42-14

All right, so the final was actually 66-24, but we left at the post title's score. If you have no idea what I am talking about, Plantboy and I had our first date in over a month at the football game with the biggest point spread in the country on Saturday. Go Aggies. And I mean that in the you-don't-even-have-a-shot-at-being-the-underdog-you-are-so-out-of-your-league sense. Still we are alumni so we supported our team. USU was beating the 35 1/2 point spread until the fourth quarter. I guess. We only made it half-way through the third.

At that point we left for Sweet Life with Drs. Jamin and Tabula Rasa. We also tailgated with them before the game, the only blue-dressed fans in the entire 80-acre parking lot. (My mind could not have even conceived of tailgating on such a scale before Saturday's massacre.) We then sat in the visitor's section, which the U of O has generously put two miles up from the field, under the jumbo-tron and right next to the student section. On the upside, I actually ran into a former student from CRMS who I just loved. He has since moved to Oregon and it was a really hilarious place to run into him.

But back to Sweet Life and the high point of this, or perhaps any other, date. Plantboy's office occasionally orders one of the amazing concoctions from this place and he'll bring me home a sliver of cake or something, but Saturday was the first time I've actually been there. As soon as I saw the flourless chocolate torte square with a chocolate cheesecake layer smothered in ganache embedded with nine perfect, huge raspberries, I didn't look back. There is no picture here because I couldn't find one to do it justice. Use your best chocolate imagination and know that you still fall far short of the goodness. The $6 cake was worth the $39 football ticket and the $30 babysitter. Really. Oh, and the conversation was great. Tabula invited another couple to come from their ward. She was a former USU attendee with three kids also and it was fun talking to her. Except she graduated in '99. The first graduating class I taught was the Class of '99. Perfect.

The weather was beautiful on Saturday: hot enough to get slight sunburn to the nose. Still, the morning coolness is telling me that autumn is on the way. To remind me of that tiny fact, and in a salute to his harvest, my adorable hubby put up* 8 pints of salsa when we got home. By himself. With ingredients mostly from our garden or the farmer's market. How cute is that? I think I may try pears this week, and homemade applesauce in a few weeks.

To end with today, I'm going to give one last shout out to summer. I think these pictures were from the ONE day in three months that my kids were looking cute and organized and extremely helpful. (I took them visiting teaching for three hours that morning.) Scallywag should have been a farmer. The part I love most about these pictures are the cargo pockets full of beans: his idea. My mother-in-law told me once that she always had to carefully empty Plantboy's pockets before washing them when he was a little boy because she never knew what random thing she would find. My washing machine has taught me the same lesson about my own little guy. Going back to school has been a bit of a blow to him, with full days for the first time this year, but he'll adjust. I'm holding up just fine. Instead of tears, I called my mother four seconds after he was on the bus and said "One down, two to go!"

*I'm loving the term "put-up" since I'm seeing it on several blogs lately. It means "canned," but "put-up" is such an old-school Mormon term. I feel like a part of the inner circle of righteous womanhood using it.