Mike and I spent all of Memorial Day cleaning house. We did laundry, washed dishes, vacuumed the house, changed the sheets, moved boxes to storage, organized the basement, and hired a kid to mow the lawn. I know that last one really doesn’t count as work. Sometimes hiring someone to do something is almost as tiring as just doing it yourself.

If you couldn’t tell, we have a visitor coming to our house on Thursday and we are excited to see him. Cory Storm is an old friend from junior high. He was in my English class in ninth grade with Mr. Godfrey. He ended up going to Granger High School instead of Kearns, so I kind of lost touch with him until after high school. I’ve mentioned Cory before.

He moved to San Francisco, then he moved to Hong Kong and now he’s back in San Francisco. There is no certainty in this world and he may move to Tibet next, but for now, he’s in San Francisco. His first visit to Salt Lake since coming back from Hong Kong starts on Thursday and I am happy to see him.

Cory is our first visitor to stay at our place since we moved to Sugarhouse. The last time he came, we were living in a 3500 square house with two home offices, a library, a spectacular view of the Wasatch Mountains and, most importantly, a guest room. This time, we’ll be getting the futon from the storage unit and putting it on the living room floor for him to sleep. He’s not picky, but I still feel a little guilty. Of all the things we left in West Jordan, the guest room is the only one I still miss.

We are going to take him to places that are entirely “Utah.” First on our list is the Dutch Oven Buffet in Lehi. Sure it got horrible reviews in the Deseret News. The food isn’t important. The Utahness of it is. Cory has been trapped in Hong Kong for about a year. That boy needs some “bland meatloaf, glassy broccoli and cake-mix cobblers”. Personally, I thought the food was great. They have home-made bread and jams that tempt me to make a meal of bread. I loved the cobblers and there were five to choose from. Sure, the place was crowded, but that’s because everybody loves it there. If it really was as bad as she said, they’d be out of business by now. Instead, Up-Chuck-A-Rama are imitating them and have added a dutch oven section to their buffets. Yeah, he definitely needs to see this place and partake of it’s Utah Goodness.

We’re also going to take him to Red Butte Gardens. We are members there and we can’t let him leave without seeing the desert beauty. Every time we go to San Francisco, we are overwhelmed by the greenery that surrounds every building and creeps into every crack. Even though gardening is much more difficult here, our city is still beautiful. He has to see the view of the city from the top of Zeke’s Mountain Trail. He has been to Tibet, but he hasn’t seen the gardens in his home town.

That’s about all we have planned for him. He hasn’t even given us a hint about what he would like to see while he’s here, so this weekend is bound to be a little random and a whole lot of fun. I can’t wait until you’re on our doorstep, Cory!