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!).
Saturday, April 11, 2009
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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