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: