At the invitation of Jim Parkinson, Friday evening Tauni and I had dinner at Ruth's Chris in Salt Lakewith a very distinguished group, including Parky and wife Sue, the Ambassador from Senegal to the US, Senator Orrin and Elaine Hatch, Waterford Institute Founder Dusty Hueston and his wife, Chair of the Missisippi Chapter of the NAACP Derrick Johnson and wife Leticia, Parky's son Brett and wife, Calfornia Court of Appeals Justice Doug Miller, and Jim's brother Tommy aka Dr. Brett Parkinson.
In his inimitable way, Parky directed us all where to sit. Thankfully, Tauni and I sat at the end of the table with Parky and Sue, Doug and Tommy. Tauni actually sat next to the Ambassador, who looked like she had been to at least one too many dinners and flown on too many airplanes during the past few days. Parky placed her directly across the table from the Hatches.
Tommy showed up after we were all seated. My first reaction was, "Who's the gay guy?" He could hardly look less like Parky, several inches shorter, dozens of pounds lighter (i.e, very fit vs. well padded), and a few notches more manic. It was like a TV sitcom character dropped in, a cross between Frazier and Niles. Once he had his bearings, he quickly monopolized the conversation, leaving even Parky relatively speechless. With gusto he covered topics ranging from gay marriage to exercise.
As pertains to the 90-Day program, the notable thing about the dinner was the task of finding something to fit within our nutrition parameters. I selected the wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, sweet potato and tomato salad - all, I thought, reasonable choices. As Tauni pointed out, however, the sweet potato was more of a desert than a vegetable, liberally sprinkled with brown sugar and blended with butter or something else high in fat. I managed only small taste, however, so no harm.
On the subject of exercise, Tommy expounded at length about how we are not 21 anymore. He gave up running at age 40 and now does weight lifting and elliptical training on alternate days. He cautioned me about overdoing it, and then proceeded to order the banana cream desert. It turned out to be massive, literally about 8 inches in diameter. It was glazed with glazed with some sort of sugar topping and conservatively had to be at least 1200 calories, maybe as much as 1500 calories. I didn't even dare hazard a taste.
For the record, Tommy is not gay. He has a wife and four kids, about whom he provided a lot of information. Tommy is a radiologist, and specializes in mammography. Parky says he is brilliant (no doubt), and probably is the best in the world at his specialty. Throughout dinner as medical topics came up Tommy repeatedly declined to comment, explaining that the subject was outside his area of expertise. After dinner Tauni told me she loved Tommy and wants to have him give her a mammogram. (Jim arranged for him to give a mammogram to the Ambassador on Friday morning.) He clearly has a way with women
After desert Tommy drifted off and cornered Senator Hatch, who could be seen nodding solemnly while Tommy talked animatedly.
Before dinner there was a shooting at the Grand America Hotel, where the Ambassador and the Johnsons stayed. Leticia told me she saw a body lying on the ground from her window. Turns out is was a deranged Iraq vet, who was armed to the teeth, apparently intending to bag a police officer. Nice introduction to Salt Lake City.
After dinner Friday we drove the Derrick and Leticia to our cabin in Liberty. It was 10pm or thereabouts when we arrived and we were all tired so went right to bed. Tauni made Amish outmeal for breakfast. We had promised the Johnsons a hike with a view so took off after breakfast on the trail to the North Ogden Divide. Leticia was struggling with the altitude and stopping every few hundred feet it seemed. We ran into some hikers coming down the trail who said there were some folks on skittish horses further up the trail. A few minutes later a riderless horse, complete with saddle and bridle, came running down the trail toward us. Leticia had asked for a complete rundown on dangerous animals on our drive to the cabin the night before. We hadn't thought about runaway horses. She was prepared for cougars but a runaway horse clearly startled her. Fortunately, the horse stopped just before he reached Tauni and me. We approached him carefully. Tauni grabbed his reins and then ordered me to run up the trail to find his rider.
I took off, and to my pleasant surprise found my knee sound and the running easy. I hadn't gone more than about a quarter mile before I saw two women on horses coming my way, with a man walking in from of them. Turned out the runaway horse was his and was indeed skittish. He told us he got off to calm the horse down and it promptly ran off. He was relieved that to hear that we had found his horse and had him under control. That definitely goes down as my first capture of a spooked, riderless horse. From the 90-Day perspective, it was nice to find that running felt OK, even though I didn't go very far.
Following the hike we drove up to Snow Basin for lunch, where a mountain bike race was underway. After that I dropped off Tauni at home and Derrick and Leticia at the airport, and drove to Provo for a meeting with the Ambassador and the Rhino boys, who we have been negotiating with seemingly forever on the manufacture of houses for Tanzania. After the Ambassador left they told me they had a great plan for a house with steep pitched roof that they think would be perfect for the US market. They assured me they would still build houses in Tanzania but don't want to. I asked why and their answer reminded me of my namesake Harold Hill, "Wherever the people are as green as the money." Nothing like a vote of confidence. Imagine relying on a contractor 12,000 miles from home who doesn't want to be there but is willing to cash your check.
From the Rhino meeting I drove back to Sandy for dinner with Mari and the mother of her increasingly serious boyfriend at Mimi's. In contract to the Rhino boys, the mama definitely wanted to be there and was effusive about how much she loves Mari. We all (Tauni, Nina and I) thought she was great, a wonderful in-law if the relationship progresses that far.
I weighed in (sorry Erin) at 193 on Saturday, the lowest yet, and 18 pounds down from my all-time-fat high (ATFH) just before the Wasatch Back. I think that represents a loss of approximately 10 pounds in the three weeks since the 90-day program began. More significantly, I am finding that most of my pants have considerable slack around the waist, which measured 2 inches less than it did three weeks ago. Not bad, but the eating out is making the nutrition plan more difficult to follow.
After teaching Sunday School the next morning we drove again to Provo, this time for my nephew's non-farewell missionary farewell. The highlights included my brother-in-law singing "How Beautiful Upon the Mountains" at double fortissimo and a lunch layout that included the biggest brownie spread I have ever seen. I did great for about two hours but eventually the chicken salad became a temptation I could not resist. After 4 or 5 crackers covered with said salad we finally escaped for Spanish Fork with grandson Max to celebrate grandson Griffin's 4th birthday. More chicken here, but I at least avoided the birthday cake and ice cream.
We finally made it home about 9:30, wheere I collapsed into bed. The weekend included three restaurant meals, a large buffet and a birthday party. Thankfully I avoided desserts and most of the starchy items. I also managed to avoid further back strain and felt decent this morning. The knee is great but the back, following Tommy's admonition, is going to need continued tender loving care.
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