A legend is gone...

Well, today it came as a total shock that revered coach Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz has resigned. Now while I won't claim to be the biggest sports buff by any means, I do love the Jazz. I love the game, the players and seeing Coach Sloan on the sidelines getting worked up. For me, I don't remember anyone else coaching the Jazz.



He was the coach for the great duo - John Stockton and Karl Malone, and watching now, even though sometimes the games drive me nuts, he's all I have ever known. My husband and I try to go as often as we can, and last night we were there at Jerry Sloan's last game as Jazz head coach. It was a disappointing loss, but I would never have dreamed that that would be it - goodbye to Coach Sloan.

He is a legend and it's sad to see him go. Going to Jazz games have been a favorite past time for my husband and I. Not to say that we won't still go to games, but it won't be the same. I don't envy Tyrone Corbin, the new coach, trying to follow in the footsteps of an NBA institution.

So thank you so much Coach - for creating great players, for many exciting games and even more memories. You're the best there ever was or will be again.



Fancy Cheeses and Breads

So, in today's adventure, my husband and I stumbled upon a very fancy (almost snooty) grocery store while running errands. What was supposed to be a light stroll just to see what was on display ended up setting us back a few bucks, but on some really cool finds.

Jazz Apples - this is the first that I had heard of them. My favorite tends to be the Honey Crisp, but I'll give this one a whirl.

Artisan Breads - while this isn't new to Lance and I, its the first that I can recall so many different kinds being made right there in the store. After some consideration, we settled on homemade chibatta, and sourdough. Not exactly new to us, but they smelled fantastic. Should make some really good toast (ah, toast how I love thee!).

Horseradish Cheese - Definitely not what i would pick out at all (I selected a nice Gouda), but Lance was crazy about this. This one is all him; I tried a bit, but the aftertaste about killed me. Now, if only we could have found some nice kielbasa. I miss picking out bread, cheese, and meat in the stores in Russia.

Squeaky Cheese - I'm not sure what the actual name of this is called, but it's called Squeaky Cheese when it comes from the Tillamook Factory in Oregon. While not as good as the true Tillamook version, we did find a Chipotle style. Here's hoping that it's good!

And then, just for fun - Thomas Kemper's Orange Cream Soda - nothing to say but mmmmm!!! This company makes the best flavored drinks out there. Oregon Marionberry, Orange Cream Soda, Spiced Ginger Ale.... all unique and all extremely delicious.

So we didn't get anything that was actually on our grocery list - but its kinda fun to pick up unusual foods and trying them out. I'll let you know how it goes.... :)

The World's Biggest Fish... sort of.....

This amazing narration chronicles our discovery of the world's biggest fish.... well, maybe not the biggest, but certainly bigger than I've ever seen. Ok, I've seen bigger, but we had fun filming them.... in case you couldn't hear me laughing.

The Four-eyed Fish

Here is a short video as proof of our adventures. This was filmed at the Living Planet Aquarium and features me narrating with additional information provided by my husband. Please also disregard the red dot - it's just there to show we were recording.

Wednesdays are the Best

So, my sweet husband and I usually only have one day off a week from work (besides Sunday thank goodness), and it's usually a Wednesday. And once in a while we spend the whole day not being super productive but having a nice day date.

So last Wednesday we started our adventure (after sleeping in a little bit) with a drive to the races. :) Now the races are the best arcade game we have ever discovered. I've talked about it before, but it's just so much fun (and a little frustrating when your horse doesn't do well). It's only fifteen dollars for admission and ten dollars worth of nickles, which if you start a new horse will take you all the way to retirement for your horse. It's fun and frustrating, and and just plain nice to sit next to each other cheering on your horse for the win or at least a good photo finish.

After the races, Lance drove around mysteriously without telling me our next destination, which ended up being the Living Planet Aquarium. We only had about 45 minutes till close which ended up being enough time to walk around and video tape the animals and enjoy the grocery store-esque layout. The penguins were of course the highlight and the sea turtle that apparently escaped the clutches of a great white shark; only to be captured by us.

Then we went to the Mayan restaurant and were sitting up in the tree foliage to eat in peace and enjoy the diving show. Good food, but great atmosphere. I wish there were more themed restaurants. Then we went next door to try to see if Tron was any good. :) I won't give anything away, but I'm glad we shelled out for IMAX 3D, because I doubt I'll see it again. It was entertaining but certainly no Young Victoria. :)

Anyway, back home to relax a bit and enjoy a quiet evening before jumping into the fray again. We don't always go all out for our dates but it was a ton of fun to spend the whole day doing things we like to do with each other and things we haven't gotten around to doing for a long time.

Dreaming weird things again....

So last night, after thoroughly enjoying a great date night with my husband (more on that later) I dreamt that my friend Katie was very obliging and came over to help me get this blog looking better. :) Which just tells me that I still have work to do. Even my subconscious knows it.

Moving on.....

So one thing that I just love doing is going to the Nicklecade in Sandy, to play "the races." With the slightly ratty chairs and a couple of dollars worth of nickles, you can create your own race horse, train it, encourage it and of course, race it against other horses. This is a particularly fun date option for my husband and I. We have done this several times and have a variety of our own horses to use to breed new ones. But last night I decided to start completely from scratch and not use any of our previous champions. I raised a male brown horse. (I always raise a male brown horse - it's just inevitable). And I trained this horse beautifully, raced it well, and .... came in second every time. My husband's horse didn't compare to mine in terms of its abilities, but it's track record was insane. Won every time. It was infuriating!! To have this horse that was just amazing and favored to win over my husbands, and then come in second every time. But just to show how wonderful my husband is, he let me win a couple, and even let me win a championship race even though he could have smoked my horse.

I write all this to say, that some times the simple, cheaper things in life are what you really enjoy and remember. For ten dollars, my husband and I can have a competitive and fun evening and something to talk about and enjoy later. I love things like this.

Whoopsidaisy!

So, after getting excited about starting this blog, I sort of neglected it for a bit. Things got a little busy around here......

But there has been much lately that has made me wonder and enjoy.

For the Fourth of July, my sweet husband took me to "Stadium of Fire." Carrie Underwood was the guest that evening. We got hot dogs and my husband bought a light up mug, while I did a little bit better by getting a shirt. We enjoyed the pre-show and were even more grateful when the sun went down and was no longer shining in our faces. Of course, the sunset was gorgeous and I couldn't stop telling my husband about it. And at long last - Carrie Underwood came out. I just enjoy her music, so it was especially nice of my husband to get tickets for the both of us to enjoy that evening.

She was really really good and we had a lot of fun. Then the moment she got off the stage, the fireworks started. And to make the evening even more wonderful, they choreographed the fireworks to my favorite orchestral piece - George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Perfect. The whole event was just so much fun, and a great way to celebrate this amazing country's independence. The only damper on the whole evening was a misfiring of some fireworks that ended up shooting into the stadium crowd and catching one individual on fire. They are fine, but it was a bit shocking to see someone waving around on fire.

Memorable evening.

Some other things that I have enjoyed since then have been the movie "Inception." A unique plot in a movie that had some good twists and a great ending. I didn't think it was all that confusing as others have said, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Our movie theater was packed and there were a lot of people who audibly gasped at certain parts which just made it even better. I, of course, won't give anything away, but will just say that it was a good movie - go see it.

There is always more that I could say at this point, but to avoid making this a lengthy post, I will just end it here for now until I write again.

Be happy!!!! :)