I can think of only one other restaurant besides In-N-Out Burgers that wows me every time I go there, Cafe Rio. In both cases it's not necessarily because of the food (but it obviously MUST be because of the food), but rather the crowd at the restaurant.
Rachel told me Thursday night she wanted to go to In-N-Out for dinner Friday; I said "OK!" (when would I ever refuse a burger?). So we had some errands to run out by Draper Friday night so we head out to the Draper restaurant. BIG mistake. I had heard that the lines weren't that bad but the second I pulled up I knew it was a no-go. The line for inside was out the door and the drive through was wrapped into the street and back about 50 cars. I told Rachel there is no way it was happening as Cannon would obviously not do well sitting in the cold for 15 minutes before even getting inside the door. We hit up Costco dinner with plans for In-N-Out another day.
So this morning we leave Cannon with Grandma and head over to Jordan Landing for some more Christmas shopping. It is barely past 10:30 in the morning as we pull up by In-N-Out. We can see that it's open because inside the tables are already full and the drive through already has a line. It is 10:30 in the morning on a Saturday! People are barely waking up at this hour and they're ready to shove a burger and fries down their gullet?
Let me preface by saying that not 5 minutes earlier I had stopped at a gas station and filled up a 32 oz. soda and eaten a giant cream-filled triangle donut (LOVE Dunford!), but we knew if we were going to eat In-N-Out anytime within the next six months or so, this was the opportunity! In we go at 10:45 am to a filled fast-food restaurant. The line wasn't very long but the seats were all filled. We ordered our food and enjoyed a great burger-brunch.
The thing that is so amazing about In-N-Out and Cafe Rio is I get the feeling every time I eat at one of these places that the only limit to their profits is "How fast can you flip a burger or make a burrito?" That is impressive. From open 'til close for who knows how long In-N-Out will have monster lines of people dying to have their burgers. I still remember my first time going to one in California and thinking "THIS is their menu? How do they do so well? Where's the bacon? Where's the pastrami? The chicken options?" etc. Well, they make good food and people respond to good food, especially hamburgers and burritos, the staples of the American diet (at least my diet).
I have previously claimed 5 Guys to be the best burger in the state of Utah. After this morning I want to restate my opinion a tad. While I still hold strong that 5 Guys is the absolute best burger I will concede that In-N-Out may be the best burger "for the money". It is certainly much cheaper as a double cheese combo is $5.50 where the same thing would probably net over $10 at 5 Guys. I also want to note that the Apollo/Crown/Whatever pastrami is still in my top-level pantheon of great burgers as well. There is just something about a great burger combo that puts you in a good mood, right? Count me happy for the day!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
"I Hate Utah"
Well, Max Hall knew in the end he wasn't going to be elevated to "Detmer" type status in the annals of BYU QB history by his work on the field because his team didn't win the conference his final two years (I think fans can forgive the BCS to an extent but you do have to win the conference to get elevated to "elite" status). So instead he did what he had to do to elevate himself into some type of pantheon; the pantheon of great quotes to follow the rivalry game. "I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything" and on and on.
I head this interview live on KSL as we were driving home from the game. The first thing out of my mouth as he said it? "YES! I now LOVE Max Hall! Way to bring it strong!" Hall absolutely raised his stock in my personal rankings of BYU QB's with that quote alone. If for nothing else he didn't serve up the traditional soft-serve answer complimenting the Utes team or some garbage like that. I'm so sick and tired of hearing players give the politically correct answer every time (and especially Bronco-coached BYU players) that it was absolutely refreshing and exciting to hear a player speak his mind for once. Yes, you could hear the excitement in the reporter's voices too as they knew Hall just launched a good two weeks worth of talk radio discussion for them. Patrick Kinahan basically shouted "Hooray!" when Hall said it because he knew his ratings for Monday's show will be through the roof.
Every paper and media outlet this morning is calling his remarks "classless". That is total garbage especially considering how much they love to latch on to it. It is headline city! Why would you hate those remarks? If it was coming from Stevenson Sylvester after a Utah win would you think he was classless? No! He probably hates the Cougs as much as Hall hates the Utes. Hall is no idiot and had to know as the words passed out of his mouth that he was launching a firestorm, and he didn't care and said it anyways. My reaction to that? Awesome.
Oh yeah, and I hate the dirty Utes too. :)
So as for the game. This was my first-ever live BYU-Utah game. Thanks to my buddy Jared Selman who called me Friday with tickets for Rachel and me. I had been told before that this game is more intense than any other and especially more intense live than TV can show. All I can say is that is absolutely TRUE! You could cut the intensity with a knife even before the game started and all the way through. We had Utes sitting next to us (who were cool by the way, but nevertheless I was extremely disappointed in how many Ute fans were in the stands which is purely a reflection of crappy cougar fans who sold out their tickets) and even though they were nice I just wanted to SCREAM at them after every single play. We stood the entire game and I've never cheered like that before for any game. We were in the North endzone right where Andrew George had the game winning TD catch and the feeling was as euphoric as I've ever felt. I will say I was IRATE at the coaching staff for the poor game management especially even settling for overtime when they could have had the ball back with over a minute to play and 2 timeouts if they would've played the game right, but I digress. All's well that end's well right? And on this night, and for the next year, the Cougs are on top! BOOM!
I head this interview live on KSL as we were driving home from the game. The first thing out of my mouth as he said it? "YES! I now LOVE Max Hall! Way to bring it strong!" Hall absolutely raised his stock in my personal rankings of BYU QB's with that quote alone. If for nothing else he didn't serve up the traditional soft-serve answer complimenting the Utes team or some garbage like that. I'm so sick and tired of hearing players give the politically correct answer every time (and especially Bronco-coached BYU players) that it was absolutely refreshing and exciting to hear a player speak his mind for once. Yes, you could hear the excitement in the reporter's voices too as they knew Hall just launched a good two weeks worth of talk radio discussion for them. Patrick Kinahan basically shouted "Hooray!" when Hall said it because he knew his ratings for Monday's show will be through the roof.
Every paper and media outlet this morning is calling his remarks "classless". That is total garbage especially considering how much they love to latch on to it. It is headline city! Why would you hate those remarks? If it was coming from Stevenson Sylvester after a Utah win would you think he was classless? No! He probably hates the Cougs as much as Hall hates the Utes. Hall is no idiot and had to know as the words passed out of his mouth that he was launching a firestorm, and he didn't care and said it anyways. My reaction to that? Awesome.
Oh yeah, and I hate the dirty Utes too. :)
So as for the game. This was my first-ever live BYU-Utah game. Thanks to my buddy Jared Selman who called me Friday with tickets for Rachel and me. I had been told before that this game is more intense than any other and especially more intense live than TV can show. All I can say is that is absolutely TRUE! You could cut the intensity with a knife even before the game started and all the way through. We had Utes sitting next to us (who were cool by the way, but nevertheless I was extremely disappointed in how many Ute fans were in the stands which is purely a reflection of crappy cougar fans who sold out their tickets) and even though they were nice I just wanted to SCREAM at them after every single play. We stood the entire game and I've never cheered like that before for any game. We were in the North endzone right where Andrew George had the game winning TD catch and the feeling was as euphoric as I've ever felt. I will say I was IRATE at the coaching staff for the poor game management especially even settling for overtime when they could have had the ball back with over a minute to play and 2 timeouts if they would've played the game right, but I digress. All's well that end's well right? And on this night, and for the next year, the Cougs are on top! BOOM!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Apologies to Marriott
So when I travel for my 4 months of the year I stay the majority of the time in a Marriott Courtyard up in Washington. My coworkers know that I have been absolutely ROASTING this hotel all summer long mostly because they lost a couple important items of mine.
Back in May during one of my first stretches of staying, I left my set of P90X DVDs at the hotel. I called back as soon as I realized they were gone and asked if they turned up in the lost and found. Of course, they didn't. I would have expected a phone charger or computer cable of course but once something of actual value (these DVD's cost about $150) it mysteriously "was not found' by the cleaning people. I have been so upset about it all summer I have constantly bad mouthed Marriott.
Back in May during one of my first stretches of staying, I left my set of P90X DVDs at the hotel. I called back as soon as I realized they were gone and asked if they turned up in the lost and found. Of course, they didn't. I would have expected a phone charger or computer cable of course but once something of actual value (these DVD's cost about $150) it mysteriously "was not found' by the cleaning people. I have been so upset about it all summer I have constantly bad mouthed Marriott.
Then, on my second to last week of staying in October I left my set of retainers that I wear at night while I sleep (value of $200 or so). This time I was gone for all of 2 nights before I came back to check in. I promptly asked for them and of course they didn't find them. I figured in this case, while they were valuable items, the cleaning people probably just saw a plastic case and threw it away. Nevertheless, I was even more infuriated as this was the second valuable item lost this year.
Yes, some of this is my own fault; I can't be forgetting things in my hotel room. I could've sworn in both cases I hadn't. Especially in the case of the retainers; once I had lost the DVD's I did a 3-times over clean sweep of my room every time I checked out. But alas, they were both gone forever. (You already know where this is going, right?)
So on Sunday night I go to put my "Sunday nap" blanket back under the bed and it gets jammed and won't go in all the way. I have to get down to see what it is. There is an old shoe box deep under the bed that has stopped the blanket. I grab the shoe box to pull it out and can feel that it has stuff inside of it. "What did I ever put in a shoe box under the bed?" I pull it out and open it and to my astonishment my DVD's are sitting in the box! Buried in the box are various other items that no doubt Cannon had gathered up and stored in this little treasure chest. The DVDs had endured their 5-month burial in prime condition. I took them out and flashed them to Rachel; she too was surprised and we both started chiding Cannon for losing our things!
I immediately knew that if the DVDs were home, so were my retainers. "Where are my retainers!" I started screaming at him. I asked him that same question over and over the rest of Sunday night and as soon as I got home yesterday. He must have got the message; Rachel walked in his room after I had been home for about an hour last night and my retainers, with my little case, were sitting on the floor in the middle of his bedroom. He must have fished them out from his secret hiding spot and left them there for mom and dad to find.
Dang kids. I can't believe it. I was literally on the verge of writing Marriott a letter berating them for their poor service because it was on my mind so often. I guess now I should write them a letter of apology.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Ultimate Cheapskate!
Am I the Ultimate Cheapskate? I'm confident my wife and other family members would confirm that "yes" I am the ultimate cheapskate according to them. In fact, I would bet most people that know me would feel comfortable labeling me the cheapest person they know. I don't know whether to be proud of that or not.
On my drive up to Washington last week I listened to a book on CD "The Ultimate Cheapskate's Roadmap to True Riches" by Jeff Yeager, dubbed "The Ultimate Cheapskate" by Matt Lauer on the Today Show. I guess he appears on the show all the time to offer his "cheapskate-isms". Obviously I have some inclination of "cheapness" if I'm even picking this up to listen to it in the first place.
So what makes me a cheapskate? The fact that I drive a '99 Civic that has Sharpie scribbled all over the car (thanks to my sweet son!)? It's got 185K miles on it and I hope to eventually hit 300K! Is it the fact that I don't spend a ton of money on clothes? I am admittedly a poor dresser who even after 2 years of working in a business environment is uncomfortable all day every day in business clothes and can't wait to get into a t-shirt and jeans the second I can. That will definitely be a consideration for future jobs. Is it the fact that I save up to purchase things with cash, do research on the product to find out what a true competitive price is, and wait it out until it goes on sale to get it? Nothing (and literally I mean nothing) makes me laugh harder in life than people telling me they got a "deal" on whatever it is they purchased. 99.9% of the time I know they got the same "deal" that every other schmuck in the world could get. Usually it's because they "knew a guy" or something like that. I first noticed it back in the early post-mission days when the whole world was getting engaged (this is primarily BYU students I was dealing with). When asking a dude about a ring, it was "I got a sweet hookup because I knew a guy". Nobody ever responds "I got totally raped on the deal". This sense of "getting a deal" has proliferated amongst any and every purchase possible from a whole slew of people. The sense of getting a "deal" usually results in people making stupid purchases for things they either don't need or are far out of their price range for what they are looking for but they buy it anyways. Is that what makes me a cheapskate? (Yes, indeed that was quite a rant).
Well folks, upon reading above said cheapskate book, I am here to proclaim that it could be MUCH, MUCH WORSE! Allow me to identify some items that make me a non-cheapskate! I own and use a cell-phone, something abhorred by a true "Ultimate Cheapskate"; I pay for TV services (currently Direct TV, which completely sucks by the way and I will be cancelling the DAY my contract is up to turn promptly back to Comcast and never go back, but that's another story); I go on vacations without staying in Hostels. An entire chapter is dedicated to traveling cheap, which I realized I do not do. While I would consider a stay in a Hostel for the experience I have already received confirmation from my wife that it is not an option. I don't buy food on the "less than $1 per pound" method although I do think it's ingenious and may try it out sometime. In fact, I spend quite a lot of money at restaurants, something I enjoy doing with my wife, and something definitely not cheapskate-style.
One thing I did like that may make me a cheapskate is the approach to life of setting a certain goal of income to live on and being comfortable with. Now, the real "Ultimate Cheapskate"'s life goal was to make $40K a year and he'd be comfortable, and is comfortable, with that amount the rest of his life. While my goal is slightly higher, I do think it's wise to learn to live within your means and set a reasonable, achievable "target" income level at which you could live comfortably for the rest of your life. All increases beyond that point would lead to increased investing, savings, etc. The Ultimate Cheapskate points out, and I agree, that too often people increase their expenses dollar-for-dollar, or even beyond, when they experience increases in their income. "I just got a raise! That means I should spend ALL the extra money on a bigger house, car, toy, etc.!" Not the case for Mr. Ball, even if it is to the aversion of Mrs. Ball.
So what is the truth? Well, I may be the cheapest person you know, but thanks to reading this book, and even though I don't know Jeff Yeager personally, I can feel confident saying I'm not the cheapest person I know. And that's good enough for me!
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Lesson of Mexico
So we went on a sweet cruise a week ago with a couple of friends. Relaxing week. Enjoyed copious amounts of food and sleep (Ok, I enjoy copious amounts of food all the time anyways, but sleep is usually harder to come by). Got a touch of sunshine, and just enjoyed being away from it all for a week.
I've been to Mexico a couple different times but I've never been deep into Mexico. This cruise took us to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. I anticipated being able to bargain with the locals for cheap trinkets and I was correct; at all three stops there was plenty of opportunity to waste your money on cheap crap; however, I did anticipate purchasing a fake Rolex watch.
My dad bought a fake Rolex for $30 back in '91 or so. He bragged about it all the time and loved it; so I of course thought to myself how I would buy my own fake Rolex on the cheap and think it was so great. I took plenty of cash to shell out whatever was the negotiated price. I figured there had to be some inflation to take into account since his purchase was nearly 20 years ago.
I get into Cabo San Lucas (our first stop) and nobody has any watches. I finally ask somebody about it and he pulls out a huge box from underneath his table like I'm asking for drugs or something. His asking price? $150. The watch he showed me looked sweet. The one I liked the most was a red Rolex with a Coca-cola symbol on it too. But $150 was way out of my range. I was thinking the starting point was going to be around $80-100. I didn't even bother bargaining with him. On the way back to the boat, though, I discussed with my friend and was confident that if I flashed him $80 cash he would give in. Still, I can get a decent, American guaranteed watch for $80. I didn't go back.
Fast forward to Mazatlan (stop number 2). Right off the boat there is a huge Mexican market and I find a table with plenty of watches to choose from. Her initial asking price? $75! What a deal! I almost shelled out $80 yesterday in hopes of negotiating him down from $150 but this girl is STARTING at half of yesterday's price! I talk her down to $55. In my mind I'm thinking 2 things: 1) No matter what I'm getting a screaming deal compared to what I was looking at yesterday, 2) $55 today has to compare favorably to $30 20 years ago if I adjust for inflation. So no matter what I'm getting a sweet deal, right?
I'm down to two different watches, basically deciding on the type of face I want. One is a bright silver face and the other a white face. I waver and waver and finally settle on the white face. I hand over the cash and slip on the watch. No adjustment to the watchband needed as it fits perfectly. It must have been fate.
I am so excited about my watch I flash it around to my wife and friends the rest of the day. I keep telling my wife all day and through the next how stoked I am to have a fake Rolex just like my dad had all those years ago. Honestly, this thing is good looking and I must say I'm good looking wearing it!
Flash forward to Puerto Vallarta (last stop). I don't need to look at watches here because I already have the sweetest watch ever made! We buy some other random trinkets and happily get back on the ship for two more days at sea. As we pull out that night, I wave goodbye to Mexican soil.
That night we go with our friends to a game show-type event on the cruise ship. The entire crowd is split into teams to do whatever is asked. The host asks for a watch. I quickly slip off my watch and toss it down to the front (a couple of rows only and the guy caught it). Another watch was already submitted so he tosses it back up to me. I put it back on, no problem. I check the time and it's 11:15. Wait a minute. . . it feels like it's been 11:15 forever.
Oh. . . S. . . H. . . I . . . T . . . !. . . ! . . . !
(I apologize for the lettering above but surely all who know me know I cussed anyway so I'm just trying to do justice to my feelings at the moment).
The second hand is NOT moving. The watch has stopped. Surely I just haven't been moving my hand around enough for the self-winding mechanism to kick in, right? I shake the stupid thing like crazy and can hear it attempting to wind, but no tick (or roll in the case of this "nice" knockoff Rolex-more on why it's "nice" later).
So I bought the watch in Mazatlan and basically 1 day later the thing breaks. I obviously can't go back so I just have to sit and stew in my misery the next two days at sea. I spend the next two days with the watch constantly trying to wind it, shake, it, do whatever I can think of to get it to work. My wife and my friends just laugh the whole time.
So this past week Rachel is so kind and takes it to the jewelry repair store to get it fixed. The estimate to fix it? $150! $70 for the part and $80 for the labor. . . because it's such a "nice" knockoff it's hard to take it apart and the part that broke is basically the most expensive part of the watch, and obviously the part that makes the watch go. "It's a real shame" the repairman tells my wife, "this is one of the nicest knockoffs I've ever seen." Rachel calls and tells me the bad news. She even tells me I can pay to get it fixed if I really want to but it better get REAL Rolex treatment from that point on. I'm not an idiot, the dream is dead.
$55 down the drain, what a waste. I don't even think the girl that sold me the watch knew it was a lemon, I think I just happened to pick the "one" that was ready to die. Well, at least I keep telling myself that. And by convincing myself of that, I have obviously not learned the lesson of Mexico.
I've been to Mexico a couple different times but I've never been deep into Mexico. This cruise took us to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. I anticipated being able to bargain with the locals for cheap trinkets and I was correct; at all three stops there was plenty of opportunity to waste your money on cheap crap; however, I did anticipate purchasing a fake Rolex watch.
My dad bought a fake Rolex for $30 back in '91 or so. He bragged about it all the time and loved it; so I of course thought to myself how I would buy my own fake Rolex on the cheap and think it was so great. I took plenty of cash to shell out whatever was the negotiated price. I figured there had to be some inflation to take into account since his purchase was nearly 20 years ago.
I get into Cabo San Lucas (our first stop) and nobody has any watches. I finally ask somebody about it and he pulls out a huge box from underneath his table like I'm asking for drugs or something. His asking price? $150. The watch he showed me looked sweet. The one I liked the most was a red Rolex with a Coca-cola symbol on it too. But $150 was way out of my range. I was thinking the starting point was going to be around $80-100. I didn't even bother bargaining with him. On the way back to the boat, though, I discussed with my friend and was confident that if I flashed him $80 cash he would give in. Still, I can get a decent, American guaranteed watch for $80. I didn't go back.
Fast forward to Mazatlan (stop number 2). Right off the boat there is a huge Mexican market and I find a table with plenty of watches to choose from. Her initial asking price? $75! What a deal! I almost shelled out $80 yesterday in hopes of negotiating him down from $150 but this girl is STARTING at half of yesterday's price! I talk her down to $55. In my mind I'm thinking 2 things: 1) No matter what I'm getting a screaming deal compared to what I was looking at yesterday, 2) $55 today has to compare favorably to $30 20 years ago if I adjust for inflation. So no matter what I'm getting a sweet deal, right?
I'm down to two different watches, basically deciding on the type of face I want. One is a bright silver face and the other a white face. I waver and waver and finally settle on the white face. I hand over the cash and slip on the watch. No adjustment to the watchband needed as it fits perfectly. It must have been fate.
I am so excited about my watch I flash it around to my wife and friends the rest of the day. I keep telling my wife all day and through the next how stoked I am to have a fake Rolex just like my dad had all those years ago. Honestly, this thing is good looking and I must say I'm good looking wearing it!
Flash forward to Puerto Vallarta (last stop). I don't need to look at watches here because I already have the sweetest watch ever made! We buy some other random trinkets and happily get back on the ship for two more days at sea. As we pull out that night, I wave goodbye to Mexican soil.
That night we go with our friends to a game show-type event on the cruise ship. The entire crowd is split into teams to do whatever is asked. The host asks for a watch. I quickly slip off my watch and toss it down to the front (a couple of rows only and the guy caught it). Another watch was already submitted so he tosses it back up to me. I put it back on, no problem. I check the time and it's 11:15. Wait a minute. . . it feels like it's been 11:15 forever.
Oh. . . S. . . H. . . I . . . T . . . !. . . ! . . . !
(I apologize for the lettering above but surely all who know me know I cussed anyway so I'm just trying to do justice to my feelings at the moment).
The second hand is NOT moving. The watch has stopped. Surely I just haven't been moving my hand around enough for the self-winding mechanism to kick in, right? I shake the stupid thing like crazy and can hear it attempting to wind, but no tick (or roll in the case of this "nice" knockoff Rolex-more on why it's "nice" later).
So I bought the watch in Mazatlan and basically 1 day later the thing breaks. I obviously can't go back so I just have to sit and stew in my misery the next two days at sea. I spend the next two days with the watch constantly trying to wind it, shake, it, do whatever I can think of to get it to work. My wife and my friends just laugh the whole time.
So this past week Rachel is so kind and takes it to the jewelry repair store to get it fixed. The estimate to fix it? $150! $70 for the part and $80 for the labor. . . because it's such a "nice" knockoff it's hard to take it apart and the part that broke is basically the most expensive part of the watch, and obviously the part that makes the watch go. "It's a real shame" the repairman tells my wife, "this is one of the nicest knockoffs I've ever seen." Rachel calls and tells me the bad news. She even tells me I can pay to get it fixed if I really want to but it better get REAL Rolex treatment from that point on. I'm not an idiot, the dream is dead.
$55 down the drain, what a waste. I don't even think the girl that sold me the watch knew it was a lemon, I think I just happened to pick the "one" that was ready to die. Well, at least I keep telling myself that. And by convincing myself of that, I have obviously not learned the lesson of Mexico.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Lamborghini
I have been labeled the "world's cheapest man" who couldn't care less about luxury items or even need items such as clothes, food, etc. :) But even a cheapskate like me can appreciate a Lamborghini. I'm pretty sure EVERYBODY thinks Lamborghini's are freaking awesome; so this past weekend was a pretty fun random experience.
We went to Bear Lake for the weekend for Rachel's family reunion. On the drive home Sunday morning from Bear Lake to Logan is about a 40 mile winding canyon (aka Logan Canyon). It takes about an hour to get through because of the steep grades and turns. Right as I come over the summit from Bear Lake to start heading down the canyon I see coming up the road a freaking Lamborghini! It is hauling up the canyon road with ease and eventually ZOOMS! by me. (Yes, it made that ZOOM! sound as it passed as they all do. My Civic just doesn't do that). Funny thing was, I couldn't even see until it was right upon me but there was a second Lamborghini right behind it! The exact same car! Obviously they were together and must have been headed somewhere. I figured they probably even had the same owner because it's freaking rare to see 1 Lamborghini on a random road in the middle of nowhere, let alone two.
So I was now in a good mood, I just saw an awesome car ZOOM! (yes, once again the ZOOM! factor) by me and ended up getting two for the price of one. Next thing I know I see ANOTHER one coming up the road. What is this? 3 in one day on the same road!?!? Something is up but I am pumped! The weird thing is they were all the exact same car. Clearly different years and different colors, but from what I could see they were the exact same model of Lamborghini.
So I'm five minutes into my drive down the canyon and I've seen 3 Lamborhinis, which is more than I've probably seen live in my lifetime to this point. I get to the next turn and 4 in a row come screaming around the corner. These things are hauling in the opposite direction and I feel like I'm front row to a NASCAR-type race as they zoom by, only it's NASCAR Lamborghini style. It is incredible to see them blow by as they haul up the canyon with ease.
Well suddenly I'm up to 7 and now I'm just expecting it. . . and the goods just kept on coming. Pretty much every turn the whole way down the canyon we saw another, and another, then a couple at a time, then a few at a time. All in all we saw 31 Lamborghini's while in the canyon, and every one of them was probably worth more than my life.
Obviously they were all headed up somewhere together; since they were going the opposite direction and Lamborghini's don't have license plates on the front I didn't see the plates for any of them, but if I had to take a guess I wouldn't have guessed there were even 30 owners of these cars in Utah! Maybe Ferrari, Lotus, Mazerati, etc. all combined, but not the exact same car. Whatever it was, I'm pretty sure I'll never be on a random back road in Utah again and see a few million dollars worth of sweet cars pass me by like that. It made for a good drive home.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Tipping Point
Yet another awesome book by Malcolm Gladwell! This guy is truly a great writer of today. I'm just upset I hadn't discovered him sooner. The second I finished up this book I started "Blink" so expect that review soon.
Ever wonder how some things blow up huge and others don't? Gladwell compares the spread of something (be it a product, a disease, crime rates, etc.) to a virus spreading. How does it happen? Well the bottom line is word of mouth, with a message that "sticks", through those who are 1) connected and/or 2) in the know. Truly amazing connections that make you think differently about who and what you know.
The biggest lesson I learned from this book is that often it is the little things that matter and can affect change more than the big, looming issues. Frequently we overlook seemingly unimportant, detail issues that in reality can help overhaul the big picture and bring about the positive change you desire. The example from the book was the dramatic drop in crime in New York City during the 90's, which was a result of small changes rather than big ones.
I love these books by Malcolm Gladwell because he does so much research on all of the example stories. I love that all the examples and case studies are true stories so they are relevant to real life. He has a terrific, captivating writing style that not only makes you on one hand want to stop and think deeper about the issue you just read and on the other hand keep reading to see what could come next. Yet another strong recommendation for this book.
Ever wonder how some things blow up huge and others don't? Gladwell compares the spread of something (be it a product, a disease, crime rates, etc.) to a virus spreading. How does it happen? Well the bottom line is word of mouth, with a message that "sticks", through those who are 1) connected and/or 2) in the know. Truly amazing connections that make you think differently about who and what you know.
The biggest lesson I learned from this book is that often it is the little things that matter and can affect change more than the big, looming issues. Frequently we overlook seemingly unimportant, detail issues that in reality can help overhaul the big picture and bring about the positive change you desire. The example from the book was the dramatic drop in crime in New York City during the 90's, which was a result of small changes rather than big ones.
I love these books by Malcolm Gladwell because he does so much research on all of the example stories. I love that all the examples and case studies are true stories so they are relevant to real life. He has a terrific, captivating writing style that not only makes you on one hand want to stop and think deeper about the issue you just read and on the other hand keep reading to see what could come next. Yet another strong recommendation for this book.
Of Dallas and Hotels
While I've been to the DFW airport a number of times, I have never spent any time in Texas other than an airport stop. I'm in Dallas all this week for some work training and I've got to see quite a bit of downtown Dallas.
Texas is hot and humid. I would say it feels like you see a bar on every corner much like you see a church on every block in Utah. A dissapointing note is that the restauarants (mostly sports bars) are pricey and disappointing. The food at the sports bars I ate at was tasty but I still felt it was quite overpriced (and I wasn't eating at elite places). I didn't even end up going to a Mexican restaurant (something I was excited to try) because I heard way too many bad reviews the past few days from those who had (overpriced and not that good). Oh well. Texas does have a lot going for it. The number 1 I would like to say is the presence of Diet Dr. Pepper! Every restaurant I've eaten at has had it in the fountain, and the hotel has it as part of their soda lineup during our training conference here. As Diet Dr. Pepper is my number 1 soda of choice I have to give this a big thumbs up.
Second, I really love the big city feel. I feel like I could easily live in a big city and enjoy it. Probably not ideal for little kids running around but for adults with no children it definitely has upside. This is really the first really big city I've ever spent time in and I really enjoy checking out the different designs of the sky scrapers. There are some really cool buildings down here which is another plus from my point of view. I wish Salt Lake City would add some more tall buildings to their skyline.
So overall I really like the city and have enjoyed Texas. I do have a complaint about the Sheraton I'm staying at down town. Not only the Sheraton, but all big time nice hotels. They suck! The room is not any nicer than what you get at the Fairfield or Holiday Inn and you end up getting a lot less! At a cheaper hotel you get free breakfast, free internet, and a decent lineup of channels on your tv. Everything here at the Sheraton and other high-end hotels is a la carte. No internet, breakfast, even their "gym" is a total joke for a hotel of this size (we were able to get them to give us guest passes to a 24-hr fitness down the street so I'll give them that). But in any case, I realize these huge hotels are needed to handle big conferences like what I'm attending (roughly 300 people for a whole week), but one thing I can say I've learned from all my travel is that for personal travel the only thing you're getting from these big time hotels is a larger bill and not much else. . . and probably less (honestly I'm pretty much getting less than basic cable from a tv that doesn't even work that well). Stay at the Holiday Inn, the Fairfield, The Residence or any other mid-range hotel and you'll get much more for your money.
One last thing about Dallas is I wish Salt Lake had more sports teams. Everybody knows how much I love the Jazz. I can only imagine how great it would be to have an NFL team. The Cowboys are huge down here and it makes me wish we had a pro football team like that. The NFL is truly king as the Mavs, Rangers, and Stars (NHL) are clearly a step down on the priority scale for this city.
Texas is hot and humid. I would say it feels like you see a bar on every corner much like you see a church on every block in Utah. A dissapointing note is that the restauarants (mostly sports bars) are pricey and disappointing. The food at the sports bars I ate at was tasty but I still felt it was quite overpriced (and I wasn't eating at elite places). I didn't even end up going to a Mexican restaurant (something I was excited to try) because I heard way too many bad reviews the past few days from those who had (overpriced and not that good). Oh well. Texas does have a lot going for it. The number 1 I would like to say is the presence of Diet Dr. Pepper! Every restaurant I've eaten at has had it in the fountain, and the hotel has it as part of their soda lineup during our training conference here. As Diet Dr. Pepper is my number 1 soda of choice I have to give this a big thumbs up.
Second, I really love the big city feel. I feel like I could easily live in a big city and enjoy it. Probably not ideal for little kids running around but for adults with no children it definitely has upside. This is really the first really big city I've ever spent time in and I really enjoy checking out the different designs of the sky scrapers. There are some really cool buildings down here which is another plus from my point of view. I wish Salt Lake City would add some more tall buildings to their skyline.
So overall I really like the city and have enjoyed Texas. I do have a complaint about the Sheraton I'm staying at down town. Not only the Sheraton, but all big time nice hotels. They suck! The room is not any nicer than what you get at the Fairfield or Holiday Inn and you end up getting a lot less! At a cheaper hotel you get free breakfast, free internet, and a decent lineup of channels on your tv. Everything here at the Sheraton and other high-end hotels is a la carte. No internet, breakfast, even their "gym" is a total joke for a hotel of this size (we were able to get them to give us guest passes to a 24-hr fitness down the street so I'll give them that). But in any case, I realize these huge hotels are needed to handle big conferences like what I'm attending (roughly 300 people for a whole week), but one thing I can say I've learned from all my travel is that for personal travel the only thing you're getting from these big time hotels is a larger bill and not much else. . . and probably less (honestly I'm pretty much getting less than basic cable from a tv that doesn't even work that well). Stay at the Holiday Inn, the Fairfield, The Residence or any other mid-range hotel and you'll get much more for your money.
One last thing about Dallas is I wish Salt Lake had more sports teams. Everybody knows how much I love the Jazz. I can only imagine how great it would be to have an NFL team. The Cowboys are huge down here and it makes me wish we had a pro football team like that. The NFL is truly king as the Mavs, Rangers, and Stars (NHL) are clearly a step down on the priority scale for this city.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
CPA! (AKA Most boring post ever)
So today in the mail I finally received the little slip of paper from the state department of occupational licensing that says I am officially a CPA! Pretty exciting for a nerd like myself I know. Most people probably are thinking, "Holy crap! You've been graduated and working in accounting for a year and half now! I thought you were already a CPA! You suck for taking so long!" Well, it actually takes a while including passing all the tests and you have to get a certain amount of work experience before everything is complete. So now it's all complete and basically the big thing I get out of it is to shoulder more blame if something goes wrong with a job I'm working on :).
I can say with full certainty that being a CPA just means you spend your life working. For some reason in college there is this big myth that your job basically entails golfing a ton and wooing clients. I'm pretty sure I golfed a grand total of 3 times last year and I haven't even thought about taking them out of the garage once so far this year. What I DO do without myth is spend 15 hours a day sitting in a chair in some back-corner conference room or cubicle. Combine that with my sweet eating habits (pretty much every meal is take out since we're too busy working) and you have yourself one fat brandon! That should be my new nickname. . . fat brandon! It has a ring to it.
This sounds like a gripe session, but I actually like what I do. Not necesarily how much I do it, but I do learn a lot of interesting things and deal with interesting situations (and people for that matter). I've already been to a ton of different businesses in this state and others and seen various types of business operations that I wouldn't see elsewhere. The sad part is, as I see myself learning more about accounting I also see myself digging deeper and deeper into the "ultra-nerd" pit that I've basically already lived in my whole life. These things that I find interesting put the world to sleep (and certainly my wife :)).
Fat Brandon, CPA. It has a ring to it, right?
I can say with full certainty that being a CPA just means you spend your life working. For some reason in college there is this big myth that your job basically entails golfing a ton and wooing clients. I'm pretty sure I golfed a grand total of 3 times last year and I haven't even thought about taking them out of the garage once so far this year. What I DO do without myth is spend 15 hours a day sitting in a chair in some back-corner conference room or cubicle. Combine that with my sweet eating habits (pretty much every meal is take out since we're too busy working) and you have yourself one fat brandon! That should be my new nickname. . . fat brandon! It has a ring to it.
This sounds like a gripe session, but I actually like what I do. Not necesarily how much I do it, but I do learn a lot of interesting things and deal with interesting situations (and people for that matter). I've already been to a ton of different businesses in this state and others and seen various types of business operations that I wouldn't see elsewhere. The sad part is, as I see myself learning more about accounting I also see myself digging deeper and deeper into the "ultra-nerd" pit that I've basically already lived in my whole life. These things that I find interesting put the world to sleep (and certainly my wife :)).
Fat Brandon, CPA. It has a ring to it, right?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Going Back On Your Word Without Seemingly Losing Positive PR
So you want to run a huge marketing stunt to get big publicity. . . positive publicity. This new product is really going to change things around. . . even though it's the exact same product you've been selling for years.
You start adverstising the product. It's new, it's great, (it's exactly the same as the product we've been selling for years!). But wait! You have a special offer! Something never thought of before! A discounted price!
So you need to make a bigger splash to get the customers to come in droves (to buy the exact same product you've been selling for years). You go on the the biggest show on tv (market your product on this show and the success is guaranteed!)
So you go on the show and offer your product for free! Lo and behold, the customers come in droves. Suddenly you're thinking, "Oh suck! We're giving away way too much of our product! What were we thinking?! We can't be giving away this much product for free." Truly, I agree. I go to the store and see a boatload of people loading up on the free product. Problem is, once they realize it's exactly the same as the old product they realize there's no big reason to come back and pay for it beyond their usual habit of paying for it.
So you're the Company and you're losing boatloads of money and can't figure out what to do to stop the bleeding. What do you do? Offer a raincheck! Make customers jump through outrageous hoops to get the raincheck. Offer "sincere" apologies but the demand is too overwhelming so the free offer is no longer valid. . . for now. Of course, the vast, vast majority that might've taken advantage of the free product will not jump through all the hoops necessary to get the "rain check", and thus you have just cut a huge liability off the books.
Funny, I walked in to KFC tonight and all I could see were posters everywhere about their new "grilled" chicken and bounteous amounts of grilled chicken for Sale! (I also noted a prominent sign about the availability of a raincheck because they couldn't offer it for free like they had promised on Oprah!) The hoops you have to jump through for the raincheck were truly not worth your time for a $4 meal. Thing is, I did go in time to get the free meal a couple weeks ago. . the grilled chicken is exactly the same as their fried chicken! I checked the calorie count tonight and the difference really isn't that big (after all, in the end you're still eating fast food). So the demand is too overwhelming to give away the supply for free but there is bounteous amounts of supply for sale? That doesn't add up! I guess it's probably a good call to cut off the free coupons because I'm pretty sure they wouldn' t recoup those costs with increased sales of grilled chicken (again, because it's exactly the same as fried chicken). Best option is to just cut the sunk costs and reduce the liability of future free meals.
So what's the lesson of the day? Accountants run the world! :) and chicken tastes like chicken.
You start adverstising the product. It's new, it's great, (it's exactly the same as the product we've been selling for years!). But wait! You have a special offer! Something never thought of before! A discounted price!
So you need to make a bigger splash to get the customers to come in droves (to buy the exact same product you've been selling for years). You go on the the biggest show on tv (market your product on this show and the success is guaranteed!)
So you go on the show and offer your product for free! Lo and behold, the customers come in droves. Suddenly you're thinking, "Oh suck! We're giving away way too much of our product! What were we thinking?! We can't be giving away this much product for free." Truly, I agree. I go to the store and see a boatload of people loading up on the free product. Problem is, once they realize it's exactly the same as the old product they realize there's no big reason to come back and pay for it beyond their usual habit of paying for it.
So you're the Company and you're losing boatloads of money and can't figure out what to do to stop the bleeding. What do you do? Offer a raincheck! Make customers jump through outrageous hoops to get the raincheck. Offer "sincere" apologies but the demand is too overwhelming so the free offer is no longer valid. . . for now. Of course, the vast, vast majority that might've taken advantage of the free product will not jump through all the hoops necessary to get the "rain check", and thus you have just cut a huge liability off the books.
Funny, I walked in to KFC tonight and all I could see were posters everywhere about their new "grilled" chicken and bounteous amounts of grilled chicken for Sale! (I also noted a prominent sign about the availability of a raincheck because they couldn't offer it for free like they had promised on Oprah!) The hoops you have to jump through for the raincheck were truly not worth your time for a $4 meal. Thing is, I did go in time to get the free meal a couple weeks ago. . the grilled chicken is exactly the same as their fried chicken! I checked the calorie count tonight and the difference really isn't that big (after all, in the end you're still eating fast food). So the demand is too overwhelming to give away the supply for free but there is bounteous amounts of supply for sale? That doesn't add up! I guess it's probably a good call to cut off the free coupons because I'm pretty sure they wouldn' t recoup those costs with increased sales of grilled chicken (again, because it's exactly the same as fried chicken). Best option is to just cut the sunk costs and reduce the liability of future free meals.
So what's the lesson of the day? Accountants run the world! :) and chicken tastes like chicken.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Outliers
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is one of the best books I have EVER read. I hope to emphasize the point by noting that I am a reader: I read a lot of books, so I feel like I can say that with some background in the area of those out there who read for enjoyment. Definitely if you dive into the non-fiction realm, which this book is, it is definitely in the top ten and probably in the top five (I'm hesitant to dub it my #1 as I'm on an emotional high after just finishing it, but it may end up there once I let time pass and more perspective develop).
Let's put it this way, I wasn't even a quarter of the way through this book before I got online and ordered his other two books. Generally when I read I get to the end of a chapter before I think about what I read. I found myself putting the book down temporarily on nearly a page by page basis to think about what I had just read, then was excited to pick it back up and see what came next.
Outliers describes the backgrounds, circumstances, and opportunities of successful people. Not only does it take TONS of work to be a true outlier (which he dubs the 10,000 hour rule-very intriguing and I would think is absolutely true) but you have to be extremely fortunate to be born in the right place, at the right time, and grow up under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, I was NOT born at the right time, nor in the right place, and I have not grown up under the right circumstances to be the next Bill Gates or Beatles or a professional athlete; but applying the points of this book to myself I can easily understand why I'm in the life position I am, to the point I might feel the need for myself to expound upon it at some point.
I've read some critiques saying the book throws out individual accomplishments and basically says all successful individuals are pure luck. I don't agree with that at all. The author clearly notes multiple times that these people are those that took advantages of opportunities, he just points out that those opportunities were very fortunate and circumstantial, down to the timing and location of their birth and upbringing.
Think about it and it makes sense before even reading the book. Does a child who grows up in a two-parent affluent household have a better opportunity to succeed than a child who grows up in a single-parent poor household? Not that one or the other can or can't succeed, just that the opportunities are far greater for the latter. In turn, the "poor" kid still has a much greater opportunity to succeed compared to a child in 3rd-world Africa. It's relative and circumstantial, but it makes sense. The book has MUCH more to say than the simple example I just shelled out.
I like to buy books. I generally don't use the library for whatever reason, mainly that I don't mind buying books because I don't ever think purchasing a book is a waste of money. Reading is never a waste of time or money in my mind. However, I rarely reread the books I buy. I've even recently told Rachel she can start selling the majority of my books because I'm unlikely to ever get back around to reading them again. I enjoy it the first time through and that's usually it. It's not like a movie that only takes a couple hours to get through a second (or sometimes third, fourth, fifth, etc.). The bottom line for Outliers for me is this: I look forward to rereading it before the end of the summer.
Let's put it this way, I wasn't even a quarter of the way through this book before I got online and ordered his other two books. Generally when I read I get to the end of a chapter before I think about what I read. I found myself putting the book down temporarily on nearly a page by page basis to think about what I had just read, then was excited to pick it back up and see what came next.
Outliers describes the backgrounds, circumstances, and opportunities of successful people. Not only does it take TONS of work to be a true outlier (which he dubs the 10,000 hour rule-very intriguing and I would think is absolutely true) but you have to be extremely fortunate to be born in the right place, at the right time, and grow up under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, I was NOT born at the right time, nor in the right place, and I have not grown up under the right circumstances to be the next Bill Gates or Beatles or a professional athlete; but applying the points of this book to myself I can easily understand why I'm in the life position I am, to the point I might feel the need for myself to expound upon it at some point.
I've read some critiques saying the book throws out individual accomplishments and basically says all successful individuals are pure luck. I don't agree with that at all. The author clearly notes multiple times that these people are those that took advantages of opportunities, he just points out that those opportunities were very fortunate and circumstantial, down to the timing and location of their birth and upbringing.
Think about it and it makes sense before even reading the book. Does a child who grows up in a two-parent affluent household have a better opportunity to succeed than a child who grows up in a single-parent poor household? Not that one or the other can or can't succeed, just that the opportunities are far greater for the latter. In turn, the "poor" kid still has a much greater opportunity to succeed compared to a child in 3rd-world Africa. It's relative and circumstantial, but it makes sense. The book has MUCH more to say than the simple example I just shelled out.
I like to buy books. I generally don't use the library for whatever reason, mainly that I don't mind buying books because I don't ever think purchasing a book is a waste of money. Reading is never a waste of time or money in my mind. However, I rarely reread the books I buy. I've even recently told Rachel she can start selling the majority of my books because I'm unlikely to ever get back around to reading them again. I enjoy it the first time through and that's usually it. It's not like a movie that only takes a couple hours to get through a second (or sometimes third, fourth, fifth, etc.). The bottom line for Outliers for me is this: I look forward to rereading it before the end of the summer.
Commercials Part 1
Once again I'm up in Washington and I find myself wathcing copious amounts of tv at night (ok, so not all that different from my normal life). But I have seen too many commercials tonight that have upset me not to write about it; particularly what I am going to dub "the downfall of Arby's".
All that know me know I LOVE commercials. I should have gone in to advertising becuase I'm such a sucker for commercials (can you say sham-wow, p90x, perfect pushup, iron gym, magic bullet, and on and on), but I am especially a sucker for food commercials. If I see a new food product, I want to try it. If I see a good food commercial, I want to go there (and I usually do). In fact, while I'm thinking about it, I'll note that I went to KFC tonight with a coupon for a free "Grilled Chicken" meal. Maybe I was expecting the type of grilled chicken you get on your grilled chicken sandwiches or something but I would've probably rather had fried. And the grilled certainly didn't taste healthy, it tasted just like the fried. . .hmmm. "Unthink KFC?" I think KFC needs to stick to their NAMESAKE and keep it fried. People know when they're getting fastfood level food they are getting unhealthy stuff that ideally tastes really good. Tonight I got something that might have been marginally more healthy but didn't make up for it with extra taste. That's a thumbs down for me. The most upsetting part is these guys are owned under the same umbrella as Taco Bell, and I think Taco Bell routinely puts out clever commercials that make me want to each there.
Anyways, back on topic. I generally like almost all food commercials, because I like food! But I absolutely cannot STAND ANY of the new Arby's "Roast Burger" commercials. Look, I know you're trying to focus on your "non-greasiness" but by focusing on it in your commercials you are making me want to avoid YOU because you are the one I associate it with. Why is Arby's trying to reinvent themselves as a "burger"? Whose idea is this? Stupid stupid stupid! Don't call it a burger! I used to hold Arby's on a "upper-echelon" of fast food if you know what I mean, but they are downgrading themselves to McDonalds/Burger King status by trying to say they are a burger (I know you all know I love McDonalds, and I do, but most put McDonalds at the bottom of the barrel and I am referencing McDonalads according to popular theory, not my specific tastes). Anyways, the commercials suck and make me want to avoid Arby's at all costs. Too bad because their roast beef sandwich and their market sandwiches are pretty good.
One more commercial I keep noticing. This of course has no bearing on my purchasing since I've never purchased this product nor ever will, but I keep getting pissed at these new Budweiser commercials. They focus the whole commercial on how they are the great "American" lager. If they're so American, why are they playing a song by Jet (an AUSTRALIAN band) every commercial? Who hired these adverstising people? Or am I the only moron out there who notices things like this?
Anyways, this is Part 1 because sometime in the future I know I'm going to get riled up about commercials again and write some more. For now. . .
All that know me know I LOVE commercials. I should have gone in to advertising becuase I'm such a sucker for commercials (can you say sham-wow, p90x, perfect pushup, iron gym, magic bullet, and on and on), but I am especially a sucker for food commercials. If I see a new food product, I want to try it. If I see a good food commercial, I want to go there (and I usually do). In fact, while I'm thinking about it, I'll note that I went to KFC tonight with a coupon for a free "Grilled Chicken" meal. Maybe I was expecting the type of grilled chicken you get on your grilled chicken sandwiches or something but I would've probably rather had fried. And the grilled certainly didn't taste healthy, it tasted just like the fried. . .hmmm. "Unthink KFC?" I think KFC needs to stick to their NAMESAKE and keep it fried. People know when they're getting fastfood level food they are getting unhealthy stuff that ideally tastes really good. Tonight I got something that might have been marginally more healthy but didn't make up for it with extra taste. That's a thumbs down for me. The most upsetting part is these guys are owned under the same umbrella as Taco Bell, and I think Taco Bell routinely puts out clever commercials that make me want to each there.
Anyways, back on topic. I generally like almost all food commercials, because I like food! But I absolutely cannot STAND ANY of the new Arby's "Roast Burger" commercials. Look, I know you're trying to focus on your "non-greasiness" but by focusing on it in your commercials you are making me want to avoid YOU because you are the one I associate it with. Why is Arby's trying to reinvent themselves as a "burger"? Whose idea is this? Stupid stupid stupid! Don't call it a burger! I used to hold Arby's on a "upper-echelon" of fast food if you know what I mean, but they are downgrading themselves to McDonalds/Burger King status by trying to say they are a burger (I know you all know I love McDonalds, and I do, but most put McDonalds at the bottom of the barrel and I am referencing McDonalads according to popular theory, not my specific tastes). Anyways, the commercials suck and make me want to avoid Arby's at all costs. Too bad because their roast beef sandwich and their market sandwiches are pretty good.
One more commercial I keep noticing. This of course has no bearing on my purchasing since I've never purchased this product nor ever will, but I keep getting pissed at these new Budweiser commercials. They focus the whole commercial on how they are the great "American" lager. If they're so American, why are they playing a song by Jet (an AUSTRALIAN band) every commercial? Who hired these adverstising people? Or am I the only moron out there who notices things like this?
Anyways, this is Part 1 because sometime in the future I know I'm going to get riled up about commercials again and write some more. For now. . .
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Shangri-La Diet
Upon writing my little "review" for Water for Elephants I remembered that I didn't do the same for my sweet diet book: "The Shangri-La Diet". If you haven't heard of this book, you should definitely pick it up. It's probably available to buy on amazon or something like that for around $6-8 total. Not a bad investment for a diet book.
So to answer your question up front, no, I haven't lost any weight and the reason is because I haven't ever followed the diet. My buddy from work lost 30 lbs. on this diet so I picked up the book to see what it had to say. I honestly think it would probably work.
I don't want to write the whole book but this idea is a serious paradigm-shifter for weight-loss. The author compares your weight to the setting of your thermostat. You "set" the thermostat, if it's too hot, the air comes on; if it's to cold, the heat comes on. For weight, you eat more if you're under your "set" point, and less if you're over your "set" point. This totally makes sense to me and I always hover within a few lbs of my current weight (for those dying to know, a "healthy" 240). So he concludes you have to do something to "lower" your set point.
The second point is that Americans particularly have strong flavor-calorie associations: all of our food is strong-tasting and generally loaded with calories. He feels if you consume 200-400 "flavorless" calories a day, you will effectively lower your "set" point because your body will kick in to the "use the fat" mode. You won't feel hungry and as a result will simply eat less.
That's the diet! Eat whatever you want, just drink 200-400 calories a day of flavorless calories (sugar-water or extra light olive oil). The one catch is you have to consume the oil in a 2-hour "flavor free" zone, and brushing your teeth counts as a flavor; otherwise it would be easy to do it right in the morning and wait for another hour before eating anything. I can't seem to find a point in the day where I can drink roughly 3 tbls of extra light olive oil (not including work hours where I always forget to take a little vial of oil to work). Morning? Going to work and brushed my teeth (not an option to skip in my opinion). Night? I eat dinner upon getting home and brush my teeth before bed.
Anyways, if you want to try a diet I think this would seriously work and basically costs nothing. You should lose the "healthy" way: roughly 2-3 lbs per week. Note you can lose as long as you'd like, but if you stop taking the oil you'll eventually slowly creep back up to your old weight. Sounds promising to me. If anybody knows more about it let me know.
So to answer your question up front, no, I haven't lost any weight and the reason is because I haven't ever followed the diet. My buddy from work lost 30 lbs. on this diet so I picked up the book to see what it had to say. I honestly think it would probably work.
I don't want to write the whole book but this idea is a serious paradigm-shifter for weight-loss. The author compares your weight to the setting of your thermostat. You "set" the thermostat, if it's too hot, the air comes on; if it's to cold, the heat comes on. For weight, you eat more if you're under your "set" point, and less if you're over your "set" point. This totally makes sense to me and I always hover within a few lbs of my current weight (for those dying to know, a "healthy" 240). So he concludes you have to do something to "lower" your set point.
The second point is that Americans particularly have strong flavor-calorie associations: all of our food is strong-tasting and generally loaded with calories. He feels if you consume 200-400 "flavorless" calories a day, you will effectively lower your "set" point because your body will kick in to the "use the fat" mode. You won't feel hungry and as a result will simply eat less.
That's the diet! Eat whatever you want, just drink 200-400 calories a day of flavorless calories (sugar-water or extra light olive oil). The one catch is you have to consume the oil in a 2-hour "flavor free" zone, and brushing your teeth counts as a flavor; otherwise it would be easy to do it right in the morning and wait for another hour before eating anything. I can't seem to find a point in the day where I can drink roughly 3 tbls of extra light olive oil (not including work hours where I always forget to take a little vial of oil to work). Morning? Going to work and brushed my teeth (not an option to skip in my opinion). Night? I eat dinner upon getting home and brush my teeth before bed.
Anyways, if you want to try a diet I think this would seriously work and basically costs nothing. You should lose the "healthy" way: roughly 2-3 lbs per week. Note you can lose as long as you'd like, but if you stop taking the oil you'll eventually slowly creep back up to your old weight. Sounds promising to me. If anybody knows more about it let me know.
Water for Elephants
Rachel recommended this book to me and the only hesitation I had going in is that I know a number of women who have read this book and liked it and zero men who have read it period. I didn't want to be diving in to some type of "Twilight" females-only love story. Fortunately, this book can be read by both sexes and enjoyed.
Water for Elephants is about a 90-year old man remembering his young days in the depression era working for the circus. I've never really read anything about the circus before so it was actually quite intriguing to think about life as a performer. It made me think what it would be like today working on some type of concert tour. Set up every day, do the show, take down and get on the bus (or train in the book's case) to move on to the next city. The author noted that many of the subplots and events in the books were true stories that have happened on various circus tours, such as an elephant drinking all of the lemonade that was to be sold the the patrons during the show.
Even after reading the book I'm amazed during that time period (or even today for that matter) that so many animals: bears, lions, panthers, giraffes, elephants, etc. could somehow be kept under lock and key and transported all over the country like that. It would take serious trust with the animals to get in some of those cages.
I would recommend this book to anybody who wants an easy, semi-nonthinking read if that makes sense. Most books I usually get about half way through and get so into it that I stay up late finishing the second half in one night. That didn't happen with this book; just an even-keeled, you kind of know what's coming but don't type ride. There are some racy parts for anybody that would want some advanced notice, those parts are pretty minor and probably also true of those times.
Water for Elephants is about a 90-year old man remembering his young days in the depression era working for the circus. I've never really read anything about the circus before so it was actually quite intriguing to think about life as a performer. It made me think what it would be like today working on some type of concert tour. Set up every day, do the show, take down and get on the bus (or train in the book's case) to move on to the next city. The author noted that many of the subplots and events in the books were true stories that have happened on various circus tours, such as an elephant drinking all of the lemonade that was to be sold the the patrons during the show.
Even after reading the book I'm amazed during that time period (or even today for that matter) that so many animals: bears, lions, panthers, giraffes, elephants, etc. could somehow be kept under lock and key and transported all over the country like that. It would take serious trust with the animals to get in some of those cages.
I would recommend this book to anybody who wants an easy, semi-nonthinking read if that makes sense. Most books I usually get about half way through and get so into it that I stay up late finishing the second half in one night. That didn't happen with this book; just an even-keeled, you kind of know what's coming but don't type ride. There are some racy parts for anybody that would want some advanced notice, those parts are pretty minor and probably also true of those times.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Utah's Best Burger
Last week I went to St. George with Rache-Train and the C-Murder for some much needed sunshine. I was also pleased we went to settle once and for all something brewing in my mind the past few months. . . the best hamburger the state has to offer.
I believe I've tried all the "best" burgers available from the obviously low-end (think major chains like Wendy's, BK, etc.) to "gourmet" burgers (Red Robin, Training Table), to "one-hit wonders" (the garlic burger at the Cotton Bottom), and to those that claim they are the best burger ever (i.e. the Counter-OK but pretty pricey).
Overall the past few years I would probably assign the best burger label to the Crown/Apollo/Astro chain (hereafter referred to simply as Crown) Burger. The pastrami burger is an absolute gut-bomb but it tastes so good going down it is worth any painful consequences. A few months ago at work we tried a new restaurant in town, "Five Guys Burgers and Fries". There are so many positives associated with this burger I can't possibly name them all, but a few include: A) the regular burger is a 1/2 pound double; when you're going in for a big-time burger you might as well go all the way, B) going all the way includes adding Bacon (come on, we all knew Bacon was a major player in my best-burger analysis), C) all toppings are free, and the toppings options go beyond the normal ketchup and pickles. I'm not even a huge toppings guy, but I see this as a plus for others, D) the meat and fries are super fresh, you can taste the freshness in every bite!
Now, I didn't label 5 Guys the best burger in the state the first day I tried it, even though I was highly impressed. It is the days after when you start to realize just how good it is. I couldn't stop thinking about it! I just wanted to go back because all day I kept thinking, "Dang! That burger was freaking good!" And so, of course, I went back. I've been back multiple times since. So good, so fresh, how could this not be the best burger Utah has to offer? (Editor's note: I still think the Crown is dang good and pretty much label it as #1A, but this 5 Guys place just has something to it).
I had one hangup on my final declaration. . . In-And-Out. Too many "Californians" or wannabe Californians always talk about how it is the best burger on the planet. They too emphasize freshness and simplicity in the menu. We all know one is coming to Draper but Utah already features an In-And-Out in St. George. I had forgotten about this until we saw it last Thursday. Of course we had to go for lunch! I had only eaten at In-And-Out once before like 4 years ago. I remember thinking "This is good. I am enjoying my meal and would never be opposed to coming to eat here; however, it is not the best burger I've ever had". Since that one visit was so long ago I was excited to renew my acquaintance with In-And-Out in order to make an educated decision.
In-And-Out was cheaper than I remember, and the fries are definitely top-notch fresh. I would put them on par with 5 Guys for freshness no problem. The burger, however, was good but not "best" category. It was fresh, but a little small (their double cheese is like a McDonald's-size double cheese). I don't know the whole "secret menu" garbage either so that is arguably a downer for me. I thought, "This is exactly like the first time. Great meal, no real complaints at all, just not the best burger I've ever had".
So that settled it for me, 5 Guys offers the best burger you can get in Utah. If somebody has a better place please don't keep me in the dark. If you go try 5 Guys, take notice of not only how good it is the day you eat it, but how bad you want it again the next day (like me right now!).
I believe I've tried all the "best" burgers available from the obviously low-end (think major chains like Wendy's, BK, etc.) to "gourmet" burgers (Red Robin, Training Table), to "one-hit wonders" (the garlic burger at the Cotton Bottom), and to those that claim they are the best burger ever (i.e. the Counter-OK but pretty pricey).
Overall the past few years I would probably assign the best burger label to the Crown/Apollo/Astro chain (hereafter referred to simply as Crown) Burger. The pastrami burger is an absolute gut-bomb but it tastes so good going down it is worth any painful consequences. A few months ago at work we tried a new restaurant in town, "Five Guys Burgers and Fries". There are so many positives associated with this burger I can't possibly name them all, but a few include: A) the regular burger is a 1/2 pound double; when you're going in for a big-time burger you might as well go all the way, B) going all the way includes adding Bacon (come on, we all knew Bacon was a major player in my best-burger analysis), C) all toppings are free, and the toppings options go beyond the normal ketchup and pickles. I'm not even a huge toppings guy, but I see this as a plus for others, D) the meat and fries are super fresh, you can taste the freshness in every bite!
Now, I didn't label 5 Guys the best burger in the state the first day I tried it, even though I was highly impressed. It is the days after when you start to realize just how good it is. I couldn't stop thinking about it! I just wanted to go back because all day I kept thinking, "Dang! That burger was freaking good!" And so, of course, I went back. I've been back multiple times since. So good, so fresh, how could this not be the best burger Utah has to offer? (Editor's note: I still think the Crown is dang good and pretty much label it as #1A, but this 5 Guys place just has something to it).
I had one hangup on my final declaration. . . In-And-Out. Too many "Californians" or wannabe Californians always talk about how it is the best burger on the planet. They too emphasize freshness and simplicity in the menu. We all know one is coming to Draper but Utah already features an In-And-Out in St. George. I had forgotten about this until we saw it last Thursday. Of course we had to go for lunch! I had only eaten at In-And-Out once before like 4 years ago. I remember thinking "This is good. I am enjoying my meal and would never be opposed to coming to eat here; however, it is not the best burger I've ever had". Since that one visit was so long ago I was excited to renew my acquaintance with In-And-Out in order to make an educated decision.
In-And-Out was cheaper than I remember, and the fries are definitely top-notch fresh. I would put them on par with 5 Guys for freshness no problem. The burger, however, was good but not "best" category. It was fresh, but a little small (their double cheese is like a McDonald's-size double cheese). I don't know the whole "secret menu" garbage either so that is arguably a downer for me. I thought, "This is exactly like the first time. Great meal, no real complaints at all, just not the best burger I've ever had".
So that settled it for me, 5 Guys offers the best burger you can get in Utah. If somebody has a better place please don't keep me in the dark. If you go try 5 Guys, take notice of not only how good it is the day you eat it, but how bad you want it again the next day (like me right now!).
Friday, March 27, 2009
Pandora!
If you haven't ever hear of this sweet site, let me introduce you to pandora.com! This is one of the best sites the internet has ever created! A buddy at work introduced it to me about a month ago and I've been listening to it nonstop ever since. Pandora is an internet-radio site where you enter an artist or a song and you "create" a radio station that plays music from that artist or similar artists (based on something called the music-genome project). I don't know how it works but as the various songs play you can definitely agree that they all relate in a general way within each station you create.
So this week on my ever expanding list of created stations I decided to take a trip down memory lane, as in "riding with my mom from ages 4-10 listening to New Mix 107.5" memory lane. My station anchor? None other than the classic Wilson Phillips! It shouldn't be hard for anybody to imagine me belting out "Release Me" or "Hold On" without hesitation. I will say that listening to their songs this time around I've noticed every song has a quasi-bridge-guitar solo that would be described as the antithesis of a "face-melting guitar solo". Seriously, even when Wilson Phillips was at their peak performing to a packed stadium, there's no way during one of these solos the hired professional guitarist was thinking, "I'm shredding the guitar to Wilson Phillips!" Be that as it may, I take them for what they are: a classic easy listening group who dominated the airways in their time. Their station offered up plenty of other soft-hits gods (like rock-gods, but soothing and romantic!): early Madonna, Tiffany, Pat Benetar, Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Chicago (or Peter Cetera, their lead singer who later had a solo career. I note this because I heard all these songs and kept thinking "I know this song but I've never heard of this guy! So I investigated). Basically every song that comes on I mark the "thumbs up icon" because I love it. (One downer to note-after about 6 hours straight of the same station you start to get repeats of all the same songs).
My "coming out" of the soft-hits closet this week has had a couple of interesting effects: 1) all my coworkers who at first were ripping me and acting all "manly" like they didn't like what I was listening to within hours were crooning right along with every song. Either they love it like me or had mothers who also listened to "New Mix" and FM100 in their youth (probably a little of both). 2)I keep discovering old favorites again and again through all these links, at which point I discover another old memory! Some of the favorites from this week of soft hits: Gloria Estefan (You know you want to "Get on your feet!") Mr. Mister ("Take these broken wings"), Michael Bolton (Yes, THAT Michael Bolton! I even heard a new sweet song, "How can we be lovers if we can't be friends?" that was just too catchy to not enjoy), and of course the kings of the 1-hit wonder soft hit, Toto (you know how FM100 plays only Christmas music through December? I think the rest of the year they have an automatic "Africa" every hour on the hour. Seriously, I never switch to that station without getting myself some "I bless the rains down in AFRICA! boom, boOm, bOOM, BOOM! Gonna take some time to do the things we never HA-AAA-AAAD! ooo, ooo!)
Pandora-awesome. If you have some other sweet golden oldies for me let me know.
So this week on my ever expanding list of created stations I decided to take a trip down memory lane, as in "riding with my mom from ages 4-10 listening to New Mix 107.5" memory lane. My station anchor? None other than the classic Wilson Phillips! It shouldn't be hard for anybody to imagine me belting out "Release Me" or "Hold On" without hesitation. I will say that listening to their songs this time around I've noticed every song has a quasi-bridge-guitar solo that would be described as the antithesis of a "face-melting guitar solo". Seriously, even when Wilson Phillips was at their peak performing to a packed stadium, there's no way during one of these solos the hired professional guitarist was thinking, "I'm shredding the guitar to Wilson Phillips!" Be that as it may, I take them for what they are: a classic easy listening group who dominated the airways in their time. Their station offered up plenty of other soft-hits gods (like rock-gods, but soothing and romantic!): early Madonna, Tiffany, Pat Benetar, Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Chicago (or Peter Cetera, their lead singer who later had a solo career. I note this because I heard all these songs and kept thinking "I know this song but I've never heard of this guy! So I investigated). Basically every song that comes on I mark the "thumbs up icon" because I love it. (One downer to note-after about 6 hours straight of the same station you start to get repeats of all the same songs).
My "coming out" of the soft-hits closet this week has had a couple of interesting effects: 1) all my coworkers who at first were ripping me and acting all "manly" like they didn't like what I was listening to within hours were crooning right along with every song. Either they love it like me or had mothers who also listened to "New Mix" and FM100 in their youth (probably a little of both). 2)I keep discovering old favorites again and again through all these links, at which point I discover another old memory! Some of the favorites from this week of soft hits: Gloria Estefan (You know you want to "Get on your feet!") Mr. Mister ("Take these broken wings"), Michael Bolton (Yes, THAT Michael Bolton! I even heard a new sweet song, "How can we be lovers if we can't be friends?" that was just too catchy to not enjoy), and of course the kings of the 1-hit wonder soft hit, Toto (you know how FM100 plays only Christmas music through December? I think the rest of the year they have an automatic "Africa" every hour on the hour. Seriously, I never switch to that station without getting myself some "I bless the rains down in AFRICA! boom, boOm, bOOM, BOOM! Gonna take some time to do the things we never HA-AAA-AAAD! ooo, ooo!)
Pandora-awesome. If you have some other sweet golden oldies for me let me know.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I'm Sick
Is there anything worse than being sick? Whenever I get sick or even can feel myself getting sick I go into panic mode. "What did it ever feel like to be healthy?" Whenever I get sick I start off with a sore throat and after 5 minutes of a sore throat I can't remember what it ever felt like to be able to swallow normally and I wonder if I will ever know what that feels like again. Of course this only lasts a few days but days turn into ETERNITY when you are sick. Right now is especially the prime time for me to get sick. All I want to do is sleep for 14 hours or so; instead I'm at work for that long. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy: spend a few months working like crazy, definitely EATING like crazy (and we all know I can pack it in with the best of them), sitting and stressing all day, not sleeping much, and avoiding exercise like it would kill me (which, of course, it might in my current state).
I always get sick right when I think, "Maybe I will make it through this season change without getting sick for once!" Which of course during the nice pre-storm weather last week, I thought. Here's to all who get the yearly (or in my case, seasonally) cold. To our suffering and misery for the few days it lasts. To the NyQuil and DayQuil that pulls us through. I'm going to bed (hopefully I won't wake up to my alarm in the morning).
I always get sick right when I think, "Maybe I will make it through this season change without getting sick for once!" Which of course during the nice pre-storm weather last week, I thought. Here's to all who get the yearly (or in my case, seasonally) cold. To our suffering and misery for the few days it lasts. To the NyQuil and DayQuil that pulls us through. I'm going to bed (hopefully I won't wake up to my alarm in the morning).
Sunday, March 8, 2009
World Without End
So I'm in this new little habit of writing a review of every book I read, mostly because I want to be able to remember how I liked a book when I think about it, even though books rarely come up in my conversations because I'm the only nerd out there who reads for fun.
"World Without End"-no, not a church book, but that would make a good title. This book is kind of a sequel to "The Pillars of the Earth" that I read last year. Not the same characters, but roughly the same time frame and same city setting. I'm pretty sure the writer, Ken Follet, just set it up that way to have easy access to all the geography he had set up in his previous book. This was valuable to me as well as I felt like I was right back in the setting as the first book. Both of these books are over 1,000 pages. It took me two months to read. Whenever I embark on such a sizable book, I certainly take the "this is a journey" approach. The length of the story spans pretty much a lifetime, and it just seems like nothing ever goes right. This is actually one of the things I like about these books. It is set in old-time England. While the book is fiction, the author did a lot of research to portray what life would be like in the time. That is the most interesting part of both books. Whenever I read, I can't stop thinking about how hard it would have been to live in that time; and how much harder it would be to live as a peasant. Six days a week of all-day backbreaking labor just to pretty much eat. How would it be to live under a "Lord" or "Earl" to whom you would have to submit for everything in life? Crazy times. Even crazier that people actually lived through that era and here we are today.
While the book was entertaining, if you pick it up and read the cover summary, the "secret" that is supposed to carry the whole book is basically an afterthought by the end. I also think there was a bit too much graphic stuff. On one hand, I'm sure it was necessary to paint a real picture of how life was back then, but I don't want to recommend it to somebody and have them come back and say, "you didn't tell me about this and this. . ." So in the end, great book, but if you're thinking about reading it and don't want any undesireable surprises, maybe ask me about it.
"World Without End"-no, not a church book, but that would make a good title. This book is kind of a sequel to "The Pillars of the Earth" that I read last year. Not the same characters, but roughly the same time frame and same city setting. I'm pretty sure the writer, Ken Follet, just set it up that way to have easy access to all the geography he had set up in his previous book. This was valuable to me as well as I felt like I was right back in the setting as the first book. Both of these books are over 1,000 pages. It took me two months to read. Whenever I embark on such a sizable book, I certainly take the "this is a journey" approach. The length of the story spans pretty much a lifetime, and it just seems like nothing ever goes right. This is actually one of the things I like about these books. It is set in old-time England. While the book is fiction, the author did a lot of research to portray what life would be like in the time. That is the most interesting part of both books. Whenever I read, I can't stop thinking about how hard it would have been to live in that time; and how much harder it would be to live as a peasant. Six days a week of all-day backbreaking labor just to pretty much eat. How would it be to live under a "Lord" or "Earl" to whom you would have to submit for everything in life? Crazy times. Even crazier that people actually lived through that era and here we are today.
While the book was entertaining, if you pick it up and read the cover summary, the "secret" that is supposed to carry the whole book is basically an afterthought by the end. I also think there was a bit too much graphic stuff. On one hand, I'm sure it was necessary to paint a real picture of how life was back then, but I don't want to recommend it to somebody and have them come back and say, "you didn't tell me about this and this. . ." So in the end, great book, but if you're thinking about reading it and don't want any undesireable surprises, maybe ask me about it.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Larry H. Miller
Every time I walk into a Megaplex Theatre I think about Larry Miller and how awesome he is for our state. Have you ever been to a movie in another state? I've been to theatres in other states that make our $1 theatres look glamorous. Obviously the movie theatres, the restaurants, the car dealerships, etc. are all part of what made him important for our state. Obviously the most important reason he was important to our state was my beloved Utah Jazz.
I thought Larry was a spectacular owner. I loved that he was open to the media. Whenever he did interviews on 1280 or 1320, I was locked in to hear whatever he had to say. Whether he was talking sports or his political views I absolutely could not change the station. He shared inside stories and honest business perspective on what was going on for the Jazz and real world issues. I thank him for making himself so available to the public. I hear owners of most major sports franchises don't comment publicly and hide away in the luxury suites. I would hate to have an onwer like that. Give me a Larry Miller or Mark Cuban anyday. Outspoken, sitting courtside, interested in what is going on and interested in winning. No wonder the world hates Donald Sterling and the Clippers.
I had one encounter with Larry Miller in my lifetime. It lasted 2 seconds and was most certainly un-noteworthy in the life of Larry Miller, but I obviously will never forget. I was working as the gateshack guard in the Pepperwood Community in Sandy. People that pulled up in the visitor lane were required to tell me where they were going, their name, etc. Up pulls a white Mercedes-Benz, the hundred-thousand-dollar type, not the "just a luxury car" type. He pulls up and I freeze: "That is Larry H. Miller" I think to myself. What do I do? Do I shake his hand? Ask for an autograph? What??!! I do nothing. "Good Afternoon. Where are you headed?" "I'm here to visit my son Greg Miller." Then the kicker, "What's your name?" He gives me the quickest look like, "Come on, you know exactly who I am." And it was true, I did. But he was completely gracious, "Larry Miller". "Have a nice day". As he drove off I thought of 1,000 things I wanted to ask him about the Jazz, but the opportunity had vanished. I'm sure a punk kid asking Jazz questions when all he wants to do is visit his son would've bothered him anyway, but still.
I can't remember where I discussed this, I'm sure it was at work since that is where I spend my life these days, but somebody brought up the concept of what would happen in your "perfect day". Not necessarily your last day on earth, just your perfect day. Amongst other things, I said the cap to my "perfect day" would be watching the Jazz win an exciting, close game. Not winning game 7 of the Finals or even necessarily a playoff game, just watching them play and win. The night before he passed, the Jazz pulled out an exciting, come-from-behind win over the Celtics. I read that when Gail told him they had won, he was happy.
I thought Larry was a spectacular owner. I loved that he was open to the media. Whenever he did interviews on 1280 or 1320, I was locked in to hear whatever he had to say. Whether he was talking sports or his political views I absolutely could not change the station. He shared inside stories and honest business perspective on what was going on for the Jazz and real world issues. I thank him for making himself so available to the public. I hear owners of most major sports franchises don't comment publicly and hide away in the luxury suites. I would hate to have an onwer like that. Give me a Larry Miller or Mark Cuban anyday. Outspoken, sitting courtside, interested in what is going on and interested in winning. No wonder the world hates Donald Sterling and the Clippers.
I had one encounter with Larry Miller in my lifetime. It lasted 2 seconds and was most certainly un-noteworthy in the life of Larry Miller, but I obviously will never forget. I was working as the gateshack guard in the Pepperwood Community in Sandy. People that pulled up in the visitor lane were required to tell me where they were going, their name, etc. Up pulls a white Mercedes-Benz, the hundred-thousand-dollar type, not the "just a luxury car" type. He pulls up and I freeze: "That is Larry H. Miller" I think to myself. What do I do? Do I shake his hand? Ask for an autograph? What??!! I do nothing. "Good Afternoon. Where are you headed?" "I'm here to visit my son Greg Miller." Then the kicker, "What's your name?" He gives me the quickest look like, "Come on, you know exactly who I am." And it was true, I did. But he was completely gracious, "Larry Miller". "Have a nice day". As he drove off I thought of 1,000 things I wanted to ask him about the Jazz, but the opportunity had vanished. I'm sure a punk kid asking Jazz questions when all he wants to do is visit his son would've bothered him anyway, but still.
I can't remember where I discussed this, I'm sure it was at work since that is where I spend my life these days, but somebody brought up the concept of what would happen in your "perfect day". Not necessarily your last day on earth, just your perfect day. Amongst other things, I said the cap to my "perfect day" would be watching the Jazz win an exciting, close game. Not winning game 7 of the Finals or even necessarily a playoff game, just watching them play and win. The night before he passed, the Jazz pulled out an exciting, come-from-behind win over the Celtics. I read that when Gail told him they had won, he was happy.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
My Anti-Healthy Life
So Rachel and I are in this family (Rachel's family) competition to "live healthy" (read: lose weight). We are on a point system so you get points for doing good things (i.e. exercising, drinking water) and avoiding bad things (soda, treats, etc.). I usually start the week off strong and end pretty weak. Last night I took Rachel to a romantic dinner at one of the high-class restaurants in town: Sizzler. OK arguably not high-class at all but we both love Sizzler. After pounding two baskets of cheese toast, my steak, potato, and second round of all-you-can-eat shrimp, I tell Rachel, "I could easily put away at least another two plates of shrimp, but I'll make the good decision and quit while I'm only "full" instead of "bloated". She told me she was proud of me for making the right decision.
So we get in the car and I proceed to tell her about my other "right" decisions this week:
Monday- The Manager of my current job arrives with a giant box of sugar cookies. Lots of little ones instead of giant ones. Who am I to refuse free cookies? She's from out of town and asks how they compare overall to other sugar cookies. I tell her, "Well, they're not Lofthouse level, and they're not as good as my wife's sugar cookies, but they still taste really good." I proceed to call Rachel and request that she make home-made sugar cookies for Tuesday. I get home from work and the miracle itself occurred: Rachel did in fact make me a giant batch of sugar cookies. I ate around 10 of them that night. I pass on dinner to offset the 5,000 calories worth of cookies I have eaten that day.
Tuesday- I take a giant tupperware of Rachel's cookies to work. We eat them throughout the day. I might add that our audit "war room" has lots of other snacks: jelly belly's, swedish fish, fruit snacks. All of those are of course consumed throughout the day as well. I'm staying late that night and I know I want a quality dinner. I strongly suggest "The Pie". I'm one of the lowest ranking employees on the audit team but I have strong influence when it comes to food: as all know I have excellent restaurant knowledge. We get two specialty pizzas and some cheese pull-aparts delivered and I eat plenty of it. Yum.
Wednesday- (Breakfast): I get to work and a coworker tells me that the manager was planning on bringing bagles. I had already eaten breakfast, but who am I to deny an Einstein? She calls on the way in to see if we even still want them. I convince her we do, and convince her we need some "honey-almond" smear to go with them. Delicious.
(Lunch):On Monday I had called Rachel and told her I wanted Apollo Burger for dinner. It didn't work out, but I hadn't forgotten about it by Wednesday. It just so happens it is my turn to pick where we eat for lunch for out audit team. I pick Crown Burger. I get a Crown Burger combo (can you beat a pastrami burger? I think not). I'm not drinking soda (one of the few positives of this "healthy living competition" that I'm actually doing good at) so of course I substitue my soda for a chocolate shake instead (much healthier than soda!). They give me a medium instead of my intended-small. I oblige and eat the whole thing.
(Sidenote: Wednesday night is usually my basketball night; my one night a week of super-extended exercise. We call off ball this week because of the Jazz/Lakers game. Worth it as the Jazz win in a tight contest.)
Thursday- We get Gandolfo's for lunch. I order the foot-long Urban Cowboy. Chicken, Turkey, Bacon (ALWAYS bacon), piled high. The kid who picked up the order decided to get cookies for everybody too. I can't let him down. I put it all away with a bag of sunchips (gotta think healthy when thinking chips, right?). That afternoon Julie, a girl from the audit team, bursts in the room with her hands full of giant sugar cookies. "The guy around the corner had two huge boxes of them and told me to take some!" Awesome. The same size as the pink Granny-B cookies but not the same brand. The Manager called them "pizza-slice" cookies. I eat the cookie. I tastes like pure sugar, like it didn't get blended into the frosting well enough.
Friday-(The Ripper): I stop at the gas station in the morning to buy my coworker a cherry coke-zero (his birthday is this weekend). I decide to go for a triangle donut for breakfast. Too delicious to pass up and since I've been off soda I haven't really been in a gas station for over a month. I get to work and remember that our office has breakfast on Friday mornings. Today's selection: McDonalds sausage mcmuffins. If you know me, you know I am incapable of denying my beloved McDonalds. I enjoy a sweet sausage McMuffin (even though I always order Bacon :)).
It's my coworker's birthday the next day and it's valentines day. Our manager brings in a box of Branbury Court (Notice: Some of the best I've ever had) heart-shaped donuts. What am I to do? I've already had a donut and a mcmuffin this morning. I can't possibly put this down. In actuality, I put it down pretty easily. Extremely tasty.
Around 10 am and for the second time this week, Julie bursts into the room with treats: little boxes of See's chocolates. "Happy Valentines from Zions Securities Corporation!" She stumbled on them again and brings them all into us. I rip open the package and put away half the chocolate before I wonder aloud, "Dang! I should've just torn off the little sticker and given these to my wife for Valentine's Day!" All other decide to do that. I don't lament too long as I know Rachel would've seen through that ploy anyways. I eat the rest of the chocolates.
I go pick up Navoo Cafe for lunch. I have a Turkey and you-know-what sandwich. Not the worst thing ever to eat. I actually have some lettuce on it.
It's about 3 pm and I'm starting to think ahead to the night's grand finale at Sizzler. I walk into the breakroom with the out-of-town-manager to fill up my water bottle and it strikes again. The room is decorated for somebody's birthday (not my coworker's) and the party is clearly over. Left sitting on the tables are huge trays of Lofthouse sugar cookies. The manager asks me, "Those cookies look good. Are they good?" I respond, "These are the Lofthouse sugar cookies I was telling you about; the best sugar cookie you will ever eat." She picks one up, eats it, and promptly agrees. I load up a plate to take back to our audit room for the rest of the team. The way the week has went, you can imagine as I burst into the room with a plate full of cookies and yell, "Booooooooom!" "Boom! Boom! Boom!" We all dive in and have ourselves a nice cookie. It's Friday, right?
Rachel is proud of me for passing on a 3rd plate of shrimp. As we walk out of Sizzler to the car I relate my week to her, and she stares back horrified at my decisions for the week. I realize what a week it's been. Instead of turning my planned left I turn right toward the gas station and head in for a soda. A week like this deserves a proper cap.
So we get in the car and I proceed to tell her about my other "right" decisions this week:
Monday- The Manager of my current job arrives with a giant box of sugar cookies. Lots of little ones instead of giant ones. Who am I to refuse free cookies? She's from out of town and asks how they compare overall to other sugar cookies. I tell her, "Well, they're not Lofthouse level, and they're not as good as my wife's sugar cookies, but they still taste really good." I proceed to call Rachel and request that she make home-made sugar cookies for Tuesday. I get home from work and the miracle itself occurred: Rachel did in fact make me a giant batch of sugar cookies. I ate around 10 of them that night. I pass on dinner to offset the 5,000 calories worth of cookies I have eaten that day.
Tuesday- I take a giant tupperware of Rachel's cookies to work. We eat them throughout the day. I might add that our audit "war room" has lots of other snacks: jelly belly's, swedish fish, fruit snacks. All of those are of course consumed throughout the day as well. I'm staying late that night and I know I want a quality dinner. I strongly suggest "The Pie". I'm one of the lowest ranking employees on the audit team but I have strong influence when it comes to food: as all know I have excellent restaurant knowledge. We get two specialty pizzas and some cheese pull-aparts delivered and I eat plenty of it. Yum.
Wednesday- (Breakfast): I get to work and a coworker tells me that the manager was planning on bringing bagles. I had already eaten breakfast, but who am I to deny an Einstein? She calls on the way in to see if we even still want them. I convince her we do, and convince her we need some "honey-almond" smear to go with them. Delicious.
(Lunch):On Monday I had called Rachel and told her I wanted Apollo Burger for dinner. It didn't work out, but I hadn't forgotten about it by Wednesday. It just so happens it is my turn to pick where we eat for lunch for out audit team. I pick Crown Burger. I get a Crown Burger combo (can you beat a pastrami burger? I think not). I'm not drinking soda (one of the few positives of this "healthy living competition" that I'm actually doing good at) so of course I substitue my soda for a chocolate shake instead (much healthier than soda!). They give me a medium instead of my intended-small. I oblige and eat the whole thing.
(Sidenote: Wednesday night is usually my basketball night; my one night a week of super-extended exercise. We call off ball this week because of the Jazz/Lakers game. Worth it as the Jazz win in a tight contest.)
Thursday- We get Gandolfo's for lunch. I order the foot-long Urban Cowboy. Chicken, Turkey, Bacon (ALWAYS bacon), piled high. The kid who picked up the order decided to get cookies for everybody too. I can't let him down. I put it all away with a bag of sunchips (gotta think healthy when thinking chips, right?). That afternoon Julie, a girl from the audit team, bursts in the room with her hands full of giant sugar cookies. "The guy around the corner had two huge boxes of them and told me to take some!" Awesome. The same size as the pink Granny-B cookies but not the same brand. The Manager called them "pizza-slice" cookies. I eat the cookie. I tastes like pure sugar, like it didn't get blended into the frosting well enough.
Friday-(The Ripper): I stop at the gas station in the morning to buy my coworker a cherry coke-zero (his birthday is this weekend). I decide to go for a triangle donut for breakfast. Too delicious to pass up and since I've been off soda I haven't really been in a gas station for over a month. I get to work and remember that our office has breakfast on Friday mornings. Today's selection: McDonalds sausage mcmuffins. If you know me, you know I am incapable of denying my beloved McDonalds. I enjoy a sweet sausage McMuffin (even though I always order Bacon :)).
It's my coworker's birthday the next day and it's valentines day. Our manager brings in a box of Branbury Court (Notice: Some of the best I've ever had) heart-shaped donuts. What am I to do? I've already had a donut and a mcmuffin this morning. I can't possibly put this down. In actuality, I put it down pretty easily. Extremely tasty.
Around 10 am and for the second time this week, Julie bursts into the room with treats: little boxes of See's chocolates. "Happy Valentines from Zions Securities Corporation!" She stumbled on them again and brings them all into us. I rip open the package and put away half the chocolate before I wonder aloud, "Dang! I should've just torn off the little sticker and given these to my wife for Valentine's Day!" All other decide to do that. I don't lament too long as I know Rachel would've seen through that ploy anyways. I eat the rest of the chocolates.
I go pick up Navoo Cafe for lunch. I have a Turkey and you-know-what sandwich. Not the worst thing ever to eat. I actually have some lettuce on it.
It's about 3 pm and I'm starting to think ahead to the night's grand finale at Sizzler. I walk into the breakroom with the out-of-town-manager to fill up my water bottle and it strikes again. The room is decorated for somebody's birthday (not my coworker's) and the party is clearly over. Left sitting on the tables are huge trays of Lofthouse sugar cookies. The manager asks me, "Those cookies look good. Are they good?" I respond, "These are the Lofthouse sugar cookies I was telling you about; the best sugar cookie you will ever eat." She picks one up, eats it, and promptly agrees. I load up a plate to take back to our audit room for the rest of the team. The way the week has went, you can imagine as I burst into the room with a plate full of cookies and yell, "Booooooooom!" "Boom! Boom! Boom!" We all dive in and have ourselves a nice cookie. It's Friday, right?
Rachel is proud of me for passing on a 3rd plate of shrimp. As we walk out of Sizzler to the car I relate my week to her, and she stares back horrified at my decisions for the week. I realize what a week it's been. Instead of turning my planned left I turn right toward the gas station and head in for a soda. A week like this deserves a proper cap.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
2008 Year in Review
2008 Year in Review
January 31, 2009
I usually write my little year in review every year right at the end of the year; no later than January 1 of the new year. This year I’ve been caught up with work and studying for one of my CPA exams for the final few weeks of 2008 and the first few weeks of 2009; hence, the delay.
I can’t believe I’m already at the end of the first month of 2009. 2008 was such a blur and this year has already started off on a torrid pace. I always think about how each day changes your perspective. What I write today is probably different than what I would’ve written just one month ago. Anyways, my memories of the year 2008.
January- January 2nd, a Thursday, I start my first day in my new career at KPMG. Just a couple weeks after graduating, just a couple days after leaving my four-year stint at Comcast, I start my new life as a bona-fide accountant. Pretty boring first day. I leave the following Sunday for a 10 day, over-the-weekend training session in Orlando, FL. It was the first time I’d ever been longer than one day away from Rachel and obviously Cannon. Staying the weekend was brutal. The one bright spot was meeting up with my buddy Jonathan Stevens on Saturday afternoon and hanging out with him until Sunday night. It’s a great feeling to be thousands of miles away from home and have one of your best friends pull up to the hotel and pick you up. Fortunate that he’s down in Florida at school.
So I get home in the middle of the week from this training and get told that Friday that I’ll be spending the following two weeks in Seattle. Quite the gut-punch to think I’m coming home only to get shipped out again. I had never been to Seattle. I had Rachel fly up over the middle weekend and we got to see the city: Pike’s Market, the Space Needle, the Music Experiment Museum, and the Aquarium. We ate at the Crab Pot on the pier on the Saturday night. Obviously great seafood up in Seattle. My favorite part of the trip was the Space Needle. Pretty sweet view of the city and the shoreline from up there. We went up on Saturday in the night and on Sunday during the day. Spectacular both times.
Sunday night Rachel’s flight got delayed so we ended up hanging out together for quite a few hours at the SeaTac airport. We found out there that night that President Hinckley had passed away. He is kind of “our prophet” for our age-generation if that makes sense so it was a big deal to hear that news.
So I spent the entire month of January out of town and basically didn’t see Cannon, but I did get a sweet weekend trip with my wife to Seattle out of it.
February 14th, on Valentines day, I got my braces off. Yes, I was one of those people that had braces as an adult. I would’ve never got them but since my wife is an orthodontic assistant she was always examining my teeth and telling me to get them. The main reason I got braces was to be able to tell my kids that I did it when we are forcing them to do it. If we did anything that night for Valentine’s Day, I don’t remember what it was. Must have been something super special!
February-March was just a blur. I was at Mrs. Fields Cookies doing an audit. I liked being there because it’s right by Rachel’s work so we were able to hook up for lunch dates. Our favorite place to go for lunch dates has always been Pistol Pete’s or Apollo Burger. Sadly, she just told me the other day that Pistol Pete’s went under. Too bad, it was one of my favorites.
Not too much in April or May either. This is NBA playoff time so I’m sure we were engrossed in playoff basketball. We went to our first NBA playoff game ever. Game 3 against the Rockets. Nate and Shantel Harrison came with us. Of course, after having the most dominant home record during the year, we lose game 3 to the Rockets. So my only playoff game to date in my life is a loss. We still be the Rockets and ended up losing to the Lakers in the next round. I hate the Lakers. I also took my first two sections of the CPA exams in May. I just crammed for both and passed, which is what I should’ve done for the last two but I was stupid and delayed (hence the delay in writing my memories because I had to study for the final one. . . stupid!).
June was a big month for our family. We went on a Super Vacation! We went down to Florida for over a week for tons of fun. We went to Sea World, on a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas, and to Disney World. I can’t believe in retrospect we took Cannon. Taking him now would be the worst nightmare ever. He was at the perfect stage where he would ride in the stroller all day without any problems. One of the funniest memories is he kept peeing on me! We would give him drinks non-stop but keep forgetting to change his diaper until inevitably it would leak all over me when I’d pick him up. Obviously with all the heat and humidity we wanted to keep him hydrated. I guess it was the price to pay for keeping him from getting sick from the heat. My favorite memories were SeaWorld and the swimming with the stingrays in the Bahamas. The water was so clear you could see the bottom even a hundred feet off shore. I’m interested for my future visit to Hawaii (not in the near future-but someday). After having been to Puerto Rico and now the Bahamas I have a hard time thinking Hawaii is better than the Caribbean. Probably just as good, but I’ll have to see for myself to judge if it’s better. My favorite part of Disney World was the Epcot Center, which is funny because I distinctly remember HATING the Epcot Center when I went with my mom and dad when I was 7. It’s definitely more fun for adults to see the different culture centers so close together. The only downer was we ate at some crappy Mexican fast-food thing. We bit the bullet for the costly food on every other occasion, for some reason we decided to go cheaper on that one meal and I’m pretty sure all agreed that it sucked. If I remember correctly, we made up for it that night by eating dinner at my favorite: the always reliable McDonalds!
The rest of the family flew back Saturday but I stayed the weekend for another training session with KPMG. So all in all I spent pretty much a month of 2008 in Florida. My memory of my second week at the training was hitting up the “Downtown Disney” and I bought Rachel a ring with her name carved into it. She wanted it when we were there but decided not to go for it, so I brought it home as a surprise.
4th of July! I took this week off as well and just did chores around the house. Kind of nice to have a relaxing week off without a vacation to power-pack every second. We spent the 4th of July at Rachel’s mom’s. Cannon was scared of the fireworks; he pretty much cried at every one. This upset Rachel quite a bit as the 4th of July is her favorite holiday. I felt pretty bad and we didn’t even end up staying up for late night fireworks because Cannon was A) beat and B) scared. Hopefully next year this holiday goes a little better for us as far as fireworks are concerned.
July was the start of a 4-month stretch of me being out of town during the week pretty much every single week. I’m assigned to work on the Department of Energy up in Washington state in Richland. The work isn’t bad and it’s only a 4-day workweek so the 3-day weekends were nice. Richland is a small town (part of the “Tri-Cities”). I don’t know why they call it Tri-Cities because it’s really like referring to something like Draper-Sandy-South Jordan combos as the Tri-Cities, sizewise at least. The cities are right on the Columbia River, which I think is beautiful. My hotel was right on the river and there is a nice trail right along the river that is fun to jog along at night. Richland is also home to the sweetest Mongolian BBQ restaurant ever (“Three Flames Mongolian”) and an “Anthony’s” restaurant that has the best Lobster Tail. I’m excited to have Rachel come up to Richland for one of the week’s this coming year to try these places with me. Rachel basically lived at her mom’s house while I was away. Fortunately for us we live close to family to help us out when necessary and fortunately they’re willing to help out when I’m out of town. I even made the drive to Washington about once a month to get the mileage (cheaper than a flight so a good deal both ways). It was on one of these drives in October that I got my first speeding ticket ever. I was in Oregon, flying at like 95 mph. As soon as I passed the cop I knew I was finished. He was nice to me and dropped it down to 20 over so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The real problem was when I told my manager about it the next day he said, “Well, you can’t get your miles reimbursed if you got a ticket. The firm won’t support illegal activity.” I was floored. Rachel was going to KILL me! Wasting all of that time to drive and not get reimbursed for the mileage because I was such a moron I was speeding in Oregon! (NOTE: Don’t EVER speed in Oregon). He kept it up for a while but finally told me he was kidding. I had a heart-attack. I hate Oregon. They don’t let you fill up your own gas there. Some weird law. From now on I make sure to fill up right on the border in Idaho and not refill up until I cross over into Washington. It just bugs me.
Luckily enough I was home the week of Cannon’s birthday in August. August 14th the “bro” turned 1 ( I call Cannon my “bro”. I don’t know why). We had all the family over from both sides and had a party for him. We had pizza, a Thomas the Train cake, and even got a little cake that we let Cannon dive into. Most days I still can’t even believe I have a kid, let alone a kid that’s over 1 (now approaching 18 months!). We love him more and more as he grows.
I passed another section of my CPA exams (4 total) in August. One to go. I should’ve just cranked out the final one but I was lazy and put it off until October.
September-I’m up in Washington for one week. Come home, and find out I’m going to Boise for 3 straight weeks: this time Friday included. I’d never been to Boise either (besides driving through on my drives to Washington). Interesting town. I only experienced downtown. It has a much smaller feel than SLC, which for some reason surprised me. I thought it would be kind of the same. That’s pretty much all I have to say about Boise.
For my birthday Rachel got me the P90X DVDs. I love watching infomercials and I had watched that one 50 times over. I’ve used it and I love the exercises but I really haven’t been able to do it exactly because I can’t follow the eating. Seriously, I’m either out of town or working late. Either way all of my meals are brought in. Not exactly the best option if you’re trying to eat healty. It’s still one of the sweetest birthday presents ever. I hate that I turned 27, officially my “late” twenties. 26 was still “mid” twenties. I’m in this eternal feeling that I’m in the 21-23 age range. Nope. Getting old. All I need is to see and actual 21-year old and it confirms that I am a full-blown bill-paying, for-the-man-working, “sir” calling adult. I can’t even claim college anymore. Where does the time go?
October-my supposed final month of travel. I come down to the final two weeks of DOE in Washington. Coincidentally, my final CPA exam is the Saturday after these final two weeks. Well, the final two weeks turn out to be bears and I don’t study at all. I cram on the final night before the test. I fail by one point. What a bitter, bitter feeling. I have never failed a test in my life. Truly a learning experience for me that failure is a possibility in life if you don’t prepare properly. I reschedule for January and thus delay the writing of the ever important year-in-review as this time I actually put in some study time.
November-work slows down for the final two months of the year. For Rachel’s birthday her dad took us out to Red Lobster (her favorite restaurant). I got her a new digital camera. Our old one was top-of-the-line when we got it five years ago for our wedding. We basically got the same model, just the 2008 edition: slimmer, more megapixels, better memory, etc. BYU loses to Utah in one of the most disappointing season’s I remember. I had bet a buddy at work that they would pull it out. Max Hall and his six turnovers made sure we didn’t. I now have on the back of my car a Utah Utes license plate frame for the next year thanks to Mr. Hall. It’s just a game, right?
I took the final week before Thanksgiving off and just hung out with Rachel and Cannon around the house. We spent Thanksgiving weekend up in Idaho in preparation for Rachel’s cousin Kim’s wedding and her grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary. We went up the following weekend for Kim’s wedding. Good times all around.
Christmas season is always one of the best times of the year. Cannon wasn’t quite in the full swing of things but obviously he appreciated Christmas more this year than last. I’m excited that next year he’ll understand that he’s waking up to Santa’s presents! Our top gift was a camcorder from Rachel’s dad! It was a killer gift particularly because it is a luxury item that we probably would’ve never bought for ourselves. Notable other gifts include some sweet “Sham-wow” towels I got from Rachel (yet another infomercial item I desired!).
For New Year’s we headed up to Bear Lake with friends at Gehrke’s cabin. Rock Bank all night baby! I need to get a Nintendo Wii and that game. I’m excited for when Cannon is old enough to play video games with me.
Quite a year. My overall memory of 2008 was that it was a big adjustment year. Overall, I spent nearly ½ the year out of town, when I’ve basically been a non-traveler for my whole life. I’m now a platinum Marriott Rewards member in just one year. Obviously a big adjustment year in the fact that we have a growing child, a new job for me with the travel involved, new challenges for Rachel to deal with my crap. I’ve really learned to appreciate family time as it’s become a bit more valuable in the past year. Some of the best times when we’re home together is just sitting on the couch with the tv off and Cannon just climbs all over both of us playing and laughing. Looking forward to more of that in ’09. . . and passing this final CPA test! If I didn’t pass this last week, don’t be surprised if you can hear my roar of anguish from your house.
January 31, 2009
I usually write my little year in review every year right at the end of the year; no later than January 1 of the new year. This year I’ve been caught up with work and studying for one of my CPA exams for the final few weeks of 2008 and the first few weeks of 2009; hence, the delay.
I can’t believe I’m already at the end of the first month of 2009. 2008 was such a blur and this year has already started off on a torrid pace. I always think about how each day changes your perspective. What I write today is probably different than what I would’ve written just one month ago. Anyways, my memories of the year 2008.
January- January 2nd, a Thursday, I start my first day in my new career at KPMG. Just a couple weeks after graduating, just a couple days after leaving my four-year stint at Comcast, I start my new life as a bona-fide accountant. Pretty boring first day. I leave the following Sunday for a 10 day, over-the-weekend training session in Orlando, FL. It was the first time I’d ever been longer than one day away from Rachel and obviously Cannon. Staying the weekend was brutal. The one bright spot was meeting up with my buddy Jonathan Stevens on Saturday afternoon and hanging out with him until Sunday night. It’s a great feeling to be thousands of miles away from home and have one of your best friends pull up to the hotel and pick you up. Fortunate that he’s down in Florida at school.
So I get home in the middle of the week from this training and get told that Friday that I’ll be spending the following two weeks in Seattle. Quite the gut-punch to think I’m coming home only to get shipped out again. I had never been to Seattle. I had Rachel fly up over the middle weekend and we got to see the city: Pike’s Market, the Space Needle, the Music Experiment Museum, and the Aquarium. We ate at the Crab Pot on the pier on the Saturday night. Obviously great seafood up in Seattle. My favorite part of the trip was the Space Needle. Pretty sweet view of the city and the shoreline from up there. We went up on Saturday in the night and on Sunday during the day. Spectacular both times.
Sunday night Rachel’s flight got delayed so we ended up hanging out together for quite a few hours at the SeaTac airport. We found out there that night that President Hinckley had passed away. He is kind of “our prophet” for our age-generation if that makes sense so it was a big deal to hear that news.
So I spent the entire month of January out of town and basically didn’t see Cannon, but I did get a sweet weekend trip with my wife to Seattle out of it.
February 14th, on Valentines day, I got my braces off. Yes, I was one of those people that had braces as an adult. I would’ve never got them but since my wife is an orthodontic assistant she was always examining my teeth and telling me to get them. The main reason I got braces was to be able to tell my kids that I did it when we are forcing them to do it. If we did anything that night for Valentine’s Day, I don’t remember what it was. Must have been something super special!
February-March was just a blur. I was at Mrs. Fields Cookies doing an audit. I liked being there because it’s right by Rachel’s work so we were able to hook up for lunch dates. Our favorite place to go for lunch dates has always been Pistol Pete’s or Apollo Burger. Sadly, she just told me the other day that Pistol Pete’s went under. Too bad, it was one of my favorites.
Not too much in April or May either. This is NBA playoff time so I’m sure we were engrossed in playoff basketball. We went to our first NBA playoff game ever. Game 3 against the Rockets. Nate and Shantel Harrison came with us. Of course, after having the most dominant home record during the year, we lose game 3 to the Rockets. So my only playoff game to date in my life is a loss. We still be the Rockets and ended up losing to the Lakers in the next round. I hate the Lakers. I also took my first two sections of the CPA exams in May. I just crammed for both and passed, which is what I should’ve done for the last two but I was stupid and delayed (hence the delay in writing my memories because I had to study for the final one. . . stupid!).
June was a big month for our family. We went on a Super Vacation! We went down to Florida for over a week for tons of fun. We went to Sea World, on a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas, and to Disney World. I can’t believe in retrospect we took Cannon. Taking him now would be the worst nightmare ever. He was at the perfect stage where he would ride in the stroller all day without any problems. One of the funniest memories is he kept peeing on me! We would give him drinks non-stop but keep forgetting to change his diaper until inevitably it would leak all over me when I’d pick him up. Obviously with all the heat and humidity we wanted to keep him hydrated. I guess it was the price to pay for keeping him from getting sick from the heat. My favorite memories were SeaWorld and the swimming with the stingrays in the Bahamas. The water was so clear you could see the bottom even a hundred feet off shore. I’m interested for my future visit to Hawaii (not in the near future-but someday). After having been to Puerto Rico and now the Bahamas I have a hard time thinking Hawaii is better than the Caribbean. Probably just as good, but I’ll have to see for myself to judge if it’s better. My favorite part of Disney World was the Epcot Center, which is funny because I distinctly remember HATING the Epcot Center when I went with my mom and dad when I was 7. It’s definitely more fun for adults to see the different culture centers so close together. The only downer was we ate at some crappy Mexican fast-food thing. We bit the bullet for the costly food on every other occasion, for some reason we decided to go cheaper on that one meal and I’m pretty sure all agreed that it sucked. If I remember correctly, we made up for it that night by eating dinner at my favorite: the always reliable McDonalds!
The rest of the family flew back Saturday but I stayed the weekend for another training session with KPMG. So all in all I spent pretty much a month of 2008 in Florida. My memory of my second week at the training was hitting up the “Downtown Disney” and I bought Rachel a ring with her name carved into it. She wanted it when we were there but decided not to go for it, so I brought it home as a surprise.
4th of July! I took this week off as well and just did chores around the house. Kind of nice to have a relaxing week off without a vacation to power-pack every second. We spent the 4th of July at Rachel’s mom’s. Cannon was scared of the fireworks; he pretty much cried at every one. This upset Rachel quite a bit as the 4th of July is her favorite holiday. I felt pretty bad and we didn’t even end up staying up for late night fireworks because Cannon was A) beat and B) scared. Hopefully next year this holiday goes a little better for us as far as fireworks are concerned.
July was the start of a 4-month stretch of me being out of town during the week pretty much every single week. I’m assigned to work on the Department of Energy up in Washington state in Richland. The work isn’t bad and it’s only a 4-day workweek so the 3-day weekends were nice. Richland is a small town (part of the “Tri-Cities”). I don’t know why they call it Tri-Cities because it’s really like referring to something like Draper-Sandy-South Jordan combos as the Tri-Cities, sizewise at least. The cities are right on the Columbia River, which I think is beautiful. My hotel was right on the river and there is a nice trail right along the river that is fun to jog along at night. Richland is also home to the sweetest Mongolian BBQ restaurant ever (“Three Flames Mongolian”) and an “Anthony’s” restaurant that has the best Lobster Tail. I’m excited to have Rachel come up to Richland for one of the week’s this coming year to try these places with me. Rachel basically lived at her mom’s house while I was away. Fortunately for us we live close to family to help us out when necessary and fortunately they’re willing to help out when I’m out of town. I even made the drive to Washington about once a month to get the mileage (cheaper than a flight so a good deal both ways). It was on one of these drives in October that I got my first speeding ticket ever. I was in Oregon, flying at like 95 mph. As soon as I passed the cop I knew I was finished. He was nice to me and dropped it down to 20 over so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The real problem was when I told my manager about it the next day he said, “Well, you can’t get your miles reimbursed if you got a ticket. The firm won’t support illegal activity.” I was floored. Rachel was going to KILL me! Wasting all of that time to drive and not get reimbursed for the mileage because I was such a moron I was speeding in Oregon! (NOTE: Don’t EVER speed in Oregon). He kept it up for a while but finally told me he was kidding. I had a heart-attack. I hate Oregon. They don’t let you fill up your own gas there. Some weird law. From now on I make sure to fill up right on the border in Idaho and not refill up until I cross over into Washington. It just bugs me.
Luckily enough I was home the week of Cannon’s birthday in August. August 14th the “bro” turned 1 ( I call Cannon my “bro”. I don’t know why). We had all the family over from both sides and had a party for him. We had pizza, a Thomas the Train cake, and even got a little cake that we let Cannon dive into. Most days I still can’t even believe I have a kid, let alone a kid that’s over 1 (now approaching 18 months!). We love him more and more as he grows.
I passed another section of my CPA exams (4 total) in August. One to go. I should’ve just cranked out the final one but I was lazy and put it off until October.
September-I’m up in Washington for one week. Come home, and find out I’m going to Boise for 3 straight weeks: this time Friday included. I’d never been to Boise either (besides driving through on my drives to Washington). Interesting town. I only experienced downtown. It has a much smaller feel than SLC, which for some reason surprised me. I thought it would be kind of the same. That’s pretty much all I have to say about Boise.
For my birthday Rachel got me the P90X DVDs. I love watching infomercials and I had watched that one 50 times over. I’ve used it and I love the exercises but I really haven’t been able to do it exactly because I can’t follow the eating. Seriously, I’m either out of town or working late. Either way all of my meals are brought in. Not exactly the best option if you’re trying to eat healty. It’s still one of the sweetest birthday presents ever. I hate that I turned 27, officially my “late” twenties. 26 was still “mid” twenties. I’m in this eternal feeling that I’m in the 21-23 age range. Nope. Getting old. All I need is to see and actual 21-year old and it confirms that I am a full-blown bill-paying, for-the-man-working, “sir” calling adult. I can’t even claim college anymore. Where does the time go?
October-my supposed final month of travel. I come down to the final two weeks of DOE in Washington. Coincidentally, my final CPA exam is the Saturday after these final two weeks. Well, the final two weeks turn out to be bears and I don’t study at all. I cram on the final night before the test. I fail by one point. What a bitter, bitter feeling. I have never failed a test in my life. Truly a learning experience for me that failure is a possibility in life if you don’t prepare properly. I reschedule for January and thus delay the writing of the ever important year-in-review as this time I actually put in some study time.
November-work slows down for the final two months of the year. For Rachel’s birthday her dad took us out to Red Lobster (her favorite restaurant). I got her a new digital camera. Our old one was top-of-the-line when we got it five years ago for our wedding. We basically got the same model, just the 2008 edition: slimmer, more megapixels, better memory, etc. BYU loses to Utah in one of the most disappointing season’s I remember. I had bet a buddy at work that they would pull it out. Max Hall and his six turnovers made sure we didn’t. I now have on the back of my car a Utah Utes license plate frame for the next year thanks to Mr. Hall. It’s just a game, right?
I took the final week before Thanksgiving off and just hung out with Rachel and Cannon around the house. We spent Thanksgiving weekend up in Idaho in preparation for Rachel’s cousin Kim’s wedding and her grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary. We went up the following weekend for Kim’s wedding. Good times all around.
Christmas season is always one of the best times of the year. Cannon wasn’t quite in the full swing of things but obviously he appreciated Christmas more this year than last. I’m excited that next year he’ll understand that he’s waking up to Santa’s presents! Our top gift was a camcorder from Rachel’s dad! It was a killer gift particularly because it is a luxury item that we probably would’ve never bought for ourselves. Notable other gifts include some sweet “Sham-wow” towels I got from Rachel (yet another infomercial item I desired!).
For New Year’s we headed up to Bear Lake with friends at Gehrke’s cabin. Rock Bank all night baby! I need to get a Nintendo Wii and that game. I’m excited for when Cannon is old enough to play video games with me.
Quite a year. My overall memory of 2008 was that it was a big adjustment year. Overall, I spent nearly ½ the year out of town, when I’ve basically been a non-traveler for my whole life. I’m now a platinum Marriott Rewards member in just one year. Obviously a big adjustment year in the fact that we have a growing child, a new job for me with the travel involved, new challenges for Rachel to deal with my crap. I’ve really learned to appreciate family time as it’s become a bit more valuable in the past year. Some of the best times when we’re home together is just sitting on the couch with the tv off and Cannon just climbs all over both of us playing and laughing. Looking forward to more of that in ’09. . . and passing this final CPA test! If I didn’t pass this last week, don’t be surprised if you can hear my roar of anguish from your house.
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