We have a WINNER!

www.cedarlivestockfest.com/gallery

Click on the link to see (past) photos of the Cedar City Heritage and Livestock Festival. It's fun. It's very small-town, it's rural. It's unique.

And Mike and friends are right in the big middle of it all! He has participated in the "People's Choice Dutch Oven Cook Off" for the past two years. He and friends cook up tons of food, serve it to total strangers who caste votes for favorite dishes -- and there are many to choose from-- and then this year they got to bask in the glory of being the overall winners! Their foods received the most votes from all the people. It WAS close, but still. It was a nice honor for them. Last year they worked their buns off and toiled very hard but didn't win a lot of prize money (which isn't a great deal, compared to the time and effort put into the thing). So this year was sweet.

Congratulations Mike and all your buddies! Can't wait till next year. He'll be warming up by cooking several dozen fruit cobblers in November for the Cedar City Birthday party. I'll be in Las Vegas. . .but if you're in Cedar be sure to come by for a good time--dancing and entertainment and food on November 11 from 8:30 to 11 pm in the SUU Ballroom. Fun times. Dutch oven cooking is alive and well in Southern Utah.

Fall

A college campus in the fall--nothing better, right? RIGHT! I love it here. I love my job. I love fall. I took the library's camera out on a little break this afternoon and snapped a few pictures.

I first began blogging about this same time of year...well, summer time anyway, three whole years ago. My how times flies when we're having fun! I think time flies even when we are NOT having fun, but then, I'm just getting kind of old. :-)


A favorite walk of mine (below). I take it almost daily on my way to take the daily deposit to the cashier's office. These maple trees are all shades of reds and yellows this year. I don't remember them being so vibrant. Of course, this picture doesn't do it justice. This is looking east toward the Centurium statues, for those of you familiar with campus.
The one below is actually taken from the window that's by my desk. I don't actually SEE that view because my back is to the window and it's way up on the wall. So, when I stood on a chair to take the photo, my co-worker gave me an odd look.. . . I just left her wondering. ha.

However, I DO see this little scene every time I return to my work station after helping a person at the front desk. It just makes me smile. :-) I mean, really--what's not to like about glowing leaves shining through the brisk fall air--right into my face. So what if there was snow on the mountain the other morning (it has since melted away from our immediate view), and my pretty tropical plants are traumatized because I left them out on the front porch too long? It's Fall! I get to ride my bike through crunchy leaves on my commute to and from work each day.

Caroline and I have been on walks a couple of evenings this week and we noticed the smell of wood-burning stoves and fire places. I had to tell her why it smelled like "fire?" I think she was alarmed, initially. It reminds us of the summer when there have been (not this year, thankfully) forest fires burning nearby.

Happy Fall, everyone. Oh, and I happen to love the food aspects of this season, too. Especially chocolate Halloween candy . . .candy corn. . . then Thanksgiving, etc. (Oooh, I can feel the pounds piling on already!)

Old Age

Funny story: Saturday, October 2nd, Mike drove with his good friend, Larry, up to Salt Lake to pick up some furniture that Larry had purchased on line. Mike has a truck, Larry does not. And Mike and Larry are good friends and spend a lot of time together. I don't know that they listened to Conference on the way up or back. Probably not. [But what a great missionary tool for non-member Larry! I'll have to ask Mike about that] But they did meet Nick in Salt Lake and took him out to lunch. Then, later, at home on Sunday, Mike remembered that he had a half a box of apples in the truck and he brought them into the house. I said, " You bought apples while you were up north?"

"Yeah. We took Nick to one of those. . . uh. . . um . . .garage sale for vegetables thing-ies."

HUH? Gail and I both said, "You mean a Farmer's Market?"

"Yeah, that's what it was."

"A Garage Sale for Vegetables." That's going down in the book of "Funny things we say as they grow older and can't remember stuff." Mike turned 58 on October 3rd. Fifty-eight. Wow. It sounds so old. But we don't really FEEL all that old. Apparently we can't remember a lot of stuff. Like, uh, words, you know? ha. Gail laughed so hard when Mike said that, she almost spewed milk out her nose. We'll be chuckling over that one for a LONG time. Hope it brought a slight grin to YOUR face. :-)

Funny old Memory

Well, Damian celebrated his 33rd(?) birthday this year. This is a recipe that has been in my file for many, many years--like since he was in second grade in Hawaii. They made Indian Fry Bread and Pretzels in class, and he brought home the recipes. I've used the recipes over the years. But mostly, I just like to take it out and look at it, see his cute handwriting, remember my "baby" from so long ago, and say, "Awww, isn't this cute?" and show it to who ever is close by. Tonight I showed it to Mike and Seth. And I decided to show it to my blog stalker friends, too. :-) I'm hoping Tandy gets to see it. I'm not sure I've ever shown it to her.