Sooo, I've been in Salt Lake City for the past five days, and it's very beautiful. It's a desert that only gets precipitation two months out of the year, but we had it every day I was there! I got caught in the rain while hiking the trails behind Leo's house and Sunday, we had three inches of wet snow. (One more inch and Leo said we'd go snowshoeing. I've never done that, but I did borrow my niece's bike and had a nice ride around the neighborhood. Leo asked me when I last rode a bike. "Let's round it off to 'the day I got my learner's permit'," I said.)

The sign will give you a little taste of what Utahans are like. I think they're trying to say, "we were washing our hands a century before your fancy laws, Gentile!". Harriet says these are the most industrious people she's ever seen, and from what I saw, it's true. Leo pointed out some men working on a condo conversion, "Look, seven construction workers and they're all working at the same time, where else would you see that?" And all the houses are tidy with landscaped lawns. Lots of beautiful craftsman-era houses I loved. Not that Leo and Harriet's house isn't spectacular.

This statue I call, "Brigham Young Pops the Question":

While I'm in Salt Lake City later this week, I plan to get my hair did at Red State (hate that term!) prices. While researching salons, I read one guy's complaint that for $35, he expected the best haircut anyone's ever gotten, and I learned there's a beauty school called the Hairitage Academy.

This phase of census work is not going too well. Last week I was in training for three days, but then you, Mister Taxpayer, paid me twelve hours for slipping one missed visit sheet under a guy's door. (I don't think that's any privileged information; if it is, I could be imprisoned for up to five years and fined up to $250,000 for breaking my Lifetime Oath [no kidding, I'm oathed for life to the census].)

The Kindle's loaded for vacation, and H is lending me a portable DVD player on which I plan to watch season 1 of "Pushing Daisies" and possibly "The Wire" and/or "Trailer Park Boys." 'Cause it's going to be a shitnami of a flight--five and a half hours in a middle seat. Oh well, you know what the middle seat really means? Two friends I haven't met yet!

Some day, I'll tell children of an age that could have been my grandchildren that I remember a time when there weren't any TV series about midgets.

Do I live in America? I just had a major new filling put in a molar and the dentist told me to take Tylenol or Advil for a couple of days to ease the inflammation. "What do you take for headaches?" he said. "I don't get headaches." Then I realized I haven't owned any aspirin, Tylenol, or Advil in over a year, since Groupie McWoodstock, DDS, extracted a tooth over a year ago. Somethin', huh? So now I get to go shopping...

By the way, this guy's good--my eyeball's still numb.

Made my first batch of ham salad today, and it was terrific, even with turkey ham, and easy:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Winter-Blossoms-Often-Requested-Ham-Salad/Detail.aspx

And in other kitchen updates, my downstairs neighbor is moving to Amsterdam and selling all her stuff. I bought two window air conditioners, an OXO salad spinner that sucks onto the counter top, and for the first time in three and a half years, I own a microwave!

I planned to post a picture of a window of the building behind me, because there are clothes piled up over most of it, so I think it's one of them hoarder situations. But my camera hasn't got enough zoom.