Funkiness downtown

The residential area just outside of downtown SLC, in the 300-800 South range and the 200-600 East range, there are some interesting homes and parks. Many of the blocks are split in half with a small road going in between with smaller homes along the line. There are several blocks where there is a small park right in the middle of the block, basically for these 10-15 homes to share and use. Anyone can use these parks, but I don't think anyone but these people in these homes even knows they are around. There is also a small park right on 600 South that is named after the first african american college graduate from a college in Utah. Unfortunate though that the monument to him at this park is shaped like a gravestone. I am assuming that he is not buried there.

There is a block around 700 South where there are a bunch of identical small single family homes painted in just about every single color you can imagine. And they are all next to each other and looking at each other. I have not looked at it during the nighttime, but I would not be surprised if all of these homes glow in the dark as well. Kinda cool though.

Can it get any cooler than just leaving your partially restored 40 year old car on your front lawn? It is actually kind of like having art right outside your front door. It would not be as cool if that car has been sitting there since it was purchased back in 1965.

Business Cards: How much are you worth?

Over the years, I have had several different business cards. The ones that I use now are pretty snazzy, good looking cards. The biggest problems that my current card has are:

• It can fit in a rolodex...not a good thing
• It does not cost $4 a card
• It does not have a cool pop-up feature

Basically, my card is crap. This man explains why:

See m

Coolness and ugliness and another Utah site visited

One of my favorite neighborhoods in the SL Valley is the Harvard/Yale neighborhood. A lot of my growing up years were in the Avenues and the Hogle Zoo area so I learned to love the tree lined streets and the old homes.

Over the past few years, there have been changes in this neighborhood as many of the homes have been torn down and new ones put up. For the most part, the homes are attractive and though large, still fit in relatively well with the neighborhood (an example of a nice remodel is the home on the left). Other remodeled homes though, have not fit in the neighborhood, at all. They call this home Garage Mahal (pic on the right). It is huge with 3 big garages sticking out front with a little door around the side. Yeah, neighbors were not pleased when this bad boy went in. The picture does not even do it justice to how strange this home is compared with the rest of the area. I truly cannot figure out what the builder was thinking with this thing--"Yeah, lets do something that nobody will like...lets build a house with huge garages about 20 feet from the street and that is really all people will see, big garages...how cool will that be?' Uhm, not too cool.

One of the fabulous features of the Harvard/Yale neighborhood though is the Miller Bird Refuge and Park. This sits on 9th South and it is fabulous to be able to go for a mini hike, see a great little stream, huge trees, birds and a nice hiking path all right in the middle of a great neighborhood. As usual, Carter is showing off his great, totally forced, smile on the left. The kids loved running around on the trail...Carter even asked a couple who were getting their wedding pictures done if they needed him to take their picture. Understandably, they told him that they were OK.



If you have a chance, you can check it out at 9th South and about 16th East...a little hike that you can do in 30 minutes. It is just another reason to really like this pocket of homes in SLC. You can check out more about this park here: http://www.utahbirds.org/counties/saltlake/MillerBirdPark.htm

Another first day of school

Beckham had his first day of preschool last week. He went to preschool last year but not for as long as he is going now. He was very excited about it.

What does this mean for us...both of our boys are gone for quite a bit of the day. I got this video from Cary of thelistoftheday blog (linked on the left sidebar). Hard to see the boys growing up, but a joyous occasion at the same time.

Loving the hate...or Hating the love?

I love books. I hate the library. That doesn't seem to make sense, does it?

Let me explain. I got two letters yesterday from the library telling me that if I don't come and talk to them, my library account will be sent to collections. Why? I have two overdue childrens books. Yes, I checked out two kids books--one about a dog in a taxi (pic on left) and the other one about some monster (pic on the right) and I can't find either one...if you happen to see one of these books on the street in my neighborhood, please pick it up for me. Anyway, these now cost me $18 a piece. I could have bought those for $6 a piece and I would not have lost them because I would have owned them. I don't ever lose things that I actually own...only things that I borrow.

Also, I think that I have turned in every book that I ever checked out from the library, on average, about 10 days late. So, I get fined. Time and time and time again. Lovely.

The best part, and the redeeming part of this whole 'ordeal', though is when I went into the library today to clear up my charges. The guy ran the numbers and it was around $40. So, I gave him $10 and asked if I could pay the rest later (all I had on me was a ten dollar bill). He said no problem. I must have looked like I was down on my luck because he then told me that he was going to put me on a payment plan for the final $30. I was thinking that he would bill me $15 a month for the next 2 months. But no. He proceeds to tell me that I am on the 10 month repayment plan of $3 a month. How awesome is that? I just had my library fine financed at 0% for the next 10 months. OK, I think I love the library again.

My bad laundry etiquette

So tonight, I went to go and pick up my laundry from the dry cleaners. I pulled in and I started giving the girl all of my shirts when I realized that the shirt I was wearing, I also wanted dry cleaned. So, I took off my shirt and handed it to her. It didn't even seem to faze her which I guess, means that other people must do it all the time. I will say though, she was wholly unimpressed.

Next time I will just give them the shirts in the bag.

Weekend roundup

This long weekend was crazy but entertaining. From Thursday to Monday, we did/accomplished/perservered the following:

• Utah's first win of the football season, beating Utah State
• Kennecott Copper Mine tour--pics and discussion to come soon.
• The Living Aquarium--pics and discussion to come soon.
• Ensign Peak hike--pics and discussion to come soon.
• Midway--party up there with biking, games, hanging out and sleeping over.
• Swimming--lots of swimming at my sister E's house.
• Family Dinner Party--hanging out with my siblings families.
• Watched lots of nighttime tennis for the US Open. My favorite female player bowed out quickly...Brodi's favorite male player is still rocking it.

Things missed:

• No salsa dancing this week.
• No marathons run
• Did not win the lottery
• Did not win any metrosexual awards

Hope you all had a good weekend with good times.