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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.