It’s not even NOON . . .

. . . and my day is AWESOME!

6:00am – Woke up early and did me a little P90X XSTRETCH! Unlike the other P90X disks, this workout is welcoming and a peaceful, early start to the day.

7:30am – My daughter woke up and immediately declared: “Daddy, let’s put on a show, lay on the couch, and snuggle!” So we did!

7:55am – I kissed by bride goodbye and headed to an appointment with a new doctor. New doctors make me a little anxious. I always want them to be great, but not all are created equal. This doctor was GREAT!

9:00am – It was amazingly sunny outside!

9:15am – Went to the dentist. From an earlier post you will know how I can feel about the dentist . . . but NOT TODAY! My gorgeous wife was there to greet me, the hygienist didn’t over talk (in fact, she just let me lay there with my eyes closed), and the dentist was quick and EASY. NO CAVITIES!

9:45am – It was STILL amazingly sunny outside!

9:55am – Got gas at Smith’s Marketplace (I LOVE this store!) and got an amazing gas discount!

10:00am – easy commute to work

10:30am – got into work with NO mean emails and THESE TWO gifts on my desk!

1. My work is doing the new WALKaDAY fitness program. It includes a new water bottle and a PEDOMETER. I don’t know why I am so excited about the pedometer, but I AM! LOOK OUT Mall Walkers. My pedometer and I are ready to powerwalk your A outta here!
2. A coworker generously surprised me with 101 ESSENTIAL BONSAI TIPS. We had a conversation a while back about my aspirations to become proficient in the ways of the Bonsai. I think it will be a great side hobby while at work; HOWEVER, I have yet to get started. She left a note indicating that she believes in dreams and wants to help jumpstart mine. What a thoughtful measure. I will be heading to Cactus and Tropicals very soon to pursue my dreams!

10:35am – I took the next link off of my 2011 COUNTDOWN TO SUN VALLEY PAPERCLIP CHAIN!

1:00pm – I will be headed to the Rec Center to get my swim on with the old men (Between the mall walkers and Rec Center Walruses (that’s what I like to call them) I am just around the corner to breaking my OWN hip!)

5:00pm – Headed home to see my beautiful wife and little lady. Anticipating that it will still be sunny.

What a DAY!

Facebook Frustrations

(Disclaimer: To be read with a light-heart. When it comes to trivial things, I am not to be taken too seriously . . . unless I state otherwise.)

I like Facebook . . .

. . . and I don’t have a problem saying it either. I enjoy that Facebook offers me unique, low-commitment friend connections/supplements and digitized “open mic” opportunities. I like that I can casually peruse people’s pictures and update MYSELF on the happenings in their life as much, or as little, as I would like. I like that I can make funny, bold, or random comments on friend’s statuses. I like seeing where my friends are “checked in” at. I like telling people where I am “checked in at”. I like to see which two of MY friends are friends with each other that I normally would not have been aware of. I like posting my thoughts on Facebook. I love when people comment on my thoughts. I accept Facebook for WHAT IT IS and I enjoy it!

I will now make a small list of things that I DO NOT like about Facebook?

1. The DOWNPLAYED Facebooker. I roll my eyes at people on Facebook that downplay how much they like Facebook. You don’t have to like it as much as me. You can like it MUCH MORE than me; however, you are on Facebook for a reason. Whatever it is, OWN IT! No one is judging you.


2. The PUBLICALLY-ELUSIVE Facebooker. I have PERSONALLY AGREED to add you as a friend on Facebook. We may not be the best of friends, but I have chosen to add/accept your Facebook Friendship. DO NOT act weird around me when we see each other in person. I am not expecting a hug (nor do I want one), but at least look at me, wave, and say “Hi Greg. Good to see you.” Acknowledge what you know. Hiding it just makes things so awkward and you WILL promptly be Facebook DE-friended.


3. The WHINY Facebooker. We all get out our frustrations. It helps reminds each other that we are all human. It keeps us in check. HOWEVER, run your posts through your social filter at least twice before posting. Maybe your never-ending rants are starting to drag us all down.


4. The EASILY-OFFENDED Facebooker. It’s Facebook, people! It is a semi-public arena in which MANY different people from MANY different walks of life can mingle, and YOU are the puppet master! (aka, you are the one allowing which people invade YOUR semi-public arena) If you do not approve of someone else’s opinion/thoughts, remove them. It’s that simple. I have removed a few people (and their opinions) that I felt were outside of what I wanted to spend my time on. There is no point in harboring ill will against me yet maintaining me as a Facebook Friend. If you don’t, it will most likely result in a PUBLICALLY-ELUSIVE moment and I will remove you anyway. Remember William Ernest Henley’s INVICTUS: “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

That felt good to get off my chest.

In case you were wondering, I have similar thoughts on Fast Food and television.

I’m a little Obsessed

I wish I could capture the essence of my adorable little Emmalee Ann and share it in a post. You would fall in love.

She is only 2, but she is witty, funny, compassionate, smart, emotional, and a MOTOR MOUTH. Her little brain can comprehend big thoughts. She makes jokes, writes songs, creates dances, and narrates elaborate tales (most of which includes her, Rapunzel, as the mom and whomever else is in the room as Eugene, the daddy – go watch Tangled). Her vocabulary and sentence structure is extraordinarily accurate, yet hilarious.

She struggles with her personalized tenses (i.e., “Mine must go skipping right now. Mine too happy not to.” and “Mine thinks I’m so fancy in this new princess skirt”) She is well aware of her options and her ability to set them. (Me – “Emmalee, can I have a hug?” Em (head tilted and face squished) “Um, mine sorry. Not today.”) In fact, she just asked me to meet her in her room. Upon my arrival she announced that she had laid out all of her “beautiful clothing options.”

She is very neat and orderly. She LOVES all things princess. In fact, her princesses participate in approximately 4 bathtub parades per week.

She is a little obsessed with Keva Juice and the term “oopsie doo".

She likes expensive, yet classy things.

I am a little obsessed with my Little Lady.

Weekend Warriors

This weekend Megs and I took to the road with Beth and Steve and set our coarse for sunny ST. GEORGE!

We began our ROAD WARRIORHOOD with the best of intentions . . ., but then needed a break about 45 minutes into our journey. (Unfortunately, the idea and hindsight of the road trip ends up being more exciting than actually driving itself.)

We made our first stop at the Red Barn.  That’s right, it’s a red barn in the middle of nowhere that sells random sweets.  Why wouldn’t we stop?

Then OFFICIALLY began the three hour drive.  We laughed, I napped, Steve and Megs talked about and analyzed their favorite songs, we overate extra tart dried cherries and Sun Chips, we pit stopped in Cedar, and then we laughed a little more.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We pulled into St. George and set our priorities . . . we drove straight to Benja’s Thai Cuisine!  We indulged ourselves on Green Curry much spicier than expected, sushi (even I had a piece), ginger chicken, and spring rolls.  We learned how to appropriately Soy Sauce our food and split our chopsticks from Steve and Beth escaped an early, laugh-induced death.

We checked in Beth’s family Cottage, took a late night stroll through the golf course, laid down on the tee box of hole #9, gazed at the stars for approx. 22 seconds, began screaming as I was hit directly in the face and we were under a foreign attack, took another 3 seconds to realize it was the rainbird sprinklers, ran to safety, laughed so hard I almost vomited, dried off, walked home, talked for hours, then went to bed.

After about three hours of sleep, I took an early-morning journey to pick up our FIRST Bountiful Basket.  It was full of great fruit, veggies, and a couple things I have never seen before.  The morning was full of omelets, fudge from the Red Barn, lounging, more laughing, and a little of the Wii. (If you look extra closely, you will see Steve’s approval of me taking his early-morning head shot.)

Chillaxin’ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The afternoon was full of the pool, sunbathing, a failed attempt at a back dive, more sun, and YES even a trip to go get our feets did. (you’re only judging me if you have never had it done before.  Consider yourself double-dog dared!  It MAY just be the best thing you’ll ever treat yourself to.)

Poolin’ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Poolin’ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After another relaxing evening of Brick Oven, A GARBAGE BAG FULL of pebble ice, movies, and more late-night laughter we turned in.

Sunday we lazed it up, watched more movies, cleaned, and prepped for another 4-hour drive home . . . BUT not before I took the scoot for a test drive.

Scootin’ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Moral of the story . . . it’s fun to have fun with fun friends in sunny, beautiful weather.

The Rabbit Test is . . .

. . .  AFFIRMATIVE!

(I’ll leave it up to the good folks at M*A*S*H to explain the rabbit bit)

That’s right, we are gonna have ourselves a new BABY and we could not be more excited!

When: The end of December/first of January

Where: Hopefully in a comfortable hospital bed

What: TBD

How: Mind your own business!

Now, I could have told you the same way Meg told me, but I will spare you the gory details.  Curious?  You want to know?  Tell you NOW!? Okay pipe down, I’ll tell you.

So I am involved in a busy, meeting-full day at work, you see, when Meg begins to call me over and over.  I silence my phone and send her a quick text indicating that I will call her back in about an hour.  She replies with THIS picture message entitled “will you call me back NOW!?” . . .

 

I left my meeting and called her back. . .

Break the Block

I have blogger’s block . . . I REcommitted to blog, considered a few great posts, sat down to write . . . nothin’.  I need the juices to start flowing.  I need the ideas to translate to the computer.  So, in an attempt to “prime the posting pump” I am presenting you, my dear reader, with my most recent phone photos (one of my favorite pastimes is to take random photos with my phone.  I never know what I am going to do with them, but I still enjoy taking them.)  Sit back, relax, open your mind to randomness, and enjoy!:

ONE GUESS on where this toilet it located! . . .THE CHURCH. I am serious.  What a great way to simply “mark your territory”.

I went with some co-workers to a Greek restaurant in Sugar House to enjoy my first Shawarma.  I love me some foreign food and enjoyed it thoroughly.  They didn’t.  They said that it was too different from what they remembered, but then again neither one of them served in Greece.  Go figure.

If Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives visited it I guarantee I will love it! (visit Food Network Local to find Food Network approved restaurants around you!) This AWESOME calzone is from the Rusted Sun Pizzeria in SLC.  EAT IT!  I would also recommend Moochie’s Meatballs and Ruth’s Diner. . . I LOVE GOOD FOOD!

Dear Modern Civilization: This is a picture of the urinal at work.  This is also a picture of the urinal that I was inflicted with a URINAL CONVERSATION at. . . this is a NO GO!  GOT IT!?  I will speak with you once I am socially presentable, washed up, and ready to look you in the eyes.  Allow me my 45 seconds of peace.  Allow me this time . . . conversation free.  Thank you.

I’m the Cubmaster. (Are you listening to a Akella’s Call? . . . anyway)  I was in charge of arranging this year’s Nature Hike.  It was suggested that I coordinate with a fellow member of the Stake who loves the outdoors and would love to guide the hike.  I wholeheartedly put the lives of all of my Cubscouts, their parents, their siblings, and myself in his able hands.  All until we hiked up the RAGING river to THIS MOTHER FRIGGIN’ BRIDGE! . . . That’s right, a rickety, branch and twine, HANDMADE bridge that crossed the raging water of DEATH inches below . . . I stood in the middle and literally held the young cubscouts and children across.  Mothers were crying, little girls were screaming, and I saw my life pass before my eyes. . .

I have a feeling that I will be released soon . . .

Our new family obsession:  KEVA JUICE!  Emmalee likes to get her own, got it!?

A poster of this guy is hanging on Chuck Norris’ bedroom wall.  This may be the BEST sniper-shot I have EVER taken on my cell phone.  I was in line at the bank and purposely stood within his personal bubble just to get him to turn around and look at me.  JUST LOOK AT THE MAJESTY that is his handlebar mustache!

Truckers for Jesus! I couldn’t have been happier to run into this truck driver while battling traffic the other day (seriously, I almost ran into him trying to get my phone out!) 

During my lunch break the other day I wandered on down to the Thomasville furniture store below my work.  I took a jaunt around reviewing quality furniture options for my future home.  I came across this virile bookshelf complete with sliding ladder.  This sold, high-end craftsmanship would add a touch of strength, class, and beauty to your home for only . . . wait for it . . . $33,000!  I am in the wrong business.

If the bookshelf is too rich for your furniture blood, you could scale down with this hand-crafted Crane sculpture for only $3,000.  They have something for every budget! . . . If I happen to see this stationed in ANY of your homes be ready to be hit upside the head and then be solicited for a bit of “spare change.”  Some people’s kids . . .

Though I cannot give you a precise reason why, Smith’s Marketplace is one of my favorite places to be.  It just got EVEN BETTER now with delicious gelato that you can eat while you shop.  If I ever go missing, look for my here.

Don’t tell Megs, but I am having a little side love affair with peanut butter and chocolate.  I have always defaulted to Reeses until I came across THIS GEM of a treat.  A small scoop of Skippy CRUNCHY PB dipped in a handful of Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips.  Judge me now . . . thank me later!

 

 

One of my new favorite restaurants is SIMPLY THAI in South SLC.  They have amazing Thai cuisine that will leave you smiling the remainder of the day.  While enjoying my lunch the other day we elected to finish things off with dessert . . . Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut Cream Sauce . . . drooling, drooling.  If you are in the mood for a culturally exciting, mind blowing party in your mouth, call me and we will go!

So, every man has to prove himself in varying degrees of life circumstances, right?  I have a friend that insists that every man should have to kill and cook his own food at one point in his life.  I can’t do that crap so I just watch videos of hunting and humane animal slaughter on Youtube, with my eyes half open.  I believe that this fulfills that requirement.  I have also discovered a new manhood test:  Going into the Ward’s basement, standing inches away from this buffalo, looking him directly in his artificial, glass eye, and trying not to collapse and/or cry.  I am getting better.  I’m becoming a man; no, a warrior.

This was my lunch break the other day.  The only thing that could have made this better? . . . peanut butter and chocolate chips on a spoon.  Welcome to summer!

There you have it.  Here’s hoping that this Breaks the Block and allows the posting flood gates to open!  I have a few ideas in the works.  You should should be excited.