My name is Sam

So, today, I decided to go to McDonalds for lunch (DON'T JUDGE ME!!). I decided to walk in and have a nice dining experience at the Golden Arches. I got to the counter and it was a nice looking girl in her mid 20s. She proceeded to smile and act very nice toward to me. Just a nice quick little conversation as I ordered my food.

Well, I finished my order and and then she asked me: 'So, whats your name?' I had to smile while thinking: holy crap, I am still one sexy metrosexual! Here I am a man in my 30s and I am getting hit on by a girl in her 20s. I began thinking that I could give her my name but if she asked for my number, well, I would politely refusethat would probably not go over well with Brodi. So, I told her "My name is Sam" feeling proud for two seconds...and then it happened, I heard another McDonald's cashier yell out: Steve, your order is ready!

Yeah, I put my head down in shame as I realized that this must be McDonalds new thing of making it more comfortable--calling us by our first names when giving us our food. Well, I changed my order to be a 'To Go' and I silently walked back to my car wondering where all my metrosexiness had gone. Don't feel too bad for me though, I drowned myself in fries and apple turnovers.

I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me

Its the beginning of the week and everyone needs a little something extra to go out and get 'em.

Home

Well, we are back from the trip to Pakistan. It was a great trip and I enjoyed having Brodi with me. I was able to get a lot of good work done and Brodi was able to see more of the country, go shopping and just have fun. Usually my days over there are spent working and hanging out in the hotel...with Brodi there, we went and saw things which was a pleasure.

Brodi's website covers the adventures much better than what I could do, so please see her site: Brodi's site I will go over the other things besides our actual stay there.

Singapore Airlines is fabulous. You had your own personal selection of about 75 movies (American, Bollywood, Asian, etc.), tv programming from the US and England, music from all over the world. It was terrific. They also had some funky and pretty good airline food (noodles, chicken, ice cream, home made rolls, etc.) as well. The flight attendants were very good as well and had the coolest outfits that I have seen for any stewardess. I am still a huge fan of Emirates Airlines, but Singapore is hard to beat.




Singapore Airport is a very cool airport. They had lots of garden sections throughout the airport as well as some good food (lots of noodle stores as well as Subway, etc.) and some very high end stores (Ferrari, Gucci, etc.). They had an awesome butterfly section where you walked around gardens with butterflies all around you.






Other favorites included Coke Lite. If you are a fan of Diet Coke, you may just have your head explode in delight when you have a Coca Cola Lite. We fell in love with it while we lived in Europe and this is the offering on airlines and in many restaurants oversees. It was good to have it again. Also, the bluntness of ads is refreshing. Where in America, a cigarette carton will say things like 'dangerous for your health' or could cause 'pregnancy complications', this ad was direct: Smoking Kills.



It was a great trip. And, its great to be home. As a bonus--our kids remembered us. And I want to thank my family and Brodi's family for taking care of our kids. Our boys loved spending time with you all. Thank you so much.

36 hours of airplanes/airports and wham! you are there

So, I am off again for Pakistan. It should be a good trip and there is a lot to do. Cool thing about it all though? Brodi is coming with me. She will fit in perfectly with her long blond hair. This will be a good trip...a lot of work, but it will be fun to have Brodi tag along. I usually fly thru NYC to Dubai to Pakistan...but this trip, we are going the other direction: thru San Francisco to Shanghai to Pakistan. Good times.

The boys will be fine. We have left them a bunch of food around the house and we inflate their bicycle tires so that they can ride to school. Actually, they will be in heaven as they get to spend time bouncing around to all of their uncles and aunts...and spending time with their grandparents. We have spent a night or two away from them in the past, but never a trip like this without one of us being at home with them. That stinks. But, they will have a blast being with family and friends nonstop.

I will be updating the blog while we are gone...though it may be a bit sporadic. I'm sure that this is heartbreaking news to you all.

How many falls does it take to make a news anchor laugh?

We always enjoyed catching the evening news while living in DC. You had various stories about murders and mayhem, but the news area was huge because it covered NoVirginia, Maryland and Washington DC. The NBC affiliate was led by Jim Vance, who I believe has been at the station for over 30 years.

This video always cracks me up as the normally unflappable Vance absolutely loses it when watching a clip that they are playing. George Michael is the sports anchor who also can't stop laughing. Anyway, just thought it was funny:

Carter and Becks and their latest going ons...

Beckham has expanded his eating options. He is a true food connesieur. He now will eat Graham crackers. Carter is not that picky of an eater...he has certain foods that he really likes but he can pretty much eat anything. Beckham on the other hand does not. He has his core breakfast foods (scrambled eggs, cereal or bread), lunch (soup or nuggets) and dinner (spaghetti, fries or nuggets. ) and snacks (graham crackers, donuts, fruit roll ups, apple sauce). We are still working on any kind of nutritious food.

Carter had a great line this weekend. I told him that he needed to eat his food. He then proceeded to tell me: 'Daddy, you are not the boss of the food...You are the boss of the Answers.' I confirmed to him that yes, I am the boss of the answers.


Beckham has a bully in his pre-school class. Well, Brodi picked him up today from his school and was talking to the teacher. All of a sudden, Beckham breaks into a blood curling scream. Before Brodi could say anything, the teacher laughed and told Brodi that whenever the bully in the class goes near Beckham and is about to either push him or steal something from him, Beckham will just let out a HUGE scream. The bully then quickly retreats. The teacher says that she loves it and it has helped stop this boy from picking on kids in the class. He now leaves Beckham alone. Yes, we are proud of Beckham and his vocal chords.


Carter has a good friend and Brodi was talking to this friends' mother...the mother told Brodi that her son explained today that he needed to go over to Carter's house because as he says 'Mommy, I am Carter deprived.' Yeah, just for a line like that, he can come over to our house whenever he wants.

There are few things that make Beckham angrier than a little sun in his eyes while driving in the car. If Beckham had a knife, he would stab the sun while yelling in anger at it. Seriously, the sun in his eye is as if someone has lit his feet on fire--he just yells at us to turn out the sun.

Tennis and a star sighting

If you have never been a college tennis match, you need to go. Very entertaining. Brodi and I bring the boys to go and watch the mens Utes tennis team. We have gone to about 5 match ups this year. Over the weekend, they played and beat BYU. It was rowdier than a basketball game. The crowd erupting after each and every point. Carter would occasionally scream out: 'Go Utes!' as he played with his DS while watching some of the points. It is quite the atmosphere. Alas, no male or female cheerleaders and no band. That would be awesome if they did though.


I went to play tennis with my friend Brandon early this week around 6:30am up at the U. We both are trying to figure out why we wake up once or twice a week to go and play tennis early in the morning. But, it paid off this Friday. I get out of my car and the guy that parked next to me did as well. It was Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham. So, I struck up a conversation. I am sure he was thrilled. I thanked him for the great year and asked how he was feeling about the upcoming year (he likes the team a lot and thinks some of the new guys will surprise). I asked him about the construction that was going on with the workout facilities (they are adding a second floor as well as expanding the main floor). He was very cool and pretty talkative. It ended with me giving a big hug. Ok, kidding about the hug but I did wish him the best. I should have told him that we should be bffs. But the timing wasn't right.

Penguins love to Fly thru Spaghetti Fields

A couple of videos to enjoy on April 1st.

This was a BBC video that talked about how the weather had been so good that Switzerland had a fabulous spaghetti crop. The video and articles on it prompted hundreds and thousands of people to call in asking to learn more about how to grow spaghetti



The BBC does it again, this time with their story on the migrating penguins. Just not the walking kind...these penguins fly. My favorite is the ned where all of the penguins are dropping from the sky in the rainforest: