Camping 2011

I love camping. I'm not quite sure camping loves me though. Once again I had a tent commit suicide while I slept in it. I mean it was bad enough that this tent was much smaller than advertised and that I had to sleep in a very small corner on the unforgiving ground. But the tent caved in on itself, smothering me and letting the rain fall on my face! This happened the first night. I slept in there for two more.

The rest of the trip was fun though. We camped near Bear Lake, up by Minnetonka Cave. I love it up in that area. This is where my Mother's family is from. My Aunt Charlotte (Chuck) lives in the house my Poppa (Grandpa) was born in, in a little town called Bloomington. My sister Sarah is currently living up there too. Up the dirt road on the top of a hill overlooking the Bear Lake Valley is my Mothers and Grandparents final resting places. Obviously I am deeply rooted to this area.

We camped with Jill's parents, who I adore. They are such great people. Jill's had extended family there too and they feed us delicious food every night. So much in fact that I gained 5lbs! My brother Brian and his wife (Krystal) and son (Issac) came up with us. Those three shared the lovely tent with me. But what was really cool is that my Aunt Suzie (on my Dad's side) reserved the spot next door to us. She came up along with my brother Keven and his family (Tiff, Tayvia, and Eyslee). It was cool to have so many loved ones up there from all sides of the family! I just hope I did a good job of spending time with everyone and not making anyone feel left out.

We went to Minnetonka Cave and we hiked to Bloomington Lake, which by the way is the prettiest place on Earth. My Poppa once said something along the lines of - "God created the Heavens, the Earth, and then Bloomington". The hike isn't too treacherous, but when you're as out of shape as I am and you are caring your 20lb baby girl, your legs will feel the burn. Plus, it was especially hot this time of year up there. I think we all melted a bit each day!

The best part of the trip though was spending time with my wife and daughter. Lucy has been a bit cranky lately and she let us know when she was unhappy, but for the most part she was an angel. Jill and I had a great time taking her cute little pictures. She's such a ham for the camera. Oh and speaking of Lucy, my Aunt Charlotte has given her her very own horse. That's right, my 8 month old baby has her own horse. She's a cute little pony named Bumper. Lu was a bit confused around the horse, but I am sure, especially since she's from my family, she'll be on that horse in no time!

I'm sure this was our last camping adventure of the year, but I can't wait for next year! I'm going to buy myself an awesome tent, built for a king! Or at least one that isn't all emo and hurts itself and whithers away!

MacBook Pro

So I did it. I spent way too much money and bought myself a laptop. I couldn't help it. I must have been the only 31 year old man in the U.S. that didn't have one, right? Never mind that I have an awesome desktop and an iPad, this is 2011 and daddy needs his tech stuff.

I did sell a TV to help pay for part of it. I am also selling my scooter and quite possibly my desktop too. So I'm parting with some of my old toys to make way for the new ones. I am also seriously thinking about taking a Mac class because even though I know a fair amount of stuff, I still find new things out all the time.

But anyway, I am pretty happy with my purchase even with the small amount of buyers remorse that comes with spending money on myself :)

In any event here is a some pic of me and my little hommie Issac!

August Update

Lucille has found her voice. She is now growling, yelling, giggling, and I think yodelling too. My super smiley baby is now full of all sorts of unusual sounds. Sounds that makes her sound more like a very spitty monster than a 7 month old baby. It is very cute though.

Her little personality is starting to show. She definitely lets you know if she is happy or not. Plus what has her thoroughly entertained one moment will drive her nuts the next. She has me constantly changing whatever I am doing to keep her entertained.

My brother and his family will be in town in a couple days. I am very excited to see him. I start vacation on Wed and we are going camping in Idaho with Jill's parents. My Aunt Suzie also rented a spot and will be camping there too. My brother Keven and his family will also becoming up. It will be great to see everyone! Plus I haven't been camping in a couple years and I've been itching to go out.

I've been debating with myself (& Jill) about whether or not I should invest in a MacBook Pro. I do have a desktop and an iPad, so it's not like I don't have any computers, but I just really want a laptop. It can do so much more than my iPad ( the iPad is more of an E-reader, mp3 player, and net book), and would be even more powerful than my 2006 iMac. But it is definitely a want not a need. I'm just not sure if I should or could pull the trigger on buying one...

A little word of advice to you shoppers... PART 1

Acting like a jerk in a retail store, or in my case a grocery store, will not help you get better or faster service. Try treating that person behind the counter with some respect and they will do much more to help you out.

Placing your items on the checkout belt before the person in front of you is done putting theirs on is not only rude, but just stupid. Settle your impatient butt down and give that person some time. It takes much more time to sort through the mess on the belt because you couldn't wait a few seconds.

They say perception is reality, but what you perceive to be a 10 minute wait at the checkout is usually under a minute. My store has an average wait time of 28 seconds between orders. Now tell me, whatever you do for work, can you help your customer out in that time?

Cashiers are required to ask how you are. If you're having a pissy day, save that info. My 19 year old cashier doesn't really need to know your life story and why everything sucks. Just be polite and lie if needed.

Don't look down at a retail employee like they must be uneducated because they "stack cans" for a living. Cashiers at my store make damn near $15 an hour (which is pretty good in Utah BTW) to check your order out. I know that in management I make more than the majority of my friends with degrees.

Sometimes items do not ring up right. It's not that cashiers fault, nor is it some conspiracy by the store to make more money. It's also fixable. Don't lose your cool. It's called human error. When you carry 50,000+ different items, one or two signs may get missed along the way. Does your work run flawlessly? Probably not.

Feeling irritated because...

I have a new boss and my work world has changes completely.

My sole living parental unit has continued to choose to not be around.

The housing market in my neighborhood stinks so bad that it is driving the value of my place down, thus making it hard to sell.

I can't go anywhere far away from home, anytime in the foreseeable future.

I feel like certain people ignore me unless convenient for them to reply.

Music will never be as awesome as it was in the 60's-70's.

I am writing a pointless blog, bitching to nobody ;)

Park City weekend

Jill and I took a weekend trip to Park City. Of course we brought along little Lucy too. It was nice to get away from work for a few days. My company just restructured managers and my boss, mentor, and friend was shipped off to a new store. We've got a new manager and I'll not listen to the hearsay about her and I'll make my own decision about her once we work together. I just hope she doesn't try to change what we have going on in our store. Needless to say this has left me very stressed.

But back to Park City. It was nice to spend some time with Jill. Our work schedule keeps us apart too much. She really is the love of my life and I cherish our time together. I couldn't ask for a better best friend. Jill also has some health concerns that have come up, nothing too major, but it still worries me so it was great to just play and not worry about that.

Little Lucy, only six months old, is not so little anymore. She grabs everything in sight, including our cups and she drinks out of them with or without the straw. Of course the cups have water only. Jill would kill me if Lu got into my soda, but I sure do tease her about it. Lucy's personality is so cute. She hams it up and smiles when you break out the camera, growls if you growl, and of course types on keyboards if you do. She's helping my type right now...

We finished up our little getaway buy going to the zoo today. We met up with Jill's parents and had a great time. Lu is sure loved by her grandparents! The zoo was fun, if not just hot. Lu came away with a few toys and had as much fun as a six month old can. After the zoo we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory and had some lunch. We, like most parents, wanted to give Lu a lemon wedge to watch her pull faces and squirm. Didn't happen. This little girl loved her lemon and went to town on it. She was too funny.

Overall it was a good weekend and we had a great time. I really cherish my family and time spent together. I can't wait for our next getaway!

7/5/11

Virginia was fun. I spent the first couple days by myself in D.C., which was nice. I got to go to many of the Smithsonian museums and did other site seeing. I then drove to my brothers house and waited for him to come home. Sadly he didn't get home until almost 8pm on Wed night and I had to leave by Thurs afternoon. However, I did get to take part of his reenlistment, so it was all worth while to me. Plus driving up to Baltimore through the Eastern Shore was beautiful.

Lucy is growing like crazy. She is so smart. She is starting to grab things and is really interested in things with buttons. She is always grabbing my xbox controllers or tv remotes. Since she likes these things so much, I went and bought her a little kid laptop. It lights up, makes sounds, and sings songs. She loves it and pounds on the keys while smiling.

Got word that a member of my family has been or once had spread a nasty lie about me. I got angry for about a day, but then laughed it off do to the source. Life is much too short and good to sweat the petty things. Ugly things happen to people who constantly surround themselves in ugly.

My birthday is in a couple weeks. I'm excited because my father-in-law bought me tickets to the Triple-A All-Star game and home run derby. I love baseball and it will be awesome to see these future stars in action.