Dinner tonight....yum!

This is a photo of the delicious dinner that Ban made for us tonight. We had soft shell crab gratin (in the ramekin), sea scallops with pear relish and lemon oil (!) and asian slaw. It was amazing!

Tea Rose Diner

One of my favorite local places to eat is Tea Rose Diner in Murray. Annie serves up terrific Thai & American food at a very reasonable price. Located in 'historic' Murray, Tea Rose Diner is a very homey and comfortable establishment. Tea Rose Diner is open for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Be sure to try to the english muffin, egg, cheese, and grilled pineapple breakfast sandwich if you are looking for something a little different. Tea Rose Diner has delicious and unique sandwiches for lunch. Ban loved the grilled cheese, bacon and pear sandwich. My favorite are the Thai dishes. I love green papaya salad and massamun curry. If you are in a restaurant rut and looking to try something new go check out Tea Rose Diner. Not only is the food good and reasonably priced but Annie lets me hang posters for upcoming derby bouts on the bulletin board in the restaurant!

Pikes Peak Derby Dames 194, Salt City Shakers 41

Ouch! The Shakers got spanked on Saturday night and to add insult to injury I hurt my shoulder. I'm hoping that the shoulder is just bruised and not sprained or strained.

The Shakers were invited to Colorado Springs to participate in a double header. The opening bout was Rocky Mountain Roller Girls vs the FOCO Girls Gone Derby (Fort Collins). Highly ranked Rocky Mountain had their way with FOCO in this bout. Next up was the Shakers vs Pikes Peak Derby Dames. PPDD is ranked #16 in the nation. The skated faster than us, hit harder than us, and played smarter than us. There is a reason that they are headed to regionals in Houston in two weeks.

All that aside, Colorado Springs is a charming town and I wish that I'd had more time to explore. PPDD is an impressive organization. Their venue was incredible as you can tell from the photos and video below. The team had an amazing rapport with the crowd, they are very interactive. But the best part was that in town the same weekend was a firefighter convention. The firefigthers brought a bagpipe and drum band. PPDD integrated that community event with the double header by inviting the firefighters' band to perform at our half-time. Amazing!!

Whew! I'm Glad to Know What to Do When This Happens

Don't you hate it when you are somewhere away from home and have a nice bottle of wine that you're ready to open. Then, it hits you. You don't have a corkscrew. I can't tell you how often this happens to me. I've gotten better about redistributing all those inexpensive cork screws that I end up having to buy when I'm traveling. I've put one in my luggage, one in travel kit, but I still don't have one in my car or my skate bag though.

The good news is that after reading this article (and watching the accompanying video) I won't need to worry about not having a corkscrew again.

Perhaps this is one reason that I can't sleep at night

At first, this letter to editor in today's SL Tribune made me laugh. Quickly, I became sad and scared. This is what many in America think and how they will vote. It is incomprehensible to me that Americans aren't terrified by the stance on the issues of the McCain/Palin ticket. I couldn't care less about her personal life. Her lack of experience is troubling but her ideology is why she should NOT be VP or God forbid.....

I'm writing a response to this letter and submitting to the Trib. I know Ban will do the same. I'll let you know if they get published.

You glided in on a dog sled wearing your pageant sash and Tina Fey glasses

This skit is just one of the reasons that I love both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The second that I saw a photo of Sarah Palin I knew that Tina Fey would have to return to play her on SNL I know that many people feel that SNL has gotten pretty weak in recent years but this particular skit that opened the new SNL season is frickin' hilarious.

...and still sometimes remember the masquerade's forever

These are some photos that my daughter sent me that were taken during a masquerade party that she and some friends were hosting last weekend. Gorgeous, yes? But, apparently later in the evening she ended up getting a beer spilled all over her big bouffant hair do and she ended up morphing into an Amy Winehouse look alike.

Horse Frame!

It's September and time for the Utah State Fair. I love the fair and we went last night to celebrate a friend's birthday. Happy birthday, Anna! The fair is people watching at its best, even better than the airport. In addition to the plethora of deep-fried foods, farm animal stench, and carnival rides that couldn't possibly be safe, we also checked out the rodeo. I've never actually been to a rodeo before and honestly, I found it a bit perplexing.

Have you heard of mutton busting? Basically, children aged 2-6 (yes, 2!) strap on helmets and then climb onto the back of a mutton. They are then let free from the holding pen and hang on for dear life as the mutton streaks across rodeo grounds. Here's a www.youtube.com video to give you some idea:

Seriously, who'd let their kids do this? Suddenly, I feel a lot less guilty about the time my kids spent watching TV or playing video games.

Otherwise, it was the usual mix of cowboys trying to beat farm animals into submission. I couldn't help but root for the animals. Probably the best part of the rodeo was the entertainment. I’m not talking about the rodeo clowns (they were weak) or the rodeo queen (wow, aqua net!) but the musical stylings of Ban. Let’s just say that he was in rare form last night. Virtually every song that they played at the rodeo which was a surprisingly broad spectrum of music not just the country stuff you’d expect, Ban would change the lyrics to include the words horse, bull, or rodeo. Hence, 'Freeze Frame' became 'Horse Frame' shouted with the same intensity as the original 80s recording by the J Geils Band. Anna created this album cover just in case Ban decided to compile those treasured songs into something to be enjoyed by the masses.

Go to the fair, it's fun! I think next Sunday is the demolition derby...

Ouch, my eyes!

Seriously, I think I sprained my eyes tonight watching the RNC. I was watching to try to understand why Americans would vote McCain/Palin. But, within the first 46 minutes I think I rolled my eyes 72 times and now they hurt. Seriously, how do you ice your eyeballs?

Salt City Shakers - 141, Battle Born Derby Demons - 113

The Salt City Shakers hosted Reno's Battle Born Derby Demons on Saturday night. BBDD has some amazing players and they came out strong. Their style of play is to hang back and split the pack so their jammer gets through untouched. Unfortunately, we kept engaging them and getting called out on majors. We were able to regroup pretty quickly and with Shatterly jamming some amazing jams we were able to catch up and take the lead.

In the second half, during one jam, both jammers were sent to the penalty box resulting in a 'jammerless jam'. At this point, the jammers take off their star helmet panty and pass it to one of the blockers remaining on the track. Shatterly handed me the panty. I seriously thought that I was going to pass out. I've jammed in scrimmages but never before in a bout. I honestly don't remember much of anything in the entire jam. I remember Ban screaming my name as I took the first corner and the jammer ref whistling as he called me lead jammer. I remember skating and skating and skating as fast as I could trying to catch the pack for the second, point scoring pass. I was part way through the pack and called it after scoring a couple of points. It was both exhilarating and terrifying!