IT'S A (daddy-daughter) DATE!

Life is all about doing 'things and stuff' with the people you love. Tonight I went on a date with my daughter Samantha. We started off with dinner at SetteBello Pizzeria (260 South 200 West) in Salt Lake City. Excellent! They are VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana) certified, which simply means that the owner studied pizza making in Italy and it is pretty authentic! I had the Margherita pizza with pine nuts and a nice 'insalata'. Tasty! The service was great, the waiters informative and they kept my diet coke full! That is a very good thing.

After dinner we walked next door to Capo Gelateria for a little cup of dessert. I had a combination of raspberry and mango sorbet. Samantha of course had chocolate! It wasn't as good as the sorbet at the Bellagio in Vegas, but it was a good follow-up the the pizza. And reasonably priced!

Our tickets for the ballet were on row 'B' just slightly off center in the Capitol Theater. We must have had good ticket karma because we have never been lucky enough to get great seats like that for the Ballet. Sami felt like she was in heaven! We could see into the pit and we were close enough to see the dancers sweat! They were dancing 'Balanchine's America'. Serenade (Tchaikovsky) has been one of Samantha's favorite ballet's since she learned the choreography in summer intensive a couple of years ago. Kate Crews is one of Sami's favorite's and she was dancing the lead. They finished off the program with Stars and Stripes to the music of John Philip Sousa. It really was impressive! The final 'campaign', to Stars and Stripes Forever, was a very inspiring moment as a giant American flag rose behind the dancers. According to Samantha, this was the best program of the year. I would have to agree.

The point of all of this? Life is crazy. There is always something demanding our time and usually the 'THINGS' that get the attention is the 'STUFF' that is really not important in the long run. Taking some time to just hang out with family is the most important thing we can do. The older I get, the more I realize the importance of that concept.

Life IS all about things and stuff.... but things and stuff include people and that is the 'stuff' we really need to know.

Oh, local 'CELEB" spotting! Remember the Oxygen show "Dance Your Ass Off" from last year? You know, the show that mixed 'Dancing with the Stars' with 'The Biggest Loser'. Miles, the contestant from Salt Lake who has lost 90 pounds and looks great, was having dinner at SetteBello while we were there.