Dog Days of Summer

It's Hot.

Very hot.

So hot, Luke got up before me. At 5:45am. Probably earlier, because it was at that time he came in and turned on the light, declaring it time to get up. I spent the better part of the morning making sure he wasn't dying. Are you sick? Do you have to be at work early? Was I snoring? Did you have a nightmare? I can't recall any time in the five years we've been together when he's gotten up that early, without an alarm, and still having at least 2 more hours to sleep if he wants. It was nice though, because I was much more awake and ready to be up when I was the only one left in the bed. I don't like feeling like a slacker. Especially when I'm supposed to be to work before him.

So it's been close to a hundred degrees every day for the last week or two. I never thought I'd say that I was glad to be at work at 6:30am on a Monday morning. But it's considerably cooler here than at the house. Our thermostat says 83, but it feels way hotter. If you haven't guessed by now, we have no air conditioning. Big mistake on our part for agreeing to buy a home...in the desert...without A/C. I guess we thought the swamper and fans would be enough. We were horribly wrong.

Despite the heat, the dogs and I went out to Memory Grove on Thursday to celebrate...dun dun dun DUUUUN!!! THEIR FOURTH BIRTHDAY!!!! Can you tell I have no real children? :) We went for a birthday hike and stayed in the off leash area, just because it was shady and near the creek. Charlotte slopped around in the water, and even Ham got his front paws in...just barely. It was like 94 degrees out, so we didn't stay out long. I didn't bring water. So we're all dying on the way home in the car, so I stopped in the drive thru at McDonald's to get some ice cream. One cone for me...one for the dogs.

It was the cutest thing ever to watch them share a cone. I need to get a smaller camera for these instances that fits in my purse. One day I'll reenact the ice cream-eating and throw a pic up here. Their eyes were as big as saucers, incredulous that they were actually given their own cone, and I wasn't scolding them for sniping bites. Tired and happy, we headed home for family nap time...a very good birthday for my furry kids.

Saturday, was Youth Parade day. Meaning for two hours, I got to run around on a hot blacktop, telling anchors what to do, running out in front of marching bands to stop them for TV, and keeping things from blowing away at the tent. It was 91 degrees when we started at 10am. Needless to say, I got my workout for the day, came home, and slept for about four hours.

Later that night, Luke and I escaped the heat, and went to Deer Valley for the Ben Folds concert with the Utah Symphony. It's one of the better dates we've had. We took a picnic, which included a bottle of wine and a six pack of wine coolers, sat out on the grass on our blanket under the stars, and listened to one of Luke's favorite artists. He was magnificent. It was his song, "The Luckiest" that we had sung at our wedding (which he obviously performed much better than the people who we had sing it.) It was nice and cool once the sun went down, and was just nice to sit around all these other people, who were also enjoying the concert and a bottle of wine. Not something you usually find in Utah.

Last night we were able to escape again, this time for dinner up Big Cottonwood canyon with Luke's family. It was his uncle Jim's birthday. We had to wait for over an hour to sit all of us on the patio, but it was worth it. Wonderful food, wonderful company, and wonderful temperature. We even saw a coyote and some deer on the way up and down the canyon. But coming back down, I got super sick. Not sure if it was the temperature change, the food, or the driving, but I felt like I was going to hurl. We had to stop and sit a while at the bottom of the canyon while I pulled myself together, and then it was sketchy the rest of the way home. I still don't feel real well, so I'm thinking it was the food. Shame.

So overall a good weekend, but definitely too hot to stay in Salt Lake. I wish I could call in sick all this week and escape to the cabin.