Neils Rants

How can I live without you?

2011-02-22T07:45:00.005-07:00

This year has proven to be very expensive so far. After purchasing a new car and preparing to pay for knee surgery. We needed to review the Stark family budget to see where we could cut back. Jen and I both decided that we did not need satelliteTV to survive. We had recently starting getting instant downloads from Netflix via our Wii. We figured that Netfilx combined with the free over the air broadcast would be enough for our family.

So yesterday marked our first full day without satellite. I spent the morning crawling in our attic trying to connect an antenna to our home cables. Was surprised to find a very good antenna already in the attic left by the prior owners. The problem is that the satellitehad so many cables and strange connections that I'm not sure if I have the right cable connected to the antenna. Still cannot get channel 11 on one TV. But after I was done I felt confidant that we were now in a position to live without our ESPN, TNT, Disney & G4 channels.

The one thing that we already miss is the DVR. We really enjoyed being able to pause live TV and record and then watch whenever we wanted. But it is good for our kids to experience TV the way Jen and I did while we grew up. We had always felt that our kids had gotten very spoiled by having instant TV to enjoy and the ability to fast forward commercials. But because we miss it so much, we will purchase a DVR that works with over the air TV. Once we ensure that we really can survive without all those channels you pay 70 bucks for. :)

The fire will be coming around the mountain when it comes

2010-09-22T16:14:00.004-06:00

Sunday certainly proved to be an eventful day that is screaming to be blogged about. Around 4 pm I walk out of a neighbor's house and notice a large orange cloud to the north. I look at it and exclaim "What could cause such a unusual cloud?" Someone yells while pointing to the south, "That Fire!" My jaw dropped at how huge the smoke cloud was from the now called "Machine Gun Fire." (Don't like that name.) The smoke was so thick that the only sun light that could get through was bright orange light. It made it appear like we were in Hell. (And not the one in Michigan.)

Turns out that the military, while doing some machine gun practice, started a fire on the south side of the mountain that our town lives on. Because of strong southernly winds the fire began climbing the mountain and headed north to where our town is. By late evening we could then see the fire's glow reaching the top of the mountain.

I serve as the Community Emergency Response Team leader (CERT) for our neighborhood. So I knew I had to be prepared to help. But seeing a fire running down a mountain towards your neighborhood is quite scary. So to easy our kids and Jen's mind. I sent them to my parents house for the night (voluntary evacuation) and prepared to help with the fire. I got my family out just in time. Because just as night fell, evacuation orders started coming into the selected neighborhoods (not ours yet) and the streets became more crowded than a Chinese traffic jam.

At this time, both Jen and her sisters called as they could not contact another sister who lived in Herriman and was closer to the coming fire. So I ventured forth (On foot since the roads were so congested) to check on them. That became the closest I've ever came to a danger. The closer I got to their home and darker it became. Ash started to get into my eyes and smoke was growing stronger. This part of town had received an evacuation order and people were scrambling to gather up belongings and get out before it was to late.

I found my sister-in-law's place dark and a car missing. Neighbors reported not seeing them all day so I assumed they were elsewhere and safe. Turns out they were visiting family and were trying to return while everyone else was trying to get out. They ended up returning to their family's home to wait and hope that their home would still be standing when they returned. Thankfully it survived but because of some open windows they have a strong smoke smell to contend with.

I returned to my neighborhood and went to a neighbor's house that had a HAM radio. Together we listened to city's communications and watched as the fire kept coming closer and closer to the town. To look at a mountain you look at daily and have it look like an exploding volcano can be a beautiful and scary thing. From a mile away we could see flames that had to be over 20 feet tall.

Hours went by and the fire came closer without anything hindering it. We knew from listening from the emergency communications that there were only 100 firefighters working to save us. Would there be enough?

All eyes focused on large house on the highest point of the mountain. It was rumored to be Jerry Sloan's house and was the first to meet the fire's approach. I was worried that if the entire city watched that home go up in flames, panic would ensue and more people would try to flee making evacuation a living nightmare.

I must admire those fighting the fire because they arrived at the home just as the fire did and was able to save it, twice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XA18ITjtyw

More evacuations were ordered as the fire began crawling towards us. By 3:30 am it finally had reached the bottom of the mountain and had a clear path towards our homes. But God smiled on us and the winds, which had been strong and forceful all night, changed direction and started pushing the fire back up the mountain where it had already consumed everything. Our town was saved by our hard working fire fighters and answered prayers.

It took a couple of days to get the fire contained enough to allow all the evacuees back in. My family was able to return the next day and we were thankful to have each other and our home safe. It was an experience I hope to never have to go through again, but feel stronger because of it. There certainly is nothing like home sweet home. (Which now smells like smoke. :)

BCS Elections

2010-01-08T09:52:00.004-07:00

With the recent success of the Bowl Championship Series crowning their champion last night. The US government has decided to follow their example and award the office of President in the same fashion. Here is how the new BCS elections for President will work:

1. Only the top 6 states in the union can provide someone to be President. Sure there may be many talented and smart people from the other 44 states. But surely they cannot be better than anyone from the top 6 states. So there is no need to allow them a chance to run for President.

2. Only 2 people can truly be considered for the office of President. No more needing primary elections to narrow the field down to a candidate from each party. Just 2 and no more.

3. We will use polls that consist only of people who want to be president, former presidents, congress members, election judges, political commentators, reporters and any surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence to find the two candidates. Even though some of these people could receive a direct benefit from the outcome of the election. We feel sure that they will continue to provide unbias votes.

4. We will use computers as 1/3 of the deciding vote to narrow the canidates down to two. We will not require these computers to give us details of what creiteria is used to rank the canidates from the top 6 states.

5. Once the 2 candidates have been selected. We will only provide them access to public funds, air time on all media outlets & participation in debates.

6. People who wanted to run for President but could not because they were not in one of the top 6 states or were not voted 1 or 2 by the polls or computer rankings can still feel good. Because they are still Americans and that should be good enough and there is no need to feel bad about not being able to be President.

7. If anyone feels that this is unfair and want to petition congress, the justice department or the the courts for a redress of their grievances. They should realize that these departments have more important things to do than help provide justice or fairness on this issue. Justice and fairness is only given on important issues and this is not considered to be important enough to spend any time on.

With this new BCS election, everyone can feel good about the Presidential selection process, especially on how it will prevent anyone from some of those small states from even having a chance to be president. Besides, they can still compete to become the Speaker of the House or Senate majority leader. That should be enough for them, right?

I've given in

2009-09-21T08:56:00.002-06:00

So the whole world is on facebook. I recently found out that my parents are on. So I've given in and have been assimilated into the collective. You can find me on facebook. If you are already on, please send me a friend request and let's get connected.

I now have a facebook account, blog and twitter. Along with all my other websites I like to check: like homestarrunner.com. Not sure if I will be able to keep up on all of them.

We will not forget, but sometimes wish we could

2009-09-11T08:51:00.001-06:00

Obamacare, because Obama cares

2009-09-10T08:55:00.004-06:00

After a summer of hurry to get this passed, then a pull back after Americans complained at town hall meetings. After taking a beating in the polls and seeing public opinion decline, President Obama finally gave us some details on what he wants to do with health care. I was thankful to finally gets some information as all I had gotten so far was commercials from pro-Obama groups saying, "don't believe what anyone says about Obamacare, except us."

I am grateful that Obama wants to increase some regulation of the health care industry and make changes like preventing non coverage due to pre-existing conditions. I am like the idea of tax credits for health insurance.

However I don't like the plan to require every American to have health insurance. There was a time in my life when I did not have it and did not want it at the time. I know that we require car owners to have auto insurance. But someone could choose to not own a car and therefore not purchase auto insurance. But someone could not choose to purchase health insurance. Is it right for us to require all people to purchase some thing they may not want?

This leads me to the public option issue. Requiring people to purchase health insurance will drive them to the government provided insurance. How is this different from England requiring our forefathers to purchase English tea before the revolutionary war? We as Americans did not want to be forced to buy something government provided, or encouraged, then. So why should we buy it now?

And since when did the Constitution stipulate that the people's government needs to provide health care to the people? That is not the reason why the government exists. Why would I trust the government that cannot correctly run a cash for clunkers program and bankrupts social security, medicare and the post office. The government is not the correct organization to run any of those things.

And I'm not buying the tale that the public option will not increase taxes, but instead will be paid for by more effectively running medicare. If the government is already ineffectively running medicare? Then how could we trust them to run anything effectively now?

I do hope that Obama is serious about working with both parties to improve our society. But lack the faith that this could be done when the Democrats in the house will not even let any non-democrat offer any amendments on the house floor and require all legislation be approved by them before it even gets the courtesy of debate. Looks like we are back to politics as usual.

MCSA finally achieved

2009-09-08T08:41:00.006-06:00

Almost 2 years ago, I decided to improve myself by taking some classes and seeking a certification from Microsoft. Doing so would help me know how to perform my job better and make myself more marketable if I ever needed to re-enter the job market. So I began working towards my Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator(MCSA.) It required me to take 4 very difficult tests from Microsoft, each that took a number of on line classes, practice tests and a lot of studying.

The first test was about the XP operating system and proved to be very difficult. I had to take the test twice before I passed it. Microsoft tests in a very different way than any school test I've taken. It is multiple choice but tricky as heck. You need to read every word in the question to ensure you don't miss any details. Because if you miss just one word, you could misinterpret the question and get the answer wrong.

The last test was about using the Microsoft email system and I took it this last week, hoping to pass but if not, leaving time to retake the test to make my goal of passing it before October. Turns out I passed it on the first attempt and have now earned the following certification:

Yea Football season is finally here

2009-09-01T08:58:00.004-06:00

After a very long drought from football all summer long. I will finally get to view some football again this week. The Utes will open their season on Thursday against Utah State and my brother has been very kind to let me come to his place and watch it. (Because Dish still does not have the Mountain channel, jerks) Then BYU will play a very significant game on Saturday against Oklahoma. A win there would help not only the Cougars but the entire Mountain West Conference. So go Cougars, make us all look good.

Last night I stayed up late to draft my last fantasy football team. Even though I drafted in the 10th out of 12 positions. I think I got a good team and I am excited to play.

It is going to be a very enjoyable football season, especially with the higher satellite package with more games to watch. My poor wife will be sick of football very soon. I should do something special for her. Any ideas on what I could do for her to make her OK with me watching football every weekend for the rest of the year? Last year I took her to see Mama Mia. How can you top that?

Busy week but fun nights

2009-08-21T08:08:00.002-06:00

I have had a busy week due to a co-worker being on vacation and little old me doing her job as well as mine. But what has kept me going was being able to see the makers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 put on a live show that I caught last night. They riffted on a really old movie called "Plan 9 from outer space." The movie was terrible and so was extremely funny with Mike, Kevin & Bill making fun of it and giving a most funny commentary. They even showed a short from the 40s about an airline flight attendant, which had me rolling in the isle.

They say laughter is the best medicine. I would have to agree. Whenever you find yourself facing a lot of stress or sadness. Find that thing that makes you laugh and smile a lot and get as much of it as you can.

Sick son update

2009-08-11T09:22:00.004-06:00

Because Michael's mouth has been hurting all weekend, he has not been eating, drinking or talking much. Monday started out the same way. He was hungry and wanted to eat, but did not dare try because of how his mouth hurt.

When I got home last night I started making dinner. Michael was following me around, grunting and whining, try to get me to give him food. So we decided to try chocolate pudding. We made it and put it in front of him. He played with it, but could not bring himself to eat it for fear of the pain.

After 10 minutes of playing with his food, Jen finally sat down with him and tried to feed it to him. After some coaxing, he finally opened up and took a small bite. Apparently it did not hurt much because he opened his mouth for more, this time a little wider. Before long he had ate the whole bowl of pudding and asked for more. So Jen gave him a second helping. This must have really got his confidence up, because he then asked for more food. We did not want to rush his food intake for fear that he may throw it up. So we had him take a break, during which he then noticed that it did not hurt to talk. So he gleefully yelled that his mouth was feeling better. And to prove it, he talked the rest of the night, ate some garlic bread and another helping of chocolate pudding.

Jen and I were relieved to see him feeling better and eating. But I kind of missed having a quiet house. :)

This morning he woke up, announced that he could talk, drink and eat again today. And proved it by eating 3 waffles and ordering 2 more. He is trying to make up for the lack of food he had for the past weekend. We are just glad to have our normal son back and hope that we can still contain his virus so that other don't get it.

Sick son

2009-08-10T08:32:00.003-06:00

Michael began complaining about his mouth on Friday. Jen (Being the wonderful and caring mother that she is) took him to the doctor to get checked out. The doctor found that he had a virus in his mouth and told us that it would get worse before it would get better. And she was certinaly correct.

Saturday he stopped drinking and eating and cried about how his mouth hurt. Because it is a virus we could not give him any medicine to combat the virus. All we could do was give him pain reliever and try to keep him hydrated. This did nothing to stop his constant crying until Mother saved the day. Jen was so patient and caring to her son this weekend. She kept working on finding the thing he wanted, even while he could not talk due to the pain in his mouth. She finally got him distracted by playing children games on the Internet with him for most of the day.

Sunday he was doing worse as the lack of food and water was starting to take a toll on his body. I got worried enough to play the bad guy and force liquids into him. He did not like to be force fed, until he began to feel better by having more liquids in him. Then he began to turn around and is doing much better.

It is the strangest virus that I have ever seen. His tongue has got spots all over it and turned a very bright blue on the sides. Jen will call the doctor about it today. But we hope that we have seen the worse of it and that he will start to improve. Poor guy just has not looked good all weekend.

Staycation report

2009-07-30T21:05:00.004-06:00

Last week, we pawn our kids off on my parents (thanks Mom & Dad.) I took work off and we started our staycation. It was nice to be able to just take care of ourselves, stay up as long as we wanted, sleep in as long as we wanted and do whatever we wanted. The 40th anniversary for the first moon landing caused many fine TV shows about the moon, NASA and the Apollo program available for viewing. I watched them until Jen was sick of her lunatic of a husband.

We enjoyed Herriman's local production of "The Music Man." It was nice to feel closer to our new community and enjoy a play. I had never hiked up to the cave in mount timpanogos and so did it. It was very enjoyable to pack up some water, turn on my ipod and take an hour hike up to the cave. The cave was very cool, (literally too.) But it was fun going through and see how nature has created some inner beauty. It was also cool to learn how the caves were discovered as well. If you have not visited this cave yet, get yourself some water and check it out. Your legs will be sore for 2 days, but you will love the memories.

We also enjoyed the latest Sandra Bullock movie, which was actually pretty good, except for a few nudity parts and an exotic dancer scene that will now prevent me from watching the office ever again.

When I was younger I did most of my temple work at the Salt Lake temple and enjoyed the live sessions. But since moving farther away and having kids, it had become increasing difficult to visit the SL temple and so we began attending other temples that were closer and easier to visit. But without any kids, we had the time to return to the SL temple and enjoy a session. It was nice to go through it again, especially since we were married there almost 8 years ago. We also visited Jen's former co-workers at the church office building. I used to come visit her there after my classes and we would enjoy lunch at the cafeteria. We took a trip down memory lane.

On Thursday we got our kids back, enjoyed a quite 24th and then visited with family on Saturday for the annual Nelson family reunion. This reunion was very enjoyable for me. Last year I was one of the presenters for the reunion and I enjoyed it very much. This year I was able to come and just enjoy the time with everyone without having to prepare a presentation. I am looking forward to next year and hope that my kids will enjoy them as they get older.

Our staycation was nice but I will ensure that the next one will be farther away from home. Far enough away that work cannot find me. They were persistent in apologizing for calling me, but continued to do so, especially the last few days of our staycation. My next job hopefully will not require me to be on call 24/7.

Harry Potter and the cliffhanger to get you to see the next movie

2009-07-17T09:43:00.003-06:00

Jen & I had the pleasure of seeing the new Harry Potter movie on Wednesday night. Quite an experience to watch it with a theater full of children and teenagers. You could tell that many of them were girls when the Twilight trailer was shown and they all squealed with joy.

I have not read the 6th Harry Potter book yet and so was able to enjoy the movie without knowing the end result.(Except for the fate of a main character which was spilled by an article on sciwire. Darn website!) I enjoyed seeing a new Potter movie after 2 years of waiting. But just like the book does. The movie sets things up for the next movie rather than answer questions and entertaining you. We do learn more about Volumort's past and what is needed to battle him. But I think the good guys lose more than what they gain by the end of the movie and we are left wondering if things will not end up well for Harry.

It is just the the Empire Strikes Back. By the end the good guys are left at the short end of the stick and will have to battle against difficult odds to come out on top. The only thing missing from this movie was Snape admitting to being Harry's real father. Then it would have been exactly like Empire Strikes Back.

I did enjoy the movie and now that I've seen it, I want to read the 6th book. Does anyone have the 6th book on MP3 on in book form that I could borrow? I certainly recommend seeing it and helping the movie earn a ridiculous amount of money. The love stories involving Ron are very interesting and fun to watch.

Where am I?

2009-07-14T08:38:00.000-06:00

ARRRRRR!!! Help! To busy to blog. Need vacation soon.

Crazy walk

2009-07-07T09:29:00.003-06:00

Last night after dinner. Jen felt tired so I offered to take the kids on a walk while she rested. We are still new to our neighborhood and so I thought I would explore. We took a different route then our normal walks. But it was fun to see and meet new people. We ended up close to a county park. So we decided to go check it out.

While we were walking towards it I noticed a large group of people standing on the completely opposite end of the park. The play ground was total empty so we headed there. But just as we were getting close to it. A large fire engine pulls up and a plains clothes man gets out and starts hooking up hoses to the fire hydrant. The kids enjoyed watching the fire truck and then enjoyed the play ground. But then all the people from the group walked over and after arriving, the fireman began spraying water from his water cannon into the park. The kids loved running through the falling water and I just stood there dumbfounded at the sudden water party that materialized around us. I tried asking others if this was a ward or neighborhood party, but did not learn what it really was from anybody who knew.

We enjoyed the now water park until Karen reminded me that she had to use the potty for the 3rd time. There was no bathrooms at the park so we started our walk home. But we were still a ways away from home and Karen started doing the "I really need to go" dance. So I asked a man who was just getting home if my daughter could borrow his bathroom. He was kind enough to say yes and I sent Karen in while Michael and I admired an incredibly cleaner house then ours.

But then Karen stuck her head out of the bathroom and said she needed help. We come in to find that she went messy in her pants. (Guess she did not make it in time) and had made a mess in their bathroom. So here I am, in a stranger's very clean house, with two soaking wet children and a messy daughter with no change of clothes or diapers. Our walk had just started like any other. But it certainly did not end up like I'm used to.

After a clean up of my daughter and the bathroom. (And a chance for my daughter to learn what it means to go commando.) We resumed our walk home and after petting two dogs and saying hi to a neighbor, we finally reached home. Both kids needed baths to clean up for our "Walk." I don't know if Jen will let me take the kids out by myself again. But it certainly made our day anything but mundane.

So how was your day?

Carnivals and fun times

2009-07-02T09:08:00.005-06:00

This is one of the best times of the year. The end of June till July 4th has plenty of community events like carnivals, festivals, parades and fireworks. Our kids are at the age where they really enjoy these activities and we as parents really enjoy seeing them smile. Here are a few of the events we did this past week.

Last Saturday we visited my parents in Cedar Hills. Their town was having a family festival that weekend. Thanks to grandma and grandpa, Karen and Michael got free passes to the festival where they rode on ponies, got face paintings, played in bounce houses and played bingo. We also enjoyed a BBQ with my parents and swam in their pool. We got home just in time to watch the Herriman Days fireworks from our own back yard.

Then on Monday, we took advantage of a gift card we had to a family fun center called "Boondocks" in Draper. It was a very short drive and lots of fun. Jen took Karen on the go carts while I took Michael in the bumper boats. (Michael is still too short for the cars.) We then took the kids into the "Kiddie Cove" which is a very large jungle gym type of place. Karen had a blast in there but Michael was nervous to go in. So I crawled through it with him and found myself enjoying things like a kids going down slides and stuff. I was probably breaking a rule by crawling through there with him, and it was not built for people of my size, but I absolutely loved it. I then took Karen on the bumper boats and we left determined to return again soon.

Last night Riverton started their town days events and had a family night at the carnival. All rides were only 1 ticket and you could get 2 tickets for a dollar. So for only $10 we rode the ferris wheel, the giant slide, the kids loved the mini roller coaster, train, cars and other rides. I even paid money to try the games that are always a cheat. But was able to pop a balloon with a dart and win a small stuffed California raisin for Karen. Jen was so proud that her man could win his daughter something. (Still a scam if you ask me.)

Doing these family events this past week has been an absolute pleasure for Jen and me. We have loved giving our kids enjoyable memories. And we have more to do this week. We will enjoy a parade on Friday evening and then fireworks on Saturday night. Do any of our family or friends want to join us?

Someone famous has died

2009-06-26T11:00:00.004-06:00

My brother put this on his twitter and it was so good. I just had to share. Many of us saw this happen on TV this week. Click on the picture to see more.

Phil is on twitter

2009-06-26T08:53:00.002-06:00

So I decided to try something. I will add my twitters to my blog. So when I twitter, it will show up here. I had to go public with my twitter in order to do this. Which means I will need to keep an eye on who follows me. I don't want people trying to sell me stuff via twitter. So if this works, I will keep it going. But if I get to many sales pitches or offers to check out someone's web cam for $3.99 a minute. Then I will remove my twitter from public access the stay private.

1766 vistors and counting

2009-06-23T08:40:00.005-06:00

I have reached the highly valued number of 1766 visitors to my blog. When I started my blog, I had no idea who or how many would actually read my ramblings. But surprisingly many have read as well as commented my blog.

I had received well wishes during happy events. Others had empathized with me about issues I've faced. I have received some good comments on political discussions. One was from an anonymous commenter who raised some good points and I would have loved to known who the commenter is. Some I've agreed with, some I have not, but all I have enjoyed discussing.

I have also enjoyed linking to other blogs and keeping in touch with others. Like with my sister in California, a brother in Wyoming. Family and friends around the valley.

We have been encouraged to keep journals or diaries for future prosperity. My blog is the closing thing I have to that.

Thanks for reading. There will be more rants and ramblings in the future. Especially when football season starts up again. I can't wait for that.

Random things

2009-06-17T18:49:00.005-06:00

June in Utah is normally a very hot and dry time. But this year it has been most unusual. Rain on most of the days, including my birthday. Not just small rain storms, but major downpours. Living in the desert, we are always thankful for rain. But I still cannot get used to it. Must be what it feels like to live in Seattle.

The new temple is having an open house for the next few months. Yesterday we took the kids and went through it. It is very lovely. I loved the design of the building, inside and out. Very good art, stone stairs and big light fixtures. Unfortunately, Michael wanted to touch everything and so was running all over the place. It was very difficult to keep him in line. Other than that, we enjoyed it very much.

I have been asked by a few friend on what is the best movie I have seen so far this year. I have seen X-men, Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Terminator and Up. (Only paid for 1 of them.) Of all the movies, the one I want to go back and see again is Star Trek. It was very good and I still enjoy looking up the trailer for it on the Internet.

While I blog I am checking out a new show called "Wipeout." It looks like the American version of MXC. I enjoyed that show and so far, I am enjoying this one two. Lost of spills, slips, falls and mud baths. Check it out if you want to laugh.

34 years on the planet...still cannot find a good cheese steak sandwich

2009-06-09T08:27:00.005-06:00

34 years ago:

Wheel of Fortune started.

The Pittsburg Steelers won the super bowl.

Charlie Chaplin gets knighted by the queen of England.

The Vietnam War officially ends.

Bill Gates starts a small company named Microsoft.

Jimmy Hoffa disappears.

The last Apollo space flight is conducted by NASA.

Robert E. Lee finally receives a full pardon and is restored to full citizenship.

Saturday Night Live begins on NBC.

The Cincinnati Reds win the world series.

Andrew Dufresne escapes from Shawshank State Prison.

And

A very unusual boy was born on June 9th (Not an actual picture of boy, but a very good likeness.)

New Twilight New Moon Trailer

2009-06-01T09:02:00.004-06:00

This post is brought to you by an effort to stay ahead of Jen by having more posts than her. Men always try to make everything into a competition, don't they?

The trailer for the new Twilight movie "New Moon" has been released. It looks cool. Check it out at the below URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBF3HKzrmE

Prop 8- The people's will

2009-05-26T20:40:00.004-06:00

Today we learned that the California supreme court voted 6-1 to uphold the recent voter passed constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a woman and a man. I felt 2 things when I heard this.

1. Surprise. This court was the same court that despite a previous voter ban on same sex marriage, disregarded and removed it. When pro marriage groups got enough signatures to place prop 8 on the ballot and asked the court to delay removing the ban so that voters could say their voice (again) on the matter. They said no and let 18000 same sex unions proceed before the people had a chance to vote. So this court has been very supportive of same sex marriage. I expected them to slap the people in the face again and strike down prop 8. But they upheld it. That surprised me.

2. Gratitude. I have always felt that the ultimate power should always reside with the people. Even if the people make a poor choice or chose to not make a choice(like only voting in general elections and missing primaries.) Ultimate power should still reside with the people. The people of California had spoken in 2004 and again in 2008 that they wanted marriage between one woman and one man. Even though the 2008 election was won overwhelming by liberal or left leaning candidates. This conservative prop still passed. I think the court saw this and President Obama has also seen this as the will of the people and both have finally fallen on the side of the people on this issue. The fact that it was a close vote does not change the fact that the majority have spoken. People can no longer blame specific organizations or individuals (like Miss California) for this. The people have spoken and that should be accepted. If the election remained close but those for same sex marriage would have won. They would then have accepted the will of the people. This could happen in the future and so if people are for same sex marriage, they should uphold the court's ruling. Or they cannot rely on the people's will when it falls on their side.

I think that the California supreme court is still a friend to same sex unions as they ruled that the previous 18000 same sex marriages are still legal, even though the people voted twice to outlaw it. This issue will return very soon. We may need a federal constitution amendment to address it permanently. But proponents of gay marriage know they would lose that fight and so will keep their fight on the state level.

Editorials I found to be funny

2009-05-15T08:40:00.004-06:00

Lots of news about Obama & Pelosi recently. I found some editorials humorist and thought I would share them.

There's Klingons off the starboard bow

2009-05-08T19:35:00.003-06:00

Today I got to see the new Star Trek movie on an IMAX screen and have been happy the whole day because of it. Many people have asked me about the movie and this is what I've shared with them.

Back in 1980, if you saw "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back" in theaters during the first week it was out. You learned that Dark Vader was Luke's father from the movie. But if you saw it after the 1st week it was out. You learned that from someone who already saw the movie and was talking about it. The movie was that good that people were talking about it for a whole week after seeing it.

That is how Star Trek is going to be. The movie is so good that people will be talking about it after they see it. I think that it will be this year's "Iron Man" or "The Dark Knight." It should make around 100 million this weekend and I will be helping it get to that number as I already want to see it again. So unless you want to learn about the movie from other's descriptions, you should see it as soon as you can.

I was also impressed with another thing. This is the 11th movie and there have been 5 TV shows in the Star Trek universe. Which would make it hard to create an original movie in the series since it has done many different shows already. Plus you don't want to conflict with previous shows. This movie was able to tie itself into the past movies and shows. But it was also able to find a way to free itself from those past movies and start something that they can take into any direction they want. That was the most impressive thing to me. They can make as many sequels as they want and not worry about conflicting with previous movies.

So if you have planned on seeing the movie at any time, I recommend doing it soon. Let the movie creators be the one to show you the new story rather than learning about it from someone else. Everyone will be talking about it, trekkies and non-trekkies. So get your tickets now.

Free movies yea!!!!

2009-05-04T20:45:00.004-06:00

One of the good and bad things about my job is that I get solicited by salesmen left and right. I normally do not care for the sales phone calls I get frequently. But some companies have taken a new approach to getting the word out on their products. They invite IT guys like me to a movie theater, give a sales presentation about a product and then provide free movie tickets with drinks and snacks. They wait until the summer movie season when good movies are available to view and then start their selling campaign.

I have received may invites to these sales presentations and they work on me. At least at getting me to come to their sales presentation. Last year I saw Iron Man, The Dark Knight & Wall-E for free. This week I already have been invited to see the new X-Men movie and Star Trek. I am looking forward to the Star Trek movie as Jen was able to get a baby sitter and we will enjoy the movie together.

I feel somewhat guilty as I have not purchased anything from these companies who do these promotions and our current economy does not make it look likely for me to do so anytime soon. But I certainly do learn a lot about the new products and new technological options that are available. That should result in future purchases. Until then, I will enjoy some good movies for free.

A Busy Disney Weekend

2009-04-28T08:44:00.004-06:00

We had a busy and fun weekend that I just have to talk about it. As you may know, we recent moved from West Valley to our current home in Herriman. We learned that our old stake was putting on the play "Beauty and the Beast." So we decided to take the kids and check it out last Friday night. As we were driving there, I suddenly felt like we should not have done it as it would result in a late night and we had to get up early the next day to help clean the church and help my brother move. But I did not regret going after the play was over.

Thanks to a friend we had second row seats, which gave the kids a close up view of the play. Many of our old ward members were in the cast. Karen was mesmerised and Michael was actually entertained enough to watch. He loved all the props and wonderful costumes. When the lights went out and they began setting up for the next scenes, he would get excited and wonder what color lights they would use next and what props they would use. He loved clapping after every song. Both kids watched the entire first act and most of the second. Michael finally became to squirmy to watch the rest of the play so I took him into a children area that had a video of the play showing and watched the rest from there. The play was fantastic and we all enjoyed it.

We also enjoyed seeing and visiting with members of our old ward. Many of them did not know where we had ended up. So we had to share with them our moving experience and how we finally ended up in our new home in Herriman. We loved seeing everyone again and it made us a little home sick for all our old friends.

The next day was Saturday and we were up early helping to clean the church. Then it was off to Monte's place to help him load up and move to his new home in Riverton, which is only a few miles away from us. Monte and Cat were very prepared and had everything boxed up and most of the boxes already moved to the new place. We just needed to load up the big stuff into the van and move it. It was one of the better moves that I have helped with, despite being rained on most of the day. I've always disliked showing up to help someone move and they did not have anything packed.

So we had a busy weekend, but was happy to enjoy time with family and at the play. As well as helping a brother move closer to us.

Pictures from Starfest

2009-04-21T21:29:00.002-06:00

The shirt Brent Spiner liked

Brent Spiner

They had an actual Delorian there!! So cool!

Lucius Malfoy and Luna Lovegood

Awesome actual size Doctor Who Tardis

Freaks, geeks and actors...oh my

2009-04-21T09:15:00.004-06:00

After wading through a major snow storm, Jen and I finally reach Denver Colorado for this year's Starfest Science Fiction Convention. We love going to these things and always have fun. We played Texas Holdem poker, bought Jen a new dagger, hung out with Carl & Erica, listened to Brent Spiner who played Data and took lots of pictures of peoples in strange costumes and made a point not to take pictures of people dressed in costumes they should not have been wearing. (Many girls dress up in the sexy costumes but should not.)

I went to a panel that was going to discuss the Star Trek Movies. They guy running the panel showed up but reported that he had to move his car and so would be back. He took 20 minutes to park and I got sick of waiting. So I jumped up and ran an impromptu panel with the people who were there. It was fun and enjoyable to all. When the guy got back, I let him take over, but he was not very exciting. After the panel was done, many people walked up to me and said they enjoyed me more than the other guy and that I should run these things. I did enjoy it and thought it was a good idea. So the next time we go to this, I will try to get on a panel. Carl thought we could redo a panel I did for Mountain Con about space history.

Brent Spiner was very entertaining. One day we boarded the elevator and found Brent on it. He loved my Weird Al shirt and told me how his girl friend is friends with Al's wife and so Brent went to his wedding. Brent has been to many conventions and so knew how to entertain. We laughed the whole time. The guy who played Nelix on Voyager was also there and gave the best line. A guy got up and started telling him about how he loved watching the show with his Mom and that they named their cats after the shows characters. Nelix responded "I think you have me confused with someone who cares." He was kidding but I thought that was a very funny response.

We saw a lot of trailers to upcoming movies and it got me excited for the summer movie season. Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Harry Potter, Night at the Museum and Transformers look very good.

I will add some pictures we took soon.

Starfest party in Denver

2009-04-17T15:30:00.003-06:00

Jen and I have always enjoyed a sci fi convention in Denver called Starfest. We decided to come to the convention again this year and see the guy who played Data and other actors. We decided to fly this time so that we would not endure a long drive. We were glad we did as the weather was very bad. Denver has been getting slammed by a big now storm all day today. We were able to fly in and get to our hotel before the storm hit us. But my brother Carl is trying to drive across Wyoming to get to Denver. He got as far as Rawlins before he found a closed road. So he is trying to take smaller roads through the mountains of Colorado to reach us. We sure hope he gets here in one piece.

Once we are all arrived, we will spend the entire weekend here enjoying some time without kids and so without having to be parents. That is a welcome treat for both of us.

See ya on Monday.

Jazz game that actually went well

2009-04-14T09:06:00.006-06:00

Me and some co-workers were given free tickets to the Jazz game last night. Jen wanted me to have an enjoyable guys night out and so was OK with me going. The Jazz played the LA Clippers who have a losing season. The Jazz were predicted to win, but they were also predicted to beat Golden State and Minnesota too. So I did not assume the Jazz would win anything with the way they had been playing lately.

Surprisingly the Jazz played very well. Beating the Clippers by more that 20. The most intense moment of the game was when Baron Davis purposely pushed a Jazz player to the floor during a rebound. Davis was clearly fouling and flagrantly as well. But the refs could not figure that out and so called a double foul on both Davis and the Jazz player. The crowd was livid with both the refs and Davis and made sure he knew it. Every time Davis got the ball the crowd booed very loudly. It things like this that you cannot experience by watching a game on TV. You just have to be there.

While at the game, tried to twitter on my phone. Surprisingly it was very easy to do so. So I twittered during the game and was able to chat with my brother who was watching the game from home. With how easy it is to twitter, I think I will continue to do so. You can catch me at the below URL:

http://twitter.com/philbofm

I'm on twitter

2009-04-13T08:48:00.004-06:00

So my brother is on twitter. The same brother who inspired me to get a blog. I guess I will continue to follow him as I am now on twitter too. So if you want to follow my antics closer, feel free to check me out on twitter.com.

I'm still learning how to use this thing so don't be surprised if I take awhile before I get interesting.

You can follow me here:

http://twitter.com/philbofm

City council meeting

2009-04-08T08:39:00.003-06:00

So I now live in a new city and want to be involved in my community. So when Jen asked me what I wanted to do for my night off she was inviting me to have. I did what any other politically conscious and historically studying person would do. I went to the Riverton city council.

This was a chance for me to learn about my new city and see what issues are prevalent in my new neighborhood. The main issue discussed was a new recovery home that was set up in a neighborhood where recovering drug addicts go to receive treatment. The main issue was that this home was set up in a neighborhood without public notice and without proper licence obtained from the city. So many citizens who live on that street were furious to suddenly see cops delivering drug addicts to their neighborhood and city leaders were working hard to correct the problem.

I was glad to see how organized the meeting went and how prepared the city officials were to address the items on the agenda. I was able to chat with the mayor after the meeting and unfortunately learned that the CERT team that I am leading will see some changes because my team is in both Herriman and Riverton city. But other than that, I enjoyed the events and feel educated on my city processes.

If you have not done so, I recommend attending at least one city council meeting. You will be enlighten and educated. You may also be bored but if you needed to petition your city for something, you will be glad that you at least saw what happens before you start.

Happy April Fools Day

2009-04-01T09:01:00.001-06:00

Looks like mother nature likes to play a joke on April 1st. Today's weather is far from a nice spring day. But other than that, I do enjoy this day.

Anything happen to you yet?

Lots of work

2009-03-25T08:54:00.004-06:00

We did a major IT change at work this past weekend. This results in 2 things.

1. I spend a large amount of time making changes to the network, computers, software and a pleura of other changes.
2. I spend even more time addressing the bugs that pop up and the user issues and training that has resulted from the large change.

So I've been very busy the past few days and it has finally slowed down to where I can blog. I am excited for the changes we have made with our system. It is now a more secure system and I have more responsibility with translates into greater job security.

Jen and I finally found an out of town excursion that we can do. In April we will fly to Denver and enjoy a sci-fi convention that we've enjoyed before. Thanks to my Mom taking our kids and Carl for getting us discount ticket. That, plus spring finally arriving, has made life look happier and fun.

Driving on nerves

2009-03-18T08:39:00.003-06:00

Yesterday began like any normal day. I got in my car and started driving to work. But then I found a fork in the road, literally. A fork got into one of my tires and caused a flat. So I had to put on the donut tire and find a place to replace the flat tire. I ended up a wal-mart who said they could not patch the tire and I would need a new one. So there went 90 bucks.

Then I noticed my licence plate which reminded me that my car registration expires this month. This surprised me as I normally get a notice in the mail that I need to renew it. I guess with us moving recently, the government mail could not catch up to us. So I had to get the car inspected. There went another 90 bucks.

After getting the car fixed up and repaired to pass inspection. I then had to get it registered. Thankfully I was able to do it where I got the car inspected. But it sure was expensive. There went another 90 bucks

While I was trying to get my car problems addressed. By poor wife called to let me know she was not feeling very well and asked me to come home and take care of the family. I was never able to get out of Riverton when I started for work this morning. So it was not a long drive to return home.

So when I started my day, it looked like it would be a normal day. But it ended up with me working from home, running around getting my car fixed and spending 270 dollars. I'm glad that everyday is not like today.

The drill is complete and now I can look at myself in the mirror.

2009-03-15T13:39:00.004-06:00

Saturday was the first in a while where I did not have a full day full of CERT classroom training. We did have a city wide disaster drill that I participated in. Everyone was suppose to meet at the church to report their findings of any emergency cards left by the city. The first one to arrive was suppose to be the one in charge. I was one of the last ones to arrive and when I walked in I asked, "whose in charge?" no one responded. One thing we learned in CERT training class is that if no one answers to that question, then you are in charge. That was when I realized that I really need to be prepared to act in an emergency, because if no one wants to be the one in charge, then no help is ever organized.

We got organized and tested. Everything went well. We will have much more fun in September when we test again. That time we will run a full test, with people pretending to be hurt and everything.

We have been slowly trying to get our house set up. Today we decided to hang a 5x3 foot mirror on the wall. The wall Jen chose to place the mirror on was the over 10 foot high wall that follows the stairs down to the basement. The mirror is over 50 pounds and so it was quite a challenge to figure out how to hang it on this tall wall. Because of the stairs we could not place a ladder in front of the wall.

Thankfully we have vaulted ceilings and this wall did not go all the way up to the ceiling. So instead of coming from the bottom up to the top of the wall, we brought the mirror from over the top of the wall into place. I had to borrow my neighbor and his ladder to make it work. But surprisingly it did. Now we have the mirror hanging in our family room and it makes the room look so much bigger, not to mention nicer too.

Enjoy the pictures of it.

Whenever danger is near...never fear...Neils is near.

2009-03-09T09:10:00.004-06:00

Shortly after we moved into our new home, neighbors and church members started asking us about ourselves. I made the mistake of saying that I like to be involved in the community. I was referring to being involved politically. But saying that got many people excited and they asked me to serve as our neighborhood CERT team leader. CERT stands for community emergency response team. Meaning that if a disaster ever strikes that is big enough the prevent firemen, policemen, medical providers and government programs from reaching you during a disaster, the CERT team is all there is to help until you do get help from outside.

I said yes but did not realize what I was getting into. I am glad to help and wanted to learn more about our community's disaster plans. But I hope to never have to be used. For the past 3 Saturdays I have been attending a CERT training course. There I learned how to put out small fires, how to lift large objects off of people, perform light search and rescue, how to triage and treat people for injuries. I also learned how to set up a command center and organize rescue efforts.

This Saturday I get to put my newly acquired skills to use during a city wide test. We will pretend that there was a 6.8 size earthquake. There is fires and broken utilities. Main roads are impassable or closed to emergency vehicles. I need to lead a team in checking my entire neighborhood to see what damage there is(as shown by damage cards left on homes by the city.) Then I need to communicate this up the chain to my leader who has communication to the city.

This should be very interesting and doing it once will make it easier to do during a real disaster. I will blog about it after our test. Until then, I am going to look forward to it being over.

Officially moved in

2009-03-03T08:33:00.004-07:00

We are now officially moved into our new home. It became official over the weekend after I found the last of my surround sound stereo speakers and got them hooked up. Then, after the kids were in bed, we enjoyed a movie we had not watch in some time. "The Princess Bride." Even though comedies like that one do not have need for surround sound, it still made the movie much more enjoyable.

Now I can bring out all my Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and other movies and enjoy them at 5.1 level enjoyment. I think I will put in the latest DVD version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail next . Care to join me?

Yes we can...spend more money we don't have

2009-02-24T20:32:00.003-07:00

Just watched President Obama give his first talk to Congress. Had to laugh when he tried to start his speech before he was introduced. Speaker Pelosi had to flag him down that it was not his turn yet. I guess it is OK for a new president to make inexperienced mistakes in a speech. Unfortunately he is going to make inexperienced mistakes with our government.

I agree with him that we need to cut spending and our deficit. We need to find ways to reel in health care costs and should lead the way in finding alternate energy sources. But I had to laugh when he bragged that his recent 800+ Billion (that billion with a B) spending bill did not have any earmarks in it. But it had more pork than immediate stimulus money.

I like to compare what Obama is doing to what both Regan and W. Bush did when they entered office. All Presidents entered office while the country was in a economy down turn and needed a boost. Regan and Bush cut taxes, giving Americans more money to spend, which gave the economy a boost and brought us out of the recession. It even gave the government more money in tax revenue. But Obama does not want to give Americans more money to spend (Unless you count $26 a month as more money) Instead he spent the money himself on what he wanted to buy. I hope his spending bill does help our economy I really do, but even his administration has admitted that it does not guarantee success and is looking to spend more money.

I hope our country does not takes steps towards socialism. Doing so would punish those who work hard for success and reward those to purposely do less and take more. But I fear that some of the changes Obama, Pelosi and Reid are making are taking us on that path.

And the Oscar goes to . . . Whoever is the most liberal

2009-02-23T08:43:00.002-07:00

Watched the Oscars last night. Through most of the show Jen and I would look at each other and ask "What movie is that from?" or "What role did that person play?" We asked that because all of the major movies nominated were movies that nobody has seen. The top grossing movies of all last year are mysteriously absent from the awards show. To me this just further proves how out of touch with reality Hollywood really is. The highest grossing movies from last year were:

1- The Dark Knight

2-Iron Man

3-Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

However none of the above movies won any major award, unless the main villain in the movie died from a drug problem. So whenever an award was being awarded, I predicted that the person or movie that was most liberal would win and guess what? I was right on all of them.

The last time I watched the Oscars and really enjoyed it was the year that the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won a bunch of stuff. Now when I watch I get Sean Penn telling me I'm full of hate.

Tax time again

2009-02-18T08:42:00.004-07:00

It's that time of year again. Where we get a much needed distraction from the cold, snowy & grey days of winter by sitting in front of a computer for a few hours trying to see how much money we owe Uncle Sam. I had all but 1 tax form this past weekend and since I was with my parents for a family gathering. I borrowed my day's copy of Turbo Tax and got most of my taxes done.

Looks like we will owe a little bit more to the state and will get some redistributed wealth from the federal government. I cannot see it as anything different. When I pay only $28 in federal taxes for the entire year, but only owe $14 for my entire family, and I still get a refund that is a four figure amount. That certainly means that someone else is paying a large amount of taxes so that the government can then take it and give it to me. Since when was it ethical for the government to take from someone, not use it for government projects, but to give to a poor guy like me. Some see this as the government being Robin Hood. But Robin Hood was a thief, even if he was giving the money to others. Looks like our government also enjoys spending other people's money.

These types of tax returns will not last much longer. The Bush tax cuts will expire in 2010 and with it the generous child tax credits and other tax breaks. By that time, Obama will have to raise taxes to pay for all his bail out, so called stimulus and rescue packages he is passing. They have already passed 2 $800+ Billion dollar spending packages and now Obama is pushing for another $80+ Billion dollar housing rescue. I'm sure he is not done spending our money. So I should not worry about not paying enough taxes. There will be plenty to pay soon enough.

Looking back at warmer and happier times

2009-02-10T10:00:00.005-07:00

My last blog is kind of a downer isn't it? Jen asked me to put something happier on. So while I was enjoying my hour long, icy stop and go commute this morning. I found myself thinking about my favorite activity we did on our cruise last year. So I am going to tell you about the time Jen & I went horse back riding in Jamaica.

April of 2008 found Jen & I on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The ship stopped in Jamaica and we decided to try horse back rinding. I had promised Jen that we would do it at least once in our life. After a very nail biting bus ride to the ranch. (They drive like crazy in Jamaica.) We were given helmets and assigned to horses. Jen got hers first and started riding her horse in a circle to get the feel of horse riding. She took to it very quickly and looked like a natural. I was placed on a male horse, which later would give me some unwanted excitement.

Riding on the horse was not to hard. I had to get used to the rocking motion when the horse moved and learn how to lean forward or back when going up or down hill. My main problem was making sure my horse followed my directions and not try to go his own way, which was always to the nearest plant or grass.

After a few minutes getting used to our horses, we started on our trek. I was behind Jen the whole time and had the camera. So most of the pictures were of her.

We started climbing a hill, which was difficult for a first time rider. You had to lean forward on your horse so that you were almost laying on the horses neck. I did this for most of the ride up until I looked behind me and saw the view. We had a wonderful view of the Caribbean and the island. So I got my camera out and while still leaning forward on my horses neck, I pointed the camera behind me and took a few blind pictures. I think they still came out well.

Our ride took us through some of the beautiful countryside of Jamaica. It has a a lot of vegetation on the island and there was green everywhere. We passed by a few homes, if you could call them homes. They were more like the type of homes that people built during the great depression and called them Hooverville. Anything thing that could be found was used to make the home. You could tell that after a hurricane, these people would lose whatever home they had and just scavage for any material they could find to rebuild it.My guide told me about how poor these people were and encouraged me to donate money to charities that would benefit people like these.

We had guides on their own horses accompanying us on our tour and I was enjoying the friendship of one. The problem was that every time he rode by me, my horse was start bucking or trying to move away on his horse. My guide told me it was because the horse he was riding was a female and mine was a male. And for some reason, my horse was not liking his horse and so would try to move away or buck so that his horse would get away from him. This made me gain a very sudden respect for any rodeo rider who gets on a horse that bucks violently. Mine did not buck as violent but it was enough to make me nervous.

Our tour also took us by some steep declines that we did not have to go directly down, but did have to ride by very closely. Those made me nervous as it is not easy to control a horse who may want to head towards that tasty looking plant by the cliff. But having a powerful horse at your control is also exciting. Once you can control them, they can get you almost anywhere and quickly too. It was fun and I felt like I was in the old west.

When we returned the ranch, we changed into our swim suits and then took our horses out into the bay for a swim. It was wonderful. The water was warm and the horses can swim fast. I would have loved to just ride that horse through the bay all day. But it was over too quickly for me. My guide asked me how it was and I replied that it was wonderful but too short. He told me to wait just a little bit, then he took the last group out, returned and had me and a few others saddle up again. I got to head out into the bay again. Jen stayed on land this time and took some pictures of her very untanned husband enjoying the swim.

This ended our horse riding experience. We loved it very much and will do it again whenever we get the chance. If you have not had the chance to ride a horse, you need to try it at least once in your life.

Very angry

2009-02-06T08:24:00.002-07:00

I can't go into details, but I am furious that there are some people out there who feel that they are special enough to demand that the whole world stop spinning and everything is changed so they can have it just the way they want it. Even though doing so will negatively affect many other people, unnecessary spend money and makes me lose faith with leadership.

If you want details, talk to me in person.

Work is spying on me

2009-02-02T08:56:00.005-07:00

The Internet is a cool yet spooky thing. They have tools out there that allow you to put in a word(s) and anytime that word(s) pop up on that Internet, you are informed of it and are shown where it is. My work set this so that whenever the name of our company is listed somewhere on the Internet, they are informed of where it is. In my last blog I wrote about the theft of my milk delivery. Because of the notification tool, half of the company then knew about this and was talking to me about it.

I know that when you put things on the Internet, it is available for the world to see. But it kind of freaked me out that my company is watching me and what I say, even outside of work. Same thing happened to me when I blogged about one of my favorite games. The Creator of the game then put a comment on my blog. I guess this was a good reminder that when you blog, the world is reading.

Had a fun weekend. I hooked up my stereo system, took a tour of the new Draper temple, got a haircut for me and my son, had a family birthday party at golden corral, had 3 families stop by for a visit, spoke in priesthood during church, was asked to speak in church next week, started my new calling of disaster preparedness specialist, cooked a full turkey dinner, hosted the Herrera family on Sunday evening and found time to watch that last 7 minutes of the Superbowl.

I need a vacation.

Theft & car problems

2009-01-29T09:40:00.004-07:00

Yesterday Jen was feeling under the weather so I stayed home during the morning to help out. Since I was home I decided to make a nice breakfast for the family. I had ordered a bunch of stuff for my Winder Farms delivery, which included donuts and thick sliced honey cured bacon. (Very yummy.) But when I collected my delivery, I found that the donuts and bacon was missing. I knew my driver is a very effective driver and normally does not miss items on my delivery. I later found out that 2 kids run through our neighborhood on our delivery day and look for homes with Winder coolers on their porch. Which they then use to collect their food.

As a customer and an employee of the company. I felt very angry over the theft. The driver told me that he has lost over 20 customers because of the theft. With the economy that way it is, our company is trying everything to survive, just like everyone else is. Having someone steal from our customers causing them to cancel their service is very detrimental to our company and to me. It is bad enough that these kids steal from one person, but to steal from multiple people greatly increases our troubles.

In the afternoon I got into my car to go to work for the remainder of the day. But my car would not start. That made life even more interesting. Since we are new to the neighborhood, I have no idea where car repair places are and which ones are the good ones. I found one and with Progressive's help, got my car towed to the shop and hopefully they can fix it without causing me to seek a bailout from the government.

Settled in

2009-01-24T15:17:00.002-07:00

This weekend is dedicated to getting unpacked and settled in. We started in the kitchen where we unpacked all our dishes and then washed them all. Then we moved to the bathrooms and our closet. I really wanted to be able to park my car in the garage as I was sick of scraping my windows each morning while we lived at the apartment. So I spent Saturday afternoon by breaking downing boxes and clearing out any remaining items we had in the garage. Once we were done, it was time to put the kids down for a nap and to take a break ourselves. It feels good to get all these things done. But we still have a large amount of boxes in the basement and I need to figure out how to use the security system, the water softener and how to change the code for the garage door opener. Things are progressing and the more we get done, the more comfortable I feel in our new home.

Today I did something I was looking forward to since our offer was accepted on the home. I was able to use our jetted tub. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. The only problem was that our water heater is not big enough to fill the tub with hot water. But I will enjoy this part of our house very much. If we ever have guest, I will recommend they try it out.

This is not my actual tub, but it does have windows by it and a nice view.

It's finally over

2009-01-22T08:31:00.003-07:00

A 10 month process has finally come to a close yesterday. We moved into our new home and I'm planning on staying for the next 20+ years. We closed last Thursday, had all the painting done Saturday-Monday. New carpet installed on Tuesday. Packing and cleaning of the apartment happened during this same time. We hired movers and moved in on Wednesday. Now we are all moved in.

We still have a lot of boxes all over the place and so will have a lot of unpacking to do. But to finally be at the end of our selling and buying process makes me feel wonderful and relieved. The home is great and as I walk around it, I still cannot believe that it is ours. We have so much space now. Our sectional sofa even fits in our family room.

After we get unpacked and settled in. We will certainly have some events so we can have friends and family come see where we live. We want everyone one to know where we live so they can come visit whenever they are in the area. Even though we now live in a completely different area of the valley. We want to keep all our friends.

I HATE BUYING A HOME!!!

2009-01-15T09:32:00.006-07:00

So we closed on our home on Monday and when we did they asked us to sign all the documents with our full names, including our middle names. We did so and then waited for everything to be final so we could then clean up the home and move in. But then yesterday we learned that our lending company had set up all their documents with just our first and last names but not the middle names. Since we signed with our middle names, they would not accept those documents.

Furious beyond words, we found ourselves stuck in the middle of a blame fest as the title company and our lender spent half of the day blaming each other for the error, instead of working on the solution. Thankfully our Realtor was able to get both of them to stop blaming and start working on fixing the issue. Now we are told that we can re-sign today and then if the planets align just right. We will have possession of our new home on Friday.

If we are fortunate to get possession of our home on Friday, we will then start the painters on Saturday, carpet on Tuesday and then moving in on Wednesday.

I cannot believe all the problems we have experienced with buying any home. When we bought our first home we had to go close 3 times before they finally got it right. Why are we always the ones to get the horror experiences with buying homes. When we get done with this home purchase, I will not be doing this again for at least 20 years. (I hope)

Moving, my 325,961st favorite thing to do.

2009-01-12T16:51:00.003-07:00

Today was settlement day, meaning that we sign our name over and over again. But even though we now own the home, we cannot take possession of the home until the sale is recorded with the county. Since we are dealing with a bank that is based in Pennsylvania, we should not expect to receive the keys to the home until Thursday. Because we want to get new carpet and painting done before we move in, we will have to delay our moving until Tuesday the 20th. So if you do not have to work on Tuesday and do not want to be bored to death watching the inauguration on the television( and will be the only thing on the TV.) Then you are welcome to come give us a hand.

To anyone who was planning to help us move on Saturday. Thank you very much. But you can now find some other activity to occupy your Saturday, unless you want to help us clean our new place. But that does not sound to fun does it? I had promised tickets to the Utes basketball game that Saturday to a few people and would still like to give it to them. So please come enjoy the game on me.

Were number 1...I mean 4...or maybe 2

2009-01-10T11:49:00.003-07:00

So the final rankings came out for college football. I expected the Utes to end up 3 or 4 in the rankings. They did get 4th in the coaches poll, but I was thoroughly surprised to see the Utes ranks 2nd in the AP poll. These two rankings are the best the Utes have ever received and they were less than 100 votes from obtaining the number 1 ranking. But I am happy with the results and having 1 other MWC team in the top 10 and 3 in the top 25. For many of us who feel that a playoff is what is needed in college football. This season provided the strongest evidence for the need for a playoff.

We are now a week away from moving day. I will be taking this next week off of work to prepare for the move. But I just can't wait to get it all done and start our life in our new home. We have much to do, with packing up our apartment, getting our new house cleaned, close on the home, get new carpet and all walls painted in time for us to move in on Saturday. Words cannot describe how much I look forward to getting this all done. Once it is, we can finally relax in our new home. Yea!

Moving on up

2009-01-08T08:32:00.003-07:00

Our closing date is now officially set for this coming Monday the 12th. But because we are buying a repo, we cannot take possession of the home until all the money has been transferred. So we expect to have possession of our new home on Wednesday the 14th. Then we will try like crazy to get all the walls repainted, new carpet installed, everything cleaned, the driveway snowblowed so our pod can be delivered and a new stove and dishwasher installed. Hopefully all this can be done by Saturday morning as we will then move into the home on Saturday the 17th.

I was hoping to take possession of the home earlier so we could have more time to get everything done. But I am so anxious to get into our new home and I've decided to move in on Saturday the 17th whether the home is ready or not. So if your available and/or bored this next Saturday. We would love to have your help in moving. The move will not be very hard. We will already have the majority of our stuff there waiting to unload in our pod. The only things we need to load up will be what is in our apartment, which is not much. So I anticipate that we will be all moved in by 1pm if not sooner.

If you need an incentive to give us a hand, I won 4 tickets to the Utah Utes basket ball game for that Saturday at 4pm. The first 4 volunteers to let me know they can give me a hand have first pick of the tickets. If that does not work, then I will try to give you a guilt trip until you agree to help. :)

Hope to see you on Saturday the 17th.

Sweet Victory!!!

2009-01-03T11:54:00.004-07:00

I had prepared myself for a possible loss last night. All the experts, polls, predictions and sports announcers all said that Alabama was headed to a easy victory and that Utah was going to repeat Hawaii's disappointing showing from last year. Then the first quarter started.

We were very happy to watch the game with our good friends the Herrera family and many other ute fans. At the end of the 1st quarter, we had scored 3 touchdowns and Alabama could not run an offensive campaign to save their life. Things were looking good for the Utes, but with 3 more quarters to go, victory was not certain. But at half time they were still winning and it was enjoyable to see the commentators try to correct their earlier predictions of a dominate Alabama victory.

When there was less than 5 minutes left in the game, it was certain that Utah was going to win and win big. I was on such a high that I could not sleep until after 1am. The perfect season 13-0. It was nice to see commentators finally acknowledge that not only did Utah belong in the BCS but also deserved a chance at the national title. Now being the only undefeated team, how can they not be considered championship worthy.

This is a great day for Utah, all other MWC schools and all other non-BCS schools. A team from a non BCS conference can compete and should not be shut out of the national title picture ever again. Of course the BCS supporters are already making their excuses for the Alabama loss and for why they should not allow in future non BCS teams or consider a playoff. But now less people believe them and change is on the horizon. All thanks to the Utes going 13-0.

I am proud that I was able to enjoy this season and even be a part of it by attending the TCU game and charging the field at the end. I only wish I could have been there in New Orleans as well. Maybe next time. We seem to visit the BCS every 5 years.

Go Utes!!!

2009-01-02T08:31:00.004-07:00

Tonight is the night. After a month and a half without any Utah football to watch, we finally get to see their final game of the season and it is a big one. Making their second appearance in a BCS bowl, they will play Alabama in the Sugar bowl. This will be the toughest game for the Utes and even if they just keep the game close, I will be happy.

I have been reading some of the comment sections of many sports websites and many Alabama fans seem very unhappy to be playing in the Sugar bowl rather than the BCS championship. They vent their frustrations on any Utah fans they can find by belittling our team and telling us how unworthy we are to be there. I am OK with this. The last team to be unhappy to play us in a bowl and belittled us was Georgia Tech in the San Francisco bowl. Then we showed them how to play on the field and walked away with the victory. I see a possible repeat here.

We will be enjoying the game at a friends house and have been looking forward to it very much. Win or lose, I will still look back on this season as the best season the Utes had ever had. 2004 was great, but all those games were blowouts. This season the games were close and the spectators were sitting on the edge of their seats. That is why this season is the best ever!

New home keeps you busy

2008-12-30T10:43:00.004-07:00

We have our officially accepted offer on our new home and are now going through all the hoops and red tape before we can close. Yesterday we made our own inspection and had a professional come inspect our new home. I was nervous as we are getting this home for a really good price and so was worried that something was wrong with it. But our home inspector could not find any major issues, which was wonderful news.

Now we are trying to see how much it would cost for new carpet and a new paint job, plus some new appliances. With the amount of snow on the ground at this part of town. I have decided that I will need to purchase a snow blower. Having a RV pad as well as a driveway also encourages this purchase.

We are excited as can be and just can't wait until we are moved in. We are projecting a move in date of Saturday January 17th. We will send an official invitation when the date is firmly set. But we hope many of our friends and family will be available to help. The move will be very simple. We only have an apartment to pack up and load up. The rest will be in a Pod that we will have delivered just before move in time. With the help of the Pod people, our move will be much easier.

A snowed in Christmas

2008-12-25T11:19:00.003-07:00

Christmas has come again and like many parents, Jen & I spent much of Christmas Even wrapping presents and getting ready for "Santa's" visit. Karen was so excited for Christmas that she came out of her room a few times while we were preparing and we had to quickly get her back in bed to preserve the surprise. On Christmas morning we were woken by a very excited Karen who informed us that Santa had came and she wanted to start opening presents. After some persuasion from Karen, we all got up and began Christmas morning. An hour later the kids had more toys that they could play with, Jen had a new computer game and dagger. And I got the 20th anniversary box set for MST3K and a really cool UofU shirt.

Now we are spending the day playing with our new toys and watching "A Christmas Story" on TV. We were planning on going to my parents house to enjoy the day with them. But we have a large storm hitting the state today and the roads look terrible. I had been checking the Internet to see if the weather would let up so we could travel, but I don't think it will be worth the risk. So we are enjoying a snowed in Christmas. But seeing the kids enjoy their new toys makes this a very happy and enjoyable time.

See ya next year

WE GOT IT!!!

2008-12-20T11:54:00.003-07:00

Finally. After months of searching, and pinching our budget so much that if it was coal it would have turned into a diamond. We found our new home and made our best offer on it. Yesterday we learned that our offer on the home was accepted! We now have our new home and could not be happier. The home is on the very western border of Riverton, but Herriman would be a more correct description of where it is.

We could not ask for more with this home. It has a finished yard and is fully fenced. It has a nice sized kitchen, fire place, enough room for us all to live on the main floor. The basement is unfinished but over time we can add more bed rooms, family room, storage and a bathroom.

I will need to be like my brothers and father and will now have a longer commute to work in West Valley. But with gas prices back down, it should not be a major issue and thankfully Banganter highway is very close.

We look forward to having our offer officially accepted on Monday and then creating a time line towards taking possession of the home. We also look forward to being able to show the home to friends and family.

Were going home...once we find it

2008-12-19T09:09:00.005-07:00

Our exhausted search from the new Stark family home has taken us all over the valley and into every kind of neighborhood out there. We have seen most every type of rambler home that has been built. We finally feel like we had found some homes that we could enjoy and on Wednesday we put a bid on 2 of them. But right after we made those two offers, Jen found the best house we had ever seen . We fell in love and put an offer on that home too. So we now have 3 offers made on 3 different homes. We are optimistic that by the end of the year we will have one of them.

With these offers I finally feel like we are progressing in our home search and we can now sit back, relax and try to enjoy the holidays. We should receive within 3 days a response for 2 of our offers. Until then we will wrap presents, watch Holiday movies and treat ourselves to hot chocolate and scones from Winder Farms.

The physical toll for searching for our home has been exhausting. Poor Michael came down with a fever and I'm sure us running from house to house has not been helpful. But we have agreed to suspend our house search for the holidays. We surly could use the break.

Winter Wonderland of a weekend

2008-12-15T08:31:00.006-07:00

7 years ago yesterday I was blessed to take a beautiful bride to the temple and start our lives together. Now our family consists of both of us and 2 cute and very happy children. I am certainly blessed to have such a wonderful family. Jen has given me so much that this year's anniversary I wanted to take charge and try to treat her.

We celebrated our anniversary on Friday by getting a baby sister for the kids and then headed downtown. I had forgotten how busy downtown gets, especially during the holidays. But we eventually got our car parked and we enjoyed dinner at the Lion House Pantry. I was impressed with the place and really enjoyed a good steak. Then I surprised Jen and took her to the Christmas performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. They had special guests Brian Stokes Mitchell and Edward Herrmann. The performance was wonderful. We enjoyed numerous holiday favorites and some new songs that we had not heard before.

Brain Mitchell sang a song that was from the perspectives of the animals who were in the stable on Christmas eve and what they gave to the Christ child. He sang with different voices for the donkey, cow, sheep and dove. It was a wonderful song and was sang again during music and the spoken word on Sunday. I enjoyed it both times.

Edward Herrmann narrated a story of how the song "I heard the bells on Christmas day" was made, while the choir sang in the background. That was a delight as well.

We enjoyed the evening and look forward to another 7+ years together.

The remainder of the weekend was spent surviving the snow storm, attending a ward Christmas party, looking for a home and spending time together. I enjoyed it and feel that we are close to getting our new home.

Going bowling

2008-12-08T09:05:00.003-07:00

The Utes fantastic season continues with a BCS bowl and high quality opponent. Last night we learned that Utah will be going to the Sugar bowl for a game with Alabama. I would have preferred the Fiesta bowl as more Ute fans could travel to that game. Instead we will be playing at a site full of Alabama fans. But I am OK with it. I am just thankful that this BCS bowl will give the Utes a true BCS opponent. Last time we were stuck with a un-ranked big east team that was a complete joke of a team. We had to go undefeated to earn the right to play in a BCS bowl and Pittsburg was able to coast in with 3 losses. Now we get a team that was number 1 and undefeated (like us) until just last Saturday. This should be a tough but good game and win or lose, I am excited for our team and the mountain west conference.

BYU will be returning to the Las Vegas bowl, but our 10-2 team will be playing a 7-5 team from Arizona. Kind of a disappointment but the Las Vegas bowl has always had a problem getting a high quality opponent from the Pac-10. At least the poinsettia bowl will be a good game. a 10-2 TCU team from the Mountain West will play a 12-0 Boise State team from the WAC. That will be a BCS type of match up and I am looking forward to watching it.

Now my favorite season begins. The Christmas/Bowl season. :)

Its life jim....but not as we know it

2008-12-05T08:30:00.003-07:00

Not much to say about this week. Disappointment on the housing search. Interest rates took a dive around Thanksgiving which got us really excited as we could now afford more and so increased the price range in our housing search. But we have yet to find that house that screams out at us. We have a bid on a short sell, but the bank seems to think that there is no decline in housing prices and so is hesitant to sell us the home for a price lower than what they think it will get. So we continue to enjoy the comforts of our apartment and hope that our house will show up soon. I am sure it will, but the waiting is the hardest part.

I am looking forward to all the Christmas activities we have planned. Looking at the lights at the zoo, scones at Winder Farms, choir concert by my mother, ward Christmas party and the main holiday itself is always fun. I really should start on my shopping.

Jen & mine anniversary will be next week and I've got something special planned. Last year Jen surprised me by taking me to a bed and breakfast for the weekend. We had a lot of fun and a nice break from being parents. This year I am surprising Jen. It will not be a cool as what she did for us last year, but I am excited for it and we will have fun.

Thanksgiving and James Bond

2008-11-29T16:04:00.005-07:00

One of my favorite holidays has come again and I am enjoying it. I really like the 4 day weekend, along with lots of turkey to eat. We were with my family on Thanksgiving day and with Jen's family on the Saturday after. Both days were enjoyable with turkey and games shared at both. Our kids are now at an age where they do not need constant supervision and so we let them play and were able to enjoy ourselves with our family members.

On Friday went to see the new James Bond movie with my family. I was looking forward to it as I thought Casino Royal was a very good movie and wanted to see how it continued. But I was kind of disappointed. The movie was not bad, just not as good as Casino. We had to sit in the second row of the theater and so had difficulty in watching the full screen of action. The action was like the action in the Transformer movie. Difficult to see with the shaky camera and constant cuts between scenes. I don't like those kinds of movies. I was also disappointed with the ending as it did not seem to conclude the whole quantum plot point. This unknown organization was a large plot point, but they seemed to forget about it by the end of the movie. I know that they will most likely continue that plot point in future movies, but they should not ignore it either.

If you are a James Bond fan I certainly recommend seeing the movie, but it may be worth waiting until DVD.

Tomorrow concludes our relaxing holiday weekend. We put up Christmas decorations and now look forward to the Christmas festivities.

Wild and wacky weekend

2008-11-23T19:25:00.007-07:00

This was one of those weekends where it would be easier to tell you what did not happen, rather than what did. All week we were boxing up our home to move it on Saturday. But on Friday we were able to take some time out for ourselves. Jen & I dropped the kids off at my parents and then were treated to the new "Twilight" movie by my financial planner. It was nice to put the move out of our minds and just enjoy an evening together. The movie was entertaining and as someone who has not read the books, I would recommend the movie to others. There was some fun action in the movie, along with the romance. My only complaint was that the final climatic scene was not long enough. But it was still fun.

Saturday we woke up and began loading up our pod and moving van. (Our Realtor had a moving van for his clients, for only $17 a day. Nice deal huh?) Because we had packed everything up before the move, we were able to load both the pod and van. Travel to our apartment and get everything unloaded within 3 1/2 hours. Having members of my ward and my very helpful family from both sides was the secret to our moving success. Plus one of my pet peeves is to go help someone move and show up with nothing boxed up and nothing ready. So we were determined that this would not happen with us. So we were all moved in by 12:30 and are enjoying the pleasures of living in a small apartment.

We were done with our move in time to enjoy a pleasant evening in front of Adam Meyer's big screen TV during the hours of 4-8pm. Thankfully the TV was on the station that showed the Utah game and Jen & I thoroughly enjoyed it. Adam was not as excited with the outcome as we were. But to see our Utes repeat as undefeated BCS busters was the best thing for our busy and stressful weekend. The high I was on after the game did not stop for hours. It will be nice to not have to sing the BYU fight song due to losing a bet I make with co-workers every year. It will be nice to hear them try to put their singing voices to good use. My advice to them concerning singing, "its a quest for perfection." :)

So that's the weekend. Looking forward to thanksgiving with the family and eventually moving into our permanent home.

Huray its boxing day

2008-11-19T20:33:00.004-07:00

This week has been dominated by packing and loading tons of moving boxes. We've been going through everything we own to see which box it will go in and if it goes into storage or with us to our apartment. I'm sure everyone is amazed by how much stuff they accumulate during their lives and I have been realizing that lately. We have everything from unused flower seeds to letters from old boyfriends. (Well from Jen's old boyfriends, I don't have any old or even current boyfriends.) Its a good thing we are going to end up in a larger home, so that we can have room for our accumulated stuff we will be getting more of during our life.

We are getting closer to moving day and things are finally progressing well. We are getting many things boxed up. The people who are buying our home have started to install a fence today and did their final walk through. They look like a nice couple with a 4 month old baby. Tomorrow we will close on the selling of our house and then we will be renters once again. It will be strange to go back to living in a small apartment and we will be motivated to get back into a home as soon as we can. But we will be even more motivated to be completed with our move in time to enjoy the Utah BYU game this Saturday.

Moving

2008-11-18T08:42:00.005-07:00

So we learned that the home we are trying to buy could take up to 6 weeks and possibly more to purchase. We need to be out of our current home by Saturday and so need a place to live in the mean time. Thanks to Jen's sister letting us know about an apartment complex that allows 2 month leases. We have found a place to live. Ironically it is very close to our first apartment we had when we got married.

So this Saturday we will be moving out of our home and into a small 2 bedroom apartment. Many people have emailed or listed comments on our blogs that they would love to help. If you are still interested in helping, we will be moving this Saturday at 9am starting at our current home on Collins Camp Court. Let me know if you would like to come give us a hand and we will provide details.

Well, life is taking a strange turn but we are rolling with it. It will be a bummer to not be in our new home in time for Christmas. But once we are in our new home, it will all be worth it.

Never a dull moment in the world of home buying

2008-11-14T21:49:00.006-07:00

This month has been anything but boring. We found a home that we liked and could live in for some time. It is much larger than our current house and has a finished yard. The basement is not finished but it could be fun to work on my own house, building it up and making it my own. So we put a bid on it, starting low so we could have room to negotiate. But the home is a short sell and so expected to wait a few days to hear from someone in a bank office to accept, reject or counter offer. Instead we heard very quickly from the seller's Realtor.

He reported that the bank was sick of the home and wanted it to go away. So they were ready and prepared to foreclose and send the home to auction, just to see it disappear. But with us showing up with an offer was a ray of hope for the people who owned the home, and hoped to avoid foreclosure, and for the realtor who wanted to sell the home and collect a commission. The Realtor called the bank and fought for a chance for our offer to be reviewed and accepted. The bank gave in and stated that if our offer could be raised to a specific amount and would be presented within a hour. They would accept it and allow the sale to go through. They would also allow the home to close within 3 weeks, a rare thing with short sells.

So we jumped at this chance, revised our offer within the hour and got it in on time. We have not heard back officially from the bank to confirm that the offer has been accepted, but are very optimistic that it will and that within 3 weeks, we shall be in our new home.

Very ironically we also heard from the owners of a home we bid on last week. They have a very nice home that we both liked and would have enjoyed very much. They were asking for 225000 for the home and just would not come down a single penny. So we could not reach an agreement and we had moved on and bid on the house across the street (as described above.) Suddenly they approached us again asking if we were still interested in the home. I should not feel competitive in this home buying process, but it did feel kind of good to tell these good people that we were thankful for their interest in our past offers. But we were in the process of pursing the home next to them and so could not pursue their home anymore. So because they were unwilling to negotiate, they missed their chance with a good and qualified buyer. I guess my imperfections are now clear for the world to see within this blog.

Despite all our efforts to find our new home, we are still without temporary housing. A apartment that our Realtor offered us may not be ready when we move this next Saturday. But we will finalize that on Monday (Hopefully) If not, we could always live in a tent in the park.

Still homeless

2008-11-10T08:12:00.003-07:00

So last week we dedicated all our efforts to finding a new home. We found a wonderful home that we both loved and stretched our budget to the max and offered all we have for the new home. After a very nervous and long Sunday, we finally heard back that they did not want to accept anything less than their asking price. This remained out of our financial reach and so we are back to house hunting.

I was completely baffled that someone would put their house on today's market and expect to get their full asking price. The home is a very good home and someone may in fact give them the price they are asking. But they should expect people to want to negotiate a price of a home and so they should have priced their home higher that what they wanted so they could meet at that price. But just because that is the way I sold my home does not mean that other need to do that too.

So we need to find temporary housing extremely quickly. So far, all my efforts to rent a home for the remainder of the year has been fruitless. But we are not discouraged and will find something before the end of this week.

When we finally end up in our new home, I will never move again. Or at least not for 15-20 years.

I've always wanted to rush the field

2008-11-07T08:53:00.004-07:00

My Realtor gave me front row tickets to the Utah TCU game last night. I grabbed a friend and together we came to cheer on the Utes. We showed up just before the end of the 1st quarter and by that time, TCU was up 10-0 and had over 200 yards of offense. So it did not appear like the Utes were headed to a victory. But the Ute defense stepped it up and kept TCU from scoring. They got a interception which lead to a last second field goal going into half time. By this time the score was 10-6 and the Utes were stopping TCU but could not get enough of their own offense to find the end zone.

Our tickets were on the first row of the north end zone. It was cool being that close to the field, but people kept walking in front of us trying to get us to stand and cheer. But our seats paid off in the second half. Twice TCU got within field goal range and tried to score. But the first field goal bounced off the upright and we were able to cheer at the sound of the ball hitting the upright. Then they got back into field goal range and tried again. This time they missed so bad that the ball missed the net behind the goal posts and went right to where I was sitting. Me and my fellow fans all jumped for the ball, which bounced off of me and ended up with the fan behind me. Once again we had plenty to cheer as twice the TCU kicker could have extended their lead but instead failed.

But now there was less than 3 minutes left and Utah had not been able to find the end zone and we were down by 4 points. But that was when the magic happened. Within 2 minutes Utah marched 80 yards down the field and scored their only touchdown. We made that stadium shake with 44000+ fans all jumping and cheering. With 43 seconds left, TCU tried to march down the field to tie or win the game. But our defense not only held them, they intercepted the ball to seal the win.

At this point, my fellow fans began storming the field. I had always enjoyed watching fans do this when I watched games on TV. But here was a chance for me to live it. So I to jump onto the field and joined the jovial crowd, jumping, clapping, cheering and chanting "BCS BCS." I loved it. After the week I've had, this was the best think for me to forget about the election and to be distracted from my upcoming move.

I have no ideas where I will be living on Nov 22 when BYU comes to Utah. But I have a goal to be all moved in and done by 4pm so I can watch the game. Until then Go Utes!

Change is coming

2008-11-05T19:09:00.002-07:00

Well our family is going to see some significant change and not just from the political side. We have been trying to sell our house since July and had not had much luck with it. So at the end of October we decided to take our home off the market and just stay in our current home. But out of the blue, an offer came in for our home. (Literally at the last second.) The offer was too low, but we thought it would not hurt to counter with an offer we could accept. So we did and it was accepted.

So we have sold our house and do not even have a new house picked out yet. We had given up looking for a new house and so are completely unprepared. On top of that, we need to be moved out of our current house the weekend before thanksgiving. So the remainder of the year is going to be very busy for us. We will need to move into temporary housing and then find our new house and move into it. I am not a fan of moving and so having to move twice is not fun. But if we end up in a house that we will stay in for the next 10-20 years. I will consider this a successful endeavor.

Ever seen an election from the candidates point of view?

2008-11-01T21:18:00.003-06:00

Today I learned that one of my candidates for the Utah State House needed some help putting up door hangers on the homes of frequent voters. I had some time and so came to help. It was an eye opening experience to see the election from the candidates point of view.

He was trying to run a honest and fair campaign. But his opponent had just sent out some mailings with some negative and incorrect statements. He had to then make a choice. Should he not respond and risk having his opponent see that he will do nothing and so encourage her to do more negative ads. Or should he respond with a mailing with his own that attacks his opponent and risk looking like he is now running a negative campaign.

He did not want to go negative and I was impressed with how he responded. He did respond with what could appear as a negative mailing. But he held back from making it a purely negative mailing and instead pointed out some of his opponents ineffectiveness instead.

It must be hard to run for any office. You can be a person who tries to be an fair, honest and an ethical person. But when you run for office, people start saying lots of things about you and many times it is incorrect, false and even a blatant lie. Voters will hear this and regardless of its truth or not will believe it and and use it to decide who to vote for. But if you try to correct the lies you will either not be able to convince others of the truth, or worse. The lie was given just a few days before the election and you don't have any time correct the lie in time for the election.

We have seen this a lot lately here in Utah. 4 years ago a democrat in the county attorney general office suddenly decided to bring up charges against the republican county mayor, while the mayor was running for re-election. The charges were for something that happened over a year earlier, but for some reason, could only be brought up during an election year. The republican mayor lost her seat but was acquitted of all charges after the election. This year a democrat leaked to the press information that suggested that a republican had tried to bribe another legislator to vote a certain way. The republican demanded that the ethics committee investigate and decide well before the election on whether the charges are true or not. He was cleared, but was then left with very little time to get the word out that he was innocent.

This is not one sided, I'm sure republicans have done this to democrats too. But I do not know of any examples currently. But I have grown very tired of tricks like these to get elected. Many voters don't know much about local candidates and learn most of it from headlines only. Some candidates know this and spread untruths about their opponents that they know will make headlines and then influence voters. Because of this, it is very discouraging for an honest and fair person to want to run for office. We need good people, but because bad people do what they do, good people do not step up to serve.

This is a very good reason why I will never run for any office. I would not want anyone to spread falsehoods about me, my family, my beliefs or any other thing I hold dear.

But I was glad to be able to assist a good man in his election bid and I am hopeful that we will elect a good person to represent us.

These little wonders, these twist of fate

2008-10-27T08:08:00.006-06:00

I had a very unique experience last night. There is a song I enjoy by Rob Thomas called "Little Wonders" The song helps me appreciate my wife and family and recognize the unexpected moments I have with them that bring joy and happiness in my life. Last night was one of those moments that this song will remind me of.

I had heard that the song Little Wonders was in the Disney movie "Meet the Robinsons." So we borrowed the movie from my brother and watched it together as a family last night. If you have not seen the movie, I recommend it. It is about a orphan boy who, by use of a time travel machine, goes into the future and meets his family and sees that he turns from a orphan to a man with a large and happy family.

Something about this movie had an effect on my subconscious. Because near the end of the movie, both my kids suddenly wanted to have a bowl of cereal. So I run into the kitchen and very quickly I grab two bowls, some spoons, the cereal and put two stools at the table and begin serving the cereal.

Then very suddenly it hit me. It was like I had taken my 12 year old self, picked him up and just dropped him into my now 33 year body. And I was just realizing that I was a husband and father of 2 children who were now anxiously looking at me, expecting cereal. As I stood there, holding a bag of cereal in my hand, all I could do was think "How did I get here?" It was not that I was in a negative place, I just suddenly felt like I had no idea how I got to this point in my life.

I guess my epiphany caused me to make a verbal sound of shock, which got Jen suddenly very scared, thinking something was wrong. She began urgently asking what was wrong and I very sheepishly had to respond. "Have you ever found yourself somewhere and cannot remember or figure out how you got there." After I explained to her how I was feeling, she could not stop laughing. But for me, it just suddenly felt so real. But having gone through that feeling, I must admit that I do feel happy with where I am now and I think that if my 12 year old self did see where my 33 year old self is. That I would be happy.

We spent the remainder of the evening watching the rest of the show and then playing together. Our son surprised us by picking up a wrapper off the floor with his toes. Pretty impressive for a 2 year old. He then danced around while singing "shake your body." Karen also joined in the dancing and pretended to get away from her tickling mother, but she loves to get caught by any tickling parent. This was an evening that I will think back on fondly, as a time Jen & I enjoyed our toddler children and the happiness and laughs they brought us.

We also had a busy weekend with Halloween activities. We had a Halloween party with our ward on Friday, which included a trunk or treat. My brother Monte and his family joined us and then we joined them for their ward Halloween party on Saturday. Our kids really clean up in the candy department. And they still have Halloween this Friday.

Been a busy weekend. But we sure had a lot of fun with our little wonders and the twists of fates we experienced.

I hate being sick

2008-10-20T08:29:00.003-06:00

Wednesday I woke up feeling strange. Went to work and tried to do all my normal things, but by noon it became clear that something was wrong. So I came home and tried to sleep. By the evening I was feeling even more sick and most of the pain was in my intestines. Somehow I got a bad case of diarrhea and have been suffering from it the whole week. I think I may have gotten the parasite that went around to all the pools last summer. I swim a mile each week and so have plenty of opportunity to catch anything that would be found in a public pool.

It was a total bummer too as I wanted to do a few things this week and could not. I wanted to help a sister in law move, mow the rain forest in my from yard and help pass out door hangers for a candidate I would love to see elected. But all will have to wait for future days.

At least my football team and fantasy football teams were victorious this weekend. My Utes are now leading the BCS pack of the non-BCS schools. If they keep winning they will go to a BCS bowl. If they lose one game, I will not feel terrible about it. Their season is already a great success.

BYU fans need to learn from the chicken

2008-10-17T09:43:00.005-06:00

To the BYU Football Players: Don't get down my friends. You are still a very good football team who will continue to have a great season and will enjoy a well deserved bowl. 1 loss does not ruin a season. So pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back to it. There is plenty of football to play and you are still a MWC powerhouse. You should also remain nationally ranked and deservedly so.

To the BYU Football Fans: HAHA. I really enjoy a quote from Abraham Lincoln. "The chicken is the wisest of all the animals. She only cackles, after the egg has been laid." You guys have been so cocky this season. "We are the best, we will be perfect this season, we will bust the BCS, etc." It appears that you spoke way to soon. Starting a season wearing T-shirts haughtily declaring your team is perfect and unbeatable. How goes that quest for perfection now?

May I point you to a example of how to bust the BCS. In 2004 a certain team from Utah start the season with a plan. Take each game 1 at a time and strive to win that game. Once that game is won, then move on to the next game and strive to win that one. Do not start looking to a game that is not the next game until it arrives. You keep that up, you will find yourself undefeated at the end of the season, with all your fans rushing the field. You will also find your self with a BCS bowl berth. That my friends is how you do it.

Good luck next year with being that year's Utah.

Loving football season!

2008-10-13T08:42:00.005-06:00

The summer time is a depressing time for me, sports wise. I am not a baseball fan and nothing else, with the exception of the Olympics, catches my eye during the summer months. But when fall arrives, I am in sports heaven with both college and NFL fantasy football. I am cursed to have Dish network for my satellite provider, so I do not get 2/3 of all the mountain west football games. But my Dad has those games on his TV. So under the disguise of saying that I wanted to attend their local temple, I was able to infiltrate my parents place this Saturday and enjoyed both the Utah & BYU games. (Yes I did go to the temple, but was out in time to watch most of the football games.)

I really enjoyed seeing the Ute defense score more touchdowns than Wyoming did in all of its MWC games this season. The Ute offense did score 20 points, but need to improve by November when they face conference contenders TCU & BYU.

BYU finally had some good competition this week. New Mexico kept the game surprising close for most of the game. Their defense did a good job holding BYU to only 1 touchdown in the first half. But BYU's defense was much better by stopping the Lobos multiple times in the red zone. (Sorry cougar fans, just like you can't redefine marriage to include same sex couples, you cannot redefine the red zone into the blue zone.)

I am thrilled to see both Utah & BYU undefeated and nationally ranked. I hope they both continue their winning ways until Nov 22nd when Utah repeats as the MWC BCS buster. This is the season I had hoped would happen in 2004 with their undefeated season. The only way that season could have been perfect was if BYU had a better season and we were able to soundly defeat a good BYU team, rather than beating a rebuilding BYU team of the 2004 season.

The only sad part of this season is the rankings. Both teams win, but move nowhere in the polls. 3 of the top 4 teams lose this weekend and we don't see the Utes or Cougars advance in the polls. Have we hit the glass ceiling already?

I just had to laugh

2008-10-09T08:19:00.006-06:00

So the election is in full swing and we have many local candidates seeking office in our area. There is a home that is located on the corner of two busy streets and so has many political signs displayed on it. I drive past the home everyday on the way to work. Whoever lives at this home gave me a chuckle today. Very early in the campaign season they put up a sign for a candidate . Then last week they had another sign posted next to the first sign. This one was for that candidate's opponent.

I always get a chuckle when I see a house showing signs for both candidates seeking the same office. It shows that the home is either really undecided or do not know enough about the people they are endorsing. I would assume that when you endorse someone, you had compared them to their opponents and then decided on endorsing one of them. But if you do not even know who the people are who are seeking political office, are you informed enough to start advising others on who to vote for?

Some one from the candidate's camp who had the first sign up must have approached the home owner and pointed out that they have a sign for their opponent and they then took it down. So I guess that proves that the owner of this home was one of those uneducated voters who did not look at or compare the candidates before they started encouraging us to vote for someone. The funniest thing about this is that this home is not even in the district for the office that these candidates are running for. So not only does this uneducated home owner try to tell me who to vote for, they don't even have a vote in this contest. They should be worrying about their own candidates rather than telling me how to vote with mine.

Is it done yet?

2008-10-07T19:49:00.002-06:00

Been very busy . But after watching Washington flip flop on the bailout and the market still fall like a rock. All I can say is, Is the election done yet? Another month of this!? Dang it.

What is going to happen now!?

2008-09-30T08:12:00.003-06:00

Due to extremely bad choices by many of our nations largest financial institutions, we are stuck in a very uncomfortable economic situation. There is no doubt that the major cause of this problem was institutions lending money to people or businesses that could not pay it back. But now the cause is not the major issue, but what to do about the problem. Do we do nothing or something. The bailout seemed like the only logical step to take. I did not like it but doing nothing seem to be a worse option. So our government got together, worked out a compromise and then promptly voted it down and began the blame game.

At a time when we need true leadership and bipartisan cooperation, we only have partisan games being played. As soon as the bailout failed to pass, Nancy Pelosi ran to the press and promptly blamed everything on the GOP. Even though her party holds the majority in the house and if she had all the democrats vote for it, it would have passed. But 90 democrats did not vote for it. I wonder who Nancy will blame next year when she has control of congress and a new president? According to the news, she gave a very partisan speech just before the vote, that swayed many GOP to not vote for it.

The GOP are not off the hook either. If they say we should not provide the bailout, then what should we do? I would love to find any option that does not require tax payers to spend 700 billion. But if no other option is provided, then why vote against the bailout? However they may be right. What if they do not pass the bailout and we turn out to be OK economically? If a bank fails, doesn't a different bank come in and buy up that bank and keep it in business. Like what happened with Washington Mutual bank? So we may not need the bailout. But if that is true, where is the leadership that is calming our fears and leading us on a safe path?

I really am scared about the next 4 years. At least I can sell my blood for income.

Presidential Debates- How to say something without saying anything

2008-09-27T16:00:00.002-06:00

First off, check out my wife's blog for a report on a family outing we had this week to the circus. It was very enjoyable for all of us and I'm very glad the circus only comes once a year. (Very tiring taking the family to an event like this.)

Last night I watched the first debate between McCain & Obama. I did not hear anything that has caused me to change my vote. But I did appreciate hearing what both candidates would do so I can know what to expect from the next president, regardless of who it will be.

I had to laugh at Obama when he said that he listens to and believes the words of the military commanders in Afghanistan. But he refuses to listen to the commanders in Iraq and insists on following his own agenda, oops, I mean plans, concerning Iraq. I wonder why he will listen to one and not the others?

I also liked the comment that McCain said about Obama. "You cannot reach across the isle when you are that far left." That is the same problem I have with Janice Fisher, who is my house representative in the Utah legislature. She is the 5th most liberal member of the house and so is ineffective in working with anyone on the other side of the isle. Which in Utah is the conservatives who hold a 2/3 majority in the house. So she cannot work with anyone and cannot get anything done. I surly don't what that in a president. But if Obama is elected, we will certainly have someone who only works with people on the left and never the moderates or people on the right.

The Moderator correctly pointed out that the bail out that is being worked on, will prevent many planned programs from being funded by the next president and ask both of them what they would give up for the bailout. But neither of them would say what they would give up and only what they would pay for. That is a major problem with all politicians. None of them are willing to stop spending money, even if it is the only option. McCain does say that we need to cut spending, but I don't think either of them will do it enough to make a difference.

I don't think either McCain or Obama won the debate or gave the other a knock out punch. I would be surprised if any voter changed their vote based on this debate. At least we can watch Saturday Night Live to laugh at their interpretation of the debate. Plus we have 2 more presidential & 1 VP debate to watch. Maybe we will see a difference from those.

Time for the Election

2008-09-24T16:18:00.001-06:00

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Mountain Con 4-the search for big name stars

2008-09-22T08:02:00.006-06:00

It had been a long summer and Jen & I did not have much alone time since our spring time vacation. So we found an excuse this weekend to pawn our kids off on my parents and head out of town. But we did not go far (nor could we at today's gas prices.) We went to Layton to attend the local science fiction convention called Mountain Con. This was the fourth mountain con and we had the pleasure of attending all of them. We got a room at the adjoining hotel and enjoyed the quality time together.

My brother Carl has been a major participant in past mountain cons, but took a smaller role in this year's event. The new managers of the con tried very hard to bring great guests and enjoyable panels. But they got some bad luck when their main headline star, Kevin Sorbo, had to back out. Leaving very little time to find a suitable replacement. So we did not have any spectacular stars attending the con this year. But we still had fun. Check out Jen's blog for the pictures we took at the event.

They offer a chance to eat a very nice dinner with the stars. We normally do not participate in that as I find the cost to be unrealistic, just like the prices they charge to give autographs. But they were unable to sell all the tickets they had for the dinner and since they had already bought all the food that was going to be served. They asked Carl and his entourage if they wanted to attend for free. So the weekend started off with some wonderful food and some good time spend with good people. My 8 year old niece was instant on sitting next to me during the dinner. It is nice to be liked by my brother's daughter. She is fun and cute.

I got to hear a presentation about what we know about Mars from someone from the Clark Planetarium. That was very cool, as was playing a role playing game with my wife, watching a fan made star trek film and taking a starfleet course about romulans and Capt. Kirk's first 5 year mission. They had a panel about Stephanie Meyer's Twlight series and I made the mistake of joking calling the books a romance novel. All the girls in the room gave me the evil eye and one began to blame me for every mis-characterized author in the entire known universe. I learned not to joke about Stephanie Meyer.

It was very nice to have some time with just me and my wife. I relaxed, slept in, ate out at restaurants and enjoyed spending some one on one time with the woman I fell in love with and had a great weekend. Hearing that both the Utes and Cougars won their games completed the perfect weekend.

Quick book review: I am currently reading the book "Paul of Dune" which continues the Dune series. I am a third of the way through and so far I am enjoying it greatly. I enjoy the works of Kevin Anderson and Brain Herbert very much. I think I enjoy their books more than Frank Herbert's works. I will give a full review when I am done with the book but can already recommend it to anyone who wants to see what happens to Paul before and after the first Dune book.

John Adams & New Carpet

2008-09-15T08:54:00.002-06:00

It has been a full week since I have been able to post a blog. The reasons are football, carpet & John Adams. As many of you know, I am an avid fan of history. So when the HBO mini series on John Adams came out on DVD, I placed a hold on it at the library and waited. My waiting finally paid off this last week and I had 7 days to watch all 7 episodes and extra content. That was difficult as we were having new carpet installed this week at the same time. More on that later.

John Adams lived in one of the most changing times of the world, and he was right in the middle of all the change. He was the loudest voice for Independence, was sent to European nations to solicit support for the revolution, was the first American to stand before the King of England after the war and request a resumption of relations, served as our first vice-president and the second president before falling victim to party politics.

His story is truly amazing to hear. While president, he was faced of resisting the popular opinion of his people and his party to go to war with France, a war he knew would destroy their young country. He fought for and obtained peace with France, even through it cost him re-election. If there is ever an example of a politician who did not follow traditional party politics, John Adams is the one. But we will never see another John Adams, because if there was. Someone like Thomas Jefferson & Alexander Hamilton would be right there to play party politics and seize power from Adams.

I enjoyed the show and loved the close friendship that John & Abigail Adams shared. When Abigail died and John was left alone, I found myself very sad and very thankful for my wonderful wife and friend. I had to share with her my love and that if any of us had to die before the other, I would want it to be her so that she would not have to be the one left behind and all alone. That got me brownie points with my wife. :)

We had been looking for new carpet and finally found it on Monday. Tuesday-Thursday was spent moving every piece of furniture we have while we received the new carpet. It was hard work, but certainly worth it. It feels like we have a whole new house and we feel more comfortable with staying in our home if we are unable to sell this year.

Because of all the work moving furniture in our house during the week, I looked forward to a relaxing weekend. I almost got it. I took our kids to the zoo and then ended up helping a neighbor move. I greatly enjoyed watching the Utes defeat the Aggies, as well as seeing all but 1 MWC team win their games this weekend. Things are looking great for the MWC and the Utah BYU game this year could be the biggest ever.

Third party canidates have no chance of winning

2008-09-08T09:35:00.005-06:00

I started a reply to a blog my brother Carl posted. But I got so long winded that I decided to add it to my blog. Many people are looking at the presidential candidates and finding it too easy to find faults with both of the major candidates. So some are complaining about the lack of good candidates and are looking to third party candidates. Here is my opinion on that:

Warning: Another political rant by a Stark.

I don't think that 3rd parties are the answer. Instead if people actually participated in the primary elections, then they would have a choice on who the major candidates will be in the general election. Instead, most people just wait until the general election, after the major candidates have been decided by the primary election. Then when they don't like the choices in the general election, they whine and complain and start looking to third party candidates. But if the third party candidates has no real possibility of winning. (Which has been true since 1912) Then any vote for them is actually a vote for the major candidate that you certainly would not vote for. When was the last time a 3rd party candidate even took 2nd place in the general presidential election? Answer: 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt ran on a third party ticket.

So if you want to make a difference and want good candidates available to choose from in the general election. Get involved in the early primary and caucuses. Join a party and run for the delegate positions. Then you can attend conventions and vote on candidates who 9 times out of 10 are chosen there before they even get to the ballot. Don't just wait until the general election, when the choice on who the candidates are has been made for you.

Raising McCain

2008-09-05T08:43:00.006-06:00

The conventions ended last night with John McCain speaking at the GOP convention. This is a first for me. I had watched more of the democratic convention than the GOP convention. But I did catch it Wednesday and last night and I liked McCain's speech. He spoke of his military service and why he loves his country, took a few jabs at Obama but not as much as Obama did to him. He stated what he wanted to do and gave some details on how he will do it.
I really agree with him on the differences he has with Obama. McCain wants a smaller government, Obama wants a bigger one. McCain wants to keep taxes low, Obama wants to raise them. McCain wants to bring the troops home in victory, Obama wants them home with or without a victory. McCain wants to use all available options to fix our energy problems, Obama wants us to inflate our tires.

I really liked how McCain did not turn a blind eye to the failures of either party. He acknowledged that both parties failed to address our energy crisis. He blamed both republicans and democrats. I agree that both parties failed us in this area. McCain talked about working to get things done rather than focusing on taking credit for our country's success. Again, this is what I want from all of my elected officials. One who does not fight against a good plan just because his party did not think of it first. McCain has shown throughout his entire political career that he is not a traditional politician who only works for his party. But a politician who works for what is right and fights what is wrong, regardless of which party the opposition is part of.

McCain has proved to me that he deserves my vote and that we probably should have voted for him back in 2000 rather than who we did elect. Unless some extreme change occurs between now and the election, then I will be casting my ballot for John McCain.

Those Gremilns are at it again.

2008-09-03T09:47:00.003-06:00

If your like me, and I know I am. Then you really enjoyed the Gremlins movies of the 80s. Well a fan created his own Gremlins made movie where the Gremlins jump into other movies on your DVR. I loved it and so wanted to share it. I recommend that no one under 13 watch the first movie they jump into as it is the exorcist. Click the below URL to see the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REGCV6z3VkM&eurl=http://dvice.com/archives/2008/09/fanmade_gremlin.php

Take my house please!

2008-09-03T08:56:00.004-06:00

So I am feeling a little gloomy about our efforts to find our next home. We have seen the writing on the wall and so lowered the price on our home to stay competitive. But the prices of the homes we want to live in have not seemed to come down, leaving me depressed about the whole situation. It seems like every time we find a house that we like, we either cannot buy it because we have not sold our house yet, or it is still out of our price range. This is a reminder of how much I hate the home buying/selling process.

After looking at a few homes last night we ended up a lowes to check out new carpet. Most people who look through our home complain about the carpet and I don't blame them. So we are going to replace it to increase our homes appeal and because if we stay, we will replace the carpet anyway. But how many different names can you give the color brown? They have english toffee, or hazel nut or oak bark for colors. But they all look brown to me. Good thing my wife has an eye for these different colors because I surely don't see the difference.

Many have asked for my opinion on Sarah Palin being the VP for John McCain. Like most Americans I was caught by surprise and did not know much about her. But from what I have learned and heard so far, I like her. She has fought corruption, regardless of it being from a democrat or a republican and she has fought against raising taxes. I certainly agree with those policies and so feel good about her.

Go Utes!!!

Obama hits the field

2008-08-29T08:06:00.004-06:00

Like millions of other Americans, I watched Barack Obama's speech last night. I am grateful that a speaker at the convention finally explained what the democrats are going to do and how they will do some of those items. That had been something that was missing from every other speaker. All they were doing was complaining about everything that is happening, including what they voted for.

I am thankful that I have lived during the time when Martin Luther King's dream has come to fruition and anyone, regardless of the color of their skin, can run for any office. It was nice to hear from John McCain saying the exact same thing. It certainly is a good day for our country.

I noticed a re-occurring theme through the entire convention. The democrats are excited to be able to finally defeat George Bush. I wonder why they kept mentioning that until I realized that they failed to beat him twice and so they think that the third time is the charm. However they do not seem to realize that because of the 22nd amendment, George Bush is 1 of only 2 living people who are now unable to ever be President again. Regardless of if you love or hate Bush, he must leave office and never return. But the democrats do not want him to leave until they have defeated him in at least 1 election. So they are pretending that they are running against George Bush. But they are not, they are running against a total different person who felt that he was different enough from Bush that he ran against him 8 years ago. So stop trying to defeat your past opponent and focus on your current one. But I have the feeling that the democrats cannot do that and that most Americans will fall for the illusion that Bush is running for president again.

It was nice to actually hear some of the plans that Obama has for his presidency. I agreed with some of them. But I soundly disagree with his desire to redefine marriage, increase the government's role in all of our lives and his desire to increase all our taxes through the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, his increase of taxes to corporations which will be passed along to consumers and his not mentioning one word about getting rid of our deficit and paying off the debt. For these reasons and a few others, I will not be voting for Obama.

I fear any government created program that is designed for and paid for by all Americans. Those government programs have proven to be terrible and far more in-effective than any comparable program offered through the free market. Social security & medicare are just 2 examples. Each year I get a statement about my social security benefits and each one mentions that by 2041 social security will no longer have enough funds to meet all it obligations. I am afraid to see how a health care program would end up. I don't want my government to compete with the free market, I want my government to help lower the prices in the free market.

Well, today we should learn who the GOP vice-president candidate will be and then we will hear from the GOP convention next week. I'm sure we will see more finger pointing, but hopefully some of them will say what they will do if they are elected.

Hey Hillary, were the ones paying the high gas prices!

2008-08-26T21:52:00.003-06:00

Just finished watching Hillary Clinton speak at the Democratic National Convention being held in Denver. She blamed the Republicans for giving oil companies their large windfall profits. I'm sorry Hillary, but the Republican party is not paying for the billions of dollars of profits that the oil companies are receiving, nor are the Democrats. WE THE PEOPLE ARE!!!

We are the ones paying 4 bucks a gallon, not the government or a political party and so we are the ones giving the oil companies their big profits. So don't try to pin this on your opposing party and tell us exactly how you are going to give everyone health care, how you will bring the troops home, how you will produce all this green energy and how you will fight for gay rights. You gave a rousing speech but did not say a word on how you and the democrats were going to deliver moon beams home in a jar. All you did was say how great you are, are supporting Obama and pointed the finger at Bush and McCain. Change? No, it looks like more of the same politics.

I hope Obama does a better job of telling us how he is going to save the world on Thursday night.

Thanks for letting me rant. You should see less of it by November 5th. Think you can survive till then? Will I be able to survive after then?

Weekend-Partying with the Stevens family

2008-08-24T21:37:00.004-06:00

Friday was a crazy day for me as two branch offices for Winder Farms were moving into new locations. Meaning that I had to be on site at Orem and remotely help Las Vegas get all their phones, computers and Internet connections transferred, set up and tested. Nothing ever happens perfectly. After we had moved all the equipment and services, we could not get a connection between the both branch offices and the main office. It made for a stressful end to the week and made me welcome the weekend. Thankfully everything got resolved by late Friday night and so the weekend could be enjoyed without work related stress.

Our ward had a picnic on Friday night and even though I was late to it due to the afore mentioned location move, we had a lot of fun. I tried to imitate the USA mens gold winning beach volleyball players in a game of volleyball with my fellow ward members. But I think I proved that I am a better spectator than competitor.

Saturday began as a day of house hunting. (Be vary quiet, I'm huntin houses) But like Elmer Fudd, we have yet to catch our prey. But we ended the day well by hanging out with the Stevens family. They have 4 kids, with ages similar to ours. The kids had a lot of fun playing with each other and on Sunday Karen asked me to take her back to the Stevens house so she can play with them again.

While we were with Rob & Heather, we played a game called "Wits & Wagers." For those of you who I have talked into playing this game with me, you know how much I love this game and how well I do at it. But Rob's & Heather's 9 year old daughter was able to beat me in this game. They sure have a smart daughter who was able to spout off historical dates and events that would impress any history professor.

Thank you Rob & Heather for a pleasant evening together. We will do it again soon.

Olympics, Blogging & VPs

2008-08-22T08:36:00.007-06:00

The ratings show that this has been the most watch Olympics ever. I am certainly one of the many Americans who are staying up late and watching them. The lack of sleep is starting to catch up to me and I am looking forward to the Olympics being over so I can go to sleep on time again. I was planning on going to bed at my normal time last night. But a US men's beach volleyball team was playing in the gold medal match and it turned out to be a very close and exciting game. I just could not bring myself to turn the TV off as it came down to the 3rd and final set to find the champion. The US team pulled it off and now the US has swepted gold in both the men's and women's beach volleyball.

It was a disappointment to see both the mens and womens track and field relay teams drop the baton and so become eliminated from medal contention. It was also interesting to see that investigations have been opened to look into the age of some Chinese gymnast who won a few gold medals. If these girls are proved to be under 16 then the US will receive a few more gold medals, which will be very beneficial to keeping the USA ahead in the medal count. I really enjoy watching these competitions and seeing many Americans succeed in their quest for gold.

It has been fun to see many more family members join the blogging world. All but one of Jen's sisters are now bloggers and it has been extremely helping in keeping informed and feeling close to Jen's family. With Jen's father passing away earlier this year, it looked like there would be fewer opportunities to gather together as a family. But with each family writing blogs, I feel closer to them then when we had the frequent family events. Another benefit to having the Internet in our lives. Thank you information age.

OK. So everyone is excited to see who Obama and McCain will pick for their running mate. But because none of them are sharing their plans with us, it only gets us more anxious to learn who their VPs will be. Its like everyone is on pins and needles as they were when Michael Phelps was trying to get 8 golds. Only the VP selection is really not that important. I only want to see if McCain picks Romney. I was kinda bummed when Romney did not get the GOP nomination, and so if he gets on the ticket, it will get me more excited about the election.

Well, that is enough ramblings for one day.

Star Wars & Birthday time with the family

2008-08-18T15:00:00.004-06:00

We have a tradition in our family to gather together and celebrate all the family's birthdays and anniversaries for the entire month. Some months have lots of birthdays and August is one of them. So last night we all gathered together and had many extended family members attend as well. My wife was reminded that when I get together with my Brothers and with my cousin Richard Eddington, that I get really goofy and we all try to out do each other in cheesy jokes. After an hour of hearing every political and paris hilton joke we could think of, she had very sweetly asked me when we could leave. She sure is patience with me when I get together with my family and turn into a teenager again. I sure love her for putting up with me.

Our kids were able to play with all their cousins and had a ball. Karen learned how to roll down the hill, which made Michael want to also learn how to. It looked like they were having fun, until they started rolling in spilled food. Thankfully it did not stick.

Jen was extra special nice to me on Friday night. She found out that a friend of ours got free tickets to see the new Star Wars movie and she got me invited to go with them. So I was able to have a guys night out while she stayed home to care for our kids and get the house clean for the open house we had the next day.

The Star Wars movie was pretty good. It takes place after episode 2 during the clone wars, but after Ankin has been made a full Jedi Knight. He takes a Padawan learner and together with Obi Wan Kenobi, they strive to win the clone wars. The 3-D computer animation was pretty cool and the story was very entertaining. There was a character who was the uncle to Jabba the Hut, name Zero the Hut. Zero seemed to be the bisexual verison of the Hutts. He had a female voice and dressed like he was going to a tribute to Freddy Mercury event. It was comical to see this character.

I recommend seeing the new Star Wars movie, but it does not need to be in the movie theater. The movie would be just as good on the small screen as on the big.

First time I've wanted to move to Wyoming

2008-08-14T08:31:00.002-06:00

So gas prices have begun to slowly fall. But for some reason, prices outside of Utah are now averaging 3.75. But not here, we are just approaching $4 a gallon. Why are we suddenly so blessed to be paying the highest gas prices in the nation? No one can say. Doug Wright on KSL has been trying to find an answer and the only one forthcoming is that it cost more to transport the gas.

If memory serves me well, isn't there a refinery in North Salt Lake? Why would we need to pay higher prices for transportation cost if the transportation is less than 10 miles? That refinery also provides gas to Wyoming and Nevada, each with lower gas prices than us. Why doesn't the gas company just come clean and admit that they have higher prices because they can and we cannot do anything about it? Then I would think that they are honest thieves instead of the lying thieves that they currently are.

Some possible good news from Congress. Republicans continue to stand on the darken house floor demanding the right to vote on a energy policy that would try to address our energy woes. This has inspired 10 Senators, 5 GOP 5 Dems, to come together and compromise on a bill that would allow off shore drilling and encourage alternative energy sources. It may result in higher taxes as the gas pump, but I am encouraged that some politicians are actually trying to work out a solution to the problem.

However I am disappointed at some conservatives and GOPs (like Sean Hannity) who are trying to continue to play the political game. They feel that the current energy woes will benefit the GOP in the upcoming election, which it probably will. So they do not want to work on a compromise with the Dems to address the energy problems, cause it may benefit the Dems and allow them to get re-elected. This is just playing politics, plain and simple, and I hate it no matter who is playing it. Our current politicians are elected to address our current problems now, not use them to benefit from them politically and then address them after the election. We need solutions and it does not matter if the solution comes from someone with a D or a R by their name, or by a group of both Ds and Rs.

The best parties are thrown by the Communist Parties

2008-08-10T12:11:00.003-06:00

It finally came. 8-8-08. The first day of the Olympics in China have started and I must say that the communist know how to throw a party. I was greatly impressed with the opening ceremony. I had picked up some Chinese food and sat myself in front of the TV for the next 4 1/2 hours. I was impressed with the visual effects and the use of China's most abundant resource within the show, her people. They used people as paint brushes and block lifters. (If you saw it then you know what I mean.) The saddest thing was when the Nazi looking soldiers took the flags from the cute children and hoisted them on the flag pole. I made me think we were watching the 1936 Olympics with Hitler. But other than that, it was cool. It is always fun to watch the parade of nations and see which countries have smaller populations then the amount of people in the stadium. USA always sends a big team, but this year I think China sent a bigger one and could win the metal count.

Saturday I was happy to watch beach volleyball, gymnastics, bike riding and Michael Phelps blow the socks off all the competition. That man certianly is amazing and it is nice to have a role model who does not get to the top of his game by using illegal drugs like steroids. I look forward to watching the Redeem Team try to take home the gold in Basketball. It is nice to have a distraction from all the busyness of today.

Go USA!!!

Democrats are against the energy policy after they are done being for it

2008-08-06T08:08:00.007-06:00

I'm amazed that it has taken me this long to go on a political rant, but now the time has come. We all suffer from extremely high gas prices. (The words suffer & extremely are correctly used.) The prices are so high that it has a significant effect upon our economy. Prices on all products are going up because of it. Everyone agrees that this is a significant issue and according to polls, it is the number 1 issue of this election.

The President and many members of Congress have been pushing for an up or down vote on allowing more domestic oil to be obtained and sold to the public. But instead of allowing the vote to happen, and most likely pass. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi quickly adjourned the Congress for 5 weeks, thus avoiding the vote that she knew she would lose. Because of this, many members of the House stayed in the house chamber to debate the issue and call for congress to return and vote on the issue. But instead, Pelosi turned off the lights, cut the microphones and prevented CSPAN from filming any of these events.

When asked on a news program why she would not allow the vote, Nancy replied that it is her duty to save the planet. I ask, is it worth it to save the planet at the expense of the people who live on it. Food and heating prices are growing to levels that many people cannot afford, but (according to Nancy) this is unimportant compared to the needs of the planet. Does she feel that we do not have the ability to extract oil from the planet in an environmentally safe way? If we cannot, then why does she allow any oil in any part of the world from being refined and sold in the US? According to her, any oil regardless of where it is refined is causing environmental problems. It is because our economy is to much dependant on it and she knows this. But since we are so dependant on it, shouldn't the short term solution be to increase the amount of oil on the market so that the prices will decrease and our economy does not suffer further?

John McCain was against drilling for more domestic oil, but he saw the writing on the wall and knows that this is needed for the short term solution. Even Brack Obama, who has been adamantly against domestic drilling, has turned around and now acknowledges the need for it. Some democrats say they are for it too. However this may be because 70% of Americans want it and so these democrats want to be re-elected. However these same democrats have put and will continue to put Nancy Pelosi in as Speaker of the House and she will do anything she can, including mis-using her power, to prevent this issue from even being voted on. That leads me to believe that many democrats and going to flip flop and say that they are for the energy policy and once they are elected they will then be against it. Else they would force Nancy Pelosi to allow the vote, like what the Republicans standing in the dark house chamber are trying to do right now.(They have been on the darken house floor since Friday 8/1/08, but cannot get any news coverage. But that is for a different blog.)

I am sick of political games being played rather than work being done to address this national emergency. If our current politicians will not do their part to fix the problem, then I say throw the bums out and get someone who will.

P.S. For those who want to know what my idea is to fix this problem, here it is. I think our short term solution is to increase the amount of oil on the market to drive down prices. This includes getting more domestic oil sources that are not under the influence of OPEC which is a monopoly that drives prices up. We also need more hybrid and natural gas cars. Our long term solution is to obtain alternate energy sources. Someone invent a car that runs on water please! If we could drive our cars and fly our planes on an element that we have a lot of, then price would never be a problem. And if we could use an element that is already in our environment, then we would greatly decrease our pollution problem. What do you think?

Random Weekend Events

2008-08-04T08:15:00.004-06:00

Monday has arrived again and I have to admit that this past weekend was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable weekends I've enjoyed in a while. This whole summer my weekends have been booked solid with either home improvement projects, house hunting trips, family & holiday events or work emergencies. But not this weekend. Here are some of the things we were able to do:

Dr Who season finale- The last episode of Dr. Who was shown on Friday night and it was extremely bitter sweet. It was another phenomenal episode that was worthy of the season ending type of episodes that Dr. Who normally has. Since I have a brother who has not yet seen it. (Come on Carl, catch up.) I don't want to give away any details. But it was exciting to see an old foe re-emerge in the series. I am extremely depressed that they will not be releasing the next season until 2010, and that will just be in England. So it will be some time before we see some new episodes of Dr. Who. But I will be waiting and watching for it.

Torchwood- Because of the Dr. Who finale, I decided to check out the spin off series called Torchwood. I had enjoyed the character of Caption Jack, who moved from Dr. Who to Torchwood. But I could only get through 2 episodes before I had to give up and send the remaining DVDs back to the library. The show is sci-fi based, but it is to much like an episode of Sex in the City. But instead of the traditional relationships, it is human-alien or man-man, woman-woman or alien woman-human woman, etc. I had always hated the soap opera portion of Battlestar Galactica. This show had it 10 times worse and I did not enjoy it. So that was a disappointment.

Open house & Temple trip-We had an open house for our home we are trying to sell. Jen wrote about that in so you can check her blog out for details. But I really enjoyed going to the temple with my wife and doing a sealing session. I just enjoy kneeling at the altar and looking across at my lovely wife who is dressed in white. It brings back many happy memories from December 14 2001.

Star Wars: Empire at War-I really enjoy playing computer games and any that involve Star Wars is a double the fun for me. One of those games are Star Wars: Empire at War with its expansion pack. I get to play the good or the bad guys and attempt to take over the universe. It is a long game to play, which Jen can attest to, but it really relaxes me and helps me unwind.

Parks & Friends-We had some friends who had moved away come back to town and visit this weekend. So a bunch of friends got together at a park to spend time together. It was a lot of fun and there was cloud cover, which helped it not be to hot. We played a little volleyball which has always been an enjoyable game for me. I left the park feeling happy at the time we spend together. Even my kids were able to play with us on the volleyball court. When the ball rolled off the court, Michael would be the one to chase after it and return it. And Karen learned how to hit the ball and did a pretty good job. I wish I had pictures to share.

Sunday was as it should be, a day of rest. So we had a wonderful weekend. I am excited for this month. The Olympics begin this week and football is just around the corner. I will be able to watch the season finale of American Gladiators tonight and pre-season football is starting up. Now if only I could get into my next house before football season begins. Then I would be all set for the fall.

Power to the people...who pay their power bills

2008-07-30T08:36:00.003-06:00

I have a very cool little device in my office called a sensor phone. It is cool because it can call me if someone walks into my office, it detects water in the server room, the air conditioner has gone out or the is a power loss. The device is cool because it can do these things, but I have started to loath the device as it has been keeping me from getting a good night sleep on Sunday nights. 3 of the past 6 Sunday nights, I have received a call from this device in the middle of the night about a problem. This week of was due to a power outage.

Sunday night we had a pretty strong wind storm. Because our company gets its power feed from hanging power lines, it was affected by the wind storm and we lost power at 11pm Sunday night. Apparently we were not the only ones affected as the power company did not get out to see us until 1130am, conveniently the same time we had our generator finally hooked up and going. At noon, we finally had the power restored. That was when my life got busy.

Since I am in charge of all the servers for the company, I then spent the remainder of the day bringing the servers back up and testing to ensure that everything worked. We had also performed some upgrades to our delivery system over the weekend so not only was I trying to fix the problems caused by the power outage, but also the bugs that are showing up from the upgrade. This kept life pretty busy for me. Although there are advantages to being busy. Time flies and your day does not seem to be long drawn out moment of boredom.

I like my job and am very thankful for the means it gives me to provide for my family. But an example given by my boss correctly describes how life in the IT world works. "IT is like a plane ride. For most of the time, things are running extremely smooth. But at the end there is usually 2 minutes of hell."

Families are forever...visiting each other

2008-07-28T19:02:00.004-06:00

This weekend we had the Henry Nelson family reunion. My grandfather on my mother's side had 2 brothers. Each served in WWII and survived to have families of their own. Every year we all have a reunion to get together. It is really fun and a good chance to visit with distance cousins.

This year, my mother was put in charge of the reunion. She asked her kids if they had any ideas for the reunion and any events we could do together. Since I have a problem with keeping my mouth closed, I gave her some ideas on what could be done. Since no one else gave any ideas, my mother asked me to be in charge of the main event for the reunion. We decided to identify one of our pioneer ancestors and profile him to the family. We discovered that my great-great-great grandfather Jeppa Nelson was one of the early settlers of the Pleasant Grove area of Utah and that a Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum had one of the griannery that he built on display. So we planned to have the reunion at a nearby park and I put together a full presentation on Jeppa Nelson that included a tour of the museum that had Jeppa's griannery.

I must admit that I had a lot of fun learning about my 3x great grandfather. He grew up in Sweden and was converted to the LDS church and immigrated to America. He grew up poor but was very blessed to never be in want in his adult life and was very generous to others. He allowed anyone to enter into his unlocked griannery and take whatever food they needed. He was truly a generous and Christ like man and I was proud to teach my family more about him.

In the past I did not enjoy family reunions very much, as they were just excuses to get together and have a meal. But this time, everyone seemed to enjoy each other and many of them were thankful to learn about an ancestor and said they wanted to do this with future family reunions.

I am just thankful that we will not have to plan one again for at least 3 years.

Home for sale

2008-07-25T19:44:00.003-06:00

Well, we offered to buy someone else's home and they accepted, as long as they can keep their home on the market as they feel they can sell it for more to someone else. They probably could, but in today's market, it is hard to find a buyer for your home. Which is where we find ourselves. Wanting to move into the home we can stay in for 20 more years, but needing to find a buyer for our current home first.

I always knew that this would be the hardest part of the home buying/selling process. Our current home only has 1 bathroom and a yard that was put in by me, which means it looks like it was done by a guy who spends more time indoors than out. We do live in a great neighborhood and in a very lightly traveled cul de sac. So I'm sure there are people out there who find our house to be a nice home. Someone who can do better yard work than me and could finish the basement to get that 2nd bathroom and more living space. As soon as we find this needle in the small haystack of buyers, we can move to our new home and enjoy the benefits of a higher mortgage and another unfinished basement to complete. But it will be a a lovely home with a walk in closet in the master bathroom. What I've always dreamed about. :)

Vivia Las Vegas

2008-07-23T08:08:00.007-06:00

I am the IT specialist for my entire company. That includes all the branches that we have in Ogden, Orem, St. George and Las Vegas. So I occasionally need to go to these branches to provide on site IT services. This last Monday I flew down to Las Vegas to set up the phones and Internet connection for our new office in Las Vegas.

As many have found out, it was hot in Vegas. I found myself sweating a lot while I progressed with my work. When I has done, my local co-workers commented that I was lucky to be in town while it was cool. I thought it was hot and so was glad to not be there when it was truly hot.

I had arrived with a list of tasks to accomplish and was disappointed that one could not be completed. I could not get the new office to securely connect to our main office, via a VPN tunnel. By the time I left town, the issue was out of my hands, but I was still disappointed as this was the first trip I had taken like this where I did not complete all of my goals. We got the connection corrected by the next day, so I guess it was OK. But the perfectionist in me was mad that it was not done before I flew back home.

Thanks to the help of my friend Shane (or as I call him, Doctor Cox, because he is like a mentor.) I had some entertainment while I was waiting in the airport or on my flight. He had loaned me the movie "Hot Fuzz." The movie was absolutely hilarious. A super cop from London is sent to the most boring country town in England, but uncovers a underground local conspiracy to murder. The movie had some language and graphic murder scenes. But even those were trying to be funny when they were used. I found myself extremely entertained and it helped me pass the time during the travel.

Hopefully my next post will be about our current housing situation. When we have any official word, we will be happy to share it.

Dr Who-Best TV Show Ever

2008-07-19T21:25:00.005-06:00

Friday nights are special for me. My favorite TV show is on each Friday on the Sci Fi channel thanks to our friends from across the pond in Great Britain. Doctor Who continues the adventures of a 900 year old time lord from the planet Galifrey. With the help of his Tardis, he can move through time and space, combating evil in all its forms and providing protection and justice to the innocent. If the Doctor gets fatally hurt, or the actor playing him wishes to leave the role, the Doctor can regenerate into a different looking person and his adventures then continue. The series had been going, off and on, since the sixties. Currently the Doctor is in his 10th generation and with the BBCs use of modern visual graphics and superior writers. The show has been phenomially entertaining and in my opinion the best thing on TV.

One of the reasons why I enjoy the show is the history I have with it. I got introduced to it by my brother, Carl. Back in the 80s, Doctor Who was shown in Utah exclusively on KUED's channel 7. Since it was PBS, they were always having "begathons" to raise money for the shows they purchased, like Doctor Who. Carl was able to go up to the UofU and answer phone calls during a begathon that showed a marathon of Doctor Who episodes. Carl called home to ask someone to record the marathon, so he could watch them later. I happened to be the only one home and agreed to record it. But instead of just hitting the record button and then doing something else, I stayed and watch the entire marathon. Since then I was hooked. Watching the Doctor battle Cybermen, Sontarians, the Master and of course Dialeks provided hours of entertainment.

So if anyone out there is feeling that TV has gone down hill since reality shows started (and you are right.) I recommend that you tune into channel 7 at 11pm on Saturday nights or for the most current episodes, the Sci Fi channel at 7pm Friday nights. The perfect balance of a greatly written story, splendid acting and great visual effects. It compares to great entertainment like Batman Begins and the first Matrix movie.

The Batman movie is enthralling! (Spoiler free)

2008-07-17T21:45:00.007-06:00

Wow. I had the chance to see an advance showing of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" tonight. I had to endure a sales pitch for some IT products, but it was totally worth it. I had very much enjoyed the last Batman movie and this one improved from the first. From the very beginning we see how this joker character works, and keeping with the theme of the movie, he is dark. He truly portrays how a dark, insane criminal master mind would think and act. It is too bad that Heath Ledger passed away and could not reprise the role in any future works.

All the other actors also performed very well in an extremely well written movie full of great visual effects. There were times in the movie when I was wowed by the well done graphics and computer images. I think what happened to each character was appropriate and look forward to seeing what happens in the next installment.

If you enjoy suspenseful movies, with great effects and are not turned off by scenes of extremely dramatic and adult themes. Then you must see this movie. I predict that it will be one of the top movies of the year, if not the top.

Have fun at the movies