End of Summer Daze

Things I'll remember about Summer 2008:

*The dessert buffet at the Grand America Hotel summer dinner. Jackie and I got to eat what the pastry chef called "The Dessert of the Year 1996"- it was vanilla bean custard over which was placed a domed vanilla/orange cake drizzled with melted chocolate. I don't know what about the dessert screamed "1996", but that was a yummy year. It also inspired us to find the desserts of 97-08. That will be Jackie's new quest (now that she's finished her vampire book). I'll also remember the other guests looking on in amazement as I constantly swatted 4 bees that brazenly kept landing on our food. We were moved inside (where Marie Osmond and her son were shortly seated near us). I also enjoyed my mandarin orange lemonade.

* Millie screaming for her life whenever a fly gets near her in her bedroom.

* Favorite films: American Teen, The Dark Knight, The Counterfeiters, Iron Man, and Mamma Mia!

* White water rafting with Jackie's family in Jackson Hole (and, because I was in the back, not really getting all that wet).

*The gourmet chocolate shop in Jackson Hole where the chef had attitude- but the skills to back it up- which also leads to the quote of the summer "Giada Delaurentis has the palate of a goat."

*Favorite DVD's (when Netflix is actually working...): Madmen Season 1, HBO John Adams, Persepolis, 51 Birch Street and, I'm sure when they arrive, The Wire Season 5 and Entourage.

*Millie screaming for her life whenever a fly gets near her in the bathroom.

*Our summer of French films: Into Great Silence, Merry Christmas, Terror's Advocate, To Be and to Have, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, La Vie en Rose, and Vitus (although this movie's technically Swiss... close enough).

*Tommy Burgers in Provo with the girls.

*Swimming at the Lehi pool.

*Millie screaming for her life whenever a fly gets near her in the Lehi pool.

*Driving my parents minivan in Jackson Hole. Ellis vomiting in my parents minivan on the border of Utah and Idaho.

*Getting really expensive ice cream with Jackie and my dad after seeing The Drowsy Chaperone with him in Salt Lake.

*Jackie's parents nearly getting kicked out of Hale Center Theatre because I gave them our comp tickets for The Curious Savage.

*Countless trips to Maverik and Sonic for Diet Coke to keep the missus happy.

*Millie not sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's house after they got new carpet.

*Listening to Coldplay's Viva La Vida in NYC, Jackson Hole and everywhere in between.

*The cool slide at the Jackson Hole pool (and the changing rooms get a thumbs down- both men's and women's showers open up for the world to see as you go to the pool).

*Surviving 6 weeks of teaching Hale Center Theatre summer camp- and not once seriously burning myself with the hot glue gun.

*Going to NYC with 62 other really fun people (including Jackie's parents, my aunt, uncle and cousins, fellow faculty and staff from Riverton High)

*Going to Jackson Hole/Star Valley Wyoming with really fun people (including Ray & Renae, the Tan Fam, the Hicks fam, the Pun fam, and the "abandoned for Comic-Con" Bryan Summers fam).

*Millie screaming and kicking my seat seat violently whenever a fly got in the car.

Goodbye summer! See you next year!!