The wisdom of Gas station bathrooms

We just got back this weekend from a long trip to the Seattle area. We had a lot of fun and I will post pics and stories in the next day or two. With that said, I wanted to post a couple of interesting things from the restrooms that we visited while driving to and from Seattle.

When I am looking for profound comments or statements, I usually think of visiting a bathroom stall in Yakima or some small city in the northwest. I was not let down as I came across this gem: [the cross sign) with the comment: 'All men are created equal.' So true. My heart was uplifted knowing that someone took the time to carve this comment into a toilet paper dispenser.





The best thing that I came across in a bathroom was this nice little machine. It is a cologne dispenser. How cool is that? Who hasn't been on a date where you stopped to get some gas, ran inside to pay and realized that you needed to use the restroom and then finally realized that you just stink...lucky you, you can now pay 25 cents and get some awesome cologne and smell terrific when you leave the gas station. You know this is high end cologne because it costs 25 cents. If you come across one of these machines and they are selling it for 5 cents, don't buy it. It probably would smell terrible.

I AM A MAN!! and one lamely cool t-shirt

Nothing better than getting a lovely letter addressed to Samantha. Seriously, how does that happen? Brodi received a letter the same day and her information was correct, so how did they put down Samantha? Strange. Maybe I should see if I can open up a credit card as Samantha.

Yes, I wore this shirt around the house and neighborhood yesterday. Though Popeye is obviously very cool, this could be the lamest t-shirt in town. I wore it proudly.

Tennis, Injuries and getting Justified

I turned on my sprinklers this weekend. I did a quick run through of all of the watering stations to make sure that there were no leaks or problems...the valve box started gushing out water. Good times. Nothing like a broken valve to fix to start the summer. Some of the water got in the house, but I had turned off the outdoor water pretty quickly, so just a bit of water in the basement (thankfully, this pic is not of my house...but egads, how bad would that be?) The joys of home ownership.

I played in a tennis tournament last week. I realize that my body is not what it used to be. I played well and won my first three matches (played Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and I played in the finals on Monday, Memorial Day. Interesting sidenote--I played an old family friend from the Avenues that I had not seen in 25+ years. Anyway, during this match, I proceeded to make my shin splints worst, badly sprained my ankle and pulled my groin. Yep, I was pretty much the walking wounded. To make matters worse, I lost 7-6, 7-6.

It is the season finale of the tv show 'Justified' on FX. If you have not seen it then see if they will be showing a marathon of it or rent it this fall. It is a fabulous show.

Utah Site: Midway/Homestead Crater and Springs

Over Memorial Weekend, we headed up to Brodi's parents condo in Midway. The weather was great and the kids played soccer, went biking, hiking, etc. We also took the kids to the Homestead crater. I had never been, but it is essentially a little hill in the middle of the Homestead. Even though I have been to Midway countless times, I never knew what that little hill was.



Inside is a natural spring where people go scuba diving and swimming. The water goes down over 70 feet below the surface. The natural spring inside continues to add and shed over 150,000 gallons of water a day which keeps the water somewhat fresh. The water stays between 92 and 95 degrees.




The kids enjoyed swimming next to the exterior cave wall and putting on their goggles to see under the water. It is not cheap ($11 for 45 minutes), but it was worth seeing it and playing in it.

Next round of Books

Here are the latest books that I have gone thru over the past few weeks.

Daemon by Daniel Suarez
I wanted to like this book. It is about a dead man who programmed some very nasty computer viruses to wreck havoc on America when he was gone. It is a fun storyline and it is wild but it all too often shifts to the unbelievable side. The computer side is fascinating, but the recruitment and managing of so many people to help this dead man continue on managing the computer viruses strains credibility. Fun read but you will need to suspend logic at times.





The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
I have no idea what to think of this book. It centers on a family who loses their daughter to a serial killer. The dad spends a few years trying to figure out his life now that his daughter is gone until one day he gets a note in his mailbox from 'God.' He has to decide if he is willing to follow the direction to go up to the Shack where they found evidence of the death of his daughter.

He gets there and he comes face to face with God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. He spends a weekend learning about forgiveness, the love of God and Jesus' atonement while at the same time learning about himself. It is a very interesting concept and it is played off well. It gets hokey sometimes, but the conversations between man and the Godhead is compelling at times. For those that believe in God, it is worth a read to see how He is handled and how He interacts with a very flawed but very earnest man.



Watchman by Ian Rankin
This is a thriller of the England MI-5 spy organization and a man who is part of the watchers team. His job is to watch targets and monitor them. A man eludes his watch and ends up killing a foreign member of a government. He quickly realizes that there is more to this than just about him as he may be being set up within his own organization. The story revolves around him trying to figure out, getting double crossed and working his way thru the mystery. Pretty good, with some rather slow periods. This is one of Rankin's first books and it is a bit raw but still interesting with good character development.

Tennis and Bodyguards

Last night, Brodi and I played in a mixed doubles tournament over at the UofU Eccles Tennis Center. We had a good time even with Brodi talking trash all night against our opponents. It was interesting though, there were these 2 younger guys in dark suits hanging out. I figured that they were probably not there to watch me...but they were watching the man on the other court. It was Utah governor Gary Herbert.

At one point, Mr. Herbert lost one of his tennis balls. We didn't find it at first on our court but we eventually did and I walked it over to him and told him that we found their tennis ball. I then mentioned that I was going to keep it, but I didn't want the bodyguards to beat me up and throw me in jail if I kept his tennis ball. He kind of laughed. I will say though, I could have totally beaten his bodyguards in a tennis match.

Randomness of the Week

Brodi and I went to a movie this past Saturday and it was a Horror. No kidding. The movie was pretty entertaining, Iron Man 2. I am a true comic book geeks (as my thousands of comics from my childhood would attest) so seeing these comics on the big screen is always fun. But the scary thing was outside of the movie theaters on 33rd South. It is hard to tell from the picture, but look at the trunk and go up to where the branches start--there you will see a massive beehive. HUGE. Few things in this world scare me much. I love heights, I love adventure...but bees make me break out in a cold sweat and makes me scream like a little boy. I gathered up the courage to take this picture. We were told that a queen bee landed here and her swarm joined her for a party. They yellowed taped this area off to the public. No deaths reported.

This morning, we drove by a sign at a dance club with this on a billboard: 'Foam Party tonight!!' I seriously have no idea what that means. Dancing with foam? What kind of foam...the hard styrofoam stuff or the liquid foamy stuff. I am tempted to take Brodi down there and show these teenagers how old parents party.

I went out to eat with my dad at a restaurant. He got a can of Diet Coke. He went to pop it open and the tab popped off. We finally punched it out so that he could drink it. After a taste, he put it down and checked the expiration date: October 2009. Yep, not a good impression of that eating establishment.

Have a good weekend.