The Quad

I am all about Style

2012-02-15T11:20:00.004-07:00

I had to go to an auto store this past weekend to pick things up for the car. I found a couple of 'hot' accessories for my car. How awesome would this be to put on my car. Cool sticker emblems of a heavenly/devilish girl...as well as 'Bling Dice' to hang from my rear view mirror. Everyone knows that dice hanging is pretty much awesome, but these dice also light up. Yep, State street here I come! I know Brodi, as well as all of the ladies in my neighborhood, will be very impressed.

Repairs? Yeah, I can fix that (by calling someone)

2012-02-10T11:07:00.003-07:00

We had a couple of things going on around our house this past week or two. Our washing machine decided to stop spinning. I feared the worst, but the appliance guy came out and fixed it. For about $100. The cool thing was watching him take it apart. Yes, I am no mastermind when it comes to being super handy, but I love watching things get done. He just pulled off the cover of our washing machine and went to work on it. Here is our washing machine, shell less.

We also had a clogged main drain line. We have some large trees in our front yard so we thought it was a root problem. Nope, just a clog down the line. We cut out a hole in our wall to get to the clean out pipe and we snaked it clean. Yay for us.

The point of this post? Really no point...except I got to see handy men in action.

I promise, he is not sick - he just pukes

2012-02-07T10:55:00.002-07:00

So, Saturday was a crazy day. We started it off by going to Costco to pick up things (such as 40 rolls of toilet paper, 20 rolls of paper towels, 4 ginormous containers of mayonnaise...I love Costco, and I am thankful to live in a house to find places to store all that stuff), then to the grocery store, then off to Brodi's book signing at Barnes and Noble, then up to the University of Utah to watch the basketball team lose again.

The problem with all of this driving is that we have a kid that gets car sick. Pretty much any big trip to California, Jackson Hole, Oregon, etc. usually involves one or two pukings from Beckham. Well, this Saturday, we had lots of stops and gos and Becks finally gave up. On our way to the Ute game, he tells me 'I'm pukey daddy, I'm pukey.' I pulled over on the freeway and he let it all out. Now, usually after he pukes, he is fine and back at it and Saturday, he seemed fine. We drove to the game and took our regular seats. Halfway thru the game though, he curled up in my arms and just laid down on me. He then got up and puked. Yes, at the game. I finally got him to the car where he was still sick and we got him home. After a few hours, he was fine...but I don't think I will win any father of the year awards or fan of the year awards after all of that.

Give me your coins...and I will give you some coins back

2012-02-02T15:55:00.003-07:00

I went the bank the other day to cash a check. Carter came with me. He had 15 cents in his pocket and he was just walking around the bank. Well, he found one of those coin deposit machines. So, he deposited the two coins he had into the machine and it gave him a receipt for 15 cents. He looks at me and asks 'What do I do with that?' I told him that we could take it to the teller and give it to her and she would give us 2 coins back. He looked confused and said 'Well, thats kind of dumb.' Yeah, not much I could say to that except that next time he uses the coin deposit machine, we should use more coins.

Everneath comes out Tuesday

2012-01-23T08:54:00.005-07:00

Brodi's book comes out on Tuesday.

I still remember years ago when Brodi talked about writing a book. I thought it was a great idea. She has always been a great writer (journalism side). I had no idea about the whole process, but I was excited for her to go for it. It has been a long and interesting road. You can read all about the journey HERE

I could go on for pages about it all, but I will keep it short and simple. I am so proud of her. It was difficult. She kept going. She got rejections. She kept going. She felt like giving up at times. She kept going. And now it is out. Now, she has her book coming out. The first of three. And it is being published in many different languages and countries (U.S., Canada, England, Australia, Germany, France, Russia, Poland, Turkey, Brazil, etc.)

Her book has gotten great buzz and I have included a few links to some of the reviews, if you want to read about it.

Fiktshun (A Popular fiction book review site): Everneath review
The Salt Lake Desert News (local newspaper): Everneath is an enthralling trip to the Underworld

You can purchase it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and pretty much any other book store. She will have her book launch from The Kings English on Tuesday at 7pm. Yay Brodi, you totally rock and I am excited to join you on this journey.

All by ourselves

2012-01-13T16:57:00.003-07:00

Brodi and I went to a later afternoon movie the other day. This is how you enjoy a movie. Nobody there. This was right at the start of the previews. Totally empty. During the movie, I could yell. We could talk to each other. I could look at my phone. I could get up and dance a little jig. A whole movie theater to ourselves.

Tab me Up!

2012-01-06T09:07:00.005-07:00

Ok, I will admit it...I love Tab. Yes, I talk about it quite a bit on my blog. But I could drink this drink just about at anytime and anywhere. The other day, I was looking around on Ebay and you won't guess what I found (actually, you could probably guess based on the picture to the right) but I found Tab glasses. Not just any Tab glasses, but original hourglass figure Tab glasses. From 30+ years ago. In its original boxing and never used. So, at night, I can sit on my couch in style with Tab cola and Tab glasses. You are welcome to come over anytime and help yourself.

Becks turns 6

2012-01-03T18:16:00.008-07:00

Beckham is now 6 years old. Crazy. It is nuts that Carter is now 9 and Becks is following right after him. He graduated from pre-school last year (his graduation photo still makes me laugh) and this year he is enjoying Kindergarten this year. He goes to morning kindergarten and an afternoon class...and his friends and classmates sung to him at both places. He was thrilled. He even got a stylish hat that he wore all day long.

He is a great kid. If you have met Becks, you probably love him. He is our happy little boy. He is our quiet little boy. He is a boy of few words. He loves going to school. He loves coming home and sitting at his own desk so that he can do math equations and puzzles. If he had scissors, tape, glue, paper and markers...he could be entertained for hours. If he is not doing art and crafts, he loves to ride his scooter, play with the hose, play video games, kick the soccer ball around, watch Spongebob or jumping on the trampoline. He also loves to climb in our bed in the morning to hang out and wake us up.

I can't believe how fast time goes. I love it and I hate it. But I am enjoying the time to see this little kid turn in to a big boy. Happy Birthday Becks!

Carter is 9. Egads.

2011-12-16T12:12:00.005-07:00

It is Carter's 9th birthday today. I can't believe it. I can't believe how much has changed since he was born. He is a great kid. Whether he is skiing, playing video games, soccer games, basketball games, running everywhere and anywhere, working on his math facts, etc...he does it with a gusto. He is just a good kid. He wants to be friends with anyone...whether the other kid is a boy or girl, 5 years old or 9 years old, it doesn't matter - you just need to be a kid that wants to have fun and he is happy.

I love listening to him talk to his brother and friends. Recent conversations include:
To his younger brother Becks: 'Did you know that 95% of kids don't eat enough whole grain?' Yeah, I bet you all didn't know that unless you happen to read the back of cereal boxes.

He was talking with Friend Z and both were trying to figure out what a Check was. You know, a check that you pay people with. They couldn't decide if it was money or just paper that you would give to someone to let them know how much you thought something was worth...but they couldn't really do anything with that paper. They were both very confused, yet discussed it with each other for 10 minutes.

He was running around the block several times this past week. He came running inside and was 'working out' by running around, doing pushups and jumping jacks, etc. He informed me that girls like boys that are 'super fit.' He then told me that yes, he was in fact, super fit.

So, he got to pick out what to do today. Breakfast at McDonalds...Donuts at school...an afternoon of skiing up at Brighton...dinner at Chuck A Rama (his choice) or hopefully, a Wings place (my choice!) and then finally a Utes basketball game. Yep, he likes to party all day long.

Carter - you are a great little buddy. I can't wait to see what you do with your life.

Free glass and crummy spelling

2011-11-29T09:27:00.008-07:00

So, being the terrific dad that I am, I took the boys to McDonalds last night. They have a deal where you can get a free glass Diet Coke glass if you buy a meal. Who could pass up such a great deal? I got the meal and the free drinking glass. Carter then enthusiastically proclaimed, 'All we need are 3 more glasses and our lives will be complete.' Yep, 4 Diet Coke glasses = life fulfilled.

And I saw this on the news the other night. The injustice done to reporter Marcos Ortiz was immense with this story. First they spelled his first name wrong and spelled it: 'Marocs'...yeah, thats not his name. And second, under his name it says 'Bound and Beaten.' Yeah, this was not the tv editor's finest hour.

soccer season

2011-11-21T08:54:00.005-07:00

Carter finished up his Fall soccer season a few weeks ago. He plays with his Impact Academy team so they are forced to play up a year in age level, so his team of 3rd graders are playing 4th graders. They finished the season at 4-3-1. They lost two of their games by 1 goal. The boys they are playing are bigger and faster, so it has been fun to see how his team adjusts for that. Carter played defense for most of the year and he likes it because he gets to protect his goalie. I need to learn how to not care so much...egads, I am not a yeller, but I will walk up and down that sideline about 200 times during a game.

He is playing on the Academy winter team which means indoor practices twice a week and games on Saturdays. We are trying to figure out how he can fit in everything this winter with soccer, basketball and skiing. Oh to be a kid again where your worries are how to fit in so much fun all the time.

11.11.11.11:11

2011-11-11T11:11:00.002-07:00

Today is: 11/11/11. And I posted it at 11:11.

Egads, I am a dork.

Cool Awesome Hair, just like a Vampire

2011-10-25T16:54:00.005-06:00

I have never quite known what to do with my hair. It has stayed the same for 30 years. But I found the answer that I have been seeking...hair like Edward. Edward the Sparkling Vampire. What is even stranger about this all, I saw this Hair Straightener at Best Buy. Yes, while looking for a camera, I found a Hair Straightener. Let me just say - Brodi is going to struggle to keep her hands off of me when I show off my new 'do.

Egads, Bees on the Loose

2011-10-24T10:51:00.005-06:00

Few things scare me. Few things make me nervous. Except for Bees. For whatever reason, I see a bee come close to me and I will run away screaming like a little school girl. I was stung a lot growing up. Yes, the bee stings are relatively painful...but nowhere near painful enough to cause the reaction that I give when I see a bee come remotely close to me. I can't explain it, but a tiny little yellow bee scares me more than a zombie would if it was chasing me.

So, when I see that a semi truck hauling an estimated 25 million (yes, 25 MILLION!!!) bees overturns down near St. George, I break out in a cold sweat. Here is the terrifing article: KSL It is safe to see that I will not be traveling down south anytime soon. Seriously, 25 million bees? I bet half of them are killer bees. Not many escaped, but poor residents of St. George.

Burial, in pictures

2011-10-18T16:03:00.002-06:00

Brodi put up a great post on her blog on my Uncle Glendon's burial. So, I thought I would include a link to her post. I love the pictures from that day: Brodi's blog

Uncle Glendon Johnson

2011-10-11T21:59:00.002-06:00

My Uncle Glendon passed away this weekend. He was my dad's brother and he was 87 years old. He has been in fabulous shape all of his life until the past year or so when he had a stroke, which slowed him down a bit but about 3 weeks ago, he started getting really sick. But, it has been a great few weeks as we have been able to spend some time with him and talking with him. He had many visitors over the past couple of weeks (President Monson, Elder Nelson and others) and he would always become animated and excited to see more of his friends and family who he could talk to...it was great seeing him with my dad and his sister just talking and being there for him.

I thought over my life and Glendon played a large role in it. I started mowing his lawn and taking care of his house since I was a teenager He supported me on my mission. I got to drive his Porsche, Lancia, BMW and other cars over the years. Brodi and I had our wedding dinner at his house. We spent many holidays swimming at his pool. We spent every Thanksgiving down at his ranch for the past 15 years. Several Sundays every month, our boys got to go down to his house and drop off food with their cousins and say Hi. He truly lived a great life and will be loved and missed by all of those that have ever met him.

Glendon Johnson

Glendon Elwood Johnson
1924 ~ 2011
Glendon Elwood Johnson, 87, beloved husband, father, and grandfather, as well as noted attorney, businessman, rancher, and friend of all who knew him, passed away October 9, 2011, in Salt Lake City, Utah, surrounded by his family. He was born in Cleveland, Utah, on Feb. 19, 1924, to Ivan and Hildur Johnson.

Throughout his stellar career, people always came first, and those who were fortunate to know him in business and civic service, in church callings, or on a ranch, soon felt the embrace of a man who showed them in word and deed how much he loved them. His leadership style was to choose the best people and then give them a loose rein to do what they did best. He used to tell friends that he grew up on the back of a horse and never sold his saddle-his way of saying that despite his successes, he never left his cowboy roots behind.

Glendon attended East High School where he was editor of the school newspaper and valedictorian at his graduation in 1941. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS degree in 1948 from the University of Utah, where he was on the championship debate team and a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. In 1973, the university awarded him their Distinguished Alumnus Award.

In World War II, Glendon attended Army Officer Candidate School and taught small arms combat before being stationed in Europe. He served a church mission to New England, and upon his return, married his college sweetheart, Bobette Heppler Peterson, in the Salt Lake Temple on Aug. 15, 1949.

Glendon attended Harvard Law School on the National Prize scholardship and, following graduation in 1952, Glendon clerked for Henri Henroid of the Utah Supreme Court. In his spare time, he helped his father break horses.

In 1954, Senator Wallace Bennett asked Glendon to come to Washington, D.C. to be his Administrative Assistant. For the next four years, Glendon worked on Capitol Hill.
In 1958, Glendon moved the family back to Salt Lake City where he joined the law firm of Ray, Rollins, Jones, and Henderson. But a year later, he returned to Washington to become vice president and general counsel of the American Life Convention of Washington D.C. This began a respected and trailblazing career in the life insurance industry that included serving as President of Great Southern Life Insurance Company in Houston, Texas; President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of American National Insurance Company in Galveston, Texas; and President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of John Alden Life Insurance Company in Miami, Florida.
Glendon has also been President of the Health Insurance Association of America and the chairman of the Joint Committee on Social Responsibility for the Life Insurance Business. He served as Director of Waddell Reed Advisors Retirement Shares, Inc. since 1971 and was Chairman Emeritus of the Wellness Council of America.

Throughout his long career, Johnson received numerous awards for his leadership and public service. A member of the national executive board of the Boy Scouts of America, Johnson was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award, scouting's highest commendation for distinguished service to youth.

In his later years, Glendon continued his life-long love of the range as Chairman of Castle Valley Ranches, a working cattle ranch, and Castle Valley Outdoors, a hunting, wingshooting, and fishing operation in Emery, Utah.

Johnson was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and among his many church callings, he served as Stake President of the Houston Texas Stake and as a Regional Representative.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Bobette Johnson; son Glendon E. "Woody" Johnson, Jr.; daughter-in-law Page; grandchildren Jennifer Champoux (Mark); Erin Stewart (Kyle); Katie Critchfield (Matt); great-grandchildren Justin and Brooke Champoux, Ellie and Avery Stewart; sisters Joyce Taylor and Genevieve Knudsen Gowans; brothers Marvin Johnson and Franklin Johnson; and numerous loving nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his son, Eric "Shad" Johnson and his daughter, Tawny Bobette Johnson; his sister LaVerne Briggs, and brother Clifton Johnson.

Funeral services will be at noon, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, Monument Park 16th Ward Chapel, 1320 South Wasatch Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah. Friends may visit the family at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, situated near the chapel at 2350 East 1300 South, Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. They may also visit Thursday at the chapel from 10:30 to 11:40 a.m. Interment will be Friday at the Johnson Ranch in Sevier County, Utah.

Condolences may be shared at www.larkincares.com. Donations can be made in Glendon's memory to the Boy Scouts of America at www.scouting.org.

Random Tuesday

2011-10-04T09:08:00.004-06:00

A couple of random things: On Sundays at church, I get to help out in the nursery with all of the little kids. As a result, I get to play with the Legos. This is what I built. I wanted to take it all the way to the ceiling, but the little troublemakers busted it up. I do have to say - my Lego building skills are nearly as good as Carter's skills.

Brodi and I went out to a restaurant and this was the ridiculous scene I came upon in the restroom. Seriously? The handles on the sink were less than an inch big. I need to have hands like a 5-year old to be able to turn on the water. I get style. This wasn't it.

Fall has arrived. I guess it means that I can no longer walk shirtless around the neighborhood. It also means some cold Saturday morning soccer games. Time just seems to go too fast sometimes.

Long Hauled in Vegas (and thats not naughty talk)

2011-09-28T09:59:00.009-06:00

So Brodi and I went down to Las Vegas and partied for a few days celebrating that she has finished the initial draft of her second book of the Everneath series. We stayed at the Wynn Resort on the strip. It is a great place...I looked into it and realized how insane money spending is at times. It cost almost $3 billion to build it. Are you frakkin' kidding me? But when you have a golf course, 1600 seat arena, huge casino, two hotels with 60 stories (We got to stay on the 58th floor), but sheesh...that is oodles of money.

We spent the couple of days hanging out at the pool, winning huge on the nickel slots (hello, we raked in $6...that is not a typo, $6...its like the Wynn casino paid us to stay here with winnings like that), seeing Le Reve production which was pretty amazing with dancing, acrobatics, etc., and a fabulous albeit too expensive steak dinner, along with lots of other side things like visiting a Tab-less CokeWorld. It was a nice relaxing trip.

When we arrived in Vegas, we took a taxi to our hotel. I hadn't flown in to Vegas in years, since I worked for the government. I couldn't remember how much it cost. Well, it was $38 and it seemed to take a lot longer than I remembered. We then took a taxi on our way home and we we took a whole new way to the airport. I was a bit confused at first, but Brodi caught on...we got to the airport and it cost us $14. I asked our taxi driver why it was so much cheaper and he explained that we must have been 'long hauled.' Driven further to get extra money. Nice. It is illegal in Vegas though. I called American Express and explained it to them...they filed their claim and it was settled and I got my money back. Yay for us. Boo for us though to have it happen in the first place.

She left the country

2011-09-26T10:01:00.002-06:00

I got this text from Brodi last week: "I'm in Zimbabwe." I was a bit surprised because I had just seen her a few hours earlier. I had gone in to get some dental work (thank you Dr. Dan) and when I came out, I noticed that text. Good thing she clarified though and said she meant 'Zumba.' You gotta love autocorrect. I have to say though, I will be wondering next time I get a text where she says that she is at Zumba if she actually means Zimbabwe.

Butter on a Stick. Sign me up!

2011-09-20T09:46:00.003-06:00

You may have seen the stories on this...but the Iowa State fair is offering a tasty treat for everyone. Fried Butter on a stick. Yes, you read that right. Fried Butter on a stick.

You can youtube a video of how they do it, but basically they stick a cube of butter on a stick. Dip into a honey and cinnamon batter and then deep fry it for 3 minutes. The butter pretty much melts into the batter. So you are eating a donut or a scone with a cube of butter melted inside. That could be yours for $4. Or make it at home. Its a party. And it probably only has around 1,000+ calories and nearly 100 grams of fat. It takes quite a treat to make my poptarts look healthy.

World of Coca Cola - WHERE IS MY TAB?

2011-09-12T09:40:00.008-06:00

Brodi and I spent a few days (partying it up like it was 1989) in Las Vegas last week. I will post more on the trip later, but I had to talk a bit about our trip to Coca Cola World down there on the Strip.

You walk in this store on the Strip, and it is Coke products everywhere you look. Diet Coke, Coca Cola, etc. I went to a worker and asked him about Tab. He then takes me across the store to a guy and says, Here he is. I then explain to this other Coca Cola worker that I am looking for Tab. He gives me a confused look and says 'I'm Tab.' I was ready to start saying 'Whose on first?' I then clarified that I was looking for Tab cola products. He informs me that they do not have any Tab products (shirts, glasses, etc.) but I can find some online. WHAT? I am at the world famous Coca Cola store and Tab is one of their products and they don't sell any of that stuff in the store. He did say though that I could probably find a bunch of stuff on Ebay. Thanks for that insight, genius.

Brodi and I did try out the Tastes from Around the World. Basically, they fill 16 cups full of Coca Cola's different products from every where (Peru, Mexico, England, China, etc.). We happily tried a bunch. But it nearly killed me. We tried the drink called 'Beverly' from Italy. Egads...truly a horrific experience. It was like liquified black licorice dipped in coffee blends and black tar added to sweeten it. Wowzers it was brutal.

We also went to the huge M&M store right next door. Yes, its chocolate...but not the same awesomeness of Coca Cola World. We did, however, get a bunch of coconut m&m's handed to us about every 10 steps.

So, it begins

2011-09-09T09:18:00.003-06:00

It is time for the obligatory 1st day of school pictures. Carter has now started the 3rd grade and Becks has started Kindergarten. Absolutely crazy. It really just seems like yesterday, I was taking them down to a little park to crawl around and play.

Now, they are gone all day. Sheesh.

Hello Mr. World Peace

2011-08-30T08:55:00.003-06:00

Ron Artest is a basketball player. He is an interesting guy, to say the least. Well, you may have heard - he wants to change his name. Good for him. So, what will he change it to: Brad Jones? Jamal Jones? Byron Anderson? Nope, that would be too unlike Ron Artest. He wants to change it to: Metta World Peace. Yes, Metta World Peace. I hope that his lawyer hurries and gets it done as he was just announced as part of the cast in the upcoming Dancing with the Stars. I want to hear them announce him, 'Metta World Peace will be performing the Cha Cha.'

I'll take 2 pins with that broken arm

2011-08-28T15:49:00.005-06:00

Carter broke his arm a couple of weeks ago. He was playing on the monkey bar glider...the little thing you hold on to and you 'slide' across to the other side. Well, it hit the other side and Carter let go and flipped a bit and landed on his arm and broke it right above the elbow. Brodi knew it was broken right away. I was a bit more dense and it took a bit of convincing. We took a quick trip to InstaCare and they x-rayed it and gave us the bad news and sent us up to Primary Childrens for the night. Carter had surgery the next morning.

He now has two good looking pins in his arm to help with the healing process. He plays for Impact Academy, so he has had to miss some practices (they have practice twice a week, for 1.5 hours each practice), but he wasn't going to miss his first game. We had to bubble wrap his arm up to protect the other team from getting hurt by his cast...Carter had a good laugh at that, 'I'm the one with the broken arm and they are worried about getting hurt?' He gets his cast off in a couple of weeks.

Guest blog post

2011-08-24T11:32:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone. I just did a post on Brodi's blog. I can't do two blogs in one day, so you are welcome to head over there. Brodi's blog readers posed some questions and I got to answer those questions: Brodi's blog

Utah Site: Salt Lake City Library

2011-08-15T13:40:00.009-06:00

This is another post on things to do in Salt Lake City. You can see our other visits by going here: http://samandbrodi.blogspot.com/search/label/Tourist

I used to work downtown, right across from the Salt Lake City library until we moved on to the East bench last summer. Brodi and the boys would often join me down there after work to hang out at the library. It is a great library and for those of you who were/are fans of Archie Comics, they actually did a comic book storyline on the library. So, for all of those preteens and teenagers of Archie comics, our library is famous.

The boys and I headed down to the library a couple of weeks ago. We try to get down there a few times every summer. The cool part of the library is that there are a ton of things to do just outside. There are several water features spread throughout the side and back of the library as well as bridges, benches and lots of open space to just hang out and read or relax.

Inside, the architecture is very cool. The basement is where all of the kids books are and they have big rooms where kids can hang out and play around in while they read. There are also computers set up in the basement to play computer games or reading games, etc. It is a great setup.

You can roam around the top of the library and get sprawling views of the entire city. You can also head down the big stairs on the outside and continue to get the great views.

If you have a few hours and you haven't been down there with your kids, do it...it is worth a few hours.

Rain and sexiness

2011-08-11T10:31:00.005-06:00

The rainstorms last week caused flooding throughout the valley. I was down at the SportsMall and the parking lot was a lake. Carter decided to go out in it and play around. It all ended up flooding the indoor basketball courts and racketball courts. But at least Carter had fun swimming in the parking lot.

If you ever thought of buying HUGE eyelashes to put on the front lights of your car, don't do it. I haven't decided if it is the stupidest thing that I have ever seen or if it is actually kinda funny. Still, don't do it.

My brother got this shirt for his birthday, '40 isn't usually this sexy.' Yeah, thats pretty awesome. I will be on the lookout for this shirt when I get to that age. So very stylish.

Don't bother me this weekend, I am eating

2011-08-04T09:41:00.003-06:00

You all know I love PopTarts. And lets be honest, who doesn't love poptarts? But I have decided to stay away from them for a while. You can't eat just one...one becomes two and two becomes three and three becomes puking in the sink because you jammed waaayyy too many of them down your throat. So, I haven't had bought any for months.

Brodi goes out of town to a big writers conference in LA. I opened up the newspaper ads and saw this staring at me. A 12 pack of poptarts, which are normally around $3.50 (they are kind of on sale now for only $2.50), are now only $1.50. But I have to buy 10 of them. 120 poptarts. Brodi is gone for about 5 days. That means that I will have to eat 24 a day and there will be no evidence that I ever had those 'tarts. Well, except for me being terribly bloated, sick and 'high' on sugar. But it would be worth it. WON'T IT???????

Drink Party

2011-07-31T17:02:00.002-06:00

We spent last weekend up in Midway and visited the 'famous' Dairy Keen little food joint. They had a fountain machine, for the 21st century! It is cool because there are basically countless options of drinks. You get the standards - pepsi, coke, fanta, etc...but when you click on individual drinks you are given further options to add Vanilla, Lime, Lemon, Raspberry, etc. I think I tried 10 different comboniations. Worst idea? Diet Coke with Orange twist. Egads, what was I thinking. I will say though that I fell in love the Vanilla Root Beer.

Now, I just have to figure out how to buy one of those bad boy machines for our house.

Utah site: Red Butte Hike

2011-07-28T11:00:00.006-06:00

Every July 24th, my family does the Alta to Brighton Hike with all of the kids. But with the amount of snow this year, our pathway was going to be blocked by snow...so we improvised and we hiked Red Butte right in the Foothills. This hike is right above the University of Utah and gives you some pretty fabulous views over the whole valley. We also had a pretty good crew of about 20 of us trudging along the trail

About a month ago, there was a fire that went up through the hills. You could still see the scarred mountainside, but it was pretty cool to see how fast the green was coming back. Probably next year, the hill will be well on its way to looking just fine.

He needs to get NBA ready

2011-07-19T16:36:00.009-06:00

Carter likes basketball. He likes to dribble the basketball. When he was 6 years old, he would dribble around our house and he dribbled it 1100 times in a row without messing up. Well, he is now midway through his second straight basketball camp. Last week, he attended the Advantage Basketball camp down at Thanksgiving Point. 9am till 5pm every day. He was one of the younger kids in it (8 years old to 17 years old) but he held his own. He liked it even though it nearly killed him every day. They did have a motivational speaker one of the days and Carter told me, 'It was so boring.' I asked what the speaker said and Carter replied, 'It was just blah, blah blah blah and blah.' Glad he got something out of that.

This week he is at the University of Utah basketball camp. First day at the Huntsman Center, we ran into the new Utah head coach, Larry Krystkoviak (Coach K). Carter introduced himself to the Coach and he then walked all the way around him and he looked up to Coach K and said, 'Wow, I am only as tall as the top of your shorts.' 6 foot 10 inch Coach K laughed. He has had a great time at the camp...he even won a Hustle award and Carter said he also won the 'Niftiest Passer Award for the best passer.' Not sure he won that award but he was happy.

Not that I am putting any pressure on him, but I have told him that I expect nothing less than him being at least a rotational player in the NBA.

Big package, little content

2011-07-14T16:00:00.004-06:00

We went to a lovely movie the other night with our friends, R&A. You spend $3 for a box of M and M peanuts and you would think that there might be a few more than what you see here. 1/3rd full when opened. Awesome.

Utah site: This is the Place state park

2011-07-12T15:29:00.012-06:00

It has been a while since I spotlighted something we did in Utah, usually a touristy type of spot, so here you go (if you are interested in seeing past 'adventures', click on the Tourist labels on the left side of the blog and you can see some of the things we have done. I took the boys and headed up with my sisters and their families up to This is the Place state park. I don't know what it is about that place, but it always feels about 10 degrees hotter there than it does anywhere else in the city.

We had a great time. We saw them light off a canon filled with candy...it was literally raining candy down on us. And because it was fired by a canon, all of the candy was slightly burned and had a nice smokey taste to it. The boys rode horses, saw how horseshoes were made, saw old time back robberies, had tug of wars.

Becks also competed in a watermelon eating contest. Halfway thru, he looked up at me and said 'All done.' I had to give him a stern look as I told him, 'No way, keep going, bring me home that Watermelon eating title.' He sadly shook his head in disgust and kept on eating. It is not a cheap park, but you can have a fun day hanging out there.

1985 called and they want their phone handset back

2011-07-06T09:04:00.005-06:00

I am not quite sure if this is the coolest thing that I have seen with an iphone or if it is the stupidest thing that I have seen with an iphone. On top of that, this is Lenny Kravitz - and I am not sure if it sways my decision either way on this either. But I still may have to rock that out and purchase this...walking around my neighborhood with the iphone and a big huge cord and receiver hanging from it.

This is a fan 4th of July favorite. Enjoy!

2011-07-03T20:24:00.003-06:00

I get such a great reader demand of this beautiful song, I just had to pass it along, again. Magical.

Brodi's book

2011-06-27T09:56:00.005-06:00

Brodi's book cover was released on Friday.

This past weekend has been kind of crazy with the talk about it...but exciting. Her book will be released on January 3, 2012. For those of you who do not follow Brod's blog, you should. Here is the synopsis, from HarperCollins, of her book 'Everneath':

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

Book 1 is scheduled for release January 3, 2012.

Cheap! I'll take 2 of 'em

2011-06-19T14:51:00.003-06:00

We were in Dana Point, California and we spent some time in the marina. There were larger and smaller boats throughout. We came to one of the offices right there and they had several boats for sale. This one caught my eye. It could be yours for only $1.3 million. You buy it now and you will save yourself around 20% as it did cost $1.6 million. You know you are living a different life from pretty much everyone when you can buy a boat for over a million dollars. Sadly, we had to pass.

Becks little adventure

2011-06-17T09:17:00.004-06:00

So, last night I played in our annual neighborhood basketball tournament. It is usually pretty intense with 16 teams or so and its a lot of fun and played over 2 days. I was lucky to have a great teammate and we rocked it. But in between one of our games, I looked over and I couldn't see 5-year old Becks anywhere. So, a couple of the families started looking in some of the neighbors backyards to see if he was playing there. He wasn't. I started getting a bit nervous and then I see him running up the street. He comes up to me and hands me my phone which I had left at our house.

Earlier in the evening, I had said to someone that I had left my phone at home. Becks heard it and decided to go get it for me. We live about 3 blocks away, but he ran over there at 8pm and entered our house codes to get in, got it and brought it back to me. That little rascal. Freaked me out a bit, but it is nice that he knows his way around the area.

Observations

2011-06-14T10:14:00.004-06:00

Last week, we were in California and we spent a day in LA. If you have never been up to the Griffith Park Observatory, you gotta go. You have these huge sweeping panaramic views of the entire city. You can truly see how spread out LA...you also get a nice view of the Hollywood sign and pretty much everything else in the area. Inside, they have exhibits that talk about the stars, space, meteors, etc. Interesting and pretty cool and all free (unless you want to leave a donation). To get in the building, they have 4 or 5 large doors but they tried to confuse us with having it be an entrance, but then saying it was no entrance. We took our chances and luckily made it inside without incident.

Anyone know the asking price on a good horse?

2011-06-08T22:30:00.003-06:00

Yes, gas is pushing $4.20 a gallon in California. I am wondering if it is worth just purchasing a horse to go to work and drop the kids off at school. Either that or I am going to try and dig a well to get oil and then concoct my own gasoline blend. I will let you know how it goes. Good thing that I have my '74 International Scout. That thing just oozes gas efficiency.

School, Eyeball and Eating

2011-06-03T09:51:00.003-06:00

Carter has his last day of 2nd grade school today. Nutty. I can't believe how much he is growing up. I see pictures of him even a year ago and he looked so young then. Becks still has school for a couple more weeks.

I had a tennis match last night. Great match except for the getting hit right in the eye ball with the tennis ball. I have literally played 20,000 hours of tennis in my life and I have never been hit by a ball in my eye. Except for last night. Totally fluke, but egads it hurt. I keep trying to convince Brodi that girls dig guys with a swollen eye but she is not convinced. I probably should have told her that I got it in a bar fight. Oh well.

If you haven't heard, the decades long Food pyramid (which was recently improved, but I am only showing the one that was around for 20 years before) has been thoroughly updated and turned into a Food Plate. Yes, a food plate. I am still trying to figure out where a Brown Sugar Pop Tart fits on that plate.

Another year of soccer down...

2011-05-29T21:23:00.005-06:00

So, soccer season has ended. Carter has been playing on the Impact Academy team as well as his Rec team this year, so it has been busy. With Academy, he had 3 hours of practices during the week and a game on Saturday. With Rec, he had another practice during the week as well as another game on Saturday. It was a pretty hectic schedule this year. He loved both teams. His Academy team (pic on the left) didn't lose this year and their closest victory was 5-2. Other scores of their wins included 12-0, 9-1, 8-2. They were scary good and they got along really well together and were always respectful of the other teams.

Our rec team are a bunch of kids who have now played together for up to 4 years. I love these kids. Last year, they finished the season 7-1 and the spring before they finished 6-2. This year was more of a roller coaster for them, but they still finished in at 3-3-2. This is their last year together as the boys and girls will be playing solely for the Academy teams or playing football or doing other things. I coached these kids for the past few years and its weird that they won't be all around for another year. Fun little neighborhood group who enjoyed playing together and were a really good team.

Random and Rambling thoughts

2011-05-26T08:45:00.003-06:00

Just a few rambling non-connected thoughts over the past few days:

No School Day: OK, so school ends next Friday. We have Memorial Day on Monday, so obviously, there is no school. But there is no school tomorrow either. Why? Its 'Student Non Attendance Day.' Seriously. That is what it is called. And, on top of that, today is a half day because the kids need to get ready for 'Student Non Attendance Day.'

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis: This is the longest word in the english dictionary and its definition is: It is a disease of the lungs that appears to have been caused by silica. All I can ask is 'why?' You have about a billion other options to give something a name and you give it that? Parents get mocked for what they name their kids...the person that pulled this name out should be fired from all future name giving.

Swedes and Danes know how to write: I will probably blog about it in a few weeks, but Scandanavian thriller writers are taking over the world. Stieg Larsson with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, Joe Nesbo's series on detective Harry Hole and Henning Mankell's Wallander series are all absolutely terrific. There are a lot of those books, but I am slowly making my way thru it all.

Infomercials: Can not be any more addicting. Whether its knives, workouts, bread machines, new dance moves, jewelry or car cleaners...I can't stop watching it. I have to force myself to turn away. I don't buy anything but I want to buy everything. Part of it probably has to do with it usually being 3am when I wake up and its on and I can't will myself back to bed...but those guys are tv geniuses.

Is that a hole in your pants?

2011-05-19T09:15:00.003-06:00

So last week, I came home from work and realized that I had a hole in my pants. All day long. Yes, enjoyment for all. From now on, I will be analyzing my clothes before wearing.

Thanks to some random Sam who paid for my car insurance

2011-05-10T09:22:00.003-06:00

I received my car insurance bill the other day and it was more than double what it usually is for my Scout. So I called in to my insurance broker and told them and they looked into it. After a couple of minutes, she gets back on the phone and apologizes and said that they hadn't filed all of the necessary paperwork and that I would be reimbursed. OK, no worries.

So, then I asked her to make sure that our new car was added to our insurance (I had called in about a month ago to add it and they said no problem). She looked into it and after a few minutes gets back on the phone and apologizes and says 'It appears we added your car to another person with your same name that lives in Utah County somewhere, but I have changed it back to you.' I laughed and asked if that other Sam has called in and complained about paying insurance for the past month for a car that he doesn't own...she laughed and said, 'Not yet, but I am sure we will be getting a call soon on it.'

The point of all of this - double check everything unless you don't mind some other person paying for your car insurance.

Clothes off in seconds

2011-05-05T23:57:00.004-06:00

I was down at Liberty Park to play some tennis and we stopped at the playground area. Beckham was happy running around and doing the slides and then all of a sudden, the water feature kicked in and started spraying water. Before I knew what he was doing, he had ripped off his jacket and taken off his shirt and went right for the water. I had to stop him as he started taking off his shoes and his pants. The only kid in the park playing in the water besides a little dude that followed him. After about 3-4 minutes, a bunch of other kids joined him. When we left about 10 minutes later, probably 25 kids were playing the water. Beckham is pretty pleased summer is coming even if it was 6:30 at night and only 55 degrees.

Things I saw

2011-05-04T08:53:00.004-06:00

I came across these two things over the past week or two. I kinda felt bad for Utah Jazzman Paul Milsap. Yes, he gets to be plastered all over McDonalds windows, but they cut off his arms to do so. And you gotta dig the 'no pooping' sign. I can just imagine a dog owner grabbing his dog and running with him to a bathroom or anywhere far away from the signs. Yes, I had nothing better to do than to take these two pictures.

Would you like your Scissors Baked or Broiled?

2011-04-29T09:34:00.003-06:00

I cooked up some cookies this past weekend for the boys. After I was done with that, I took out some tinfoil and put it on the cookie sheet and cooked up some chicken on that. After eating the delicious chicken, I started to clean up. I truly have no idea how I did this...but for some reason, I put down a knife and scissors on the cookie sheet and then proceeded to put down the tinfoil on top of that and cooked the chicken...and the scissors...and the knife. Voila. A beautiful melted art made up of pieces of kitchen utensils. Sometimes I amaze even myself.

A wild and crazy Spring Break (Ok, not so much but still good time)

2011-04-27T08:46:00.014-06:00

We spent last week in the exotic location of Hurricane (Hur-kin), Utah. It is just a few miles outside of St. George. We went with Brodi's family and got out of town for Spring Break.

Brodi's dad Dennis is still fighting his cancer (www.ashtonclot.blogspot.com) and our brother in law Dave is recovering from tearing his ACL...but that didn't stop us as we hiked, swam, drew on streets and played our way through the week. We stayed in a nice small little resort with putting greens, swimming pool, hot tub and basketball courts and we were close to Zions and spent a day there seeing things like the Weeping Rock.

It was Free National Park week down at Zions, so it was pretty busy with visitors. We did some hiking and let the kids play along the river and let them bury themselves in the sand. It is amazing how much time you can spend letting the kids play with sand. They would have been there all day.

We went up to the Narrows in St. George which the kids loved hiking around. There are so many big drops off the side that it feels like you constantly need to tell the kids to be careful (Brodi informed me several times to be careful as well). There is also, obviously, the narrows where you can be right in between the two rock faces. Carter liked it, though it made him a bit nervous at first. After a few walks up it, he loved it.

A couple of cool things just outside of St. George and Santa Clara. There is a hieroglyphics site with old indian writings as well as a cool hike and great scenery. Good for wandering around. I think we also saw 2 other people on the entire hike. Quiet and the kids loved running around.

There is also a crazy cool waterfall place in this area as well. Huge rock faces with water pouring out all over the place. It was fun to hike around it as well as let the kids jump off the rocks into the pools of water below. We had heard about it in the past but never seen it. Well worth it if you are down there.

All in all, good trip. And nice to get away from the cold rainy valley for a while at least and enjoy the 80 degree weather.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T23:04:00.003-06:00

Hope you all had a good Easter. This is Carter and Becks with their fabulous J cousins. We had a good trip to Zions this past week (pics to come) as well as fun activities like cooking knives and learning how to 'Trump' up my hair.

Be a star at parties - tell 'cool' fast food facts

2011-04-12T23:41:00.002-06:00

Did you know that there are around 70,000 combined Subways and McDonalds locations in the United States? Are you frakkin' kidding me? McDonalds, every day, serves around 58 million people...and employs 1.5 million people. Those are crazy numbers.

I went to a KFC a while back and when I picked up my food at the window, I asked the manager how many pieces of chicken they go through every day. He said that they sell around 1,500 pieces of chicken every day. This is a small KFC here in Salt Lake City. Thats alotta food.

There are more than 15,000 combined Pizza Huts and Dominoes Pizzas in the United States. And then you think of all of the other pizza places (chains and nonchains)...and you can see that we love our pizza here in the US.

What is the point of this post? Absolutely nothing. I just found it interesting. See, you are getting smarter just by reading my blog.

The little skateboard that could...

2011-04-06T08:41:00.005-06:00

We had our Pinewood Derby race last night. Let me just say, I have never been a very good scout...but this is something that even I enjoyed growing up. So, after spending weeks contemplating whether or not I should borrow my nephew's car, we decided to build our own. We said - forget pure speed. Lets get creative. So, 2 late nights of cutting, sanding, cutting and then sanding again, we finally had our 'car.' Carter occasionally touched it and looked it too. We all painted it...loaded up the drivers onto it and we had our Skateboard.

It was not going to win any speed awards. I asked the guy who owned the pinewood derby track if I should add more weight to our car...he smiled and said not to worry about it...all of the legos on the top would be more than enough to slow it down. Carter didn't win. But, how many kids can say that their 'car' looked really, really cool? OK, so most of them can say that too...but NONE of them had legos on it.

Work in, sleep in, play in, do everything in - the jeans that will change your life

2011-03-28T07:44:00.003-06:00

So, do you want to look stylish, yet be comfortable? Has this company got a great deal for you. Its Pajama Jeans. The informercial is awesome. You could wear these during the day, go to sleep in the them, jump out of bed at a moments notice, head out the door and work all day and then go home and go back to sleep. Never changing your clothes!

But it is only available for women. Alas, even though I am as metrosexy as it comes, I am still not metrosexy enough to wear women's pants. I will have to survive by simply wearing regular non-pajama like jeans.

How NOT to open up a cereal bag

2011-03-22T09:03:00.003-06:00

So, this morning I took out some of the Marshmellow Mateys cereal (DON'T JUDGE ME!) and as you can tell from the picture on the left, it was savagely opened up. Now, these cereals have a resealable opening. You cut off the top and then you have the seal so you can always close it up. Looking at the pic, you will notice that the top on the right was completely torn off to get to the cereal. While the top left with the seal is left untouched. I explained to Carter that next time he could open it up more carefully. Carter looked at me confused...Brodi, on the other hand, just put her head down. Yes, my wonderful wife cannot open up a cereal bag properly (even with the big RESEALABLE label across the top left). We will be having lessons on this later this week.

Wii, shmii...get me an old Atari and I will be happy

2011-03-16T20:46:00.004-06:00

Over the past 10+ years of our marriage, we have had several game consoles. We have had the PlayStation, DS units and the Wii. My kids love playing games. I have never really gotten into it. Since I have been married, I have probably played less than 10 hours worth of games on those machines.

So logically, I should go out and buy another gaming console. I did. This one is for me. I bought an Atari 2600. Yes, a 1980s Atari console with 70+ games. How cool is that? I hurriedly set it up and my boys joined me in on the fun. I turned it on and my boys looked at the tv in horror. WHAT THE FRAK IS THIS? That is what their eyes were saying. The graphics were atrocious. Worse than I even remember. I played for about an hour the first day. Then I got bored.

But, a funny thing happened. Every time I walk by that 30 year old gaming system, I stop and play a game. Pac Man, Dig Dug, Space Invaders, Pinball, Centipede, Frogger...can it get any cooler? Carter will come in and see me playing and he will just shake his head and leave me alone. He seems completely perplexed that I would enjoy playing the Atari. He often asks incredulously, 'You like playing the Atari?' Yes, I do. Yes, I do.

Snow! Be gone!

2011-03-14T22:37:00.004-06:00

The Joys of March weather. The picture on the left was taken last Monday morning. The picture on the right was taken on Thursday of that same week. We went from 18 inches of snow dumped on us over night and within 3 days it was gone. I went from snow pants and a coat to a tank top and cut off jean shorts within days. Utah weather rocks.

I am Mac'in

2011-03-08T10:24:00.004-07:00

So, a few years ago, we decided to take the plunge and get a MacBook Pro. I searched and searched and ended up buying a used one from a lovely girl downtown. I met her at the Libary and it felt like a drug deal. We are standing on the street, she takes it out of her bag and I am checking it out. It was kind of a strange scene. I think she was nervous about me which is totally understandable because I am pretty intimidating with my 5'11" frame and my metrosexiness. But, we came to an agreement and it was magic as Brodi and I both loved that laptop.

But, a little over 2 years later, we decided to upgrade Brodi's computer. I ended up buying a refurbished 13" Macbook Pro (the 2010 model) through Apple's website. The computer worked great...for about 3 weeks and started having troubles. We brought it downtown to Apples store. The tech looked it and said that he would need the computer for a week or so to fix it...but since we bought it just a couple of weeks ago, he decided to trade out the one we bought with a new one. He gave us the latest 2011 Macbook Pro (came out 2 weeks ago). It was faster, more storage and just a better computer. It was also $300 more expensive. No worries, he said. Enjoy. He then synced up our old computer to our new computer...got all data transfered and we were out the door. With a new 2011 computer. No extra charge.

How awesome is that? I did have to volunteer to sweep the Apple Store floors for a month, but what a bargain. Now, I am wondering if I can somehow trade my 2008 Toshiba computer for a new 2011 Macbook Pro. Not liking my odds on that one.

Hip'in out in some Happenin' shoes

2011-03-02T08:38:00.006-07:00

At work the other day, I saw this older man coming out of another office. He was a man in his 80s and really nice. I had to take a picture though as he was walking away because he was wearing probably the coolest metrosexiest pair of sheepskin boots that I have seen. Click on the pic for a bigger shot of those bad boys. The hair on these boots was long and was flowing in the wind as he walked away. I wish that I had offered him money or mine own shoes in exchange for those fabulous things. Anyway, no doubt, he was one cool and confident dude.

Death by Tab...or Diet Coke...or...

2011-02-27T21:23:00.003-07:00

So, you all know how much I love my Tab cola. Well, did you know that if I downed 271.53 Tabs in one sitting, it would kill me? It would. Death by Tab. Death by caffeine. So, how many caffeine drinks would it take to kill you? Go and find out: http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine

I will say that I hope none of you try to see if it is true. I would hate to lose any of you.

Add Paint with Bowling and Apples and what do you have? A blog post

2011-02-25T08:47:00.013-07:00

We are having a couple of rooms painted this week. Our house has that nice latex painty kind of smell. For some reason, the paint job that I did a few years ago was not quite good enough for Brodi. I have no idea why she wanted a professional to repaint those rooms. I think I worked around that wall hook rather nicely.

We took the boys bowling this past week. You all probably didn't know this...but I was a superstar bowler back in my college days. OK, that is going too far, but I did take a bowling class at the UofU. I was in quite a groove back then and could regularly bowl in the high 100s...around 180 on average. Those days are long gone. But I can still do some trick bowling and I have a mean between the legs shot. Carter liked it so much that he tried it. The ball went so slow down the lane that when it hit the pin, the ball slowly ricocheted off of the pin and went to the other side and hit another pin. It was truly impressive.

We also spent time at the video arcade where Carter showed us how to do it with the fighting machine...while Brodi used her sniper like skills to mow down the bad guys with her guns. There was a line behind Brodi of a bunch of little kids wanting to play, but nobody gets in Brodi's way when she can shoot cartoonish characters on an arcade game.

Update on the apples - the tree is now completely bare of apples. No more driveway applesauce. The birds are sad because there is no more fruit dinner for them. I have almost 2 years of rest now before the apples come back with a vengeance.

A working Garage Door...do I need to say anything more?

2011-02-16T08:37:00.007-07:00

So, it has been a long time with no working garage. Like, since Summer long. But watch out now, because we have just had our new door installed. Obviously, it is a bittersweet day to say goodbye to our old door. Our doorman told us that it may have been the original door to the house which would place it at 50+ years old. It weighed close to 17,000 pounds. OK, maybe not that much but was insanely heavy. The repair guy told us that it was very difficult to take down. Initially I thought that maybe I would do it and maybe even install it. As I thought about it, I quickly realized that I would probably die trying to do it...get killed by one of the springs. I let the professionals do it.

Back in the Fall, we talked about what to do with our garage: http://samandbrodi.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-want-my-garage-orange-brown-and-red.html After many of those genius ideas were shot down, I looked more into wood doors, copper doors, paper doors, no doors and I finally gave up. We went with just a standard regular door and life is good again. And you know what? It works. It goes up and down (the door repair guy was not amused when I asked him if he could set it up to open from the sides and just move across horizontally).

Yep, we can park our car in the garage instead of in front of the garage. As you can see, we can actually park both of our cars in it. We can open it and use it. Instead of just dumping everything in there. I will be honest, I wept like a little kid when I opened it. I will say that I was a little disappointed that my neighbors did not throw us a party to celebrate...but oh well. Heres to another 50+ years with the same garage.

Slathered up in rotten applesauce

2011-02-10T09:02:00.005-07:00

I know how much you all love to hear about this subject, but I can't stop talking about it: Frakkin' Apples. They are back and messier than ever. My apple tree gives off apples every other year. Last summer, the tree was full of them. But, funny thing about my tree - the apples hang on for dear life. They refuse to come down. September, October, November...the apples just chill up in the tree. The apples sit in the tree mocking me because they know and I know what is coming soon.

Then January hits and the apples start falling. The birds who have braved the winter hang out in my tree and enjoy tasty rotten apples and fling the apple carcasses violently to the ground when they are done with them. It is now almost the middle of February and there are still hundreds of apples in the trees. I pick up 30+ apples every day that have fallen onto my lawn and driveway. I tried to convince my boy Carter to pick up the apples for a penny a piece...he looked at me like I was absolutely insane. I have applesauce on my driveway to feed a family of 73 for about a year. I am thinking that sometime in late March, the tree will be bare. And I will cry for joy.

computers everywhere

2011-02-08T09:36:00.003-07:00

I don't know if our family can get any more pathetic. Seriously. We just got Brodi a new laptop...I have my work laptop. And we have my old laptop. And we have Brodi's old laptop. We have 4 laptops all lined up on our kitchen table. (only 3 are pictured...Brodi doesn't want to have hers mingling with our ugly old dirty computers). It is a site to see when all of us are sitting around working/playing on them. I will say that the two boys both know their computers better than we know ours. I just hope our old laptops can keep functioning because I aint buying an 8 year old or a 5 year old a new computer.

Guest blog post

2011-02-04T11:56:00.004-07:00

I posted a guest post on Brodi's uber popular blog HERE Feel free to check it out.

Over a billion (in seconds) years old

2011-01-31T16:35:00.003-07:00

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

2011-01-26T09:08:00.003-07:00

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

2011-01-19T20:27:00.005-07:00

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

2011-01-17T23:18:00.003-07:00

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

2011-01-13T09:16:00.014-07:00

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)

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

2011-01-10T20:26:00.003-07:00

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

2011-01-03T08:46:00.008-07:00

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.

Carter's special gift

2010-12-23T23:36:00.002-07:00

Carter already received probably the best gift he could have asked for...a present from his school teacher that gives him a 'coupon' to turn in place of one homework assignment. He told me that maybe he would save it for 6th grade because homework is really hard in 6th grade. I let him know that it doesn't really work that way and that he will have to use this year.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Party all weekend long.

How many people do you know?

2010-12-21T12:10:00.003-07:00

When we moved back to Salt Lake City, I was excited to see old friends and see a lot of people that I knew. I quickly realized how many people that I do not know. I can go to the grocery store in my neighborhood and see 50 people and not know one of them. The new census just came out. There are 308,745,539 people in the United States. That is a heckuva lot of people that I do not know.

Just some other info - Utah is the 3rd fastest growing state and now has over 2.7 million residents. Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho are the top 4. People love the West. Michigan and Rhode Island were the two slowest growing. And to think, just 100 years ago, there were less than 100 million people...in 100 years, the US has added over 200 million people. And final note, this was the slowest population growth (in the past 10 years) in the US since the Great Depression.

Christmas shopping over the world wide interweb

2010-12-14T17:07:00.004-07:00

How awesome is Amazon? I say that we buy 80% of our gifts thru Amazon. Pretty much anything you can think of, I have purchased thru Amazon (including toilet paper and tooth paste). Well, we ordered a poster for Carter's bedroom and we received it today. It came in a huge box. Take a look at the pic and you see the black tube on the far left of the box? That is the poster. The rest of the box is paper and nothing. I could have fit about 20 books into that box. Actually, I probably could have fit Carter and Becks into that box. Maybe even a small european car as well. Efficiency at its finest.

Time to honor the Gun

2010-12-09T08:34:00.004-07:00

It is good to know that our legislature is hard at work. We all know that we have a State flower (no idea what it is), a State bird (seagull?) and other State things. Well, it is our lucky day because it appears that there is going to be a proposal to have a State gun. Yes, a State gun. How big of a trendsetter is the state of Utah? It appears that no other state has a State gun. Yay for us. Rep. Carl Wimmer has decided that he has nothing better to do than to propose a State gun and he has selected the Browning 1911 model (after Utah resident John Moses Browning who invented it). In a few years, I will be excited to also find out what our new State Cross-Bow is going to be.

Sheesh.

rockin' Thanksgiving

2010-12-07T09:55:00.011-07:00

Now for the obligatory Thanksgiving update. As usual, we spent the day before Thanksgiving making stuffing with Brodi's side of the family. Ashton stuffing consists of bread, sage and butter and it is fabulous. The kids love helping and the adults love snacking on it. It is generally a quieter affair with Brodi's side of the family, but we always have a great time.

We spent Thanksgiving with Brodi's family and then that evening we drove to our family ranch down in Central Utah, Castle Valley Outdoors. This has been a family tradition to go down the ranch for Thanksgiving weekend for well over a decade now. It is located just outside of Emery (about 45 minutes from Price). It is a working ranch as well as an executive retreat ranch so the accomodations are fabulous. There is the lodge which has 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms...then there are 3 apartments in a house each with its own bathroom and then there is another house with 3 bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. Plenty of room to handle all of us, which by the size of our family is pretty impressive. The pic on the left is during the summer...while the pic on the right is from late November.

The Thanksgiving dinner is crazy. Though my brother and his family couldn't come...my 3 sisters and their families as well as my other brother and his family - well, lets just say, that adds up to a whole lot of people.

We spent the days hiking, horseback riding, hiking some more, playing games (pool, cardgames, karaoke, campfire games and songs, etc.) and a lot of talking. I can safely say that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Frakkin' Apples. Frakkin' Leaves.

2010-11-21T14:57:00.008-07:00

I have a true love/hate relationship with the trees in our front yard. During the Spring and Summer, the trees are marvelous. It is literally 15 degrees cooler under our trees...neighbors come and hang out, nice shade, good times. Then late Fall hits and the trees decided to make our lives miserable. First off, they hold onto their leaves as long as they can (mid November, about 30% of the leaves have fallen), then when the first snowstorm comes, the trees laugh in our faces and start shedding their leaves like their lives depend on it (I don't know if any of that made much sense). I will be picking up leaves and apples until sometime in January.

The pictures of the kids above was from yesterday. Notice the shorts the boys were wearing (yeah, rather warm). The pictures here with the snow are from this morning...we got 8 inches of snow. Late this morning, the wind picked up and the leaves and apples came tumbling down. We now have enough applesauce to feed a homeless shelter.

Rice Cakes after a Workout? C'mon, go for something better than that

2010-11-17T17:26:00.002-07:00

Nothing better than having a great workout at the gym and then be able to stop and grab a quick snack on your way out the door. Or maybe, come on in to the gym and have a tasty treat and then spend a couple of hours working it off. I am not sure who the genius is behind this all, but it truly is genius.

Haircuts + Video Games = Boys are happy

2010-11-13T16:29:00.006-07:00

Our boys like their long, but eventually we have to cut it. When their hair is flowing down to their shoulders, it probably is a good time. We have tried to do the cutting ourselves, often to bad results. But we found Cookie Cutters. The boys get to play video games or watch movies while they get their hair cut. They hardly notice they are even getting their hair cut. 2nd thing they dislike - dentist office. I need to check with my brother in law to see if he has a Playstation for the boys.

Eat PopTarts and Lose Weight!

2010-11-09T19:35:00.003-07:00

Ok, you have probably heard about the professor that lost 27 pounds in a couple of months on a diet of twinkies and doritos and other tasty foods. He did it by limiting his calorie intake to 1,800 calories a day. You check out his story by clicking HERE

So that got me thinking. You all know how much I love my Brown Sugar Pop Tarts, so wouldn't it just be smart of me to have 4 pop tarts a day, 1 Banbury Cross donut, a twinkie, 5 Tab colas 2 cinnamon bears. Think of all the weight that I could lose! Yeah, I am not going to do it, but it is pretty tempting realizing that PopTarts could make me an even sexier beast.

My post, just not on this blog

2010-11-08T10:27:00.003-07:00

I had the wonderful chance to post on my lovely wife's blog. You can check it out here: www.brodiashton.com

If you are not reading her blog on a regular basis, do so. It is always entertaining (moreso when she is writing and not me).

Easy Directions for Traveling from Japan to China

2010-11-04T12:02:00.003-06:00

I don't know why I found this so funny. But if you go to Google Maps and you ask how you get from Japan to China. You get the following directions. I got rid of quite a few of the directions to save space but look at #43. How can you not love Google? This route of driving and jet skiing will take 2 days and 11 hours.

Japan

1.	Head north	750 m
2.	Turn right toward 大門街道/国道152号線	190 m
3.	Continue straight onto 大門街道/国道152号線	2.7 km
4.	Turn left at 大和橋（交差点） onto中山道/国道142号線 Continue to follow 国道142号線	13.0 km

		57 m
40.	Turn left at 県道349号線	11.3 km
41.	Continue onto 県道350号線	2.1 km
42.	Turn left	1.4 km
43.	Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean	782 km
44.	Continue straight onto 塘后支路	400 m
45.	Turn left at 塘后路	600 m


79.	Take the ramp to 巉柳高速	500 m
80.	Slight right at 巉柳高速 Partial toll road	37.2 km
81.	Take exit 甘草店 toward 312国道/312國道 Partial toll road	1.2 km
82.	Turn right at 312国道/312國道	15.9 km

China

Rockin' the Vote

2010-11-03T08:29:00.003-06:00

So, I voted yesterday. How much do I rock? I have a feeling though that my vote was basically zeroed out by pretty much everyone that I know. I have never checked the Vote one Party button but when I finished voting, I voted one party except for one position.

I still enjoy election night, but I miss those days in Washington DC. There is something about living in DC during this time of year that is electric. Politics is a way of life there...and working for the Federal Government was always intersting to see how it affected the different agencies. We do live in a pretty great country when we actually do get to vote for the status quo or vote for change.

C and B

2010-10-25T09:07:00.007-06:00

OK, so here is a bit of a family post, focusing on the boys:

Carter - he gets a little allowance every week and he has been saving up. This is him with the money seperated into dollars so that he can purchase a new video game. He was very pleased. The picture on the right is him dribbling the basketball. He really can handle the basketball pretty well...some between the legs dribbling, etc. He had me count his dribbles to see how many he could do without messing up. 1,083 dribbles. His record is 1,113. It took him over 10 minutes to dribble that many. I was more tired than he was when he was finished.

The other day he invited a friend over and I am listening to his phone call. He asks if he wants to come over to our house. He is quiet and he then, nearly shouting, says into the phone: "booyah! THAT IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.' Yep, he was a bit excited.

Becks - His hair just keeps getting longer. We decided to trim over his ears. We wanted to see how long he could get it, but it keeps getting into his eyes. And yes, we do get people asking us - so, are you going to give him a haircut. I just respond, 'Not sure, we haven't decided yet.'

He is a great newspaper boy. Every morning (if the weather is good), one of the boys will go out and grab my paper. My neighbors (looking at you A and J) are probably very disappointed though in not having to see me come out of the house half naked to get the paper.

Going back in time to rock the style

2010-10-19T08:50:00.004-06:00

This past weekend was prom weekend. Let me explain - one of Brodi's author friends Emily always wanted to have an 80s prom, so for her birthday, she had one. We got to dress up (The D.I. has some rockin' stuff) and we danced the night away. Actually, not just dancing but some singing. I knocked out a beautiful rendition of 'Turn Around Bright Eyes' which led several people to openly cry in pleasure at my deep voice. Brodi and her friends busted out 'Boehemian Rhapsody' which was a treat for all of us. You can read more about it at her website: http://www.brodiashton.com/ My one regret is that my white pants were not a bit tighter.

Pee Wee Herman just doing something inexplicable

2010-10-17T20:01:00.004-06:00

This is completely random and totally worthless, but I saw this picture and it is just too awesome not to post. What is not to love about this pic? Pee Wee Herman styling in his awesome suit. Regis Philbin dressing just like him. Why do they have all that candy with them? Pee Wee Herman spilling all of those gumballs. There is no point to this post, except for the complete craziness and strangeness of this picture.

Mixing and Matching with cool cars

2010-10-15T09:34:00.005-06:00

Brodi and I are always keeping our eyes out for an old classic Bronco or Blazer. As you can see by these pics, these are some great looking old cars. Brodi prefers the Bronco (on the left), I prefer the Blazers on the right.

With that said, can you imagine buying this thing? Don't get me wrong - Broncos are pretty cool. Old mustangs are pretty cool. But combining them? Seriously? Can you imagine driving this thing around? Egads. How about driving that to pick up your inlaws? I have realized that when car people have too much time on their hands, they do some interesting and often terrible things with their cars. You can buy this car/truck on ebay if you want. Auction ends this weekend. Hurry!

A plunger - so many uses

2010-10-12T09:59:00.004-06:00

I walked into our family room the other day and found this sitting on the floor. A plunger. Yes, our 4-year old decided that the plunger would be a fun toy to walk around with and play. I think we may need to buy him some new toys.

I want my garage orange, brown and red!

2010-10-08T09:25:00.008-06:00

Our garage door broke...and to make a long story short, it looks like we are going to get the springs fixed on it and paint our wood garage door so that it looks better than the beat up one we have right now. The question is - what color should we paint it? Click on the pic to see the garage door images better...but how cool would be to use some of these styles? How could you not love the audaciousness of the '50s?

Professional oww-ies and Becks scores a goal!

2010-10-04T09:11:00.008-06:00

My boys are halfway thru soccer season. Carter's team has outscored its opponents 19-6 so far this year. I would like to say that it is my terrific coaching, but that would be a lie. I just have good players.

I don't think Beck's team has lost this season because they have a couple of ringers on his team. And superstar Becks did score his first goal of the year. It was actually a nice real goal (He is the one with the ball on the pic on the right) where he dribbled the ball, set up and kicked the goal. He celebrated by falling to the ground and rolling around for about 20 minutes after giving all of his fans on the sidelines High-Fives!. This is his individual picture (on the left) where he didn't want to hold the ball with his hands because using your hands in soccer is illegal.

Carlos Boozer was a former Jazz player. He just left the Jazz this off season to play for the Chicago Bulls. Many Jazz fans were happy to see him go because he always found a way to get injured and get to sit out 20-40 games a year. Well, he injured himself on a no practice day this weekend. He broke his finger. How did he do it. He explained that somebody rang the doorbell and he was going to the door and he tripped over his bag, fell down and broke his finger. SERIOUSLY? So, a professionally athlete who is flexible and agile somehow trips over a bag and breaks his finger?

Now take me, I am no longer truly athletic nor agile nor flexible and I trip over things in my house all the time and I have never even bruised myself and Boozer breaks a finger? Egads. Now people can understand why I am awfully pleased to no longer have him on the Jazz team.

Brodi is a star

2010-09-27T09:46:00.009-06:00

Though most of you know, my wife Brodi is a writer. Well, she is now an author. Her agent Michael Bourret just sold her book to Harper Collins (Balzer & Bray imprint). You can read about it by clicking here

Her book was sent out to several publishers and an offer on it was almost immediate (within 2 days). We are excited. If you are not following Brodi or reading Brodi's blog, you need to visit it right now and you need to make it part of your weekly reading: www.brodiashton.com

Nothing important, just some rambling

2010-09-21T09:13:00.004-06:00

A few thoughts about the past couple of days:

We ate my mom's house this Sunday for dinner. We had some fruit...and some frakkin' amazing grapes. As you can see by the picture, the normal red grape is on the right, my thumb is on the left and the mutant HUGE green grape is in the middle. I felt like I had to cut that thing with a knife into tiny bits so that I could stuff it into my mouth.

I am no engineer. That is pretty clear. But I walked under a freeway bridge the other day and they had some wood support beams under the bridge. Call me crazy, but is that wood doing much with 5,000 pound cars driving over it all day long?

I picked up some bbq chicken from the supermarket the other day. The label makes me laugh and reminds me that the people selling the deli food are not Market-ers. The name of this delicious dish? Boneless BBQ Chunks. Chunks? Yeah, I still ate it, but they gotta change that name.

Karl - A real American Hero!

2010-09-17T09:08:00.005-06:00

I used to collect comics. Yes, I know that I was a complete nerd (and still am, I know). I have way too many X-Men, X-Force, Spawn, Batman, Justice League, etc. comics to even count. They are carefully stored away in plastic and boxes in our storage room. Well I decided to take a look at them and see if Carter wanted to read some of the nicer ones.

I came across this comic book, a Karl Malone comic book. I bought it 15 years ago because I thought it was hillarious. And it still is. For those that don't know, Karl Malone was a Power Forward for the Utah Jazz for a long, long time. He also was a superhero. I started reading this comic last night and Karl Malone, for some reason, is up at the North Pole. He saves a man that fell through the ice (YAY!), but ended up going down into the water after saving the guy (a guy watched it and said 'there he goes, he is gone forever), but NO! He is found a few years later and revived and given equipment to make him an elite mailman/fighter. He ends up saving bald eagles and fighting crime. Yeah, it is as bad as it sounds. Too bad because he would have been a great hero fighting along side Superman, Batman and WonderWoman.

Family day at the Beach

2010-09-15T09:39:00.009-06:00

My brother and his family were in town a few weeks ago, so my sister and brother in law brought up their boat to Jordanelle for a day of water skiing. Problem was, it was really windy which made water skiing not too enjoyable.

That was fine for the kids though as they got to spend the day tubing and playing along the beach. Carter was in his element...playing with all of his cousins and getting dragged behind the boat for what seemed like hours. He wanted the boat to go faster and he kept trying to get the tube outside of the wake.

He did get some air on one move...bouncing out of his seat, but he came right back down to it amid howls of laughter from his cousins. Carter is convinced we need to buy a boat.

Shaking your booty, the right way

2010-09-13T09:14:00.004-06:00

For those wondering how a guy like me could have caught such an amazing girl in Brodi...well, let me just say, it was my dance moves. A new study reports that killer dance moves like this draw women to you. I think it is fair to say my moves were too much for her and she had to date and marry me. What moves drive the women crazy...? Check out the video below for those moves (many of which I will bust out on the dance floor at any given time...as well as the terrific running man dance move):

What moves will drive the ladies away and these are moves that I would never ever even think of doing, here you go:

I wonder how much money was put into that research study.

Sleeping with the fishes, in an undead way

2010-09-09T09:28:00.005-06:00

Off the coast of India, in the Maldives, is a nice little resort that offers something different. And, I have yet to decide if this is really romantic or really creepy. On your honeymoon, you can sleep with the fishes...and not have to die to do it. It is a glass underwater bedroom.

Expectedly, it aint cheap. To use the resort villa lodging above water, it will run you around $1,500 a night...I am assuming that this underwater room will be more than that and they are not disclosing prices. But you get to have fish watching you all night and that is priceless, isn't it?

With water, it will grow and grow

2010-09-01T09:20:00.005-06:00

I walked by these two homes which were next to each other. They both decided on some interesting landscaping ideas. The one on the left is for a tree. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of getting a tree to grow, but this tree is literally 3 inches tall and they have decided to mark off the tree's territory. I can't wait to see this tree reach 6 feet tall in 25 years. The one on the right is my favorite - they have planted flowers around this tree...wait, thats not a tree. It is a pipe sticking out of the lawn. Yet, they are treating it as a tree. I will be curious if this pipe ends up growing and if it blooms in the spring.

A day with the Utes

2010-08-30T09:11:00.007-06:00

This past weekend was the Ute fan fest. Every year in late August, the University of Utah has a big fan gala. It is held at Rice Eccles Stadium and this year had to be the biggest turnout as it was crowded right from the start.

Carter and Becks love it because they get to walk on the football field, meet some of the players, play in a bounce zone on the field. It was pretty cool too as we saw Coach Jim Boylen (Ute basketball coach) and he saw my boys and he introduced himself to them. I asked if I could take a picture and he bellowed out: "Of course, lets do it!" He then got down to their level for me to take a picture.

We also met some of the hoops players, tennis players and others as well. The boys also got a chance to run out on the field and chase each other and play around. Football season starts this week, Basketball season starts at the end of October and Tennis season starts in January for the Utes. Go Utes!

Yes, I would like that pop tart with hamburger meat and tomatoes

2010-08-24T08:50:00.005-06:00

My awesome neighbor 'A' knows just how much I love pop tarts. Seriously, if I could eat pop tarts for every meal, life would be good. Well, she let me know that there is a brand spankin' new Pop Tart store in New York City. Yes, a pop tart store. Yes, that is unbelievably fabulous.

It is a do-it-yourself store when you can concoct some new pop tart creations. I am totally a Brown Sugar pop tart man, but I would be happy to try some new exotic flavors and new ways to eat and enjoy pop tarts. They even give you chance to try sushi pop tarts. And how could that not be tasty? Sushi is cool, pop tarts rock so I am sure that equals tasty goodness.

If you are visiting New York, I am sure that this will be a top priority visit. To read more about this lovely store, check it out by clicking HERE

Dragon casting

2010-08-18T08:57:00.004-06:00

Last month, I finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. If you haven't read it, you should...but be warned, it can be difficult with some very difficult scenes. I love the story, I love how the story was set up, I love the Swedish background. The movies have been made in swedish and two have been released here in the States. Well, Hollywood will begin filming these movies soon. They just cast Daniel Craig in the role of Mikael Blomqvist. I like that casting.

They also cast Rooney Mara in the Lisbeth Salander role. I don't know who she is, but I like that they picked a relative unknown to do it. She also looks a lot like I thought Salander would look. The first of the three films won't be out till December of next year.