Saturday – 18 October 2008
Today has been a long and busy day. This isn’t to say that it hasn’t been fun – it was… but there was a lot packed into it.

The morning started with sleeping in. That wasn’t intentional. The original plan was to go to the Downtown Farmer’s Market to kick off the day. Something about “the best laid plans of mice and men” comes to mind here. When conciousness and coherence finally came together, we got up and started the day off with a few errands.

Next up: Thanksgiving Point. SaraRules had never been and I suggested checking out the gardens before they closed for the season. And so, we did. As it was late in the season, we missed a lot of the flora.  But, we still saw a few things that looked really good. Pictures of the outing can be seen here.

Next, back to Salt Lake for lunch. We decided to head to Cafe Med, as neither of us had been there in a long time. SaraRules had a Mediterranean Platter, while I had Turkish Yogurt Pasta… and finished it off with a serving of Akbar Mashti.

We ran a couple more errands… including a trip to Fashion Place Mall, so that I could pick up a new white dress shirt. I figured that I could head to Dillard’s or Nordstrom, get a shirt and be good to go. I didn’t take into consideration just how much those stores mark up prices. Wow. Instead, we headed to Burlington Coat Factory, where I got two shirts for less than I would have paid for one at the mall.

Back home to change before…

A night at the opera: Utah Opera’s opening night performance of:


(click image for details)

It was fantastic.

The first thing that struck me was the set. I’ve seen some interesting sets at Utah Opera, but this one was phenomenal. They not only built the Pinkerton house (in three “levels,” so to speak), they also managed to create a hillside on-stage. And the lighting effects were equally good. The costuming was amazing, as well – the kimonos of the Japanese characters were stunning. And the performances of the singers were top notch. The entire presentation was roughly three hours, including a twenty-minute intermission. If you like opera and/or the story of Madame Butterfly, you should definitely check out this performance before it’s gone.

After the opera, we caught up with and at Cheers. It was relatively low-key and quiet tonight – Katie (our usual waitress) is going to see to it that we no longer sit with the problem children. Selah. And, was nice enough to snap a picture of SaraRules and me in our evening finery:

And now: Sleepy-bye time.