Mass Games

Maybe Dear Leader needs to take the show on the road.

A proposal

P. was recently in Hong Kong, reporting and writing an in-depth project about migrant labor. His girlfriend, G., was in Gillette, working for the newspaper.

A year before, they had met in college in Colorado.

They fell in love and had talked about marriage. He even sought permission from her parents. Then he took off to Asia and she was anxious about him being 14 time zones away.

She counted down the weeks until he returned. With two weeks left, P. emailed me from the San Francisco airport and said he was returning early to surprise G. Could I help?

Gladly.

Lime Rickey, A work in Progress

Damn it! I can't make a proper lime rickey.

I tried to make a grape one that tastes like what I used to drink at Arctic Circle, a Utah-based fast-food chain. (Obviously, no booze in the Arctic Circle lime rickeys.)

At the liquor store, I looked for appropriate flavors and I picked up grape pucker schnapps, Smirnoff lime vodka and 7 Up.

I got home, took out a high-ball glass and poured probably the equivalent of three shots of vodka, then realized I poured too much, so I filled the rest up with 7 to try to overcompensate the for the vodka and then poured probably a half shot of grape pucker.

I took a swallow. A long hard swallow.

It was too boozy and too limey. Not at all sugary, syrupy like I remember it at Arctic Circle. Alcohol consumption should be a fun experience. If it burns while going down the pipe, it's not worth it, I say. Might as well not drink.

So then I added more grape and 7. It helped a little.

I went onto the website of Gracie's, a SLC bar that sells boozy lime rickeys. What did they put in it? Did they use a different grape-flavored liquor?

Their beverage menu isn't online. Damn it.

Rapid City via Spearfish Canyon

The Black Hills are beautiful...

I hadn't seen them in 10 years. Barb -- My Salt Lake City-Based Guide to Northeast Wyoming (TM) -- told me to check them out during the autumn.

A moving target, it always is, to catch the leaves in perfect, blazing colors. Last year, the Rapid City Journal and Denver Post recommended visiting in mid-September. This year, some friends who are from Rapid said to visit in October.

I was busy until last weekend -- which might have been a little too late in the season.

But determined I was, I told G it was time: Time to go to Target in Rapid.

(But also time to see the leaves.)

It was a rainy and overcast Sunday. The fog covered the peaks, which for G. and I are more like hills compared to the Front Range and Wasatch.

I should have taken a picture of Target. Oh well, maybe next time.

(I scored a cute black-with-white-chevrons sweater by Missoni for Target and a pink T-shirt with a vintage cowgirl that says, "This ain't my first rodeo.")

Chloe and I, we walk