My First Baby Shower

Tomorrow at work will be a first ever experience for me... the first baby shower I've attended. My friend Mike and I came up with (what we hope will be) a great idea for a gift from both him and me. I'm not gonna post what the present actually is, just in case Kim happens to check my blog sometime tonight, but the packaging itself may provide clues!

Celebrate Independence Day 2009

Once again, Independence Day is upon us. A time for friends, food, and fireworks.. and food!

I've been wondering now for a few years why I continue to put myself through the irritation of planning a 4th of July event.. as most years it has resulted in countless disappointment and irritation. This year was looking to be no different. My friend Kristen and her husband weren't going to be able to come, and getting a committed yes or no from some of my other friends is starting to seem impossible now days.

Add to this, that our traditionally "friend only" event somehow picked up countless family members - parents and siblings - and you have a recipe for suckage of epic proportions.

Or.. at least that's how I thought it was going to turn out. I'm not sure what it is about me or if its something that happened in my childhood to cause this, but I've always been of the opinion that if family is involved, the event or get-together or whatever you want to call it is automatically going to suck. I have to be honest, at first I wasn't the least bit looking forward to spending the holiday this way... in-laws, my friends parents, my friends in-laws, the parents kids... I read this sentence and it sounds something akin to waterboarding to me.

However, I honestly ended up thoroughly enjoying myself... probably for the first time ever at something like this. I'm not sure if it was the combination of friends and family or maybe, just maybe, that I can in fact really have fun with my family once I let go of the "uggggh this is going to SUUUUUCK!" disposition.... Madness, I know.

Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and I guess in the end that's what this day is all about. Being able to get together with friends... and family... and celebrating our freedoms and what makes this country truly great.

Less text, more pics!

The little ones having a great time together


The barbecue hard at work! Delicious!


Kaleah's first Independence Day!


I can neither confirm, nor deny, that this was ours...
(but it was awesome)


Children love holidays even more when they're cracked out on sugar!


The "finale" fountain in progress
(yes, those are fountains stacked on top of each other)


The 4th Division of the Tank Army lies in wait, prepared to strike!


You know you've put on a good show when all that's left is
piles upon piles of burning firework remains.

Make the Smart Choice, Don't Drown...

Well as everyone knows, we've been getting a lot of rain here in Utah over the last week or two. Apparently that's a major issue for some people who love to drive their cars into giant 5 foot deep lakes of water.

As a public service announcement, I'd like to remind all of my fellow Utah drivers that cars do not float. You will sink. Sinking in water typically results in drowning. And drowning usually = death.

The National Weather Service and I, via the Severe Weather Alert service, would like to remind you to make the "smart choice"


Just say no to drowning!

Scenic Evanston, Wyoming

Today in preparation for the 4th, Jeff and I made a run to Evanston in hopes of procuring some good fireworks at a fair price. My store of choice was always Porter's, dating back many years into my youth. Porter's has since been converted into the TNT warehouse, so that was naturally the first stop.

Living in Utah, it really sucks trying to find fireworks. What little fireworks are sold here are not impressive, and usually very expensive to boot. One of the greatest things about the store was just how obscene the size of some of the packages were. I was really tempted to buy one of these, but previous run-in's with the county sheriff made me decide to not test my luck.


On the way back to the freeway we passed one of those adult novelty stores. Normally, this isn't really my thing and I just drive on by, however I couldn't help but laugh at the last item on the sign. I felt compelled to take a pic so that I had proof I wasn't just making this all up in my head.


Somehow I don't think "I swear honey, I was just getting my Pac Man on" would cover me from my wife's wrath...

The Blight

A few days ago I posted about our budding Garden of the Apocalypse.
Things have been going pretty well up until my first visit to the
Garden since the weekend.

The pictures I had last posted were of bounty and green flourishing life...
imagine my surprise to find the garden half dead in a matter of 6
days. The combination of high rainfall plus lack of sunshine have
produced the perfect storm for The Blight, better known as black spot
fungus. In nothing flat we now find ourselves fighting for our harvest.

Everything I've read about this fungus says it's really hard to get
rid of once it gets a foothold on the area. Hopefully we haven't
reached that point quite yet. A good trimming and ample amounts of
fungicide should help us get back on track tonight.

However, the dandelions seem undeterred by this new plague.......

Disaster Resolved

Well, several hours later my phone issues have finally been resolved.
Apparently Apple's servers were having a momentary meltdown which has
since been fixed. Unfortunately my review of the iPhone 3.0 will be
tainted by the lackluster update, but so far I'm really digging the
universal landscape mode and most of all, cut and paste across all
apps. Everything seems to run a lot faster as well which is awesome.

More lata!

Disaster!!

Ah yes, the glory of the iPhone update. Download, transfer the update to said iPhone, then as the final step all you have to do is authenticate your phone with Apple's servers.

Easier said than done, my friends. Now my happy little iPhone is reduced to a half pound paperweight, and AT&T has no idea how to fix it. Beware... BEEEEWARE the iPhone 3.0 update! The harbinger of sorrow and despair!

Russia's Pravda Socialism Story

A couple weeks ago I mentioned an article I'd read on Pravda
commenting on our country's quick slide into socialism. Here's the
link if anyones interested in the full article. It was really eye
opening for me:

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

Sent using iPhone mail!

Garden of the Apocalypse

Roughly two months ago I was listening to a segment on Glenn Beck's radio show about things to consider during the rough economic period we're in, as well as what would happen if things were to further collapse. During the course of the dialogue a really good point was made that, if things were to get really, really ugly, a lot of people would be completely lost. Imagine a world where you have no one to depend on except your family and friends: no stores, no Wal-mart, no mass-transport.

I found myself thinking that if that were to happen, I would be among the "screwed" segment of society.. lacking any basic knowledge of how to grow even the simplest of foods. I decided it made good sense to try and grow some food this summer, if for no other reason than it would help cut down on some food costs later on and provide valuable education in the process.

Thus, the Garden of the Apocalypse was born.

We're two months into the project, and despite an early setback from an untimely late April frost, things are now going fairly well.

Front to back, we have beans, radishes, carrots, and chard. We're also growing some rather large squash plants (no fruit yet) and taking an attempt at a watermelon which thus far has been a complete bust, but we're still early in the growing season for that.

In the other corner are our tomato plants which have been doing quite well. In the far corner we have what I have deemed the "Alpha Male" Beefmaster tomato plant which has grown to the point where its coming out of the top of the cage. Our garden is also sporting some rather large dandelion plants in the back... apparently MiracleGrow also feeds weeds as well.

The Alpha Male is sporting some rather hefty greens right now. Doing some research on Wiki today I learned that Beefmaster tomatoes can often times reach about one pound in weight... which I figure is roughly one can of salsa per tomato.

Email Formating is made of 100% Pure Lose!

A warning to anyone using email to post... Your messages will be
poorly formatted at best!

Sent using iPhone mail!

Back on the Wagon

Well I figured a six month break from the blog scene would be long
enough and that it's time to hop back on the blogging wagon. I've
decided to try out the mobile email blogging feature of the site and
see if that helps keep updates more regular, if not smaller.

I'm not really sure where to even begin with covering the last six
months. I've been watching my county quickly slide into a
nationalized, progressive wet dream and realizing that many people
don't have the time or energy to do anything about it.

I read an interesting article about a week and a half ago from the
Russian online news Pravda.ru (might be off on the name, will need to
dig up the article later) in which it talked about how America is
quickly descending into a socialist state, and how the average
American cares more about their favorite sports team or reality TV
show than about the decisions being made which with each passing day
are stripping more and more of our rights away. It mocked us for our
pride and that even when we're selling out our freedoms for money or
'security' we still have the audacity to mock other countries for
their lack of freedom. I'll have to find the article and post it
later... Was really kind of eye opening but at the same time sadly true.

In other areas things are going about as well as can be expected.
Seems like everyone I know is pregnant or having children right now
which is great for them and honestly makes me a little sad (for
reasons I shall not get into here) but it's still wonderful to see all
of my friends and coworkers experiencing it.

I'm going to finish with something that has really carried me through
the last five or six months of economic uncertainty. In these
uncertain times, be prepared to lose EVERYTHING. I don't mean this in
a doomsday sort of way. It's a mindset that if you mentally prepare
yourself with this in mind, it helps you realize what is really truly
important. It helps you think about ways you can become more self-
reliant. Give it a try and really think it through. You'll see it's
really a freeing concept.