DAY 120 - Runnin' the course!

Get in' shape girl!  Today we ran the little ROTC training course in the hills above Weber.  It's this old school exercise course made back in the 70's or 80's.  You run down a path and there are stops along the way with different activities to do.  My favorite happens to be the hop kick, you have to hop on one leg while kicking the other leg up and touching your toe.  It's pretty fancy, I'm glad that this is the type of exercise the government feels is important for its young ROTC recruits.  Add a jazzy minus track and a few grapevines and I think we've got ROTC the Musical!  

DAY 119 - The Heat Is On in Salt Lake

My good buddy Jeff is in Miss Saigon at PMT.  I have been wanting to get tickets for the show to see him, but $50 is just a little bit to rich for my blood right now.  I was a little disappointed I was going to miss it.  But I received a pleasant surprise today when Jeff called me and said he had a comp ticket to the dress rehearsal!  I was able to go, even though I had to sit by myself, in between two nun like ladies and a group of pretentious Salt Lake Acting Company people.  It was an odd juxtaposition.  I believe the nuns were a little shocked at first, but ended up enjoying the show.  

It was funny to watch Jeff stumble around drunk in a Vietnamese brothel then finding himself wrapped up with a little prostitute... I was so proud of him for being edgy.  A far cry from the BYU Young Ambassador Spectacular.

The show was really good, in my humble opinion.  I saw "Miss Saigon" in New York the week before it closed.  I remember not being overly impressed, but that may have been because it was the day we flew in and I was extremely tired, and we were about half way up the balcony and I felt as if I was observing "Miss Saigon" form the suburbs of Hanoi.  But this time I was near the front, I was able to follow the story better and see facial expressions.  Many people try to pick apart shows for the flaws, but in my opinion, if it successfully conveys the emotion of the story it is a success.  Nothing really took away from that for me.  There may have been some awkward moments, and since it was a rehearsal, there were still a few minor technical glitches with mic's and that sort of thing.   But all in all I thought it was a great show.  If I had paid the $50 I don't think I would have been disappointed... I mean $50 is $50 and I think that's always too much for regional theater, but I guess if that's what we have to pay to support the arts I'm all about it.  When, of course, I actually have the $50 to support the arts... for now, thanks for the comp ticket!

DAY 118 - Buzzzed

So after looking at my recent photos I realized my hair was getting long and whispy and old man looking.  I hate it!!!  Whenever it starts to grow out I think its going to be thick and luxurious for some reason. I have these visions of having the shaggy surfer dude look.... Aint never gonna happen.  I don't know why I try.  So tonight I accepted the fact that I'm a half step away from trying to get into the Hair Club for Men.  I just hear their initiation rituals are brutal.  So until I make it through the hazing process I'll have to settle for a shaved crew cut look.  It's not bad, right?   I was also excited to finally have one of those camera in the bathroom mirror shots!  I'm so MySpace 2006!

DAY 117 - Show me the money!!!

Cash William Noyes was born Saturday at 10 something PM after poor Lisa was in labor for 22 hours!  Finally the doctor used every tool available and yanked him into this crazy world!  (The dog came earlier.)  

I'm so excited for Matt and Lisa!  He seriously is the cutest kid, big chunky cheeks and a cute little chin.  He was 9 lbs, I told them chunky babies are so much cuter than skinny babies, skinny babies look creepy.  I wish that same mentality translated to adulthood.

I was quite surprised when I got the text Saturday night, to see that his name was Cash.  There has been an ongoing dispute over the name issue the entire gestation.  Matt really wanted Cash, after one of his idols Johnny Cash, and if it was a girl he wanted Presley after his other idol Elvis.  I liked both names actually, I really think Presley is cute for a girl.  But I understand Lisa's concern, since her name is Lisa Marie, may seem a little overboard with the Elvis idolizing, they all ready drive a Cadilac and have a white grand piano in the living room, Matt is just a peanut butter and banana sandwich away from becoming the King himself.  ;)

DAY 116 - SURPRISE!!

Today was Alane's birthday!! Nancy was wanting to do something really special for Alane this year so she decided to put together this little surprise party. We have been planning it for a few weeks now and Alane hasn't suspected a thing. We had decided we would go to Sundance for brunch and Alane thought that would be the big activity of the day. Little did she know!

We went to brunch at the Foundry Grill at Sundance, which is to die for!! But we had a lot of time to kill before people were going to arrive at 6pm. So we stopped off in Alpine so James and Nancy could right up the offer on the condo they want to buy. Then we had an awkward amount of time left, not really enough to do anything, but we would have been a little early if we would have gone straight there. So we decided to go to the mall, but we had only been there about 10 minutes and it was time to go. So I texted Nancy and told her to tell Alane she had to use the bathroom, then James called and told Alane he needed to go cause he had to go to the bathroom... apparently there was a choloera outbreak amongst the group and we had to leave the mall STAT! Everyone had a case of the "runny bottoms" (that's what James calls it, Australians are funny).

Anyway, we finally made it to my apartment and she walked in and just thought the decorations were left over from my party Friday, but then she realized Christian Bale and she knew it was for her. Then right after we got there, people began arriving. She was sooo happy there were even some tears. We had a good turn out, more people than I thought. Some of her former students, and some of her friends from college and that she grew up with in Illinois. It went swimmingly, she told us she had no idea!

I'm glad she had a good birthday, its harder for all of us to get older, especially when things don't turn out how you figured they would. But, as for Alane, I think she has a great life, a job she loves, respect of the entire community she lives in, and friends and family who love her! Happy Birthday Alane!!

DAY 115 - All the balloons were hung on the ceiling with care

We're so sneaky....  Nancy and James came down today to get my apartment all ready for Alane's surprise party tomorrow.  Alane doesn't suspect a thing, she called me at one point to ask directions to Daybreak, Nancy and James were right there trying to be quiet.  I told her the best I knew how, but I don't know that area very well, so James was whispering directions to me.  Then right after she got off the phone with me, she called James for directions... guess she didn't trust me, but we thought it was real funny.

I also got to see my guilty pleasure tonight "17 Again" starring the amazingly um....talented?  Zac Efron.  It was a pretty cheesy movie, but what can you expect.  Reminded me of all those 80's movies I loved s

o much.  

As part of Alane's present we made her a full size Christian Bale cutout.  She'll love it, but its not so funny to walk into your dark apartment at midnight and see the silhouette of a strange 6' tall man in your living room...  Newsie Christian Bale in my apartment may not be such a 

bad thing, but creepy American Psycho Christian Bale not so good.

DAY 114 - This just in...

Has it been a year?? Seems more like 10!  Today was the Weber State News Senior Tribute.  There were four graduating this semester, all three of us were in the In Studio class two years ago, then went into news that fall.  I just happened to be a year ahead of them.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone again, and be in the newsroom and on the set.  I totally miss it!!  Hailey and I took our old positions as hard hitting news anchors.  After the show a bunch of us alums and the graduating group all went to lunch at Javier's.  It's sort of a tradition.

After that I went and met Nancy, we did our shopping for Alane's surprise party.  We got her present, and spent far too much time trying to find the right shades of pink and orange for the decorating theme.  But it's going to so much fun, she'll be so surprised!!!

I made it back in time to get everything all set up for the party.  The newsies began filing in.  I didn't have as many come as I had planned on, but it was a good group.  The ones still in school had a paper due by midnight, so most of them were frantically trying to finish their senior thesis.  But us alums had a good time, with our trusty advisor Terri as the life of the party.  A Shih Tzu named Oliver and a Man names Israel... and every sentence ending in "That's what she said"  it was a wild one!!!

DAY 113 - Puttin' it together

Today was my FRIDAY!! YAY!! I have taken tomorrow off to go up to Weber for the WSN Senior tribute. I'm going to have a bunch of the newsies over for a little get together, so tonight I had to get things ready. After work I went to dinner with the parents at our old favorite... Chuck-A-Rama!! After I got home I did a little cleaning, then went to the store for stuff to make treats. It was about 11:00 pm and I thought I would get to bed and get up early to work out before going up to Ogden. However, as I was figuring out my day tomorrow, I realized it was going to be a tight squeeze to get home make my treats and get stuff ready. So I decided to start making cookies.... 3 hours later I was still baking. I decided the homemade oreos may not be enough, so I also made homemade Samoa's. I'm such a slave to my hosting duties. They better all appreciate it

DAY 112 - Movin' on up!

What's the deal?  It seems as if everyone is either buying a home or having a baby!  Latoya is going to put in an offer on a condo in North Salt Lake.  So we went out to take a look at it tonight.  It's a cute place, brand spankin' new.  I'm so jealous!  And feeling a little sorry for myself.  I just realized I'm the only one of my close friends that doesn't own a home.  But who's comparing.  It has got me in the mood to buy something.  I have had buying a house on the 5 year plan, but after looking into things I realize my rent is almost a mortgage payment.  So I'm starting to think I may look into it within the next year, hopefully the economy won't recover too soon and interest rates and all that start to go up.  I'm hoping the Swine Flu steals the focus of an economic recovery and extends the government home buying tax credit program.

DAY 111 - Welcome Friends!

Nothin' like a little flower planter bike ride 'round Thai Pan, it's beautiful this time of year!  Nancy, Alane and I had a nice time looking around Thai Pan Trading Co. at all the pretty things I will never be able to afford, for the house I will probably never have either.  But at least I've got friends, right?   Who needs money or material things when you are rich in the ways of love... ah who we kiddin' I need the cash! ;)

DAY 110 - Mayberry Monday Night

Ahhh just like Mayberry, sittin on the porch wavin' at the folks passing us by...  Well not quite waving, more like not making direct eye contact with the crazy people talking to themselves about Nazi's.  But none the less, it was a fine spring evening so Brandy, Clete, Greg and I took a stroll to the Maverick for some fat free frozen yogurt!  I just found out that Maverick we go to on the corner of 3rd S and 9th E is the same Maverick that Lori Hacking and her husband went to the night she was killed.  Creepy.  But it used to be my favorite Maverick because Dereck the Maverick boy gave me free drinks.  However it seems he has moved on and is no longer dolling out the Diet Coke at the local Lori Hacking Memorial Maverick.

DAY 109 - Spring Time In SLC

Today was a perfect sunshiny Salt Lake City spring day! I LOVED IT!! I had no real plan for the day when I got up. I had a few things I needed to get done, but nothing set in stone. I was thinking of going to see a movie, but I couldn't convince anyone to go see "17 Again" with me... I don't understand? It looks so quality!! So I decided to get making some Peanut Butter Bars for the Alpha 88 reunion dinner. Just as I got them out of the oven, Hunter texted me and said he was up at Grey Whale by the U and Brandi Carlile was doing a free concert. I just heard some of her stuff for the first time a few months ago. I loved it and bought the CD. I decided back when I got the CD that I wanted one of the songs played at my funeral or wedding...most likely it will be my funeral...either way, I love the song. I have a clip of her singing live, but it's not very good quality since I filmed it on my phone. I have also put the song on here, so listen to that instead. Anyway, it was so much fun to just stand outside on a nice sunshiny day and listen to some music. It felt so urban, one of the things I love about living downtown. It took me about 5 minutes from the time I left my apartment to the time I was standing there listening, that included parking and walking a little bit. I love being close to the action.

Brandi was really cool and nice, she signed autographs and met with people after. I didn't stay for that, but I later heard the girl standing in front of me in the picture, with the tattoo of the Fiddler on the Roof on her neck, so I guess it's technically a Fiddler on the Neck, sounds crazy no? Anyway, she had Brandy sign her shoulder and said she was going to get it tattooed on. Weirdo's, I just don't understand the whole tattoo thing, but I don't judge.

After the little concert I stopped by the Library to pick up my book I had put on hold on line... Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking." Brandy O and I are going to read it for our own little book club of trashy celebrity autobiographies.

It was then time to head up to Layton for the monthly Alpha alum dinner. Tonight it was Madison's turn to host. We just hung out in her cool house that they are slowly redoing. It's looking really nice, add some furniture and it would be spectacular. Dinner was nice, a lot of talking about breast feeding, after birth and other sorts of bodily fluids and functions. Oh what fun to be the single guy around a pregnant lady and the mother of a 9 month old.

After dinner I made my way home, it had gotten dark outside, but was still such a nice night. I headed over to the park with my buddy Andrew to swing on the swings. The end of a perfect sunshiny Salt Lake City spring time day.

DAY 108 - It's the day of the race ya all

The day I've been preparing for is finally here. I was getting sort of nervous, then realized I'm just going to be running the same distance that I do 3 times a week. Nothing really that different. Just was hoping my knee didn't give out, and I did have some fears we would start out and everyone would pass me up leaving me the last one in the pack trying to keep up, much like I was in all running type activities through out junior high and high school.

It was pretty exciting to be lined up with thousands of others, felt like a big event. The race started behind the City and County building, then went down to 9th south, back up State Street to South Temple then down South Temple to the 300 West then turned in to the Gateway and the finish line was right by that big plaza with the fountain that has turned into Salt Lake's most popular water park (so trashy).

I was proud of myself that I kept running the entire time, I would get a burst of energy when I would pass up some skinny athletic looking person. I was never in it to win, or really didn't even care about my time, I just wanted to do it. I was reminded of high school when we had to run the mile every Friday. It was 4 times around the track. I would always run the first lap, then walk really slow the next 2 and be finishing up along with everyone else. It was usually about 12 minutes, and I was cheating! I was only doing 3 laps. I hated it so bad, but I always had this secret dream that over the summer I would loose a bunch of weight and come back in the fall and beat everyone around the track..... Well I didn't beat everyone but I did keep on running, and its only 14 years (oh my gosh, that can't be right) later.
My official time was 28 min. 51 sec. I ranked 590 / 2388 I was faster than 1800 people!!

I know it's only a 5K, just a little over 3 miles, but this was a personal goal of mine. 10 years ago I could barely walk a mile. When I first started to work out I would walk for 3o minutes or 1 mile on the treadmill, whichever came first, and I would be exhausted at the end. I never dreamed I could actually RUN. It gives me inspiration to keep on going. I had originally said I was going to give up running after the race, mainly because of my knee, I don't want to ruin them for the rest of my life. But if I can figure out how to get me knee feeling better I may look into doing a 10K later this year, and possibly the half marathon next year. But I don't ever aspire to do a marathon, the only time I will run 26 miles is if I'm fleeing from some sort of natural disaster, and even then I will be tempted to sacrifice myself to the impending doom rather than keep on running.

DAY 107 - Doin' it Mafia Style

So at least I got some action on a Friday night. A little nibble on the ear from Beency. I'll take what I can get.

So Friday huh! Was fairly uneventful. Today at work was really, really slow. All of us designers were going to leave early, but they called a meeting from 3:30 - 4:30. We were all quite bitter. But it wasn't too bad. The IT department had a big barbecue for us since they lost all of our stuff off the server a few weeks ago. So we had some sort of Polonesian chicken, then went back to the conference room and played "Mafia." For those of you who don't know, Mafia is kind of a young adult activity type game. Everyone gets a card and some of the cards are marked as "Mafia" or "police" the reset are citizens. Everyone closes their eyes and then the Mafia chooses a person to kill, the police can ask about anyone and the moderator will tell them if they are mafia or not, then everyone opens their eyes and they have to guess who the Mafia people are... anyway, now that I've just written the rule book on Mafia. I guess these IT people play it every Monday. They get really into it, they've added Ninja's and Rambo and all these other twists. Maybe if they weren't busy thinking up new a new and improved Mafia game, the server wouldn't have crashed in the first place....just sayin'.

It was kinda nice to kill some time though, was about a 2 1/2 hour lunch break. I got to be Mafia one time, but got found out really quick. When everyones eyes were shut and we were trying to select someone to kill I was whispering "who's the guy in the white polo." Kinda obvious to those around me. But oh well, it was more fun to be dead.

Had a pretty quiet evening. I'm running the race tomorrow, got to get up at 6am, so I'm going to bed early.

DAY 106 - DUDE! That Snow is WICKED SICK for Shizzle

You can't really tell, but its snowing in this picture. Seriously, snow! I'm so tired of the snow this year. I tell you when I become God I will only allow it to snow Thanksgiving to New Years Day. Maybe I need to start snowboarding or something, that way I will be like "dude, the snow is totally frigid! it is so rad and I can really cut some runs on the bunny hizzle yo!" I don't really know the snowboard vernacular, I'll have to get a book on that.

Today was a pretty good Thursday. I'm trying to preserve my knee for the big race on Saturday, so I didn't run, but I wanted to do some sort of work out. I woke up early and did my Power 90. My new goal now that the race will be done, is to work out in the morning. Its better for you and that way it doesn't take up my precious evening hours. Work was slow, dinner at the Firehouse with my parents, then a trip to the store and then off to bed. Only one more day til the weekend!!

DAY 105 - Cut and Print!

YAY! It's finally done, I finished Camelot today. I have had it edited for a while, I compressed it and put it on a DVD, we watched parts of it at Alanes and it was really pixelated in places, so I changed the compression settings and recompressed it. It took 8 hours, but it looks much better... Then I spent a few hours making the DVD menus and I pressed save and if froze up. So I had to redo the menus last night. But I just burned a copy of the final product and it works. I'm calling it good. Now I just have to make copies, print the labels and I'm done... only 3 months after the show. Now I just need to get started on the other 5 shows on the list. Sheesh, I'm a regular Spielburg in the high school musical genre. That's why it takes me so long, I'm a master at my craft... yeah, that's it..a master.

DAY 104 - Facebookin' across the universe!

It has been so slow at work, I was on Facebook for at least 5 of my 8 hours at work.  It's not like I'm just slacking, I just having nothing to do so I use facebook to pass the time.  It's really sad though, because I spend the day on it then get home and one of the first things I do is open my computer and log on.

I am such a Facebook voyeur, its really creepy.  But its so interesting to eavesdrop onto peoples lives, and its pretty scary how much you can learn about someone.  I had all sorts of strange little Facebook run ins the past few days.  Kind of interesting.

Tonight I went over to Clete's.  Clete was in a bad mood, Parker broke his laptop monitor, so I took over some pastries from "The Bakery."  Because I always deal with trauma by eating, so I figure everyone else should too.  It was kinda sad, cause even over at his house I was logged on to facebook chatting with people while he was sitting in the same room on facebook.   What did we do before facebook?  Speak to people face to face?  that's sooooo 2005.

DAY 103 - Gello Gellato!

Monday, Monday.  It was such a nice day today!  I want it to be nice like today, everyday.  Did the work thing, went running, thought of singing sparrows, talking bunnies and unicorns to try to take my mind of the radiating pain in the knee region...but I made it 3 miles.  So pathetic, I just don't get it.  I hate running, people told me once I started I wouldn't want to stop...lies, all lies.  I like being outside, but I'm not a fan of the running.  If I had to chose a work out, I'd much rather do weights and a little circuit training, the work out changing ever 30 seconds suits my attention span much better.

After my run I went to pick Brandy O up from the airport.  She's been in LA for spring break visiting her family.  It is so great to have her back, we stopped for some Gellato on the way home.  It was in preparation for our,  Brandy and Ken Italy 2010 trip...  or 2011 or 2012.  2010 just has a nice ring to it, but may take a little longer to save up the pennies.

DAY 102 - Me n' Martha

Happy Easter!!!  Oh how I miss the Easter mornings when I would get up and search the house for the hidden Easter basket filled with candy and presents!!  Ok, so it has only been a few years since I did that, but still, I miss it.  Today was a pleasant Easter, nothing too exciting.  I went to my parents house for our traditional Barbecue sandwiches (sloppy joes) some deviled eggs and lemon lime Easter cake.  

I had made my own Egg shaped Coconut cake.  I lented, I had given up baking for "lent" so for Easter I thought I would make somethin special.  I found a recipe in Martha Stewart Living and thought I'd give it a try.  I even went and bought new cake pans to make an egg shape, and pastry bags and all that.  Too bad the end result wasn't quite as elegant as I had envisioned.  But I tried.  It tasted really good.  I'm gonna have to keep on making cakes to practice the decorating part ;)

Since my 

mom made a cake, and my dad isn't too much of a Coconut fan, I took my fancy cake, and matching wardrobe choice, up to Ogden and had dinner with Alane, Nancy and James.  After dinner and  we watched every one's favorite Easter movie, "Monster" starring Charlize  Theron, a true story about a prostitute who

 gets raped and then goes on a killing rampage.  HAPPY EASTER!

DAY 101 - We're cousins, not so identical cousins...

My dad's family has a reunion every year.  Every other year it's a big reunion with all the cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, etc..  On the off year it's a more intimate affair.  Usually held at a local buffet.  They call it the "cousins" reunion, and is only for the 1st cousins.  This is all fine and good, I enjoy getting together with everyone, however I am the youngest of the cousins by about 20 years, excluding my sisters who are out of state and not able to attend.  Most of my cousins have kids my age.  Now that I'm older it's not as awkward, and it's kind of fun to get to know them all as adults and not "little Kenny."  I was answering the hard hitting questions like  "what is Twitter, and Facebook?"  I was the voice of my generation, or technically  the generation after mine which I have adopted to be my own.  I'm going to just consider myself 26 since that's about where I seem to fit in.  

I find it amusing that whenever I go to these family functions, everyone talks to me more about my sisters than me.  Which is completely understandable, nobody ever sees them, and I am always around.  But my cousin Pat, who is a few years younger than my dad and lives out in Hooper or somewhere like that, asked if my sister was still in Chicago. I told her yes.  She then told me of her trip to the big windy city a few years ago.  She said they went the Sears Tower and after getting off the elevator in the lobby they ran into a group that was dressed fancier than she had ever seen.  The women were in high heels and fancy dress, and the men in tuxedos, she was completely enamered by such a sight, she couldn't take her eyes off of them.  But her cousin who lives outside of the city a little ways nudged her and said, "stop starring, that's the mob, you're gonna get us killed."  So I wanted to pass along this advice, apparently the Chicago mob is still alive and well, and hanging out in the lobby of the Sears Tower... you've been warned.

Anyhow, it was good to get together with the McEntire clan over some heat lamp warmed food lovingly protected by a sneeze guard.  I seem to spend a lot of time at the buffet's, not necessarily by choice.  I got to class myself up a bit.  I've got one hand in white trash and the other hand is makin' a peace sign.

DAY 100 - Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant, dead ant......

Yay for Friday!!!  Work was SLOW!!!  Most of the convention stuff has been sent to print, so now we're in a big lull.  I hope it picks up a bit, if this is how it's going to be for the rest of the year I'm a little nervous.  But I'm not happy when it's really busy either.  I'm just hard to please.

Tonight I went running, my knee is seriously going to bend all the way backwards or something one of these days.  I really don't know what's wrong with it.  But I wanna get through the 5k then I'll lay off the running  and go back to my usual work outs...and possibly go see a doctor.  After my run I met up with Clete and Greg at McCools for a little Irish dinner... Not really little, but the Irish part was right.  I got the Corned Beef Au Grautin... sounds disgusting, I Know.  But I really liked it.  The recipe is something like this:  2 lbs lard, 3 parts fatty fattyness, 1 1/2 cups cellulite, 3 cups man boobs, and a dash of back fat.  mmm mmm good.

After dinner they suggested going to a movie, but I didn't really want to pay for a movie that I didn't want to see.  So they said we could go to a dollar movie, there were not a lot of choices however they had all ready decided they wanted to see "The Pink Panther 2"...really??  I had no desire to see that what so ever.  Greg tried to talk it up by telling me Lily Tomlin was in it, but I knew this movie was not going to highlight Lily's comedic skillz!  I went anyway, better than sittn' home on a Friday night.  The movie was just as I suspected it would be...ridiculous.  I actually found myself nodding off.  But what amazed me was how much the audience enjoyed it, they were laughing there head's off.  And good for them, I guess it is I whom didn't get the joke.  

DAY 99 - Out of my dreams and into my car!

I took a trip up to Ogden tonight to hang out with Alane, Nancy and James.  I took 'em for a ride!  Gotta show off the new set of wheels.  We just kind of drove around the neighborhood, its one of those situations where nobody really cares, but they humor you.  But I appreciate the humoring.  James was jealous, he wants a car real bad.  But he likes those big ole American made cars.

After the drive around O-town, we went back to Alane's and watched Doubt.  I have seen the play, but not the movie.  Its one of those movies that if you know the end its not as interesting to watch again.  But I still wanted to see how it translated to film, and see Meryl Streep, ya just gotta love anything Meryl does!!  Meryl, I just realized Meryl is kind of a weird name.

Tomorrow is FRIDAY, hope work is exciting and fun... but I have doubts, I have so many doubts. 

DAY 98 - I Just Dyed in a Mug Tonight

The Easter Bunny will be here so soon, so I went over to the boys house and we broke out the vinegar and fizzing color tablets to dye some Easter eggs!!  It was a pretty good time, but kind of short lived.  It seems like it used to take a lot longer to dye eggs when I was a kid.  We would get pretty fancy, multi-colors, shrink wraps, wax crayon designs, the whole deal.  The little boys just liked dropping the eggs in the water, they weren't too concerned about aesthetics.  Parker pretty much just threw the egg in the mug from across the room, he's not too graceful with his egg dying technique, but he's only 5, and he has other strengths.  I couldn't believe how badly they wanted to eat the hard boiled egg.  When I was a kid I wanted nothing to do with the egg unless it had a hard candy shell and filled with chocolate.  I still prescribe the that mentality most of the time, however, an egg yolk mixed with mayonnaise and other assorted herbs and spices would be all right as well.

Dying Easter eggs always reminds me of the game we used to play when we were kids, where each kid would decide on a color of egg they were, then the big bad wolf would come to the door and ask if there were any of certain color egg, if your color was selected you would have to run around a designated course and not get caught by the "big bad wolf."  I don't really understand where the idea for this game came from, and I don't know what wolf would want with a colored egg.  I guess it makes as much sense as a giant bunny hiding a basket in your house once a year.

THANK YOU EASTER BUNNY!!

DAY 97 - Me and my Mazda!

I decided... I'm now a proud owner of a 2005 Mazda 6!!!  I love it, I'm very happy with my choice.  I've been driving all over the place.  After I picked it up today about 6:30, I came back and went running, then drove all over the hills of Salt Lake, until about 10pm when Clete and Greg got home, then I drove them all around for a while.  I LOVE IT!!  I haven't had a nice car in years.  I never really did like the Rodeo.  I tried to convince myself I did, but I always felt it was so bumpy.  This one corners like it's on rails and feels as if I'm floating!

It's a good thing I like it, cause there is a very real possibility I may be living in it as well. 

DAY 96 - Communists have it made!

Decisions, decisions!  I went and test drove a black Mazda 3 hatchback today.  I liked it, but it has more miles than the Mazda 6, but it has a sunroof.  I didn't really trust the dealership, I don't know why, but I just have a hard time making a large purchase from a place called Tito's.  I also feel like the black car is too gangstah for me.  I would have to start wearing more reds or blue and listening to the cop killer rap music, while busting a cap in someones ass, that's just not me.  I'm more of a classy silver Mazda 6 guy.  

I am not strong at decision making, I wish I could have grown up in communist China, where at 3 years old, they would have said "You will be gymnast" and I would have been swinging on the uneven parallel bars 16 hours a day until I was able to retire at 16 and move to a nice soggy rice field just outside Peking.

DAY 95 - Chicken Livers and Heat Lamps

It was such a springy sunny day... We thought we'd go have a fancy brunch up the canyon... Well, at least up the canyon happened.  We went to this little restraunt place, can't even remember the name.  The setting seemed so quaint, across a bridge nestled next to the mountains, juxtaposed to a rambling river.  We went inside and felt like we were in someones warm and cozy living room.  Then Stella (I will call her Stella for story purposes) yelled across the room, "Are you with the Hunsaker's?"  She belted it out so eloquently, while standing so stout in her sophisticated white and black striped t-shirt, black cotton skirt and white knee length, tube socks.

We responded "No", she continued to shout from across the room, her voice wafted above our fellow breakfast brunch conesuers.  "14.95 all you can eat...they'll be bringing out more chicken livers soon."  Then with a nod of her head and point of her finger we were directed to our divine breakfast table.  Seated just steps away from the smorgasbord of breakfast delight.  Lovingly placed on a 1970's wood paneled rolling cart, complete with heat lamps and sneeze guard.  

Biscuits and gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, shriveled sausage, unidentifiable brown goo, and something they called "chicken livers" they were very proud of.  It was hard to not just pull up a chair and eat right from the buffet.  I did however resist and simply placed reasonable portions on my plate and dug right in.  Oh how I long for the salmonella to kick in!

Once we had sat down and began our breakfast feast, Stella, our waitress delicately whispered in my ear "she'll be around to get you drinks."  Apparently she was struck shy when speaking of beverages, yet is proud and confident of her $14.95 buffet!

DAY 94 - Runnin', Drivin', Filmin'

MY BAD!!! Ok Day 94, the first day I have nothing to show for, I'm so mad at myself. I kept intending to take a picture, but got caught in the moment and forgot.

My day basically went like this:

woke up, went running, knee hurt real bad. Went to pick up camera to film the show. Went to look at a car, was kind of scared of the dealership, didn't go in...try not to make large purchases from establishments called Tito's. Then went to Centerville, looked at another car. Went to Ogden and filmed the show. Came home!

It was a good productive day, however I still have no car and I'm driving my mom's Jeep. Not only is she getting anxious to have it back, I swear that thing is overeating, it's gonna get fat I have given it so much gas it's ridiculous!

DAY 93 - And you're the only doll I've ever wanted to share it with me.

Tonight I went up to Guys and Dolls at Bonneville. I invited Brandy to come a long. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised by Nancy and James, I was so excited to see them, I hadn't seen them over a year, and Nancy ran up to me in the parking lot right before the show. I thought they were coming in tomorrow. It was a pleasant surprise! Made me happy. Nick and Lance also came, it was just a big reunion. Gotta love show time at Bonneville High.

I really like this show, Alane has done a BANG UP job! One of my least favorite songs of the show though is "My Time of Day" its just a little tiny song, but it bugs me for some reason. And it has this one line that seems like it has far too many words for the melody, like the lyricist realized he couldn't make a full sentence with the amount of beats in the measuers, so he had to hurry up and add a phrase onto the end. The line is..." And you're the only doll I've ever wanted to share it with me." Look it up and listen to it sometime, maybe you'll see what I mean.

DAY 92 - Rumble in the silence

Tonight I went to film Lisa's charter school's performing arts recital. There were about 300 kids that participated. I don't see how she pulled it off. They have been taking all kinds of different performing related classes and tonights recital was for them to show off what they learned. My favorite one was the stage combat class. About 10 kids came onto stage and started to fake beat each other up, but there was no sound, the audience was quiet and the kids on the stage were dead quiet, it was the weirdest rumble I had ever seen. Like a group of mini Marcel Marceaus that happened upon each other and got pissed!

DAY 91 - Beverlee

This is somewhat awkward. I wasn't sure how to take a picture of tonight's event. Beverlee Lombardi, my families next door neighbor for 30 years died over the weekend, tonight was her viewing. It wasn't a quick or unexpected death, in fact she had outlived the doctors predictions by 25 or 30 years, so in a way it was unexpected. Her daughter Deidre and I were best friend growing up. When Deidre was born she was diagnosed with a disease called Scholederma. She wasn't suppose to live long with it, but she promised she would live to see Deidre turn 18. Well Deidre is a year younger than me, so she is now 31, married and has a kid. I guess she felt it was finally time to let go. It is sad to see her go, but also good that she's out of her suffering. She also had breast cancer and had chemotherapy back when I was in my early teens. She had been through a lot.

Since her kids have moved away and gotten married I haven't kept in contact with them, so oddly enough, I was somewhat excited to go to the viewing to see them again. We were all really close as kids, our neighborhood did all kinds of things together. But it's sad how far we've drifted apart, it was almost like seeing strangers, we didn't have much to talk about. Plus the awkwardness of seeing them when there mom had just died, maybe it would be more fun to reminisce under different circumstances.

I'm sad for the family, but glad that Beverlee is no longer suffering. It was so funny to grow up next door. They are a loud Italian family, we could hear her yelling at the kids from inside our house...but the best part was she could never get the name right and would go through the list of kids before she got the one she wanted to yell at. There was just the three girls but they all had "D" names, so it made it especially difficult.

One of my other favorite stories about Beverlee was when Dana was in high school she had a party at their house and it started to get kinda noisy. Beverlee was in her room trying to sleep. Part of her disease made it so she had to tape her eyes shut to sleep because they didn't close all the way. She also only had one boob due to the breast cancer. So when the party got out of hand she got up out of bed with her eyes taped shut and one boobed and went and yelled at all Dana's friends. They were scared to death I'm sure.