Over a billion (in seconds) years old

So, my birthday was 2 weeks ago. I was curious as to how old I am. Here are some of the numbers, as of today and right now:

444 months old
1,932 weeks old
13,28 days old
324,688 hours old
19,481,317 minutes old
1,168,879,080 seconds old

And these numbers are now out of date as I continue to age. If you are curious, check it out here: http://www.mathcats.com/explore/age/calculator.html

Just me...and the boys

So, Brodi headed out of town this morning to New York City for a Writing Conference, tour of HarperCollins and hanging out with her agent. It actually should be a great trip. We haven't been to NYC since we lived in DC and we went up for a weekend. Lucky me, I get to hang out in the cold and snow of SLC. It was really foggy this morning and Carter went outside and said, 'Wow, it looks like heaven.' I almost told him that if heaven looked like this, I was going to order the doctors to put me on life support for hundreds of years.

So, with Brodi gone, it is party here at the house. I am still feasting on 3 boxes of PopTarts that Neighbor Dorien brought over...the Jefferies have already exclaimed how excited they are to hang out with me and even invited us over for slumber parties all week long...My neighbor Ann snowblowed our driveway, so I don't have to spend any unnecessary time shoveling my driveway. So, I am ready for fun. If fun is helping my boys do their homework, making sure that the house isn't too much of a disaster when Bro gets home, laundry, dishes, work, etc. Actually, I think we will have fun. Now, I just have to figure out how to get the strobe lights working for the all night dance parties that I have planned.

The passing of a sign

I don't know if you had heard, but it has been pretty big news here in our house. My zodiac sign has changed. WHATTTTTTT????? I have been a Capricorn all my life and I have never known a thing about what that meant. Sure, in college, I would introduce myself to all the ladies with lines like this: "hey hott! stuff, I'm a Capricorn. Whats your sign?" and I would watch the ladies melt but I was clueless on what it meant to have a different sign.

But times are a changin' and the signs have all been shook up. so, Sam is no longer a Capricorn (when I was a little kid, I thought it meant that I was like a unicorn). Now, I am a Sagittarius. And my world has been turned upside down. Ok, maybe not turned upside down since I still have no idea what it all means. Here are the new Zodiac dates for those dying to know if your sign has changed:

The New Dates:

Capricorn: Jan. 20 - Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18 - May 13
Taurus: May 13 - June 21
Gemini: June 21 - July 20
Cancer: July 20 - Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10 - Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16 - Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30 - Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23 - Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29 - Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17 - Jan. 20

I totally rocked my birthday this year

Yes, it was my birthday today. I was able to knock off some nice accomplishments for my birthday. Over the past two days, the following has happened:

• Brodi decided to stick with me in our marriage for at least another day.
• My boys gave me loads of hugs and thank you's for being a great dad (or a great Sam as they say)
• Had a fun day of playing at Sugarhouse Park with the boys in great weather.
• Had an awesome apple pie
• Had a fabulous cherry pie
• Had a stupendous birthday dinner
• Had another delicious birthday dinner (Brodi took us boys to In-n-Out)
• Received a unique Uncle Sam nutcracker
• Received an invaluable Wagamamas cookbook (too bad my sister still doesn't realize that I don't cook).
• Received a well deserved 12 pack of Tab cola from an anonymous neighbor. Thank you. It was like Christmas.
• Recevied an awesome little rice krispie treat from a neighbor
• Received an awesome bag of candy from another cool neighbor

I chalk up this birthday as a success. Yes, I am one year older...but older and sexier and wiser.

Books Reviewed

So, 2010 is done. I have included my list of favorite books, from favorite to least favorite in two categories - Fiction and NonFiction. I obviously read quite a bit more of the fiction...I should probably change that up this year. I will be updating the left hand of the blog with 2011 rankings of books that I have read, but that probably won't happen till early next week.

2010 Rankings Books (Fiction)

Everneath (Young Adult)

Girl who Played with Fire (Adult Mystery)

The Tourist (Adult Spy Thriller)

Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest (Adult Mystery)

The Lincoln Lawyer (Adult Thriller)

Mockingjay (YA Thriller)

The Kill Artist (Adult Thriller)

Catching Fire (Young Adult)

Girl with Dragon Tattoo (Adult Mystery)

The Nearest Exit (Adult Thriller)

Worth Dying for (Adult Thriller)

The Midnight House (Adult Thriller)

The Pyramid (Adult Mystery)

61 Hours (Adult Thriller)

Faceless Killers (Adult Mystery)

The English Assassin (Adult Thriller)

Paranormalcy (YA Thriller)

The Bricklayer (Adult Thriller)

The Fifth Angel (Adult Thriller)

Purple Heart (War Drama)

This is what I did (YA Drama)

When you Reach Me (YA Drama)

Cruel Intent (Adult Thriller)

The Shack (Religious drama)

The Fourth Order (Adult Thriller)

The Dying Hour (Adult Thriller)

I am not a Serial Killer (YA Thriller)

The Associate (Adult Thriller)

Daemon (Adult Thriller)

Watchman (Adult Spy Thriller)

Rat Run (Adult Thriller)

Wish you were Dead (Young Adult Thriller)

2010 Rankings Books (NonFiction)

Professor and the Madman (Creation of Oxford Dictionary)

Born To Run (Running and Science)

The Devil in the White City (World Fair and Murder)

Open (Andre Agassi biography)

His Essential Wisdom (Abraham Lincoln quotes/thoughts)

You cannot be Serious (John McEnroe autobiography)

The Knock on the Door (Armenian Genocide)

The Telephone Gambit (invention of telephone)

First, Break all the Rules (Business Management)

Letter to a Christian nation (religion discussion)

Tennis Confidential (tennis history)

Fiction Review

There were some great series out this past year or concluding this past year. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series was dark and disturbing and very good. The Hunger Games trilogy was fabulous. Rough subject matter but thoroughly entertaining. Henning Mankell's books on detective work and all of the minutia that they have to go thru to find the eventual killers were all top notch...a slow burn to great reads. 'The Tourist' is a spy mystery at its finest, but dense and a very flawed main character. John Grisham disappointed greatly with the Associate.

NonFiction Review

In terms of nonfiction, who would have thought a book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary would be so terrific? If you haven't read it, go to the bookstore or library and read it. Interesting and a page turner. If you love running or jogging or just an interesting tale, 'Born to Run' is also wonderful. I read 3 tennis books and the two autobiographies (Andre Agassi's 'Open' and John McEnroe's 'You Cannot be Serious' were both interesting for different reasons, but well worth a read to just see the unique lives of professional athletes.

If you have any suggestions on books to read next year, I would love to hear it. My new 2011 list will be up and running early next week and I am always looking for a good read.

Snowmen carnage

Beckham loves singing the song that goes, '1 little, 2 little, 3 little snowmen, 4 little...' But we have had to shield his eyes from the snowmen that were dying throughout our neighborhood. This is on my sister's front yard and it looks like a frakkin' snowmen massacre. Snowmen carnage all over the lawn as you can see with the pic on the left. The pic on the right is simpy the scariest snowman in the Salt Lake Valley. Beckham is probably forever scarred by it all.

Bests of 2010

I wanted to give a quick recap of some of the 'bests' that we have had this past year.


Best news of the Year
Brodi having her books purchased by HarperCollins (Balzar + Bray imprint). I have mentioned it before, but she sold a trilogy to HC. It comes out next Winter. And for those interested, she has also sold the rights to various publishing houses in the UK, Australia, Brazil, France and Germany with many more to come. It has been getting a huge buzz in the publishing and writers world, so it should be an exciting year coming up. You can read about how things are moving along for her at her blog, www.brodiashton.com


Best Milestones of the Year
Carter is now in 2nd grade. Crazy. He is now an expert math man. And he loves it. He also scored a couple of goals this Fall for his team and he is playing for the Impact Soccer Academy, which means he is playing about 5 hours of soccer a week. He also just turned 8 years ago.

Becks is still in Pre School. He is speaking more (he continues the long line of Johnson slow speaking boys) and that kid is happy 99% of the time. He scored his first soccer goal of his life and he promptly run over to the sidelines to give everyone a high-five (not that big of a deal considering that he runs to the sidelines to give everyone a high-five even if he just looked at the soccer ball).


Best Trip of the Year
We only took one major trip, but we went up to Seattle and the surrounding areas. I had never been in that area, so it was a good week trip of hiking, driving and seeing and doing things.


Best new restaurants that we had never gone to before
Red Iguana: I had heard about this place since high school and I had never made it down there. We went down with some friends and had a terrific meal (burritos, moles, etc.). I enjoy the Blue Iguana, but the Red was even better.

Katmandoo: New indian restaurant in Millcreek. This new restaurant is from the owners of the Himalayan Kitchen downtown. Terrific. The Butter Chicken, Lamb Tikka Massa and Vegetable Korma are all favorites.

Best TV shows of the Year

Fringe

: If you haven't seen it, then check yourself, and get watching it. It was a pretty good show its first season...a very good show in its second season...and genius in its third season. Well worth watching.

Boardwalk Empire: This is not a recommendation as this show can be naughty. But, it is on the 1920s in Atlantic City with gangsters, prohibition and other shenanigans.

Walking Dead: Zombies. Really not much more to say, but it is a terrific show on the remaining humans trying to figure out how to survive and trying to figure out if there are more humans out there hiding from the zombies.

Sons of Anarchy: Definitely rough and tumble about a motorcycle gang that are gun runners among other things. Highly entertaining.

Best Books of the Year:

It won't be out till next year, but Brodi's new book is tops. After that, I loved the Hunger Games series, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and anything by Daniel Silva. My rankings of all of the books is on the left side of the blog and I will be talking more about these books next week.

So, for now, that was a recap of 2011. Thanks for reading this past year.