Happy Father's Day!

It's been awhile since my last post. I'm not really a slacker, we were in Colorado all last week. I'll have a post about our trip in the next few days.

So Jessica thought that Father's Day was next Sunday and hadn't bought the present she was planning on getting me for this past Sunday so today she picked it up and had it waiting for me when got home from work. What did she get me? The Poang chair from Ikea!

I've wanted one of these chairs since the first time I saw one about 6 years ago. She got it for me for a combined Father's Day and birthday present. I was completely surprised and blown away that she got it for me. We had talked previously about getting one but decided to wait.

My favorite part was Penelope helped me put it together. She grabbed one of the little hex wrenches that came with all the bolts and went around to all of the bolts "tightening" them as we went. She was adorable. Jessica made some quick work with the camera and got these great shots:




The chair is wicked comfortable! I absolutely love it. Let me know if you want to come over and take it for a test drive.

Food Co-op II

We got our food co-op order and I must say it was a big success. This month we paid about $26 and here is everything we got:



In the order we got:

• 2 lbs chicken thighs


• 2 lbs pork spare ribs


• 2 top sirloin steaks


• 1 lb ground beef


• 5 lb bag of potatoes


• 1 bag of rice (about a pound)


• 1 bag mini carrots


• 3 Fuji apples


• 3 pears


• 4 Navel oranges


• 1 bunch of broccoli


• 1 bunch of green onions


• 1 head of Romaine lettuce


• 1 loaf of Stone Ground's Wheat Bread


• 1 loaf of Stone Ground's Sourdough Bread


• 1 box of Organic, Fair-Trade Rooibos Herbal Red Tea

I was amazed by how much food there actually was in the order. We will definitely be participating in the co-op again next month too.

The Community Food Co-op of Utah is set up so anyone can participate. There are no restrictions on who can participate, there aren't any hurdles. You can order as many shares as you'd like and you'll get what you pay for. The more people that participate the better prices they can negotiate and the more food we'll get each month. While we don't necessary 'have' to participate I am more than happy to do so. I like to know that because I am participating each month there is at least one person, one family, who is in need that will benefit by the increased participation. I do also enjoy saving money on food. I would encourage everyone to participate in your local food co-op as well. You'll most likely save money and support your local economy.

The Food Co-op

From time to time I've read about communities that have a food co-op. I've often wondered if Salt Lake would be fortunate enough to have a food co-op. We have a killer Farmers Market but I hadn't ever heard of any food co-ops.

Fortunately I saw a news story on rising food prices about a month ago that highlighted a local food co-op. The Community Food Co-op of Utah is a non-profit committed to bringing members of the community food at reasonable prices. You place an order once a month to get monthly deliveries. Yes it isn't necessarily enough food to cover all we'll need for a month but it's a good start and will definitely save us some coin. We get our first delivery this Saturday so I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Adam Just Freaked Out

So it's Sunday night about 12:30 am and Adam is asleep on our couch. They came over so Jessica and Lisa could have a sewing party (things are getting crazy at the Miller household).

Adam fell asleep and his neck was cricked. He woke up, realized his neck hurt, and growled in a way that almost sounded like a sick bear. It was a good time so now I am blogging about it.

Okay so he didn't quite freak out but it was pretty close. We all had a good laugh.

"Ow, my neck hurts..."

Good Friday Night

Tonight was awesome. It started with leaving work early and a great bike ride home. Jessica and Penelope were outside waiting for me, which is always great. Then I got to spend to some time just me and Penelope while Jessica loaded a couple of new hats to her website.

We decided to go out and get some fish tacos from Rubios, who, by the way, make the best fish tacos. Since we were in Sugarhouse we decided to walk around a bit.

First we were going to go to the library and pick up some books for Penelope but it was closed. What, a public library open later than 6 on a Friday? What was I thinking? Instead we walked over to Barnes & Noble for a few minutes.

While in B&N I was checking out the latest issue of Home Power. There was a really good article on potable rainwater collection systems. Yeah I don't have a house, but I love reading about stuff like that anyway.

Then we made a quick walk around to Downeast Outfitters and then over to Old Navy to get Penelope a new hoody. Yeah I'm not a super big fan about walking around shopping, but the weather today and this evening was so nice it was great to be walking around.

We finished the night off visiting Whole Foods to get some killer Stonyfield Farms Creme Caramel Ice Cream. We also picked up a few cookies from the bakery. While we were at the checkstand we saw these killer bags:





They are 80% made out of recycled soda bottles and pretty well made. I asked the cashier how much they were (out of curiosity) thinking that it's Whole Foods so they've got to be at least $5. Nope, only $.99! So we picked one up. They feel really similar to the lunch tote I made Jessica a few months ago out of used plastic grocery bags. The best part is they have a killer warranty. "If at anytime the bag wears out from normal use, bring it into a Whole Foods store and we'll replace it for free.". That's a pretty good warranty on a reusable grocery bag.

We came home, gave Penelope a bath (which she was extra cute during, we got some awesome video one of us might post), played a bit, and then put her to bed. Once she was in bed we indulged ourselves to the cookies and ice cream we bought while we watched the Office from last night (which was absolutely hilarious!). We also had this wicked good drink Jess made with ginger ale and a syrup made with sugar, lemon juice, mint, and rosemary. Very refreshing!

It's been a long time since we've had a night like this and it was a great change!

Oh yeah, happy end of bike to work day.

Bike Trailer, Finally!

We finally got a bike trailer! After about two years of wanting one we picked one up. We got it from my mom's sister-in-law (true story). It's a Burley d'lite that is about 3 years old. The two best parts are it was only used a couple of times and has been hanging in their garage ever since and we picked it up for only a hundred clams!

Here's the full rig.

We took it for a couple of small test rides yesterday, once around the neighborhood and once to the park. Tonight was the real test. Penelope and I went to the store to do our grocery shopping for the week. It went extremely well. I will admit that in my excitement to finally ride to the store and take Penelope with I left my wallet home and Jessica had to bring it to me (rookie mistake).

Happy after the ride.

Using the trailer for groceries was awesome! I fit almost the full load into the small storage space in the back of the trailer. I had to put one bag in the trusty milk crate.

The evidence.

The bike is currently my single-speed commuter. I do have plans for turning it into a utility bike (very soon). The extra gears will be especially helpful on the uphills. Once I have the bike converted over to be utility bike I'll post new pictures and a description of what I've done.

After we got home and ate dinner Penelope decided she wanted to play with my bike helmet. To that I say "what better toy then a bike helmet!".

Cheesing it up for the camera.

My Redneck Saturday

Today was great. Jessica had a class to go to at 8:00 this morning (don't know when the last time was she needed an alarm to get up) so I got to spend the morning with Penelope, it was great. We hung out and cleaned the house. She likes to help me vacuum. :)

Then we went to a diaper party for a couple in our ward who are having a baby in about two weeks, that was also a good time.

Then we went to Cache Valley to visit my mom for Mother's Day. This is where the redneck shenanigans begin. My mom has picked up some new hobbies since she got married this past December. About a month or two ago when I was talking to her on the phone she said "guess what? I got a BB gun". Then about two weeks ago when I was talking to her she said "you'll have to come check out my new 20 gauge shotgun". That's right folks, my mom is the proud owner of a 20 gauge shotgun. You might be saying to yourself "Eric, there's plenty of people who own shotguns that aren't rednecks". But then I say to you "she sits on the front porch of their house, which is on a small farm, to shoot it."



There's the evidence of the shenanigans. I've got the shotgun, my mom (to the left) has the BB gun. I took a few shots at some buckets that were hanging on the fence across the driveway. It was the first time I shot gun in probably 13 or 14 years. It was a good time. Now I'm set for another 13-14 years before I need to shoot a gun again.

New Blog: Cellphone Fstop

My friend Adam started a blog that he named Cellphone Fstop. The blog is exclusively pictures that are taken with cell phone cameras. A while ago he asked me to contribute to the Cellphone Fstop blog. Please check it out. We have an eclectic collection of pictures that range from the strange to the funny to whatever strikes our fancy at the time. We add a few new pictures every week. Check it out and check back often. You'll be able to find the link in the "blogs I contribute to" section off to the side.

Need Book Recommendations

I am in need of some good book recommendations. I've gone from having a laundry list of books to read (and actually not having read many of them) to not being able to think of any books that I want to read. My latest reads have been Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, Mastery by George Leonard, and right now I can't remember the one before that.

I'm pretty much up for anything. Mystery, novel, just fun reading, what have you. What are some good books that you've read lately that you'd recommend for me to read?

Who Are You?

Woah! Who are you and what happened to your hair? That's right I got a hair cut. Well I should say I pretty much shaved my head. It was that time. The hair had gotten very long and very unruly. I figured once the small mammals moved in it was time to cut it. While we were buzzing my head we stopped a couple of times to pay tribute to some of my past haircuts.

To little Eric from about the 1st to 3rd grade this one is for you:



For the Eric from 4th to about 9th grade, this is for you little buddy:


That's right folks, that is a rat tail.

Here's the remnants of what I had on my head yesterday afternoon:


Woah, is that a sink full of hair? Why yes it is. That was a lot of hair that came off.

You know the feeling of the first couple of steps after you take off your heavy backpack that you've been carrying for the past couple of hours when you are backpacking? The feeling like you feel so light and have an extra spring in your step? That's how my head felt this morning. I felt ultra-sleek and aerodynamic. It was a good time.

Ski Tour on Mt. Aire

A week ago from this past Thursday I went on a dawn patrol ski tour of Mt. Aire. I was invited by my friend Kendall to join him and a couple of his friends for the patrol. For those of you who don't know, Mt. Aire is the peak that you can't miss when driving east on I-80 from Park City to Salt Lake City. As you roll over Parley's Summit you can help but see Mt. Aire staring you in the face.

We started about 6:00 am and after 3100 feet of vertical ascent and 90 minutes of hiking we crested onto the summit just after the sun came up. Here's the pics of the surrounding area:


Looking down our skin track.




Looking at the sun.


Looking towards East Canyon.


The obligatory self-portrait.

It was great to look down at the highway every once in awhile and see all the people droning along on their way to work while I was breating the crisp mountain air and getting in some turns.

Backpacking Grand Gulch

This past weekend we went backpacking down in the Grand Gulch Primitive Area of Southern Utah. It was both Jessica and I's first backpacking trip in Southern Utah. It was amazing. First off we were able to drop Penelope off at Jessica's sister's house in Blanding for the weekend, second the weather the beautiful, third it's been a few years since we went backpacking together, and fourth the group we went with was awesome.

Grand Gulch is this huge canyon that was home to many Native Americans. The place is scattered with old ruins that you can walk up and check out (although there is only one that you can actually enter the buildings).

The trip was planned by my friend at work Walt and he invited us along. All I can say is it was awesome and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here are some of my favorites followed by all the pictures we took.

Jess coming out of Perfect Kiva.

The group hiking through the valley.

One of the drops into the valley.


The rest of the pictures.

And the Winner is...

A winner has finally been chosen for the mystery substance contest. While I did say I'd pick a winner after a week there were only two entries so I let it run longer. It paid off and I got a third entry!

Here's the deal, no one got 100% of the ingredients, but the closest was Mrs. Olsen (Rachel) with her guess of banana, strawberry, kiwi, and avocado. Congratulations on winning one gallon of the 'mystery substance'. Let me know the next time you're in the Salt Lake City area and I'll serve it up.

The winner of the grossest guess would be Ghost Rider with blenderized red potato salad. You win one red potato salad smoothie. To redeem your prize go to the grocery store deli, get one pound of red potato salad, return home, put in blender with about one cup of milk and blend until almost smooth (there's gotta be some chunks).


The recipe for the smoothie looked a little something like this: pineapple juice, orange juice, orange, banana, red delicious apple, and blueberry gogurt. It was actually pretty delicious.

The Power of Being Honest

There's a lot to be said about companies and businesses actually being honest about their practices and the reasons why do they stuff. Most of the time I think the most accurate portrayal of what's going on comes from satirical writers and cartoonists. I found this short piece from NPR. I was going to post it last summer but it got buried and I just found it. It's about the horrid airline travel season many customers experienced this past summer. You can find the original and listen to the audio (the audio is much better) over at NPR.

"Hi. Welcome to our airline you poor fool. I'm going to ask you a series of questions, just to keep you occupied, shouting into the phone. But I'm a recording. I can't understand a thing you say.

"After you've been on hold longer than the Russians have been in Chechnya, I'll turn you over to someone on the other side of the world who also won't understand you, and thinks that Pittsburgh is Plattsburgh.

"Talk loudly and repeat everything six times. We find that hilarious.

"Plan on getting to the airport four hours early, spending five hours on the runway, and landing seven hours late. If you don't like that, maybe you should try walking to your destination on your hands.

"If you miss your connection: tough.

"If you're calling because we lost your luggage, join the club. Give us a full description of the contents of your bag so that we can distract you while we let it rot unattended in Yuma, Arizona for a week.

"Give us your credit card information. We'll add on several fees, taxes, and penalties to drive up the cost.

"Don't I sound friendly? Actually, I'm hugely indifferent to everything you say."

I found it to be quite enjoyable.

Eww, What is that?

By the look of the following pictures what would you say the substance in the glass is?




Well, I'm not going to tell you, at least not yet. I am having a contest. The contest has two parts.

1-What is the substance?
2-What are the 'ingredients' in the substance?

You can make your submissions in the comments of this post (come on, you know you want to do it. Even if you don't have a blog, just comment and tell me your name in the comment). I will post the answers and the winner in a week-ish.

The person who answers correctly (or maybe closest to correctly) will win one gallon of the mystery substance.

Good luck and happy guessing. (Oh yeah, and Jess is excluded from winning because she knows the recipe and don't think about trying to get it out of her, her mind is like a steel trap...).

Yet Another New Layout

The other layout was lame. Although I did like it because parts were orange. I made the quick swap, made a quick custom header, and changed the sidebar a bit. Enjoy.

This post is for Mitchell

Doesn't that make you feel special?

Take That Being Sick

Today I decided to give being sick the proverbial finger. We had a couple storms roll through the later part of this past week and I had the opportunity to go touring, so I took it.

As it turns out, 4 hours of touring, 3200 vertical feet of climbing, and then 3200 vertical feet of skiing, and 4 hours of fresh mountain air are good for making your sickness go away.

I wish I had some pictures, but the camera didn't make it out of the pack. The new snow was a little heavy, but made for some great turns.

Take that being sick!

Three Weeks Sick

I've been battling a head cold for about 3 weeks now and it is getting very old. I don't cough, I am just extremely stuffy, have gallons of mucus, and incredible sinus pressure. I try to take it easy to rest up and that doesn't really seem to work. I decide I need to get out and exercise a little and that doesn't help. It's very annoying that nothing seems to work. I sleep and I feel good for a few hours after I wake up, but then it hits me again like a sledgehammer to the face.

I'm not really trying to complaining as much as I am protesting being sick. Anyone want to get some picket signs and walk around in a circle outside my nose chanting things like "hey ho mucus, sinus pressure, and headaches have got to go"? Let me know, we're meeting Saturday at 5;00 pm.

You Sure You Want that Bottle of Water?

I'm not one to repost a blog post that I've read. I'm going to make that exception today.

I saw a great post on bottled water that I read on The Goat blog. Rocky got it from Greenberg and the Ventura Country Star.



This is something that I completely agree with and have strong feelings about (though not militant feelings about). I couldn't tell you when the last time was we bought a bottle of water. At home we drink from the tap, at work we drink from the tap, when we go on the road we take Nalgene bottles and fill them up at gas stations. Considering that we have perfectly fine tap water there's no need to pay extra for it.

Hot & Sour Soup Anyone?

As many people know I love hot & sour soup. I would consider it one of my top favorite soups.

Tonight we decided to out to dinner and opted for Chinese. While I was eating my hot & sour soup I thought that Penelope might like to try some. I got a little broth on the spoon and gave it to her to test and she loved it! She kept wanting more and more. I gave her little bites of all the stuff in the soup and she ate it all.

We also tried out sweet & sour chicken on her along with tiny spicy chicken. Yup, she liked those too and kept eating them. I thought the tiny spicy might be too spicy for her but she kept chowing it.

The fact that she likes Chinese food, especially hot & sour soup, makes me happy.

New Vacuum

Who'd ever thought that getting a new vacuum would be exciting? Well I certainly never did.

Last Monday we went to Costco to pick up a new vacuum. Our old vacuum sucked (well I say it didn't suck). When we'd turn it on it sounded like and F-16 was landing in our living room. We'd run it around for about a minute and it's smell like the F-16 had caught on fire. Then we'd finish vacuuming and the floor would still be dirty. I guess we could say "what'd we expect from a free hand-me-down vacuum?". We finally said enough is enough and forked out the bills a new vacuum.

It is awesome. We were seriously excited to put it together and vacuum the house. The new vacuum works wonderfully! The carpets looked completely different when we were done. Also it was gross to see the amount of stuff that came up out of the carpet. It really showed how much the old vacuum didn't work.

Maybe it's a sign that we are boring that a new vacuum is so exciting.

Getting Crafty

I don't get crafty very often but when I do I usually have a pretty good time. The last time I got crafty I made a couple of Velcro straps to keep my pants from getting caught in my bike chain while riding. The time before that Jessica and I made some canvas grocery bags.

Tonight I made Jessica a lunch tote out of used plastic bags from various stores.

It was a good time and it turned out great. I read an article about how to make these and thought I'd give it a whirl. It isn't too big but would work great to hold a couple pieces a fruit and some small snacks.

Once we get some bags I think I'll make myself one. Here are a couple other pictures of the tote:

Temporary New Look

For some reason last night I looked at my blog and was extremely annoyed by its appearance. I have been wanting to do something new but wasn't ever motivated so just now I picked a new template and am going with it for the short term. I want to create my own template but don't really have the time right now.

I think the new template looks really funny. There may be a chance that it will change looks over the next couple of weeks.

What I Did With My Saturday Morning

I had previously written about how I thought skiing at ski resorts was overrated. This point was solidified once again yesterday morning.

I went touring with my buddy Matt. This time our destination was the Kessler Peak trees up Cardiff Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a beautiful bluebird day and the snow was going to be phenomenal. Last week the Wasatch Mountains were pounded with several feet of new snow.

As we began our tour we came across a small side slope that had some sparsely spaced trees. It looked nice enough that we decided to take a small detour and give it a run. What started as a small detour turned into a large detour as we pushed onto the longer slopes above.

It was probably the most grueling skinning I've done. Whoever broke trail decided to break a steep one instead of mellower switchbacks. My skins had a hard time getting purchase on the track and I'd often find myself sliding backwards after working so hard to get up. As Matt said "we are definitely earning a lot of vert today".

The skin track took us to the shoulder just below the summit of Kessler Peak, just to the side of "God's Lawnmower". Instead of skiing the more mellow swath of God's Lawnmower (it honestly looks like someone too a gigantic lawnmower straight down through the trees) we opted for the steeper slope on the south-east side of the shoulder through the pines. It was money.



Hands down the best turns of the year. Knee to thigh deep blower. Face shots abounded and there were many whoops of enjoyment. It was the kind of snow that makes you bear the powder grin from ear to ear.



It wasn't without incident though. Partway down Matt and I each pulled out small sluffs of new snow. After Matt pulled his he stopped and was hit by it and there was enough snow that ran that is came up to his waist. As I was skiing I saw that he had pulled one, noticed that I pulled one and skied out of the way. (In the image the one Matt pulled is to the right of the ski tracks and mine is to the left). We both were fine and didn't face any real danger from them, but it was definitely one of those moments that reminds you that you have to careful and on top of things 100% of the time in the backcountry. We did have a short discussion of what happened and how to avoid it again in the future. We then skied big open slopes back to the main skin track.

After a couple minutes of rest we headed back up to ski the small slope that we had first set out to ski. Even on the smaller slope, the skiing was still amazing. Hands down it was the best tour of the season so far.

Resort Skiing is Overrated

I grew up skiing resorts and have skied resorts ever since I was 5 years old. A few years ago I decided to branch out my skiing to the backcountry as well as the resorts. For Christmas about three years ago Jess got me a pair of used Alpine Trekkers and a pair of used skins. Later that season I picked up a beacon and commenced to go on a couple of tours.

The next year I toured more but probably still spent about 80% of my ski time in resorts. Last year my ski time was split about 60% resort, 40% touring. So far this year my time has been about 50/50 but that will quickly change.

This past Monday Jessica and I went night skiing (she boarded) at Brighton. After about two runs I had my fill of the resort. It was all right, there was new snow, but there were so many people that it was almost ridiculous. If there hadn’t had been new snow we both probably would have said “let’s just go”.

Yesterday we went and skied Solitude. It was better than Monday. There wasn’t any new snow, but it snowed recently so it was still decent. We had fun (especially with the little ‘chocolate scavenger hunt’ type game they had going on at the resort that day) but still wasn’t super stoked on it.

The previous Saturday I went touring up Days Fork with my buddy Matt. It was dead. We saw about seven other people the whole time on the trail. Six were snowshoers who stayed on the main skin track and one was a solo skier we passed once we hit the steeps. The environment around us was absolutely serene. In all we spent about three and half hours worth of skinning to make two laps. It was totally worth it.

I could get behind skiing a resort on a super deep pow day if it wasn’t packed with people. I’ll keep skiing resorts, especially now that we are beginning our family, and it is the best place to go to teach the kids (only one, but undoubtedly we’ll have more). But from now on if given the choice I'll choose to go touring.

How To, Part II: Finding Songs on Your New iPod Shuffle

Now that you are the proud owner of a 30 GB iPod Video Shuffle you probably are getting sick already of always having to listen to shuffle. I know you must be asking yourself "Eric, how the devil do you know what to do, you can't see the screen?" Have no fear, you can actually find music you are looking for and have fun at the same time.

The other night Jess and I were driving and wanted to listen to the Voodoo Glow Skulls so we had a good time figuring out how to get there. Just follow these steps:

1-Turn your iPod on.
2-Press "menu" a bunch times so you get all the way back to the first menu (you won't know, so press it six or seven times).
3-Scroll the wheel to the left until the clicking stops, this will put you on "music", press the center button.
4-Scroll the wheel to the left again until the clicking stops. Scroll the wheel to the right one click. This will put you on "artists", press the center button.
5-If you don't know what the last artist was you listened to, scroll either all the way to the left (or right depending on where your desired artist falls in the alphabet) until the clicking stops.
6-Scroll for as long as you think you need until you think you are close to your desired artist, press the center button.
7-This puts you on the "albums" menu so press the center button two more times (one time puts you on the "song" menu and the second time plays the song).
8-Listen to first part of the song and determine who the artist is.
9-If it isn't your desired artist, press the "menu" button three times to get back to the "artist" menu.
10-Repeat steps 6-8 until you dial in the desired artist.

This is actually a pretty good time. It took us about 5 minutes to dial in the Voodoo Glow Skulls but we had fun getting there. It's also a great way to play music trivia because no one can cheat and look at the screen. You'll also be forced to become really familiar with what you have on your iPod.

Good luck and happy hunting!

How To, Part I: How to Turn your 30 GB iPod Video into a 30 GB iPod Shuffle

I thought that I would begin a "how-to" series on my blog. This is my first go at a how-to so I hope it goes well.

How to turn a 30 GB iPod video into a 30 GB iPod shuffle
1. First you must own a 30 GB iPod video.
2. Place iPod video in the outside pocket of your backpack, with the screen facing outwards.
3. Place backpack in car.
4. Place baby in car.
5. Now get backpack and baby out of car.
6. While getting both out of the car, accidentally drop backpack, face down, onto the ground.
7. Rewind back to step 6 making sure to bounce the face of the backpack off the bike parked in the garage.
8. Bring backpack and baby inside.
9. Remove iPod from backpack. If it looks something like this:


then you were successful.

An interesting part was figuring out how to get to "shuffle songs".

Recycle those old electronics

I recently read an article about a great electronics recycling company. The name is Second Rotation. Second Rotation will buy back some of your old electronics, giving you cash that you wouldn't otherwise get for that junk sitting in your drawer. If your stuff is too old, or too damaged, they will still take it back and recycle it for you. They have a series of standards that they follow so you know your stuff isn't just ending up in the landfill. It's better to sell the stuff now. The longer you wait, the more the price will drop.

The best part is shipping is free in the lower 48 states.

I went through some our stuff like one old cell phone, a Mini Disk player, and a camera and we'd only get about 25 bills for our camera. I don't think we'll take them up on that offer since we still use the camera. Although once one of us gets a new cell phone I'll definitely send in the old one.

It's nice to see that someone has created a viable, accountable way to help recycle the massive amounts of electronic waste we have in this country.

That's a funny looking hat.

The long-sleeve t-shirt I was wearing today got a hole in each elbow. It's a wicked old, worn out shirt. I said to Jessica "grab the hole and try to rip off my sleeve". She did, and it ripped right off. I put the torn sleeve on my head as a hat, then I took it off. Jess tore off the other sleeve, put it on her head as a hat and said "quick, put on your hat, we have to go find the neutrons."

We had a good laugh and then took the picture.

Yet another reason why I love my wife, she says and does silly things that she wouldn't when other people are around.

Blog Post Overload

Yes it's been a little while since I've posted.

However, you can get your dose of blog post overload over at Jessica's blog.

She did a great job of covering everything we've been up to.

The Best Sandwich, EVER!

The sandwich to which I am referring is the cold turkey sandwich. However, this isn't your typical cold turkey sandwich, it is THE cold turkey sandwich. The sandwich of all sandwiches.

Ordinarily one enjoys this sandwich immediately after Thanksgiving. As many of your know, we spent our Thanksgiving in Southern Utah so we didn't get to enjoy homemade Thanksgiving dinner.

Well we had a gift certificate and come coupons for a turkey and we picked one up after Thanksgiving. Since it was going to be free I got us as much turkey as I could for free and we ended up with a 21.5 lb turkey! We cooked it up right nice on Sunday and had a small Thanksgiving dinner.

The best part happened Monday for lunch, the cold turkey sandwich. I look forward to this sandwich all year long. Everyone has their own way of making the sandwich and I have to say all those ways are wrong.

There is only one way to make the cold turkey sandwich, Miracle Whip (trust me, it's essential), lots of cranberry jelly, and ample amounts of turkey.

So far I've enjoyed three cold turkey sandwiches and there are many more to enjoy. If you don't believe me that it is the best sandwich I'll make you one.

This is 100

Wow, phenomenal isn't it? This is post #100 for me on my blog. I thought there'd be more fanfare. You probably thought there'd be something more exciting. Well...Are you ready for this?

I bet if you squint hard enough fireworks will shoot out of your computer.

Did it work?

UPDATE: Apparently this post is boring and it sucks. Jessica started reading it and didn't finish. She said "I got bored". Hmmmmmm...

Green Christmas Ideas

As wonderful as this time of year is and how great Christmas is, it must be the most wasteful holiday of the year. Everyone is exchanging gifts (more products produced for this time of year) that are no doubt boxed up and wrapped, sometimes shipped, sometimes delivered in person. All of these things equal waste.

This has been on my mind as I have been preparing for the holidays. I have been contemplating what I can do and what I can help others do to reduce our impact during this time of year. I recently found an article in a Wild Oats magazine that I picked up last time I was there, and I wanted to share some of the ideas:

-Conventional wrapping paper (especially extra-glossy & metallic papers) can't be recycled a lot of the time. Use newspaper, paper grocery bags, or even canvas bags as wrapping instead. Many of these alternative wrappings can be colored or decorated to look festive. (This will also save you some cash. How much do spend on the wrapping that is just going to get ripped apart and discarded?)
-The first idea often doesn't feel very "holiday". If you feel you must use festive wrapping paper reuse papers, ribbons, gift bags, boxes, etc whenever you can. When buying new paper avoid metallic and extra-glossy paper, and buy recycled paper whenever possible.
-Instead of shipping packages (especially heavy packages) purchase gift cards or something local for the recipient.
-Avoid products with excess packaging or better yet give a homemade gift or a baked gift in a reusable tin or container.

Implementing some, or all, of these ideas isn't hard and every little bit helps. I am far from perfect as I have purchased gifts this year online and am having them shipped to our house. All it takes is everyone doing at least a little. I am, however, wrapping all of our gifts in newspaper and other papers, bags, and boxes we have saved from previous occasions.

What are other ideas that some of you have for reducing our impact during this time of year?

Here I sit, still at work

The office is completely dead, yet I'm still here, what can you do though? Hopefully leaving soon. Sometimes things take longer than expected and it's unfortunate that it has happened on a Friday.

It has been nuking all day so that should make for an interesting drive home. Tonight Jessica got a babysitter for us so we can go climbing at the gym together. After that we'll be cleaning the house and getting stuff ready for Penelope's birthday party tomorrow.

The new snow will be extremely beneficial for skiing at Alta! This is going to perhaps be the best first birthday ever (who else got to go skiing on their first birthday?)

Christmas Came Early

Well sort of...The stuff I won from the Backcountry.com Adventure Contest finally arrived. The crazy/best part is it all arrived on the same day!

I scored a new ski helmet, goggles, and sunglasses from Smith (although the sunglasses weren't in the box). I've had the same ski helmet for about five years now. It is a super old design, have practically no ventilation, and it made me look awfully funny. The goggles are super rad. They are the new I/O. The goggles feature a design that is truly interchangeable. I am very excited to get out and give the new headwear a whirl.

I also got some nice "casual" shoes from Montrail. They are super comfy and it will be nice to have a pair of shoes to wear that aren't either Chacos or trail running shoes. Although I still prefer Chacos to anything.

Thanksgiving in Southern Utah

This year we decided to take a trip for the Thanksgiving holiday. We decided to pack up and head to Southern Utah for some places we haven't been to. We went Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks.

We had both been to Bryce when we were younger, but didn't remember much of it, and neither of us had ever been to Capitol Reef. The original plan was to get a hotel for Thanksgiving night and then camp. After checking the weather and seeing that the nightly lows were supposed to be in the mid-teens, we opted for a hotel every night. It actually work out quite nicely.

We were able to find Thanksgiving dinner at the Ruby's Restaurant, inside the Ruby's Best Western. We were also able to find a nice indoor pool and hot tub as well. The place we stayed had closed theirs for the season.

We spent Friday driving the scenic drive, hitting up the lookouts, and then hiking down through the bottom of Bryce Canyon. I was absolutely amazed by the formations. It definitely ranks highly in my favorite national parks list. The hike through the bottom of the canyon was the best. Even though we passed quite a few people at the start and at the end, we were able to find solitude through the middle section. The perspective from being down in the canyon was amazing.

Saturday we drove "scenic" Highway 12 to Capitol Reef. This was the most amazing section of road I have ever been on in my life. As you're heading north you are on top of a plateau (maybe it's a mesa) and then all of a sudden you drop down into the bottom and your amidst slick rock, canyons, and huge walls. As you climb out the other side you quickly find yourself on top of a spine is wide enough to fit a two-lane highway and a couple feet of dirt on each side before the drop into the canyon, on each side. Unfortunately the camera was packed away in the trunk so we didn't get any pictures. I will make a trip just to drive that section of road again.

By the time we got to Capitol Reef we had just enough time to get in one hike down a side canyon that gave some great views of the main section of the park. The huge sandstone walls (and splitters) were awe inspiring. We saw absolutely no one else on the trail and enjoyed complete solitude the whole time. I have a feeling that a trip will be in the works in the springtime to make it down to climb some of the cracks we saw.

We spent Sunday driving home. The nice part of the drive was we spent most of the time driving on Highways and little time on the freeway. We actually drove on a lot of roads that neither of us had been on and we saw lots of places that neither of us had seen. While on the back roads we were able to pass a guy in his jacked-up truck, with his four-wheeler in the bed, and a sticker that said "Shut up hippy". It made me laugh.

Here's an album of our trip (I went back to Bubbleshare because Flickr is lame.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Safe Toys

The Big 1 Triple 0

I'm sure all of you didn't notice, but this blog just rolled over 1,000 visits since I added the counter earlier this year. It isn't a momentous occasion but one I wanted to mention anyway.

Okay, I'll admit, it was easy fodder for a quick blog post.

A full blog post report on our Thanksgiving Southern Utah trip will be coming later this week.

Grandeur Peak

This past Saturday we decided to hike Grandeur Peak here in Salt Lake. Grandeur is the first peak between Parleys Canyon and Millcreek Canyon. I had previously run up the Millcreek side earlier this year so we opted to tackle the West Ridge. It has been a little while since we last hiked and thought it would be a good test run before this weekend.

The trail starts right at the mouth of Parleys and ascends 3100 vertical feet in 1 3/4 miles. STEEP! Needless to say Jessica and I both got worked. It was fairly grueling on the way because the trail is so steep. It had been a long time since either of us had put in any kind of vert.

It was a great day for hiking. The temps were a little low, but once we got moving it felt very nice. There was hardly any wind until we reached the ridge just below the summit, but we only had to endure the chilly wind for a few minutes.

Once we reached the summit we were rewarded with outstanding panoramas of the Salt Lake Valley, the Wasatch Range, Parley's Canyon, and beyond.

It was a beautiful day to out hiking. It is by far one our most favorite things to do together. Unfortunately we didn't get out as much as we should have this summer, but sometimes that happens. We will definitely be taking advantage of this weekend and the remaining days until the winter arrives (which I am praying will be sooner rather than later.).

You can see the rest of the pictures from our hike here. (I can't remember how to post the Flickr slideshow in my blog...I know there is a way, or at least there used to be a way. If anyone knows please tell me.

Do you know why I pulled you over?

"Well no sir" (okay...I knew).
"You were going 44 in a 30."

As it turns out I didn't know I was going 44 (didn't look) and didn't know it was 30 (didn't see the sign).

That was the glorious event that transpired driving home from the Buchanan's two Fridays ago. I completely forgot to blog about it, but then as I was paying my fine online just now I remembered I needed to post about it.

The most ironic part of the whole thing is we just renewed our auto insurance in October and for the first time since Jess and I have known each other we both had completely clean driving records and were bumped up to the "highest" level of insurance.

So I just paid 132 bills my speeding mistake. 82 of them go to pay the fine and 50 of it goes to traffic school so the ticket doesn't go on my record. So we're out 132 clams but at least we get to keep the good standing with the insurance.

All that is left is going to traffic school.

Good thing the sewer got fix...

...because I got really sick last night.

Penelope got sick Thursday night, had her first throwing up incident. I think whatever she has she gave to me because last night I had my first throwing up experience in about 10 years. Definitely didn't enjoy it, but it did actually make me feel better. My day has been spent trying to catch up on sleep and getting better.

Did I mention that being sick sucks?

Sorry sir, you can't use your own bathroom

Wednesday late afternoon we get a paper put on our front door. It is from a company saying they have be contracted by Salt Lake City Sanitation to install a new pipe in the public sewer. The paper then continued to say the installation would be happening on Friday at 8:00 am and that we shouldn't use the sewer at all during that time (washer, sink, toilet, shower, etc) because our private service line will be blocked and any water usage will flood our structure.

It is now 10:00 pm Friday night and we still can't use anything. The paper said the process would take 10-18 hours to complete! The good news is I was at work most the day and Jess was watching some kids from the ward for half the day.

The bad news is something the workers did caused a bunch of sewage to come up in our toilet (like the toilet overflowed) and it got all over the floor. The worst part is we haven't been able to clean it up because we can't flush the toilet.

Gross...and lame.

No Posts

I was called out in the comments of my last post (thanks Honey!) for not posting very often. Here's how my days have gone for the past week or so:

Wake up, go to work, work all day, come home, eat dinner, play with Jess and Penelope for a few, work until bedtime. LAME! Work has been super-extra-wicked busy lately and it is spilling over into my home life. I'm not very stoked on it but hopefully after this weekend it won't happen anymore for awhile.

Halloween was fun. Penelope was a spider, she was cute. Jess and I dressed up as Jim and Pam from "The Office" Check us out on Jessica's blog.