Pack 'em up! Move 'em out!

Well here we are again.  Since my last post more than a year ago, life has been quite a whirlwind!  From getting married, going on adventures together, building a garden wall for the landlord, awkward living situations and to helping her through nursing school, it's been a crazy year and a half.

First, being married has been awesome!  We are so happy to have each other.  It's the best!  That's about as mushy as I'll get right now.  You're welcome.

Any chance we get, we try to plan some fun adventure, whether it be driving to a national park or just going on a Sunday drive up a nearby canyon.  Back in January, as a delayed Christmas gift, I bought a Federal Lands Pass for us.  It's good for one year.  So far, we've been to Arches, Canyon Lands, Hovenweep, Yellowstone, Mt. St. Helen's, numerous drives up the Alpine Scenic Loop, and a handful of other little places.  We still have a few more months and hopefully we can fit in a trip to Zion, Cedar Breaks or Dinosaur National Monument.

Early this spring, I decided to finish a project that was started by my landlord, in order for us to have  a garden this year.  The garden we had last year was on the narrow cramped side of the house that was to be a dog run.  The backyard was largely unused.  So I put forth a lot of hard work, stacking blocks, cutting rebar, and mixing cement.  It was also a way to keep our rent low by "earning our stay".  The retaining wall is about 4-5 feet tall, includes a nice stairway and has a 90 degree bend before it tapers off into a slope.  Above it, I leveled the dirt with a bobcat, shovel and rake.  Then planted the best garden I've grown away from home so far.  We've been enjoying eating out of it, and it's been so productive that we've been freezing and giving away all that we can so it doesn't go to waste.

This summer the plan was that our landlord and his wife would come up and stay with relatives while finishing an addition to the house that they've been talking about for a long time.  However, plans changed with about a weeks notice.  They would not be able to stay with relatives and would have to stay here in their house, with us.  We had very little options and ultimately chose to stay and weather it out.   It's been extremely difficult at times, and frustrating, but we've managed okay so far.  And an end is in sight!

With my wife being in nursing school, I've been doing a lot more of cooking meals and cleaning up so that she can have extra time to study.  It's been really challenging for her this year, but she amazes me all the time at her abilities.  I've kind of enjoyed doing some cooking anyways.  It's kind of like when we were dating and anytime we were at my place, I did the cooking for the day.

Now finally as Summer is drawing near unto Autumn, we have made some exciting decisions and will be moving next week.  We bought a house!  It's in a smaller community about 15 minutes away from where we currently are.  The house is a great starter with a huge backyard that it largely undeveloped.  We have big plans for what to do with the extra space!  And now that it will be our house we can finally do whatever we want!  So, starting a couple days ago, our task has been to pack up much of our stuff here and get ready for moving!  Luckily we will have a few days to get things all moved over and our landlord will let us come back to check on our garden as well.  This is the second most exciting time of our lives to date!  (The first being our marriage).  I'll continue to update this as time allows and perhaps I'll describe some of the projects that we plan to do with our new place!

Life, At 4600 Ft... Is Better Together

     Oh hey, it's this thing I once started and never finished... whoops!  Well I suppose an update is in order for the zero people that follow this blog.  Man, this blog was supposed to be so much more grand.  So much more adventurous.  Life is an adventure though, and perhaps if one is busy living, then one doesn't have time to update one's blog  :p
     Well in the previous post back in November of 2013 (Wow!) I mentioned a girlfriend and promised more details to follow.  Well I guess it's about time you all found out.  Yes, you dust bunny in the corner of the internet.  In case you didn't know already, that girlfriend is now my wife. (WHAT!)  Yeah, dude.  Life's been pretty much happening faster than I can blog about it!  Here's the story, semi-summarized:
     We met back in September.  We had both gotten roped into learning and performing a traditional Polynesian dance for a large luau that was being organized by our churches.  At first impression, I noticed her smile and she noticed my eyes.  Her roommate was organizing the practices and gave her my phone number.  One night after a practice, she called and invited me to go with a group of people out to a restaurant and hang out.  Unfortunately I had to decline since I had just gotten in bed and worked early in the morning.  I told her I couldn't go but that I would be interested in doing something fun another time instead.  That opened the door to later communication, and a first date about a week later.  We were pretty much an item from that point on and defined it officially a couple weeks later.
     That was September.  Christmas rolls around and I'm getting anxious.  I knew she was the one and I had been dropping hints for weeks, to which she did not seem opposed, though we never really came out and talked about it.  With some careful planning, I proposed on January 11th, 2014 and we set a date to be married on May 24th, 2014.  Things came together amazingly and now we've been very happily married for about two and a half months.  That's the most exciting adventure yet.
     I think I'll leave it at that, since time is short and I have many other projects to do.  Just remember my personal motto: "Never let a good day go to waste."  Until next time.  Ramble on.

The Adventure Continues, Whether I Tell It Or Not

How fitting that It's been nearly a year, to the day, since my last writing. Life does not slow down. It doesn't let you catch up on things undone. And here we have a perfect example of something I started and never finished: This Blog. But every once in a while I think, hey I should get on my blog again, make a few updates. But then I promptly forget. Whoops.

Well I'm not quite sure where to start with the updates. This summer was great. I adventured. And not just in the Summer. I adventured in the Winter, Spring and Autumn as well. I just realized that it almost feels weird to say Autumn. I want to say Fall. But what is Fall? No. It should be Autumn. I submit that we do away with calling Autumn any name other than Autumn.

I've crossed off lots of places on my list (see page titled "Places") and also added many more places as I've learned of them. I stared down an angry bull moose, fought a bear, and swam in the Colorado River. Well, actually that's two truths and a lie. The lie may be obvious, however the truths may surprise you. Another random fact: A rainbow in the dark isn't just a cool 80s rock song written and performed by Ronnie James Dio, but rather it is an actual occurrence, perhaps even a phenomenon. Truth. I type this as a witness to a real life rainbow in the dark. All it takes is a perfect combination of full moon positioning and a light rain shower. Believe it, my friends. This is not to be confused with a moon-bow, which is a ring around the moon at night caused by thin low cloud cover and/or fog.

I miss fog. Utah doesn't really get fog. One of the ideas behind this blog was the fact that I am a small town guy from the greatest place on Earth (Pacific Northwest) living in the land of desolation (Utah). With that in mind, I miss Oregon, a LOT. I did make it back to visit for a longer trip this summer than I had been able to in previous years. A week and a half. And it still wasn't long enough. But of course it never is. Oddly, rain, and of course fog, are a couple specific things that I really miss. It may sound strange to some. But it's true.

I've been listening to Elliott Smith tonight. With a recent find of the XO album at a local thrift store, I now have six(6) different full length albums and two different bootleg collections in my Elliott Smith iTunes playlist. It's on random at the moment. There is only one release left to get. The final posthumously released album titled "New Moon". It's been ten years (plus a couple weeks) since Elliott's passing, which the coroners report could not conclude was suicide. (Attention rock and roll conspiracy theorists). One of the bootleg collections I have includes some very good songs, though I haven't been able to track down any info on the collection itself, which is titled "thirteen+1". I found it at my favorite independent record store several years ago and paid about 12 bucks for it, if I remember correctly. I think I'll ask for the final album for Christmas this year.

Speaking of holidays, my neighbors have put up their Christmas lights. I still have 4 jack-o-lanterns on my front step that aren't mushy yet. Something is fundamentally wrong with that scenario. Perhaps that I haven't even mentioned the major holiday that occurs between the two I just referenced. Yes. I believe that Christmas lights, Christmas music and all related Christmas cheer should not be enjoyed prior to Thanksgiving Day. Ah, but here I am, a hypocrite. Not three days ago, I was driving with my girlfriend (details later) to see a movie, and while on the way we were discussing this very topic of premature Christmas music, which she believes is okay. After she told me one of her least favorite Christmas songs, I promptly began singing it with a clever smile. But then I stopped suddenly and shouted, "What Have You Done!?" To which she laughed quite a bit. Yes, I was enjoying Christmas music prematurely in absolute hypocrisy of my stated beliefs.

The movie we were on our way to see was Ender's Game. I was pleasantly satisfied with it. In fact I plan to see it again at a matinee showing, for two reasons: We had bad seats because we bought our tickets late and because it was just cool and I want to get more out of it. An interesting theme is **Spoiler Alert** how we act differently when we think something is just a game. Our morals go out the window, we just want to crush the opponent regardless of their intents, thoughts, feelings, etc. Also, I've realized that we have been trained to expect sequels of movies. At the end of any movie the first thing many people will say is something to the effect of, "Oh they left it open for another!" While being excited about a continuation of the story is fun, it also can be anticlimactic and cheats us from solid appreciation of the current film at hand. Personally, I'll be perfectly happy if there isn't a sequel to Ender's Game. It ended on a good note, leaving something for the imagination. Dear Hollywood, Do Not Deprive Us Of Our Imagination. Then again, I've been told that there is more books from which the film originated, in which case if they choose to make more movies, I'm okay with that too. But I'm not going to expect it.

Well I think perhaps this should come to an end soon as it is past my bedtime. When one works at 6am each weekday, it is in one's best interest to adhere to one's bedtime. Or at least try! The details on the aforementioned girlfriend will have to wait until another post. I will leave you with this advice: Go on an adventure. See Ender's Game. Ramble on.

Recent Noteworthy Happenings.

Alright so there's been some big changes since the last post I wrote. I really need to update my blog with all the happenings. Since I cant really remember where I left off, I'll just start over. Last month I moved from the basement duplex that I had been in for the last year to a condo about a mile away. Its nicer and cleaner. I wont have to worry about mice this winter (we killed about thirteen last winter in the duplex and since the condo is on the second level I do not anticipate finding lots of nasty freaky spiders here. I have two new roommates, one from Utah and the other from Mali, Africa. They are both pretty chill guys. I use the same freeway exit for getting to work so its not any further. Speaking of work, I recently got asked to change positions and take on the duties of one of the team leads who is out on workman's comp. It is expected that he will be out for two surgeries and wont likely return for several months. I am learning new things and gaining new responsibilities and in turn it has been a bit of a stressful transition. But I feel like I have been doing good. I survived the busiest day of August and the extra busy 4day week after labor day making up for a lost business day. Another really big thing that happened was in July. One of my older nephews decided that he would serve a two year mission for the church that my family participates in. He worked toward qualifying for that goal, saving up money where he could and was assigned to serve in Colorado. He was scheduled to enter missionary training in July so the week prior my sister and my nephew as well as his siblings came to Utah to visit with family here and see him off for his mission. My parents also came down since this is their first grandchild to serve a mission. It was great having some extra family around for that week and we enjoyed our time together. Eventually it came time to drop off my nephew as he had a specific time that he needed to arrive there. There was only so much room in the minivan but one of my sisters suggested that I go along in the extra seat and document it with my camera. I never went on a mission for my church though I admire those that do so being able to participate in that experience was great. It was truly inspiring to see the faith and determination in my nephew. He had no doubt, no second thoughts, he didn't even look back. He was going where he knew he needed to be to do what he knew he needed to do and not just that he wanted to do it. Leaving his family and friends and going somewhere he had never been with people he had never met. But he didn't look back. Family is great. Sometimes they are the ones that lift you up and inspire you the most and most times I don't think they even realize it. I was able to make two short trips up to Idaho to visit some more family recently. I have many cousins in Idaho and also a brother with 4 kids. It was great being able to spend time with all of them. I was also able to fly home to Oregon for about 5 awesome days and it still wasn't long enough. Every time I go, it is too short. I miss Oregon so much. I miss my friends there and my family and the trees and the rain and the coast hills and the ocean and the rivers and streams and everything about it. I am trying to make the most of this great basin desert in which I now reside and I will try to continue documenting my adventures here. I've done a poor job keeping up this year but I'll. Try to post date some entries and include pictures. I wrote this on my kindle fire tablet so I will go back later and include pictures where applicable. So until next time, keep on being awesome!

Lost in cyberspace.

    Oh internet, purveyor of random facts.  Have we created a monster?  How did I get from one thought to another that is so distantly removed from the original?  I'll try to explain what happened here, one step at a time.  Thought process as follows:
     Snowshoeing to Stewart Falls?  How high up on the mountain is it and which road do I take? Will it even be open?  Google Maps, satellite view, Mt Timpanogas.  Get distracted looking at map.  Remember something I saw on a previous adventure, must locate on map.  Exact location unsuccessful.  Initiate street view.  Unavailable.  View user-submitted Panoramia photos from Google Maps.  Zoom out and wander around.  Somehow go from Wasatch front to west shore of Utah Lake.  Continue panning, zooming, etc.  End up viewing Dugway Proving Grounds (DPG) on map.  Read Google user submitted reviews about Dugway and UFO/military conspiracy theories.  Google it.  Read about controversial incident involving a couple thousand nearby open range sheep getting killed from open air biological weapons testing.  Army doesn't accept fault but pays rancher for the dead sheep anyways. Find mention of long since rerouted and closed section of Historic Lincoln Highway passing through Dugway.  What was Lincoln Highway?  Google it.  First continental highway from Times Square, NY to Lincoln Park, San Francisco in early 1910's.  Research to find original route through Utah.  Refer back to Google Maps for tracing route.  Find small town of Cedar Fort.  Curious.  Google Cedar Fort.  Census results and demographics data.  Population < 400.  Cedar Fort on Wikipedia.  Other nearby communities listed.  Click around.  Refer back to Google Maps for reference.  Click on more neighboring towns, all of which are less than 750 residents.  Find a couple that are comprised primarily of remote religious groups.  Google them.  Read about it.  Weird.  Backtrack to Lincoln Highway.  Route passes a springs and wildlife refuge oasis in the middle of the west desert salt flats.  Find it on Wikipedia.  Only source: underground mountain aquifer.  Only output: evaporation.  Read that fish living in the springs are direct descendents of fish that lived in the ancient inland-ocean sized Lake Bonneville.  Back to communities page in Wikipedia.  Click through them.  Read about Mona.  Actually been there once last summer.  Has lavender farms and a lavender festival.  Unusual thing to find in Utah.  Mental note: must discover if they know how to make the lavender lemonade that I love in Oregon.  Read more.  Burl Ives was once jailed in Mona for singing a song that authorities considered to be "bawdy".  Familiar name, but who was Burl Ives?  Link to Wikipedia on Burl Ives.  Well known, actor, writer, singer.  Once blacklisted as a communist supporter during the red scare of the 50s.  Voiced the snowman from 1964's stop motion animated film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Known to Star Wars fans as the narrator of a made-for-tv movie written by George Lucas with the title, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure.  Ewok Adventure is what I called a movie I watched as a kid.  Click link for Caravan of Courage...  Discover what I remembered was the actual movie title to my childhood favorite, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.  Realize that I have only ever seen the sequel and that Ewok Adventure was actually the one that I have never seen.
     Look at clock and realize time.  Stand up.  Stretch.  Realize path from snowshoeing to ewoks via Google satellite maps and Wikipedia.  Mind Blown.

Go read something else. No seriously.

     Oh yeah remember that thing I mentioned not too long ago.  I thought there was a pretty good chance with one in particular.  So I tried.  I got my hopes up.  I actually felt like I could be myself around her.  For whatever reason I don't meet many people like that.  It was pretty cool.  But then, oh guess what!  I failed.  Not even sure how it happened this time, except that this one guy (who I was sure was interested in someone else entirely) just swooped in out of nowhere and shabam!  Facebook official.  How does this even happen so fast?  What is the big rush of getting into relationships anyhow?  I guess I'm a bit old school.  Or perhaps I just got caught in the friend zone again.  It happens all too often.  It's just how I operate by default.  They may show interest at first but by the time I have gotten to know them well enough, they've changed their mind and moved on, leaving me as just that nice guy that they're friends with.  As you may have noticed, I'm feeling rather cynical at the present time.  A bit of sleuthing on everyone's favorite social addiction provided some details that I am particularly irked by.  I probably shouldn't divulge too much information, however I do feel that I was mislead by excuses made that seemed indisputable at the time.  Worst part is, I'm sure I'll get to see them regularly at church and related activities.  That's not really the most enjoyable concept.  I've dealt with this before, albeit in much worse of circumstances, but perhaps I'll just lay low for a while.  Eh, lets face it, I'll probably just be my same old self.  Friend zone.  Time to just accept defeat and add one more to the list.
     Question: Am I just bad at showing when I'm genuinely interested?  Or am I genuinely just not that interesting?   Oh well.  It doesn't really matter anymore.  The goal was set.  And it was achieved.  I have surpassed the roommate.  And yet, I feel no accomplishment.  Nor do I feel any further motivation or obligation.  Every time I try, I end up with a sick pit in my gut and an increasing lack of faith in humanity!  To avoid becoming too much of a cynic and as a measure of self preservation, I tend to simply avoid the cause of those feelings.  I have better things to do than waste my time and money trying to get to know people that don't care about getting to know me.
     If you actually read this, I'm sorry.  I did warn you though.  Also, if any of you speak a word of this to anyone, by golly I swear I'll hang you by your ankles and tickle you until you pass out.  But seriously, no one reads these posts anyhow.  I wrote it for me to help in getting it off my chest and for no other purpose.  I think I'm done here.  That is all.

Epic Man Food

     February Fourteenth.  A day just like any other?  No.  This is the day that I invented my epic man food.  Even though that day has passed some time ago, I would still like to share the details of my creation here.  When I exclaimed that it was the greatest I had ever made, my roommate suggested that I write it down.  Here is my account of how it happened.
     Now I'm not going to try to exaggerate, I really am not that great at cooking and whatnot.  When I finally flew the coup and moved out to Utah, I refused to live off of ramen noodles and frozen microwaveable dinners.  Therefore, I have been slowly learning some new cooking skills a little bit at a time.  I think it was around April or May when I wanted to fry some potatoes.  I don't remember exactly where I got the idea to do it this way, but I cut it into cubes, added some chopped onion and green bell pepper and fried it all together on the stove top, like a stir fry.  Then I think I just ate it with ketchup or something.  Very simple and it tasted simple.  Good, but simple.  Over time I tried new things and experimented here and there.  During late summer and fall when my sisters garden produced an abundance of green zucchini and yellow squash, I was using large amounts of those as a base, along with the potato, then adding various things to it.
     Any of the following ingredients have been used at different times (but never all at once) and many are interchangeable depending upon availability and desired flavor:  Yukon gold potatoes, red potatoes, green zucchini, hybrid yellow summer squash, yellow crookneck squash, Green bell pepper, red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, white onion, yellow onion, green tomato, fried chicken (shredded), chopped hot dogs, scrambled eggs, crushed almond, crushed walnut, salt, fresh ground pepper, onion powder, garlic seasoning, colby jack cheese, pepperjack cheese, ketchup, salsa and probably a bunch of stuff I have already forgotten.  But the purpose of this writing is to discuss the greatest of all, which was unlike any previous.
     Usually I use a small blop of vegetable oil on the pan but this time I switched to olive oil.  This is necessary to prevent the cubed potatoes from sticking to each other or the pan itself.  The potatoes always go in first since they will take longest to cook through.  Usually I do this uncovered on medium heat.  This time however, I kept it covered on low to medium-low heat.  I used one red potato and one gold potato.  While the potatoes were slowly cooking, I meticulously chopped up about 3/4 of a small white onion, moving the potatoes around periodically then adding the onions.  Then I cut up one whole green bell pepper and one half red bell pepper and added them in, stirring periodically to prevent burning and keeping covered on low heat.
     This is where it starts getting interesting...  In another pan, I began frying up several strips of low sodium bacon.  I think I did about 8-10 strips in total, making sure that they were well done so they are crispy when cooled.  In between frying bacon strips, I thinly sliced up some broccoli stem that needed using and I also threw in a few small broccoli tops.  I thawed two regular hot dogs in the microwave and sliced them twice longways, then from the end getting four small pieces on each cut.  About a dozen or more whole almonds were then crushed with a strong spoon.  All was added to the pan except the bacon which was cooling off.  Once cooled, I broke apart the bacon strips into very small pieces and stirred them in.  Near this point I took the lid off and kept it off to release some of the moisture.  Keeping it on low heat, the entire process was slow cooked from the beginning for about an hour and a half.  I seasoned it with a few shakes of salt, a few turns of the peppercorn grinder, a few shakes of bbq seasoning, with about 3 or 4 slices of lime squeezed in.  Stir a few more times then serve with generous amounts of shredded pepperjack cheese on top so that it gets halfway melty.  Devour.
     The biggest, not so secret, ingredient here that helps to make it so epic is the copious amount of bacon.  Additionally the bbq seasoning, lime and shredded pepperjack make a significant contribution as well.  The amounts I used, created about 3 adult size servings, at least that's how many times I filled my plate before I had transferred the entire contents of the pan into my stomach.  It was amazingly delicious in every way possible.  This, was a meal for one purpose.  To feed a hungry man!