his eggs are cooked and his over easy eggs had been cooked to death.

The lunch menu looks good and because the location is so beautiful I’d like to try it one more time before I decide whether it’s suffered from its success. On to the next place!

Utah Comes Out for Pride

Before we got going today with our moving chores, I filled up my coffee mug and walked down to the parade route for the Utah Pride Festival. We’ve gone directly from winter to full on summer so by ten it was already pretty hot. A very diverse crowd lined the streets to take part in the celebration. Of course the drag queens and the hot cowboys got the most crowd participation. Very fun!  The family members marching in the parade got the biggest cheers from everyone who came out to watch today.

Didn’t get to stay for the whole parade but will make time for it all next year for sure.

Our "Neighbors"

We live next to the crazy cat lady.  I'm not sure how many live there and how many are just friends dropping by since she is liberal with the food on the porch.

Here are a few of the more photogenic neighbors.

Street Food in SLC

Oh Mexican food, how I've missed you!

For a buck at one of the taco carts in downtown SLC you get a double layer of small soft corn tortillas, some grilled meat, and any condiments you want complete with tomatillo sauce, pico de gallo, grilled jalapenos, etc. Delicious! The day I went along there was a guy in line in front of us who had a shaved head covered with a massive tattoo of a Mexican bandit, so it was a visual as well as a culinary experience.