October--What happened to the summer.

I think this is the first time since July that I am actually blogging in the same month as things are happening. Although we were technically home in the larger sense of the word during this first weekend in October, we did not actually spend much time at home. Shantel and Tom stopped in for lunch at Red Iguana on their way to Moab. It was great getting together with old friends, even if it was just for lunch.

Friday night, we were invited to a very fun dinner party at Steve and Kathy's house. Steve is one of my favorite people to work with. He is so interesting and is happy to listen to me bitch anytime. Every year, he hosts a post-ride dinner at his house. We skipped the ride--my road bike hasn't seen anything but a trainer in two years--but were happy to enjoy the wonderful meal his wife Kathy cooked for us.

Saturday was a great day for Kellies. I started my day at a baby shower for Keli and ended it at a birthday party for Kelly. Robyn, the hostess for Keli's baby shower, threw such an adorable shower. The cupcakes alone were worth blogging about. I think they were homemade. Robyn also thought of lots of cute little details. Like most baby showers, though, there were several horror stories about childbirth. I'm not sure why anyone ever thinks it's a good idea to tell someone who is 8 months pregnant about every horrible labor, pregnancy, baby story they have ever heard. It is enough for me to re-think the idea of ever having children. I always pity the guest of honor who no matter how bad the horror stories get cannot back out.

I've heard some people rationalize this behavior by saying that you should be prepared for the worst. Personally, I would rather read about "the worst" in a detached book where (1) I don't have to picture my friends in less than flattering positions or (2) realize that the horror story is closer than I realize. At my shower (which will be far, far in the future), I'm going to make all the guests sign an agreement not to share any scary/gross/embarassing stories.

Keli took it all in stride, though. She was so cute opening her presents and looking at the tiny little outfits. She is going to be such a great mom. Congratulations Keli and Dave!

Immediately after Keli's shower, I headed to Kelly's birthday party. For Kelly's birthday, our book club group headed to the Trappist Monastery (the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity) in Huntsville. We were too late (or early) to see the trappist monk's chanting, but we did pick up some honey. The monastery itself was much more modern than I expected. The setting was lovely, though. Since we still had some time to kill before our dinner plans, we stopped at the Shooting Star, the oldest bar in Utah. This is a hidden gem. The beer selection wasn't great, but the food and decor were very quirky and memorable. There are stuffed animals (the taxidermied kind) all over the wall. We sat underneath someone's St. Bernard. We had dinner plans so we didn't sample any of the burgers, which sounded so yummy, but we did try a local favorite appetizers: potato chips and dill pickles. A strange, but surprisingly tasty combination. We will be making a trip back here this winter for the end of day skiing at Powder Mountain.

We headed back to SLC for dinner at Settabello, where Rod joined us. We ended up fitting in a pub crawl to two new bars, Poplar St. and Beerhive. I'm not sure if the word is out yet, but Beerhive is the next big thing in SLC. I'm sure that within months, we will be waiting in line to get a table. We ended our day with a Deschuttes Black Butte XXI. It tasted like chocolate covered coffee beans. It was so tasty and rich, I couldn't have possible finished the big bottle by myself.

The next morning, we met up for brunch at Em's with Dave, Inga, Ivan, Monette, Daisy, Dave, and (the guests of honor) Karthik and Eve to meet their new baby: Sita. She is sooo beautiful! And Eve had the most perfect birth story--3 hours!--to counteract any lingering negative mental pictures from the day before. Gabe is getting so big! He is such a cutie.