Fourth of July

We came back from our Utah vacation completely sucked of all energy and seriously sleep deprived. Here's a synopsis of our 6-day visit. Fly in to Salt Lake, visit Margaret's dad, drive to Logan, visit with my family there for a day and a half, drive to Salt Lake for a family dinner, drive to Heber and spend the night there at Margaret's sister's house, wake up and go boating, drive to Pleasant Grove for a wedding reception, spend the night at Margaret's brother's house, wake up and drive to Salina where Margaret's sister and her husband have a farm, spend the night there, wake up and go horseback riding, drive to Salt Lake after lunch, meet Margaret's dad for dinner, spend the night at Margaret's mother's house, wake up and go to Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake, visit Salt Lake library, head to the airport to fly back to Oregon. Phew! I'm exhausted just TYPING that! Fortunately we came back on the July 3, so we had a day to recover on the fourth.

Speaking of which, I tried to buy an iPhone yesterday while we were out and about but there are no more 8GB models in the entire state! Cruel fates... why must you mock me? And mock me they did. It would have been so bad, but when we went into the Apple Store to get one, they had demo phones to try out. Man oh man... after actually being able to USE one, I'm even more smitten. Now the wait is even that much more unbearable, since I know what I'm missing.

After that disappointment, Margaret consoled me by going to Transformers with me. Our friend Stacey came, too. I thoroughly enjoyed it, laughing at all the 12-year-old targeted humor and felt like I was a little kid watching the same thing on Saturday morning cartoons, only now with cussing and more violence. It was AWESOME! Sadly Margaret and Stacey were more amused with my reaction to the movie than the movie itself.

After the movie, we came back to our house for a barbeque. We got all the fixings for s'mores but when the time came to roast them, I found that we didn't have a source of willow trees to denude like we did in scouts. I hunted around the house for a bit, trying to think of how to roast them with utensils, hangers, or soldering wire. Then it struck me! The most perfect solution... a solution both elegant and lazy. And I'm talking really lazy. How, you ask? This solution, which I've dubbed the Toasterator© (and as you can see, I've trademarked it so if you try it at home, you owe me a 3¢ royalty), consists of the rotisserie attachment to our grill. Instead of holding a whole chicken, suckling pig, or ostrich roast, the prongs hold MARSHMALLOWS! The rotisserie slowly rotates them, with absolutely no effort on my part. A side benefit was that the heat also partially melted the chocolate set on the graham crackers we'd set on the grill. I'll never roast marshmallows without the assistance of electricity again!