August 2007 (in which not very much happens)

We arrived at the family reunion/luau on Friday night late. Clad in loud red Hawaiian shirts, we were almost the last to arrive. (Dan had insisted that he knew where he was going, but when the directions to a park in Orem placed us at the Marriott Center in Provo, even he had to admit defeat...and ask directions.) Amidst the greetings and smiles, the first thing that one cousin asked was "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE YOUR BLOG?!"

Oh, yeah. We have a blog.

Needless to say, its been a fun summer and not un-noteworthy. Besides enduring the onset of the dog days of summer in waining days of August before school started, we've also enjoyed some ... something. Let me get back to you on what we've enjoyed. (In case you were wondering, the "dog days of summer" is a phrase that dates back to ancient Rome, when those toga-totting pre-Italians called these days between late July and early September caniculares dies (days of the dogs) after Sirius (the "Dog Star"), the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun, which is a pretty bright star in the summertime...or wintertime. But I digress.

According to the Wikipedia, it was "popularly believed to be an evil time 'when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies' - Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813." Wow. There aren't many seas in Utah, and wine is more scarce than in other states, but I have been feeling languid... (note to self: look up languid).

Further in Wikipedia, "the Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise, which is no longer true owing to precession of the equinoxes. The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that that star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather."

Now you know the rest of the story...

AND WE'RE MOVING ON. Here are a few snippets of the comings and goings of Britt and Dan, your local (in Salt Lake City) navel gazers.

Just a couple miles from our apartment, Millcreek Canyon is a beautiful retreat from the heat and the hustle. Britt and I snuck up there after work one night, enjoyed the sunset, and took a lot of goofy photos...you know, the kind your little sister takes with her friends for hours at a time? Daniel wasn't very good at it, but Britt was a natural.










It took a few takes, but Daniel finally got the memo and managed to scrounge up a face.

Now that we have that out of the way....

Among other things, Daniel and Britt did a little cooking this summer. Havalah, Daniel's newly wed sister just south in Utah Valley, celebrated her twentieth birthday in July. Pulling out one or two of the half dozen cook books gathering dust on the shelf, we successfully executed the cooking of two main course recipes, as well as a quick and easy appetizer that ended up taking the gold star for the night: hummus on roasted garlic ciabatta. The main courses weren't too shabby, either. As soon as the hummus was gone, and I do mean gone, we dug into curry chicken and let sit the broccoli and cauliflower curry...needless to say, it is still sitting in our fridge.

The great success of the mean was that Daniel managed to avoid completely cutting off any limbs, although he nearly lost his thumb to the chicken curry. The doctor says that if he had come in earlier (instead of a work week later) the thumb would have healed faster, but that it should heal just fine anyway.

The goggles are for the onions. Daniel recommends goggles when ever cutting white onions or spicy pepper. He also recommends goggles for swimming laps in the pool, if they have not been left in the kitchen for when one cuts white onions.


(the knife utilized is of Brazilian manufacture and was given as a gift by Daniel's brother. It's so sharp it may not be legal, but it does do a good job of cutting chicken and thumbs, which, coincidentally, we hear tastes just like chicken...)