100-yr-old Cake

So, while in Cedar City for USF, I made arrangements to see Lilly, a friend from BYUH days. We met up in Hurricane. After lunch, we drove around for a bit and made a stop at the Hurricane City Museum. I swear the museum takes anything its residents are willing to give to put in a museum from dolls to old tools ... to this 100-yr-old cake. Yup, this city museum needs to learn to toss out its junks.

Cedar City Trip

Things have been a little hectic for me this past week or so and I'm a little late getting this out. Here are some highlights from my recent trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City with Julie. 

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This is my second trip with Julie Jensen to the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s summer season and we’re starting  a few traditions.

The main stop we HAVE to make is the city of Beaver for several things:

1. Fresh cheese curd (aka “squeaky cheese”) from the Cache Valley Dairy factory. I know, right? Beaver is NOT in Cache Valley, but whatever. I’ve found the NEED to stop in Beaver for squeaky cheese each time I pass through town. If you don’t believe me you can ask my friends about the highly dangerous and illegal Dukes of Hazzard move I made on I-15 as I said, “I must have my squeaky cheese.” If you’re plugging this into your GPS systems, search for “Dairy Farmers of America Cheese Factory”. Do not buy your cheese from the gas stations, it’s not as fresh and is no longer squeaky. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s just plain old cheddar cheese when it’s not fresh and squeaky.
2. Arshel’s Cafe. By the time you’ve been on the road for three hours or so, you’re ready for a meal and this is one of your options in Beaver. I’ve always been happy with my selection of grilled ham and cheese or burger. HOWEVER, the reason Arshel’s is a must is their homemade chocolate peanut butter pie. TO. DIE. FOR. Enough said. Check it out! 

Last year, on the way home, we stopped at Cove Fort for a potty break, little look around and considered the guide’s tour presentation Sunday School. This year, we went to Cedar Breaks to worship amidst God’s creation. Believe it or not we did talk to a couple of strangers about the Church and how not every Mormon are Republicans. Tada! I’m living proof! Aside from that look at the view! God is good.

A chat with Bill

 Julie was a bit shy and didn't talk much to Bill.

I, on the other hand, got really comfy with Bill ...

We got into a few arguments over his work ...

... but in the end we made up.

2011 Utah Shakespeare Festival

In what may look like an annual tradition, Julie and I, went down to the Utah Shakespeare Festival this weekend. This year I picked to see “The Glass Menagerie” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Both were excellent plays!

I’ve not read Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” since high school and have not ever seen it performed, so I wanted to see it as USF because I know it will be done well. I knew that it was a “heavy” play. I knew going in that I’ll be able to relate well to the play. When it play ended, I found myself in tears. Without going into too many details, it certainly gave me a lot to think about and I may have to go buy a copy of that play for further reading.

At the Greenshow prior to the perfomance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the actors performed a skit telling the story of the inception of USF. They wore various jackets and wigs to portray the forefathers of the festival. Fred Adams, who is the founder of the festival, was found after the Greenshow as usual mingling with the crowd. I couldn’t help myself and tapped him on the shoulder and said, “You look much better in person than the actor that portrayed you on stage.” “Well, that’s because you have great taste!” was his reply. What a cute man! I told him that when I first came to the festival 15 years ago, he took the time to chat with me and that had made a positive lasting impression that got me coming back. As we walked away from him, Julie said to me, “Did you just flirt with Fred Adams?” Hmmm, I guess I kind of was … can you blame me?

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a favorite of mine. I wasn’t too crazy about some of the costumes they put on Tatiana, the fairy queen, Oberon was HOT and I found Puck borderline annoying. Otherwise, it was a fantastic production. The night’s performance was being taped to be aired on one of the BYU TV stations. I’ll have to watch it again in the comfort of my own home and see if I can get more out of it.

You can call me Daisy ...

So on the way to Vegas in February over President's Day weekend, we had made plans to stop by a little town in Central Utah called Beaver for some squeaky cheese (aka cheese curd) ... somehow I missed the exit to go there and the next opportunity to turn around wasn't going to be for another 30 miles or so ... Julie and Janeen are adamant that I had actually said, "I gotta have some cheese." With that, I got on the left lane of I-15 going over 60 mph and made a U-turn at an emergency dirt road (for police and emergency workers only supposedly) and headed back to Beaver.

Choiced 4-letter words were uttered by my passengers as gravel flew. I got my cheese and I was lucky enough that a cop was nowhere in sight to catch that highly illegal move.

My car, Chloe, handled itself quite well, BUT it wasn't the same for a while. Apparently, some of that gravel got into the car and my brakes just screeched whenever I'm driving it around town. After a CRAZY month at work, I finally took it in to get looked at this past Saturday.

The good news is that the dealership cleaned out the gravel for free ... I was so happy that I bought the service guys some cookies to thank them for saving me $200 on new brake pads.

The bad news ... I got pulled over for speeding on the way back from that trip for going 88 at a 75 mph zone. To be fair, I was driving behind a semi and hated not being able to see what is ahead of me, so I got into the left lane and passed it. Unfortunately, there was a long line of cars and no one would let me in. I sped up to get past them and that was when Officer "I'm going to give you a break and write you up for 10 over the speed limit" caught me. It was a total set up and there were about 3 others before crossing the state border! I'm pretty sure they were also targeting out of state cars because, let's be honest, who wants to go back to Bunkerville, NV, to fight the citation? I called this week to find out how much the fine is ... $195. Yup, Karma got me good.