Last night Angie and I had a fun dinner with family. All our kids were off doing various other things, so we chilled with Lori and Brent, Tom and Stacey (+ kids), and Alex and Amanda.

We linked up at the Rio Grande Cafe, the long-time local favorite nestled in the old Rio Grande Train Station in downtown Salt Lake City. One of the things I like about Rio Grande is that it isn’t a chain, so it feels unique with its own personality.

The place is always busy and even though we arrived earlier than the typical dinner rush, we still had to wait about 15-20 minutes. So our big group of ten took up our place in front of the entrance to the men’s room to intimidate anyone wanting to take a leak: “We DARE you to try and get past our gang of suburban wimps!”

I love the euphoria that drowns you when they finally call your name…the food is that much closer!

The chips and salsa at Rio Grande are awesome. I love when places make their own chips, especially when they’re light and crisp. And the salsa they put together at Rio Grande is fresh, rich, and chunky. Just like me!

I ordered the carnitas and they were terrific. Slow roasted until they were amazingly moist and tender. It came with a couple of tortillas, rice, and some guacamole. Simple but right on target.

There was so much meat on my plate I couldn’t finish it…but I did my best!

Angie got one of the specials, a king crab enchilada in blue corn torillas. When it came out, I was glad I didn’t order it. I wasn’t in the mood for anything covered in a sea of molten cheese. On another night, definitely. But this one was all about the meat!

How did Angie like the king crab enchilada? “Yeah, it was pretty good,” she said. Take it for what it’s worth.

Best part of the night? Heading back to Tom and Stacey’s house to talk and laugh.

Overall Impressions: Rio Grande Cafe is a fun place to meet up with friends for a fun dinner. The food is okay, but I wouldn’t call it a “Wow!” experience. Like most Mexican food, you won’t leave hungry.

It’s still hard to beat the Red Iguana for taste-bud-popping Mexican food.

Anyone else been to Rio Grande? What are your takes?

Well done, Senator Bennett!

Way to be a leader and “save” us from disaster with the bailout bill. I’m looking at another 600 point Dow drop today. Did you know we’re at the lowest point since 2003?

I hope you have the guts to look at the situation now and finally realize that the government bailout was not the right answer to the situation. Hey, while I’m playing here in fantasy land, it might be nice for you to even publicly acknowledge the mistake and apologize.

An honorable man would even consider stepping down due to his costly mistakes.

Meanwhile, those of us who play by the rules, pay our taxes, save for retirement, and keep our noses clean get 26% of our “nest egg” cleaned out thanks to your support of horrible policies over the last several years.

As an added bonus, I also get an extra helping of national debt thrown on my shoulder to fund the idiotic bailout plan.

Thanks so much for your phony conservatism.

Not only will you NOT receive another vote from me, but I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that you never step foot in Washington again as my representative.

Mike Denison
South Jordan, UT

I noticed an article on KSL.com today that highlighted Senator Hatch’s insight into the bailout situation.

Click Here To Read The Story

Anyhoo… it made my blood boil just a bit more than it already was.

So I went to Senator Hatch’s site, found his contact form, and wrote him this little love letter:

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Senator Hatch,

Concerning your comments on KSL today (9/25), I would recommend that you take a deep breath and show a little leadership.

This administration has cried wolf too many times to be taken seriously about the “urgency” of this situation.

Yes, the scope of it is shocking. But please don’t be so quick to put such a heavy load on us. Good decisions are rarely made from a position of panic.

Perhaps it might be wise for you to advocate the need for congressional oversight of the funds given to Treasury. Giving a blank check with no oversight is lunacy. We vote for our representatives to be stewards of our country’s wealth, not simply ATM dispensers.

In addition, it might be wise to demand the American people receive an equity stake in those companies in exchange for the cash infusion. It seems like the capitalistic thing to do. That way, the American people might actually earn a return on this invested money instead of flushing it into the welcome arms of those titans of banking who can’t seem to keep a handle on their business.

One last thing… you may want to have your people look into a comment made by a Treasury spokesperson yesterday to Forbes.com regarding the staggering $700 billion asked for by Treasury: “It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

I’m not sure about you, but to me that seems extremely callous and distasteful. If they were giving away their own money, I wouldn’t care in the least. But this is OUR money, entrusted to be used wisely.

So please treat this bailout with a bit of wisdom. Though you’re near the end of your career, America is watching very closely.

Oops — I almost forgot. You may also want to watch your words a bit. In your KSL interview, it reads: “He (Hatch) says it’s time Washington stopped the ‘pathetic’ partisanship and started hammering out the bailout plan.” This is followed by this statement: “He says the current financial crisis actually started in 1999 when President Bill Clinton pushed subprime mortgages for people who could not afford a house.”

You and I know the problem runs much deeper than that.

If you’re going to ask for a stop to the “pathetic” bipartisanship, please let it begin with you.

Good luck!

Mike Denison
South Jordan, UT

Been watching the banking bailout fiasco? Then you’ll love this…

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
–  Alexis de Tocqueville, circa 1835

May God help America!

You may also want to cross your fingers… every little bit helps!

After talking to the kids, I discovered that none of us slept very well. I think it’s a combination of not wanting to oversleep the alarm and the excitement to get home!

The packing was pretty much done last night, so we just had to get ready, slam some food down our throats, and take the shuttle to the airport.

Once we got through security and made it to our gate, we had about an hour to kill. And with our last 50 Euros, we decided to grab a few last souvenirs. Key chains, necklaces, book marks, candy, and water. Bye-bye harsh exchange rate! We were looking forward to getting back to the US and laughing at how inexpensive everything would seem.

Finally it was time to hop on the plane. We took up almost a whole row… it was three seats on each side of the aisle. Lucky Merrit was seated next to a VERY big guy. He was wedged into the window seat and slept almost the whole 7 hours to Newark. When I talked to him late in the flight, I found out he took two sleeping pills before he got on. Good strategy.

For me it was an easy flight. I listened to my MP3 player, did a few super hard sudoku puzzles, and finished a fairly tough crossword puzzle. (Still got the skillz.) Napped a little, too.

So after three long weeks of flying, riding the tube, walking, and driving… we were back in the USA! Luckily we weren’t on the TSA’s watch list, so we got through immigration and customs without any problems. Wahoo.

Now we only had to kill four hours until our last segment home. We bought some newspapers and magazines and plopped down for some quiet reading time. When I took a little stroll, I found what I knew would be the holy grail for us — a Mexican restaurant! So shortly before we boarded, we went in for dinner and had fajitas and burritos. Mmmmm….

Once we got on the plane, we remembered how the New York area airports are: they rush to leave the gate on time, but then you sit on the plane for an hour as it inches up the takeoff line. We were getting tired and grumpy and just wanted to get home… which is what happened 4-1/2 hours later.

Luckily, Super Breck was on hand to bring us home. So after almost exactly 24 hours since we woke up in our Dublin airport hotel, we were back home in South Jordan.

Don’t you love the feeling of sleeping in your own bed? We were all thrilled to be back, but equally thrilled at the incredible trip we were able to have together.

Hats off to the kids for not killing me and Angie. And hats off to Angie for not killing me. And hats off to me for surviving the four awesome women in my life! Thanks Angie… and Merrit… and Mallory… and Abigail — this was a great trip I’ll remember forever! I love you guys more than you know!